PEI politics potpourri

wage zombie wrote:

What are the rules for campaign donations across provinces?  Is it legal for those of us living outside of PEI to donate to their ridings and poiticians?

Rules vary by province. Here in Nova Scotia, contributions for provincial parties and campaigns can only come from those resident in Nova Scotia itself. 

The PEI Elections Act has no such restriction, as can be seen in the annual listing of party conributors. http://www.electionspei.ca/index.php?number=1046908&lang=E

The map below of the Atlantic region of Canada clearly shows that nearly the entire province of PEI is at high risk of sea level rise  due to global warming. Almost the entire island is coloured red, whiich indicates a high risk of flooding due to sea level rise. 

Quote:

Sea Level Rise

The map below shows the sensitivity of the coastlines of Atlantic Canada to the expected rise in sea level, due to climate warming. Sensitivity here means the degree to which a coastline may experience physical changes such as flooding, erosion, beach migration, and coastal dune destabilization. It is measured by a sensitivity index that is obtained by manipulating scores of 1 to 5 attributed to each of seven variables: relief, geology, coastal landform, sea-level tendency, shoreline displacement, tidal range, and wave height. For details on the index refer to J. Shaw, R.B. Taylor, D.L. Forbes, M.-H. Ruz, and S. Solomon. 1998. Sensitivity of the Coasts of Canada to Sea-level Rise. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 505. Ottawa.

 

 

Regions of high sensitivity include much of the coasts of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. Small areas of high sensitivity occur in Newfoundland and Labrador. The full map for Canada can be viewed in an  at Natural Resources Canada's Atlas of Canada Site.

http://coinatlantic.ca/index.php/climate-change/sea-level-rise

bekayne wrote:

Green Party now at 34%

https://cra.ca/preference-for-pei-green-party-continues-to-increase-whil...

I used to live near Brockville. Peter was my dentist. I got to know him. This guy is the real deal. It would be a surprise to me if he did not eventually win. The man is as articulate and bright as they come and, much more rare, he is also authentic and honourable. He has a solid understanding of the environment as you would expect but also a solid understanding of people and communities and economics. He understands justice and is a personal example of being the change you want to see. He is in his own life generous without asking credit. In politics he is not a tear-down opposition advocate but engages thoughtfully to people of all backgrounds and positions. I have seen him in a campaign in Ontario support the positions of other candidates and encourage them when he thought they were right. He does not descend into pointless name-calling. I have met many politicians this man is a leader above all the negatives of politics but about making change. He is a person who brings change to the people who know him. PEI is fortunate to have him.

ETA: if you speak to the people he ran against in the past they will speak highly of him and how their own perspectives were altered by him. I should mention, I was volunteering for an NDP candidate in the same election -- 1997 -- and came to know the Liberal (Jordan) who was the winner and was totally won over by him. Like I say -- this man is the real deal.

Green Party leading governing Liberals by 3%

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4812816

The popularity of PEI parties is shifting. 

Despite overwhelming satisfaction with the government, decided voter support has shifted slightly, with the PC party down 7% since the summer (38%, down from 45%). The Green Party is also down 8% (29%, down from 37%). The gains in both cases primarily go to new Liberal leader Sonny Gallant’s party, who jumped 10% since August (26%, up from 16%), although the NDP also enjoyed an increase of 5 percentage points (compared to 1% ). ...

In terms of leadership preference, Dennis King holds steady at 36%, which has been relatively consistent since May. Peter Bevan-Baker of the Green Party shifts from 33% in August to 30%, while newly appointed Sonny Gallant of the Liberals captures 11%.  NDP leader Joe Byrne is the choice of 4%.

https://narrativeresearch.ca/kings-pc-government-ends-the-year-on-a-high...

A by election vicotory has given the PCs a majority government. 

P.E.I.'s Progressive Conservative government will now have a slim majority when the fall sitting of the legislature begins. 

This comes after PC candidate Zack Bell won the District 10 byelection 619 votes ahead of the second-place finisher — with nearly 50 per cent of the vote. ...

Bell was followed by Green candidate Chris van Ouwerkerk with 783 votes, then Liberal Zac Murphy with 636 votes and NDP candidate Lynne Thiele with 37 votes. ...

The Progressive Conservatives now hold 14 of the 27 seats in the legislature — enough for a slim majority government. ...

