Fellow Anguillians, I wish to first thank the Almighty God for giving me life, health and the opportunity to address you on the fourth year anniversary of this Anguilla United Front Government’s five year term in office.
These past four years have indeed been challenging years for both the people of Anguilla as well as this AUF Government. In fact, we as a country have shown tremendous resilience through (1) a worldwide economic downturn which began around 2007, (2) the strongest hurricane to hit Anguilla in recent years and the resulting devastation and (3) difficult decisions that this government had to make over the past four years which were geared towards ultimately benefitting us, the people of Anguilla. While those decisions at the time may have been difficult to make, we can see today by a much improved economy, our people enjoying full time employment and a stable country, that they were the right decisions.
As we take this time to reflect, let us recognise the advances that have been made to get us where we are today. You would have already heard from a number of my colleagues who would have given their annual address over the past few weeks, and you will hear from the others in the weeks to come.
I therefore want to focus my brief time with you on the advancements and accomplishments made in my Ministry, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Education, Home Affairs, Constitutional and Electoral Reform, Information and Broadcasting and Human Rights.
Now some persons have said from time to time that my Ministerial Assistant Mrs. Evalie Bradley and I were in what they called a dead Ministry, meaning a Ministry that does not make any money or produce anything or make any advancements. It is said that my Ministry does not involve building roads or constructing buildings or developments that people can see. Well, I strongly disagree. While it is true that you cannot physically see the advancements in my Ministry, there is no doubt that you can feel them and you and your family and generations to come will certainly benefit from them. In the interest of time, I will focus on the most recent advancements which were in Constitutional Reform, Labour and Education.
The first and most recent advancement that we have made is constitutional reform. In 2015, we established a Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee with Justice Don Mitchell QC as its Chair. The committee was intended to represent a cross-section of our society, including an opportunity for all of our political parties and independent candidates to appoint a representative to the committee. That Committee hit the ground running and, after months of consultations, research and drafting, in early 2017 was able to deliver a Report as well as a Draft Constitution. Due to unavoidable delays between 2017 and 2018, a decision was made in my Ministry to fast track certain aspects of the draft Constitution. I was particularly concerned about those aspects of the Constitution that the people of Anguilla had been asking to have addressed for years, yet no administration before ours was able to deliver. And so the idea of the Draft Order in Council, approved by the United Kingdom Privy Council just last month, was born. This would allow us to make key changes now, then immediately thereafter focus on the wider constitutional reform. The amendments made to our Constitution are as follows:
(1) Changing the title of our leader of government business from Chief Minister to Premier;
(2) A limit of two (2) terms for Premier;
(3) Establishing a procedure in the event the Premier is incapable of continuing in office due to illness or death;
(4) Removing the disqualification for Ministers of religion and persons with dual nationality to seek elected membership;
(5) Referring to us as Anguillians instead of Belongers of Anguilla;
(6) Making provision for At-Large voting;
(7) Increasing the number of Ministers of Government based on a formula; and
(8) the recognition of our grandchildren as Anguillians.
For me, the most significant changes were the At-Large or island wide voting and finally, the recognition of grandchildren as Anguillian. For too long the people of Anguilla have been crying out for these changes and I, along with the hardworking civil servants in my Ministry and my Anguilla United Front colleagues, have now been able to deliver them to the people of Anguilla.
Let us talk about our new labour laws, the Labour (Relations) Act 2018. Many of you know that since the 1980’s we have had antiquated labour laws on our books. And every administration, time and time again, have promised new labour laws for Anguilla. And there is a real reason why our people were crying out for these laws. It is because the employment arena and employment practices that had developed over the years based on mutual understandings had become a thing of the past. What now existed in our country included one year contracts for hundreds of employees, no severance pay if made redundant, and no real mechanism for enforcement of our labour laws by the Labour Department. The time had long passed for leaders on our island to take a hard look and our labour laws and make some tough decisions, all for the betterment of both employers and employees.
So immediately upon taking up my portfolio in 2015, I began to push for new labour laws. I picked up the draft labour code that had been prepared during 2010 – 1015 but had been shelved, and took it back out for consultation across the entire island. There were numerous discussions held across the country, on various media and at business places themselves. It went to the House of Assembly in February 2018 and, after further discussions and revisions, I brought the Labour (Relations) Act to the House of Assembly in November 2018 for its first reading. It was assented to and came into effect on 3rd January 2019.
