Achi news desk-
The Prince Edward Island government passed the largest ever provincial operating budget on Tuesday, on the final day of the legislative session.
The house sat until midnight Friday in an attempt to pass the $3.2 billion budget, which includes an $85 million dollar deficit.
Opposition MLAs took their time going through budget discussions. In the end, given how few seats they have, there wasn’t much they could have done to stop it.
The lack of cohesion over the budget was a sign of what has been a fiery session, as old allies traded barbs.
One such exchange happened back on March 5.
“Is this the kind of openness and transparency you had in mind all those years ago when I had faith in you,” Green MLA Peter Bevan-Baker said at the time.
“He’s out there making broad insinuations about things he knows are wrong,” King replied.
The change of tone came after five years of rather unprecedented collaboration between the government and members of the opposition parties on the island.
“The name-calling and so on degrades the dignity of the house,” said Prince Edward Island political science expert Don Desserud.
“The problem is that this is not new. It’s been like this before, and it seems like that again, but there was that time, that glimmer of hope, that they were moving beyond that.”
According to Desserud, that seems to have been abandoned now.
The opposition parties said they felt the difference, with the Greens going so far as to call it bullying.
“When the premier was challenged by Peter Bevan-Baker, instead of going back and falling back on your policy, which is what you’re supposed to do here, he got personal,” he said. Karla Bernard, leader of the Green Party from Prince Edward Island.
“The collaboration stopped when this PC government got a majority,” said Hal Perry, leader of the Liberal Party of Prince Edward Island.
King won a strong majority, 22 of 27 seats, in 2023. After a recent by-election, the Tories hold 21.
Deputy Prime Minister Bloyce Thompson argues that the idea of ​​working together is dead, despite the lack of opposition bills going through the house.
“I’m hoping that this fall they can work on some private members’ bills, if they want to, and we can work together to get those through,” Thompson said.
He said Tory votes are not determined by party control; some backbenchers voted in favor of some opposition bills.
For more news about Prince Edward Island visit our dedicated provincial page.
