Because Life is Local | Myers and MacNeill | Episode 8

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[00:00:02]Will the so-called independent review of Iraq actually lead to needed change?

[00:00:07]Or is Premier Ghiz hunting the issue down the road with potential of a provincial election preempting any potential action?

[00:00:16]It's edition eight of Myers and McNeill because life is local. We tackle this issue, plus bond rating agencies are getting angsty with provincial finances.

[00:00:24]The Premier cries foul over a green energy bill, and Stephen takes us inside the rail to a more effective question period. It's a busy episode. Let's get chatting.

[00:00:35]Go to Stephen Myers. Welcome to edition eight of Myers and McNeill because life is local. Politics, the never-ending conversation on PEI.

[00:00:44]How are you doing this week? Good. Two more of these and I'll have all my stamps. Just putting you on notice.

[00:00:49]Yes, yes, no, no, no, yes, and no.

[00:00:51]Stephen, the big news this week, I guess, the Iraq review. Is it the right thing to do? Are the right people involved? Will it be effective?

[00:00:59]It was so like I think I the first thing I kind of questioned the timing of it.

[00:01:02]It was probably the right thing to do a year ago. And it's not that it's not the right thing to look at Iraq or make changes. It's that nobody's paying attention to the legislature. I know politicians don't know this because I haven't been one. We all like to think that everybody knows what we have for breakfast, but it And a lobster fishing's going on here. The weather's good. School's starting to wind down.

[00:01:22]Baseball and softball and soccer are all starting. So, people just aren't watching the legislature right now.

[00:01:26]Bring You have to be very cognizant that when you bring attention to yourself, it's attention that you want. And I'm not sure that the government hit a home run with the way the public responded to it.

[00:01:37]I think Look, I I I'm not sure we need a review. We know what the issues are, and it starts with patronage, patronage, patronage. It's been the domain of Liberals and Tories since it came into existence, and Premier Ghiz really hasn't shown an inclination to deal with issue one. Then there's transparency.

[00:01:55]That can easily You don't need a review to deal with transparency. The government could force transparency upon them and that and that will build trust.

[00:02:02]And then there's the whole IRAC standard time of doing business, which is on their own time without a a damn about when or how they finish.

[00:02:15]But I don't think you need a review and I'm not sure Rory Francis is the guy.

[00:02:18]Rory has an impeccable resume as a former deputy minister ahead of bio the bio alliance.

[00:02:26]But he's also, no doubt, had significant dealings with Pam Williams, Dennis Kingsbury, my chief of staff, who's now the CEO of IRAC. And I think if you want to call something independent that the public should have an idea of how many interactions Rory Francis and the bio alliance had with the premier's office over the last 6 years. Fair?

[00:02:50]>> [sighs] >> Yeah, so obviously I would agree Rory's got a great resume and I do know him personally, so I you know, he's a good guy, so I don't have anything bad to say about him on that front, but I would tend to agree that even coming out of the bureaucratic system sometimes to be able to separate and look at it in a different way requires a different kind of set of eyes than maybe Rory might bring, but I won't say that he won't do a good job. I also believe he might be the next door neighbor to the premier and I do know that him and Pam are quite friendly from the deals that I've seen inside. Like a little a whole circle's a little too tight for probably my liking like I think you said it on Compass last last night about at least get it out of Brighton. I'd be with you there.

[00:03:31]What There are smart people out here too, Paul. There are smart people out there out here too, you know. Well, especially on the land issue, right? I mean, what where has the land issue been prominent? It hasn't been as prominent in Charlottetown. It's been prominent in rural P.E.I. And and here's my concern.

[00:03:46]Rory Rory Francis was appointed to head this commission and for the first time in my lifetime that I remember, a commission also has an executive director in the in the name of Don Bends.

[00:03:59]And I can't for the life of me figure out why we need an executive director. We need an admin assistant for Rory Francis, for sure, to do the bookings, to talk to media, blah blah blah blah.

[00:04:10]But there's no other There's no reason to have an executive uh an executive director other than potentially pay scale.

