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COMMENTARY: Reductions should not be the standard for Island children in the P.E.I. budget

The 2026-27 budget has been framed by the P.E.I. government as a pragmatic response to economic pressures and growing deficits. It points to investments like the Island Essentials Benefit, increases to the P.E.I. Child Benefit and previously announced capital infrastructure spending as evidence that families are given priority. However, beneath these positive actions lies a troubling pattern of decisions that disproportionately affect and disadvantage children and youth.

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In my view, as P.E.I. child and youth advocate, budgets are not neutral financial documents. They are political blueprints that reveal what government values most. Therefore, when pedagogical supports are reduced for young children, mother tongue language supports for French minority families cut, climate initiatives deprioritized and acute mental health infrastructure for youth diminished, such decisions send a clear message: the rights and best interests of Island children and youth are negotiable.

Budgetary cuts and reductions impacting programs and services for children and youth do not align with Canada’s and Prince Edward Island’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). To be consistent with obligations under the UNCRC, the P.E.I. government should direct maximum available resources to support children and youth, even during times of economic difficulty and fiscal restraint.

In 2021, the P.E.I. legislature unanimously passed a motion committing to applying, and publicly........

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