Minister Curtis Richardson and
Parliament Secretary Cardigan Connor
The first government press conference of 2018 was held on Tuesday afternoon, January 9th, at the Ministry of Finance Conference Room.
The Chief Minister, Hon. Victor Banks, made apologies for the absence of Hon. Evan McNeil Rogers, who was travelling on assignment, as well as Hon. Cora Richardson-Hodge, who was preoccupied with other duties.
The Chief Minister began by saying: “This is the first meeting for the year 2018, and I welcome all. Here, we want to bring the press up to date as to where we are and where we are heading. Last year, we did not take a budget to the House, and obviously that has to take place. Based on planning, the budget would not be brought to the House for discussions before the end of February to mid-March, owing to the fact that certain things must be put in place within the period prior to then.
“One of the key things that must take place is our discussions with the British Government in terms of the support package of EC$220, 000,000 that we would receive to help in the recovery exercise. It is important that we have projects earmarked by late February/early March, so that we can take full advantage of those funds as they become available. These funds will not be available to us in a substantive form until the new British Government budget year starts, which is on April 1st. So even though this EC$220, 000,000 have been indicated, funds will not begin to be disbursed until April. This gives us ample time to do our business plans and implementation plans relative to the recovery projects, as these are pre-requirements by the British Government for the disbursement of these funds.
“I have received a letter from the British and Commonwealth Office indicating the very important steps that need to be taken so that UK Ministers can agree with the spending process. These required steps are as follows: 1. An agreement to a revised medium term Economic and Fiscal Reform Program; 2. The appointment of a UK-funded Financial Advisor to the Government of Anguilla; 3. A clear agreed list of projects which this funding will support, and the establishment of agreed implementation arrangements. The details of this letter that I received from David Merrick, Director of Overseas Territories, give a clear outline of what needs to be done as pre-conditions for the disbursement of these funds.
“You would expect that if the British Government is giving us a grant of EC$220,000,000 there would be some conditions attached, and we have to assure the British tax payers that the funds have been disbursed transparently and accountably. I must again express my gratitude to the British Government for this support. This would not have been possible without the teamwork between the Ministry of Finance, the Governor’s Office and the FCO, as well as the other agencies that were involved.
“The key areas that we would like to address in the immediate stages of these disbursements are: 1. Education and 2. Access, i.e., the ferry terminal development in Blowing Point. These are key issues. Obviously, we would want to begin quickly in putting the port project in place. This will involve some consultation with stakeholders in the industry, including such as persons who work in the hotel and accommodation sector, as well as customs, immigration, taxi drivers, etc. Certainly, the schools are a quite critical part of the support package. And so it is with a great sense of urgency that we would want to address education. Some of the schools already had plans for expansion [before the storm]. However, one of the prime concerns will be the reconstruction of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. We must get things in place to ensure that they return to a state of normalcy at least by the beginning of the next school in September, although that could possibly extend down to January 2019.
“I have indicated to the Minister of Infrastructure that, with regard to the expansion of the Clayton J. Lloyd Airport, it is a critical project that we have to address early. The upgrade of the airport will be done through some form of a public /private partnership arrangement. We don’t want to necessarily use funds from the British Government to address this project – based on its magnitude of the work – neither do we want to put ourselves in a position where our borrowing is impacted. Therefore, we want to partner with the private sector to have this happen.
“We have a number of interests being submitted for the airport project. Prime among these is the Conch Bay development. The lands issue is a part of that project, and the developers there have a great interest in the airport expansion, so it makes a good fit. This week we have already started having discussions with the landowners concerned, as well as the developers. There is also interest expressed from some external companies as well, including a company in Canada and one in the U.S. which are both interested in the airport expansion development. However, the key issue is to make sure that we sort out the pending matter in the Court of Appeal with regard to the lands. This should be hopefully settled by the end of January.
Mr. Banks then spoke concerning relief aid for persons whose businesses were affected by the past hurricane. He noted: “There is a number of extra memoranda, that will be presented to Executive Council shortly, which address the issue related to the relief effort for persons whose businesses were affected. We are now rolling out a program that issues small grants to aid affected persons for small projects. These grants would come from a relatively small government fund of EC$2,000,000. Applicants have registered for such aid, and now we have put together a committee for approval in Executive Council. This committee mainly consists of pastors and religious leaders, who will be in charge of administering that fund.
“I am happy to know that a number of persons have benefitted under the compensation arrangements, that we partnered in with Social Security, to make sure that there is some form of compensation for persons who have been out of employment due to the hurricane. Thus far, persons have indicated that they are happy with the support that they have been given.”
The Chief Minister continued: “We have visited a number of hotel properties since the New Year began, and there is steady progress at most of them. A number of them have published opening dates. We have so much to be grateful for, and I think we are well on our way for a good start for 2018.”
The next Minister to address the conference was Hon. Cutis Richardson, Minister of Infrastructure Communications & Utilities. He first referred to Agriculture and Fisheries, and mentioned that he wishes to thank Mr. Othlyn Vanterpool who works with him in that area. He said: “I wish to also thank the Chief Minister who has promised that he would furnish some form of support for our farmers and fishermen, coming out of the hurricane relief. He has not really provided me with a figure, but we have agreed that we need to put such support in place.”