[00:04:17]Uh and this thing is going to have a $375,000 budget. Rory's getting $100,000 of that for 6 months, which is $15,000 more than an MLA earns in in a year.

[00:04:28]Um you know there's going to be big legal bills because you're going to have to look at policy and jurisdiction and legislation across the country. And it just looks a little cozy already. And we saw what happened with Jill, who was called We We We've seen other examples where the you know the premier has sort of called in friends to do do work.

[00:04:48]Justice Jenkins, who brought in Murray Murphy.

[00:04:52]Are Are they handicapping themselves right off the bat, Stephen?

[00:04:56]Probably. [clears throat] And I think, you know, maybe a new face would have been a better choice. And I I do go And I I know I said it half jokingly, but there is smart people out here, too.

[00:05:04]Well, like And I I think of I think of a a mutual friend of ours who ran a as a gas station here in in uh Montague for years, so he'd have experience in that front.

[00:05:16]Does some work in on uh for the Montague Town Council. I'm one of their their uh development committee, so he has a great understanding of development and that what what what gets in the way, like just because he's not a big name on the streets of Brighton doesn't mean that he I think he Somebody like that could do an excellent job. But there's There's hundreds of people like that across the island who could pick this up and and take it with real life experience that uh could really expose the weaknesses that are in the our system.

[00:05:43]The the concern I have, the way this is the dominoes seem to be lining up right now, is uh a fear that the report could already be written today without talking to anyone. That that the government knows the direction it wants to move in.

[00:05:56]It probably won't fire all the Tories in there, even though they they if if you want if you want to bring trust to I rack, it has to start with getting rid of patronage. We need to come up with a way to advertise positions that are attractive.

[00:06:12]Anyone could see themselves as a reasonable candidate.

[00:06:16]And that's not the case right now. It doesn't diminish Pam Williams' qualifications. It just says that she got the job for one reason. She was Danny King's CEO, chief of staff. And so this to me with Lantz is just a continuation of what we've seen from him, which is trying to convince us that leadership is building more bureaucracy and less action.

[00:06:46]Yeah, I think >> [clears throat] >> just from what I hear on the ground, people want action on the I rack file and they don't view this as action. They view it as a stall tactic and a way to to leg it out. And back to my comments last week about an election, it would indicate to me that they're seriously considering election because there's no way in hell they're going to drop this before before it. There's no way that they're going to drop because it's going to say no I I do agree it says nothing.

[00:07:10]And I'll I'll challenge you to this when we're done today.

[00:07:14]Take take the I rack website. Take the the act that uh that uh drives I rack and the issues as you see them and put them in chat GPT and ask it for a solution and you'll have a solution before lunch time today.

[00:07:27]And it'll be better than one that somebody who's going to spend months and months I'm not even joking. Like it will absolutely like because the the the solutions in my opinion are quite simple.

[00:07:39]What solutions would you deliver?

[00:07:41]I think you have to hive some of the stuff out of it. Like what? Like we're doing this gas thing. Like it doesn't even make any sense to me anymore. We have the the wrong formula and we're we're changing it sporadically.

[00:07:52]Remember when it used to be like a monthly adjustment and at least it gave you some consistency in your life. When you have these huge swings and I get you the worldwide um prices are swinging all over the place, but if that's the case, what protection is IRAC even offering us to to begin with? Why don't we just set the law that it can't be higher than your budget's pricing. Let the regulator regulate it.

[00:08:14]Well, I I don't I don't understand how it takes them so long to review moving to the New York benchmark rather than the the Charlottetown rack rate. I mean, it's if if you can get fuel into Stephenville, Newfoundland based on New York, you can get it into PEI. And it shouldn't be rocket science, but this is this is the challenge with IRAC, right? It it does things its own way. It moves at its own sloth-like pace.

[00:08:40]And it is never accountable.

[00:08:42]So, we need to get rid of we need to get rid of patronage and we need to build accountability.

[00:08:47]Remember the old tourism ad that we had for PEI that said time moves different here?

[00:08:51]Yes. Time moves different also at IRAC and probably even slower than it does in [clears throat] the tourism department.

