[Music] [Music] h [Music] he [Music] la [Music] [Music] [Music] and recognition of guests honorable Premier uh thank you uh very much Mr Speaker welcome back to my colleagues for another day of debate in the legis lure uh second week of of debate in here uh uh to all those who are joined in at home and to those in the public Gallery Mr Speaker it's not very often one can make a crowd but if there was one person capable of making a crowd it's Leo zank who's a former page in here and of course he'
s uh good to see him back home here and welcome Leo it's good to have you back I want to begin uh my remarks uh by uh offering my congratulations to all who have worked hard to make possible the first Hindu temple in PEI which is going to open later this week in charlot toown on March the e8th to be more specific uh which is opening day which is also an auspicious day for Hindus as March 8th is a celebration of uh of Maha shivaratri which is a Hindu uh Festival which commemorates the marriage of
Shiva and PVA Mr Speaker so to all those who have worked really hard uh to make uh this possible I want to offer my congratulations and I don't think it show just a tremendous uh uh aspect of uh of the changing and more diverse face of Prince Edward Island to see more initiatives like this so thank you very much and the best of luck I want to also offer my congratulations and and we'll be cheering really hard later this afternoon for Tyler uh Smith and his crapo Curling Club rank who are repres
enting Prince of Rh Island at the Montana's Brier in Regina Saskatchewan uh they're off to a three in one start they're right in the playoff hunt uh right now uh huge game this afternoon at 4:00 against the province of Quebec uh Tyler is shooting the lights out as skip uh and getting a lot of uh recognition for it doing a great job as say curling out of the Cornwall curling club with his teammates Adam Cox Christopher glant and Paul Fleming so just wanted to say that to Tyler and the team Pei is
rooting for you uh this time last year we were campaigning in the provincial election and if anyone else had the similar experience that I did when you opened up a door uh the Brier was on it's a very very popular sport here in Prince Andro Island and it's really nice to see individuals like Tyler and his team and Brett gland who's curling with Team botcher uh uh Pei is really represented well on the national and World curling scene so the best of luck I think I join with all the members of thi
s house and all Islanders to wish the best of luck to Tyler and his team today I haven't had a chance yet publicly in here to uh uh recognize the appointment of Mary Robinson as Pei's fourth Senator um at the the opportunity to work with Mary uh over the last number of years in particular during the P Ward situation when she was the president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture I've always found uh Mary now Senator Robinson to be a very accomplished and principled person a very good repres
entative of her industry and of her Province and as she takes her seat in the red chamber I I wish her the very best into uh uh to deliver good results for for good government and for Pei in general I also wanted to just finally say um a huge thank you to Dr George KS I had a chance to meet with Dr KS who is uh uh the head of the Pei College of Physicians and surgeons um for all the work he and his team have done uh to make it easier for doctors to come to work here in Prince Edward Island uh a
few weeks ago the Canadian Federation of Independent Business recognized the four Atlantic Premier with h the golden scissors award for the reduction of red tape uh with the creation of the Atlantic physician registry but none of that would have been possible without the hard work of Dr KS and all of his staff here in PEI and through other registries around the reg region so I invited George in last week uh to share the award W with with him uh to have a greater talk in detail about more things
that we can be doing uh very excited to learn some of the things that we're working on together that will help make the delivery Healthcare a little bit easier but uh just to Dr CRS and all of those at the college who have been doing a great job I wanted to say thank you and happy to share this award with them Mr Speaker leader of the opposition thank you very much Mr Speaker and I too want to welcome everyone who is uh joining us online and and welcome Leo back to the gallery it's nice to see y
ou back in here again um beautiful day to be driving today I know the premier made mention this time last year we're out on the campaign Trail I know this time of the year I on the West Side I couldn't even get out towards Skinner's Pond cuz the drift and and the drifting uh for several days but driving this morning was one beautiful day and uh it may look like that CH will'll change on Thursday but uh you know this weekend the time changes so we'll be spring in ahead I guess so the evenings wil
l get a little bit longer and uh give you that feeling that that spring is coming and and summer following that of course I do want to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the special Olympic athletes and staff and and coaches uh who came off a 4-day trip in uh Calgary um they I think the total number of medals for Prince Aron was 21 eight of which were gold so uh congratulations to everyone who participated in that or had any part in in in that even the sponsorship of that to give uh th
ese wonderful athletes an opportunity to showcase um their abilities um also Mr Speaker um I want to send out birthday wishes to Brian mcginness of travelers rest I'm sure he's watching today as he does every other day and I'm just hoping that with age comes a little bit of uh uh better humor so I uh we we're just wishing for that and I know I'm not the only one with that so thank you Mr Speaker and I look forward to the proceedings of today leader of the third party thank you Mr Speaker and uh
good morning to I guess good afternoon to all my colleagues and everybody tuning in from all over the island and a special welcome to Leo as everyone else said hello and so it's great to see you to see you in here today um I guess just kind of hopping off what the The Honorable leader of the official opposition said about the the athletes and the coaches and the and the mission staff uh who made their way back from Calgary at a very impressive uh showing with eight gold nine silver and four bron
ze along with a lot of personal best so congratulations to athletes and coaches and Mission staff and and everyone who accompanied you you on your trip and cheered you on from home congratulations um I had the opportunity over the weekend with the minister of Agriculture Justice and Public Safety attorney general and Deputy Premier and The Honorable leader of official opposition to attend the 4 Awards um and this was this it was my first time attending those Awards and and it was nice to be in t
hat room with with leaders who are learning skills of appreciation and understanding of the land and what the land gives us and what we can do with that and I think that that's a really important thing to have as you make your way through leadership and so uh really kind of instills in me some hope in in the leaders that we have today and and moving into the future so thank you for uh thank you for that and also had the pleasure of attending the construction Association of Pei dinner and there w
ere I won't mention everyone was there because there were a lot of people there and what a packed house and the energy in that room was palpable um and so I just want to congratulate the construction Association on 50 years of service and it was a great celebration great food food High Spirits and uh I look forward to seeing the work that you continue to do in the future thank you Mr Speaker the member for cherl Town Bel viader uh thank you Mr Speaker I also rise today to acknowledge our special
Olympic athletes who represented Us in Calgary um I just wanted to give a shout out to uh Aaron pippy who won um received silver in five pin bowling and Logan Robbins who received a gold of silver and two bronze and speed skating thank you Mr Speaker the member for oer in veress uh thank you Mr Speaker and I too want to acknowledge those that are watching back home in the writing of oer iness usually that one Watcher is usually Harvey Cate so hi to Harvey um also have a little bit of somber new
s uh regarding uh a passing of one of my constituents Peter Bernard Peter Bernard is from lenx Island and uh a well-respected Elder in lenx Island a Fisher uh he actually even operated the uh gtu Recycling Depot on lenx island and uh I always used to drop my cans off there to uh get uh get the deposits back on it so I certainly want to pass on condolences and sympathies to his wife Christine uh daughter Laura son Peter Joe and son Steven and daughter Emily uh as well as he's also a brother of Ch
ief Darlene Bernard as well so uh so anyway but while I'm on my feet Mr Speaker I have to acknowledge uh another somber moment for some of the leaf fans here maybe is that the brunes defeated the Leafs last night four to one so they're up three in the series I guess for the regular season uh 3 to one well maybe one we'll see if they get a win tomorrow but uh but I want to pass on a little condolences to I see the looks like the member from charlot toown wiso actually might have been playing for
the lease last night by the look looks up pretty pretty beat up as far as that goes but also our Sergeant at Arms our minister of Agriculture and uh and others here but I also want to say the fact that uh I was kind of a little skeptical about this NHL deal $2 and5 million dollar to uh to the NHL for promotion of Prince Ed Island but now I'm going to start to say that maybe the minister of Tourism is a Visionary and I I because obviously maybe he's got some plan here to have the leaves come down
and open our golf courses here in priner out St I have greatable golf courses we have here so so is we'll see what happens on tea off time the leaves of tea off in in princet Island Mr Speaker statements by members we'll start with the member for bordon kingor thank you Mr Speaker I'd like to rise uh this afternoon uh further to my my first week in the legislature last week having uh under my belt I appreciate the warm welcome from from members and all the staff in the legislature that makes th
e legislature work and I've truly been enjoying the uh the discussions in this chamber however what has immediately surprised me after only a few days in the chair um is how this government perceives its role and exercises its powers in a couple of different ways uh first Mr Speaker the government's lack of respect uh generally for fundamental principles of democracy and particularly see this in the spending of public funds under the special uh warrants that came out last week the house is curre
ntly undertaking Mr Speaker a detailed review of the 2023 2024 operating budget lined by line every dollar out of $3.2 billion how can it be all at all acceptable uh therefore for government to spend more than $325 million uh of Islanders money on special warrants that are both unbudgeted and unapproved by the legislature $325 million may not seem like a lot of money to the government but it certainly seems like a lot of money to me in the words of the auditor general and I quote it seems like t
here's a disregard for the process it has to change there's a democratic process and that Democratic process should be followed end quote and despite this condemnation government last week defended the practice and now similarly we have no law with respect to procurement of services no transparency no accountability and that to me Mr Speaker is an abuse of our democracy the second concern I came away with last week is this government's assertion that it is perfectly fine indeed appropriate to mi
cromanage and meddle with the jobs of others notably with the administration and delivery of our health care System last week when I challenged minister of Health on comments about personally intervening in the recruitment of new doctors and nurses when their phone calls and their emails aren't being returned uh the minister doubled down and reiterated that he would continue to do so and expressed an understanding that it was indeed part of his job my understanding Mr Speaker is that it's the go
vernment govern's job to create the necessary programs and agencies and put the right people in the positions and let them do their jobs not to not for the politicians to stand over them and take the pen out of their hands uh when they feel like it what we're seeing now Mr Speaker is a Health Care system on fire and instead of relying on the specially trained firefighters the elected politicians are trying to put the fire out with their own shovels and their own garden hoses and we need to get t
he politics out of it closing Mr Speaker I'm truly humbled to have this opportunity to participate in our Democratic process by serving in our legislature and with my colleagues in opposition I will continue to push for good governance and for respect for all Democratic principles thank you thank you honorable member and just as a reminder we do try and keep our member statements to 90 seconds thank you the member for Kingston MPC uh thank you Mr Speaker it is a pleasure to rise today and recogn
ize Dela Parker the first annual Carrie win McLoud women of impact Awards recipients were recently announced these Awards honor Carrie wi's Legacy of recognizing extraordinary contributions of everyday Islanders they provide an opportunity to acknowledge outstanding contributions made by women across the island to create significant and positive impact throughout our communities there are five categories of the Carrie wi McLoud women of impact Awards these include women in business women in heal
thcare women in her community women in the Arts and women in music Dela Parker was awarded the women in business award for being a Trailblazer for women in real estate and Pei she was one of the first female real estate agency owners in PEI last year Parker realy celebrated 25 years in business under the ownership and Leadership of Dela well-respected and knowing for generosity Dell has served in her community in many volunteer roles and has devoted many years to the rotary in giving back to tho
se in need Dela encompasses the spirit of a successful business owner and has made a profound impact on the business community in PEI congratulations Dela I wish you continued [Music] success the member for time valy sherbrook thank you Mr Speaker um I'd gotten up last year and talked about a very about a young talented athlete from birchill Brooke MacArthur Brooke has had several outstanding competition results this year on the journey to the top of the podiums Brooke most recently took home go
ld at the elite championship tournament in Edmonton Alberta with this win she is now ranked number one in the under 18 division across Canada and earned herself the title of the national champion in the under 18 division Brook's results this year are paved in her way for New Opportunities and in the Judo career Brooke has received an invitation from Judo Canada to join the National Cadet team and travel to Rio De Janeiro in Brazil where she will compete in the 2024 Cadet Pan-American Oceanic Jud
o championships this coming April which includes competitors from all around the world this comes at a great cost to the family so in order to help Bo there is a pancake breakfast on Satur this Saturday coming March 9th from 8 to 10:30 at the time Valley fire hall cost is by donation and there's also a turkey dinner on Saturday April 6th tickets are $25 can and can reserve a seating by calling 831 2743 or 31512 33 thank you questions by members starting with responses to questions taken as notic
e we'll start with the leader of the opposition thank you very much uh Mr Speaker uh question to the premier last week the premier said he wished an opportunity that he had the opportunity to fire uh Michael gardam before he resigned so it raises an interesting question Michael gardam was appointed CEO of Health Pi in May the 8th 2021 so he was the CEO for nearly 3 years and when he was appointed the former minister of Health said this we are fortunate to have a health leader on this C of this c
alber stepping into this role to continue the important work of renewing Health Pei so so my question is at what point between the warm words and gom's eventual resignation did the primer wish he could fire him The Honorable Premier uh thank you Mr Speaker I perhaps was a little factious in saying what I did uh you know I it was no secret to anyone who's followed uh politics here that you know Dr gardam can be a somewhat polarizing and sometimes frustrating person uh and I would have felt the th
at from time to time I did leap to his defense time and again here when members of the leader of the opposition's party personally attacked him and and took him on and called him down and now I guess they're his great defender now that he's gone uh all of that to say I appreciate the work that he tried to do uh worked uh with him along the way to try to move the system forward uh and now in his retirement that's what we continue to do and uh when he announced his retirement I thanked him for his
service and I'd reiterate that again today Mr Speaker leader of the opposition thank you very much Mr Speaker so it's pretty clear that this government fully supported Dr gam until the point that he resigned but the premier said he wished he had fired gardam so what was the issue what did gardam do to offend the premier so much and what was it a policy matter or was it a personality difference The Honorable Premier uh Mr Speaker I don't think it was either I think I would be frustrated from tim
e to time when uh and I've shared this with others so I suppose I don't mind sharing it again that I felt that the CEO of Health Pei spent far too much time passing himself off as a commentator on TV talking about the issues of healthc care uh and you know I think the ironic part would be I would often look and say the stuff that he's highlighting that are problems are the things that taxpayers are paying him to address so I think that was probably a personal frustration I had with him but all o
f that aside I worked very closely with him I work very hard with him I appreciate it the time that he put in uh I just uh you know I think it's uh um uh as I say I uh we worked hard to try to move the system forward and my job continues now that he's retired the leader of the opposition thank you very much uh Mr Speaker so the premier just said he worked very close with Dr gam and it's pretty clear from Dr gom's testimony at the standing committee that the premier's office was running the laot
of the Healthcare System here on the tent so I will quote from that testimony I did have regular meetings with the deputy and I did have regular meetings with the minister but they were not of an operational nature the meetings with the premier's office tended to be much more operational end quote now operational is about hiring people deciding on Services finding out how often you're going to close an emergency room my question to the premier what operational decisions involved the premier's of
fice honorable Premier Well Mr Speaker as I said time and again I would have the CEO of Health Pei into my office to explain to me where we're at from our system operationally what we can be doing to improve it what are the issues that are informing the decisions that are being made by Health pei and if anything that the government uh my office the ministry or anyone in government can do uh to try to make healthc care delivery better for Islanders I think that's what Islanders elected me to do a
nd as long as I'm in the chair that's how I'll do it Mr Speaker leader of the opposition thank you very much Mr Speaker and if I recall from that standing committee I think Dr Gham also mentioned he hadn't met with the premier once since the last year's election so another matter raised by Garden was the role of the Board of Health pei and he said and I quote historically the Board of Health Pi has always struggled it's never gotten off the ground and then the unwritten person you report to is t
he Premier so my question has your office's operational medling hurt the role of Health Pei board here in Prince honorable Premier oh well I think I would clarify the first comment I would never take the accuracy of the opposition to accurately uh take somebody's comments and portray them as fact uh I met with Dr Garda many times I think what Dr gardam said was it might have been less than it was previous I don't think he said it wasn't anything at all but I realized it's the opposition's job he
re to try to put a cloud of negativity around some of the things that happen here in this province uh and uh the second part of the question again the job of the Premier is to be ultimately responsible for the success or failures of our system you hold me accountable uh for for that in here that's part of the job I think people would expect the premier of Prince Edward Island to try to have a role in moving our system forward and and addressing some of the holes that are there uh that's what I d
o I work with the board I work with the minister I work with the staff I work with health pei and anybody who can help make the system better Mr Speaker leader of the opposition thank you very much Mr Speaker so I assume that some of these operational decisions involve the proposed medical school again to quote gardam and about the medical school quote this feels like we're ramming it through no matter what and you and you get on board or you don't that's the recipe for disaster you can make ver
y bad decisions when you do things like that end quote Mr Speaker did did Dr gardam tell the premier that the medical school was a bad idea uh honorable Premier Mr Speaker uh never once in fact he told me time and again what a great initiative it would be and how it would change the trajectory of Health for the positive and Pei now and in the future honorable the leader of the opposition well I I I see they got another little talking to to to Clap The Clapper training must have been on the weeke
nd was it so according to gardam a large part of our problem in healthcare is due to immigration so here's a quote I pulled the patient registry data and I pulled the immigration data and they are 100% correlated Mr Speaker did the premier discuss this concern with this concern with gardom and does the premier agree that a problem in healthcare is 100% correlated to immigration The Honorable Premier uh Mr Speaker I might have missed part of the question there but I I am I to surmise that is immi
gration the biggest cause of our health care initi challenges if that's the case I would say uh I wouldn't say it's all of it I think that's there are many factors which are causing uh strain on our health care System our growing population would only be one of them Mr Speaker leader of the opposition thank you very much Mr Speaker so there was an announcement made recently that the clab of emergency uh Center at the Western Hospital in Alberton would remain closed for the foreseeable future no
timeline no lines as to what's being done to rectify this is complete silence it appears this government is happy to Simply leave the residents of West Prince with no details or explanation as to how they plan on the reopening of the CC so question to the minister of Health how long do you plan on making West Prince residents wait for information on how your government will be getting Services back to normal um at the Western Hospital minister of Health and Wellness thank you Mr Speaker and and
thank you for the question we have completed a review on the C and again uh there is Staffing challenges with with that model I think it's been said in the media too as well and both internally that that model is not really deployed across Canada um so again we continue to look at that again we're very happy with the the opening of the CHC in Alberton and we've actually added a position in the fall this year so again we're trying to improve Primary Care in Western pi and will continue to do so t
hank you Mr Speaker leader of the opposition Mr Speaker that confidence is not shared with any Resident of West Prince so the Tory governments of the past tried to close the alurn hospital Once Upon a Time the early 2000s and now many in the area are feeling that this cor Tory government led by Protege of a man who tried to close a hospital 20 years ago is once again angling to close this hospital and centralized services in brce county question to the minister you seem satisfied with the slow e
rosion of services in West brince despite the fact that Prince County Hospital is also fading are facing eroding Services how do you continue telling West Prince residents not to worry despite your complete lack of urgency in maintaining service levels in Prince County as a whole The Honorable Premier Mr Speaker just to clarify the record of history and I know they try to revise history in here the honorable member from allar in verest did it last week by talking about the wonderful free trade a
