The Government of the Anguilla Progressive Movement has fulfilled an election promise by having its first public consultation on three draft Bills on Tuesday, August 18.
Premier Dr. Ellis Webster, speaking at the conclusion of the event, said he was pleased with the robust response by a number of persons and the media – not only by their attendance – but the questions posed by them following the presentations.
The public consultation, at the Teachers’ Resource Centre, had at the head table Premier Webster who has responsibility for Finance and Health; the Minister of Trade and Commerce, Natural Resources, Economic Development and IT, Mr. Kyle Hodge; the Permanent Secretary, Health, Mr. Foster Rogers; and the Attorney General, Mr. Dwight Horsford. Also in attendance, among members of the public were other Government Ministers and Ministerial Assistants, representatives of media houses, business places and others.
Premier Webster and Minister Kyle Hodge
The draft legislation for discussion comprised: the Quarantine (Amendment) Bill, 2020; the Business Licence Moratorium (Amendment) Bill, 2020; and the Trades, Businesses, Occupations and Professions (Amendment) No.2 Bill, 2020. The Bills were given their first reading in the Anguilla House of Assembly on Tuesday, August 11, and the second and third readings were postponed until Friday, August 21.
Dr. Webster explained that the Quarantine (Amendment) Bill was to impose fees to be paid by repatriated Anguillians as well as visitors placed at approved facilities. The payments, which were previously met by the Government, are now to be made either in part or in whole by the quarantined persons, depending on the circumstances.
“While it is essential to get our people home and to quarantine them, so that they are away from the general public to decrease the chance of community spread [of the Covid-19], that comes with a cost,” Premier Webster told the gathering. “At some point, the public purse cannot take the full brunt of the quarantine. The [original] Quarantine Act states that the cost of quarantine has to be borne by the public purse – and that is what has led to this request for an amendment to the Quarantine Act.”
After reading sections of the Bill, Premier Webster went on: “I think it is fairly self-explanatory that there is a cost incurred for quarantining persons who, either as Anguillians, are returning [or who are visitors]. As you may have heard, we have a soft opening plan so that visitors can come to the island. We have to make sure that they can’t use our own laws against us, since they have to be restricted, and that we should be covering their cost. This is why it is necessary to have an amendment to the Act.”
Permanent Secretary, Mr. Foster Rogers, said the current Quarantine Act was about six or seven pages long and had been in place when Anguilla was part of St. Kitts-Nevis. He explained that for many years the administration of that law remained under the public purse but nowadays it had become difficult to cover the cost involved.
Mr. Rogers noted that many Caribbean islands, with similar laws, had changed them so that the public could assist with the cost of quarantine. Anguilla was now embarking on that arrangement. “The Act, under section 9, specifically states that the administration of the Act must be borne by the public purse. As it sits right now, it is increasingly difficult for the Government of Anguilla to do that – so this amendment will simply allow the Government to level charges, whether in full or in part, to assist with defraying the cost of quarantine.”
The matter resulted in a relatively long question and answer period, with members of the public giving full support to the amendment of the Quarantine Act.
The public consultation continued with Minister Kyle Hodge initiating the discussions on the other two proposed Bills. On the Business Licence Moratorium Bill, he said: “It is a very simple Bill. It is just to extend the previous moratorium on business licence applications. What I need to make very, very clear, is that during the moratorium phase, it does not restrict business licence applicants. It is allowing us to have time to put in place what the new Business Licence Act will look like. The previous Act had many deficiencies and we intend to come back to public consultation.”
Minister Hodge stressed that it was important to note that his Ministry was continuing to accept business licence applications and that they were being approved case by case. Among other related matters, he expressed a keen interest in business applications with respect to manufacturing – an area in which he is keenly interested.
He went on: “The previous Act did not give scope for any denial by the Permanent Secretary. Once you submitted a business licence application, it was almost automatic that it was granted to you. We have to consider Anguilla’s economy and how small and how fragile it is. So this moratorium is just to give us time to put some things in place. One of the things we will seek to do is to secure certain sectors of the economy for Anguillians to address the issues of the creative economy. We are going to have a public consultation on that so the time for your ideas, thoughts, comments and critiques will come up then. We are also seeking to address the issue of fronting in the new Business Licence Act. This first Bill is just merely an extension of the moratorium until July of 2021.”
On the amendment to the Trades, Businesses, Occupations and Professions Act, Mr. Hodge stated: “This is another simple Bill. The Ministry of Finance was split into two Ministries and this Bill is basically differentiating the Permanent Secretaries for their specific Ministries. We have the PS for Finance and the amendment is highlighting the PS for Trade and Economic Development. Because we have a fifth Ministry we needed to assign a Permanent Secretary to that Ministry.”
Both Bills, like the previous Bill, attracted much comment from the audience. Following that, Premier Webster expressed gratitude for the public response and gave the assurance that his Government would continue to have public consultations on other legislative matters as they arise.
