7-hour throne speech response not a filibuster: Opposition

The Great Antonio was a Canadian strongman and professional wrestler. He may or may not have been part of a touring group of wrestlers who competed once at the old Souris rink, but his name was brought up in passing during debate in the P.E.I. Legislature on Friday.

Opposition MLA Colin Lavie was talking about the old Souris rink — how they used to store potatoes there in summer, how low the ceiling was, how fast the hockey was, and yes, they used to have wrestling shows there in the off-season.

This was about seven-and-a-half hours into a Tory filibuster — although the opposition denies that's what this is — that's so far prevented government from tabling its spring budget.

Among the topics that did not come up for debate in the legislature last week: how many teachers government will provide for Island school boards next year. Though there's nothing to prevent government from providing the boards with a number, according to the superintendent of the English board, they've been told to wait until the budget is tabled.

Government cannot table its budget until every MLA that wants to respond to the speech from the throne has had a chance to do so. Opposition leader Steven Myers' response took six hours, nine minutes. Colin Lavie still has the floor. The six other Tory MLAs are awaiting their turns, as is Green leader Peter Bevan-Baker along with some MLAs from the government side.

Myers denies the opposition move is delaying the budget. In fact he denies the budget is even delayed, although in a normal year, without an election, it would have been tabled in April.

"There's no delay in the budget," he says. "Nobody has ever come to me and said 'We want to bring the budget in on Tuesday or Monday or Wednesday.' Nobody has ever come to opposition and said, 'Here's the day we want to bring it in.'"

Myers: 'give opposition some respect'

So why did Myers spend more than six hours addressing the speech from the throne, when last year he spent at most 20 minutes? Perhaps this comment sheds some light on his motivation: "I realize Wade MacLauchlan has no respect for opposition. He doesn't like to be challenged, he doesn't like to be asked questions. We are part of the process, we are part of the Legislative Assembly ... We'll continue to take it very seriously and perhaps at some point down the road, he'll give us some respect."

Back in 2008 Tory MLA Jim Bagnall filibustered on the speech from the throne while reporters were already in the budget lock-up. Government was forced to delay the budget release and reporters were forced to sign an oath swearing they wouldn't divulge any budget details they'd been provided before they were allowed to leave the lock-up.

Sources told the CBC the PCs were irked they'd learned when the budget was coming down through the media, and hadn't been informed by the Ghiz government of the day.

Tories monopolize time in House

One thing the filibuster — or non-filibuster — has done is allowed the PC opposition to monopolize much of the time in the legislature. Each week certain periods of various sitting days are set aside for government, other times for the official opposition to bring their own business to the floor, such as motions or bills for debate.

But responses to the speech from the throne always come during government time, no matter who's responding. So the opposition has taken up seven-and-a-half hours which government could have used, for example, to bring bills up for debate, or, had the budget been tabled, provide details on departmental spending.

Meanwhile, the opposition has been able to use its own time to bring up its own issues, including a pair of motions Thursday on the high cost of hearing aids and out-of-province health care spending.