No. 3 TUESDAY First Session 29 th May, 2001 Seventh Parliament SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) ADVANCE COPY OFFICIAL REPORT CONTENTS Tuesday 29 th May, 2001 Prayers 5 Congratulatory Remarks 5 Minutes 13 Statement by the Honourable Prime Minister 14 Questions 22 Motion 29 Merchant Shipping (Amendment) Bill 2001 (First, second and third readings) 67 Adjournment 78 1 THE THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES OFFICIAL REPORT PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE THIRD MEETING, FIRST SESSION OF THE SEVENTH PARLIAMENT OF SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES CONSTITUTED AS SET OUT IN SCHEDULE 2 TO THE SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES ORDER, 1979. FOURTH SITTING 29 th May, 2001 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY The Honourable House of Assembly met at 10.00 a.m. in the Assembly Chamber, Court House, Kingstown . PRAYERS MR. SPEAKER IN THE CHAIR Honourable Hendrick Alexander Present MEMBERS OF CABINET Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Planning, Economic Development, Labour, Information, Grenadines and Legal Affairs. Dr. The Honourable Ralph Gonsalves Member for North Central Windward Attorney General Honourable Judith Jones-Morgan Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Commerce and Trade. Honourable Louis Straker Member for Central Leeward 2 Minister of National Security, the Public Service and Airport Development Honourable Vincent Beache Member for South Windward Minister of Education, Youth and Sports Honourable Michael Browne Member for West St. George Minister of Social Development, Co-operatives, The Family, Gender and Ecclesiastical Affairs Honourable Girlyn Miguel Member for Marriaqua Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries Honourable Selmon Walters Member for South Central Windward Minister of Health and the Environment Honourable Dr. Douglas Slater Member for South Leeward Minister of Tourism and Culture Honourable Rene Baptist Member for West Kingstown Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports Honourable Clayton Burgin Member for East St. George Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries Honourable Montgomery Daniel Member for North Windward Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Commerce and Trade Honourable Conrad Sayers Member for Central Kingstown Minister of Transport, Works and Housing Honourable Julian Francis Government Senator Honourable Edwin Snagg Government Senator, Parliamentary Prime Minister’s Office, Special Responsibility for Labour and Grenadines Affairs 3 OTHER MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE Honourable Arnhim Eustace Member for East Kingstown/ Leader of the Opposition Dr. the Honourable Godwin Friday Member for Northern Grenadines Honourable Terrance Ollivierre Member for Southern Grenadines Honourable Juliet George Government Senator Honourable Andrea Young Government Senator/Deputy Speaker Honourable Joseph Burns Bonadie Opposition Senator Honourable Gerard Shallow Opposition Senator ABSENT Minister of Telecommunications, Science Technology and Industry Honourable Dr. Jerrol Thompson Member for North Leeward 4 SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY 29 TH MAY 2001 PRAYERS Honourable Mr. Speaker, Honourable Hendrick Alexander read the Prayers of the House. CONGRATULATORY REMARKS HONOURABLE CLAYTON BURGIN : Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, I rise to congratulate a number of persons and organizations in Sports. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to congratulate the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Women’s Cricket Association for thus far conducting a very successful National Lottery, West Indies Cricket Federation Tournament. This Tournament Mr. Speaker by far, is the most successful in recent times that has been conducted by the West Indies Women ‘s Association. And for this we must commend the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Women’s Cricket Association, who in their second year of entering the West Indies Tournament took the challenge to conduct the Tournament here. And it is the first time in history they have been having seven teams participating in such a Tournament. Mr. Speaker, also permit me to congratulate Janelle Greaves for scoring the one and only century thus far in the Tournament. Permit me to quote the Vincentian newspaper of May 25 th . It says here: “Behind the high-class century by opener Janelle Greaves, St. Vincent trounced the Guyanese by 185 runs.” It further states that: “Janelle Greaves who missed her team’s opening match against Grenada, because of external exams, batted confidently to reach 134 before falling to the last of the innings.” 5 So she almost batted through the innings Mr. Speaker. She also followed up with a good bowling figure of four for twenty-eight. It shows Mr. Speaker, that when you are involved in sports, it does not affect your academic performance. And we see that we have to encourage our students, children and young people to get them involved in sports, because it helps them mentally as well in the academics. