CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Both the Opposition Greens and Liberals had quibbles but largely found little to oppose in the government’s capital budget, released on Friday.
Green finance critic Michele Beaton and former Liberal finance minister Heath MacDonald both said they intend to vote in favour of the $156-million budget, the first of the Dennis King government.
The release of the budget followed a series of meetings involving government house leaders of the governing PCs, the Liberals and the Greens.
Beaton praised the $5-million funding allocated for rural health-care hubs, an item included in the 2019 Greens election platforms.
"It really represents the focus on the need for health care in our rural areas. I really commend the government for including those," Beaton told the house on Friday.
Beaton also praised $750,000 in new funding for electric vehicle charging stations and the announced pilot project of a new electric school bus. In addition, she praised the $17.5 million for new publicly-owned housing but raised questions about the construction cost of each unit.
“It's for up to 100 units, which works out to $175,000 per unit,” Beaton said in an interview.
“To me, that’s excessive.”
Beaton said this amount approached the cost of modest single-family homes.
MacDonald was “generally pleased,” with the budget but said the Liberal caucus would need time to review it.
"There's been some pretty substantial increases – I believe mental health from $100 to $150 million," MacDonald said.
"There's things like that (which) we still have to define to ensure we understand."
The capital budget also set out $800,000 in the next year for a new collaborative primary care centre in Queens County, which was promised in the Liberal budget.
NDP Leader Joe Byrne also offered qualified praise for the new investments in housing.
"I appreciate the money the province is going to put in, in the short-term, for those 100 units. I don't think that's enough,” Byrne said.
"What we see in the budget is, let's get those hundred units built and then a blank for three years."
Tory Housing Minister Ernie Hudson said the 100 figure on new housing units was “on the conservative side” and suggested the actual number may be as high as 120.
He said the high cost of the announced units was due to the lack of public sector partners in the publicly-owned builds.
“These are actually government-owned units. That's a very important thing to differentiate on," Hudson said.
