CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Evening sittings of P.E.I.’s legislature will soon be a thing of the past.
On Wednesday, MLAs voted by a margin of 18-8, in favour of a series of recommendations from the standing committee on rules, regulations, private bills and privileges.
The committee recommended doing away with evening sittings of the legislature on Tuesdays and Thursdays, opting to extend the sitting hours during the daytime sitting hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
The recommendation would also see a fixed start date for fall sittings, on the third Tuesday of October, and a fixed start date for spring sittings on the fourth Tuesday of February.
The changes adopted two of 17 recommendations from a 2009 report of the P.E.I. Coalition for Women in Government. The report recommended other changes that would encourage greater representation of women in government in P.E.I.
These recommendations included providing supports and funding for constituency offices to help alleviate the workload of MLAs, holding more standing committee meetings outside of Charlottetown, providing caregiver benefits to MLAs with children and ensuring political parties adopt specific targets for recruiting more women as candidates.
Although the recommendations were developed by an all-party standing committee, debate over changing the sitting hours has consumed the legislature since late last week.
Several MLAs argued that evening sittings allowed more individuals who work during daytime hours the chance to directly witness legislature sessions.
Others argued the change was necessary to promote a more gender-inclusive politics in P.E.I.
In a statement on Wednesday, Green MLA Lynne Lund expressed some frustration that the recommendation had inspired such resistance.
"This simple change to the rules would allow this House to be more inclusive,” Lund said.
"After years and years, we are no further ahead today than we were yesterday. What does that say about the ability of this House to respond to the social problems of tomorrow? What does that signal to Islanders who are seeking change?"
"After years and years, we are no further ahead today than we were yesterday. What does that say about the ability of this House to respond to the social problems of tomorrow? What does that signal to Islanders who are seeking change?"
- Green MLA Lynne Lund
Lund’s speech prompted cheers from her Green colleagues and audible support from Premier Dennis King.
Later in the afternoon, Liberal MLA Heath MacDonald also spoke about the tone of the debate.
MacDonald said MLAs have a privilege to speak about the proposed changes.
"To insinuate otherwise or to insinuate that any members are wasting time by pursuing their rights in this assembly is a dangerous precedent," MacDonald said.
"All members here are equal and no one should be chastised, whether inside the rail, outside the rail or on social media for fully participating in the rules of the legislative assembly."
In the end, all seven female MLAs voted in favour of the recommendations, including Darlene Compton and Natalie Jameson from government side, and Hannah Bell, Lynne Lund, Michele Beaton, Karla Bernard, and Trish Altass from the Opposition Greens.
The entire Green caucus and eight government members, including King, all supported the recommendation.
Two Liberals, Gord McNeilly and Heath MacDonald, also voted in favour.
McNeilly had introduced an amendment to the report, that would have seen evening sittings maintained on Tuesdays. This amendment was defeated.
Voting against the motion were most of the Liberal caucus and several government ministers, including Steven Myers, James Aylward, Jamie Fox and Ernie Hudson.
The recommendations will come into effect immediately after the current emergency sitting of the legislature.
