PEI·NewA long sought-after 2018 land report from the Island Regulatory Appeals Commission IRAC may soon be in the hands of politicians after a legislative standing committee issued a subpoena for the document.Report’s release could undermine current land holdings investigation, says regulatorRyan McKellop · CBC News · Posted: Oct 02, 2025 8:12 PM EDT | Last Updated: 18 minutes agoP.E.I. legislative committee subpoenas 2018 land report from IRACA long sought-after report from the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission may soon be brought to light. The 2018 report on land, including the holdings of Buddhist groups on P.E.I., was never released. But as CBC’s Cody MacKay reports, a legislative standing committee has now subpoenaed the document.A long sought-after 2018 land report from the Island Regulatory Appeals Commission IRAC may soon be in the hands of politicians after a legislative standing committee issued a subpoena for the document. The IRAC report into land holdings on Prince Edward Island, including those of Buddist groups in eastern P.E.I., was never released by the regulatory body. There has been some controversy about those holdings in recent years, with some groups saying the Buddist groups own more land than what’s allowed under P.E.I.’s Lands Protection Act.Some MLAs believe those rumours could be cleared up with the release of the IRAC report.Steven Myers ordered IRAC to conduct a new investigation into the land holdings of Buddhist groups in eastern P.E.I. earlier this year in his capacity as land minister. (CBC Compass)Georgetown-Pownal MLA Steven Myers has asked for the report to be released in the past. Earlier this year, he instructed IRAC to conduct a new investigation into the Buddhist group’s land holdings.”I can’t really grasp how it all came about, but it stopped abruptly,” Myers told CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin on Thursday of the 2018 report. “To my knowledge I’m not sure that there’s a report, and I think the government of the day may have been the ones to end it — which wasn’t us, it was the previous government.”If IRAC hands over the 2018 report to the standing committee, it will go to politicians in private. The MLAs will then decide if it should be released in full to the public, or if some parts need to be redacted. Green Party Leader Matt MacFarlane said he wants to see the full document. “An investigation was done, apparently a report was issued. If it was done, let’s just have the report. We’re elected representatives,” he said.”We’re elected to represent our constituents across Prince Edward Island, we need to see the report to determine if laws were broken and, if so, what we can do to fix them.”P.E.I. Green Party Leader Matt MacFarlane says IRAC’s offer to provide the committee with an in-camera briefing was denied because the MLAs would not be allowed to speak publicly about the information gathered during a closed-door meeting. (Cody MacKay/CBC)IRAC has warned against releasing the report. It said doing so could undermine its current investigation in to the Buddhist groups’ land holdings — an investigation Myers ordered earlier this year in his capacity as land minister. MacFarlane said he doesn’t buy IRAC’s explanation. “Whenever you have an investigation into whether our laws have been breached, broken, violated or otherwise… and you’ve got public dollars being spent on that investigation, I think it does a real disservice to Islanders…. To have those results kept under wraps,” he said. WATCH | Buddhist group in Canada with ties to China at the heart of a war over religion and land in P.E.I.:Buddhist group in Canada with ties to China at the heart of a war over religion and land in P.E.I. A Buddhist group that has ties to China is at the heart of a war over religion and land in Prince Edward Island. According to information obtained in Canada and Taiwan by Radio-Canada, two former federal investigators say the ties warrant an RCMP investigation. On the Island, the monasteries are already the focus of a provincial commission that’s been asked to determine whether they have acquired more territory than is legally permitted. Brigitte Bureau has the story. [Correction: In a previous version of this video, we inadvertently referred to Taiwan as a country. In fact, Taiwan is a self-governing island, and sovereignty claims over the territory are disputed.]Legislative standing committees have used subpoenas in the past, most recently to force the province to release the details of its controversial contract with the National Hockey League, which saw P.E.I. branded as the “official travel destination of the NHL.” In both cases, MacFarlane said the use of a subpoena was necessary for public transparency — but that the government shouldn’t need to be compelled to release information by court order.”If that’s how this government is going to operate and continue to keep secrets from Islanders, documents that should be made public, then we’re going to see a lot more use of these subpoenas,” he said. MLAs rejected in-camera briefingIRAC offered to provide the committee with a closed-door briefing on the 2018 findings, which MLAs rejected, saying they wanted to see the full report.On top of that, MacFarlane said, committee members are not able to speak publicly about the details of an oral presentation when it’s delivered in-camera. “Our hands are tied as committee members, as MLAs, as to what we can do with what we’ve heard,” he said.”We’re… completely muzzled to communicate anything outside that room to anyone, and I don’t think that would be what Islanders want or expect.”Kent Dollar, Progressive Conservative MLA for Brackley-Hunter River, voted against the motion to subpoena the report, saying the committee should give IRAC the benefit of the doubt. (Cody MacKay/CBC)Two of the Progressive Conservative MLAs who sit on the committee voted against the motion to subpoena the 2018 report, including newly elected Brackley-Hunter River MLA Kent Dollar. “I’d like to give the benefit of the doubt to IRAC and what they’re trying to accomplish, and I would have liked to have gone back to the in-camera briefing, ” Dollar said, adding that a private meeting might have shed light on why IRAC hasn’t released its findings.”They’re saying the release of the 2018 report could hinder the ongoing investigation that they’re currently doing. So why don’t we just let them finish, come in give us an in-camera briefing, let us know where they’re at and then we’ll tackle it from there?The standing committee set the deadline for IRAC to release the report for Oct. 8.IRAC said in a statement that it wants to enforce the Lands Protection Act in an impartial and unbiased way, citing its current investigation into land holdings.”The commission wishes to make clear to the standing committee that complying with your request may potentially impede the commission’s investigation and any enforcement that may result,” the statement reads. “The commission urges the standing committee to reconsider the issuance of a subpoena and allow the commission to carry out its mandate.”ABOUT THE AUTHORRyan McKellop is a graduate of the Holland College Journalism program and a web writer at CBC P.E.I.With files from Cody MacKay
P.E.I. legislative committee subpoenas 2018 land report as IRAC urges MLAs to reconsider