[00:08:58]So, Yeah, people don't remember that ad as much as 1-800-565-7771.

[00:09:03]Greatest ad in PEI tourism history. You need CNHL. Bring it back. Like bring it back.

[00:09:08]>> [clears throat] >> They should.

[00:09:10]They should.

[00:09:11]Um debt is a big issue this week. Two bond rating agencies negative uh negative outlooks, which is not a cut, which is important to note, um but it's certainly uh significant warning to the last government.

[00:09:29]Yeah, I guess you predicted this one of our first >> ago. Yeah, you predicted this, so it's probably it's probably not surprising. It's I I don't know if it's damning as it could have been. [clears throat] And it appears or if you listen to what the minister says, she says that they didn't change our our rating, they just changed our outlook. So, I don't know what that means. Well, what it means uh because I've read both reports um is that neither particularly believes that the last government will deliver on its promise to um cut the the size of government by 5% in terms of expenditures next year. They don't necessarily see a path for government to do that. Um and so if if they can't follow through on that, then we will probably have a a a downgrade. I mean, but but here's here's the challenge and both reports have sort of gotten to quite a bit of detail on this.

[00:10:23]The cost of government is increasing every year. We've had significant salary increases for doctors, which I'm not arguing against, but it is significant numbers. We have a very big public service that's had significant increases. We have nurses that haven't had a contract 13 months and they will be expecting a significant increase, I'm guessing, and they deserve it because right now they're being treated far worse than travel nurses.

[00:10:51]Um and and I think we need to protect our own, as they as they say. But if we can't get the cost of the base cost of government at self-predictable level, then in a small province uh with limited capacity to generate new revenue every year, we're going to run into a big pickle really fast.

[00:11:10]>> [clears throat] >> Yeah, well, there's a lot that you want in there. I think I'll start with the nurses, I think, and I said this already on this podcast that I think we should pay the nurses more. Like, let's not be afraid to pay them what they're worth and we we're we're convinced now we have a a line item for travel nurses in the budget and that's a solidified item. If that's the case, why don't we take that money and and give them the equivalent raise, which will be massive and we'll attract nurses in from all parts of of North America to come come work here and we'll we won't need travel nurses and we'll we'll have good nurses we'll have leading nurses in many categories.

[00:11:45]And then you know on the on the second front government really there's one thing to to pair back and stop spending money and stop investing in things but there's a whole other avenue where look at what's their economic development plan is there a plan on how we're going to develop the economy is there are those going to be cut? Do we know we know yet if there's going to be cuts in their economic development strategy funding that they're that they would otherwise put out in the public realm or funding that helps manufacturers grow or even commercialize like do we know that obviously we don't because government won't release that. So like I've always said always in all my time in politics was that we have to grow revenues and we have to not be afraid to grow it by allowing Islanders to build companies and and flourish and I worry that that's not even in the plans for government right now. It's going to be interesting I mean to to government's credit they did make the largest investment in a private sector business in history I think of the island last week in Summerside was it $55 million or something like that from a provincial perspective and that's great because that sort of puts us in play for defense money and certainly there's an expectation that if the feds and the provincial government are investing more than a hundred million dollars in an island company that they see the capacity of this company to be a world leader in it's a coating that they put on aerospace pieces of equipment which is is fascinating that that there can be this type of advances but anyway there was that but then on the flip side you know arts and culture is too often not seen as the economic driver that it is and so you have a premier who's risking losing a Netflix series being filmed here because he wants to look at something that he or his staff should have seen coming weeks ago and that's that's with the the idea that Netflix wants to film uh a limited series on the island based on a New York Times best-selling book.

[00:13:42]>> [snorts] >> I feel like >> on PEI. I think if that was a yes, he would have said yes. Like the fact that he didn't say yes to me means it's a no. Think it I think you'll see it a no. Well, why? He had a chance to hit an absolute grand slam in the legislature by saying absolutely we're going to do this and he didn't.