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to congratulate Mr. Cameron Cuffy for his sterling performance at Arnos Vale on the 16 th May at Arnos Vale in the international one-day match against South Africa. His performance propelled the West Indies to victory, and through that performance he has been named in a 22-member West Indies team for training for the trip to Africa, that is, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Mr. Speaker, we know that Mr. Cuffy has shown his potential since during his youth days in school, and he continues to perform creditably, not only for this country but also for the Windward Islands and for the West Indies. He performed so well that Mr. Kroffe, the Commentator said that of all the bowlers he is sure that one person whom he knows is going to Africa would be Cameron Cuffy. So for that we congratulate him on his performance, and we hope that he will continue to perform creditably for the West Indies and to make St. Vincent and the Grenadines proud. Not too long ago he was named Ambassador at large, and I think he has been performing that task creditably well so far. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to congratulate the St. Vincent Squash Association for conducting two very successful tournaments back to back, two previous weekends ago. First, the National Championship, then the OECS championship and I also want to congratulate Rachelle Cyrus who came second in the OECS Tournament for the women, and Dr. Sherian Slater for placing third in the OECS Tournament in the women category. Also Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the Vita Malt Maple Netball Team on winning and also defending their trophy from last year quite well in the 17 th OECS ECGC champion of champions Netball in Nevis. St. Vincent and the Grenadines has been performing this task very well in the OECS Netball Tournament; as a matter of fact in all levels of netball. And we have the Under-Twenty-Three Team, the Under- Sixteen Team, and the National Team, members being named to train for those various categories to represent St. Vincent and the Grenadines. And we are urging, not only Members here, but also the general public to give their support to our sportsmen and women. Go to the game; support them fully so that they can perform their best for our country, so that we can be proud of them. So congratulation again is in order for all those Associations and those persons mentioned. Thank you very much. 6 HONOURABLE DR. DOUGLAS SLATER : Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, I rise to congratulate one of our nationals who I am certain Members on both sides will agree deserves to be congratulated at this time. I speak of Dr. Cecil Cyrus. Dr. Cecil Cyrus is currently as most of us would have noticed in the newspapers, celebrating his fortieth year in service to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and to the Caribbean, and at times, internationally as a surgeon. Dr. Cyrus hails from the town of Layou where against a lot of odds, he has been tremendously successful in his career. It is an example of what determination and discipline can do to our citizens, and I hope that our young people read as much as they can about Dr. Cyrus so that they have an excellent role model, someone to follow. Dr. Cyrus, when he returned to St. Vincent many years ago, was one of the very few doctors that existed in the service. Today we have over sixty doctors. But in a day he almost single-handedly gave care to our citizens. He worked as a General Surgeon, as a Specialist Surgeon. He did almost everything. He was an Eye Specialist; he was a Gynecologist, an Obstetrician, and I can remember as a boy, Dr. Cyrus was one of the persons who inspired me, and many of our young Vincentians to become doctors because we admired him. Dr. Cyrus for most of us, we can remember passing and we will see almost a thesis of letters and accreditations after his name. And we are always impressed. I can remember in Grammar School, we are always impressed about the outstanding achievements of Dr. Cyrus. Fortunately, he too thought that sports were important. And I just want to add on what my colleague said a while ago; it goes to show that sports, yes, do affect academic performance, but positively so. Dr. Cyrus as we also know is a very ardent sports person. He was involved in cricket, and interestingly, Dr. Cyrus probably can be accredited with the person responsible for introducing the game of Squash in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Dr. Cyrus I am informed, sponsored from his own funds earlier Squash competitions in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Squash complex today is know n as the Cecil Cyrus Squash Complex was named after him was also almost single-handedly financed and developed by him. We are tremendously grateful, and we should be to the contributions that Dr. Cyrus has paid towards the development of St.