Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island — Today, Premier-designate Dennis King announced key members of the senior staff that will serve in the Office of the Premier.

On behalf of myself, our candidates and our entire party we extend our deepest sympathies on the tragic loss of Josh Underhay and his son.

A New Dennis King Progressive Conservative Government Will:

• Put a new focus on strengthening programs that care for the physical, mental and emotional development of children during the critical first 1000 days of a child’s life. The First 1000 Days Initiative will promote action and investment to improve nutritional health, development and well-being of mothers and children. Providing this kind of care - nutritional, mental, social and cognitive development - has a ripple effect on the health and prosperity of our families and our Island communities.
  

A New Dennis King Progressive Conservative Government Will: 

• Implement an Island wide community-based preschool program for all four year olds. This program will help children improve language, social and thinking skills that helped them make a smoother transition to public kindergarten. This program will also benefit Island parents, allowing them to more time for self-care, undertake job seeking activities, take care of home responsibilities, and strengthen and improve family understanding and relationships. 

A New Dennis King Progressive Conservative Government Will: 

• Immediately replace the Hillsborough Hospital - Effective mental health supports require both community-based and in-patient services. The core of in-patient mental health services are delivered through the aging Hillsborough Hospital. Replacement of Hillsborough Hospital through a new facility will better integrate community and in-patient mental health services for Islanders and will be the number one infrastructure priority of a new Dennis King PC government.
  
  
• Expand community-based cancer treatment in Kings County and West Prince - Improved local access to treatment will help reduce travel, financial and emotional burdens for Islanders living with cancer.
   
• Create a new Wellness and Activity Tax Credit - An important part of good physical and mental health is directly tied to physical activity. A new $500 Wellness and Activity Tax Credit will help Islanders become more physically active and healthy by helping lower the barriers to good health.

A New Dennis King Progressive Conservative Government Will: 

• Raise the Basic Personal Tax Exemption to the national average of $12,000 and tie future increases to the Consumer Price Index to address bracket creep. This will directly benefit 84,000 Island taxpayers, remove 5,000 low-income Islanders from provincial tax rolls and provide an average of $280 in annual tax savings.
  
  
• Increase the base amount of the Low Income Tax Reduction program from $17,000 to $20,000.This targeted measure will directly benefit 12,000 low-income Island taxpayers and return an average annual savings of $150.
  
  
• Lower the Small Business Tax Rate to 1% by January 2020.This will improve competitiveness for Island businesses by creating the lowest tax rate for small business in Atlantic Canada.

Summerside resident and former City Councillor Tyler DesRoches is seeking the Progressive Conservative nomination for District 21, Summerside-Wilmot.

Charlottetown - Charlottetown police officer Tim Keizer is seeking the Progressive Conservative nomination for District 12, Charlottetown-Victoria Park in the next provincial election.

East Bideford resident Barb Broome is seeking the Progressive Conservative nomination for District 25, O’Leary-Inverness.

Kildare - Kildare resident and retired geophysicist Tom Radford is seeking the Progressive Conservative nomination in District 26 Alberton-Bloomfield.