nd Brian morone and all he did while every single one of the Liberals and Pei fought against it Mr Speaker so there's a revisionist history being attempted in here and if you want to talk about the closure of hospitals in Prince Edward Island uh Siri Ty Valley oery turn around and look at your colleague next door because the liberal government that closed them Mr Cheryl Town West thank you Mr Speaker it's well established this government has not put in the work or Investments required to keep up
with a growing population by failing to properly plan and scale services for Islanders the government has caused immense stress on families islandwide look at Access to Health Care our housing Continuum and our stretch Child Care System question to the minister of Education how many parents are you aware of that are in need of child care across the province the minister of education and early years thank you Mr Speaker and thank you honorable member for asking an important question around Child
Care uh an area that is of great importance to this um this government and to all Islanders uh Mr Speaker an area that we've invested heavily in over these last number of years Mr Speaker an area that I spend my uh days uh dreaming and thinking and planning for and I know that the department spends endless hours um planning for as well Mr Speaker in terms of the registry numbers I I will have to get the the numbers the updated stats back to the honorable member but I know since uh we signed on
with the federal government um back in 2021 we have increased the number of new spaces uh well over 500 new spaces across the province and that's in all areas of the province Mr Speaker we've rolled out a number of different different initiatives to help support further growth Mr Speaker and I look forward to updating the house house regarding future growth thank you Mr Speaker the member for Sheryl toown West royalty uh Mr Speaker this government doesn't seem up to the job of meeting the growin
g needs of parents who are not receiving programming they need from this government and it would appear that it comes at a cost of of robbing Peter to PayPal attempting to increase Child Care spaces for young but causing increased burden on families who need access to Afterschool care in the process question to the minister when are you made aware or even if you know uh that Miles milestones Stratford would stop or reduce after school care into the future in the near future the minister of educa
tion and early years thank you Mr Speaker and thank you again honorable member for the question I was made aware of um this on Friday afternoon I undera Milestone had sent a uh message out to their families indicating that they would be closing their before and after school program immediately I contacted my staff I know my staff have been working diligently with uh service provid providers in the area to see if there's an opportunity opportunity to expand spaces um within the area ultimately uh
Mr Speaker the intent is not to close those spaces until the end of August so we do have some time Mr Speaker and again I am confident that we will come to a solution for these families thank you Mr Speaker West royalty well I'm I'm not as confident and and 46 Island uh parents um aren't very confident either and I'll be tabling a letter from those people today talking about the magnitude of this decision because if you're looking at space for after school now younger people there's no space we
have a space capacity issue in this file Minister um and they're very concerned about this we're talking about nurses paramedics we're talking about people that need this uh question to the minister how many families across the province are in need of Afterschool child care that are currently unable to access it where are they located and how will you track this information into the future the minister of Education ear thank you Mr Speaker and again another great question um the importance of b
efore and after school care um we all recognize anyone who is working and has to care for children uh those hours before and after school they are incredibly important that they have high quality um reliable child care for their children so this is an area of importance um to us and to you which is which I'm happy to see Mr Speaker in terms of the the number of families absolutely I bring that back to the house I can uh let the member know that we have engaged a consultant um to help support thi
s work on a moving forward basis so they are engaging uh with in discussions in a fome review of what currently exists across the island and um we'll provide us some recommendations in terms of the system development how we are going to move forward to ensure that we are able to support these families thank you Mr Speaker the member for Sheryl Westy I'm glad the member I'm glad the member or the minister sorry uh mentioned that you've engaged a consultant because that was in the budget last year
the consultant should have been engaged ready and we should have a plan by now because right now we've got 60 60 kids who are out don't have capacity and the parents are coming to us and they're very upset we've heard this in the standing committee with chances and we've heard it too um with other groups Minister what is going to be done for these 60 kids in the in the immediate what is the plan if not enough space is provided for them in the straford area the minister of Education earli Years
thank you Mr Speaker so I do understand that there has been a provider that has come forward um with a request for modification to increase their space capacity by 30 spaces in Stratford so that's um that's most recent and then there's another Center that has uh indicated that they would be able to take another 20 Mr Speaker let's keep in mind that this this happened on Friday afternoon okay so we're here Tuesday morning so you can imagine my staff they are an incredible dedicated team and I I I
engage with this the the Minister of Finance on the weekend the minister of Workforce and advanced learning population these are two individuals that represent the area of Stratford so we engaged we had a fome discussion regarding Next Step this is of importance again the staff are engaging with Community um members with business business is with the town so I uh I'm I'm feeling assured that we are going to have an opportunity for these families but I do appreciate the honorable member is bring
ing these questions forward because they are important ones thank you Mr Speaker M for o and vess thank you Mr Speaker Mr Speaker ERS have been informed uh that NE brunic power will be shutting down Point Le proo Nuclear Station on April 8th this year for refurbishment for approximately 100 days is expected that the cost to NB Power will be $10 million per week just for the replacement power for the 15 weeks so it's $150 million Pei in Maritime electric has a 5% power purchase agreement to purch
ase power from point lepro question to the minister of energy will the Pei energy corporation or Maritime electric have to find alternate energy to replace what energy would have been accessing from point lpro during those 15 weeks the ministry of environment energy and climate action I thank you Mr Speaker so again the energy corporation doesn't purchase electricity from off Island they don't deliver electricity to people's homes they don't deal with the lines the vegetation any of those things
that's all Maritime electric uh I assume the maritime electric will have to find a backup um one of the rate filings that we talked about uh I guess I talked to the media about on Friday was the ecam filing and and the ecam filing basically was a cost overrun Associated to the last outage at Point Le Pro so I suspect not only will they have to find electricity at market price I also suspect that this will cost rate payers money through some sort of an ecam uh further down the road thank you Mr
Speaker will they rein US minister that's not overly reassuring that we're about a month away from uh the uh Poler prob being shut down and I would hope that even though it may not be the pi energy corporation you are the minister respons for energy in princer Island you should be at least in contact with what's going on on this particular file being such short notice um will rate Pei rate payers and have to pay the 5% of the expected 223 million refurbishing costs or just the energy replacement
costs does he any idea environment energy and climate action uh thank you Mr Speaker so as far as the dealings with Point LA Pro that's something we're still discussing with the New Brunswick power but the as I said the rate the rate itself could rise I mean it also could not if Maritime electrics able to acquire power off the Open Market at or below the cost that they're they're purchasing it from point L Pro um if it is higher than than what they anticipate the price would be then that would
go into their ecam file and when like I said the other day when the ecam gets to a certain size they uh go to the regulator and ask to be reimbursed for and it happens through R so uh let's hope the rates don't go up because of this but you know we know the scarcity of energy right now and and uh we don't know where they might have to buy it from so uh anything's possible the member for w and veress well once again Mr Speaker you know we we want to know that we're going to have access to power w
e want to know that we're going to have it at a reasonable cost and I think the other part I'd like to know if the minister would be aware if the those uh replacement electricity cost is this going to be from a carbon neutral Source uh because you have a Target for Net Zero and even though it's 100 days or maybe longer uh you know it's going to have an impact on our atmosphere the minister environment energy and climate action uh thank you Mr Speaker so the the carbon number is where the carbon
was produced so uh currently part of the the coal that's online from New Brunswick would come here very very small amount but the that number is attributed to new Bron because that's where the pollution is happening uh not at the at the end you so it does it won't affect our our carbon number and I mean I guess you have to ask yourself question do you really care about whether or not we're going to have access to a source or does do you want me to assure you that it be a clean source and we'll t
urn off the power in all area like I mean that's what you're up against but that's what you're up against martime electric has to buy Power wherever it's available because we're interconnected and I explained this last fall we're interconnected to everywhere except for Texas who's not interconnected in North America uh Maritime electric is able to purchase power from literally anywhere that's connected to us thank you Mr Speaker less well thanks a question then what what are we doing all this st
uff around netser and trying to do that if the energy is being created from non carbon neutral sources and other jurisdictions why don't we buy all somewhere else doesn't count anything towards their Net Zero uh you know Minister would you have any idea about this actual agreement that New Brunswick uh uh NV power has with Maritime electric and how it's going to uh work an arrangement like this when there's power sources that go down that we have with our nuclear plant and point Le Pro Ministry
of environment energy and climate action thank you Mr Speaker so Maritime electric purchases power right from new Bruns power which basically means that agreement somewhere along the way belongs to new Bruns with power to find the the electricity and I'll give you example it's talked about in the house here before when we had our alltime Peak last winter not this winter but last February um Power was being kind of moved around from all all over the place because there wasn't a whole lot of extra
in Quebec because the polar vortex was over Quebec and uh there was none available obviously in the maritimes because we were in a polar vortex and some came from newf Land I think that they were able to find pieces of of uh energy all over the place to kind of put it together so I think new runs with power is the one who really does the the L share of that work but to date it's worked really well for for us because the lights are are always on thank you Mr Speaker lead to the third party thank
you Mr Speaker I'm going to be following on from the member from uh charlot toown West royalty's questions under the encouragement and policy of the department Milestones is expanding its existing early years license and will be dissolving the after school program this all happen because of the government's desperate need for more infant spaces and its focus on child care for those under the age of five years one government policy is causing severe harm to another the minister says she's she is
actually the minister is trying to assure us and say she's is happy that we're asking these questions surely the minister knew situations like this could and would likely arise question to the minister why did you implement a program you ought to have known could have effects on after school care leaving dozens of families without care the minister of Education early years Mr Speaker we are looking at this holistically we understand again both the importance of the early years care as well as t
he before and after school care and while we have been growing our early year spaces we've also been growing our before and after school cases Mr Speaker so M Stones is one example um whereby they are decreasing the number of spaces but we've also got many examples of businesses who want to increase their spaces so um Mr Speaker please I I really want the member to recognize that we are doing this holistically we have a team of expert professionals that are looking at this and they recognize the
importance of serving children at in all ages whether it's the early years and the before school program and I think that they're doing a tremendous job and we are going to be there for the families who are currently accessing the supports at Milestones thank you Mr Speaker leader of the third party holistically means that you consider the Ripple effects of all your policies Ministry have not done that April 15th 2023 there was a motion passed through Pei home and school it called on government
to work collaboratively between departments to streamline resources to create accessible and Universal Universal after school programs for all Pei students in grades K to 6 the minister responded to the motion saying I quote the government is continued is committed to continuing to work with providers to expand this service end quote question to the minister how do you justify your commitment to expanding Afterschool child care when you are actively working against it the minister of Education
ear earli Years thank you Mr Speaker ultimately this was a business decision for milestone they chose to uh Focus their energy and resources in the early years Mr Speaker and that's that's their choice Mr Speaker so now we're in a point whereby we need to find supports for these families and that's precisely what we're doing Mr Speaker so we have as I said we have managed to increase the number in spaces in both the early years and school age we have engaged a consultant to help us explore our o
ptions moving forward and I look forward to sharing those details with the honorable member and honorable certainly if you ever want to have a discussion about this please reach out I'm happy to discuss thank you leader of the third part thank you Mr Speaker when I was talking to parents about this they feared that you would blame the business which is what you just did and I'm happy to hear that the minister is committed to rectifying this serious problem this is one example of a situation that
we're undoubtedly going to see again and again if changes are not made parents need work we need them to work and children need Safe child care you said we hire a consultant the ask is pretty clear Minister I'm not sure we need a consultant for that will you commit to at the very Le least piloting piloting accessible and Universal after school programs and Pei by September of this year the minister of education and early years thank you Mr Speaker and again I'd like to Pilot it earlier than tha
t Mr Speaker this is a commitment of this government it's something that we all are understand the importance of and that we're moving forward on Mr Speaker but again the consultant I don't want to name her in this house but she is an expert in this field and I value her opinion on this matter and I do want to wait for the recommendations that come out of that report um Mr Speaker and with regards again to Milestones I do want to assure this house that we do understand that there'll be 50 new sp
aces coming on board within the community um over the coming months so I am assured that those families will be supported and I really want to recognize the team in the early years division who work so hard to support our families across the island thank you member for New Haven Rocky Point thank you so much Mr Speaker when this government came to power they were swept in on a wave of optimism that they would be as the pre Premier often put it doing politics differently it's what irelanders desp
erately wanted and I would say what this province desperately needed which is why the degree to which this Premier and his government have fallen short on that promise has created so much regret and frustration the most open and transparent government has in reality turned out to be the most closed and secretive this morning on CBC we heard a government procurement expert describe Pei's process as and I quote highly highly unusual I am shocked we Remain the only government in Canada without legi
slation guiding procurement of services which accounts for tens of millions of dollars of spend spending of taxpayers money a question to the premier our caucus is asked almost every year when we will see Pei join the rest of the modern world and fix this massive problem why in your five years have you done precisely nothing about this The Honorable Premier Well Mr Speaker I think there was a lot of optimism Around The Honorable member himself in 2019 and I think that he's a certainly a shadow o
f himself to that today uh and I even saw a great hopes for the member from bordon King cor to come in with a new attitude but didn't take him long to be bathed in the Cesspool of negativity and asist Island um of course there's only one way to do things in PEI and that's the green party's way Mr Speaker and if you if you disagree Haven forbid you get uh you get the lashes of the social media uh uh uh War Warriors out there that defend them passionately Mr Speaker what we continue to do in here
you have seen time and again how this government has undertaken politics to be done differently uh the legislative Committees of how they work how they operate the freedom individuals have within here to talk to speak to ask questions we're still the only jurisdiction in the country that debates the budget line by line by line methodically across the board Mr Speaker and again The Honorable member seems to want to indicate one thing or the other I'll put my record up against yours any day of the
[Applause] week member for New Haven Rocky Point I know what they thought in my doorstep thank you Mr Speaker in other provinces when most here here's part of your record Premier when most projects are tendered the entire list of all of those who apply and the details of their bids are publicly available that's the way citizens are able to see that their government is making good choices and that they are getting value for money but here on prined Ro Island under this premier's government we ha
ve no idea and all for all we know politicians friends pockets are being lined and millions of dollars on millions of dollars of Islanders money is being wasted because we don't know we don't know it's no wonder it's no wonder that the levels of trust and confidence in this government are plummeting to the premier is is this the sort of openness and transparency you had in mind all those years ago when I had faith in you when you promised to Islanders that your government would do politics diffe
rently Premier oh Mr Speaker we do politics differently in here uh and very proudly so uh and for the this is the anti- hackling uh member who brought forward we shouldn't Hackle in here and we should be kind to each other and now he's out there he's turned into what's the old song by Jimmy Buffett or were the people our parents warned us about this is who he warned us about Mr Speaker he's out there making wide inuendos about things that he knows are wrong Mr Speaker because he thinks it might
make a headline he's a headline Chaser an ambulance Chaser Mr Speaker we're here trying to get things done Mr Speaker M for New Haven Rocky Point one of the ways this government is clearly not doing politics differently is I've asked two questions that I've had zero to either of them it would be nice if just once this government didn't wait to get caught or for the public pressure to reach a breaking point before they actually showed that they were a competent government and did the right thing
that would be lovely the layers of secrecy that obscure Islanders media and opposition mlas from actually knowing what this government is is up to keep going Freedom of Information is how we get details on government business but in this regard this super secretive government is also failing Islanders miserably the delay the costs the work required to get even basic information out of this government has all gotten far far far worse to the premere in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick access to this
information is automatic what are you hiding and which of your friends is benefiting from your secrecy The Honorable Prem well let's not let the facts get in the way of a really good fear-mongering story here by this member he's been become famous for it in here sadly I remember actually meeting with him previously when he was first elected by himself and how much hope I had for him we even mused a little bit that I would run for him Mr Speaker that's how we talked about it that's how much Hope
and Faith I had in this minister or this member and what he's turned into I think is disappointing for me it's disappointing for Islanders if he wants to talk about a lack of confidence out there in the public I think he should take a little drive around Mr Speaker and talk to people never mind just sipping a latte here with a bunch of the people who support him get out and take the Pulse of the island Mr member for Shi almyra feel free to leave charlt thank you Mr Speaker in a little over a 48
hour span this weekend there were more no fewer than five drug overdoses involving fentanyl prompting a public health alert to be issued by the chief Public Health office many times our local fire departments and medical First Responders are the First on scene for these emergencies and several of these incidents the administration of a medication called No lockone helped avoid fatal outcomes question to the minister of Health how widely available is noo zone for use in overdose responses in Prin
ce ever Island the Ministry of Health and Wellness uh thank you Mr Speaker and thank the honorable member for the question a really important topic uh to talk about today uh is the toxicity of our drug Supply on pei and the importance of having uh noock own uh the toxicities increased so much much that they're recommending two to three doses in order to reverse uh the effects um so again free Noone kits are available at Health Pei the needle exchange program uh which includes charl toown somersi
de o Larry Albert and monteu and Siri we also have U them available through peers Alliance and the native Council um and it's important that we support um anybody again in our First Responders with these kits because uh they can save a life thank you uh Mr Speaker the member Ser Mara thank you Mr Speaker and thank you to the minister the lockone or Naran as it is more commonly known comes in two forms one is an injectable based form uh delivered by needle intramuscular and the other one is a nas
al spray currently police officers in many jurisdictions carry the nasal spray form of Naran question to the minister of Health would your department through the chief Public Health office explore ways to approve access to Naran spray for use by our local fire departments and medical First Responders at no extra cost minister of Health and Wellness uh thank you Mr Speaker and again thank the member for the question he is very informed on the health file we have some great conversations again uh
with his previous work experience um there is two ways to administer in a lock Zone obviously intermuscular and uh through the nasal spray so that is important um we do provide I believe to the RCMP charlan and somerside police forces um we do provide the intermuscular through the fire Association for free to our First Responders and I guess your question is again there is um I guess it's an easier to apply uh the the nasal spray than than an injectable so it's something we need to look at and I