King's government was elected in the 2019 general election with 12 of the 27 seats. The party later picked up a seat when Natalie Jameson won the District 9 election, which was deferred until July because of a candidate's death during the campaign.  ...

The seat in District 10 was left empty by Liberal Robert Mitchell, who announced his retirementin September. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-district-10-byel...

PC support is still high but has declined. 

• Progressive Conservatives remain well ahead of both the Liberal and Green parties, although the gap has closed somewhat this quarter.
• Dennis King remains preferred as premier by a large margin.

May 26, 2022: 

Satisfaction with the performance of the PEI provincial government led by Premier Dennis King remains very strong, although it has declined from three months ago. Currently, seven in ten Islanders are satisfied with Premier King’s government (72%, down from 81% in February 2022). Satisfaction is high across regions and various demographic segments. 

If an election were held today, the PCs are the preferred choice for one-half (50%) of decided voters, down from the two-thirds (66%) evident in February 2022. That said, the PCs remains well ahead of other parties. Support for the Green Party stands at 21% (compared with 15% in February), while support for the Liberal Party stands at 20% (compared with 14%). Support for the NDP sits at eight percent (compared with 4% last quarter).

Preference for premier remains relatively stable compared with three months ago. PC leader Dennis King continues to lead, preferred by close to one-half of Islanders (46%, compared with 51% in February 2022). Support for other party leaders continues to be much lower. Green Party leader Peter Bevan-Baker is chosen by 17 percent of Islanders (compared with 13% last quarter), while one in ten (10%, compared with 7%) would like to see the interim leader of the Liberal Party, Sonny Gallant, as premier. Meanwhile, six percent would prefer the new NDP leader, Michelle Neill (compared with 3% for the next NDP leader last quarter). King is most preferred across the province, although his support is elevated in Kings County compared with elsewhere.

https://narrativeresearch.ca/satisfaction-with-peis-king-government-rema...

Hurricane Fiona foreshadows future hurricanes that will hit Canada with tremendous damage and loss of life: "it has reset the public impression of what kinds of storms are possible in the region".  In that respect it is similar to the great damage by the atmospheric river, flooding, wildfires and heat dome that killed many people in BC in 2021. 

Damage caused by post-tropical storm Fiona at the wharf in Stanley Bridge, PEI, on Sept. 25.BRIAN MCINNIS /THE CANADIAN PRESS

Adam Fenech has spent the past several years thinking about how climate change will affect people across the country, especially in Prince Edward Island where he lives. Yet, the director of the University of Prince Edward Island’s climate lab said he was still taken aback at how Hurricane Fiona developed into the most severe storm in the province’s history.

“I was not paying any attention to Fiona even a week ago,” said Dr. Fenech, speaking one day after screaming winds and driving rain lashed his house west of Charlottetown while massive trees were uprooted nearby. Thank goodness we have the forecasting that we do,” he said. “Without it the tragedies out there would be just monumental.”

One of Fiona’s more unusual aspects is how well it adhered to forecasting models in terms of its trajectory and strength. For those on the ground, what made the storm so stunning was not a divergence from predictions but what it was like to see those predictions turned into a real-life experience in a place where nothing like it had been seen before.

“You don’t usually get storms that intense,” said Doug Mercer, a meteorologist and forecaster with the Canadian Hurricane Centre in Dartmouth. “So you have to be careful not to underestimate the impact.” Like other recent global weather disasters, Fiona seemed to cross the boundary between the rare and the hard to believe. In doing so, it has reset the public impression of what kinds of storms are possible in the region.

In this instance, said Mr. Mercer, the storm’s unusual severity was determined by a fateful confluence of conditions, including low wind shear and a path that kept it over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream as it moved north. As a result, unlike most tropical storms and hurricanes that reach Canada, Fiona lost little of its strength by the time it slammed into a wide swath of the Atlantic coast, centred on a point in Guysborough County Nova Scotia. From there it sped on to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, leaving destruction in its wake.

Lurking in the background is whether the storm is a once-in-a-lifetime fluke or a sign of more to come.

A similar question arose after a very different weather disaster struck Western Canada last year when the highest temperature recorded anywhere in the country was followed by a wildfire that promptly destroyed Lytton, B.C., the place where the record was set.

An analysis conducted after the catastrophic fire showed that the temperature spike was so unlikely it should be expected to occur only once in a thousand years. But that would be without taking into account the effects of climate change, including a shift to a warmer and drier Pacific Northwest, as documented in a 2019 federal report. That would significantly increase the chance of record-setting temperatures.

