The provincial government won't pass amendments curtailing the representative for children and youth's access to cabinet documents while Ted Hughes facilitates discussions between the government and representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond.

“Our preference has always been to resolve this issue without the need for legislation,” deputy minister to the premier Allan Seckel wrote in a letter to Hughes today. “We have consistently sought to negotiate an agreement on confidentiality such as the one I read you alluding to in your letter.”

With the legislature sitting just until June 3 it is critical to act promptly, he wrote. “I would like to act upon your kind offer and begin discussions immediately with a goal of resolving this issue in short order.”

In the meantime, he said, the government will not seek passage of the amendments that would block the representative from seeing cabinet documents.

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.