[00:13:59]So, it makes me think that it's going to be a no at the end of the day. It may be >> Well, he he he made himself look silly, I think, because he said that the first he heard of it was the day before, but his minister stood up and said conversations were ongoing. This idea, Netflix said it wanted to film in PEI weeks ago. Here's the challenge. I mean I'm aware of at least one or two proposals in the last five or six years that were attempts to get government to support a sound stage on PEI, which would really be a a game-changer.

[00:14:27]And there was just no appetite. Nova Scotia's created a a sound stage.

[00:14:31]Manitoba's created a sound stage that has generated billions of dollars in that province and we sort of have an ideal setting here and we're talking tax credits and the premier wants to study it.

[00:14:44]I mean, to me what's to study? If the numbers are even remotely close, 20 to 30 million dollar benefit to PEI and we need the revenue.

[00:14:52]Do it.

[00:14:54]Yeah, I don't know. I think just I'll give you my perspective as I have come to find my experience in government is that they're very scared of success. They don't want like whatever it is, I can't I don't know what I'm telling you, Paul. Like it they're scared to death to be successful at something and they they don't want to take any risks at all and it may not even be on the premier. He might be getting all kinds of advice that somebody who's scared to spend the 50 cents it's going to cost to make a dollar, so I >> But it's it's not even spending it. It's allowing them to come to PEI and and there's no there's no risk if they don't show up. If Netflix doesn't show up, that's that's the challenge with this.

[00:15:36]But are you saying the government is incapable of looking at something like this?

[00:15:40]Uh and quickly make a decision or what would the conversation be internally and something like that?

[00:15:46]>> been my kind of general experience like you try to do something that's bigger outside the box or or different and people just don't want to do different.

[00:15:54]Oh well, I'll tell you I think it's a funny story. Uh you will probably find I think it's a funny story, others might not, but I know early in one in my in my career, this is a story that involves Brandon Gearing. So I we had a meeting in my office and I was trying to do something that was different that was vastly different than we had done before and staff there and they're like pushing back at me and I'm like I don't understand the pushback and they're like, "Well, we've never done this before." And I looked at Brandon who was sitting at not at the table but the chair kind of back from us.

[00:16:23]>> [snorts] >> And I said, "Would you ever go over to the archives and get Harris Ford?" And Harris was working at the archives at the time and he's like, "Okay, what do you want him for?" And I said, "I want him to record history."

[00:16:33]And if we're going to do something different by the year.

[00:16:35]And it was from that moment on I was able to start moving files because people knew I wasn't going to take the we don't we've never done it before we don't and so I kind of had some success in it, but I think it I would say in my last few years I just ran it up against a lot of roadblocks. It just kind of made me wear out.

[00:16:53]But but that's an interesting point because if you look at our financial straight that we're in in every province in the region.

[00:17:03]Isn't this a perfect time for the governments to get together and say, "Look, we all have to protect our provincial jurisdiction because that's priceless, but how can we do government better?

[00:17:15]Because we all have the silos. Every single one of us has different silos.

[00:17:19]And how how could we help each other to help ourselves?

[00:17:25]And I think we're in that much of a pickle potentially or entering an era when we're in that much of a pickle that if we don't start thinking outside the box in terms of regional cooperation and sharing services and not being scared that they get something that we don't get it because we will get something that they won't get if we cooperate that if we don't start finding that level of leadership that we're just on a fast track for financial decimation in 5 or 10 or 20 years.

[00:17:56]Yeah, I don't disagree. I think the problem again is when you try to do change or you try to be find a change agent to help you you do it.

[00:18:06]And you should start kind of wiggling around through government people only look at it on what how will it affect them. What so how will my job change or will this be more tasks for me or less tasks for me or a lot. And what really needs to be done and I said this about health care but government in general is the same as like walk into a room that has nothing in it but a table and sit down with with with visionaries only. Only people who you absolutely know can think long-term outside the box and say I want you to pretend like you've never seen government before.