The Minister then went on to say: “As far as transportation and roads are concerned, during the hurricane a number of government vehicles were damaged, and even before the hurricane there were a number of departments that requested transportation to meet their work needs. We are now looking at acquiring 20 or 30 vehicles, in short order, to meet government transportation needs. We a grateful for two pickups we received lately from PAHO, and for another two vehicles which were donated to us by Gibralter.
“With regard to the Chapel Hill Road, I have been seeking support for the past two years to have this project started. However, in this year’s budget I am anticipating an amount of 1.4 million to carry out the work in short order. The George Hill bypass is also one area which is being addressed. We have commenced…paying for the land. We have one last payment to make to the landowners, after which we will be able to utilize the land for the good of the public.
“Renovations on the buildings at MICU are progressing nicely. We intend to take off the roof of the eastern building, and we plan to go upstairs to provide us with more needed space and to serve government better. In addition, we have erected a new wall and clear more space that would facilitate parking of public work vehicles and proper storage of equipment.
“We are still working on the taxi regulations, and we are having a meeting shortly to finalize that. I wish to thank the personnel at the AG’s Office for working diligently towards the finalization of the draft. We intend to put a new board in place eventually, and we will issue new plates for persons who are operating taxis. As the taxi business evolves, we want to deal with new trends and niches. There have been certain practices in the taxi industry that were illegal, and so we want to legalize the entire taxi trade.
“As far as electricity and energy goes, we are very thankful to the Governor, to the CEO of ANGLEC, Mr. David Gumbs, and to the Board. We are also highly grateful to the workers of ANGLEC, to the Canadian teams, as well as teams from the Caribbean region, who came to our assistance and provided the entire island with full lighting before Christmas. Thanks as well for the support we received from the British Government. Most of all, we are thankful to God for His protection and for enabling the work to proceed incident free. We are now going out with a strong program of road lighting that would increase road safety at night time. I am therefore asking the public again to be very patient and tolerant as we are doing our best to have the necessary street lights installed.
“With regard to water, we have agreed with Executive Council to go forward with the procurement of the necessary equipment to properly process water. This is currently being mobilized, so by the end of March the water situation will be hopefully dealt with.
“Fire & Rescue has a new look now. The fire hall at the airport is being rebuilt to the tune of some EC$10,000,000. I am thankful to my former PS, Mr. Larry Franklin, as well as Mrs. Sandra York-Gumbs, for the insight they have given me in this area when I first took up office. We are thankful for the hard work and cooperation of the contractors who have willingly worked along with us. We will be soon finishing that building to specifications. The new building should be commissioned by late April or early May. The people of Anguilla should recognize this as a great accomplishment.
“In the area of Information and Communications Technology, Minister Richardson had this to say: “We continue as a government to push for IT, as we know the internet has become the new way now to do business, and so we want to have Anguilla well in the IT realm in the 21st century. In this regard, the Chief Minister should be going off to Antigua shortly to a Heads of Government symposium on Information Technology which would deal with ICT single space. This is a CARICOM initiative where Caribbean IT professionals would like to have a single Caribbean internet space by 2022.
“As far as housing and construction is concerned, there are a few external developers who have expressed interest in acquiring large enough lots of land in order to construct houses that would provide our people with homes in the future. I am encouraging this kind of development because it will boost construction as well as enable our youngsters to buy and own their own homes. These developers should return to the island in mid-February, and at that time more information will be disseminated concerning the housing program.
“We are keenly looking forward to facilitate ASPA in restoring the port, especially the Blowing Point ferry terminal. The entire plan for Blowing Point involves acquiring more property so that we could better develop the port, and we hope that we would be able to design a waterfront which would feature various amenities. In particular, a break water barrier is to be constructed to strengthen the natural reef that has been damaged by the hurricane.
Speaking next was the Hon. Cardigan Connor, Parliamentary Secretary, with responsibility for Tourism. He noted that in tennis, the Anguilla Cup will begin to be played on January 14th. He said, “It was due to be played in November but, of course, due to the hurricane it was not possible.” He stated: “This means that soon about 200 visitors, including athletes and the parents with their coaches, will be arriving on the island to take part in this tennis meet. This is a slight boost to our tourism market, and it shows that all was not lost in 2017 due to the storm.
“I am grateful to a fair number of our tourists who still came back at the end of 2017. The Anguilla Tourist Board decided to organize a “thank you” ceremony in appreciation to those faithful repeat tourists, and this event was well attended. I must give a lot of credit to all concerned, and I am happy to say that it proves that we are a very resilient people.
“At the end of January, there will be the annual CTO Marketplace in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Of course, Puerto Rico was hit heavily by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, but CTO believes it is within the best interest of tourism to support Puerto Rico at this time. This gives us a chance, as well, to go there and promote Anguilla, and to let our partners know that we are up and running.
“Despite our setbacks, the year 2017 left a very positive note in the field of tourism – in the sense that Anguilla was voted number one in the Caribbean, Bahamas and Bermuda. In fact, currently, there is voting taking place in a poll of some 29 million readers of USA Today, where they are voting on the best Caribbean beach. We are proud that Meads Bay, Maunday’s Bay and Shoal Bay are three of the top ten. For the best Caribbean restaurant there are three featured in the top ten as well, which include Hibernia, Jacala and Tastys. Also, for the best Caribbean resort, there are two in the top ten, namely Four Seasons and Malliouhana. So, we can be grateful in knowing that even though we were hit quite hard, the readers out there still consider Anguilla as the place to come to for 2018.”
At the end of the conference, questions were posed by the media in attendance, and they were satisfactorily responded to by the Ministers.
