Morell is holding its mayoral by-election Monday.  The polls are open until 7 pm and are located at 12 Sunset Crescent. 

Voters are reminded that you need to bring some form of identification with you when you go to vote.  

The candidates for Mayor are Corrine Hendricken-Eldershaw and Danny Kelly.

A ceremony will be held at Rideau Hall Monday to make an Islander interim Government House Leader.  Gatineau Liberal MP Steven MacKinnon, who’s originally from Charlottetown, will be sworn in as he takes on the responsibilities on an interim basis for Karina Gould, who’s going on parental leave to welcome her second child.  As Government House Leader, he’ll be responsible for handling the government’s legislative agenda.

A developing storm is likely to hit the Maritimes on Wednesday, bringing strong winds, heavy rain, and some snow to P.E.I.

There are no watches or warnings as yet, but there has been a Special Weather Statement issued for all of PEI indicating that we could see a potentially significant storm on Wednesday in PEI.   It’s still a little too early for snow or rain  totals and pinpointed wind speeds, Environment Canada says strong winds, heavy rain, and snow will accompany this system. Strong winds and snow will begin on Wednesday morning, before snow transitions to rain across the province by Wednesday afternoon.

Karen Morton of North Carleton will be the candidate for the Island New Democrats in the soon-to-be-called by-election in District 19 Borden-Kinkora.  Morton won the party’s endorsement on Sunday.  The by-election is necessary after PC MLA Jamie Fox resigned in mid-November to run federally for the Conservatives in Malpeque.

A new professional women’s hockey league in North America is giving female players on P.E.I. hope of making a career out of a game they love.

The Filipino community has grown a lot on the Island in recent years, especially in western P.E.I. That growing community is hoping to share a little of their culture with Islanders — teaching them how to speak a bit of their language.

The Island Literary Awards will be more of a gala affair for authors when they return in 2025, according to the P.E.I. Writers' Guild. There should also be a new sponsorship model in place.

A 34 year old Charlottetown man has been charged with break and enter and breach of probation in connection with a break-in late last Thursday night.  .

It happened at a business on Kent Street.  Police say they got a complaint from a woman saying that after closing the business, she returned a short time later and discovered the break-in.  A cell phone, several iPads, cash from the till and liquor bottles were all stolen.   Several Police units responded and began searching the area.   A short time later, Police found a man getting out of a dumpster and he was in possession of the stolen items.  He’s to appear in court Monday.

The Kings County Memorial Hospital Foundation is spearheading an initiative to establish a health clinic in Three Rivers in collaboration with Health PEI.   This past summer, the Foundation established an Ad Hoc Committee with the goal of enhancing access to primary care in the area. 

The committee, in collaboration with Health PEI, has acquired space in the Down East Mall in Montague with plans to offer a range of primary care services for Kings County residents without a primary care provider. These services are expected to include a Health PEI-run primary care access clinic with video conferencing with doctors and nurse practitioners, as well as a walk-in clinic run by a local pharmacy.

The Health PEI services will first launch at the Montague Health Centre before moving to the health clinic in the Down East Mall. An announcement with information about how to access the services will be made in the coming days, closer to the opening date. 

A former student and teacher of the single-room St. Hubert school in Prince Edward Island is looking at its history.

Riverview Manor, a 49-bed long-term care facility in Montague, P.E.I., has declared a facility-wide outbreak of influenza.

Riverview Manor in Montague has declared a facility-wide outbreak of influenza. Residents in the facility will be limited to three partners-in-care, with one visitor at a time. All partners-in-care will be asked to follow the current infection control measures. Partners-in-care are reminded to not visit if they are experiencing any symptoms of respiratory illness.

Charlottetown Police are turning to the public in an effort to locate a missing dory.  It was on November 29th that Charlottetown Police received a complaint of a missing dory, which had been tied up at the Charlottetown Yacht Club.   A photo was taken on November 29th by a citizen that put out notice on Facebook that the dory was no longer tied up, and had filled with water and came to rest on shore next to the Yacht Club.   The owner of the dory went looking for it a short time later, but it was no longer there.  Police say it’s unclear if the dory got washed away further, sunk due to water intake or if someone may have removed the boat from the shore.  Anyone with information regarding the missing dory is asked to contact Charlottetown Police.

Beach Grove Home in Charlottetown has declared an outbreak of COVID-19 on its Sunset household. This is in addition to the influenza outbreak that’s been declared for the Sunset household. Residents in that household will be limited to three partners-in-care, with one visitor at a time. All partners-in-care will be asked to follow the current infection control measures.