In Fiona’s case, the key variable was the record low air pressure where the eye of the storm hit land. Exactly how low is somewhat uncertain as there was no weather station directly on the storm’s centreline. However, based on measurements near the line, meteorologists at the hurricane centre estimate that such a station would have recorded a pressure as low as 931 millibars as Fiona passed through.

This is what drove the storm to be so intense. The speed of the wind around a tropical storm or hurricane is a function of the lack of air pressure that the wind is spiralling into. One station, at Arisaig, N.S., recorded a peak wind speed of 187 kilometres per hour at the height of the storm.

The counterclockwise direction of the winds drove powerful storm surges onto the coast. East of the storm’s track, those surges came from the south and were especially pronounced in Channel-Port aux Basques, N.L., where waves “were coming in over 12 metres and probably breaking over 16 metres,” Mr. Mercer said.

It was here that a 73-year-old woman died after her home was hit by the surge and she was swept out to sea, according to the RCMP.

On the opposite side of the storm track, winds from the north battered PEI’s north coast and caused extensive flooding. For example, instruments show that at Red Head Harbour, a sheltered wharf that is typically more than 1.5 metres above sea level, measured 70 centimetres below sea level early Saturday morning.

In a special report on oceans produced in 2019, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made clear that the first and most pronounced effect of climate change for many living in coastal regions would not be the gradual rise in average sea level around the globe, but the increasing likelihood of high-water events as a consequence of sea-level rise.

In parts of Atlantic Canada, high-water events that occurred on average about once per century in the recent past could come to be annual events by the 2060s, according to climate projections. That means if Fiona is the outlier today, it is unlikely to stay that way.

Precisely how much of Fiona’s impact can be attributed to climate change has yet to be determined, Dr. Fenech said. That will have to wait until he and other researchers can run detailed computer simulations of the storm using the same initial conditions and seeing what happens with and without the presence of warming linked to greenhouse gas emissions. But previous work already suggests climate change is having an effect on tropical systems that enter Canadian waters.

In one study published last year in the journal Earth’s Future, researchers studied 35,000 simulated tropical cyclones with tracks that came within 250 kilometres of the city of New York. Although the focus of the study was the U.S. northeast, the results have implications for Canada.

“One thing we did find … was that more tropical cyclones tend to last both farther north and east in the Atlantic basin in a warmer climate,” said Andra Garner, an associate professor at Rowan University in New Jersey, who led the study.

The key factor that connects the result to climate change is the presence of warmer ocean waters that allow strong storms to persist into more northerly latitudes than has historically been the case, she added. If so, rising global temperatures are likely to send more powerful hurricanes and post-tropical storms Canada’s way. “It’s only going to get warmer,” Dr. Fenech said. “I’m not happy to say it, but we should get used to this.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-how-fiona-turned-the-bare...

Some senior homes and their residents didn't get electricity back until more than days after Hurricane Fiona, despite being on a priority list of reconnection because of their vulnerability, even though even many places not on the priority list had been connected to the grid. In just one home six people fell during the outage, something that is always dangerous for the elderly who can suffer broken bones easily and may even lead to complications causing death. I guess Orwell's statement "Some people are more equal than others" still holds true.

Residents of some seniors' homes are among the thousands on P.E.I. who are still without power 10 days after post-tropical storm Fiona.

A generator is supplying some power to Bevan Lodge, but given that the long-term community care facility houses vulnerable residents, owner Charlotte Bevan wishes they could get hooked back to the grid sooner.

"We are supposed to be on the priority list, so that's kind of confusing for us," she told CBC News. "Half of the street does have power, but starting at us, all the way up the rest of the street, there's no power."

The lodge has had to ration what power it uses, and the long outage is an extra worry for residents who are already struggling with physical and mental disabilities.

"It's really hard on the residents," Bevan said. "It's been very stressful for myself."

Maritime Electric has said seniors' facilities and community care homes are priorities for reconnection, but some are hard for crews to reach and in areas where poles had to be rebuilt.

At Geneva Villa, power was out for seven days, and the generator stopped working before power came back, said administrator Diane McQuaid. "Our generator was running for five and a half days and then it collapsed."

Six people fell during the outages, McQuaid said. "It was because of the darkness. They just lost their balance or footing or something…. The seniors were having difficulty with it. They were struggling with the lack of power."

