LETTERS: Provincial leadership lacking and other P.E.I. letters |
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Last April, I wrote a letter to the editor regarding the then minister of housing, land and communities, Stephen Myers, and his autocratic decision to shut down a democratic, community-led process in eastern Prince Edward Island. That initiative was intended to bring together residents from both incorporated and unincorporated areas to discuss the challenges created by the 130-page, cumbersome, and outdated 2017 P.E.I. Municipal Government Act (MGA).
Rather than supporting constructive dialogue, Minister Myers publicly disparaged the efforts of mayors and residents, stating they were “wasting their time.” He further dismissed community input by saying that any submissions sent to his office would “just be put in the shredder.” At the time, Minister Myers promised to table the findings of a government-led review of the MGA by November 2025. Four months have now passed, yet no report or update has been made available.
The review of the Municipal Government Act is long overdue.
As former co-chair of the P.E.I. Rural Communities Council, alongside the late Elmer MacDonald, I met with then premier Dennis King in late 2023. We emphasized that his administration was well positioned to implement a provincewide land use plan, supported by decades of research and multiple commissions. A well-crafted, bottom-up Municipal Government Act — aligned with a comprehensive provincial land use........