think we also need to in um increase our supply of nox alone across uh pei and access to it because it's very important thank you Mr Speaker the member Ser Myra thank you Mr Speaker and thank you to the minister for his answer it is a sad reality but more and more lay people are finding themselves in situations where being able to administer Naran can help save a life even for First Responders using the injection form of nuran can be both dangerous and very daunting the risk for needl stick inj
uries increases dramatically greater access to Naran and nasal spray could help ensure that this life-saving opioid antagonist is used if needed in a much safer manner so question to the minister of health will you commit to having your department look for ways to improve public access to the life-saving uh spray based form of Naran the Min of Health and Wellness uh thank you Mr Speaker and again another great question a great suggestion by the member uh it is very important I think we need to b
alance uh inventories too as well uh to ensure that they have both on board uh with our fire department's our First Responders so uh we are looking at reviewing access to nck Zone whether it be in nasal or intermuscular form so um again uh I think if you go on our website and search needle program there's some access ACC accessibility points there just remind the public that current intramuscular anoc zone is available at our libraries uh mental health uh facilities again native Council and here
so it's important tool to have in your tool box uh no matter where you are in Prince Ard Island and we'll continue to increase our distribution so thank you Mr Speaker the member for time Valley sherbrook thank you Mr Speaker Mr Speaker last fall the provincial Province announced the doubling of the rebate for seniors hearing aids so that eligible Island seniors could access up to $6,000 of these important devices question to the minister of Social Development and seniors how has the uptake on
this announcement been and how many Islanders have applied Minister Social Development and seniors uh thank you very much member for that question um and thank you Mr Speaker I'd like to thank this government for for starters for uh putting that heate program in place um for our seniors um it we in February 23rd we increased the um asset asset threshold to $100,000 which is equal to the senior's Independence Initiative Program so um right now it's 3,00 per Hein a um up to $6,000 every five years
as far as the number of people who have applied for that program it's like I say it's fairly new so I would have to get back to you with that number thank you the member for time Valley sherbrook to qualify for this support a senior would need to earn less than 23,000 or 31,000 for a senior couple and before it was the 5,000 and it's been very for some of my constituents who would love to take part in the program they were just outside the program I guess you probably answer it my question um q
uestion the minister of Social Development and seniors does your department know of many Island seniors who would be in that boat and if so what is your department looking to do the to address this Gap Minister Social Development and seniors uh thank you very much for that question Mr Speaker um the the the assets and the eligibility is going to be the same as the senior's Independence Initiative Program so that has increased to 32,000 and 42,000 uh for a couple so that's been taken care of than
k you uh time Valley sherbrook that's a great announcement um and I think it would help many Island seniors from the conversations that I've had increasing the eligibility threshold is a good step and I think the minister and the department for making that change so question to the minister of Social Development and seniors since this hearing aid rebate program has only been launched 5 months ago would you consider consider extending the increased eligibility threshold retroactive to when the pr
ogram was started in September Minister Social Development and seniors thank you very much member for that question and uh yes we will definitely look back on on who applied and who didn't who didn't qualify at the time and we will be looking at reimbursing those folks thank you for that question leader of the opposition final question thank you very much Mr Speaker questions to the premier last week the premier said he attended the Winter Classic NHL team in January of 2023 according to his exp
ense reports he met with people to talk about marketing strange since the only full day the premier was in Boston was a statutory holiday so who were these meetings with Premier honorable Premier uh thank you uh Mr Speaker uh on the January 1st after the premier's levy uh at the Confederation Center uh we went down we drove down to Boston uh to meet with officials from the NHL uh who happened to be at Boston for the Winter Classic um we talked with officials about uh the potential of working tog
ether on a long-term program which became the initiative that the minister announced here recently uh and when we finished our meetings uh we stayed the night and we drove the 11 hours back home the next day Mr Speaker end of question period statements by ministers uh the minister of Economic Development Innovation and trade thank you Mr Speaker yesterday I had the honor of attending the official ceremony of theand government house the lieutenant governor organized a great event during which we
highlighted the wonderful activities that will take place in March to celebrate our Acadian in frankon community Fran Mr Speaker the randu Fran is celebrating its 26th Edition and the theme is launch into Discovery through the r Fran French speaking communities in Canada organize activities and events across the country to Showcase their diversity language and culture speaker as a proud Acadian the r FR is important to me because it showcases our Island's diverse and dynamic aan and frankophone
Community I invite allers and members of this house frankophones Fran ofile and angones to participate in the activities throughout the month of March it's a way to connect with French speakers in pi thank you Mr Speaker uh to respond the member for charl toown West roist and I'm glad that um uh a great theme a launch into Discovery as you were saying that I was thinking to myself I have no idea how to translate that but you did in French and it's it's always it's always a good chance to learn a
nd this is this Festival um the ru Fran is is a great chance for Islanders to do just that so speaker the leader of the third party um conf presenting receiving petitions tabling of documents leader of the opposition you very much Mr Speaker um uh by leave the house I beg leave the table January 24st 2023 transcript quoting Dr garam I definitely don't have weekly conversations with the premier and I move secondly by charlott and West Roy that the said document be now received and du line on the
table shall Carri leader to the third party thank you Mr Speaker by leave of the house I beg leave to table a resolution that was passed uh with the pi hman school on April 15th 2023 it was on accessible and Universal after school programming for all Prince Edward Island students in grades K to six and I move seconded by the member from board and Kora that the said document be now received and do lie on the table sh Carrie the member for Cheryl Town West royalty I leave the house I beg leave to
table an excerpt from Mary poern when they were in to speak to the standing committee outlining the issues and them echoing the challenges that chances spoke about in the standing committee about school age gaps in our system and I move seconded by the leader of the opposition said document be receeding du line the table sh Carri the member for charlt toown West royalty I leave the house I beg leave to table a letter from 46 parents strongly strongly encouraging this government to come up with a
clear plan to address future shortages for their children and I move seconded by the leader of the opposition that the said document be now received and du line on the table sh Carri reports by committees introduction of government bills government motions orders of the day government the deputy Premier thank you Mr Speaker I move seconded by the Minister of Finance at the first order of the day be now read shall I carry order number one consideration of the estimates in committee Deputy Premie
r Mr chair I uh the house now s now in the committee of the whole house to further consider the grant of Supply to his mer Majesty shall I carry uh member for sur Omar will you please chair Committee of the whole the house is now in a committee the whole house to consider the grant of Supply to his majesty welcome Minister would you like to bring a stranger to the floor I think I would okay shall it be [Applause] granted Welcome to our stranger I'd like for you to state your name for the records
uh Chad McAn Director of Finance Minister do you have any opening remarks that you'd like to make I think we're ready to Dive Right In if that's okay we're up at thean par sector so all right we'll get to it Acadian and frankophone Affairs Acadian frankophone Affairs SE Riot sorry Appropriations provided for the coordination of measures relating to to the implementation of the French language Services act within the provincial government including support to departmental French Services coordin
ators coordination of several bilateral agreements provision of translation services Administration support to the Acadian and frankophone Community Affairs advisory committee and several other initiatives which promote the French language Administration 8500s equipment 6200 Material supplies and services 8,000 professional servic Services 264,000 salaries $858,000 grants 23,300 total ACC Cadian and Frank phone Affairs Secretariat 1,1 187,000 questions uh leader of the third party thank you chai
r welcome back um so I'm wondering if we'll see any new services at designated kind of designated services in French are there any new ones in this budget we uh we just designated uh 21 new Services uh online services for the majority of them and they're all within the Govern within the Departments that their they're uh within so Department of Education Department of uh transportation and Department of Health I think is the 21s that have been uh uh designated in the last uh a couple of weeks so
they'll be uh within the confines of those expenses through the Departments okay leader of the third party thank you chair and so I'm wondering one of the recommendations from safil was to have a um a funding sorry have funding to conduct a review of the advisory committee on Acadian and frankophone Affairs um and of course to involve the the French and Acadian communities is there a funding for that in this budget let see any there's no budget allot there's no amounts allotted to that uh We've
we've met and we meet on a regular basis with saf as we've met on Friday after the sitting of this house and we had that conversation as well as of Friday at 2:30 last Friday so we will continue to work with them and with our advisory committee uh we will be setting up as well a meeting for them to be able to meet with the the two groups and to see how we can align and make sure that we represent the priorities of French and the cavian community here in braer RH Island I'll give you one more lea
der of the third party okay just kind of a uh just further to that point so there's not really a budget allotted but there is some sort of review process that you plan on on taking with them well we we continue to look at improving any uh anything that we can do to improve uh French uh language and Prince of Island so we will continue to do that the advisory committee has been there for a number of years and I think we have to realign and rethink of the way that we might be operating in terms of
uh who's representing what who's doing what so we're going to be uh organizing uh you know a venue or a way for us to be able to collaborate more closely to make sure that we do represent the priorities of the French gadian community and leader of the third party I can put you on the list again uh Charlton West royalty H yeah thank you for put back in um the um the frankophone immigration strategy can you talk to me a little bit about that yeah I can uh give you a little bit of an overview of t
hat we've uh we've worked with at the requests of uh many stakeholders to see if we can do anything in terms of encouraging uh U french- speaking uh populations to immigrate to Prince of Island and how to to uh sustain that as well so that very comprehensive strategy is in terms of making sure that uh the Frank frankophone population is uh you know uh taking account when we look at the full number of people uh integrating here and also for answering any of the needs that we have in our labor for
ce as well in terms of French speaking uh individuals moving to Prince of Island sh your government just announced a 25% reduction and immigration is that what they were asking for talking can you clarify the strategy it was asking for well is that the is when stakeholders came to you were they asking you to reduce immigration or or increase it they were asking and through their immigration strategy to maintain what we have and trying to enhance you know the the visibility of French people and t
he way that they can operate here in brid on so I think it's a complimentary uh you know uh format that we're going to be establishing with making sure that people that are moving here that is always in the Forefront of our minds that we will consider you know French population segment of the population that's moving here as well charl West we often we often put um we want that too but the strategy as a whole does not match um what you're what you're telling me minister so what have you done as
the minister responsible to ensure that immigration well it's about the strategy it's about the Strate Deputy Deputy Premier it's about the strategy it says right here frankophone immigration strategy and there's $10,000 to it so I'm just trying to figure out what we're doing to Pro protect IM immigrants coming to Prince who speak French are have you put anything on in making sure that those numbers aren't effective well the uh the strategy has been done and tabled already and we've been uh look
ing at moving forward with what's in the strategy and it's been a you know a consultation process so it's very uh comprehensive strategy and I think when we're looking at what the strategy will accomplish with the amount of money that's been allotted to this uh that's been done and it's been tabled already and the strategy is uh in line with uh the actions that we're going to be taking to improve uh imigration here in Prince orad for the frankophone population and of the road map now if you're a
sking me the question if we have a designated uh Target number in this strategy we don't have a targeted number in the strategy we have actions that we've uh identified that we were kind of use as a target number to be able to identify you know what would be best to improve the immigration strategy for Frank R to brce of Red Island do you have another question yeah so you have actions but you have no numbers and you can't guarantee me that that you can say that this is important but we're not do
ing anything on our end you you just you just cut immigration numbers just we just developed a strategy we just told you what the strategy was about and how we're going to be able to use that strategy to make sure that our actions will follow in in increasing immigration frankone immigration Prince making sure that we can also look at what we have in designated services in here to be able to have the labor force that we need to be able to meet uh the uh designated services that we have here in P
rince Island and I think the strategy is very comprehensive and if you have look at it you'll see all the actions that are in there that are very detailed in a way that we can uh you know meet our our objectives in trying to promote uh French immigration Prince of Island so charl toown West royalty I'm just going to remind everyone here in the house to keep your questions tight and related to money and programs and the things that we need to get through here in the budget so just keep your quest
ions to the points and tighten them up a little bit go ahead charlon well I was asking a question and I and I just didn't I thought I had I thought I had the floor there's a long preamble to it so just try and keep to the question thank you Minister this is important and we see this the same way but what what what you're saying does not match what the government's doing and I want to make sure that you as a minister understand that it's there has to be a guarantee that we do not get our immigrat
ion numbers cut by 25% for aradan communities can you do that here on the floor of the legislature chair is that I'm just how it's that pertaining to the budget how is that pertaining to the budget Cheryl toown West royalty if you can rephrase it and bring it wait a second wait a second so I'm asking questions on the budget the memb is asking questions to you and now you're asking questions to me do you want me to answer that question that can can you tie it into a budgetary question please this
is better than All My Children okay so there's over a million dollars set for this purpose we are our population has to grow with the within the kading commun we have a strategy that we're hearing things about but then we have a government policy that doesn't match the strategy so that's what I'm trying to get at right now amongst this and other things that we've seen in the last two weeks from this government so if if that's how it relates to this section then then uh so your question Jo you'r
e I'm can I get another question is is is $10,000 enough for Frank frankophone immigration strategy that already came out that you obviously are Minister that you're talking about um that doesn't relate to government policy and I'm asking you a clear question can we guarantee that no immigrants will be cut who speak French will those numbers stay at 100% uh min the $10,000 uh allotment that we have is enough to be able to conduct the strategy and to make us move forward with the guidelines that
we have in that strategy going to move on to third party if you have any questions yeah okay um is there funding in this budget to establish an associate Deputy Minister who would kind of work with all the other departments as it pertains to um Acadian and frankophone Affairs no um leader of the third party thank you chair and I know that Acadian frankophone affairs often kind of feel a bit disjointed from from what's happening in the Departments and there's only kind of a marginal increase of t
he budget here do you think it's enough to prioritize a Cadian and frankophone Affairs within government I think it is within the discussions that we had with the groups working within the Secretariat I think they feel that they have uh enough resources to be able to support uh cross departmental initiatives and can say we we can always add more it would be always a a good thing but I think what we've seen in the past that this amount of money that we're allowed into this uh budget item is uh is
uh enough at this stage to be able to to sustain the services that we have designated in French okay leader of third party thank you chair and and going back to my last question was that associate Deputy Minister conversations that that you had in the department and decided that it wasn't needed or was it something that it just wasn't in the budget for to have an associate Deputy Minister that would work with departments I personally s in this position have had those conversations to have that
in place and uh to be honest with you at this stage I think uh uh it's not something that uh we have envisioned and implementing at all uh and we had no further conversation uh since I've been in this leader of the third party I'll give you one more and then move on okay um under under Professional Services there's $124,000 spent on freelance translation and I'm just wondering if has there ever been any consideration given to having our own in-house translator we do have uh three in-house transl
ators actually so yeah could I ask a followup to that so what would that $124,000 be is that above and beyond and so what would that line that budget line number be for would those translation services before yeah they're just to translate translate uh English to French kind of thing services so they're fre clarification kind of okay I'll grant that um so I guess what I'm the point I'm trying to make is we've got three translators we have budgets for them for their salary is this is this 124,000
to support their work or is this 124,000 that went out Beyond be outsourced so what what's that for direct translation same as our three translators because there's an amount of work that needs to be done there and we don't have necessarily enough so we contract out uh freelance translators as well to support the three uh translators that we have uh on contract charl toown West royalty uh yeah thank you chair can you just talk to the um looks like variance from the forecast of 61,000 700 under
Professional Services uh I think we talked about that briefly on Friday it was just uh savings resulting from Consulting fees that was lower than expected and some of that was reallocated to the Grant Line uh this year the budget has increased because of the um translation services software that government is implementing to provide the uh additional services in French charl toown West royalty do you have another um just and there's I guess the um in the grants there's just an $822 variance and
I guess that would be the same thing yeah yep okay that's it for me any further questions leader of the third party did you have another question I do okay thank you um I'm wondering about under the grants college deil has a feasibility study listed in in that section I wonder if you can tell us what the study is for uh it was recommended that the college conduct a feasibility study to map out the possible relocations from uh their main campus to Summerside um since then um it has been put to a
halt with the new president coming in weer the third party thank you so is that is that kind of an additional campus or is that moving from charlot town to somerside potentially from Wellington yeah I think it was moving from Wellington to Charlotte yes or Summerside sorry not an additional okay thank any further questions leader of third party no further questions okay total Department of Economic Development Innovation and trade 3,888 shalot carry we are moving on to page 38 Innovation Pei Cor
poration management operation management appropriation provided for administration of the corporation Administration 226,000 debt 1,500 equipment 12,500 Material supplies and services 20,000 Professional Services 50,000 salaries 1,329 1200 travel and training 42,000 total corporate management 1,681 400 questions uh Charlton waly uh thank you um so we're we're looking at salaries doesn't seem to be um increase um are we at the full compliment and Innovation and and we're always trying to to get b
etter with what we're doing there and and attract businesses can you speak about that there is a full compliment in the in the corporate management section uh Charlton walty yeah so that's just uh your regular increases yeah cost of living increase to 20,000 yeah um charl toown most royalty uh we we have uh quite an ex large uh Consul consultating service line of $1 15755 um in the um expenditures uh can you tell me what that was for and a little bit about that it was for professional fees uh re
lating to International background due diligence work International background due diligence work uh Charlton West world is that to do with any of the healthc Care Professionals that we brought I don't can you I don't not to my knowledge the bulk of it was relating to uh clients in Norway or companies in Norway unless it's clarification or followup I'm going to move on to the leader of the third party and I'll come back okay so what what about Norway are they coming to Prince Edward Island to se
t up we're looking to recruit yeah okay for what sector I don't have that information with me but I can take it back okay welcome back to you Charlton West royalty leader of the third party thank you chair and I'm just a a question just asking where something is I'm assuming that um to talk about the startup Zone would would that fall under Business Development or I don't want to miss yeah it it' be in the programs yeah okay um I do have questions on on Corporation management so I'm wondering wh
at the current strategic plans are kind of a high high um level uh what the Strategic plans are for Innovation Pei under this budget uh we're targeting sectors that displayed a high potential for economic growth um including Aerospace bioscience uh information technology clean tech uh renewable energy leader of the third party thank you chair um and I'm wondering how how do you I know given that's high level um I'm wondering how we assess progress towards those towards those goals and whenever y