 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-seniors-homes-po...

As more and more people move to PEI, the province is facing a serious housing shortage but is the PC government has been late to respond to the problem and has offered the tradiitional neo-liberal solution - more subsidies to developers. Another problem is the disappearing farmland as sprawl hits PEI. Covid helped drive the population increase as living in an more isolate place seemed attractive to many during the pandemic.

A Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation report showing a big drop in P.E.I.'s apartment vacancy rate is concerning but not surprising, says provincial Housing Minister Matthew MacKay.

The overall unit vacancy rate fell from 1.5 per cent in October 2021 to 0.8 per cent this past October. ...

At the centre of P.E.I.'s housing crisis are a population growing faster than planned and a construction industry that can't keep up with the need for new housing. ...The province has responded by offering developers loans with a two-per-cent interest rate, and is working to create hundreds of new apartments using modular buildings that can be put together quickly. ...

MacKay estimates the province is currently short about 1,500 units. The government made moves to rectify this shortage in the fall capital budget, he said, but it is going to take time for those new programs to have an impact. ...

That 1,500-unit deficit is a conservative estimate of the housing that is needed, said housing policy researcher Matt Pelletier. Pelletier and partner Satyajit Sen recently put together a budget submission for the province on the housing crisis. "We probably need to see somewhere between, at the bare minimum, 1,800 units per year, but much more close to 2,200, depending on more realistic population growth and household scenarios," said Pelletier. It's not just how many, but what to build, Pelletier and Sen said. The province needs to focus more on apartments and townhouses or it risks losing more farmland to housing, they said....

"In the absence of a plan, you would see more ribbon development, more sprawl, and loss of agricultural land," said Sen. In their budget submission, Sen and Pelletier note Statistic Canada's census of agriculture shows P.E.I. lost an average of 16 hectares of farmland a day over the five-year period from 2016 to 2021.

The province is currently working on a new population blueprint after its last five-year plan expired in 2022. The goal of that plan was to grow the population in order to get ahead of the expectation that P.E.I.'s average age would rise as Baby Boomers got older, sparking labour shortages. The plan was more successful than imagined, though, with the population growing at more than double the planned rate. A big cause of that was the pandemic, said MacKay, with thousands of unexpected interprovincial migrants arriving on the Island. Some came because it was seen as a safer place than Canada's big cities, and others because their employers began to allow remote work, which made moving possible. ...

A lot of those migrants were in their 20s and 30s, which meant success on one level. The median age of Islanders has begun to decline slightly.

"We need population growth … for the economy as a whole, but at the same time we need to make sure we don't fall down this hole again on our housing situation," said MacKay.

 Those new residents are important for the Island economy, agreed Pelletier. "I don't think we should be necessarily cutting off our economic potential by reducing our intake of new residents just because housing is not keeping up," he said. "Newcomers aren't to blame for P.E.I.'s housing crisis. They're not to blame for Canada's housing crisis, and they should be part of the solution rather than being pointed out as the problem."

Rents have been rising faster than the overall rate of inflation, up 9.0 per cent from December to December, while the overall inflation rate was 7.7 per cent. MacKay said the province's two per cent loan program should help with that, reducing the cost for developers to build. And there's more to come.  In the next few weeks, the minister said, there will be a number of announcements regarding new housing projects.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-housing-crisis-m...

The reason Premier Dennis King yesterday called an early election is reflected in the poll released today showing the PCs at 49% with a 27% lead over the Greens at 22% and a 30% lead over the Liberals at 19%. The NDP is showing relatively surprising strength for PEI, having increased from 4%, a typical poll number in recent years, to 9%. This is likely a reflection of the major issues facing the people of PEI, as the large increase in population recently, partly driven by PEI being seen as a safe place during Covid, has led to 0.1% rental vacancy rate, the lowest in the country, a large spike in house prices, the highest inflation rate in the country, and a large shortage of medical workers.

As noted in the last post 

This time, expect to see some of the same issues debated in 2019 return in an even more pressing manner, including:

• Health care and doctor shortages.
• Housing and homelessness.
• Inflation, poverty, wages and the economy. 
• Environment, climate change and shoreline protection.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/king-makes-it-official-prince-edwa...

