The province’s record capital budget isn’t doing enough to help islanders now, the opposition says

Opposition MLAs say they are concerned the Prince Edward Island government is spending more in its 2025-2026 capital budget than islanders can afford in the long term.

On Thursday, Dennis King’s Progressive Conservative government unveiled its new capital spending plan — one that focuses heavily on physical investments.

It includes a record $483 million for the upcoming fiscal year, more than 30 percent higher than last year’s capital budget.

Interim Liberal Leader Hal Perry said despite all that spending, the plan does nothing to help islanders struggling with the high cost of living today.

“If you can’t fulfill or deliver the services that are happening within these structures, why throw this money out there to make it look like the government is actually doing something to help the islanders?” Perry said.

“Islanders are struggling and there is nothing in this budget… to provide immediate relief to Islanders.”

‘We could have planned much better’

The focus of this year’s budget is on education, with new elementary schools for the East Royalty and West Royalty areas of Charlottetown and a replacement for Georgetown School, all projects requested by the Public Schools Branch.

The province also announced that construction on a new high school in Stratford will begin two years earlier than previously planned.

The PCs have set aside $64.9 million over the next five years for the two new primary schools, which will each cost more than $60 million and accommodate 650 students. Less money will be needed to kick-start the new primary school in West Royalty during that period, as construction will not start until 2028-2029.

There is also money to increase the number of public long-term care beds in the Tyne Valley and Souris.

For the first time, the province will also pay for new cell phone towers to improve the sometimes spotty service on the island.

However, the Green Party’s Peter Bevan-Baker said all this spending is necessary because the government has failed to anticipate the impact of PEI’s rapid population growth.

“They didn’t anticipate what needed to be done, and so we’re playing catch-up here, and that’s a terrible way to settle something,” he said.

“Yes, there is a lot more money and that’s a good thing, but we could have planned much better… which would have enabled the government to perhaps bring forward some cost relief for the islanders when we get to the operational budget. .”

Finance Minister Jill Burridge said the capital budget will keep PEI’s debt-to-GDP ratio within acceptable levels, a basic indicator of the province’s fiscal health.

But the spending will still push that ratio higher and wipe out the gains the province has made in that area since 2018.