Proper plan required

AN Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) believes strongly that Government needs a more sustainable plan to address overgrown lots across the country.

St. George South MP, Dwight Sutherland, made the suggestion in the House of Assembly yesterday morning as Government sought approval for a $4.6 million supplementary for the Ministry of Health, to finance the 2017/2018 debushing programme. Sutherland told the Lower House that proper planning is needed to execute this programme, which he said is right now carried out in an ad hoc, knee-jerk manner.

“We have to relook, not we, the Democratic Labour Party. They have been carrying out their mandate ad hoc in this country without any planning, with little attention being paid to sustainable development,” he contended.

His comments came as he referred to the numerous overgrown lots across the island and he noted that it is important to reinforce the point that an unhealthy environment will lead to the spread of infectious diseases and cause public health concerns, which he said can end up being quite costly. As such, the MP noted the Barbados Labour Party supports the programme, but he questioned if the Government had not thwarted the debushing efforts and expended more money than what has been allocated to the programme, by sending home persons who were engaged in similar debushing work through the National Conservation Commission, the Drainage Division and Beautify Barbados.

“We sent home workers at NCC, the National Conservation Commission; we sent home workers at Beautify Barbados, Mr. Chairman; we sent home workers in the Drainage Unit… and I am asking myself and for the people of this country, if we do a cost benefit analysis, what was the cost of these workers who were sent home? What was the cost to the taxpayers? Let’s look at the cost to the taxpayers and I will bet you, Mr. Chairman, that it is more than, it costs the taxpayers more than the $12.794 million over the two-year period,” he stated. (JRT)