The province's coastline is also facing massive erosion from sea level rise destroying many of the beaches that attract tourists and their money and have increased the risk of massive hurricane damage as seen just last year during Hurricane Dorian. One example of the erosion is the First Nations reserve of Lennox Island is disappearing because of sea level rise (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-lennox-island-gr...).  Part of the population is no doubt benefitting greatly from the population growth, high housing and other prices, but I think King realizes that what is working for him in the short run will create problems longterm, resulting in his early election call. 

Nevertheless, with the PCs enormous lead over all opposition parties, the question no longer is just whether the NDP likely not win a seat in the upcoming election, but whether any opposition party will win a seat under our beloved FPTP electoral system. 

Satisfaction with the performance of the PEI provincial government led by Premier Dennis King remains strong. Currently, seven in ten Islanders are satisfied with Premier King’s government (71%, compared with 67% in November 2022). Dissatisfaction is limited with one-quarter (24%, unchanged) dissatisfied.  

If an election were held today, the PCs are the preferred choice for one-half (49%) of decided voters, unchanged from November 2022. The PCs remain well ahead of other parties. Approximately one in five decided voters support each of the Green Party (22%, compared with 25%), and the Liberal Party (19%, compared with 20%), while one in ten support the NDP (9%, up from 4%). The PCs are most preferred across the province.

When asked individual preference for premier, PC leader Dennis King continues to lead, preferred by approximately four in ten Islanders (42%, compared with 44% in November 2022). Support for other party leaders continues to be much lower. Green Party leader Peter Bevan-Baker is preferred by one-quarter of Islanders (24%, compared with 22%), while one in ten would like to see Sharon Cameron of the Liberal Party as premier (11%, compared with 8% for Sonny Gallant last quarter). Meanwhile, 4% would prefer the NDP leader, Michelle Neill (unchanged). King is most preferred across the province.  

https://narrativeresearch.ca/satisfaction-with-king-government-remains-s...

Following Kings anti-trans comments there were more anti-trans threats. He is part of the the problem. CBC has reported a surge in safety concerns for the transgender community in PEI. "The mental health toll that all of this is taking on our community is pretty profound'. The US anti-trans movement is adding fuel to the already existing fire of anti-trans bias in Canada, according to trans spokespeople in PEI.

The P.E.I. Transgender Network is holding a rally for trans rights on April 2nd.  The group says the rally is being planned in reaction to "ongoing and increased public displays of transphobia/anti-trans movements occurring across P.E.I." 

Lucky Fusca is the executive director of the group. They say that at the same time they are planning the rally, they have moved a health-care panel discussion from in-person to online because of safety concerns. "With the anti-trans rhetoric and movements happening globally and specifically on Prince Edward Island, there was a question from one of our panelists around safety," Fusca said. "And this is a shared sentiment with several other people involved. So we decided to move the event to a closed online meeting earlier in the week, and in its place we decided to launch 'Let's Get Loud,' which is going to be, for lack of a better word right now, a rally."

Fusca said the group's intention — as a community which includes allies and stakeholders — is to organize in a more formal way, as the number of anti-trans incidents and comments on the Island grows.  Fusca points to the postponement of a drag storytime event planned for the Kings Playhouse in Georgetown, P.E.I., after it was the target of online attacks. The event has now been rescheduled for April 15th. As well, harmful comments were shared on social media after someone raised concerns about a drag performance at a Canada Games bingo event.

'Allyship is a verb'

A city spokesperson told CBC on Wednesday that no police report was filed in the matter, and there was no incident at the event in question. Still, the P.E.I. Transgender Network put out a call to action, asking that the original person who posted the comments be held accountable. "This is really just the start," said Fusca. "Allyship is a verb, and we're hoping to be able to give some folks some direction by providing a 'how to be an ally to the trans community 101' and some follow up with some actionable, tangible things that people can put into place in their lives to advocate for the trans community." ...

Hearing about and seeing anti-trans actions is terrifying, Fusca said. "I think the mental health toll that all of this is taking on our community is pretty profound, including myself," they said. Fusca said there is nowhere they can feel safe at the moment.  "Whether it's out in the physical world or through an online presence, I feel a decreased sense of safety ... I don't really feel safe anywhere on P.E.I. that isn't an exclusively a trans or queer space," they said. Fusca said the hope for the health-care panel was to bring health professionals together with transgender individuals....

