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ROB LANTZ: Why we're not waiting: IRAC was built for 1991. It's time to build a regulator for what's next

In 1991, Prince Edward Island merged the Public Utilities Commission, the Land Use Commission and the Office of the Rentalsman under one roof and called it the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission. The idea was efficiency: one place, one set of experts, one address for Islanders who needed a fair hearing.

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Thirty-five years later, that same small commission sets electricity rates, decides who can buy farmland, rules on landlord-tenant disputes, and hears municipal planning appeals — sometimes all in the same week, with the same handful of commissioners. IRAC’s structure hasn’t changed since 1991. Almost everything else about the Island has.

That’s the finding of the first fully independent review of IRAC. Commissioner Rory Francis and his team held hearings in five communities, more than 40 meetings, and received 63 written submissions. Their conclusion is blunt: trust between IRAC and Island residents has eroded. That isn’t because of any one decision, person or government.........

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