Remembrance Day and weekend lineup 🌺

IN THIS ISSUE

• Premier's office fails to take notes at meetings with Maritime Electric.

• Changes could be coming to Sydney Street.

• Christmas Giveaway details.

QUICK HITS

🚧 Sydney Street Streetscape: Sydney Street's streetscape could soon look different. The parking lot next to the Olde Dublin Pub is classified as a heritage resource because the land it sits on contains heritage buildings on Victoria Row. The landowner, Regal Holdings Ltd., has indicated that it wants to split the land so the Sydney Street portion can be developed. The city’s heritage board voted last week to allow this. City staff said the designation removal will not affect the buildings on Victoria Row, and any development plan will need to be approved.

🏗️ Simmons Tenders: The replacement of the Simmons Sports Centre is moving ahead. The city has released three tenders for site preparations, underground work, elevator package and construction of the new pool. Last week Charlottetown Council awarded a $533,000 tender to FitzGerald and Snow to demolish the existing pool. The entire project is expected to be completed in April 2024.

🔌 EV Charging: The province will be installing 16 new electric vehicle charging stations in 14 communities across the Island over the next two years. The project, valued at $3.6M over two years, will be partially funded by a $1.4M contribution from the federal government.

🏫 Solar Pilot: Cardigan Consolidated School will be receiving some upgrades as part of a pilot project to determine the cost benefit of retrofitting older buildings with new energy technologies. The school will receive solar panels to offset some electrical costs and geothermal capabilities. The work is expected to be wrapped up by the end of next spring.

📚 Library Card Contest: The Public Library Service is inviting Island children and youth to enter its library card design contest. The winning design will be featured on a limited-edition library card and the winner will receive a $25 gift card to The Bookmark. Check out this government news release for information on how to enter, and for a list of the rules.

PROVINCE

Premier's office fails to take notes at meetings with Maritime Electric

During a post-Fiona media briefing on September 30, Premier Dennis King made reference to quarterly meetings his office holds with Maritime Electric. He was responding to a question from The Guardian’s Logan MacLean about whether the province would be willing to cost-share a project with the private utility to bury power lines. 

Islanders have had a lot of questions after many went without power for over two weeks following Fiona. I wanted to find out what discussions Premier King has had with the utility around storm preparations and adapting the grid to withstand stronger storms since post-tropical storm Dorian hit the Island in September 2019. I filed a request for information asking for any notes made by the Premier and provincial staff, as well as agendas, meeting minutes and presentations related to these meetings. My request was backdated to before post-tropical storm Dorian hit.

I assumed, wrongly, that I would get back a trove of documents which I would be able to use to give Island Edition readers a better sense of the conversations that take place at these high-level meetings. Boy, was I wrong.

I received this 25-page PDF (600kb) which mostly contains emails around scheduling and rescheduling meetings. The request yielded only two meeting agendas, and one presentation about some wind farm projects. No notes. No meeting minutes.

I followed up on the lack of records and was told that the Access and Privacy Services Office (APSO) had asked if meeting minutes existed, APSO was told none could be located. What?

So that’s the story here. The province is holding regular high-level meetings with Maritime Electric, but no one in the Premier’s office is taking notes. Or if they are taking notes, they’re throwing them away after the meeting. Either way, without an explanation, I have no choice but to leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.

Note: this piece is different from what I usually do here. I thought about moving on and dropping the story when I received back basically nothing useful. But on second though, there is a story here. There’s more to be told, I’m sure. I’ve reached out to the Premier’s office for comment.

🗳️ Twitter Poll: Do you think it’s acceptable that (the province) would hold regular meetings with Maritime Electric, but have no recorded minutes or notes from these meetings?

👍 Yes, it's acceptable (5%)

👎 No, notes are important (95%)

Copy to share the story:

https://islandedition.ca/read/premiers-office-fails-to-take-notes-at-meetings-with-maritime-electric

CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY

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📢 SHOUT-OUTS 

💈 Ray Martin of Ray's Place Barber On Kent celebrated 60 years on the job last week.

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WEATHER

Wednesday

🌤️ H5°C 🌡️ L3°C 
💨 NW 19 km/h, gusting 50

Thursday

🌤️ H11°C 🌡️ L7°C
💨 WSW 22 km/h, gusting 50

Island Edition Storm Watch

🌀 The tropics are not done with us yet, it seems. The Canadian Hurricane Centre is tracking Tropical Storm Nicole, which is expected to impact our region over the weekend. The CHC is stressing that this is not a hurricane, but has the potential to deliver large amounts of rain and high wind. Continue monitoring official statements.

THANKS FOR READING!