[00:18:38]What should it look like? And then build it and do it and don't be and don't be afraid to execute it. But it'll never happen because because the minute you bring that back to government everybody's immediately scared on how it will impact them not >> Well, it could be forced upon us at some point in time in the in the not too distant future. I mean our our debt >> to be the ugly way though. It's not that's not going >> That's the ugly way. That's when you lose control of the capacity to make change. But you know, if you look at our debt, this is how weird society is nowadays. Our debt will increase 70% to 6.5 billion dollars or thereabouts within 2 years. it's 3.5 or 3.7 now, whatever it is.

[00:19:16]And nobody's talking about it.

[00:19:19]Government's not talking about it. There are certain people within the the province who are talking about it because they understand numbers, but it's sort of a classic example of people understand the little things. We understand books for kids.

[00:19:33]But we don't understand 6.5 billion. So, that we we're actually letting politicians off the hook from dealing with the big issues by getting them distracted on little issues.

[00:19:45]Yeah, well, I mean even for myself though, Paul, like you're talking about, you know, $100 million, $200 million, are numbers that I never have in my hand, but if you're talking about $100, then I know exactly what $100 will buy. Like, I don't know what $100 will buy. And that So, my theory always has been in opposition, you have to get the number if you want to criticize government or the numbers down to a consumable number for the public. So, something the public would understand and the the debt per person or maybe it's that how much you would have to pay per day just to to cover the deficit this year by Islanders so that that Islanders would understand how wild the spending has become.

[00:20:28]Um but just when you roll it up to that big number at the end, yeah, it's a big number, but it could be $700 million or $100 million. It doesn't Neither means that much difference to me, but if if you're telling me I have to pay $7 a day or $21 a day, then I know what that means.

[00:20:43]A pack of cigarettes a day.

[00:20:45]Jeez, I wonder what a pack of cigarettes is nowadays.

[00:20:48]>> Probably. I don't know. I don't smoke.

[00:20:49]Holy moly. I wish I could smoke. I used to smoke. I love smoking, but I can't smoke I loved it. I loved it.

[00:20:54]>> [laughter] >> I would never do it again, but I would absolutely love it.

[00:20:59]Uh listen, let's let's segue into the Tories. You called it last week would would defeat Peter Bevan-Baker's Maritime Electric bill, but but it was an interesting way in which they did it.

[00:21:11]Yeah, well, I guess I'll start with the the bill like you if the Tories do actually bring a bill back like they say they're going to, it won't be a whole lot different than that. It'll be a quite similar bill to that. So, I was a little like I couldn't understand how aggressive the premier became over it particularly in question period when if he intends to do this, which I'm not convinced he he will do then it the bill won't look a ton different than this.

[00:21:40]What surprised me was sometimes in politics is cojones and and it's also very short memory. Rob Lantz accused Peter Bevan Baker of basically political showboating.

[00:21:49]He said his bill was rushed, there was no consultation, it would raise his rates on Islanders, and he could not support it. What Rob Lantz didn't mention was at the start of the third debate in the leadership contest when it looked like he might actually lose the leadership, he pulled out of nowhere. I mean, nowhere. It was never mentioned that he the first thing he was going to do this fall was bring forward Maritime Electric legislation. That basically promised to do what Peter Bevan Baker's legislation did. Was Peter playing politics a little bit? Yeah, but so was was Rob Lantz, and he did it to win the party leadership, and he had no qualms about doing to to win the party leadership, and he's backed away from it. And the other qualifier here is I don't know if you had a chance to read it or not, but the letter from Jason Roberts to the premier.

[00:22:37]Oh, I didn't read it.

[00:22:38]It was a it was a fairly interesting it was fairly interesting letter. Now, Jason Roberts is the CEO of Maritime Electric, and Maritime Electric is a subsidiary of Fortis, and Fortis is a publicly traded company. None of that background was was mentioned in the letter, but the tone and the implied message of the letter was don't mess with our business model.

[00:22:58]You know, and and I get it, But it's sort of proves what a lot of Islanders are saying about Maritime Electric.

[00:23:09]Is you're not accountable to Islanders.

[00:23:13]You're accountable to shareholders. And the fact that they wouldn't even meet with Peter Bevan-Baker, according to Peter Bevan-Baker, to discuss his bill is also telling.

