'Crisis,' 'mismanagement,' 'well-positioned'?: Health care big issue in byelection

The candidates in the P.E.I. byelection in District 16, Cornwall-Meadowbank, agree health care is a big issue, but not surprisingly their thoughts about dealing with it differ.

Voters in the district will go to the polls Nov. 15. The byelection was prompted by the departure of Liberal Heath MacDonald, who resigned to run federally in Malpeque, a seat he ultimately won.

Green candidate Todd MacLean has been campaigning for four weeks, since before the byelection date was even announced. MacLean said he knew he would be hearing a lot about the health-care system, but the concerns being passed along still surprised him.

"It's bowling me over, the amount that I'm hearing from so many doors, that people are so concerned about the state of health on P.E.I. I will state it here right now that I really firmly believe that we're in a crisis state," he said.

"It's just completely unacceptable."

MacLean said people are sharing impacts of being on the waiting list for a family physician, which now has more than 20,000 Islanders on it, representing one-eighth of P.E.I.'s population. They are also talking about increased waiting times at clinics and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital emergency room.

Because the health-care system is short on staff, he pointed out, everyone has to work harder. That is hurting retention, thus making the problem even worse.

He noted that a Green Party motion passed in the legislature last week expanding the potential scope of practice for pharmacists could help ease some of the workload pressure.

'There's a better way'

Liberal candidate Jane MacIsaac characterized what she is hearing at the door from people not as demands, but as reasonable requests to fulfil a need for reliable, timely health care.

"We're just seeing too much mismanagement. I think there's a better way to manage the resources that we have," said MacIsaac.

"We're looking at a shortage of staff in some situations where we've got open beds and then we've got people that are, you know, waiting in the emergency room at the QEH. I don't know how anyone could look at that and think it's well-managed."

A solution to the system's problems is what residents of the district deserve, she said, and she is running to be part of making that happen.

'A lot of experience'

While acknowledging the health system faces issues, Progressive Conservative candidate Mark McLane said he is confident in the current government's ability to handle them.

"Dennis and his government, they're starting to tackle those issues. Obviously they had to deal with COVID in the first 18 months of their mandate," said McLane.

"They have a lot of experience in the legislature right now so I just think they're well-positioned to handle the problem."

He said the recent announcement of a medical school on P.E.I., in partnership with Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the expansion of nursing programs are great steps — but they will take a while to produce results.

Establishing a new infrastructure

NDP candidate Larry Hale directed comments specifically toward an issue in Cornwall.

The one physician at the medical practice in Cornwall does not have room for more patients, forcing new residents to look outside of the community. He believes the problem could be solved with better deployment and use of the staff.

"What the Island New Democrats envision is a multidisciplinary service that can bring together a lot of the health professions into one spot," said Hale, adding that's a system newer doctors are more accustomed to.

"One of the biggest problems that we have with retention is that doctors feel that the services and the infrastructure is not in place for them to practice medicine that they feel is necessary."

What's at stake

This is the third single-district election since the general election in 2019 that gave the Progressive Conservatives and Dennis King a minority government.

The Tories won the first two, both in Charlottetown. There was a deferred election in District 9 following the death of a candidate during the general election campaign. The second win, in District 10 a year ago, gave King's government a slim majority.

The current makeup of the legislature is 14 seats for the Progressive Conservatives, eight for the Greens, and four for the Liberals, with the vacant seat in District 16 rounding out the 27.

The byelection, unlike the last one, cannot change the ultimate makeup of the government, but it may be an indication of what Islanders are thinking about the King government's performance during this portion of the pandemic as well as other issues, such as health care and housing, rise to the surface.

The stakes are perhaps biggest for the Liberals, reduced from government to third party status in the 2019 election. Cornwall-Meadowbank is the most Liberal seat in the province. The party has held it since it was created in 1996, and its predecessor 2nd Queens was entirely Liberal for a decade before that.

If the Greens can take this seat from the Liberals, they can sell it as an indication that they have replaced the Liberals as one of the two main parties in the province.

The NDP, who have only ever held one seat in the legislature, from 1996 to 2000, have performed poorly in recent elections, but a strong showing in District 16 could give the party momentum as it looks ahead to a general election in 2023.