Here's what Islanders should know about P.E.I.'s new capital budget

The PEI government is taking a big chunk out of its infrastructure budget. Over the next five years, it's allocating $300 million less. The capital budget was released today, November 10th. And two biggest areas of spending are education and health care. Government will replace Parkside Elementary in Summerside, one of the oldest schools in the country. A report made that recommendation last year. Queen Elizabeth Elementary in Kensington will be expanded. And there's also more money for school projects that have already been announced. The new intermediate school, for instance, in Stratford and an expansion at Queen Charlotte in Charlottetown. Work will be completed at three schools, École Evangeline and École François Bois, as well as at East Royalty. And plans are already underway for new schools in West Royalty and Georgetown. In health care, there will be more money to replace King's County Memorial Hospital. That plan has been in the works for years. There's also funding to finish the mental health campus in Charlottetown and for new long-term care beds in Time Valley. So with more on the capital budget, we're joined live tonight by Wayne Thibodeau. He's at the PEI Legislature. So, Wayne, what would you say is the big takeaway here today? Well, Finance Minister Jill Burge delivered her budget from the seat right behind me here. She said it was not a budget of grand announcements. In fact, she said it was a challenging budget to put together, mainly because of the state of the province's finances. Spending, as you mentioned, is down by 23% this year compared to last year. And as we all know, the Auditor General has been raising concerns over and over again about the state of the province's finances, debts and deficits that could reach $6 billion. dollars over the next five years. This budget will add to that. Every dollar we spend on capital is a dollar we borrow. We are running a deficit and we have been honest with Islanders about that. Capital projects are paid for over many years and we know that every dollar borrowed today carries interest that Islanders pay tomorrow and impacts that deficit. Now, Burrage says this budget was really about making hard decisions and reprioritizing, so we reached out to provincial officials to help us understand that. They gave us a few examples, so the replacement of King's County Memorial Hospital in Three Rivers, or Montague, and the new Stratford Intermediate School, those projects have been pushed back. Plans for a medical residence, so for doctors in training at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The province planned to build a five-storey building on that site. That's been reduced down to one storey, with plans to maybe add a couple of extra storeys at some point in the future. And a public housing project in Hillsborough Park, that's in Charlottetown. They plan to build a 60-unit apartment building. Those plans are also on hold. So what do the opposition parties have to say, Wayne? Well, both opposition parties say people should be worried about the province's finances. And they say people on the island, islanders, just aren't seeing the results from all this spending. This government has spent and spent every single year with really not much of a plan or results to show for it. If there's going to be significant spending that we've seen, islanders should also be seeing an impact in their lives. They should be able to have access to care. Classrooms should be working. So look, I think it's a little bit more of the same. I guess I'd characterize it as a budget that barely treads water presented by a drowning government. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. They're trying their best to get the fiscal house in order, but by returning to the ways of the previous Liberal government where they didn't spend on anything for years, that's not the way to dig yourself out of a hole. So just quickly, Wayne, anything else stood out to you in this? Yeah, remember that $1.6 million to improve cell phone service? Well, that's still in the capital budget. With the federal money announced, there'll be about $2.5 million. Provincial officials say we'll start to see some work on putting those cell phone towers on existing buildings across PEI next year. Where those cell phone towers will go, we don't know that yet. Yeah, cell phones coverage, still a big issue right across the island. Thank you for that, Wayne. That's Wayne Thibodeau reporting from the PEI Legislature tonight. And you can read more about the provincial capital budget on our website, cbc.ca/pei.