King government has much unfinished business to attend to as fall sitting gets underway

Dennis King's Progressive Conservative government will bring forward a revamped Mental Health Act and new legislation to replace Prince Edward Island's Child Protection Act during the fall sitting of the legislature, which starts Tuesday.

Both bills have been in development for years.

PC whip Zack Bell said the government plans to bring more than 30 bills to the floor as part of "a rather robust legislative agenda" during the sitting.

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But the King government is also heading into the sitting with a significant backlog of unfinished business.

The government has yet to deliver new housing and population strategies, initially slated to be released by the summer.

The province still hasn't released an after-action report looking at the response to post-tropical storm Fiona last year, even though the original tender documents, issued more than five months after the storm struck, stipulated a report was to be delivered to the minister of public safety by this past July.

Environment Minister Steven Myers has yet to deliver the province's 2020 State of the Forest report. Two and a half years ago, he told the legislature the report would paint a devastating picture of deforestation on the Island. Then Fiona struck.

But bureaucrats have said the delay isn't because of Fiona, but rather because of a problem with the initial contractor the province hired.

Meanwhile, Health P.E.I. has yet to release a review of emergency medical services, which among other things could impact the future of rural emergency departments.

A joint study involving Health P.E.I. and the University of Prince Edward Island to look at whether the province can sustain a medical school has apparently been delivered in draft form.

Construction started and the province wrote what so far has amounted to a blank cheque to get the school off the ground even before the study was commissioned. The bill, most of it to be covered by the province, keeps growing and was last reported at $129 million over the first six years of operation.

Delivery of the results from a review of employment standards has been put off until the new year, though the King government promised to provide those — along with more sick leave for Island workers — during the fall sitting.

Greens and Liberals to table sick day legislation

In response to that delay, the Opposition Liberals have promised to table legislation this fall around sick days. 

The Liberals and PCs voted against a bill the Green Party brought forward a year ago to provide Island workers with up to 10 paid sick days each year.

"We heard from the business community — and there was a huge outcry from them — that that was not acceptable, that they couldn't swing it, and I agree with that," said interim Liberal leader Hal Perry.

He said the Liberal bill will include four to five paid sick days per year, along with some mention of providing government support to businesses to help them pay for that.

The Greens, meanwhile, say they will once again bring forward their own sick leave bill. "Ten days is where we believe it shoud be," said Interim leader Karla Bernard. "Five would be a start for us."

Bernard, in her first sitting as interim Green leader, said she hopes the government brings forward its population strategy, given that's a topic the Greens want to bring forward for debate.

Up until now, she says the province has been pursuing "an extremely aggressive population growth strategy without a connection to housing, to health care, to education, to the environment.… The population's growing like crazy and we can't keep up because we never prepared for it."

Not just as whip but also as a PC backbencher representing a district within the City of Charlottetown, Bell said he plans to bring forward questions on population growth, and said he thinks a key topic of discussion will be the Community Outreach Centre in Charlottetown.

On Friday, the province announced it plans to move the facility to another location within the city.

"It is a conversation that's had by a lot of residents in Charlottetown and I do think… that [conversation] is kind of spreading out to other parts of the Island," said Bell.

Perry said the Liberals will focus on the same issues they did in the last sitting — affordability, housing and health care — because "not much has changed," in the party's opinion. 

"You look at health care, for instance… The patient registry is climbing… ERs across Prince Edward Island are being closed more frequently. ERs are now over capacity… there is no indication that health care in Prince Edward Island is getting any better for anyone."

The province's 2023 audited financial statements are also on the King government's overdue list. Under the Financial Administration Act, they were supposed to have been tabled by Oct. 31.

Those documents will show whether the province ended the last fiscal year with a $93 million deficit as budgeted, or if, as has often been the case, the province saw a significant turnaround in its fiscal position as a result of tax revenues coming in far higher than projected.

Bell said another bill to be tabled this fall will let the King government make good on a campaign promise from the spring election campaign to lower residential property taxes down to 2020 levels.