Meanwhile, the Meadows household at Beach Grove Home has declared an outbreak of influenza as over. Health PEI is thanking staff for their dedication in managing and limiting the outbreak within the household.

Visitors are encouraged to wear a mask on all households and to not visit if they are feeling ill.

There are now four candidates for the Progressive Conservative nomination for the upcoming byelection in District 19 Borden-Kinkora.  The candidates are  Jordan Johnston, Brian Nash, Renee Pastoor and Carmen Reeves.  The PC nomination meeting is set for Tuesday, January 9th at Amherst Cove Consolidated School. 

A program designed to help boost the literacy of preschoolers has been running throughout 2023 in Summerside.

A Rustico woman's passion for fitness has seen her gym grow into a health-care hub for a small community on Prince Edward Island’s North Shore. 

Residents in Three Rivers could soon have access to a new walk-in clinic thanks to a community-led effort that’s getting support from Health P.E.I. 

Repairs to broken blades and turbine mechanisms at the Hermanville wind farm are expected to cost taxpayers $10 million. Millions more are being lost from reduced electricity revenues.

People in eastern P.E.I. are being warned to expect a snowy evening Friday night and overnight into Saturday, with squalls dumping up to 15 centimetres and winds gusting to 60 or 70 km/h. 

Christmas on P.E.I. was something of a bust for creating part-time jobs in retail, and as a result the province's unemployment rate remained above eight per cent for the second month in a row in December.

The PEI economy added a total of 100 jobs in December as the provincial unemployment rate held steady in December, unchanged from 8.1 percent in November.  The national unemployment rate held steady at 5.8 per cent as employment grew by 100 last month.  That’s because the number of full-time jobs fell by 23,500 in December, offset by a gain of 23,600 part-time positions in the month. The number of jobs in the professional, scientific and technical services sector rose by 45,700 in the month, while the number of jobs in health care and social assistance climbed by 15,500.  The wholesale and retail trade sector lost 20,600 jobs in December.

After consulting with the Newfoundland and Labrador health authority, Kingsway Living is temporarily closing Bonaventure Retirement Home for renovations — and residents have to be out by April 4.

P.E.I.'s Mark Arendz Provincial Ski Park at Brookvale will open for the season Friday.

Prices for mid and premium grades of gas were up on P.E.I. Friday, as the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission implemented changes to price formulas announced last month.

RCMP have laid charges against three people from St. Raphael as a result of a search warrant that was executed at a home in the community this past October.  The search was conducted by a PEI Joint Forces Operations drug unit made up of members of Prince District RCMP, Summerside Police, and Kensington Police.  Police say a woman is charged with possession of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking; possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking; and Possession of a prohibited weapon without being licenced.  One man is charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking; 12 counts of Possession of a firearm without a licence; and two counts of Storage of a firearm contrary to firearms regulations.  A second man is facing 2 charges of Possession of a firearm without a licence. All three will appear in Summerside Court on January 31.

For the second time this week, Health PEI has issued an advisory regarding increased patient volumes impacting emergency department wait times.  Late Thursday afternoon, Health PEI advised that wait times at Health PEI Emergency Departments are currently longer than usual. As a result, anyone going to the emergency department with less severe illnesses should expect a longer wait to see a physician. People with more serious illness or injuries will be seen more quickly. Health PEI stresses that people with  serious illness or injury should continue to seek emergency care at the emergency department and stay in the emergency department once triaged until they’re seen. The increased volumes also mean more patients are waiting in the emergency department for a hospital bed.  On Tuesday, Health PEI advised of longer than usual wait times at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital emergency department

Turbines at P.E.I.'s Hermanville wind farm were assessed to be at 'high risk of imminent failure' and a potential safety risk in the spring of 2022, but a plan to conduct repairs was delayed over an apparent dispute between the province and the manufacturer over who would pay.

P.E.I. previously offered free vaccines to students living in residence, but that has been expanded after new meningitis B cases were diagnosed in Ontario.

For most fuel prices on PEI, it’s status quo Friday with the weekly price review by the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission.  Overnight, IRAC announced there would be no change today in the price of regular gasoline, diesel or furnace oil.  The price of premium gasoline did increase overnight by 4.0 cents per litre.  That puts prices for premium self-serve gasoline in the  range of 168.2 to 169.4 cents per litre.  Pump prices for regular self-serve gasoline are still between 155.7 and 156.9 cents per litre.  Prices for diesel range from 193.7 to 194.8 cents per litre.  The maximum price for furnace oil is 142.8 cents per litre.

