Greens, Liberals question wisdom of UPEI medical school
CBC
P.E.I.'s Green and Liberal parties questioned whether a medical school at the University of Prince Edward Island was an effective solution for the province's health-care problems while on the campaign trail Wednesday.
All four parties held news conferences in the morning outlining their plans for addressing problems in the health-care system. The more than 28,000 Islanders waiting on the patient registry for a family doctor featured prominently in their remarks.
Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker and Liberal Leader Sharon Cameron both said there are questions about the school that need to be answered. Cameron said the Liberals were prepared to put the school on hold if those questions remained unsettled.
Bevan-Baker went further, saying a Green government would press pause on the school until a feasibility study was completed. He added such study should have been done before the school was approved.
"Everything here is backwards. When you govern well, you ask yourself a question: Is this something we should do?" he said.
"It's very, very clear that our health system and the medical personnel in it are not able to support what is being proposed. And therefore we need to press pause on this."
Cameron said the medical school will not provide the immediate help the health-care system needs.
"We will not see a single new doctor graduate from that school until 2030. P.E.I.'s health care needs are right now. Islanders cannot afford to wait a decade for this government to resolve them," Cameron said.
"We're prepared to even look at it deeper and maybe even put it on hold until we really understand and ask some serious questions about the med school."
At the Progressive Conservative announcement, party leader Dennis King defended the plan to build a medical school.
"We're very happy with the university's approach. We know there's questions and challenges," he said.
"This is a good investment for P.E.I. It's a good investment in our health-care system. For the first time, we can feel like we're beginning to take control of our own destiny."
King also outlined plans to address the patient registry. He said under a PC government, every Islander on it would have a primary health care provider within the next 24 months.
"Our primary care system was built in 1957," King said. "We have to stop trying to fix the system, and try to build and adapt a new one."
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.