[00:23:21]Because if the corporation wanted to be open about change that it people are calling for, they would at least meet with him. Peter Bevan-Baker isn't isn't new to the game.

[00:23:33]He's got credibility, street cred.

[00:23:38]Do you think the premier wins when he does stuff like that?

[00:23:42]No, no, absolutely not. Absolutely not.

[00:23:44]And I mean, often Maritime Electric gets made the villain, and I might have done a little of that myself over the but but I have a I always had a good relationship with Jason Roberts, and I mean, you're very right when you say they answer to shareholders. Their model is they have a business model that that they follow, and so I don't fault them for trying to follow their business model. The blame really rests with government because government can can change this, and I think that if Maritime Electric didn't meet with Peter, I would guess it must have been because the premier had told him he had it had it handled, or he planned to handle it, so that they didn't feel there was a need to to talk to Peter about it. And now the idea that that that rates will go up, rates are always going to go up, so that's the case that The idea of the the bill is that the it's to take away the ability to earn just by building out your assets, so do we need diesel fire generators in PEI? I don't particularly think so. Maritime Electric has government convinced that they have that they need them, and the big big part of this is that will get on your your rate for eternity. So, they they'll have a capital rate increase because of this, and they'll earn more money just because they built it on top of the the fact that they sell you power.

[00:24:50]A bill like that would put more performance-based measures in it, where it's like, what's your reliability? What's your uptime?

[00:24:57]What's the vegetation management like?

[00:24:59]You get paid for what percentage of vegetation management you did? Or whatever performance measure I wrap could put in place for you. So, they might say you know, here's a performance measure that you must meet. And I mean I met with the folks in Hawaii when I was energy minister and they have this model and they said it was the best thing that they ever did because they did they did things like requiring the utility to create interconnects. So, where it's so hard to get an interconnect into Maritime Electric right now. You basically have to go through the energy corporation to connect to the grid with a any utility grade power maker.

[00:25:32]>> explain to us what an interconnect is?

[00:25:34]Just to be able to tie into the grid.

[00:25:36]So, so on the supply If you want an example?

[00:25:41]It An example would be if you want to build a solar farm. You couldn't plug it in cuz they wouldn't plug it in for you.

[00:25:46]You wouldn't be able to sell it because they wouldn't give you a PPA. Where a PPA is a power purchase agreement. So, what Hawaii did was basically allowed the utility to earn. So, put to put rates up based on the number of interconnects they created in the in the run of the year which forced them to go out and find Paul MacNeil who wants to build a solar farm and connect them. So, it kind of forced them to build interconnects and give them a power purchase agreement so they could do it.

[00:26:11]So, it flipped the flipped it on its head and it became more a distributed model and it probably gave it longevity and it certainly uh spread the money around.

[00:26:21]Yeah, I I I mean I appreciate the detail of that. I I think Maritime Electric is a good company. I mean I mean we all love the lineman in winter when or fall when But, the problem is their business model doesn't work for islanders anymore. I mean that's why Nova Scotia went an independent energy system operator model that seems to be having some early wins. Yeah, that very interesting insight there, Stephen. You have some thoughts on I will call it a team dynamic in in question period and perhaps lost opportunities.

[00:26:51]So, I want So, I see it in the Liberals and in I see it in the Greens and I particularly picked up on it with the Greens on Friday. Now, I I know it's hard for them cuz they only have six questions in question period and they get They really have two questions and each question had They're allowed two follow-ups, but it's effectively six questions and I thought Matt was really not just under the Premier's skin because the Premier was bringing up his law career and stuff, which is I've done all that stuff, but that generally That was an indicator that you're under my skin if I was bringing up your past. So, you definitely under the Premier's skin on it and he got three questions and then he went to Carl. So, I'm not taking away that Carl's questions are important, but sometimes in the in the moment you have to be able to make that decision to be like just keep going at him and Colin LaVie was an absolute gem at this. Like we'd be I'd be under Robert Ghiz's skin and everybody in the legislature would know it and I'd be running out of questions and Colin would have a set that he wanted to ask and he'd be like, "You keep going. You keep going. This is good." So, and then, you know, them and I know like Robert and I are friends, but you try to make a matter matter matter of You've done it to me and I've done it to you, too. Look, it's just a crazy thing that goes on in politics, but and and the Liberals do it all the time where I feel like Hal's been really good this session with his questions. He stays on point. He pushes back. He's commanding like respect with it with his questions and not that the other three are and I think that there's all kinds of great topics coming up, but sometimes they leave something when I really think Hal has opened it up and I'm like, "Why did you leave?"

