P.E.I. Green and Liberal parties critical of PC approach

The first sitting of the P.E.I.'s minority government is over and there was plenty of focus on collaboration during the latest legislative session.

There may have even been a bit too much talk about it, according to interim Liberal leader Robert Mitchell.

"We are now in a minority situation, first time ever on P.E.I., and it's the minority situation that the premier has indicated is the reason [that] some of his early immediate promises weren't able to be met," he said.

Collaboration isn't a new concept. Even when he was part of a majority Liberal government there was collaboration with other parties, Mitchell said.

"I agree with the premier, this is a ton of collaboration," said Mitchell, believing Islanders want to see the minority government work.

However, Mitchell said a government shouldn't use that minority status to avoid keeping promises.

"This can't be an excuse for not moving forward with services, programs, supports that Islanders expect to see and need to see," Mitchell said.

Islanders voted for 'something different'

However, Premier Dennis King said he thinks the process of the first sitting of the minority government has been a "new experience" and work has to be done to find balance.

"Islanders did vote for something different and I think what we are trying to give them collectively is something different," King said.

There has been a lot of input from other parties during the spring sitting in regards to such things as the budget, King said.

"I do think we did do a good job of trying to give a little bit to everybody, and in the process of giving a little bit to everybody we all had to miss out on a few things," King said.

Green Party disappointments

Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker, representing the Official Opposition, agrees there was collaboration before the minority government, but it was "mixed in with a lot of combative, nasty, antagonistic stuff," he said.

"Islanders clearly wanted something different from us and it has been part of my mission since I got elected to rebuild the trust that I believe the electorate needs to have in government," Bevan-Baker said.

A major part of trust he said is saying what you are going to do and then doing what you say, and Bevan-Baker said he shares Mitchell's disappointment in the PC government.

"The governing party has not followed through on a number of promises that were in the platform."

Bevan-Baker said those promises would have been affordable considering the projected provincial surplus.

"My disappointment lies with the fact that here we are in a situation where there were opportunities for all of us to bring forth the priories we had articulated during the campaign," he said.

Open to doing better

King said he isn't playing with a "big pot of money. The projected provincial surplus is expected to be no more than $2 million.

He said he is open to doing better in terms of collaboration.

"I have commitments that we want to make and we are going to work through them, but I want to make sure they are not at the expense of something that other parties have been putting forward that I can also support," King said.

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