As P.E.I. considers lifting mask mandate, Opposition claims rules for MLAs create double standard

A week away from the date the P.E.I. government has indicated it plans to lift its public mask mandate — April 7 — masking practices among cabinet ministers became a topic of debate in the provincial legislature, along with the rules MLAs are required to follow in the house.

"We cannot create two different standards for ourselves and for others," said Green Leader Peter Bevan-Baker, asking the province's deputy minister why some cabinet ministers choose to sit in the legislature without masks.

The province's premier is away after testing positive with COVID-19. At least two more MLAs, Bevan-Baker and Transportation Minister James Aylward, have tested positive since the start of the current sitting in February.

P.E.I.'s public mask mandate doesn't apply within the legislature. Government can't enforce policies in the legislature, like a mask mandate, that could prevent someone from carrying out their duties as an MLA.

MLAs can create and enforce their own rules around masking, but it wasn't immediately clear Thursday exactly what rules are currently in effect, or how they were created.

In practice, MLAs have been wearing masks while moving around the building and removing them while speaking.

As to whether they wear them throughout proceedings while seated at their desks, that practice has broken down along somewhat partisan lines.

All four Liberal members remove their masks. All eight Green MLAs keep theirs on. And the governing PCs are split, with six of them, give or take, regularly removing masks — among them the ministers of education, social development, justice and fisheries.

"Visitors in the gallery have asked us why they must put on a mask in order to come in this legislature only to be greeted by MLAs without them," Bevan-Baker noted during question period.

He asked Deputy Premier Darlene Compton why government continues to insist it's following the advice of the province's chief public health officer "when most of cabinet seems unable or perhaps unwilling to follow her advice on masking?"

"I guess it would be their choice," Compton responded. "They're adhering to the rules. We all have the choice in this house to do that."

"Adhering to rules is not being leaders," Bevan-Baker said. "It's not leading by example and we need to demonstrate to Islanders that we are the ones who are taking great care."

CBC News asked the clerk of the legislature for information on the rules around masking. The clerk refused to provide any comment or information.

Speaker Colin LaVie, chair of the all-party committee that draws up rules for the legislature, said he could not comment until he ruled on a point of order brought forward Thursday by Environment Minister Steven Myers on the issue.