P.E.I.’s interim Green leader says ‘broken’ health system a top concern for 2024 | CBC News

Karla Bernard has been the interim leader of P.E.I.’s Green Party for less than half of 2023, but she might feel like she’s put in a full year’s worth of work. 

The party’s provincial council selected her for the role in July after former leader Peter Bevan-Baker announced the previous month that he would be stepping down. 

The Greens had lost six of their eight seats in the April 3 provincial election, leaving only Bernard and Bevan-Baker as sitting MLAs. 

“It’s a lot more work than it was before and I also feel a lot of weight on my shoulders because there’s not eight people to share that with. There’s two of us,” Bernard told CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin during a year-end interview on Wednesday. 

“Sometimes it can feel like you’re up against a really strong blue wall, and you try to break through and it’s a lot more challenging than it was before.” 

Bernard discussed those challenges and others the party faced this year, along with its priorities heading into 2024. 

Choosing a new leader

Bernard said there’s no timeline yet for the selection process for a new provincial Green Party leader, but she hasn’t ruled out throwing her hat in the ring for the permanent position. 

“I’m keeping an open mind. I’d also be happy to support a strong candidate who comes forward,” she said. “I haven’t closed the door on it, but I recognize jumping into something like that, it’s pretty big.” 

Fixing a ‘broken’ system

Premier Dennis King and departing Health P.E.I. CEO Dr. Michael Gardam have both said the foundation has been laid for improved health care down the road. 

Bernard said there should be more of an urgency to repair the system now. 

“I think that our health-care system is broken, and to consider it any other way right now is a bit insulting for Islanders. People have been waiting to see a specialist for years and their health [is] really being impacted,” she said. 

“Government, rather than being proactive, is being reactive… and in many cases, they can’t even react because people just don’t have that access to primary care.” 

Something that could be done in the shorter term, she said, is to increase medical residency seats at schools like Dalhousie University in Halifax to increase new doctors’ odds of staying in this province. 

Bernard said UPEI’s new medical school, now under construction, will see its young doctors go to other provinces like Newfoundland and Labrador when it eventually begins training students. 

“It would be an honour to live in a province that trained their own doctors from start to finish. We’re not there yet, and all of the evidence and all of the experts are telling government this [UPEI medical school] is not a good idea, so what is the motivation to do this?” she said. 

“How much are we willing to spend… to make this work? I feel like we’re focusing on making things bigger and better before fixing what’s wrong, and that’s a recipe for disaster, in my mind.”

Housing strategy ‘not even a drop in the bucket’

Bernard said P.E.I.’s construction workforce has the lowest median wage in the country, while trying to tackle a large shortfall of housing. 

While King told CBC News: Compass on Tuesday that his government was planning overseas trips to recruit skilled tradespeople, the Green Party sees a more immediate solution.  

“We’ve got a good construction labour force here — let’s build on that. I don’t understand why we’re not bringing these career opportunities to students in high school when they’re making these decisions of what they’re going to do,” Bernard said. 

She said the province needs 2,000 new housing units per year to keep up with demand, while the King government has committed to 560 over five years.

Bernard called that “not even a drop in the bucket.”  

Gauging the need for services 

The Community Outreach Centre sits within Bernard’s district of Charlottetown-Victoria Park.

The provincial government wants to move it from Euston Street to Park Street, but needs the blessing of Charlottetown council to do so. 

But while Bernard advocated for the services the centre offers, she’s not sure having them all under one roof is the way to go — for Charlottetown or for other communities across the Island. 

“We need to be engaging with the community. There’s really great ideas in there, and it’s even led me to consider my own positions on things,” she said. 

“We are centralizing this so badly and we see the results of that in our community. We don’t need to duplicate what is happening at the Community Outreach Centre, nor do I think we should even consider that.

“We need to look at what the services being offered are, who’s accessing them, and how can we separate them to make it more equitable for people to access.”