20201208, Unrevised Senate Debate
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1 Public Procurement and Disposal of 2020.12.08 Public Property (Amdt.) Bill, 2020 SENATE Tuesday, December 08, 2020 The Senate met at 10.00 a.m. PRAYERS [MADAM PRESIDENT in the Chair] PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AND DISPOSAL OF PUBLIC PROPERTY (AMDT.) BILL, 2020 Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property (Amdt.) Bill, 2020 Bill to amend the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act, No.1 of 2015 [The Minister of Finance]; read the first time. Motion made: That the next stage be taken later in the proceedings. [Hon. F. Khan] Question put and agreed to. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS [2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS (2019-NCOV)] (NO. 2) BILL, 2020 Bill contains 11 clauses and seeks to amend the Cinematograph Act, Chap. 20:10, the Registration of Clubs Act, Chap. 21:01, the Theatres and Dance Halls Act, Chap. 21:03, the Family Law (Guardianship of Minors, Domicile and Maintenance) Act, Chap. 46:08, the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act, Chap. 48:50, the Bills of Sale Act, Chap. 82:32, the Moneylenders Act, Chap. 84:04, the Pawnbrokers Act, Chap. 84:05, the Licensing of Dealers (Precious Metals and Stones) Act, Chap. 84:06 and the Old Metal and Marine Stores Act, Chap. 84:07 in response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) and for related matters [The Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs]; read the first time. Motion made: That the next stage be taken later in the proceedings.[Hon. F. Khan] Question put and agreed to. UNREVISED 2 Miscellaneous Provisions (FATF 2020.12.08 Compliance) Bill, 2020 MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS (FATF COMPLIANCE) BILL, 2020 Bill to amend the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, Chap. 11:24, the Proceeds of Crime Act, Chap. 11:27, the Anti-Terrorism Act, Chap. 12:07, the Interception of Communications Act, Chap. 15:08, Financial Intelligence Unit of Trinidad and Tobago Act, Chap. 72:01, the Income Tax Act, Chap. 75:01, the Central Bank Act, Chap. 79:02, the Financial Institutions Act, Chap. 79:09, the Companies Act, Chap. 81:01, the Securities Act, Chap. 83:02, and the Non-Profit Organisations Act, No. 7 of 2019 [The Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs]; read the first time. Motion made: That the next stage be taken on Thursday, December 10, 2020. [Hon. F. Khan] Question put and agreed to. MISCELLANEOUS AMENDMENTS (POWERS OF STATUTORY AUTHORITIES AND MATTERS RELATED TO CERTAIN BOARDS) BILL, 2020 Bill to amend the National Lotteries Control Act, Chap. 21:04, the Tobago House of Assembly Act, Chap. 25:03, the National Institute of Higher Education (Research, Science and Technology) Act, Chap. 39:58, the Children’s Authority Act, Chap. 46:10, the Water and Sewerage Authority Act, Chap. 54:40 and the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission Act, Chap. 54:70 to provide for amendments to the composition of various boards and the borrowing powers of certain boards and matters connected therewith [The Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs];read the first time. Motion made: That the next stage be taken on Thursday, December 10, 2020. [Hon. F. Khan] Question put and agreed to. UNREVISED 3 Miscellaneous Provisions (Administration 2020.12.08 of Justice) Bill, 2020 (cont’d) MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS (ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE) BILL, 2020 Bill to amend the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, Chap. 4:01, the Summary Courts Act, Chap. 4:20, the Coroners Act, Chap. 6:04 and the Sexual Offences Act, Chap. 11:28 to provide for the procedural matters of the Courts and for matters related thereto [The Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs]; read the first time. Motion made: That the next stage be taken on Thursday, December 10, 2020. [Hon. F. Khan] Question put and agreed to. PAPERS LAID 1. Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Extension of Period for Payment of Fifty Percent of Fixed Penalty) Order, 2020. [The Minister of Works and Transport (Sen. The Hon. Rohan Sinanan)] 2. Annual Administrative Report of the Statutory Authorities Service Commission for the period October 2018 to September 2019. [The Vice- President (Sen. Nigel de Freitas)] 3. Ministerial Response of the Ministry of Labour to the Fourteenth Report of the Joint Select Committee on Social Services and Public Administration, Fifth Session (2019/2020), Eleventh Parliament, on an Inquiry into the challenges of prisoner re-entry into society and prisoner reintegration services in Trinidad and Tobago. [The Minister of Energy and Energy Industries (Sen The Hon. Franklin Khan)]4. Ministerial Response of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to the Sixteenth Report of the Joint Select Committee on Social Services and Public Administration, Fifth Session (2019/2020), Eleventh Parliament, on an Inquiry into the system of UNREVISED 4 Papers Laid (cont’d) 2020.12.08 Rent Regulation for housing accommodation