No inflation relief payments for Islanders until July: finance minister

P.E.I.'s finance minister says inflation relief payments promised to help low-income Islanders manage the rising cost of living won't be delivered for months.

Minister Darlene Compton made the announcementin the P.E.I. legislature Thursday as she fielded questions about when and how Islanders would receive the emergency inflation relief payments promised by the premier more than a month ago.

On March 8, Premier Dennis King announced a $20 million inflation aid package. Itpromised direct payments of up to $150 for low-income Islanders.Individuals earning less than $35,000 will receive the full $150 and those earning between $35,000 and $50,000 will receive $100.

Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker asked when that money will be delivered to people who qualify.

Compton said the province is working with the Canada Revenue Agency to distribute the funding, which won't happen until July.

"If you look up the definition of emergency in the Oxford English Dictionary, you'll find this: it's a serious and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action, not a serious and often dangerous situation requiring that you sit on your hand for two months," Bevan-Baker said.

"Why are you coordinating this with the CRA and federal government when you can run it provincially and get those cheques out tomorrow?"

90,000 people qualify

These questions come as the price of heating oil and diesel skyrocket overnight, setting a new record pricefor furnace oil on the Island.

The inflation aid package announced last month also includesassistance for NGOs and food banks, and money for student unions to distribute to students.

Compton said the inflation relief funding will be delivered within GST payments this July. She said the province has already spent $10 million to fund other supports for Islanders like the home heating program and toonie-transit program.

Speaking with reporters outside the chamber,Bevan-Baker said the province should be responsible for delivering that money. He said throughout the pandemic the provincial government has shown it's capable of delivering emergency relief payments quickly and askedwhy government didn't take the same approach this time.

"When we had COVID, this government treated it like a real emergency. We were creative, we were fast, we spun up programs," Bevan-Baker said. "What I'm seeing here is far from an emergency response."

Compton told CBC News that working with the CRA to deliver inflation relief funding was the best option because of the number of people who are eligible for the payment. She said about 90,000 qualify and will receive automatic payments.

"The big challenge is the sheer volume of Islanders," she said. "With one of the pandemic programs we might have 2,000 people that we're getting funds out the door to and that's nothing compared to 90,000 people. There would have to be staff hired and a mechanism put in place."

She said the province also doesn't have access to each individual's annual income information and if the province were to administer the program people would have to apply for the funds. Compton said the province doesn't have the resources to process that number of applications in a timely way.

"Working with CRA did really seem to be the only way that we could do this in a timely fashion at all."

Greens question announcement timing

Another issue the opposition raised was why the government announced the funding as emergency inflation relief when the money would not be available to people for several months.

"I'm not quite sure why they would have made the announcement as and when they did if they just were not ready to operationalize it," said Bevan-Baker.

Compton said the government wanted to get the money to Islanders as quickly as possible, but delays with the CRA mean that isn't possible.

"I will apologize to Islanders that we haven't gotten it out sooner, but there really is no mechanism we do not have access to the bank account information of Islanders to deposit money into their account. The only way we can do that is through CRA," Compton said.

She said if people are struggling right now, they can call 211 to inquire about other supports available for them.