Premier Dennis King recently disclosed that the province needs to make it easy for Islanders to access and navigate proper mental health and addictions services on Prince Edward Island.
On Monday night, the Premier gave his rotary club’s state of the province address. According to him, starting from this year, there will be a single point of access for addictions and mental health services on P.E.I.
He said,
“It will be a 24-hour line, seven days a week, where a real human being answers the phone and helps to navigate the process of getting the appropriate treatment.”
Also, there are plans in the province to create a Mental Wellbeing P.E.I. Centre. This is a dedicated body that is funded by the government but its decisions are not influenced by it. The organization will work hand in hand with several community organizations like the PEERS Alliance, Canadian Mental Health Association, the Boys and Girls Club.
In addition, they’ll also work with other bodies to establish a harmonized network of services which will be available for all Islanders any time they need it.
He added,
“The center will get off the ground immediately, with a founding board of high-performing leaders from across our province who will build a solid foundation for the center to be fully operational by fall 2021.”
King also said that the government would also create and start a plan to build a cleantech sector for P.E.I. This will support companies based in the province to develop and set up clean and competitive technology solutions.
He believes it will go a long way in solving some of the most pressing environmental challenges of P.E.I: This includes clean air, climate change, clean soil, and clean water.
“Our aim is to encourage leading-edge development that will provide solutions needed to combat climate change.”
In order to meet and surpass these challenges, King stated that the province would create:
A $50 million investment fund. This for existing businesses or new business development to scale up their clean technology solutions.
Three tax-free development zones. This will create opportunities for cleantech companies to cluster in addition to maximizing common services and supports that will hasten up their work.
A $10 million R & D fund to work on the solutions and ideas that hasn’t been disclosed yeet.
“And on top of these investments, we are committed to creating the talent-pool needed for this sector by working with our post-secondary institutions. The time is now. By 2030, it is our goal to see the creation of over 2,000 jobs in the cleantech sector here on P.E.I.”