in Trinidad and Tobago. [Sen. The Hon. F. Khan] 5. Annual Audited Financial Statements of the Portfolio Credit Management Limited for the financial year ended December 31, 2018. [Sen. The Hon. F. Khan] 6. Annual Audited Financial Statements of the Rural Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited for the financial year ended September 30, 2019. [Sen. The Hon. F. Khan] 7. Annual Audited Financial Statements of the National Enterprises Limited for the financial year ended March 31, 2019. [Sen. The Hon. F. Khan] 8. Annual Audited Financial Statements of the National Enterprises Limited for the financial year ended March 31, 2020. [Sen. The Hon. F. Khan] 9. Report of the Auditor General of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago on the Financial Statements of the Chaguanas Borough Corporation for the year ended September 30, 2012. [Sen. The Hon. F. Khan] 10. Report of the Auditor General of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago on the Financial Statements of the Chaguanas Borough Corporation for the year ended September 30, 2013. [Sen. The Hon. F. Khan] 11. Ministerial Response of the Ministry of National Security to the Fourteenth Report of the Joint Select Committee on Social Services and Public Administration, Fifth Session (2019/2020), Eleventh Parliament, on an Inquiry into the challenges of prisoner re-entry into society and prisoner reintegration services in Trinidad and Tobago. [Sen. The Hon. F. Khan] 12. Ministerial Response of the Ministry of Education to the Seventeenth Report of the Joint Select Committee on Social Services and Public Administration, Fifth Session (2019/2020), Eleventh Parliament, on an Inquiry into the UNREVISED 5 Papers Laid (cont’d) 2020.12.08 Ministry of Education’s strategies for ensuring continuity in the delivery of education amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic [Sen. The Hon. F. Khan] 13. Annual Report and Audited Financial Statements of the Regulated Industries Commission for the year ended December 31, 2014. [Sen. The Hon. F. Khan] URGENT QUESTIONS Nationwide Disruption of Internet Service (Measures Taken to Prevent Recurrence) Sen. Paul Richards: Thank you, Madam President. Good morning, colleagues. To the Minister of Public Utilities: In light of the nationwide disruption of Internet services on December 07, 2020, what measures does Government intend to take to prevent a recurrence, given the increased need for said services during the COVID- 19 pandemic? Madam President: Minister of Public Administration and Digital Transformation, you have two minutes. The Minister of Public Administration and Digital Transformation (Sen. The Hon. Allyson West): Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, what occurred yesterday was a bit of Murphy’s Law. We have the subsea cable coming in through the Antigua channel to Trinidad and Tobago which is the main source of connectivity. We have redundancy through a cable coming in from Curaçao. The one from Antigua experienced a difficulty on Tuesday 01 December, and while they were in the process of repairing that, which took longer because of COVID restrictions and difficulty with travelling, the cable coming out of Curaçao experienced a power outage and that is what caused the problem that we experienced yesterday. So the citizens would acknowledge that when the initial break occurred in UNREVISED 6 Urgent Questions (cont’d) 2020.12.08 the Antigua cable there was no obvious interruption of power because the redundancy system worked well. But Madam President, it is difficult to build out a system, especially an expensive system, for a Murphy’s Law occurrence. So we had a combination of the two entry points into Trinidad and Tobago being affected at the same time, and the repair of the initial one which was subsea being significantly delayed because of COVID. As I understand it, two of the three cable providers were more directly affected because these service providers have proprietary interest in those cables, and therefore have a greater concentration of their connectivity coming from those cables. The third major service provider has more evenly spread its risk and therefore was not as significantly impacted. So while TATT does not regulate the access to connectivity, we can and intend to have a discussion with the service providers regarding the sources from which they receive their connectivity— Madam President: Minister— Sen. The Hon. A. West:—to reduce the problem. Thank you, Madam President. Madam President:—your time is up. Sen. Richards. Sen. Richards: Thank you, Madam President. Can the Minister identify for the population, given her response and the redundancies identified, that there are systems in place to protect and maintain critical infrastructure to connectivity, including medical, security and energy, which depend on this connectivity and which were interrupted yesterday significantly? Sen. The Hon. A. West: Madam President, I trust I got the Senator’s question. It is about systems to protect the medical—So, we do have endpoint protection in respect of our ICT systems, including protection in the health sector. So the information was not as risk.