Funding confusion
Education minister says federal government content with how money being spent in P.E.I.’s French schools
Legislation to have post-traumatic stress disorder covered under the Workers Compensation Act has passed the last step needed to come into effect.
On Tuesday, Workforce Minister Sonny Gallant confirmed in the legislature that cabinet proclaimed a private member’s bill that made PTSD covered by the Workers Compensation Board.
Jason Woodbury, Miscouche’s fire chief and president of CUPE local 3324, has been calling for the government to proclaim the bill since it passed in December and he was at the legislature Tuesday to hear the news.
Woodbury said it took five years of work to get the coverage for Island workers.
“It’s a relief,” he said. In December, MLAs unanimously passed a private member’s bill to have PTSD covered by the Workers Compensation Board, but that bill wasn’t proclaimed until Tuesday.
Under the private member’s bill, physicians were included in the list of people who could diagnose PTSD in workers compensation cases.
The Liberal government tabled its own bill this spring Workforce Minister Sonny Gallant is shown in the legislature with MLA Kathleen Casey. On Tuesday, Gallant confirmed in the legislature that cabinet proclaimed a private member’s bill that made PTSD covered by the Workers Compensation Board.
with several amendments to the Workers Compensation Act, including only allowing psychiatrists and psychologists to make a PTSD diagnosis.
The Liberals also included an amendment to expand the scope of coverage for workers.
Those amendments the Liberals proposed passed second reading Tuesday with unanimous support in the legislature after a new bill was introduced.
Woodbury said he didn’t
agree with the government taking out physicians as a group that could diagnose PTSD under the legislation because of long waits in getting to see psychiatrists or psychologists.
“If we feel it is a problem within our members and workers on Prince Edward Island then we’ll approach government again to lobby to have that changed and put physicians back into the bill,” he said.
Education Minister Jordan Brown wants discussions between the province and P.E.I.’s French language school board to be a two-way street.
During question period Tuesday, Brown gave somewhat of an update to the legal situation surrounding the province and school board.
In April, the board filed formal notice to sue the province over what it believes were misallocated funds from a federal agreement and gave the province 90 days to satisfactorily address the board’s requests.
Brown said every year the federal government reviews the federal-provincial agreement, which was drafted with consultation from the school board, and that it is content with “the way in which we spend the money”.
“We are happy with that… Moving forward, we will work with the French Language school board, provided they’re willing to work with us,” said Brown. “I will indicate that the first meeting I had with (the board), they arrived with a stack of Supreme Court of Canada cases. Discussion goes two ways, and in order to have a discussion you have to be willing to talk.”
The statement came after a line of questioning, which alternated between French and English, from Rustico-Emerald MLA Brad Trivers on the legal situation and how it was “allowed to get to this state”.
“The community is claiming that the province repeatedly violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in how it managed federal dollars from a federal-provincial agreement,” said Trivers. “Dollars earmarked for other purposes were used to cover operational costs like salaries.”
Since 2013, Ottawa has invested $1.5 million annually to support education in French as a first language with the 2013-18 agreement on French-language education calling on the province to invest the same amount.
The board alleges the province repeatedly violated a section of the charter during federal-provincial negotiations leading to the agreement, as well as during its implementation. It has requested the province stop using federal funds to reimburse regular school operations and to instead invest it to meet priority needs of the school board.
Brown, who responded both in French and English, also took an opportunity to state the province was proud of its investments in the French education program. He said it costs roughly $17,000 a year to educate a student in the French as a first language system and a little under $11,000 on the English side.