November 28, 2017: Brad Trivers & Heath MacDonald (PNP) “Why Don’t You Just Answer the Question?”
READ THE SHORT ARTICLE FOR CONTEXT – THEN WATCH THE VIDEO
If Liberal MLAs and the Premier are wondering why Islanders are getting increasingly fed up with their government, all they need to do is review the Video Recording of Question Period, or read the Hansard Record on any given day.
I’ve posted a clip from this afternoon’s Session in the House [November 28th] to give an example: notice how Minister MacDonald’s response not only doesn’t answer a straightforward and important question on the Provincial Nominee Program from Brad Trivers, it actually makes the claim that the government is being open and transparent with the PNP while simultaneously refusing to be open and transparent by simply answering the question. Read along to see just how convoluted and misleading the Minister’s response is as it gives no answer to the question.
Brad Trivers: We need action on immigration that not only encourages people to move here, but to live here, raise their families, create new jobs, and stay here. Question to the Minister responsible for Immigration: “How many people who came to PEI under the PNP Program since 2015 are still here?”
Hon. Heath Macdonald: Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker I just mentioned the expression of interest and what we’ve gone through with the new Intermediaries, which was a transparent RFP, which was online, the scores, the whole nine yards Mr. Speaker, and uh…we can’t do it any clearer. We’ve taken the opposition and invited them to sit before our employees that run this program on Prince Edward Island to ensure that everything is above board and up front. Mr. Speaker we are making changes to the program. We want to build on this. We know how important this program is to Prince Edward Island. And we’re not going to stop, Mr. Speaker, to continue to that, because we know that the issues relevant to immigration are extremely important to PEI.
Wow! Did anyone hear an answer to the question “How many people who came to PEI under the PNP Program since 2015 are still here?” Nothing even remotely close……and you can find the same type of “non-answer” to almost every question asked in the House, especially from the Premier. And that’s at least one reason why Islanders are so done with this government!