What you should know before a jam-packed fall sitting of the P.E.I. Legislature begins

The pressure is on for politicians to deliver for Islanders as this could be the final sitting before an election. Opposition parties are hungry for more seats. The governing PCs, this expert says, are looking for a win. They're going to be looking at this session. It's kind of like this is our last chance to really get our act back together. They need a home run. They need something significant that the public are going to jump onto. But they've got to do something. PCs have to do something soon, otherwise to turn these things around. Premier Rob Lantz says government's attention is on islanders. Two priorities this fall, paring down IRAC and passing capital budget. And financial experts will be watching. They've said the hundreds of millions in extra spending cannot keep going. Government is defending the spending as badly needed. We're not going to attract people to Prince Edward Island if there's not a school for their children to attend, if there's not a health care facility for them to access. So these are, we're investing in the future. We believe these are generational investments Also putting them on the defence is the party's rocky year, with a former minister still under investigation by RCMP, another resigned to avoid breaking conflict of interest, and then an internal petition to review Rob Lance's leadership, and then RCMP laying 42 charges against the party's official agent. Well, this is part of being in government. Things happen. Of course, we take all of these issues very seriously, and we've got to stay focused on governing and delivering for Islanders. The Liberals will be looking at everything. While they debate in the House, their leader will be crisscrossing PEI talking to Islanders. The overarching theme is that this province feels lost, and this government doesn't seem sure what it wants to do, what it's going to do, or how it's even going to do it. That needs to change. If you do not have plans and purpose, you do not get to a better place for Prince Edward Island. They're taking aim at PC leadership and finances. Kuchar's concern is that this budget may be a pre-election campaign for government. We need better long-term planning of both capital and operational spending in this province and we have to get PEI back on track. The fiscal situation is getting really dire. This government is borrowing on future generations and when they say they're going to put money back in your pocket, they should maybe stop taking it out first. Upstairs, the Greens have those issues top of mind too. Concerns they say the PCs have ignored. What we've seen since Dennis King resigned as premier is a PC party that has been inwardly focused, focused on itself, focused on measures, desperately trying to resonate to voters and Islanders, but it's failed. It's missing out on what's important. And one thing that's important, the Greens say, is leadership, adding that Islanders are fed up with controversies. Enough is enough. I don't think that Islanders are prepared to extend any more olive branches to this government when they've been operating in what's in their own best interest for so long and putting Islanders' needs and interests secondary. The sitting begins Tuesday, and Lance says government has a full slate of things it wants to accomplish before the end. And of course, last year the sitting ended before the end of the month, but he says this time it could go into December. Cody McKay, CBC News, Charlottetown.