ou're thinking about um people who are working who are French speaking working in these sectors I'm like they're kind of at the center of it so how do we measure progress towards uh strategic priorities is there a a way we measure that it's directly related to uh for us in Innovation directly related to the U to the amount of people that they hire and also to the income that they bring on a tax basis here at FR of Rhode Island so it's uh you know it's in the new emerging sectors uh if you're loo
king at the bio science Alliance For example the bio Alliance right is uh almost at the same level now is our tourism industry so for us that's a you know a very concrete level of measurement that we can see in in emerging sectors so it's the uh the tax base uh the the number of people that they hire and uh and that's pretty much what we can look at to see if it's comparable to our you know our uh traditional sector leader of third party thank you chair um so one of the areas for which um Financ
ial uh assistance is provided through Innovation Pei is job cre cretion so um is there any conditions or funding on criteria in this area um based on uh working conditions wages diversity so I guess when we're looking at this is the only focus um on kind of what you had said employer uh economic Financial business outcome so you're just kind of there's no real uh evaluation me Mech mechanics it's just kind of based on those sorts of things like a growing sector or the amount of people that you h
ire is that kind of is that what you're saying yes so this this corporate management section is mainly for the the staff involved in their travel directly relating to that uh the programs come a little later that's what you're getting into leader of the third party I'll give you one more and then I'll go to charlot toown um so the special leave fund was under under this section is that fund still in effect at all or did that move to a different place or is that not there anymore uh the special l
eave fund would have been in the program section but uh I that has closed down it has closed shown West royalty you didn't mentioned travel involved um in this section you know I I expected I I expect to see Innovation like traveling and going to do trade missions where for this 42,000 what are we what are what what is in the plans for that seems static from last year to this year that goes to jump a little bit after Co we're far enough away from Co what is that money being used for uh it can fl
uctuate from year to year there were there were three travel trips from the CEO um last year um one was to New York another to Boston another to Nashville so um I I can't tell you if they're planning the same trips this year I I would think the Boston Seafood show would be would be one for sure um I don't know any other plan travel charlon West before in the past and I mean the health care sector is going to Singapore is going to Dubai doing things um I understand that they're they're recruiting
for healthcare workers but is isn't there an opportunity or maybe it's in further sections that we explore those areas explore those at the same time as we're sending a delegation first yeah and there definitely is some Traveler around that in the business attraction section okay is uh one more charl Town um where I want to go uh one more I I I I know I'm I'm sure that I I didn't get enough information on the con Consultation Services $115,000 is a lot for all I've got is Norway a company and a
nd I don't know if they're coming or going I don't know what benefit that is to Pei for $16,000 can you table some information around absolutely with that chip with I'm going to go to the leader of the opposition or sari third party and charlt toown West royalty I can come back to you if you're sureair thank you chair so back to the special Eve fund last year there were 1127 businesses that were supported with this fund and so I'm wondering why that was discontinued and if there was any support
given for those workers while we transitioned away from that fund I can take that back on why it was yeah leader the third thanks charl wal um in under legal client Legal Services uh for a budget line in here 4809 um what was the client Legal Services um I don't know if I can disclose that it's just legal matters um like it's yeah charl toown musty um but was that for for the for Innovation or was that for representing a client we don't we don't do I I I can follow up with that yeah yeah charlot
Town West accounting fees that seems $24,000 flat flat 24,000 what is uh what did did the department get audited where did that money uh they they have an audit every year from is that a standard yeah 24 yeah it's a fairly large audit yeah alltown West royalty um you mentioned uh just just in corporate management how you manage this you mentioned as as key pillars was the tourism industry clean tech those are those are industries that are kind of governed by other ministers in here how does tha
t work who takes the lead on on on developing those sectors how how does innovation play a role in that they work directly with the ministers or with you Minister yeah we're uh really our our department is really into a cross environmental initiative so we support you know most of the initiatives in other the department so if there's a sector an emerging sector that's kind of for we uh put together programming to be able to support that so we're really much in in in line with working collaborati
vely with our with my other colleagues around the cabinet table to make sure that this uh is supported in the way to have a sustainable economy charl toown West royalty that's good um so for the tourism indistry did you did did did the NHL uh tourism initiative start with this with Innovation then or with tourism with the appro tourism is charl mrty so let's start with the Department of Tourism um because the premier said that he was um at an NHL game on January 1st and it said it started with h
im did the premier brief you on the NHL contract before well it was started with the minister of uh tourism and his Department with and we were broad line with uh you know the information uh with our staff members through uh you know through the Department of Tourism and through staff within the uh within the my department as well so we worked collaboratively to make sure that this was a success and I'm uh very positive that this will become one of the major marketing tools for for the province
so uh we were involved uh you know with the conversation with the Department of Tourism at a very early stage and very happy to be able to support them Ines oh because I'm just confused because that NHL game was not this year it was last year it was in 2023 so we're talking about uh 14 months ago and the premier just said he met met with the NHL um so what you're saying you met with the minister of Tourism you never talked to the premier about this initiative I never talked personally with the p
remier about this initiative it was right brought to me or to our department since I've been in through the Department of Tourism but it's like I said it's a collaborative model so we work together making sure that this uh is a success and uh and droing up a lot of uh economic opportunities for our Province we're very proud to be part of uh that initiative so charlt toown West royalty uh if you're going to continue with this line it might make a good question Set uh in the legislature but if you
have another question pertaining to the budgets and programs you're free to go I didn't know it was uh I I didn't know that the chair had to direct members to what to ask on yes it's a budget it's we're we're debating we're debating the budgets and the budget lines and you have a question SE do I have do I have the floor I I have I have no I am so confused right now between the minister of action the different ministers and where we getting this NHL deal I'm gonna I'm GNA hold for right now to
the next section thank you don't just drop the pen this time total Corporation management 1,681 400 shallot carry business development business attraction and emerging sectors Appropriations provided for leading the attraction of new businesses and business partners to the province which complement the pro provincial economy in particular firms are targeted in the Aerospace Advanced Marine Technologies Information Technology bioscience clean tech and select manufacturing sectors salaries 1 milli
on 38,300 travel and training 72,500 total business attraction and emerging sectors 1,10,000 questions uh leader of the third party thank you chair and so this is where we would normally find the funding for the startup Zone that that's in the programs in but in this section so there's only two line nots on here it's just just salaries and travel and training so where am I going to ask about startups programs coming up where's programs sorry so it would be like three sections down Business Devel
opment and Innovation so it would be your the three line items there okay sorry chair um do you have another question leader yes I do uh so according to the 2022 and 2023 annual report Innovation Pei had attracted six new business Investments with a projected employment of 89 positions and this is a slight decrease from 2122 so I'm wondering how many businesses we attracted in 23 24 and if we're on on track for the current fiscal year I do not have that information with me but I can bring it bac
k okay leader of the third party thank you chair and and I guess if you if you could bring that back if there's a number attached to how many jobs that represents as well I do have more questions CH you have further questions uh go ahead leader the third party thank you so I'm wondering when you're considering um attracting new businesses how do you determine what businesses to attract what factors do you consider again we look at the Strategic sectors uh the Aerospace the advanced manufacturing
the bioscience the clean tech it um so those emerging sectors would be our strong point to to to uh look at I can put you back on the list uh bordon King Kora I guess thank you Mr chair just further to that line of questioning um what what factors does the department consider when determining which business to to to attract and and is it is it what what do you typically do as part of the business attraction process um we're proactive in identifying New Opportunities and specifically work with u
h Economic Development partners private sector associations um hopefully further develop the clean tech sector and and Pei okay King cor thank you Mr chair is there is there a a success rate or is there data collected on the success rate of the attempts versus the the attraction I don't have that with me I can we'll bring that back there is a track type of track record that we would have in terms of because we have designated staff as well that are signed to business attraction so uh we'll go th
rough them and try and bring a more detailed response to that and thank you bon King cor thank you for that and is there similar data with respect to retention the retention rate I supposed like it's kind of like the healthcare the recruitment versus retention is it is do we do similar for business retention we'll check on both of those and bring that back thank you so we're going to go to charl toown West Royal yeah and and just picking up on that is is that the in the description there's two d
ifferent things here there's business um partners and and attraction and then I get the the information Jeb that you're talking about about what we're focusing on but what are some of the new areas what are the some of the areas that that we'll be seeing in the next year or so um that are new to Prince Edward Island that we want to to to M or go after uh in terms of bringing business to Prince of I think the big one is is your your clean tech technology sectors it's uh it's still evolving so it'
s uh still working out how to how to deal with that yeah shown must but but that that that relats to some of my other questions I asked well the minister of the minister of sometimes action over there said talked about you know that that seems to be his his area and he's always talking about it but but then we're talking about that being your major goal I'm just I'm just confused about you know just outside of meetings how are how are uh get some D sometimes how are they how are you supporting t
hat it just seems like you're piggybacking on the minister sometimes action administering the programs right we will be pville but we also have like mer merging sectors not only in clean tech but we're going to continue on with the Aerospace where the bio alliance with the you know bioscience so those are all emerging sectors that we're going to keep contributing and our department is really uh in a service provider in terms of uh funding programs to be able to attract businesses and retain busi
nesses to stay in brce Road Island charl Mr and it's good that you're continuing on with those because there most of those actually were probably in before before both you and I and various other governments whoever the other government was before started uh very many of those sections but I want to know what you're doing Minister what new areas that you're looking at for the next year or so during during your three or four year term actually the the sector we're looking in is clean tech for for
us that's a new sector uh that we've been investing more and more into that sector uh the Aerospace industry in that sector it's also very new in terms of even though you're talking maybe 15 years it's still very new in the Aerospace sector and the technology is developing on a daily basis to be able to move some of those companies forward so we're not just going to create a new sector we're going to enhance and work with the supporting the sectors that are there we do have our traditional sect
ors and emerging sectors and we're going to keep supporting those sectors and to make sure that we can move forward uh with those uh four major uh emerging sectors and if there are some that we're missing we'd be glad to have that conversation to let us know if there's anything within our staff that we're looking at uh any of those emerging sectors that we're not attacking shown West royalty I'll give you one more before I move on and I mean I'm just I'm just looking at this as like hey this is
an opportunity to see what we're doing new and I appreciate the clean tech sector and and it's an area that that of us are fairly new on stuff but I'm just saying hey what is out there that's not on this list that Prince Edward is wants to be a pioneering because we are we have done good amazing things and and you look at the area that I represent and the the amazing sectors that are that are going there I want to know don't stop pushing the envelope Minister where where are we going next um so
but I just ask a TR a question on travel and train 72,000 um where are we planning on uh where we we planning on traveling in this section I know we went to New York Nashville and Boston on the last one where are we going I don't have where we're going but I can tell you where we went okay uh there was a trip to Germany and France for a global Affairs uh roacho uh a trip to Seattle and Portland and Orange County uh Toronto Atlanta Georgia uh various Canadian cities uh Paris France Montreal Londo
n in Vancouver leader of third party thank you chair um so the the clean clean tech I'm wondering are we working on attracting companies from outside Pei are growing that um local clean tech companies here what's what's the biggest both both leader of the third party thank you chair and I'm also wondering if if um Innovation PE has any formal relationships with UPI or Holland College to support business attraction or emerging sectors yes through UPI through the program the business program and t
hrough the clean tech programming as well actually that there is a kind of a a partnership with UPI or Holland College to make sure that we continue if I'm looking at uh different companies such as uh I'm thinking of uh MDS coding for example or if I'm thinking they they rely solely on the engineering not so but mostly on the engineering program at UPI so a lot of those companies that we have we that we support directly have a direct connection with UPI Holland college and colle to be able to su
stain that one more leader of third party and I'll Mo I think that's all I need so as part of that would would part of that um would there be funding also to help support the commercialization of research is that something that the that Innovation Pei works on with through through either whether it be through the relationship they have with the postsecondary institutions or through the postsecondary institutions and the businesses do you know what I mean through our Partnerships with the postsec
ondary institution we do work I know on the clean tech file minister of environment would know more than I would but I I know there's a partnership there with what's happening in St Peters and what's on the campus I UPI as well to have that partnership to enhance and to support research now I'm not sure if we would have any amount of money allotted specifically do a very specific research but we do have a very strong partnership with those institution to make sure that we uh we support the resea
rch and the the progress that's being made through those sectors okay charlt toown West royalty do you have a question no I don't okay can I one leader of the opposition under the wire um I'm wondering about so we've got budget allotted to attract new businesses is there ALS also budgets allotted to retain businesses in PEI I'm kind of wondering what our retention numbers are like we'll bring back the retention piece that was asked by your colleague and yeah he asked but we'll bring that back uh
but we do have you know uh information on the retention piece because it's crucial for us to be able to to retain those companies and we will dig a little deeper and find that information to bring some of that back to you thank you total business traction and emerging sectors 1,110 1800 chalot carry culture developments and growth fund appropriation provided for the culture developments and growth fund equipment 700 Material supplies and services 1,900 Professional Services 10,000 salaries 46,9
travel and training 11,800 grants 3, 9921 100 total culture developments and growth funds 4,433 400 questions we'll start with the leader of the third party thank you chair um so culture is now in a different department than than Innovation Pei I'm wondering how this is impacting the the planning and delivery of uh culture initiatives within government how's that worked for us uh the ACT cultural component is divided in two separate departments so you would find through Fisheries tourism Sports
and culture where there's anything that's pertaining to Heritage anything that's pertaining to museum falls under their jurisdiction and under my portfolio here anything that's pertaining to a creative Innovative uh you know development of the artists and training and and promoting anything that's has aligned I guess with the uh Innovation Pi portfolio has remained under our division and uh it's uh it's fairing out very well because they they do align with one sector of our economy and uh we're
able to support them in that fashion leader of third party thank you chair so it kind of sounds like by your description we've kind of just added another layer of culture which is a great thing you know um just um so I'm wondering what progress the department or or innovation PE has achieved towards the objectives of the current cultural action plan uh there's four goals with the action plan right now um creating access and belonging by embracing and celebrating our diversity and unique identit
ies achieving excellence and professionalism by building opportunities for developments in arts culture and creative Industries stewarding Heritage and traditions by preserving sharing and celebrating our diverse Heritage and traditions and investing in our future by Building Wealth for individuals third party and do we how H how do we measure progress towards those schools to ensure that the way we're spending spending our money through the cultural action plan is is what we intended well I thi
nk a lot of it has to do with the uh again in terms of numbers of what we see in terms of activities that we're able to offer in the provits in terms of also the uh emerging uh artists that are coming out through that through that action plan and through the sport programs that we offer uh as a province to uh all artists and uh our upcoming uh artists as well so I think there's a a variety of different fronts that we were able to uh to put forward in terms of measuring the outcome of where we're
spending our money and there's also a very collaborative process with uh different people engaged in the uh in the uh music industry or in the artist world so uh that's you know crucial to that to make sure that we have the input from those people and they were very much part of this action plan so uh very happy to be able to to celebrate that today lader third party I'll come back to Charlton must royalty yeah uh thank you uh very much and I'm glad that you explained uh that at the beginning b
ut I I'm still kind of confused about if if he's got Minister culture in his title and we're doing something separate do you not do do we not feel that those should be somewhere under the same roof uh I I think the uh the separation of the two uh uh two sectors under culture is working out very well I think the the artists and the people in that sector feel that they uh have an attachment to what we're doing in the business sector and I think under Innovation pi and under our shop that we have u
h you know a a very keen interest of developing the cultural ecosystem and uh they belong with with that group and I think it's very specific to the tasks that are assigned to uh the department of Fisheries tourism and culture so I think that distinction has been very clear and I think uh the people we serve seem to be very happy with the unfolding of the way we're operating Charan West royalty your first one was I think it was access to diversity I think it was name creating access and belongin
g by embracing and celebrating our diversity and unique identities how are we doing that embracing diversity uh we have uh different uh special grants we have uh actually we also have uh you know U uh a project with a bipo community we have uh you know A diversity in terms of uh language in terms of culture there's a variety of different uh venues where we Embrace diversity within our culture and I think that's where we'd say we'd be the most prevalent of seeing that is within the sector of cult
ure here in of Island so to any of the events that you would attend you would see you know uh part of that in uh what we're trying to attain in terms of Unity Prince of Island question for charlt thas Dalal yeah um you mentioned the project with the bipod Community uh what what is the what's that project the details and I came back with all the details of what they're doing in terms of uh and that's something that uh has just been recently uh you know uh worked on so and it was uh in collaborati
on with myop Community to make sure that we represent uh the diversity we have here in Prince of R Island so uh we happen share the details of what uh that would be and through uh our director's shop and she'll be able to explain better than I can uh all the details of that and what that encompasses through uh through the cultural de sector so charlt toown West royalty that sounded like a great sidebar conversation that no could have no no I'm going to give you another question just what what or
ganization is that uh project with the bipot community with what what organization that they're working on within our our group like they're supporting byock activities there're also supporting the indigenous art bank and there's a variety of different groups that they're they're meeting with so uh I will go back to our director and see exactly what the details are and who they're involved with I know they're very proud of the product that they're going to be able to support and to move this and
this was actually in line with uh making sure that we had a diverse cultural background here in Prin on to develop that so that was one of their their projects that they're they're working on so be happy to report back with more details and bring of that and inviting you as well to have a a conversation with uh myself and the director of a cultural uh uh our director of of culture to make sure that we can uh you know be on the same page and diversifying what we uh can share with you I'd like to
but I'm just confused about that project I don't know who it's with or what it's with us it sits within our department but it's a project with bipo people bip thank you Minister for that invitation to uh put me back in the list yeah uh leader of third party thank you chair uh so in the the 2021 2022 annual uh report it says that the cultural action plan was going to be renewed in 2022 so I'm wondering if we will if we if there's money in this budget to renew that and if so when we could see tha