[00:28:22]And And the other thing is as a listener, you have to learn a new topic then. So, if Gord gets up and I love Gord. He's a great guy. Like he I sincerely like Gord, but I can't It takes me five questions to understand what it is he's talking about because they're they're complex things inside often the health care system and it's not that they're not It's just a harder for me to wrap my head around. When Hal had me on the hook and left.

[00:28:47]Yeah, and and and and and Gord sometimes has a has a knack for not getting to the point really quickly. And he's vague about what question he's asking. So, yeah, really really interesting insight.

[00:29:00]Uh let me just jump in on that for a second because Sure. There is a skill probably that is is completely underrated. I would say that I had it.

[00:29:08]Rod McKinley had it. Richard Brown had it. It's It's the ability to ask the very very hard question when you know when you have it. Like And liberals don't have anybody there today that will they know the thing and they won't say it and they're nibbling around nibbling around and like it's hard. It's hard to be sometimes the the shooter shooting from a point-blank range, but >> Yeah.

[00:29:32]also those are the things that it doesn't necessarily make you more popular cuz I don't know if there's ever a time I felt like I was popular, but it definitely drags down the popularity of government, which you know, we were lucky to get a data as king that covered the fact that maybe Stephen Myers didn't have the biggest fans across the GI in the world and became our government.

[00:29:51]Yeah, I I I mean that that that's a a a great point. Okay, stars of the week.

[00:29:58]I'll go first. I know yours is is a good one. So, Brad Travers, which may surprise someone because I said publicly he shouldn't be speaker after he tried to make up his own rules in the legislature.

[00:30:08]>> he's the best speaker ever?

[00:30:09]No, I'm not. What I am saying is that I appreciate Peter Bevan Baker had given a member's statement on his power bill that the Tories refused to support. And right in the middle of the statement, Brad interrupted him and was completely sort of the flow was lost. So, Brad actually circled back and gave him the opportunity to reread his whole statement. And I thought that was a that was a an appropriate thing and a classy thing. And plus I I I do sort of like the entertainment value that Brad is bringing to the uh speaker's chair.

[00:30:43]We talked about this beforehand. I hope he doesn't wear the Elwood's outfit at any point in time.

[00:30:48]Uh but he seems to be enjoying the hats.

[00:30:51]Yeah, well, I I've said this before.

[00:30:53]Brad is a genuine guy. Like, he he's as friendly in person as he seems in those situations. So, like, I think a lot of Brad. So, I do think he's a good choice.

[00:31:03]Mine is Tyler DesRoches, and I think Tyler probably doesn't get enough credit for the the great work that he does, particularly in his community. He had two really good questions this week, and one was the the can fees thing that the hidden fee that's in the cans that's part of this new EPR system that government brought in. And the other is the Summerside sheltering situation. And the you know, the the need for more wrap-around daytime services and that type of thing. And I think those are two great issues. And I think Tyler did them both a quite a bit of justice this week by by bringing them forward. So, Tyler would be my star of the week.

[00:31:39]Very good. Steven Myers, this is episode 8 of Myers and McNeill because life is local.

[00:31:45]We are on Spotify, Apple Podcast, YouTube, peicanada.com.

[00:31:50]Like us on YouTube. Buy a subscription to local media cuz we're important. We may not always be right. You may not always agree, but we're important to this island, I think. Great chat today.

[00:31:59]A lot of insights, Steven. Yeah, it's fun.

[00:32:01]>> Thanks very much. Yeah, thank you.

[00:32:03]Have a good one. You too.