Senator Moe: Not all PSVs bad

WITH as many as 70 Transport Board buses on the road compared to 600 public service vehicles, Senator Lucille Moe says it is understandable that there have been some instances of negative behaviour in the transportation sector.

Her comments came in the Upper Chamber yesterday where she led off the debate on the Transport Authority (Validation) Bill 2020 and the Public Transport and (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2020, which were both passed.

According to Senator Moe: “There have been numerous complaints and occurrences of various infractions. Issues such as overloading, failure to stop at the appropriate stop sign or light; picking up or dropping off anywhere and everywhere except the designated bus stop; being off route, especially when the roads are very busy in the morning drive-time; the afternoon, you’d find them off route and doing other things that sometimes impinges on their actual insurance requirement.”

However, Moe, who is the Minister of Information, Broadcasting and Public Affairs, made it clear that the entire sector is not reckless.

“There are many hardworking men and women that work in the transportation sector. Many law-abiding people in this field. However, like many other areas and professions where you have a multiplicity of individuals involved in a particular activity, you will have a much more difficult time in obtaining compliance.

“If you look at the Transport Board, the Transport Board is a single entity. So they have specific guidelines and interpretations and methodologies for compliance. So when you are working at the Transport Board, everyone’s instruction will probably be the same within the category of which they are employed, but where you have a situation where you have as many as 600 vehicles, probably hundreds of owners, you will have a situation where implementation and interpretation is variant, like in many other sectors. So you end up then with some good and some bad. But I just want to reiterate that there are many good, law-abiding individuals within the transport sector.”

Senator Moe explained that the Transport Authority Validation Bill 2020 is a necessary piece of legislation validating monies collected for bus fares paid. “When the Minister of Finance speaks in a budget or financial statement, announces increases in any tax, there is a designated period of time that the legislation must be brought. If it is not done within a specified time frame, then a Validation Bill is required ... which then brings it into law, the changes to that particular tax. In this particular instance, this is the case of bus fares.

“Pursuant to the budgetary proposals and financial statements laid on March 20, 2019 by the Honourable Minister of Finance, bus fare was increased from $2 to $3.50 effective April 15, 2019. The preparation of the draft bill to provide for the imposition of the new and existing bus fare was delayed due to various administrative reasons. As a result, the appropriate legislation was not enacted pursuant to Section 3.2 of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act Chp. 85.

“The Transport Authority Validation Bill 2020 will, if passed, bring into law the changes in the bus fares from the time of the financial statement until now. The Validation Bill accomplishes this simple ratification.”

Additionally, she noted that with regard to the Public Transport and Miscellaneous Provision Bill 2020, this Bill is needed to give genuine effectiveness to the Transport Authority. “The Transport Authority has been in place since 2007.

“At that time, regulations that would have assisted with certain enforcement issues were not put in place. So in order to rectify this circumstance, the Transport Authority met with stakeholders and individuals within the sector, including the PSV operators, to formulate a series of regulations that would address this matter,” she said.