t just read yeah I think we just that we just renewed the action plan right and launched it in 2023 so we just renewed the action plan there is a Pei culture action plan okay we launched it before Christmas okay I missed that third party thank you chair and thank you for that that news um so regarding the old the old cultural plan some of the key directions and actions I'm just going to ask about funding for specific things so I'm wondering if there's funding in this budget to create uh creative
industry Secretariat within Innovation Pei then this would support um Industries and and cultural development initiatives and Pei no nothing like that okay leader of third party one more move on um I'm wondering about funding in this budget to establish a creative industry Market development program and this works with artists Enterprises and Industry development groups to help grow creative business and better access new markets uh not to my knowledge um do you have a followup I do I'm going t
o I have a bunch of questions asking about funding but these were for your old cultural action plan that hadn't been initiated yet so I'm surprised to hear we've moved on to a new cultural action plan when we haven't met the conditions of the old one but I will follow up on that when it's my turn again thank you chair um charlt toown West royalty yeah um so there are a lot of grants that we have to go through but is there enough I know we have a director of cultural development and then we have
a a cultural development officer so that's two people working on this strategy and those four points is that correct Minister correct yeah right there should be four four staff members right oh just a second here director and okay so the in in here I don't know if it says in this one the uh I just have the FTE salary range salary level and salary range have the direct but I might be missing something you had the cultural development and growth fund there so there's a director of cultural Develop
ment A Creative Industries development officer a bilingual cultural development officer and a film industry growth specialist yeah yeah there F so I just picked out the two with culture but I know they're all into the same shot but I just I just the two of those would probably necessarily work on the on the action plan is that correct and is that enough staff in that area to work directly on our cultural action plan well they would all be they all would all have responsibility to play in that ac
tion plan not only those two people in that sector would all have a part to play in that action plan and and I think with that amount of people that it is suff suffice to be able to to lead that action plan uh Charlton West royalty so the film industry growth specialist that's a great uh initiative we talked about that a little bit yesterday um that's an important role are we on the upswing when it comes to uh the film industry in Prince Ard Island uh in the future we're going to expect some som
e action uh and lots of funding in that in that area for this summer yeah there there has been one two three probably eight projects that happened uh last fiscal uh I think we are working on something uh for for this fiscal coming so charl down West royalty last one of the set that's good that's good news um uh that's that's an important thing and I think because of the competitiveness around the maritimes and I know and I've heard that before where um there's a it's a huge job growth market and
to get people in Prince award Island it promotes the economy um even immensely so um are you Minister are you are you is there anything in in the works I didn't see it in the budget about tax incentives are their tax in incentive structures competitive with other uh regions in uh in the maritimes we are looking at it uh we are probably mid pack I don't think we have the the best tax incentive uh in the Atlantic region but uh we're going to work on it and we're going to try to bring more of thos
e details forward as as soon as they become available but we know it's very important and crucial to that industry to make sure that it succeeds great New Haven Rocky Point thank you chair uh I'm going to ask a couple of questions about the a federal um funding program that was recently eliminated the the Canada Arts presentation fund that was just a few days ago I think five or seven days ago and I'm wondering if you know I think it was 8 million in total but what the impact is in terms of how
many loss dollars that will be for Canadian for Island performers and festivals we will bring that back we will have to get the details on that and make sure that we know that was just recently announced so we will have all the details on that and uh our D director will be working on that to see what the impact would be for Prince Island so we'll take that back great New Haven Rocky Point thank you chair and I appreciate that Minister and uh we probably don't know the detailed number because I t
hink it impacts different festivals in different ways depending on how they're structured but the Arts directors and performers that I've spoken to are really worried about this Co hit of course every sector of the economy but Performing Arts were were hit I think after the airline industry it was the second most impacted industry so really required a a lot of funding to get it to keep it going and get it back on back on its feet and I'm wondering whether there is any appetite within the departm
ent once you figure out how many loss dollars this will be from the federal government whether you would consider making up that loss by putting provincial dollars in there understanding how critical the Performing Arts are to not only our our Province culturally but to our tourism industry in the summertime we'll definitely look at uh you know how we can grow that industry we it's a very crucial industry to Prince of Red Island and once we know all the details of how that will impact you know o
ur Province for the the cuts on the federal side we will definitely uh sit with with our our partners or stakeholders to make sure that we can support and help grow the industry here in brce Ro Island New Haven Rocky Point thank you um the one one musical director uh Lindsay Conley from under the Spire Festival in Kensington uh talked about how uh smaller markets are more vulnerable to loss of funding like this because they don't have the capacity to bring in more tickets or sponsorship like som
e of the the larger markets do so I'm I'm concerned that Pi will be disproportionately affected by this loss of federal funds so I'm glad to hear you talk Minister about the potential of of making up that loss with provincial dollars and I really encourage you to do that um I don't think I have any more questions on this I'm just glad to hear the minister make that commit charl toown West royalty uh yeah uh thanks I'm just going to ask some questions on um your your your grants I I'm just surpri
sed that the budget line hasn't moved into the future there's a lot of Grants um but it it seems like it's static from last year to this year everything in the budget moves up except I'm seeing that the grants just stay static why is uh why is that we did a very large increase last year I think it was about $4 or $500,000 so we just we kept it static uh our director felt that that 3.9 million was efficient so charl toown West royalty it it's sufficient but last year's increase would have been be
cause of inflation inflation has been going for three or four years some new programs out yeah sorry I'm down West Roy sorry I'm having trouble hearing myself chair um uher Innovation Pei uh uh cultural development um I see I see that twice in the in in the cultural development growth fund but we're talking about the Innovation Pei budget but yet it says Innovation PE cultural development I I don't understand for $100,000 and $25,000 um back to back what were is innovation Pi looks like it's I d
on't know what that is so those are internal projects uh it's they're easier these Innovation Pei projects are uh they can access multiple clients can access them so we're rather than creating a bunch of small projects for each client we just put them into one um administratively it's it's a lot easier for staff uh in relation to the $100,000 one that was for Heritage expenses and the 25 was uh Pi Earths Awards charl down West royalty um yeah so it's if clients can access them it's it's um when
you said 100,000 and 25,000 was that money spent or is that money into the into next year uh I don't have what was spent to date um but um I can I can look into that charl toown Westy and and that would be on both of those um correct yep okay um because it just looks funny it looks like it when you say it's an internal fund when you're department and you you keep money internally it's it just looks a little little funny but I'm glad it's going out the door and I want to make sure that that we uh
make sure we give every single dollar to Islanders with that um the uh can you tell me what uh the uh $10,000 uh Pride Pei Incorporated what what was that for uh for the pride festival Charon West Roy the summer July 233 okay um we're going I'm going through these uh benevolent Irish society that $1,120 um that uh what what was that operational funding charlt withy um the charlott toown Film Society Incorporated they got 910 was that was that the film project that was here this summer what $910
,000 that's operational funding as well that's for I think you're just on the wrong line item it's uh the fathers of Confederation building trust oh sorry yeah s Charon Westy can you tell me what that was so the Film Society sorry they they I think they might have been jumping jumping for joy after saying they got 900,000 but sorry it was only 177,000 the Film Society that was for the 2023 charlt toown Film Festival okay the 17 17 okay and the fathers of K Confederation building trust that's ope
rational operational all down West royalty um we see here and it gets starts to get a little bit confusing the black cultural Society of Prince Edward Island gets $10,000 in here but it gets from a couple different other places what was this 10,000 for that is for the uh 2023 Atlantic black conference uh in Prince Island Charlton West royalty and that was a that was that was a that was a historic conference that the Black Culture Society put on invited members from all over it's never been down
in Prince award Island so I want to say that's money well spent and that was and you know I just want to say too um that that came in and government you we talk about Equity um and I think this is a good time to point it out that um government came in it was a late request and they came through with with funding and it was a huge success so I just want to point that out that that uh just kudos to to uh to you Minister and to your requirement for get getting that historic conference off you good
good trown West Roy no is somebody else on the list no just after your Preble I thought you were done okay uh I'll give you one more then I'll move over Cher muchy um what's what what was under cultural initiatives what was the Allan Buchanan Consulting and communication for $10,000 uh 150 years of Island music awes leader of the third party thank you chair um I'm going to go to the grants after but I'm going to continue on this so I I've got a just a bunch of questions related to funding from t
he last um cultural oh my gosh action plan culture action plan sorry words are gave me right now um that hadn't been implemented and now we have a new a new one so I'm just going to go through these really quickly if if that works for you um so I'm wondering about funding in the budget to undertake A needs assessment for each creative industry to align programs and services a marked nothing A Marked but there is a Professional Services budget there so if if DV we can we can allocate from there l
eader of the third party thank you chair but it's not specifically for okay um what about funding to establish a Pei Arts commission to provide guidance some priority areas and oversee funding for cultural activities nothing earmarked I see leader of the third party thank you chair um to expand apprenticeship and training employment and mentorship programs for people who are or wish to be employed in the cultural sector uh nothing that I see directly relating to that leader of third party thank
you chair um funding to develop accountability guidelines so that investments in artistic and cultural institutions are linked to outcomes and results nothing marked ler third party last one of this set okay I've got like okay yeah I'll put you back on thank you uh to work with Community Partners to design a government policy to increase the use of Island music and film and promotional material yes so we do have uh two two programs Community cultural Partnerships and Community celebration funds
that would uh their Community Based festivals or support nonprofit organizations uh to assist and promote the culture and Heritage thank you charl toown Wester Aly uh yeah thanks um and I'm I'm glad to see um the Pei Arts Guild um in three of these lines they they've had uh kind of a rough time lately uh can you talk to me about this funding uh in here and was this in direct relation to their needs as a organization recently 117,000 I think it looks like 11,000 and uh 15,000 skill the 117 is uh
operational and programming uh the 11,000 is the 2023 2023 Gallery funding and the 15 is a 2023 uh property tax charl Westy so is this is that I don't know what they had for operational funding last year but they've struggled Minister have you spoken have you have you talked to the Arts Guild is this enough enough funding between this and what the city of charlott Town's giving them that they they will be they'll be okay this year U we're going to be working alongside with all our Arts venues to
make sure that the we want to see everybody succeed right not only theal but all our our Arts venue so we're going to be keep we're going to keep working and growing that and we're going to make sure that everybody uh is looking at uh you know having a successful year and I think uh we're going to be working closely with all these venues to make sure that uh you know we can support them in uh the best way we know how to make sure that they succeed it's a growing industry and it's a very importa
nt industry for Prince of Island so we're going to keep working with all our partners to make sure that they succeed charl toown West royalties um do you will you they're they're close to they were close to really strug they're struggling they were struggling and it was in the news and it was in the media and will you step in to make sure that that place Place runs no matter what if they need the funding will it be there from you in case anything should happen or they're not operating at a level
that they need to be to to be sustainable will you be there for that the best supports that we can offer and through our our different programming and we're going to keep uh you know looking at all the venues not only that one there and to to make sure that they they can succeed and uh we'll be alongside with them to to make sure that uh we can uh offer the best supports uh that we can uh through all the venues that we have in preran Island not only the art scale Char West Aly thanks you know u
h it's it's important they do some incredible work and I'm just I'm just kind of I want I want to see them do well too and a lot of people use that facility so yeah I think we have we do have a like a third party review as well that's going on to able to help out so uh that's something in there that we we can share with you that we're looking and make sure that we're aware here and our staff are constantly talking with them as well to make sure that we can offer support okay great great thanks C
heryl watchery last one to set okay last one all right so I will just the Pei cultural human resource sector Council in Incorporated um can you tell me a little bit about that in the $2,500 that can you can you just tell me what program it's under uh Pei cultural human resource sector Council Incorporated under strategic cultural initiatives might be is that that's that's still in this overall yeah um culture human resource sector Council yes uh 2023 Pei tree stories tree stories okay that was i
t that's it for uh leader the third party thank you chair um so is there funding in this budget to promote and facilitate the export of Island culture and artists in global markets such as trade missions yes uh question there there is three different ways that they can create there there's there's funding there to promote establish artists emerging artists um and one of one of the funding is uh through Tours presentations or exhibits exhibitions leader of the third party thank you chair and and
is there any funding to assist cultural sector organizations industry associations and cultural Comm unities with strategic business and financial plan planning yes good okay third party thank you chair I guess the point that I was trying to make there with that um is all of the things that I just asked about were were things that had been identified in the previous cultural action plan that hadn't been addressed delivered yet hadn't been addressed and so I'm happy to hear that there are a coupl
e in there but now we've got a new cultural action plan and when you know you know these were things that were put into action plan for a reason and I guess I just find it really hard to have faith in a new action plan when there's so many things that have been left unaddressed and um just find that a little bit disappointing but I will move on um so the grants uh I guess just kind of hopping on from what the member from uh charlt toown W royalty was talking about the guild um and while recogniz
e that we don't want to see any of our cultural uh venues go under um I attended uh uh I forget it was like a round table discussion on kind of the evolution of of where the guild kind of came from and interesting piece of history but the gallery next door here the cafe used to be called the gallery and it was a place where artists came of all um artists of all uh art disciplines and they put show was on and have poetry readings and and showcase art and have plays and writing theaters and all th
ose different things and it was a place that it was a place where artists were able to gather and and kind of see there were other like-minded people and it wasn't such an isolating thing to be an artist and a lot of great things came of it and so one of the fears with the Art Guild closing is because the Art Guild is more than than a theater as are most of our of our theaters but I just I cannot say enough I mean I know that there's a big group really really struggling to keep the Guild's doors
open and and I I guess I add my voice to the members saying that I mean I know the two of us will ensure keep talking about this to ensure that it's not something that we lose because it is a precious thing in the city and and I would hate to lose that so that is my Brant so there's I was kind of surprised to notice a lot of the these fundings a lot of these grants or or the funding was kind of listed as operational and um there I noticed a lot of a lot of uh different groups not getting grants
this year and I I'm wondering if you can tell this why why this is and I'll list the the three that kind of I noted the AC of communities development which was for 75,000 the an of Green Gables licensing Authority Incorporated which was 50,000 and the Island Media Arts has no funding this year either as where they had 200,000 last year and I'm wondering if if if this these groups are sustainable without government grants and I'm wondering why why that we don't see them listed here um we can tak
e that back but as as mentioned on Friday as well this this is only up until January 31st so I I don't know if they're plan to funding in the next two months here but I can definitely take it back okay I appreci charl or sorry leader of the third party thank you chair uh and so you had you had kind of mentioned this some one of your last answers the community celebration fund I think you said that can you tell us a little bit about what that is it's support for community- based festivals and eve
nts that create the opportunity to experience uh Pei's Heritage culture and Cuisine leader of the third party um do you have anyone else on your list uh I do can I go back on okay certainly we'll move on uh charlt toown West royalty yeah um under cultural industry supports oh no next one section uh strategic cultural initiatives um under that it has Innovation Pei cultural development it's a same thing Innovation Pi cultural development Innovation Pi cultural development one's for 100,000 one's
for 3,000 one's for $2500 um can you can you go through those um the 100,000 was for 2023 Music City that was uh partnering with uh taii and the third party uh they're looking at industry consultant to do more phase of the work and potential to uh start a pilot program there uh the 3000 was a sponsorship for 2023 Atlantic International Film Festival and the 25 was the uh dolc Atlantic breakthrough program doc stands for documentary organization of canab charl toown West royalty it's on the tip o
f my tongue um the the the Music City uh you mentioned the music C how much money was spent on on that and how much money has been directed to the pilot I I don't have that in front of me but I can bring that back yeah just a breakdown of that shown West royalty why when you look at the budget is it is why doesn't it say music why does it say Innovation p cultural development three lines why doesn't it why doesn't have the the organization in in the budget line again uh as mentioned I think it's
it's uh administratively a little easier I know some of these are smaller items um I can I can bring ask the question why some of these smaller items were not broken out so yeah Char all Town West royalty no it's just it's just good to to see it cuz like small smaller yes but in the to line we just talked about $225,000 of taxpayers money which is going to good things I just want to little maybe a little bit more detail if we can in the future if that's okay um thanks for that um the I see a nu
mber of and you mentioned and uh the leader of the third party was like how do you access uh strategic plan funding and I I love that question because in here you have different organizations that are important and that are up and coming um the Nigerian uh uh the cultural or Nigerian group uh you have the Filipino Community um you see that the the new African groups um how do you how do they come to you and you decide if they're going to get funding or not and how do they how can they how can we
make that process easier for new groups a lot of information is uh you know based on our on our website as well and with people that are like they do a great job in in the sector of culture to be able to promote that so we can always do and we can always improve in Communications uh for the new groups like you're mentioning to make sure that they are aware of what they can apply for uh but we invite them to uh you know to uh go on their website as well to see what's available out there and uh I
think uh the culture culture sector is doing a phenomenal job in Prince on to uh to reach out to different groups and to make sure that they don't leave anyone behind in terms of what they can access and supports for programming here in pi M charlt toown West royy last one of the set yeah and the Kira group was the same too and I don't know if that's if that's um I I think that your staff is doing a great job but I I find that talking to groups they don't know about how they can access that's w
hat I'm hearing on the the community so I think there's a little bit of a disconnect Minister but just that we I think we can do better because I think these groups need the funding so and I encouraging you to help us out great to make sure that information goes out that'd be great but we do uh we do have like we to be honest with you we haven't heard that and we we'd be interested to knowing if there's anything in our communication platform that we can improve to make sure that those groups are
aware of the funding that's available to those we'd be more than happy to you know to sit and have that conversation as well oh that's that's it's great to hear um leader of the third party thank you chair I'm going and just looking at the the operational part of the the grant section and I know this has already been asked but I guess I'm just trying to get a sense of things so Pride Pei got I don't know $110,000 and that that's operational funding no that was for the 2023 Pride Pi Festival oka
y leader of third party thank you chair I guess is is it maybe in the wrong section so are I guess because this is listed as operational so are all these operational perhaps with maybe that like that one was thrown in there by mistake or it it's operational or or program funding okay okay leader of the third party thank you chair and I'm just as I'm scrolling down the list I noticed um lonard qac and there's $70,000 there I'm wondering what that's for uh that is a 150 150th anniversary project f
