Land use debate turns into shouting match between PC leadership candidates
About 100 people attended the second of three leadership debates
A debate on land use in P.E.I. erupted into a shouting match between the two men who want to lead the Progressive Conservative Party into the next election.
This was the second in a series of three leadership forums for P.E.I.’s governing PC Party. This one was held Thursday night in Montague.
Mark Ledwell says he’s committed to overhauling the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC), suspending Bliss and Wisdom land transfers and calling a public inquiry.
Bliss and Wisdom is a Taiwan-based Tibetan Buddhist movement. Land holdings of groups associated with the movement in eastern P.E.I. have been the topic of speculation and controversy for years.
His promises received loud applause from the 100 or so people at the forum, which was held at the Cavendish Farms Wellness Centre.
'No idea what to do on land'
“It’s clear that the Lantz government has no idea what to do on land and on the land question. That’s why we need change now at the top,” said Ledwell.
Lantz, who served as premier for about nine months in 2025 before resigning to run for permanent leadership of the party, says his government implemented most of the recommendations in the Land Matters report.
The Land Matters Advisory Committee came up with 13 recommendations in 2021 on land use, ownership and planning.
“We have already substantially implemented 12 of those 13 recommendations that were in the Land Matters report,” said Lantz.
“They’ve either been fully implemented, partially implemented. There’s a couple that are still a work in progress.”
'It was me who called for a federal investigation'
That touched off a fiery exchange between Lantz and Ledwell.
“The Lands Protection Act is full of holes — any lawyer worth his or her salt knows that,” said Ledwell.
“People are driving trucks through it. You haven’t done anything to close up the loopholes. Then you say that you implemented the Land Matters recommendations. You haven’t touched IRAC. People are concerned about IRAC. IRAC is mentioned in there. You’re not touching that… you’ve done nothing, you’ve done absolutely nothing.”
Lantz fired back saying he takes the issue of land use seriously.
“It was me who called for a federal investigation to get to the bottom of the land issue in Kings County,” said Lantz.
“I can tell you, the RCMP’s federal serious and organized crime unit they are investigating right now… it’s because I called for that investigation.”
Lantz did call on the federal RCMP and Canada’s anti-money-laundering agency to begin an “immediate and transparent” investigation into allegations of foreign interference and money laundering involving “certain Buddhist groups” on the Island.
That came after comments were made last fall by a former solicitor general and a former RCMP superintendent, who suggested information exists that could warrant a criminal investigation, and urged the federal RCMP to review that potential evidence.
'Somebody here is not supporting you.'
During Thursday night’s debate, Ledwell also accused Lantz multiple times of using the resources of government to prop up his leadership campaign.
During a debate on municipalities, Lantz said: “As someone who’s supported by almost our entire caucus, who are from rural communities across this province, I understand rural communities.”
That touched off another fiery exchange between Lantz and Ledwell.
“You keep saying that you’re supported by your entire caucus. Well, you’re not, somebody here is not supporting you,” said Ledwell.
“Each of these caucus members, they have one vote. This is about the membership. This is about the people. It’s not about strong-arming and having MLAs going out, or cabinet ministers going out, and signing up people and getting them in the door when they should be working on the problems that Islanders face. Who’s looking after Islanders? Who’s looking after these files when they’re out using government resources, government cars, government texts, government iPhones… I think it’s completely inappropriate.”
'You’ve turned so many of them away.'
Lantz responded saying: “You’ve turned so many of them away from you, Mark, by criticizing them and by being so outrageous.”
In an interview after the forum, Ledwell said he’s concerned about Lantz using government resources for his leadership campaign. He said he’s raised those concerns with party officials.
“That’s a problem we run into when you have somebody in an interim position then seeking the permanent position,” said Ledwell.
“They inevitably use the resources, in this case of the premier’s office, to support them.”
Lantz denies that.
“I’ve got one person that worked in the premier’s office alongside me … when I was premier but he’s taken a leave of absence, an unpaid leave of absence, to come and work on my campaign,” said Lantz.
“That’s the only resource that I can think of. I’m a little confused. I think [Ledwell] is trying to sow a bit of division here, create a bit of chaos, create an image of something that isn’t actually completely accurate so it was a bit of an attack designed to just bring me down a notch and he’s been doing that a lot.”
There is one more forum on Feb. 2 in Charlottetown. Members of the party will choose their leader Feb. 7.
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