Three significant amendments have been made in our new labour laws. The first is that it addresses fixed term contracts (in particular one-year contracts) by providing that upon renewal of a one year contract, the employee automatically becomes a permanent employee. The other is severance pay, which applies if an employee becomes redundant as a result of closure of business or otherwise, then the employer shall pay severance based on a formula provided in the Labour (Relations) Act. Our labour laws also now provide for paternity leave, where fathers can take some time off to be with their newborns and their mothers.
Again, these advancements have been achieved under my leadership, working along with my Ministerial Assistant Mrs. Evalie Bradley, Permanent Secretaries, Labour Commissioners, the Attorney General’s Chambers and my colleagues. I cannot overemphasize the fact that as a Minister of Government, milestones such as these are achieved when one works in collaboration with others. Neither the Order in Council for the Constitutional amendments nor the Labour (Relations) Act could be possible without the full support of my Ministerial colleagues who assisted in championing these causes in Executive Council, the House of Assembly and discussions with the Governor and other UK Foreign Office officials. And for this, I am extremely grateful.
In Education, you know that all except one of our primary schools suffered significant damage from Hurricane Irma in 2017. One of the first things that we did was to obtain a costing for repairs and renovations to the infrastructure for our schools. Many may not be aware, but the majority of the $60 Million Pounds obtained from the UK has been allocated for education, as a result of my Ministry being able to identify from early the serious needs of the various schools. I wish to recognize the efforts of my Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Chanelle Petty-Barrett and our Education Officials in that regard. It has taken us longer to rebuild our schools than we had anticipated, as rebuilding has involved the drawing, finalisation and approval of plans, consultations with Education officials, staff and parents, approval of funding for each of the projects and the procurement process.
I am happy, however, to deliver this update to you as to where we are on each of the schools:
At Vivian Vanterpool Primary School – a contractor has been selected to build a cistern and a music room over the cistern. VVPS was the least damaged of all of the schools by Hurricane Irma. the contract has already been signed and construction should commence shortly.
At Morris Vanterpool Primary School – as we know the students and staff of the MVPS had to be relocated and the school demolished. The school will be rebuilt on the same site, although, in a U shape in order to create more space for a playing field. The drawings on MVPS have been completed and the tender process should take place between May and July 2019 with construction scheduled for August 2019 to October 2020.
At Orelia Kelly Primary School – the drawings for the Western Block are near completion and a tender pack should be made available over the next few weeks.
At Valley Primary School – the procurement is currently in progress and construction of the middle block is scheduled for July 2019 to April 2020.
At Adrian T Hazell Primary School – the tender pack will be available before the end of May 2019 and construction is scheduled for August 2019 to April 2020.
The Albena Lake Hodge Comprehensive School is by far the largest project to be constructed from the UK grant. An entirely new school is being proposed, which would include a science block, a culinary arts block, a technical block, a cafeteria and a 400 meter track to the south of the classrooms. Consultations were held with teachers and staff on May 2nd 2019, parents on May 3rd 2019 and the consultation for the general public will be held on Friday 10th May 2019 at 5:30pm at the Campus B Quadrangle. All are invited to attend and obtain information and ask questions in relation to same. Construction is anticipated to take place in the latter half of 2019.
Fellow Anguillians, as you can see, there is no doubt that I have been working hard for your interests. I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity of being your Minister of Government.
But I want to especially thank the residents of District Number 2 for giving me the opportunity of being your Elected Representative for the Sandy Hill District. My work continues in District 2 for the benefit of all District 2 residents. This can clearly be seen from the continued work at the H.O.P.E. Centre, which many students have successfully passed through its doors over the past 8 years. It is a source of pride for the East End community, as before 2011, the East End community was clamoring for a community centre where our children could get help with reading, math, homework assistance, access to computers and the like. We now have all this and more, with the H.O.P.E. Centre.
My focus has not only been on academics, but also on sports. The recently refurbished East End Basketball Court Facility was one of the first projects that I took on for my community after I elected in 2015. Despite delays, we were able to officially re-open the facility in November 2018, just six (6) months ago.
Fellow Anguillians, let me say that none of the achievements in our Community would have been possible without the support of the residents of East End as a whole, the Directors of the H.O.P.E. Centre, our Centre Manager Ms. Josette Duncan, the H.O.P.E. Group and all other persons who have assisted in one way or the other throughout all of the various activities during the past four years. To you, I say a heartfelt Thank You.
Fellow Anguillians, for all of the accomplishments that I have spoken about, I quote from 1 Corinthians 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
It has been my pleasure to serve you, the residents of District 2, and the people of Anguilla, over these past four years. I will continue to do so throughout the rest of my term and into the future with God’s guidance and your support. Thank you!
God Bless You and God Bless Anguilla!