or a bibliography book on the 39 premieres who served leader of the third party wow that seems like a lot for a book but maybe I'm just missing something um I think I think I'm good for now thank you thank you uh CHL toown West Roy um just looking the the community celebration fund as we get into that would that be on the same section too yep Community celebration fund I'm just kind of like confused there we have the Filipino Community carola Festival they're they're in different places can we w
hat was that what was that for the the carola pi cultural organization Inc that I think I was at I was at that event I think it's have been a UPI I think maybe yes you were asking what was well I went the $1,000 well I just I just want to know why they're not in different different the same sections Community cultural Partners Community celebration funds I know that we talked about some you know the last one Music City was a it seemed like it seemed like that was a celebration but they're in dif
ferent sections Community culture partner I I kind of looked at that as well the cultural partnership set is to promote the event oh whereas the celebration fund is the present event itself charl toown West Roy so okay that's that's um so they could get double funding if they if they applied for if they had to promote an event they could get funding in both categories yep okay so that's what that's was kind of uh okay so the the carolo Pei cultural organization Inc that was for the uh was that f
or the festival at UPI um the $11,000 yeah that is D he e o n a m and I'm not sure what that means charl what's your Alti oh you don't know what that is so we don't know what that is we just funded $1,000 we don't know what that is okay uh no okay that's fine because I'm sure it went to good use and that's a great Festival if anybody's seen it um so um or I didn't see you guys there so you guys yeah no anyway um the Wyatt hair her itage property uh Incorporated that was for an event that was on
what was that for uh one was for oldfashioned Carnival and the other was for concerts in the Garden concert in the garden okay perfect Charlton whatty um the the Filipino Community uh of Prince on got $2,500 here um but they also got promotional money of $1,000 is that how that that works so they were promoting something what was that uh two different events oh uh the first in the community celebration fund um sorry I don't even know how to pronounce this uh hi Mig g n g p a s KO o MH and then t
he other one was for Wow Philippines okay great West Roy great up and cominging Community but the F yeah anyway the I thought the first one was promote but you said that was a that was an event but it wasn't for the promote the event it was for the actual event it could have been to promotes yeah yeah yeah exactly I don't want to get too too much into details question charl toown West oh sorry chair I have the floor yeah okay um no other questions in this section thank you okay total total cultu
ral development and growth fund 4,433 400 chil car global trade Services Appropriations provided for development of trade and Export opportunities for Island businesses salar 6372 travel and training 52,000 total global trade Services 68920 bordon Kora thank you Mr chair look looking at this division uh consists of two things uh salaries and travel or training um what's the what's what's the outcome or the targets you know with only those two line items does the does this division have any parti
cular expected outcomes or targets measurables to to achieve if if you notice all the divisions just have the two line items that all the programs are on separate besides the culture because that was came over something else but uh the the targets would be enabling export growth um so dedicating empowering Pi business sees export opportunities to their fullest potential okay bordon Kora any any anything more specific than that or no nothing more prec specific that I have no we can provide you wi
th you know uh kind of a an overview or summary of the activities but you'll find most of that through our program section of the budget as well what about any specific trade missions this year so that that's coming up in the programs program section Bon kingor thank you Mr chair um so so the the I'm just going to ask a little bit about the Atlantic trade investment growth agreement five-year agreement um invested a total of 20 million over 5 years to help Atlantic firms pursue international bus
iness opportunities enter new export markets uh increase current offerings abroad and strengthen the Region's capacity to to attract um how much of that funding is committed to this year and we're in the middle of that program um I don't have that in this section I think that might be in the the program section later on okay I can hold I can hold uh Mr chair until we get to that section thank you bordon conora uh charl toown West royalty yeah thank you um looks like we we UND spent by by almost
I don't know $135,000 last year in salaries so there was two vacancies during the year and actually uh $50,000 of that savings was reallocated to the the grant trade programs um one of the directors is on S comment and the other vacancy was just a trade officer charl toown West royalty I missed some of the details on that the 50,000 was reallocated reallocated 50,000 of the savings from the two vacancies to the the trade programs itself you'll see so you'll see the forecast later on is up 50,000
okay perfect charl toown West royalty are those two vacancies from last year are those have you filled them think there's one being um not to my knowledge but we can take that back back charlt Westy was is there a competition at which ones there's there's a director a global trade strategy development officer three tra development officers and an aditt assistant so so the director is actually on sment right now with the Department of Housing and uh there's a trade development officer vacancy Ch
eryl toown West Roy how are we running it like we don't have a director is anybody acting in that position there is uh a manager below the Glo global trade strategy development officer um she would be next in line Charlton Westy so a trade development officer if we're down a trade development officer how long has that position been vacant for question I I don't have that with me right now the bring it back maybe yeah charlt toown West Roy um yeah so that's a comment is that director coming back
uh how long is that sment for I don't have the details on the sment so we'll we'll check that with that sector and bring it back so bring that back Char West roal last question are we doing a uh are we going to have a competition for the director position of global trade Services we we will discuss with them and we will come back with an answer but we we are anticipating that there will be something at that level that'll be able to to look into filling that position thank you thank you Char West
y total global trade Services 68920 shell Carri Business Development and Innovation Appropriations provided for delivery of information and assistance to businesses in Prince Edward Island specific speically assisting in startup expansion and diversification of diversification of Island businesses and ensuring the long-term success of these companies salaries 1,381 1200 travel and training 60,000 total Business Development and Innovation 1, 14412 leader of the third party thank you chair um so t
his is where we would find the the startup Zone funding it to be in the next section in the next section of program what we're getting programs okay we're almost there there thank you CH I would like someone to count how many times I asked that in the last couple of days here um so there's a lot of funding here for salaries and I'm wondering how that um how that supports uh Business Development and innovation what kind of what are we looking at there in terms of positions U they're just they're
supporting new and existing businesses across the island to support their growth leader of the third party thank you chair um so how how is it that we measure that um the budget that we've allocated for this is is um supporting the diversification of Island businesses in their long-term success so that's one of the goals right so how do we how do we ensure that how do we know that that's the direction in which we're moving good chair talking in terms of money that we be spending on it if it's en
ough money to be able to support that a question I'm wondering how do we know that the money we're spending here is doing is diversifying Island businesses it's supporting that how do we do we measure that or do we just kind of is there other things that we do to ensure we're doing that this it one of the goals of the department right so I mean there's $19 million in the program budget that support uh small businesses across the island so and if our goal oh sorry thank you chair if our goal is t
o diversify Island businesses how do we like we put that money there which is great how do we know that it's doing that do we I guess do we have a way that we measure that um on an annual basis staff would interact for probably 1,000 clients in relation to uh advice information to access to financial support to to grow or start their business leader of the third party thank you chair um so I I guess I'm I'm kind of curious what what they do to support here like how is it that they go about um su
pporting businesses and diversification what are some things that they would do uh provide business counseling financial assistance uh supports entrepreneur education promotion uh they focus on the needs of the new entrepreneur preneurs uh including the growing immigrant population leader third part thank you chair so would they help businesses right strategic plans and like business plans and stuff like that would wouldn't help but we would we would fund that that uh we would direct them maybe
to to different consultants in the area leader third party last one of this set all right uh so in in our in the Green platform in 2023 one of the things that we had committed to was to eliminate incorporation and name search fees for new business startups is this something that the department would consider supporting it's not something that uh we know actually have uh anticipated it and we have looked at we there so far there no request to that came forward to my attention but we uh definitely
have a look at to see what if it's uh part of our stakeholders request that we can move forward something of that nature but we uh have an anticipated moving in that direction charl toown West raly uh yeah thank you so in this section it looks like we we overspent on salaries there there was a intern position hired in the year here charl Town W Aly um so that was a about a $60,000 position with with all your benefits and everything yeah okay charl toown West royalty um I I see that this is divi
ded up into um um like it's divided up nicely because it it it's you have a you have some a specialist for airspace bioscience Information Technology then you get into Prince County West Queens County Central um can you talk a little bit about the split there like do they they work at a slon park do they work in the western part of uh it's just divided up a a little bit differently it's has a few businesses and then it goes into Regional so so we do have offices at a Summerside and monu um that
that clients could go in to see them MH Char West so then clients can go into seeing to get supports and then once they go in and see the business development Innovation then the then they they help them with the programs in the next section and that's where things things get um well I guess I have questions in the next section so uh no I I think travel and training is the last thing uh it's flat again is this something that um I know it's helping Island businesses but Island businesses in quest
ion sometimes have roots in different parts of the world here uh where where was this $60,000 spent and and why is it flat for the future um there was a few trips uh Boston and the rest were in Canadian cities Halifax Ottawa and St John's uh big one was to attend the bio International Convention iron perfect trown with Roy no that's it for the second good uh total Business Development and innovation 1, 14412 shall it carry programs Appropriations provided for development of business Pi tax incen
tives 33,45 th000 business expansion and product development 199 m710 600 trade and Export development 750,000 total programs leader of the third party thank you chair all right so um I was told by a couple of businesses that who use a startup Zone that as of um they were just recently notified notified that as of March 31st that they would be the startup Zone would be closing is that true no I would say well it's not true it's well I I I won't say no I said uh we want to support small businesse
s we're going to continue on the Ed address will be changing and that's the only significant thing that will be uh changed in the uh in the format of startup zone so it's 10 years old and uh the board of directors from the startup Zone have uh uh communicated with the funders that they would like a review done we've done the review we've looked through uh the recommendations and we'd be happy to table that report and uh we're going to be amalgamating and Al realigning uh with uh the launch pad a
nd uh everything except for the address uh will remain so we want to make sure that we uh we offer all the supports that we can to small businesses we will continue to do that and uh we will continue to offer them uh supports to make sure that uh they can grow and succeed here in brds of Island leader of the third party thank you chair when I he hear words like aligning I have to say it scares me a little bit so has the has the CEO been told this well this uh the startup Zone board members appro
ached uh the funders so it's coming from them steming from them and it's a review after a de year and it's constantly to improve right uh to be efficient and to make sure that we're answering to the needs of what's out there so it's been uh from their side coming to see if we can you know uh look at uh commissioning that report to make sure that and we've engaged with all the stakeholders at this stage so uh it'll be all combined into one but we will in no way shape or form uh diminish the suppo
rts that we are offering so there'll be no Gap in services and no reduction in a financial component to be able to offer this service leader of the third party thank you chair so where will I find the funding for the startup Zone and if it's not if it's not in the startup Zone kind of headline where can I find that so I can ensure that there has been no funding cuts for startup Z so that's the yeah it's in part of the programs I the I would think it would be in the total business expansion and p
roduct development I can leader of third party thank you chair could I ask a favor and that you bring that back kind of compiled um is if that's something that's not too much because I I I just I have to say when when people are told something and then then I'm I'm hearing something different and I'm hearing realigning and I'm hearing new address to me that feels like it's it's being phased out and maybe I'm wrong but but that's what when I hear those words that's what tends to happen and I thin
k it's you know if you're looking at more of a an improvement right after it's uh you know if you're looking out a 10-year model that's been on and that's coming from the startup uh Zone board of directors to say if we can have something to review what how that's going to be and the report has four main recommendations which includes better aligning the space and programming offered at the Launchpad and startup Zone by amalgamating the spaces that they utilize so we're we're hopeful that the you
know I we're going to we're not hopeful we know that there won't be any Gap in services and we remain very committed to supporting uh you know small businesses medium-sized businesses here and so the intention is definitely not to uh to have any cost saving measures is to better serve uh our clients leader of the third party the last one of your set could I can I get two more here chair so could go ahead um so I guess I so when you say they're going to be under a new roof is the service going t
o look the same just in a new location would that location still be in charlot town what's that yeah the location it still be we're going to be at the at the lounge pad right so the only thing that's changing for the startup zone is actually the address who that and uh the lease is uh you know what up uh at the startup Zone and at the launch pad we have a three-year agreement as well to move forward and I think the physical space is more suited for answering the needs of all of our different cli
ents that are coming in for support in uh applauding what the the work that they're doing through uh the small business supports okay and my last question thank you chair um did you consult with the current businesses who use the the startup Zone on this they have a list and we can uh I probably provide the list of all the stakeholders that we consulted and they we went through all through the ecosystem the business ecosystem and uh there was a very broad uh range of businesses and companies uh
and partners that were consulted and uh you know there's a full-fledged report there that with everybody that's been consulted on that so be happy to share that with you and so you'll bring all that stuff back we can bring that report back thank you thank you bordon Kora thank you Mr chair the just the questions I have would revolve around the tax incentives um looks like we're up 8 million or so approximately over the previous year how has that number arrived at as an appropriate uh Direction s
o so the big one there is uh standard Arrow they came in way higher than expected um a good it's all the other jurisdictions such as Singapore and France they are delayed in their Productions their deliveries so they're sending a lot of work here so there's a lot of revenues going through there the good news is that the Department of Finance is is taking in those tax revenues and Innovation is putting it out Gordon Kora um so do these get reviewed annually all the the the the individual incentiv
es that are being offered what's the the review period for the tax incentives it they they are claim based um so they're offered to the Aerospace Industries bioscience uh rebates um and right now we would set up an acral based on what what they think their taxes paying is going to be okay bordon Gara is is there a sort of a jurisdictional review to see whether these are competitive with the other neighboring provinces as far as what's being incentivized tax no bordon kingor none that I know sorr
y what was none that I know of but I I can check with staff to see there's anything on that front we'll we'll double check bordon kingar and and is is there specific industry this year that's being sort of targeted for the uh for the incentives the Aerospace is a big one is it okay oron Kora what what else are we seeing on there those are those video games uh no so there would be the Aerospace and the bioscience would be the the two largest uh there's also included in the tax incentive is the PE
labor rebates and in enriched uh investment tax credits what was the last one enriched investment tax credits what's last so that's the the 10% um 10% of your taxes payable or offered back and then manufacturing and processing companies have 25% of their taxes payable okay bordon King cor um if there's somebody else on the list I can no I leader of the third party thank you chair um I guess I have a request um uh because I've heard from some resident businesses in the startup Zone who didn't se
e the report and didn't feel that they were consulted I'm wondering if before we pass the section if if you could bring back that information um that you were going to bring back before we pass the section the report you mean y could we do that we can do that thank you I appreciate that bordon kingor I have nothing for good charl toown West Roy um small business support gron again we see a lot of um Innovation Pei stuff am I in the right section think so hopefully PRS uh small business support D
evelopment Fund grants y um and they Innovation Pi three times 6,000 8,000 9,000 and then Innovation Pi ATI GS and then Innovation Pi General General General General in general um these aren't clear I I can provide a list a more detailed list for you and table that oh that would be that would be great cherl Town West royalty um I did miss one just just one question um about uh the the the um document that that you you had tabled to to clarify that for the bipo some of the bipac grants in there i
t says I just want to give a thank you to somebody but in here it says the Department of Workforce and advanced learning 2023 emancipation day but you're tabling it under Innovation so that would be a it was a third a third a third between Workforce Advanced learning Innovation pei and uh executive Council okay okay so charl toown West royalty was that the same thing for Black History Month 21,000 no no so you guys did that you guys put we funded that okay and I just want to thanks for that beca
use the emancipation day was important it was legislated in here and the Departments uh came together I mean $2,900 maybe isn't enough I'd like to see that get to grow into the future but it's a start and and you guys reacted very well so August 1st is emancipation day so I wanted to give a a thank you to that and um I thank you we had a great uh there was a great black history month so thank you for your contribution there very you good okay uh committee one of the members asked to hold and not
carry this section until something was brought back a vote of the committee will we hold this uh this programs Appropriations provided for development of business one of the members asked to hold this until the minister Brought The Minister's Department brought something back and I was informed that vote of the committee whether we hold it so we'll have a vote of who would like to hold it first everybody in favor of holding this until it was brought back can we have a show of hands want to pass
the section today or you want to wait till we bring back and now uh show our hands of passing the section today and not holding it yes so and and the funding I just want to look at it before I so members the leader of the third party asked to hold the section until the ministers Department brought back some consultations that they did with the with the businesses and table for the leader of the third party to see before we pass the section now we're having a vote to see whether we will pass it
or hold it uh we already vote to see who would like to hold it over now we we have a show of hands who would like to pass the section Today Show a hands who would like to pass the section today 2 three four five okay we will not pass the section today we will bring it [Music] back okay biofood Tech General Appropriations provided for Innovation and Technical Support to the food and bioscience industry including the biofood tech facility equipment operational and maintenance costs and salaries th
e facility enhances the level of services provided through fee for service royalty and Equity arrangements with private sector clients operations 29187 total General 2,918 700 charl toown West royalty yeah so uh can can you just the the it says Equity arrangements for private sector clients like how does how does this work can you give me an overview outside of the description there um before I ask question it's a it's a fee for service um with the private sector clients so they come in and ask
to to rent space or Access Equipment Access Equipment or have staff analyze something for them charl toown West royalty and it looks like um we budgeted uh um $2.8 million and spent spent uh maybe $200,000 more basically even spent $200,000 over budget can you talk to me about that overage so it Innovation pii provides a grant to their subsidiary which is biofood Tech um they do cover the losses of bofu tech and bofu Tech is running higher than expected losses uh we typically bring them to break
even uh third quarter we thought they're running to bit 200,000 more so we adjusted the forecast appropriately charl down West Ro so they were down 200,000 and that's that's good that you were there what's the what's the future looking like what are your predictions that was in the third quarter what are your predictions for the first quarter of 2024 uh I haven't seen any any statements since December so I I can't comment on that right now charl toown West royalty there must have been um are ar
e we looking at is this the start or was this just something that happened in the third quarter that allowed us it is no it's it's been running that way as as you can see we did increase the budget 100,000 for for this fiscal uh they have been running that way the past few years uh there's a new Ed and CEO they're they're trying to work together to come up with better costing as well so we're we're hoping to hold them more accountable Cheryl toown Westy last one of your set and that's a that's a
