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Session: 2/66 Date: 12 May 2021 No: 32 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS AND ORAL QUESTION PERIOD (PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS) FOR WEDNESDAY, 12 MAY 2021 QUESTION PERIOD PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS 12 MAY 2021 Responses to Questions Taken as Notice safe, and also to all Islanders who are terrifically engaged and follow the health Speaker: The hon. Premier. protocols so very closely. Premier King: Thank you very much, Mr. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Speaker. Speaker: The hon. Minister of Health and Yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition Wellness. asked me to provide some clarification on one of the exposure sites that was released Mr. Hudson: Thank you very much, Mr. on Friday, May the 7th, as part of a public Speaker. health bulletin. In response to questions with regard to exit As I mentioned in my response, Public surveys for health employees across the Health Nursing and the Chief Public Health province, since the formation of Health PEI, Office work with individuals who receive a the opportunity for employees to conduct an positive diagnosis for COVID-19 to conduct exit interview has been available. Exit contact tracing. This is a methodical process interviews are sent from human resources that often takes multiple interviews with representatives and all Health PEI individuals to get all of the necessary employees who exit Health PEI are provided information and to ensure that all close the opportunity to complete an exit contacts and potential exposure sites are interview. identified. This would apply to all classification groups Contact tracing begins soon after the in Health PEI, such as nurses, RCWs, LPNs, individual is informed of their positive physical therapists, physicians, service COVID-19 test results. As you can workers, et cetera. I will be tabling a blank appreciate, it’s often a time where these copy of the exit interview survey that is individuals are worried, scared and upset. made available to all employees. They’re also concerned about their own health, as well as the wellbeing of their Thank you, Mr. Speaker. family and friends and, of course, all Islanders. Some Hon. Members: Hear, hear! For one of the public exposure sites reported Questions by Members last Friday, the initial information provided to the public was incorrect and identified the Speaker: The hon. Leader of the wrong day of the potential exposure. This Opposition. exposure site was not considered high risk and individuals who were at the site were Leader of the Opposition: Thank you so required to get tested only if they had much, Mr. Speaker. symptoms of COVID-19. When the CPHO learned about the error, they took immediate The forests of PEI tell an interesting tale of steps to correct the information by advising the history of our province since settlers the public and the media on Monday arrived in the 1700s. In order to create morning. arable land, the existing forest cover had to be cleared. While most of the timber would Again, the guidance for anyone at this have been burned by those early pioneers exposure site did not change. Individuals simply to get rid of it, much of it was used to were asked to self-monitor and testing is build the first homes here on the Island, to required only with individuals who are heat those houses, and to build fences to symptomatic. contain livestock. I take this opportunity just to thank, again, The second wave of harvesting was much on behalf of all Islanders and individuals in later and it involved removal for ship this House, the dedicated public health staff building and to ship mature timber to and the CPHO for their great work in Europe where most of the forest there had, managing COVID-19, for keeping Islanders of course, already been felled. 436 QUESTION PERIOD PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS 12 MAY 2021 Our forests reveal a story of the challenges Leader of the Opposition: Thanks, Mr. faced by early pioneers and of a time of Speaker. iconic commercial prosperity here on Prince Edward Island. Continuing on the sort of history lesson that we’re providing here; the infamous land Third wave of deforestation lottery of 1767 put the entire Island, including forested land of course, in the To the minister of environment: What story hands of a small number of proprietors. is the current third wave of deforestation Unlike the other Canadian provinces, that telling us about our province? process failed to reserve any Crown land for timber, leading to the situation we have now Speaker: The hon. Minister of where almost 90% of the Island is in private Environment, Energy and Climate Action. hands. Mr. Myers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we discussed last week in the House, this creates challenges for government when it I don’t think we’re not at the levels we were comes to what can and can’t be regulated on in the early 1900s where we had 8% forest this private property. cover and a lot of the land on Prince Edward Island was farmed by small farms. There’s a To the same minister: Like me, I’m sure small farm in my family on my mother’s you’ve had a large number of emails and side – my great grandparent’s that’s calls and other messages from worried completely forested now that would Islanders concerned about how your probably still be considered agricultural administration is going to manage this. What land, I don’t really know. But it was the can you tell all of the people who’ve reached family farm and it was for a number of out to me with concerns in the last few years, and it became forest. days? In some cases, those growths – and they Speaker: The he Minister of Environment, grew over the years and filled back in. I Energy and Climate Action. think that we’ve seen the land kind of change again, in some cases. I know we’ve Mr. Myers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. talked about this and we don’t know the complete result. In the 90s there was a big Besides the fact they probably reached out push to build golf courses so there’s golf to the wrong person, they should’ve reached courses and that could have contributed to it. out to the decisions makers that can actually make the decisions, I will say that I’ve I know there’s an increase of biomass; that spoke to a number of people, I’ve received might be contributing to it. I know there’s an emails. It seemed that there was some sort of increase of farmland; that might be a combination between the Environmental contributing to it. I think we have to look at Bill of Rights and the discussion that we’ve what all the issues are and when we talked been having about forestry here. about it Budget estimates here yesterday, is we have to – our goal for ourselves is: What Maybe, in one particular area where one are we working inside? What’s reasonable to particular member of this Legislature might expect on an Island of our size that has have been telling people things that weren’t population density that we have going into true. It wasn’t from your caucus, so not you the future? guys, but I’ve talked to numerous farmers and numerous woodlot owners and I’ve said Quite frankly, I don’t believe that we have we haven’t made any decisions. that answer, but I think we need it. So, what we need to do is look and say: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What do they need? I’ve committed to meeting with the PEI Woodlot Owners Speaker: The hon. Leader of the Association to talk about what their needs Opposition. are for healthy forests into the future and how they can make money on it, but look internally and say: what can we do to help 437 QUESTION PERIOD PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS 12 MAY 2021 protect forests by incentivizing people to not Leader of the Opposition: So, when the cut down their trees and let them become member says they’re talking to the wrong mature, much like we already do with the person because he’s not speaking to the farm community and the ALUS program. decision-makers – We have to look at a program similar to Mr. Myers: You asked the question, I ALUS, maybe a little more robust, that deals answered it. with woodlots on Prince Edward Island because they are spread out everywhere Leader of the Opposition: – that really tells across Prince Edward Island. us a lot about how this minister thinks his job is and what he thinks the rest of our jobs And I might add that the number that we’re are. working from is the 1990 number, which was kind of like an all-time high for us, as We have a clash of several opposing forces far as the pieces of Prince Edward Island here. We all know how much the price of that were forested. And of course, there was lumber has increased in the last year, so that over 10,000 hectares disappeared in the 10 financial incentive to harvest is significant. years between 1990 and 2000, and we’re continuing down that path. It’s not a path The public is also more knowledgeable and that we want to be on, but I contend that we concerned than ever about preserving the don’t really have the answer for what is the natural environment.