TIGNISH, P.E.I. — The Liberal MLA for Tignish-Palmer Road says the provincial government let his end of the province down in the aftermath of post-tropical storm Dorian.
Hal Perry said it is unacceptable that Access P.E.I. in Tignish, the area’s one-stop location for government services, was closed all of last week due to the widespread power failure Dorian caused.
“Government could make this a priority. They could’ve pushed to have this open, or they could’ve had alternate plans,” said Perry.
He said residents who went to Access P.E.I. in Tignish seeking direction on where to turn to for help following Dorian’s punishment found the doors locked and not even a sign advising them where they could turn for help.
Power was finally restored to the centre on Saturday, Sept. 14, a week after the storm struck, and government services in the building, including Perry’s constituency office, reopened on Sept. 16.
“There were many people who had damage to their property, coming here to see what programming might be available, and it was closed,” Perry said.
The MLA added he could understand services being down a day or two following the brutal weather, but he insists a full work week was just unacceptable.
The region's cabinet minister, Ernie Hudson, Minister of Housing and Social Development, sees things differently.
"Anytime we have a situation, a catastrophe like this, yeah, there are things we will learn from, but to say one particular area of the province was or was not looked after better, or was overlooked, I wouldn’t agree with that," Hudson said Wednesday.
He said Safety Minister Bloyce Thompson and Health Minister James Aylward were both in the area last week and in contact with farmers, fishers and healthcare workers.
"To say that West Prince was overlooked, I would have to say certainly not."
With the power out last Monday and being unable to hold regular office hours, Perry said he spent the day in his community, “hauling branches and cutting trees.”
“The premier himself called (the hurricane damage) a disaster. So, labelled a disaster, there was no government services centre open in Tignish. Period.”
He issued a statement expressing his disappointment last Saturday, just minutes after the province sent out a press release promising more help would be on the way for Islanders this week. Government had provided help to Island food banks last week and on Friday the provincial cabinet approved a one-time emergency fund program for approximately 6,000 Islanders who are currently receiving income assistance to support their basic needs. More supports were announced this week.
“I certainly hope government recognizes many Islanders cannot afford to buy generators, and many others cannot afford to operate generators. I want to know what is government doing to help people.”
In the same Tignish building where Access P.E.I. is located, the federal government’s catch certification office operated throughout last week with the aid of a generator.
Hudson agrees a generator would have gotten the government services up and running sooner and suggests that's one of the lessons from the major storm.
The biggest learning piece, Hudson suggested, is communications.
"That is something that absolutely needs to be looked at," he said. "Are there things that we could’ve done different, or are there things that we could learn for the future that we need to strive to do different or better? Absolutely."
Perry, however, thinks the response would be different if it involved the capital city.
“If this was in Charlottetown; if this was a government service centre in Charlottetown, it would’ve been open immediately so that’s the problem I have with this,” Perry said.
Tignish mayor Allan McInnis was somewhat sympathetic with the position government found itself in, but he agreed with Perry that a generator at Access P.E.I. would have gone a long way towards easing area residents’ burden.
McInnis also noted a Tignish resident offered area residents the use of his refrigerated truck trailer for keeping their food frozen until power was restored and said government could have offered such help, too.
“It just goes that there was no plan whatsoever. I’m asking now that they go back, review what happened and ensure they do have a plan in place so that, if we ever have any kind of natural disaster again, this is not going to happen,” said Perry.
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