The three federal opposition parties have reached an agreement to make Parliament more accountable and prevent the Liberals from governing as if they have a majority, opposition leaders announced Thursday.

The changes will give committees more power and could require Parliament to give its approval on matters the government now decides alone, such as international treaties.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper announced details of the deal, flanked by Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Québécois, and Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe, Conservative party Leader Stephen Harper, and NDP Leader Jack Layton. (CP photo)

Harper said the tri-party deal "will make Parliament a more meaningful place for debating and deciding issues and it will make the government more accountable between elections."

Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals hold just 135 seats in the 308-seat House of Commons, so the three opposition parties intend to combine their votes once Parliament resumes on Oct. 4 to force their procedural changes through.

The three-way agreement includes:

• Putting all opposition motions to a vote, which could include motions on international treaties, troop deployments and changes to marriage rules. Currently, only a few opposition motions chosen by lottery ever make it to a vote in Parliament.
• Establishing two new committees on women's issues, and access to information and ethics matters, as well as dividing the current committee on aboriginal affairs and natural resources into two bodies.
• Putting all-committee reports to a vote in Parliament so that action will be taken more often; some now disappear from the House of Commons agenda after they're finished.
• Giving all parties a bigger role in committees, and putting time frames on the work of committees.
• Ensuring speeches by the leaders and the prime minister are open to questions.
• Having the Speaker, not the government, appoint deputy speakers.

The leaders emphasized that they are in agreement on the procedural reforms, but their coalition does not extend to combining forces to vote policies into effect.

The leaders also said they would seek a clearer, written definition of a confidence vote from Governor General Adrienne Clarkson so that the government can't make every vote a confidence item. That would allow opposition politicians to defeat Liberal motions in the House of Commons without bringing down the government.

Still paying the bills from the spring 2004 campaign, all four parties would be reluctant to face another federal election before at least the second half of 2005.