Some Island doctors are pushing back against Health P.E.I.'s wait-time advisories for hospital emergency departments, saying they may be doing more harm than good.

UPEI’s five-year action plan contains hundreds of proposed changes to address everything from discrimination to sexual harassment to bullying, but the university’s faculty association says more could be done immediately to change the culture on campus.

Blood donations went well on P.E.I. over the holidays but the demand never ends, says Kim Elliott of Canadian Blood Services.

Wait times at all emergency departments on Prince Edward Island are longer than usual due to an increased numbers of patients showing up for medical care, Health P.E.I. said Thursday afternoon.

Charlottetown's city councillors have once again voted to look no further into financial concerns raised by a 2023 forensic audit, with Mayor Philip Brown saying: 'Lessons have been learned.'

'I don't know what the solution is but something has to happen ... not just in five years, 10 years, it has to be now,' says Katrin Georgi.

Island NDP Leader Michelle Neill says the NDP’s Provincial Council will meet this weekend to select a candidate to run in the upcoming District 19 – Borden-Kinkora by-election. The seat became vacant in mid-November when PC MLA Jamie Fox resigned to run federally for the Conservatives in Malpeque in the next federal election.  Neill says the NDP’s Candidate Search Committee has received several expressions of interest.  It’s anticipated that the Island New Democrat candidate for the by-election will be announced on Monday.

UPEI has developed a preliminary draft of its Action Plan for implementing recommendations in the third-party review that was released last June.  That report identified a toxic environment on campus, with instances of bullying and harassment.  The preliminary draft of the UPEI Action Plan reflects the input and feedback gathered through consultations over a six-month period – consultations with more than 350 campus members through two townhalls and 16 listening sessions, and hundreds of hours of collective work by the community representatives within the UPEI Action Plan Advisory Group.  Feedback on the Preliminary Draft is now being accepted.

Participants in the Construction Association of P.E.I.’s training programs started work on the tiny homes in the spring of 2023.

Charlottetown city council amended its zoning and development bylaw Wednesday to allow for a design change at the province's new mental health campus.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency hopes to have a draft of a new national potato wart response plan ready by late spring. This month, the agency is looking for feedback on three new risk-management documents connected to potato wart.

The University of Prince Edward Island has released a draft of the five-year action plan it will use to follow through on the recommendations from the Rubin Thomlinson report, which identified a toxic environment on campus, where bullying and harassment were widespread and condoned at an institutional level.

Executive director Sarah Outram speaks about her group's report on treatment of female and gender-diverse candidates.

It just needs to get a little colder for the water to freeze at city's winter wonderlands.

An advocacy group says a new study indicates that many of the female and gender-diverse candidates in the most recent provincial election faced some form of online harassment.
The P-E-I Coalition for Women in Government surveyed and interviewed 15 women and gender-diverse candidates.
Two thirds of them said they faced some form of harassment, which included name-calling and threats of physical violence.
The group says the survey is meant to be a starting point for analyzing the impact of gender-based online harassment as a barrier to women’s participation in politics.

The Liberal Party of PEI has announced a call for nominations for the upcoming by-election in District 19 Borden-Kinkora.
The Liberal Party’s nomination process is open until Wednesday, January 10th at 4:30 pm.
The District 19 Nomination Meeting for the Liberals is scheduled for Wednesday, January 10^th at the Albany Community Centre at 7:00 p.m.

Cameron Gordon, who has Down syndrome, says he wanted to give back after seeing how homeless people were struggling on P.E.I.

The COVID-19 outbreak at Colville Manor in Souris has been declared over. 

Health PEI is thanking staff for their dedication in managing and limiting the COVID-19 outbreak within the facility.

 Visitors are encouraged to wear a mask inside the facility and to not visit if they are feeling ill.

A 79-year-old Stratford man is facing a charge of impaired driving after fleeing the scene of a two-vehicle collision early Saturday afternoon.  At about 12:15 p.m. the RCMP responded to a 9-1-1 call from someone saying their car had been struck by another vehicle.  Police responded and were able to gather enough information to locate the vehicle and its driver.  Police arrested and charged the driver with impaired driving.  No one was injured in the collision.