"Unfortunately it's fairly common right now that a lot of the anti-trans bills that are being introduced in the States are attacking the health-care system and health-care providers. It's a pretty scary space to be a trans individual, but also a scary space to be a health-care provider in different states, as the laws are criminalizing the care itself and the providers if they're providing care," they said.  "So to protect both our community and health-care practitioners, we decided to pivot this event." 

As for the rally, Fusca said there were fewer safety concerns because it will be a ticketed event, and people will have to abide by safer-space policies.  "We have some posters that we'll be putting up in the event space, and we'll be verbally reading the safer-space statement to all of the attendees at this event. So if anybody is found to be violating the safer-space [protocol], they will be removed from the event."

Fusca said there are a few theories about why more anti-trans comments and actions have appeared in the past few years. "A big one is the fact that folks feel very emboldened because they're not seeing consequences to actions as they relate to pretty much hate crimes or hateful discriminatory behaviours... "There was a lot, a lot, a lot of hate that was being spread and platformed through the freedom convoy movement. And there was little to no consequences for these individuals' actions and for that movement as a whole," they said. "Which is partly why I think that we're seeing that increase in public displays of transphobia and homophobia and racism throughout P.E.I. It's always been here. It's just a matter of: 'Why is it happening now?'"

When it comes to being an ally, Fusca said the first thing to think about is listening, and then acting if a call to action is put out. "They're going to listen to the community, the community organizations that are asking this of of them as allies and actually put it into action. So showing up in these spaces. Advocate for our community," they said. 

Another thing for people to remember is how to react when someone from the trans community shares their experience.  "If a trans person or an organization is sharing an experience or sharing something that's unfolding, it's a great practice for allies to — even if inside they're surprised by what they're hearing — to not express that to the individual because it can undermine or belittle their experience," Fusca said. "Make space to really just listen to the individual rather than sharing any notions around it being surprising or out of character."

That can also relate to comparisons.  "If we're comparing what's happening in the United States to here, we often get this rhetoric, 'Oh, you know, at least we're not in the States'. And the reality is that we pretty much are. It just looks different here," they said. 

And then, Fusca said, ask what someone needs. That's something to think about when you're talking to anybody.  Some suggested questions: "Would you like me to be a sounding board? Is there anything specific that I could do that could help you in this moment?" 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/cbc-pei-anti-trans-s...

There is growing tension over the prospect of what happens if wildfires like those seen elsewhere start in PEI.

Quote:

With woods filled with deadfall after post-tropical storm Fiona and forest fires around our region, there is some anxiety on Prince Edward Island.
Despite no fires in the province yet, tensions have flared up in P.E.I.’s legislature.
Much of the last week has been dominated by the opposition Liberal Party’s demands for a detailed plan from government if the worst were to happen. At times, the discussion got heated.
The message from the opposition Liberals was clear -- not enough is being done to prepare for the chance of wildfires in the province.
Justice and Public Safety Minister Bloyce Thompson tabled two documents Thursday in response to the questions around the P.E.I. EMO event checklist (Evacuation and all Hazards Emergency Plan), which hasn't been updated since July 2021.
“If they think that’s going to put Islanders’ minds at ease, it’s a far stretch from that,” said interim Liberal Leader Hal Perry.
Both are generic emergency response documents that do not specify potential risks of wildfire.
One point of contention was what would happen in unincorporated areas of P.E.I. The checklist says municipalities take the lead in evacuations, but the Minister said Friday that, in unincorporated areas, first responders, namely local fire departments and police, are in charge.
“We rely so much on our first responders. They’re trained to deal with evacuations,” said Thompson. “They’re the ones we trust in this, and Islanders trust.”
Thompson said evacuation plans cannot be too detailed because they need flexibility to respond to conditions on the ground.
With a burn ban still in place across the entire province, the minister said enforcement officers have responded to four fires, one of which has resulted in a fine, and three which are still under investigation.

More than 100 people showed up for the September 15 2023 youth led protest against the climate crisis in Charlottetown PEI. 

 

Chants of "System change, not climate change" rang through the streets of downtown Charlottetown on Friday. Upwards of 100 Islanders marched through the streets as part of the local edition of the Global Climate Strike. Similar events are taking place around the world between September 15 and 17, all organized by local groups.

"It's the reality we live in. It's not going away; it's just going to escalate," said Mille Clarkes, one of the organizers of the P.E.I. event.

She said the main goal of the event was to call on all levels of government to make changes, including halting all new fossil fuel developments and transitioning to clean energy. 