n important an important facility I know a lot of groups have have used it and stuff and is is it a matter of usage are we not just getting the fee the equity fees back or do those have to be looked at or we try to keep the cost down for the clients as well because they're typically new clients and so so we try to keep those costs down so okay leader of the third party thank you chair um there's a small bump on the forecasted budget for um for forecasted spending and I'm Wonder in uh the budget
hasn't changed as much from last year so I'm wonder if you can explain that we just he just ask question that was question we just ask I'm good for that second we're good thank you uh total biofood Tech shell 2,987 Shilla carry car okay so we cannot carry the whole section because we'll have to bring back total Business Development we got thanks Mr chair I move that the speaker take the chair and that the chair report progress and beg leave to sit again shall it carry get good Mr chair or sorry
Mr Speaker as chair of a committee of the whole house having under consideration the grant of Supply to his majesty I beg leave to report that the committee has made some progress and begs leave to sit again I move the report of the committee be adopted sh Carrie car the member for charlt toown West royalty and opposition house leader Mr Speaker I move second by the leader of the opposition that the 21st order of the day be now read shall carry order 21 an act to amend the planning act number th
ree bill number2 in committee CH speaker I move seconded by the leader of the opposition that the said Bill be now read a second time sh Carrie I'm going to ask the member for Rustico Emerald to uh chair the debate Char Mr Speaker I move seconded by the leader of the opposition that the house do now resolve itself into the commit the whole house to take into consideration the said Bill shall I carry ited an act to amend the planning act ask the sponsor to come to the floor um would you uh like t
o bring on a stream yes please shall it be granted granted hello stranger can you you introduce yourself and your position for the record yeah my name is uh Robert Godfrey and I'm the director of policy and research for the official opposition thank you Robert promoter did you want to start with anything before we go back to General no we can uh we can just keep going right into the questions I guess we did two uh this few times we been on the floor so I think people are well aware of what the i
ntend of the bill is unless the uh Mr Godfrey wants to talk about his Shopper Drug Mar experience no we move forward then well that's quite the tease um we we we left off I think the members from somerside wilmet was asking questions did you want to continue on uh thank you chair I believe most of mine were answered uh just trying to think back to last week when we had it had the floor with his and I believe it ended off with the 100 meters being able to complain and I know that is a a number th
at the city of somerside uses and you said that you kind of went with what all the municipalities across Island use uh there was just one more thing that I want to ask is with your new legislation if you have one unit in a building affordable just the one unit then no one can appeal the project is that no understand no you're if you're within 100 m of the development you with our bill if it passes you are able to appeal whether it's affordable housing or otherwise but if you're outside of that t
here is a process you know I think that you just if I'm going to say anything about this bill to kind of maybe alleviate some of the concerns that I heard last week there is a process right so when before you start building anything before you even get a development permit there is an entire process where you have have to submit a plan especially to municipality have to submit a plan there has to be public consultation there you know there and then you have to you have to take into consideration
the concerns that you heard from public consultation from the municipality before you even get a development permit so you know I heard about the individual who may be outside of that 100 meters who may be a kilometer down the road things of that nature there is a process there for anyone at any point before that development permit is even issued to come in you know Express their concern that concern has to be taken into consideration by the Builder and then a development permit is only issued
after that process so if you're outside of that 100 meters there is ample there is a process in place an ample opportunity for a person to express their concerns but once the development permit is issued and the development starts what this bill is aiming to do is to take out is to limit U the amount of appeals that that development permit is going to going to experience just because you know we are in we are in a housing crisis we're in a in a situation where we need more homes eliminating elim
inating holdups in development once that development plan has been approved is what the school is the goal of this piece of legislation th I Wilmont uh thank you chair uh I spent some time on City Council in the city of somerside and if someone followed the official plan of the city and they didn't have to change zoning then there would be no consultation of people around it they if they followed the plan and the it was zoned for a certain development and all that there'd be no consultation to a
nybody around it that's true so so there' be no public consultation like someone who falls just outside that 100 meter they might not know that they're going to have an extra development with 700 homes coming in here because they're outside that 100 meter right but they had to submit they had to submit an application for the permit so the the municipal Town Council could have said no so there there is a process there where the planning committee for the city of somerside can say yes it's Zone bu
t we don't want an eight story building on Water Street you know what I mean there is a process there where there there's the representatives of the people in that's in that municipality who can say no there is a process there for people to express their concerns whether taking it to a formal appeal and stopping the actual development after the development permit has been issued weird whereas right now you can get a development permit as a developer and start construction on you can you can hire
your your crew the whole the whole thing and somebody appeals that and you got to stop sometimes for 12 to 18 months and that is slowing down progress on building housing whether it's affordable or otherwise in this in this province and we need some you know I i i i i the government passed a part of that legislation last fall in their planning act number two we are taking it one step further I think that we all share the goal in this house I I mean I I think that you all share the goal in this
house of of of at least the goal of building more housing faster so we can alleviate the the housing crisis and I think that this bill brings us one step closer Sumer side Willmont so I just it's almost like we're going to put it on the municipality make them at blame if you say they could have stopped it they could have stopped it like I take I when we when I was on Council I know we were parted of putting in the new official plan so along the Waterfront the official plan stated that they want
to see higher development build up not e so if you're outside that 100 m but it's directly in your view then someone can come in and build a 10 story unit because it's in their plan and you'll never have a say because you're telling us that no one can appeal it after it's been the permit's been issued if you're outside that 100 meters in the current wording in this legislation that's correct thank you jar that's enough for me I will say any municipality with an official plan and bylaws they gene
rally start the permit process so they would have looked into all of this if it's already zoned for what whatever it is then it's already zoned so there should be no no point of appealing afterwards so if it was already zoned commercial residential what have you that zoning designation was already put there or can be changed by the municipality is there any anybody else uh on the list I did have one question myself and that was um with re respect to uh the the wording in four the new 4.1 respect
ing a development permit for land in a municipality I just wanted to be clear does that mean this applies only to land in municipalities or would it apply to land in unincorporated areas as well well the development permits are issued by municipalities um so development permits are also issued by the province have an answer well I basically like I just said any municipality with an official plan or bylaw they generally in the past I mean there's been now they do a pro a different process but the
re is a process in place where they would uh the application would be made to them and at that time they could either say no or pass it along to the province for approval of that level but an unincorporated municipality does not have an official plan or bylaw so therefore the minister responsible would be the the uh the individ ual I guess or the department responsible for any permits I I guess what I'm getting at is if I mean North rustical Harbor is unincorporated for example if someone wanted
to put you know a building there um and the people with that are not within 100 meters would not be able to uh it sounds like they would be able to appeal it this this this legislation doesn't uh doesn't apply to unincorporated areas it looks like so the unincorporated areas then the minister responsible would be the issuer of the permit that's correct yeah okay so it doesn't apply to unincorporated areas then in here in in here it says it doesn't that's yeah okay great I just want to clarify t
hat thank you any further questions oh Minister of Housing land and communities uh yeah so I um I like I support the intention of what we're trying to do here but um appeals are one thing that's a bottleneck for um for Housing Development it's it's um it's significant but it's not uh one of the most significant issues we face and we've addressed it with in one Amendment to the ACT and this this amendment was introduced I think that um um after um after uh we introduced our Amendment so I think t
here's enough questions outstanding about how this applies and how it um uh interacts with the um the amendment we already made that I have some hesitation and there's a couple of things in here that I think maybe take it a step too far that I would like to consult the public about uh or other stakeholders municipalities before passing something as drastic as this there's one thing you know the uh the fees for individuals I'm concerned that that limits uh people's access to the process um and um
yeah so there's a number of concerns I have and I I think we talked about introducing some amendments to this but I think it would so substantially change the uh the nature of the um the bill itself that um that that's not probably wouldn't fly so uh just based on some of those concerns um I unfortunately am I'm not going to support bill um thank you um any response okay good just add again that we're not finished with uh bringing forward amendments based on this letter that we're all all that
this bill is based on that this letter from other from municipalities and other stakeholders we're not finished bringing forward amendments that would go beyond what we've already done uh but I think they need care careful consideration so I think we'll have U uh something else to bring forward in the in the fall and happy to consult with um the opposition on on those uh and if they want to um uh take these limits on appeals further at that time certainly willing to bring them forward if we can
all agree on that um chair um so basically we brought this forward because it was a small step that we thought that could have a huge impact on the housing crisis that we're facing SO waiting again a full year from the last time any uh amendment was made to the planning Act is is really not solving the problem it's just kicking it down the road we need to act and we need to act now so we we took it upon ourselves to say we're going to do what we can to try to speed up the process and put people'
s uh people or Islanders in homes there are too many people on the island right now that do not have adequate housing we want to speed up that process this was a barrier that we wanted to remove so that developers could could build housing faster and and that's basically what the intent of this build is Mr chair housing land communities yeah as I said I I don't argue with the intent of it but I would argue that it will have a huge impact on um on availability of housing there are a couple of uh
well at least one significant appeal underway right now in the city of charlott town and by limiting it to 100 meters wouldn't have eliminated that appeal um it might it might put uh it might put the breakes on some future appeals but um uh there was actually a couple uh that would still proceed within that 100 that 100 meter uh radius um regardless um so it these limiting appeals does have um does have benefits um I don't know if I describ them as huge um I think what we've done already address
es some of those concerns about frivolous appeals and as I said uh I'm not uh opposed to looking at some of what's suggested in this bill but I think it takes more careful consideration and there's a couple of things in there that I just can't support so um Beyond amending it I can't support it as it is um so this bill was first introduced to the house during the fall session so at that time if this Minister really felt um that that he wanted to take on this housing crisis that we have right now
and help Islanders get into homes faster than amendments could have been uh made over the last few months uh prepared uh presented in the house uh during the last two days two times we've been on the floor and or U reached out to us and said you know these are some amendments can we work together to try try to speed up the process we again are trying to do all we can to speed up the process to get Islanders housed properly this was a step that was asked uh by municipalities um by developers and
we so there was no movement forward by this minister so we decided that we have to do something we can't just sit oddly by Islanders are in need of housing they need it now not this fall thank you promoter um without anyone else on the list uh shall the bill carry all right uh I think the Nay have it um I Heard only one yay so I heard multiple Nays so the bill has been defeated bill has been defeated you can ask so now you're going to get questions yeah um Mr Mr chair I move that the speaker ta
ke the chair and that the chair report the bill not recommended CH Carri Mr Speaker as the chair of the committee of the whole house having had under consideration the ability being titled an act to amend the planning act I beg leave to report the committee has gone through the said Bill and does not recommend same to the Legislative Assembly I move that the report of the committee be adopted shall I carry there's been uh request for a recorded division can uh you ring the bell uh o and vess the
opposition is ready for the vote Mr Speaker New Haven Rocky Point thank you Mr Speaker the third party is ready for the vote you for I could have just got sh wio uh Mr Speaker government's ready for the vote all right honorable members so all those voting against the report of the committee please stand The Honorable member from bordon King Kora The Honorable leader of the third party The Honorable member from charlott toown West royalty The Honorable leader of the official opposition The Honor
able member from New Haven Rocky Point and The Honorable member from Al and veress honorable members all those voting for the report of the committee please stand Bill close the honorable minister of Education early years and the minister responsible for the status of women The Honorable Minister of Finance The Honorable minister of Agriculture and Deputy Premier The Honorable member from Kensington malch The Honorable member from of environment energy and climate action The Honorable member Min
ister pardon me transportation and infrastructure The Honorable member from charlott toown Winslow The Honorable minister of Tourism Fisheries tourism Sport and culture The Honorable Minister Workforce Advanced learning and population The Honorable minister of Social Development and seniors The Honorable Minister of Housing land and communities The Honorable minister of Economic Development Innovation and trade The Honorable minister of Health and Wellness The Honorable member from Rustico Emera
ld The Honorable member from Suri almyra The Honorable member from somerside Wilmont The Honorable member from tin Valley sherbrook and The Honorable member from Charlotte toown Bader thank you members the report of the committee has been p uh charlott West royalty and the opposition uh host leader thank you Mr Speaker this time I'll call motion number 61 back to the floor sh carry Mr Speaker motion 61 Commission on population is under debate debate was adjourned by The Honorable leader of the t
hird [Applause] party all right members uh leader of the third party thank you Mr Speaker and uh I'm just going to do a a quick recap of of what I talked about last time and then I'll let somebody else speak to this um I guess it was no surprise when I was speaking last time that this is something that I spend a lot of time thinking about and spend a lot of time wondering why there doesn't seem to be urgency on this topic when we see all of our services busting out the seams and that being one o
f the the causes When government had Tools in their tool belt all along where they could have been doing something about this but just are deciding to do something now and Islanders are suffering as a result and I'd also um talked about how just how Reckless and irresponsible it seems to be just taking people in when we know they're not going to have a place to live when we know they're not going to have access to to um to healthc care when we know what the education system is like right now bus
ting at the seams and and doing their best to stay on top of things we're asking an awful lot of our our civil servants and we keep hearing things like oh you know those nurses those teachers they stand up every time and yes they do thank goodness they do but how much longer can they do that and I talked about Hope and I've talked about Hope a couple of different in a c couple of different areas this being one of them if people see hope that things are changing it's very motivating and I can spe
ak to that as a civil servant former civil civil servant myself I didn't feel that hope and and I left and if that's my fear is if people don't see a government who is taking this as something that is urgent as it is that that hope that spark of hope that they need to keep going is just not going to be there and we can't afford to lose another single person in healthcare another single person in education and so I guess I so I'm looking for urgency and I don't see it uh so this document that I r
eferred to is more of a Communications document um talked a lot about the issues which is important we need to understand the issues before we can move forward on solving a problem but there was no house in this document and so there were a lot of great things like recruiting more healthc Care Professionals and construction workers um ensuring that offloading in the hospitals was done quicker um you know I just don't understand why if those were if those are things that we're going to do and the
y're listed in that in that framework how many times have we seen that how long have we been talking about recruiting and retaining healthc Care Professionals and construction workers we've talking about that for years and years and years and this document saying that we have to do that and I guess the document made me feel like I was supposed to feel um excited about this and that this was this was you know really um a progressive document but it just left me without hope and that is a bit scar
y it also gave the opportunity to look at some of the um one of the examples of something that we hear where if Government were to Simply say we made a mistake and we're sorry how far that would go in the um the bonuses that some healthc Care Professionals got and some didn't acknowledging a problem doesn't go away or sorry a problem doesn't go away until we acknowledge there's a problem and this government just did digs in on that and what you're digging in on is healthc Care Professionals tell
ing you they don't feel valued mhm they I don't feel good about that and neither should you we need them to feel valued so the house and it just feels very willy-nilly when we look at the the people that we've taken in and we look at kind of the the backgrounds in their experiences and their work versus what we need and there's no connection there and that's shameful this is if this if we're targeting we did a really bad job and by we I guess it's not we government did a really bad job with that
um so urgency you know looking at density land we are not we don't have unlimited resources we are a very finite little island and if we care to keep any of the characteristics that make us special we need to slow down because like I said before when the land is gone it's gone and so we hear government stand up Pat themselves on the back which we heard twice this morning this early this afternoon um and yet we've got all of these issues and I just dare say that you know when we when we consider
all of the uh all of the things we've been talking about here procurement of services special warrants all of these things need to get under control because we're just spending like crazy there's no it doesn't feel to be any plan it feels out of control and that is really uncomfortable and you know I can't help but Wonder to sit for a moment in your seats to see how that feels because I'm sure that there are people sitting in your government who really are working their best and really want to
make a difference but in the big kind of system uh machine of government they just can't and so talk about needing hope I bet you there's some of you sitting over there that could use a little bit yourselves and so um you know on that note when I support this motion 100% I think that if we think our tiny little island can handle 250,000 people as this as this mentions in in however many years we're crazy if we think we can do that um we can put that on the record because at this rate we will sin
k and we are an island so think about that so I guess with that I support this motion 100% And urge government to feel the urgency around this topic thank you Mr Speaker the uh Ministry of Workforce Advanced learning and population thank you Mr Speaker and thank you member for putting this motion forward I know everyone in this house can agree that with our population growing the pressures on our public services and infrastructure are being felt from tip to tip there is no question that we're ac
ross all areas is necessary whether that's housing access to healthcare including mental health supports child care and education Workforce Road constructions and modern Wastewater Management Systems it's not one item or the other but all of them in tandem it means we need to relieve the pressures on the short medium and long term with room to spare because we know that continued growth is on the horizon the Department of Workforce advance learning in population has been working across governmen
t with external Partners such as municipalities sector councils and Industry leaders to understand the challenges and develop strategies to address them we recently announced growing together Pi's population framework which consolidates data from all of our partners it has validated what we are seeing and reaffirms our commitment to ensuring our decisions and Investments are in the right places and it gives us the flexibility to change course course as needed as I said each of my colleagues depa
rtments have been working on moving the dial to improve and increase access to public programs and services our residents need but Mr Speaker our population is aging with that comes the realities of an aging population and an aging Workforce we are working at a deficiency for every eight new people entering the workfor us we have 10 people entering into retirement we need a multi-prong approach to getting people to participate fully in our Workforce especially in the sectors we need to grow Mr S
