FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 18, 2026
Statement from Green Leader Matt MacFarlane on Interim Report on IRAC Review
Charlottetown, PE – Earlier today the Interim Report on the Review of the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC) was released. There are some good recommendations here, particularly the recognition that IRAC’s extraordinarily broad mandate should be separated into more specialized bodies, and that patronage appointments be replaced with an open and transparent merit-based process.
But Islanders didn’t need another expensive review to tell us that.
For years, Islanders have been raising concerns about transparency, accountability, land protection, and electricity regulation. The Green Party has listened to those concerns and has already called for IRAC to be dismantled, and its responsibilities moved to independent, specialized bodies.
What concerns me is that the report stops short of what is really needed. The report calls for IRAC to remain in place during the transition, with the current IRAC leadership directing the process of establishing the new boards. That raises a fundamental question: if the culture and structure of IRAC are part of the problem, why are we asking the existing institution to lead its own transformation?
We need to be honest about the problem in order to find the right solution.
The Green Party believes that successive Liberal and PC governments have allowed political patronage and a lack of transparency to become embedded in the way important public appointments and decisions are made. You cannot fix that culture simply by rearranging the organizational chart. This is not about blaming individual commissioners or staff. It is about recognizing that institutions develop cultures, and those cultures can become deeply entrenched.
If we are serious about rebuilding Islanders’ trust, we need to start fresh.
The Green Party is calling for IRAC to be dismantled and rebuilt, with clear, independent mandates for energy and utilities, land protection and appeals. As the report acknowledges, appointments must be transparent, merit-based and made with Islanders’ best interests at the centre, not through political connections.
There are good ideas in this report. But the next step cannot simply be moving responsibilities around and putting the same system in charge of the transition. Islanders deserve more than a new structure. They deserve a new culture of transparency, independence, and accountability.
We’ve been listening to Islanders for years. Now it’s time to act.
Matt MacFarlane
MLA Borden-Kinkora
Leader of the Green Party of PEI
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For media inquiries, please contact:
Katie Rankin
Chief of Staff
Office of the Third Party
Tel: (902) 213-6378
Email: kerankin@assembly.pe.ca