Question about keeping tabs on LTC money leads to testy exchange in P.E.I. legislature - Action News
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PEI

Question about keeping tabs on LTC money leads to testy exchange in P.E.I. legislature

A demand Green MLA Peter Bevan-Baker madein the legislature Thursday for accountability from private long-term care home operators led Premier Dennis King to accuse him of smearing the names of 'good people across Prince Edward Island.'

Charge cash is being 'shoveled into a dark pit' brings retort about 'fall from grace

Health care questions turn into personal digs between Green MLA, P.E.I. Premier

6 months ago
Duration 2:55
What started as a P.E.I. MLA's question about a provincial health-care trip to Denmark turned into a tense Question Period moment on April 11. Green Party MLA Peter Bevan-Baker alleged public money meant for long-term care is going to 'Tory friends' and Premier Dennis King fired back by saying the Green MLA had a 'fall from grace.'

A demand Green MLA Peter Bevan-Baker madein the legislature Thursday for accountability from private long-term care home operators led Premier Dennis King to accuse him of smearing the names of "good people across Prince Edward Island."

On Wednesday, the province said it would provide long-term care (LTC) operators with $25 million to open dozens of new long-term care beds. Health Minister Mark McLane said 65 per cent of that money would go toward raising wages for workers in private long-term care homes, to bring them closer to what workers inthe public sector make.

Bevan-Baker wanted to know how the government will make sure that money is indeed spent on wages.

"The $25 million of Islanders' money is all all of it being shoveled into a dark pit where none of us can see how it is actually being spent," he said.

Peter Bevan-Baker gestures while standing in the legislature.
Long-term care home books need to be open to ensure private operators are spending the money as directed, says Green MLA Peter Bevan-Baker. (Province of P.E.I.)

"Until the books of the private long-term care facilities are fully open, there is no openness or accountability. Public dollars are being given to Tory friends with no way for opposition members or Islanders to know how it is being spent."

King's responsewas swift.

"It pains me to see the extent this member has gone, the fall from grace, where he would come into this legislature as the beacon of hope and optimism and all he does is continue to smear the good people across Prince Edward Island," the premier said.

"To hear this honourable member speak so disparagingly about not only the people who own these facilities but the people who work within them, Madame Speakerit really, really, really pains me to see this tremendous fall from grace [of] someone I used to hold in the highest of regard."

The two also sparred over a fact-finding trip to Denmark by the health minister and health department staff to examine long-term care practices there.

Bevan-Baker argued that trip should have resulted in more money being spent on home care and more independent living conditions.

The premier countered by sayingthe province does have a continuum of care for aging Islanders, and investments in lower-level-of-care options would also increase.

With files from Cody MacKay