Premier's wife declines $100K tourism grant after criticism in P.E.I. Legislature

Jana Hemphill, who is married to P.E.I. Premier Dennis King, has decided to decline a $100,000 tourism grant from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency after the Opposition Greens made political hay of the announcement in the legislature Tuesday.

Hemphill's business, Storybook Adventures and Nature Retreat Inc., received a non-repayable loan of $100,000 from ACOA last week, one of 13 projects the federal agency funded in central P.E.I. out of the Liberal federal government's Tourism Relief Fund, launched to help that sector adapt after two years of COVID-19 disruptions. 

"While my ACOA application went through all the appropriate channels (including being sent to an out-of-province ACOA office for consideration), I clearly didn't anticipate the backlash that would follow," Hemphill said in a message to CBC News late Tuesday.

"I've been in business a long time, and I guess I naively believed I could separate my company from my personal life. In truth it seems my identity as 'wife' now trumps my role as entrepreneur — something I haven't yet become accustomed to."

During question period in the legislature Tuesday, the Opposition Green Party asked King pointed questions about the grant.

"Islanders are experiencing an unprecedented rise in the cost of living, and yet still they haven't received that $150 cheque that was promised to them by [the provincial] government six weeks ago," Opposition Leader Peter Bevan-Baker said. 

"Those Islanders are being forced to tighten their belts while at the same time the premier's wife gets a $100,000 grant. Islanders are, I believe, understandably upset."

He pointed to social media as he said: "There was quite an outcry over the weekend over this when it became known.… Hundreds if not thousands of Islanders expressed their concern."

King, a Progressive Conservative, said the business is entirely owned by his wife of 23 years.

"She is a strong, independent entrepreneur, a woman who knows what she wants and she's been working passionately at it her whole life," he said. "She is very capable of doing things on her own." 

The company's website describes it as "a high-performance equestrian facility … set on 24 rolling acres in beautiful Brookfield, Prince Edward Island."

It's also home to "goats, sheep, a pig named Fern, several pot-bellied pigs, hens, roosters, ducks, rabbits, a llama, cow, donkey and more… providing a space that allows people to disconnect from the hectic pace of daily life and reconnect with animals and nature."

The premier told the legislature he had nothing to do with Hemphill's application for funding, which ACOA said would allow the business to "upgrade its equestrian facilities to increase indoor riding capacity to attract additional off-island visitation."

"I can understand if people thought that I gave money to her, where they would be upset," King said.