Greens extend fall sitting, call for vote on PC backbencher's bill

Members of the P.E.I. Green Party refused to provide the unanimous consent the governing PCs needed to bring a close to the fall sitting of the legislature Wednesday.

And when the minister of fisheries used the final minutes of daily debate to provide seafood cooking tips, Opposition house leader Michele Beaton called that "a kick in the teeth" to Islanders about to lose legislated protections to allow them to take unpaid leave from their jobs to isolate with COVID-19.

According to the Greens, it all came down to a failed agreement between the two parties to close the legislature.

Beaton said the Greens wanted government to provide time for PC backbencher Sidney MacEwen to bring his private member's bill to the floor for a vote. 

That bill would establish a zero emissions vehicle mandate for P.E.I.

The Greens could have given some of their own debate time to MacEwen Wednesday, but wanted to bring their own motion forward to discuss the end of mandatory COVID-19 isolation in P.E.I.

Ultimately neither MacEwen nor the Greens got any debate time.

9 cabinet statements ate up Opposition time

Instead, cabinet ministers took up all the Greens' allocated time, about 45 minutes, with nine separate minister's statements.

The first several statements announced new spending initiatives to spur housing builds and increased caps on funding to help Islanders heat their homes this winter.

By the end, Environment Minister Steven Myers was providing updates on previous government announcements.

"I'm having a hard time figuring, is this Christmas or is it Groundhog Day?" quipped Liberal MLA Robert Henderson at one point, as members of both opposition parties provided responses to each government announcement.

Later on, when the deputy premier asked for unanimous consent to allow third reading of government spending bills that have to be called before the sitting ends, the Greens refused.

After that, government gave the final minutes of debate time to Fisheries Minister Jamie Fox, who began sharing seafood recipes.

"We have so many Islanders right now that are out sick, and the protections for them to stay at home without repercussion from their workplace … they lost those protections today," said Beaton.

"And instead we had to sit there and listen to the minister of fisheries and communities talk about cooking."

"It's actually really shameful that that's what they choose to talk about on the floor of this legislature," said Beaton, 

Meanwhile, Beaton questioned government's commitment to meet its emissions targets, based on the lack of time provided for MacEwen to bring his bill forward. 

According to an agreement among all parties, PC backbenchers are normally only allowed to bring business to the floor once per week, Tuesday afternoons from 4:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Mandate for EVs would increase supply, says MLA

MacEwen's bill would create a credit-trading system to limit the number of fossil fuel-powered vehicles manufacturers could sell in the province, or require them to acquire credits from the sale of electric vehicles.

The bill follows up on a recommendation made to government in 2021 by the all-party Special Committee on Climate Change. Other provinces including B.C. have established similar mandates.

It would also set Jan. 1, 2035, as the last date for the sale of new fossil fuel-powered passenger vehicles in the province. The federal government has set the same date.

P.E.I. is offering $5,000 provincial rebates on the purchase of new and used electric vehicles, but inventory is currently hard to come by.

When his bill was debated in the house Tuesday, MacEwen said 75 per cent of electric vehicle registrations in Canada are in Quebec and B.C. — provinces with electric vehicle mandates.

A mandate "motivates manufacturers to provide dealerships with EVs to earn credits in order to avoid penalties," he said.

"We simply do not have the supply of vehicles to meet our emission reduction targets," MacEwen said.

Beaton said her caucus believes MacEwen's bill is "an important piece of legislation that needed to have the eyes of the legislature on it and to pass it. Or at least to come to a vote on it."

MacEwen, who is also the government house leader, was not immediately available for comment.