Longest sitting of P.E.I. legislature since 1999 comes to a close

After 39 days of debate, the spring 2018 sitting of the P.E.I. legislature came to a close Tuesday night after government passed a controversial bill paving the way for a referendum on electoral reform.

Debate on the bill ranged over nine sitting days, with government passing 17 amendments to its own bill, and opposition parties introducing even more.

That drawn-out debate made the sitting the longest the provincial legislature has had since 1999, when Pat Binns was premier. That spring the house also sat 39 days.

Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker had raised concerns the bill might not withstand a challenge under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. His concerns were based on what he called "draconian" limits on free speech in the form of advertising spending limits and wording which might have restricted what the media were able to publish in the lead-up to the referendum.

Pot legislation, FOIPP expanded

In the final bill those spending limits were doubled from $500 to $1,000 and restrictions on the media were loosened, but both the Greens and PCs still voted against the amended bill.

Government also passed legislation to pave the way for legalized marijuana, along with a bill to bring the province's four largest municipalities and post-secondary institutions under its freedom of information regime.

The MacLauchlan government also reversed course — for a second time — on election finance reform, passing legislation to cap annual donations to political parties at $3,000 for individuals while banning corporate and union donations. The province previously had no limits on donations. Money raised by political parties which came in before the end of the sitting was to be exempted from the new limits.

A number of private members bills passed, including one from Liberal backbench MLA Allen Roach which could make P.E.I. the first province to ban single-use plastic shopping bags.

The Opposition PCs were able to pass their own bills, one which will provide paid leave for victims of sexual violence, another which will allow members of the public to sit on the board of the Crown lending agency Island Investment Development Inc.

Fox vs. cow: the foxes have it

Independent MLA Bush Dumville also passed a private members bill to have the red fox declared as the animal emblem of P.E.I., though it led to one of the more remarkable debates of the sitting, as Liberal MLA Alan McIsaac argued at length the distinction should be given to the Holstein cow.

The fox vs. cow debate became contentious because the original proposal to go with the red fox was made by a group of schoolkids. McIsaac admitted that in arguing at length for the Holstein he took "a little bit of a shot" at his former caucus colleague Dumville, who left the Liberal party before the sitting began.

With speculation around a possible election in the fall, there is the possibility the current legislative assembly might not meet again. The last provincial election was held May 4, 2015.

The province's fixed election date in legislation is set for the fall of 2019, but with a federal election also scheduled for that time, P.E.I.'s legislated date would switch to April 2020. Under repeated questioning during the sitting, the premier would not commit to holding an election on the legislated date.

However, thanks to one of the measures in the Electoral System Referendum Act, Islanders will get a heads-up that an election is coming whenever cabinet enacts the start of the period for the referendum. That will mean an election is to be held sometime within the next eight months.