peaker that's why the province announced that we will be refocusing the use of our immigration nominations to prioritize key sectors and meet the needs of our growing Province to grow our trades we are working with our education Partners to get high school students learning and even trying their hands hands-on experience like carpentry we are working with interministerial women's sec secretar to fund another cooh hord of trade Horizons to encourage more participation for women in our skilled tra
de sectors last week we announced with a coet and the construction Association of Pei the industry-led labor needs assessment and the upcoming Workforce recruitment mission that will happen in April we've partnered with the construction Association of Pei for many years and the leadership role they will be playing is one of the initiatives government is taking to address our Workforce shortage as I said Mr Speaker we have an aging Workforce and we've made inroads and getting a new generation a y
ounger generation into the trades and that is an important step to getting more housing starts going we need the workers to build housing for people who choose to make our Province their home these are some examples of the important work to address our labor shortages especially in the construction sector we could also talk about the steps we are taking through targeted recruitment to help fill the labor gaps across other important sectors like Education Health Care and skilled workers senior of
ficials from the Department have had the opportunity to go to standing committee on education and economic growth to discuss the work that's been done to better understand the impacts of population growth and they are doing this with the expertise of a Consulting Group staff shared with members of the committee the public engagement work that's been done with the very same stakeholders that the member would like to commission to meet with through this motion Mr Speaker I would suggest that this
is a duplication of the work that's already been done and the results will be the same we know after a period of exponential growth our public services and infrastructure are pressured and we need to move the dial on them strategically with appropriate planning and coordination we're doing that and we have formalized all this information into a population framework which has given us a better understanding of how we as a government will strategically invest in communities across the island and h
ow our services can better plan and align with the growth trajectory the framework guides us informs our policies Investments and gives us the flexibility to adapt to changing conditions Mr Speaker the intent of the motion is clear and the work they are envisioning this new commission to do is done that being said I cannot support this motion because my department has been doing this work in collaboration with other provincial government departments with external partners and industry it's impor
tant for us to get this right and I want us all to be United in making the lives of our residents better our department is always open to feedback and ideas so if any member or member of the public has anything to share please do not hesitate we all want Prince Island to be its very best and we are at a pivotal moment in our province's history to seize the opportunities for growth for all our embedment thank you Mr speaker thank you member are there any other members wishing to speak to the moti
on the ministry of environment energy and climate action thank you Mr Speaker so I said through this the other day and listened to uh particularly the Liberals talk about immigration and I I thought it might be good to at least set the record straight for where the Liberals have uh taken our Province when it comes to immigration I I think I'll start with the with the PMP Scandal that they were responsible for where they absolutely had no interest in anybody moving here it was about filling pocke
ts is what what they were trying to do and fill in their own Coffer so they could spend wildly um they had zero retention they weren't concerned about who was coming or what their skill set was or they whether or not they could contribute to society they weren't worried about we're bringing in construction workers they weren't worried if we were bringing in nurses they weren't worried if we were bringing in people into the sectors where where we needed them and if you recall at the time it that
push had already started there was already becoming a shortage um and it was the very early stages of it when when Wade mlin took it over it continued to be more of the same and he boasted about how he was going to grow the population and uh and he was quite fond of saying how that how the great work of immigration was going to going to grow our population so we could grow our our GDP and uh he took the opportunity to Balan the budget at that time if you recall right and when he balanced the bud
get he tried to close schools he closed hospitals he didn't spend a scent into H in housing you think here's a man who was told to be who was going to come and have this great plan for Prince Island that was going to bring us into the into the new century and all he was concerned about was taglines for the book about himself that no one's ever going to write unless he writes it for himself and it's quite true he balanced the budget great never spent a cent in into into housing left this massive
hole for the current government to dig dig out up the the hole we're in today is the hole that the Liberal Party of Prince Island dug for Islanders um and I remember being involved in the in the school debate when when they were looking to close in schools they CL they well right under Robert kiss they did close schools and and then we came back and try to do it again and two of the schools while while I was elected were in my my district cardigan and Georgetown and when they when they came back
with the final list of what schools were going to close one of them was George down which was in my my district and you know Mr Speaker at the time and and you would recall you were you were elected during that period i i on a number of occasions said to to the the government of the day you're you're just saying you're projecting at the time they were projecting the population was going down in in those areas they were actually Pro this was this is real stuff they were actually saying and you s
earch the hands the Liberal Party Prince of Island was saying that the population was going to go down and these schools need to close and now these same schools are burst at seams if you look at Bast School population has nearly doubled in the last little while the population is growing in in our small schools and there's an opportunity to continue to grow the community around them and that's what I said at the time I told them that but of course they wouldn't listen because Wade was only inter
ested in one thing what was his book going to look like this was the last chapter of of his book what would that chapter read like well I'd like to write it I think I had a partner writing a lot of it to be honest but I but I will say it wasn't pretty for Prince Island so yeah the population grew and you know what up until recently the the the the immigration flow that has been coming in are people that were signed during that period still because the process takes a long time like the the peopl
e that that are have come over the last two or three years that you know that we that have caused some of the the pressures or or you know have have caused some of these questionings about what what government needs to do with with the immigration were all people that were brought in under the liberal stream they just never had gotten here yet but Wade balanced the budget and I mean that's something that you liberals should be proud of now I see Chris Palmer was on Facebook and I know the the me
mber from Charlton West royalty mentioned him didn't call him by names had a former Minister was saying that this was uh good politics but but bad policy and I'm thinking I think it's smoked he got smoked at at in an election over his part in that veiled liberal government he get he got absolutely smoked and he was the minister responsible for it and the voters responded accordingly you know Mr Speaker should stay off Twitter he should have stayed off Twitter maybe if he had stayed off Twitter y
ou know Mr Speaker at the time they had 1,500 people 1,500 people were claiming the Sherwood Motel was their primary residents 1500 15 00 people 1,500 people who were immigrating to Prince Island said that the Sherwood Motel was their was their primary residence there's only 20 rooms there there's only 20 rooms there I challenge anybody to to drive past there and and and draw on a draw a piece of paper where 1500 people would fit in that building right and and during all that that debauchery he
attracted you remember from charlt West royalty you said I like this so much I'm going to run for it I like I like all I you must love a Balan budget you must love a balanced budget because I'll tell you the only you're the only person that was attracted to W you were like come I'll run for you you're doing great work and I think one of your quotes was I'm running running for Wade because of the great work that he's done he lost his own seat like he lost his own seat badly he lost his own seat b
adly also don't see badly well you chose to run for them I mean it says a lot about you that you chose to run but no one else in prin like them and you know what it's easy you know so you run these motions and we all sit here and you say whatever you want about us and you say we're terrible and you say we're doing a terrible job and you say we don't care the minute you get any back look at just over there who's over there you're so sour you can't take a bit a bit of your own medicine back and yo
u know what this the thing Mr Speaker the thing I love about this assembly is that we're all equal there's 27 seats in this assembly and everyone is equal regardless of what position they hold in the executive branch of government or with their own party there's 27 seats and we all get to be um have our voice heard equally and here and it's not very often I take the opportunity these days like I did in the old days to have my voice voice heard but when I set through so much on the other side whe
n I was opposition and watch how poorly we were treated in opposition compared to how how um wonderfully we treat you over there today and I think about you know the revisionist history that I heard when it comes to the immigration file here in princ island and I think well I got to get up and speak to this because I really feel like what I witnessed in the the early days of of the immigration file when you guys had control of it here didn't do anything to address all these problems that you're
saying that were're not addressing over here today you created all these problems for us but you didn't Attract it you didn't even try to bring up a single person in to any of the places where we knew the pressures were going to come told yeah I can't really clearly remember the BC Tony story but I know I know do remember asking questions about BC Tony but this is the thing it was so it was so cro at what they were doing that there was there were stuff here all the time to be able to bring to th
e floor to ask questions about Mr Speaker respectful language honoral member yes sorry I don't know which part you're referring to but yes um so you know when I I think that this file can work I think that that the the current Minister has really shown a path where where uh government's going to be able to meet the needs of Islanders and new Islanders all at the same time with with a renewed approach to Bringing people in that that match the needs of of Islanders the the last two housing ministe
rs have gone all in um to try to build as much inventory on Prince Island as possible so there's a so there's a place to house Islanders and you know when when you talk about the immigration in princ Island there's a really good opportunity for small communities like the ones that I represent to grow their own housing infrastructure so that there's an opportunity for new people to to move into the community and I know in the the school in Georgetown there's a number of newcomers that came and it
's been a great addition to to the the flavor yeah yeah the school's rocking there now yeah yeah actually there was a conversation about whether or not they needed mobiles there because there's so many people but that was the school that was slated to close because weade want to balance the budget on basically the backs of immigration and cut everything else to make it to make it fit the mold and it almost makes makes you wonder did did he know that what the outfall was going to be at the end an
d and didn't care because he just wanted to be the the premier who who balanced the budget in such a mean way too like there was no help for anybody you weren't there was no help for anybody it was really an embarrassing piece of history for for Prince Island yeah The Minister's not here but forcing his own ministers to share sandwiches with him in the airport because he was too cheap to allow the minister to expense a whole sandwich we don't refer to those that are not in the house sorry I forg
ot very close to being the dean of the legislature you know the I know he'll be here he'll be here for a long time at that fell he he uh anyways I I feel like the shift in conversation on on immigration has shifted to where do we need people where are the industries that need people the most where and it's really shifted away from the greedy model that was the liberal model where it was just about who could buy their way into Canada and then we don't care we don't we don't care if you stay or go
or what what you do that we we don't care what your background is we don't care that you know what your skills are and and the modern one has really shifted into and I applaud the the minister I think it's great that there's we're really focusing on the areas that are going to need the people and see if we can take the pressures off in those areas and I think that's probably something that should have been done with this file all along Canada itself has seen an enormous growth of our in our pop
ulation over the past 10 years through immigration and you know I think that it probably would have served governments right across Canada well to be looking at where the areas that the pressures were going to be um and you know I I remember there was a a time when we were losing a lot of people to Alberta or the North because there was such a need for the skilled labor or the skilled people to go and work in in those areas because they just couldn't find enough we should have seen it coming lik
e the government of they should have seen it coming that it was eventually going to fall upon us and um you know the member from Kensington will will often say how great the economy is or or he he's my my Val weather on how the economy is doing because he he knows the market well and he's uh I I always look to him for advice in those areas and I think that when the economy is good we should anticipate that there's going to be build stuff built like that we're going to need skilled labor to do th
at and that there's going to be pressures on it and there are going to be cost rise because of it and it's going to push people out of the market and I think that's the scariest part that I saw that happened during that stretch in in Co where we really saw the bump in the the value of of housing I I looked and you know I often say even where I our house is that I built in 2018 I couldn't build it today like when we both have jobs that pay okay and I think that that's a a sad Testament to some of
the things that have happened because of the pressures that that been put on on the uh the workforce so I'm looking forward to seeing the great results that The Minister's going to going to be bringing over here in the next few years and uh when you pair that with with some of the other great work that we see ministers over here doing to tackle the the current issues of the day I think you're going to see something wonderful at the end where it all kind of ties together instead of having a bala
nced budget Mr Speaker we'll have a a Society that's fully functional an island that works for every for everybody and uh and the services that are there for the people that need them and I think that um you know I think that it's pretty unfortunate that in the past that uh that was overlooked by the uh by the giz mlin era which is like a 10 a 10year period of time and you know a province can get pretty far behind in uh in 10 years and uh it's 12 it's an awful mess to clean up after liberals it'
s an awful mess to clean up after liberals and uh we're about to see another example of it here in Ottawa I think where there's aestic clean up and we'll see a somebody's going to have to do it and it's going to be hurt and uh likely be a Tory it likely be a tory cleaning up after a liberal mess again um I really wish Mr Speaker I could remember the volumes and volumes and volumes of questions that I asked about immigration and I think that um I think the minister of Tourism said at one point th
at I had pointed out a number of years ago that some of the things that you're saying we're responsible for which you guys caused I I think if you look back in H I think I said some of the things I said this is going to happen if you continue down this road and uh um you know obviously they just laughed because Liberals are the type that know no better than you about everything um but I mean it's showing it shows showing today in the in the polls for sure um be hard to get a number lower than en
ough for these Fells I think single digits we'll see single digits yeah I think that you know as we look forward Mr Speaker we we have to approach this in a really positive a more positive manner than I think the assembly has been treating treating it here lately um for a number of reasons I don't think we want to stoke that sentiment out there that people from away are the cause of our problems you see that in other places and you see that a lot in in the states and you see it a lot in like in
Germany in the 30s like that attitude isn't really one that we want to have to be a prevalent attitude in Canada but I mean let's worry about Prince R Island we don't want that to be pre the prevalent attitude if it's if it's because of government the P past government's mistakes then great but let's not make let's not go so far in here that we don't make people feel like they're welcome to be here and uh I always say like the majority of the interactions that I have with people who who you know
I would say would be newcomers are fantastic and they're so happy to be here and I think it's a great opportunity and we should be proud that people want to be here as Canadians we should be proud that people want to be here because uh we really do have a a a wonderful country I know when Hannah Allan came with me to Egypt that time we went we went to cop um you know one of the things that that's it's kind of been just burned into my head for a a long long time was we were in Shake which is whe
re the conference was being held which is basically would be a resort town if you were compare it to anything you know would it be like going to your Mexico places or Cancun it'd be like that it's kind of it was kind of just built around Russian tourism is what it was was built around to be honest um one of the most striking things I I I found was one of the evenings we were there and I was only in Egypt for three days but one of the day days we were there we went down to like the the city cente
r to the market to get something to eat and uh and there was there was a group there was four or five of us who whatever went to eat and as we were walking back to meet the guy who was driving us around who worked in our hotel who was kind of our tour guide in charmal Shake he we were walking back to the part where he said he would meet us at whatever the specific time was there was a lady standing on the curb with a baby um an Egyptian lady and she was flagging a cab and none of them would stop
for her they just kept driving by driving by driving by driving by driving by driving by and I was kind of watching I was like flabbergast it because I watched other people stop for cabs so I stepped up to the curb ahead of her and I put out my arm the cab stopped and I opened the door and I said get in it's yours and the guy yelled at me that was driving and said no I won't take her and I was like I don't really know why to this day like I don't know if there some I don't know what the underly
ing reason was but all that's to say Mr Speaker I can understand why you would want to come to a country like Canada where it doesn't matter who you are you're on the corner and you flag down a cab it stops it stops for you and uh I it left me a lot of Ling lingering feelings and I think when I look back to some of the places that we stayed like our hotel there wasn't a single woman worked in our hotel there wasn't a single woman worked in any restaurant we were in the whole time we were there t
here wasn't if if you went to any type of attraction that was there there was there was no women we went down to the to the Red Sea because it was on the Red Sea it was the we had to catch our our plane at 2:00 that afternoon so at 11:00 we went down and and there was like a steep set of stairs to go to the beach what I didn't know was when you walk down there they expected you to pay to you to use the beach because it was all like Cabanas down there so we paid the $2 or whatever it was to to ac
cess the beach but there was no women working there either and I'm like well where are all the women in that country and and what kind of you know what kind of life would you have there compared to being able to be in Canada so completely understand the need to be in Canada and and we should be definitely welcoming to people who want to uh who want to come here anyways Mr Speaker that's pretty well all I have to say on this on this topic I know I spent a lot of time in my 13 years here talking a
bout immigration in in different forms and whatnot and I know that I've I've asked a lot of questions and I know I've run probably a lot of motions or at least spoke to a lot of motions around IM immigration here on on Prince Island um liberals ever support you no I never got any support from liberals but what I will say is that this is way better today this is way better today than the than the systems of the past this is 100% about finding the right people to fill the gaps that we have and and
it's not about money it's not about greed it's not about friends of friends it's not about BC Tony it's not about 1500 people stacked in in the Sherwood Motel it's not about retention of almost zero where where we were basically just a doormat for for a Canadian visa it's about it's about none of those things today it's about actually bringing people here to be a part of princ Island permanently who to be part parts of our community to help fill the gaps that we have and to allow them to raise
their family here in one of the most wonderful places that you could ever raise a family and uh I'm proud of the work of of our government taking this file out of the gutter and turning it into something that's useful for for Islanders um that isn't about uh a budgetary exercise or it isn't about a cash cash flow for the for the province or how we can get not that I'm sure the Finance Minister wouldn't love having the balance budget but that can come without trampling on on people's backs and us
ing people the wrong way like the Liberals did um it can come without trying to tear the the guts at of the communities I remember the the former member from Sur Al col Le asking the questions of where did the sign with the H go in Syria they took the right in the middle of the legislature they unbolted the the H sign right off the streets and it was no longer a hospital no announcement no nothing just took it and you're thinking boy oh boy we did that the government today did that to balance th
e budget to one end like to to what end what was the what was the purpose you know you you you could have predicted the communities were going to grow you should have predicted the communities were going to grow where did he think where do way mlan think these people were going to were going to be Mr Speaker do you think that they were going to go to Siri did you think they were going to take Nish do you think they were going to go to Alberton or Georgia or monu or Murray River silver did he car
e and I mean I guess we'll have to wait for him to write that chapter in the book for us to know Mr Speaker so that's it for me thank you thank you member are there any other members wishing to speak to the motion we'll go back to the uh mover of the motion uh leader of the opposition so I'm going to start with just comment about it's way better today today would less than 1% nurses come into Prince Island the hour has been called members the member for Kingston mpek and the government house lea
der Mr Speaker I move by rusto Emerald that this house adjourn until Wednesday March 6th at 1 p.m. sh I Carrie have a good evening members
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