For sheer entertainment, it’s hard to beat the political theatre coming out of a public impeachment inquiry that got underway in Washington this week.
It was certainly hard to miss, broadcast live by major American networks as well as CBC and CTV.
But I didn’t see much of it live, opting for another political production broadcast live from Charlottetown. It features 27 MLAs on the floor of the provincial legislature debating how to spend our hard-earned tax dollars.
It’s a lot more relevant, in my view, than U.S. President Donald Trump’s possible “quid pro quo,” the subject of a public inquiry that could lead to his impeachment.
While Republicans and Democrat representatives were interrogating witnesses in Congress this week, Island legislators were debating issues that impact the lives of Prince Edward Islanders.
Tory backbencher Cory Deagle, for example, grilled his own health minister, James Aylward, about a nurse shortage at the hospital in Montague. He said its emergency room, which requires 8.4 full-time equivalent nurses, has only 5.5 on staff. He said they’re being told if they can’t work enough overtime, the ER will have to close. They’re exhausted and frustrated, Deagle said, and he asked Aylward to
“personally step in” and deal with the crisis. The minister said it’s the first he’s heard these specific concerns, even though he’s visited the hospital several times and met with frontline staff. If anyone in the health care system ever wants to speak with him, he said he has an open-door policy – “I am available.”
Aylward also faced tough questioning from opposition MLAs about a shortage of doctors and psychiatrists. Liberal MLA Gord McNeilly noted one in 10 Islanders are currently on the patient registry, despite a promise by the King government in the spring election campaign to improve access to family doctors. He said nearly 2,000 Islanders have been added to the registry since then “so the situation has gotten steadily worse.” Aylward assured McNeilly access to primary care and family physicians is of “paramount importance” to government. He said recruiting efforts are ongoing and that all options are on the table in designing a health care system that will be “new and bold.” He said in addition to family doctors, that might include nursing practitioners, dieticians, RNs with COPD training or RNs with mental health training.
And in an earlier exchange, Green MLA Lynne Lund quizzed Transportation Minister Steven Myers about his plan to redirect funds from the carbon tax into an active transportation fund to improve cycling and walking trails in the province. While she’s fully supportive of establishing such a fund, she said under current legislation money from the carbon tax must be returned directly to Islanders in the form of rebates or adjustments, not program spending.
Myers offered a spirited defence of the initiative but skirted the issue Lund raised in her question. Asked the same question, Premier Dennis King said putting the carbon tax towards the transportation fund is an investment in Islanders, one that he said is long past due.
“We need to deal with climate … we need to deal with it now,” he affirmed. “… Let history judge us at the end.”
Good debate and some political theatre to boot easily “trumps” the impeachment inquiry.
In my view, proceedings in our own legislature are still the best political show in town.
Wayne Young is a freelance writer living in Summerside.
