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20110916, Senate Debate

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20110916, Senate Debate 373 Leave of Absence Friday September 16, 2011 SENATE Friday, September 16, 2011 The Senate met at 10.00 a.m. PRAYERS [MADAM VICE-PRESIDENT in the Chair] LEAVE OF ABSENCE Madam Vice-President: Hon. Senators, I have granted leave of absence to Sen. Faris Al-Rawi who is out of the country. SENATOR’S APPOINTMENT Madam Vice-President: Hon. Senators, I have received the following correspondence from His Excellency the Acting President, Sen. The Hon. Timothy Hamel-Smith: “THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO By His Excellency TIMOTHY HAMEL-SMITH, Acting President and Commander-in-Chief of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. /s/ T. Hamel-Smith Acting President TO: MR. MARIANO BROWNE WHEREAS Senator Faris Al-Rawi is incapable of performing his duties as a Senator by reason of his absence from Trinidad and Tobago: NOW, THEREFORE, I, TIMOTHY HAMEL-SMITH, Acting President as aforesaid, in exercise of the power vested in me by section 40(2)(c) and section 44 of the Constitution of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, do hereby appoint you, MARIANO BROWNE, to be temporarily a member of the Senate, with effect from 14th September, 2011 and continuing during the absence from Trinidad and Tobago of the said Senator Faris Al-Rawi. Given under my Hand and the Seal of the President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago at the Office of the President, St. Ann‟s, this 14th day of September, 2011. 374 Oath of Allegiance Friday September 16, 2011 OATH OF ALLEGIANCE Senator Mariano Browne took and subscribed the Oath of Allegiance as required by law. PURCHASE OF CERTAIN RIGHTS AND VALIDATION BILL, 2011 Bill to provide for the purchase by Government of certain rights belonging to holders of Short-Term Investment Products with Colonial Life Insurance Company (Trinidad) Limited; and British American Insurance (Trinidad) Limited; to empower the Minister of Finance to make payments and issue bonds for the purchase of those rights; to validate funding provided by Government to Colonial Life Insurance Company (Trinidad) Limited and British American Insurance Company (Trinidad) Limited; and for related matters [The Minister of Finance]; read the first time. Motion made: That the next stage be taken at a later stage in the proceedings. [Hon. W. Dookeran] Question put and agreed to. CENTRAL BANK (AMDT.) BILL, 2011 Bill to amend the Central Bank Act, Chap. 79:02 and for related matters [The Minister of Finance]; read the first time. Motion made: That the next stage be taken at a later stage in the proceedings. [Hon. W. Dookeran] Question put and agreed to. PAPER LAID Annual Report of the Princes Town Regional Corporation for the period 2007- 2008. [The Minister of Public Utilities (Sen. The Hon. Emmanuel George)] PURCHASE OF CERTAIN RIGHTS AND VALIDATION BILL, 2011 The Minister of Finance (Hon. Winston Dookeran): Madam Vice- President, I beg to move: That a Bill to provide for the purchase by Government of certain rights belonging to holders of Short-Term Investment Products, with Colonial Life Insurance Company (Trinidad) Limited and British American Insurance Company (Trinidad) Limited; to empower the Minister of Finance to make 375 Purchase of Certain Rights Bill, 2011 Friday September 16, 2011 payments and issue bonds for the purchase of those rights, to validate funding provided by Government to Colonial Life Insurance Company (Trinidad) Limited and British American Insurance Company (Trinidad) Limited; and for related matters, be now read a second time. Madam Vice-President, in moving the second reading of this Bill, I seek the leave of this Senate to debate along with this Bill, a Bill entitled: An Act to amend the Central Bank Act, Chap. 79:02 as they are interrelated. Question put. Sen. Pennelope Beckles: Well, just to say, Madam Vice-President, I would have hoped that my colleague would have consulted me on the matter but we will not object to them being dealt with together. [Desk thumping] Agreed to. Hon. W. Dookeran: Madam Vice-President, may I express by deep sense of appreciation to Sen. Pennelope Beckles for agreeing to deal with both Bills at the same time. Madam Vice-President, today, as I listened to the morning news from the international media, I saw a statement that was attributed to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, Tim Geithner, who is at this time attending a meeting in Warsaw, Poland, and the statement said in response to the financial crisis in Europe, he was calling for immediate action, and he said it is very dangerous if Europe cannot fix their challenges. Madam Vice-President, I