But on top of that, the event was an opportunity for like-minded folks to come together and counteract the sense of powerlessness that often accompanies climate change.

"Young people, old people, people from all different backgrounds, just showing that this is just an issue that affects everybody. It's the issue of our age," Clarkes said.

The march started and ended at the Coles Building in downtown Charlottetown, with numerous speakers from local non-governmental organizations. ...

One young attendee, eight-year-old Desmond MacPherson, said he wanted to inspire others.

"I really think that if you just start doing stuff, other people will look at you and say 'Wow, that's cool, maybe I could do that.' And then you have two people doing it. And then before you know it, you have like thousands of people doing it," he said.

Kathleen McRae from Charlottetown said she's always been a lover of nature, and took part in the hope that the event will draw more people's attention to the environment.

"I believe that we can do more — and if we can just activate people, then perhaps we can stop some of these things that are eroding in our environment," she said

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/climate-strike-2023-...

With Charlottetown facing an extreme housing shortage and the Trudeau Liberal government facing a shortage of housing backlash, the Trudeau government is providing $10 million over three years, not for new housing, but to streamline the development process for developers, a classic neo-liberal strategy. Considering the extreme shortage of housing, this is just a drop in the bucket of what it will take to create housing that will PEI's housing demand. 

After months of back and forth, Charlottetown and the federal government have come to a $10 million deal intended to increase housing builds in the city. Charlottetown is currently facing a severe housing shortage and there aren’t enough new builds to keep up with demand. A newly announced housing deal between Charlottetown and the federal Liberals of $10 million over three years isn’t to build any units directly, but for streamlining processes to make it easier for developers.

“There are lots of developments, potential developments, in the hopper right now, in the que, with our department of development,” said Philip Brown, mayor of Charlottetown. “This funding will help speed it up.”

The city and the federal government have been negotiating for months. The major sticking point was protections for the historic 500 lot in Charlottetown’s downtown core. Charlottetown resisted changes to increase by right building options, projects which don’t need city approval. “The federal government wanted to push the city as far as it could to increase density, the city wanted to protect as much as it could the unique character,” said Sean Casey, Charlottetown Liberal MP. “Ultimately both sides compromised enough that it got done.”

Instead, development will be focused around post secondary institutions, the hospital, and along the city’s three main transportation corridors, University Avenue, North River Road, and Saint Peter’s Road. New rules are set to allow fourplexes anywhere outside the 500 lot downtown and to increase height limits from 6 to 8 stories in high density areas, along with other changes to zoning, permitting, and other regulations intended to speed up the building process. Casey said this will allow the federal government to get involved with more affordable housing projects in the city.

https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/charlottetown-and-federal-government-comprom...

There is growing interest in the possible return of rail travel to Prince Edward Island because of the climate crisis.

Quote:

There are plenty of reasons to think a new train service on P.E.I. could go off the rails. The Island doesn't have a commuter population to support it. It would surely cost a fortune to build. ...
But are there any reasons why a return to rail on P.E.I. could make sense in Prince Edward Island's future? ...
In fact — 55 years after P.E.I.'s last passenger train left the station — the province is exploring the feasibility of a hydrogen-powered train service between Charlottetown and Summerside.

It's part of the government's quest to reduce the Island's carbon emissions. "We have to look at alternate ways of transportation, so we've talked about trains," said Environment Minister Steven Myers. "I don't think we'll ever see a train again like we used to have ... that went tip-to-tip. But if we could use trains in a way to move large volumes of people around, particularly for work, we could reduce cars on the road, and we could reduce our emissions." ...
Myers acknowledged the price tag of restoring an Island train service would be a challenge, and the province would have to find funding partners if the idea were to ever steam ahead again. "If we had a high, high need of busing between, say, Charlottetown and Summerside — and it was so high that we had so many buses on the road that we had to look at a more permanent, bigger solution — that's probably the time when you would look at a train," Myers said.

Many of P.E.I.'s original train stations and infrastructure have long been repurposed. Whether Islanders will ever see trains running again on P.E.I. likely remains way down the tracks.

Healthcare workers confronted Premier King over wage negotiations and the fact that "According to CUPE, a recent survey it conducted found 85 per cent of its members are struggling to afford groceries and electricity costs, forcing some health-care workers to leave the field, or take second jobs in some cases. "

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-cupe-health-work...