Liberals plan to table balanced budget
MLAs return to the legislature for the spring sitting
A balanced budget will be the first big piece of business for the spring sitting of the legislative assembly, says Premier Wade MacLauchlan.
In an interview with The Guardian ahead of Thursday’s opening of the house, MacLauchlan said the budget, which will be tabled Friday, will reflect “good stewardship” and a strong economy.
MacLauchlan said it will address priorities that give Islanders a chance to benefit from how well the province is doing. “It will be a healthy budget.” Last spring was the first time in more than a decade that a provincial government tabled a balanced budget in the P.E.I. legislature. At the time, the Liberals expected a $600,000 surplus. In a fall fiscal update, the government said higher than expected revenues pushed the surplus to a projected $1.1 million.
MacLauchlan wouldn’t give any hints about what will be in the budget, but he said there will be some “important strategic steps taken.”
Along with the budget, the Liberals will be forced to deal with several other issues, including a carbon tax.
MacLauchlan said P.E.I.’s plan will have measures to create incentives for Islanders to address the province’s climate-change commitment.
A climate change action plan will be coming this spring, MacLauchlan said.
The province is also facing the impending legalization of marijuana and has already announced many details about how it will deal with the sale of cannabis. The necessary legislation to deal with legalization is coming this spring.
Also coming this sitting is legislation that MacLauchlan said will set the terms and “ground rules” for a referendum on electoral reform, including debate in the house on what the question will be.
“I think it is important that it be a clear question,” he said. Although the final number may change, MacLauchlan said the Liberals plan to table 10 to 12 bills this spring.
For the official Opposition, leader James Aylward said he expects the spring sitting to be a busy one with his party also tabling several pieces of legislation, including one to give more supports to victims of family and sexual violence.
“This addresses a real need,” he said.
Aylward said he would like to see the budget make strategic investments to improve services for Islanders that need them while addressing the cost of living and tax burden. Green party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker said he expects to be better prepared for the coming sitting with Hannah Bell, who won her seat in a November byelection.
Bell is the Green party MLA for Charlottetown-Parkdale. Bevan-Baker said this time around the Greens will have a bit more time allotted for questions, motions and bills.
With that time, the Greens plan to table a conflict of interest bill that Bevan-Baker said will be based on seven recommendations the conflict of interest commissioner made in 2015.
“I hope that will have a fairly easy passage through the house.” Bevan-Baker returns to the legislature for the first time since he was kicked out on the last day of the fall sitting after calling the level of debate in the house “a farce.”
He said he didn’t set out to get evicted from the house and he doesn’t think he will take a different approach this sitting than he has in the past.
“I won’t stop holding people accountable and trying to make the legislature as good a place as it can be for deliberation of bills.”