think that statement emphasizes the timing and the urgency of the issues before us: timing in that fixing the challenges must be dealt with at a time in which the financial situation can be resolved; and the urgency is, if it is done early and it is prolonged over time, it becomes a more difficult situation. Madam Vice-President, as we speak, there is a very fertile debate taking place in Europe and in the United States concerning the issue of the bailout of large banks that are now affected by the global debt crisis. One of the issues that has emerged on the agenda is the issue of who shall meet the cost of the bailout, and what is before the ministers of finance in Europe now: will German taxpayers continue to bite the bullet and bail out the Greeks. Madam Vice-President, these issues are not dissimilar to the issues that we have been facing, and since 2008, when the world went into a financial tremor, many have, in different countries, had to pay the price of the regulatory failure on one hand, and on the other hand, the fiscal mismanagement of many of the financial institutions. 376 Purchase of Certain Rights Bill, 2011 Friday September 16, 2011 [HON. W. DOOKERAN] In fact, within recent times, there has been a return to that sense of volatility, and US $14.5 trillion worth of value which is the loss of wealth has come out of the delivery of the actions in the world finance stock markets. Over 200 banks have collapsed in the United States; unemployment levels have increased, and as you know, it remains at a level of 9 per cent as of now in the United States. Three million families lost their homes, and the savings of many in that society, and indeed in the United Kingdom, had to face the price of the financial tremors. The challenge, therefore, before us has been best exemplified by the new vocabulary that has emerged in discussing these issues globally and here. Earlier on this year, and certainly last year, when this matter was first brought to the attention of the Parliament by the People‟s Partnership Government, there were great expectations of an early, if not slow, recovery in the world. And even as late as April, this expectation seemed to be well in order, but over the last four months, the vocabulary has changed. Now, the discussion is about uncertainty of the world future; is about the volatility of the world capital markets; it is about austerity of the world‟s government programme for its people. These are the new issues that have now engaged the attention of those who are commenting on their current situation. And the statement that I attributed a few moments ago to the Secretary of the Treasury in the United States is but a reflection of where we have reached. I say that, Madam Vice-President, because the problem that we intend to deal with today in terms of finding an appropriate solution and fixing the challenge has been with us for some time. It erupted in a very practical way, in January of 2009, and we were all aware of the events at that time when a major financial institution like the Clico Group had to agree to a bailout plan of some sort. 10.15 a.m. Thousands of people were at risk. The sum of 225,000 policyholders of traditional life and annuity policies were at risk, 26,000 other investors who had invested in short-term investments were at risk, many who have been the recipient of the management of the pension funds that Clico managed at that time were at risk, some workers, both in the head office and throughout the country were at risk and so too was the general population of Trinidad and Tobago who saw the prospect of the security of the savings being put at risk. It was indeed an enormous challenge, which we began to, as a society, try to deal with. 377 Purchase of Certain Rights Bill, 2011 Friday September 16, 2011 The first misstep in handling this challenge was the misdiagnosis of the then Government, who saw this as a purely liquidity problem when, as it turned out, it was a deep solvency problem and the prescription for a liquidity problem is quite different to the prescription for a solvency problem. A second misstep, in terms of diagnosing the problem, was the entire financial system was put at risk when in fact the risk could have been contained into parts of the financial system, be it the CIB and the Statutory Reserve Fund. The approach, therefore, led to a prescription that could not yield results to tackle that challenge, so much so that, even though the previous regime, in the discharge of its public responsibility in this regard, had placed $5 billion available to Clico and $100 million available to BAT as cash injections to deal with this problem, it was very clear that that would not solve the problem.
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