Today’s Throne Speech outlines our Liberal governments vision and plan to meet Prince Edward Island’s challenges head on while leveraging opportunities to strengthen the economy, our communities and engagement.

The Throne Speech speaks to moving forward with robust, productive and focused discussions on growing our economy, engaging our citizens and investing in the right areas to meet the needs of Islanders.

The overarching theme of our Vision for this province is Working Together. Guiding that theme are three key factors:

1.  A New Era of Engagement;
   
2. Building PEI’s Prosperity; and
   
3. Encouraging our People and Communities.

Some of the specifics in our plan includes:

• Tabling a white paper on Democratic Renewal that will serve as a catalyst to engage Islanders on the democratic process
• Working with local governments to develop a new Municipal Government Act
• Engaging and involving Islanders on a number of priority issues like the new Water Act and a Poverty Reduction Strategy
• Collaborating with and supporting key sectors and partners to grow and increase exports
• Initiating an aggressive prospecting and sales strategy through Sales Force PEI
• Supporting and expanding the delivery of post-secondary programs in French
• Actively advancing PEI as Canada’s Food Island
• Improving access to medications by capping the cost of generic drugs to under $20 for uninsured Islanders under the age of 65
• Investing $1 million in a rural paramedicine pilot program that will allow paramedics to visit seniors in their homes to assist with non-medical issues
• Launching a new youth mental health unit in Charlottetown
• Ensuring there is wi-fi in all schools by 2016

Additionally, we look forward to building on the progress that we have made in the last few months towards restoring fiscal balance. By controlling our expenditures along with a clear plan to grow our revenues this government is committed to balancing its budget in 2016-2017.