King considering Green's draft ground rules agreement

Premier Dennis King said he is open to reaching a formal agreement with the two other P.E.I. parties in the legislature, but wouldn't commit to signing on to the draft confidence and supply agreement the Green Party submitted to the PCs and Liberals on Monday.

"It's certainly an interesting proposal and I'm looking forward to sitting down with both of the leader of the Opposition and the leader of the third party in the days ahead to see what the next steps are," King said, in an interview withCBC News: Compasshost Louise Martin.

When asked if he would be willing to signa formalagreement King said, "Provided that it sets out everything that we really need to do, and it's in the best interest of all parties and of Islanders."

"The most important agreement that we have is the one we've made with the voters of Prince Edward Island," King said.

King said he is committed to working with the other parties and acknowledged the stakes are high.

"At the end of this if we can't provide good government, we can't stay in government. So we do need to collaborate, we do need to do things differently."

What's being proposed

The Green's draft sets out a "minimum threshold" of consultation government would be required to carry out with opposition parties in order to count on their support in confidence motions on budgets and throne speeches:

• Private pre-budget consultations with each opposition party, prior to cabinet budget deliberations.

• Consultation regarding "significant government appointments" prior to the appointments being made.

• Two weeks advance notice of bills to be introduced in the legislature, with briefings on those bills as requested.

The draft also calls for the creation of a special committee to develop a code of conduct for MLAs, to develop a dispute resolution mechanism to resolve conflicts amongthe parties, and to recommend potential reforms to make collaboration between the parties possible.

"This is a much broader document than what ... perhaps I was anticipating, as well as maybe the third party," King said.

"Most of the things inside the agreement are the basic principles that we've been living by."

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