It’s been just over a year since I was sworn into the PEI legislature as MLA for Charlottetown-Parkdale, and in that time I have had so many opportunities to help people and make a real difference in provincial affairs.  From working with the Ostomy Support Society to advocate for provincial coverage of ostomy supplies to introducing and passing an amendment to the Innovation PEI Act to include culture and green technology on our list of strategic sectors, I have relished advocating for progressive change and I have tried to live up to the trust my constituents have placed in me.

To be honest with you, I like Airbnbs. They can make traveling more affordable, offer unique stays in unlikely places and give homeowners a little additional income; what’s not to like? It’s only been the last couple of weeks that I’m starting to reconsider my answer to that question, and the journey started in an unlikely place.

In a recent op-ed piece, Economic Development and Tourism Minister Chris Palmer rightly stated ‘If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.’ I wholly accept this logic and thank him for opening the dialogue around this.

I, too, learned this while running my first business. I expect all business owners quickly learn the need to associate a value to things that go beyond the goods or services they have for sale. We learn to measure the cost of time, both time spent and time lost; the cost of mistakes; the value of relationships with our suppliers and the connection to our clients; the worth of a reputation. We quantify things that we’ll never need to report on our tax returns, but that we will use as filters to inform countless decisions we make all the time. After all, if we don’t measure it, we can’t manage it.