Promises aplenty and candidates lock in: What happened in Week 2 of P.E.I.'s campaign

Week 2 of the P.E.I. election is behind us, and we're at the halfway point now.

Last week started off in full sprint with a Monday night election call and each weekday booked solid with promises.

Week 2 kept pace but opened up the slate of promises to include issues outside of health care — a topic that dominated the conversation.

We saw the PCs make promises in child care, affordability, housing and communities; the Greens make promises in health care, land use and senior care; the Liberals make promises in mental health and senior care; and the NDP make promises in senior care, student tuition and affordability.

Here are some of the key promises this week:

• The PCs said they would reduce childcare fees to $10 a day by the end of 2023 and establish a $20-million fund to provide grants for early-learning centres and add more spaces. They'd also increase the Basic Personal Exemption Amount to $15,000 over four years, and increase the Seniors Tax Credit by 40 per cent to $6,510 and raise the threshold for it to $36,000. On housing, they pledged to launch a rent-to-own program with financing options through the government for renters to purchase a home.
• The Greens said they would invest $37 million directly into wage increases for frontline health-care staff, and boost funding to provincial pharmacare by $18 million. They'd also expand home-care services and create a detox facility in Summerside. On another topic, they'd implement a land-use plan Island-wide.
• The Liberals said they would establish a dedicated department of mental health and addictions and expand the number of walk-in clinics on P.E.I. They'd also launch a provincial home-care program that would provide family caregivers with $1,500 per month and a one-time contribution of $10,000 to cover 50 per cent of home renovations for accessibility reasons.
• The NDP said they would create community health-care hubs and provide a $2,000 annual caregiver grant to help seniors at home. They also promised to increase the home heating benefit to $2,400 and the provincial sales tax credit from $110 to $200 per person. For students, the NDP said they'd invest $500,000 to freeze university tuition.

Head over to our 2023 promise tracker for a full breakdown of the promises by each party. At this point, the NDP are still the only party to have released a full platform. 

Also on the campaign trail this week, the first of leaders' discussions took place Thursday afternoon. The P.E.I. Coalition for Women in Government hosted the four main party leaders on the topic of equity issues. There are more of these types of discussions and debates coming up, including the CBC Leaders' Debate on Monday, March 27.

Issues off the campaign trail mounting

Off the campaign trail we saw more indications of how some institutions are at the breaking point on Prince Edward Island.

The Medical Society of P.E.I. gave a blunt reminder this week that the province's health-care system is on the verge of collapse.

Dr. Krista Cassell, president of the society, said the system is running on the goodwill of the people working in it and they're at their wits' end. She urged all parties to make commitments to save health care immediately.

"We're really just running out of runway here. People are tired. People are frustrated. It's very hard to get your job done every day in this system," she told CBC News. "We're losing people, we're losing practitioners, because they're so fed up."

The P.E.I. Nurses Union made a similar call, frustrated that contract negotiations have been put on hold during the campaign. President Barbara Brookins said the union was at a "critical point" in negotiations with Health P.E.I. when the election was called. That has kicked negotiations down the road until mid-June for a union that's been without a contract for two years, she said.

"It just keeps going on and on and we don't think it can get any worse and it does get worse," she said. "Nurses have been asked over and over again to pick up, to do more, to hold the system together, and we can't continue to rely on nurses. We just can't. The system is crumbling and we need to address it now."

That gave other parties the opportunity to slam the PCs over the snap election call.

"[The PCs are] using this election, that was unnecessary, to further delay the completion of these negotiations," Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker said. 

Meanwhile, the supervised injection site continues to sit in limbo. Last week, PC Leader Dennis King announced that if he were re-elected, the yet-to-be-opened supervised injection site wouldn't be on Belmont Street in Charlottetown. It's a backpedalling from the initial plan to open it in a building just across from the Upper Room Hospitality Ministry. 

The issue came up at Charlottetown city council Monday evening (34 minutes and15 seconds into the livestream) with questions from Coun. Mitch Tweel.

Mayor Philip Brown confirmed three appeals have been filed to IRAC after the city awarded permits for a supervised consumption site on Belmont Street. Planning manager Alex Forbes said restarting the permitting process for a new location would lead to further delays in getting it up and running.

"In the next little while we'll be seeking direction from the province in regard to what is their intent," Forbes said. "If that is their intention, that that location is no longer of interest to them, it would certainly be nice to know that."

Candidates are locked in

Candidates in the election are officially locked in, after the passing of the 2 p.m. AT Friday deadline to register. 

There are 119 candidates running in this election, which is a record high for a provincial election on P.E.I.

Five parties are represented as well as four Independent candidates. Here's the breakdown:

• PCs: 27 of 27.
• Greens: 25 of 27.
• Liberals: 25 of 27.
• NDP: 27 of 27.
• Island Party: 11 of 27.

Advance voting days are March 25, 27, and 31.

Election Day is Monday, April 3.