Greens pass first bill in P.E.I. legislature

The Green Party of P.E.I. passed its first piece of legislation Thursday, a milestone for the third party.

A bill introduced by the party to amendthe Innovation PEI Act passed second reading Thursday.

The amendments addthe sector of "creative and cultural industries" to the Act and expand the definition of renewable energy to include "clean technology."

Green Party MLA Hannah Bell said updates to the Act arelong overdue.

"I think it's something that's ano-brainer. [Creative and cultural industries] iswho we are on P.E.I."

Bell said that adding "clean technology" to renewable energy sectors was "critically important."

"This is the next wave of economic opportunity in Canada," she said.

"This is a chance for us to show our commitment, just with those three words, that we are open for business in some of the economic activity that can actually come from that expansion of that part of the industry."

Amendments tosexual violence bill

The Greens also passed several amendments which were incorporated by government into itsPost-Secondary Institutions Sexual Violence Policies Act,tabled last week by Minister of Workforce and Advanced Learning Sonny Gallant.

Thebill requires that post-secondary institutions develop policies and a process to addresssexual violence involving students.

The schools must alsoreport all incidents of sexual violence to the department.

The Greens proposed an amendmentthat expands the definition of sexual violence to include "the distribution of sexually explicit photograph or video as an example of sexual violence."

Consent training and cultural sensitivity

Green party leader Peter Bevan-Bakersaid the changes are to make the bill more specific in its ability to protect victims of sexual violence.

"The word prevention was not even mentioned in the legislation initially," Bevan-Baker said. "So we added a number of clauses that talked about training and understanding what consent means."

The bill is also meant to ensure that any sexual violence policy be culturally sensitive to include vulnerable groups like members of the LGBTQ community and people living with disabilities.

"These [amendments] were in large part taken from other pieces of legislation like this in other jurisdictions," said Bevan-Baker.

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