P.E.I. legislature's fall sitting comes to a close after 14 days of debate

After just three and a half weeks, the fall sitting of the P.E.I. Legislative Assembly has come to a close.

Lieutenant Governor Antoinette Perry arrived at the Coles Building in Charlottetown late Wednesday to give royal assent to more than 30 bills and wrap up the proceedings. The next scheduled day of sitting is Feb. 27, 2024.

Over the course of the 14 days of business, the biggest financial item on the agenda was the capital budget — which saw $368.8 million budgeted to buy, expand or maintain provincial assets like roads, hospitals, schools, equipment and much more.

That $368.9 million total is 20 per cent more than last year's estimate.

Other than the capital budget, the primary point of debate throughout the fall sitting was overwhelmingly the Community Outreach Centre in Charlottetown and various health care issues from across the province.

Matters involving the Community Outreach Centre prompted a major share of questions in the P.E.I. Legislative Assembly this fall. (Kevin Yarr/CBC)

Those two topics consumed the bulk of question period over the three weeks, in tandem with the ongoing housing crisis and lack of emergency shelters on P.E.I.

Bills pass, though collaboration has ebbed 

The days of determined collaboration in the legislature are in the past, with Progressive Conservatives fresh from a major victory in the April election commanding all the power.

But that doesn't mean opposition parties aren't making marginal gains. They are just having to give up more ground than they did before the election, when opposition parties made up nearly half of the legislature and were more likely to find common ground with the governing party.

Both the Liberals and the Greens put forward paid sick days bills this fall, and the Liberal version was approved with some heavy amendments from the PCs. Both Karla Bernard, the interim Green leader, and interim Liberal leader Perry said they didn't get what they wanted but they were satisfied that Island workers would get something instead of nothing.

The King government passed several related pieces of legislation around guardian and trusteeship on P.E.I. as well as measures on child protection and the Mental Health Act, which introduced community treatment orders to the province.

A community treatment order allows a patient who might otherwise become an involuntary patient in a psychiatric facility to work with a psychiatrist and mental health team outside of a hospital setting. It didn't come without objections from opposition MLAs, though.

Under the province's new legislation bringing in community treatment orders, a person can continue to live at home while going through mental health treatment as long as the conditions of their order are being met. (Shutterstock/BlurryMe)

The Greens felt the rules were too stiff, and wanted to make it easier for a psychiatrist to use a community treatment order to compel a patient to receive treatment against their will.

During the vote on this bill, members of a family in the gallery stood up and cried as the bill passed third reading, after having waged a social media campaign about a relative who could have qualified for an order if the Greens' arguments had prevailed.

The health minister has said the government is willing to look at changes in the future, however.

Fiery debate, Speaker warnings and an MLA quits

Most of the questions this sitting were answered by Premier Dennis King, Minister of Health Mark McLane and Minister of Housing Rob Lantz.

Housing Minister Rob Lantz answers a question on Nov. 8 about delays in setting up an emergency shelter in Summerside. (P.E.I. Legislative Assembly)

The tone of debate was calm by time, fiery by others — especially around conversations involving the Community Outreach Centre, which came up every single day of the sitting.

The Liberals' go-to line for the sitting was characterizing the PCs as a "do-nothing government," with MLA Robert Henderson at least once referring to McLane as "Minister Doolittle."

Those comments often led to return fire from the PCs, which blamed the glut of P.E.I.'s issues, from housing to health care, on previous Liberal administrations.

Energy Minister Steven Myers went so far as to call the last provincial Liberal era from 2015 to 2019 "a colossal failure in this province."

Speaker Darlene Compton halted question period on several occasions throughout the sitting to ask members to stop interrupting one another and questioning the absence of other politicians.

Speaker Darlene Compton rose on several occasions throughout the fall sitting to remind members of the legislature to respect the rules. (P.E.I. Legislative Assembly)

"You're not to bring attention to people who are not in the House," she said on Wednesday, after Perry mentioned that he was glad to see King at his seat. The interim Liberal leader had repeatedly brought up occasions when the premier wasn't in attendance — which goes against the legislative rulebook. "And I would prefer if you did not use defamatory language in this House."

In another development this month, bankbench MLA Jamie Fox stood in the legislature to resign from provincial politics to take a run for federal office in the central P.E.I. riding of Malpeque. He will be the Conservative candidate in that riding.

That means voters in the Borden-Kinkora district will be going back to the polls for a new provincial representative. King said he'd like to have a vote there prior to the spring sitting, which is scheduled to begin Feb. 27.

Not a record for shortness

The fall sitting ends a little earlier than it could have, according to the parliamentary calendar. The time set aside for the 2023 fall sitting was Nov. 7 to Dec. 22 — but the calendar date is usually arbitrary, and the calendar is more of a guide for available sitting days.

It would be highly unusual for the fall sitting to run through the holidays.

Here are the total combined sitting days (adding up the spring and fall proceedings) by year since 2018, as provided by the P.E.I. Legislative Assembly.

• 2023 — 37 days.

• 2022 — 53 days.

• 2021 — 49 days.

• 2020 — 42 days.

• 2019 — 27 days.

• 2018 — 53 days.