NHL contract came up every single day during now-ended fall sitting of P.E.I. legislature

The fall sitting of the P.E.I. legislature came to a close Friday, after four weeks and 16 sitting days.

Over that time, Dennis King's Progressive Conservative government passed the largest capital budget in the province's history — by a significant margin — and a legislative committee issued a rare parliamentary subpoena to compel the tourism minister to provide details on a sponsorship deal with the National Hockey League. 

Here are some of the details and the drama from the sitting.

The province's NHL deal was mentioned every single day of the sitting. 

When the standing committee on education and economic growth issued a subpoena to Tourism Minister Zack Bell asking for a full copy of the contract (after he'd tabled a copy with all the dollar figures removed), it was only the third such subpoena issued since 2001.

That full contract showed the NHL deal will cost the province between $7.5 and $8.4 million over three years. The King government still has not said whether the contract will be extended beyond Dec. 31.

Last week, Liberal and Green members of the committee wrote to its chair, PC Brad Trivers, calling for another meeting to get information MLAs have been seeking on travel and other costs related to the contract. That didn't happen, and during question period Friday, Bell cited Rule 101 of the legislature, saying it prohibits committees from meeting while the house is sitting.

The clerk confirmed to the media that the rule prohibits meetings during the actual hours the house is sitting. Committees meet all time during sittings, but outside sitting hours.

It's worth noting that in 2019, the legislature changed the composition of most of its standing committees, giving each party in the house two seats. That fulfilled a campaign promise King made heading into that year's election.

If the governing PCs still held the majority on committees, it seems highly unlikely this month's subpoena would have been approved, let alone any future ones.

The government's capital budget, which passed in a vote Friday, includes $483 million in spending on schools, highways, housing and health-care facilities for the coming fiscal year.

That represents a 31 per cent hike over the capital budget passed a year ago — and works out to $2,703 in spending for every single P.E.I. resident.

It's also more than the combined value of three consecutive past capital budgets: the last two under the government of Wade MacLauchlan, tabled in 2017 and 2018, and the first capital budget King's government tabled in the fall of 2019.

On Friday, P.E.I.'s auditor general tabled a report on the long-term fiscal sustainability of the province.