#Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands – October 18, 2020 — For those on the front line of environmental protection and preservation, the Turks and Caicos Islands Government is moving too rapidly toward creating legislation which allows petroleum or oil exploration in TCI waters and on TCI land; over 600 people have so far signed a petition to extend the time and improve the consultation process.
In a poorly promoted process, residents of the Turks and Caicos Islands are asked to comment on the legislation which remains unavailable at the government’s website.
On October 1 the invitation
for public consultation was issued by email and posted to the TCI government
website. The consultation process was
due to expire on October 14 according to the notice issued by the Department of
Energy & Utilities of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Many question whether there is
any real interest in public input when there was no public education, no public
or official announcement about the consideration of oil exploration and when
the Bill is nowhere to be found.
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The Turks and Caicos Reef
Fund, in a letter to authorities, made a case against the rapid pace and
missing information toward the consultation process of such an environmentally
invasive and potentially damaging industry.
“Firstly, two weeks is not a sufficient amount of
time to allow for true public consultation and understanding of the proposed
Bill. Furthermore, there is no copy of the Draft Bill available for download
anywhere on the Government’s website. Only through multiple contacts working
together was I able to get a copy of the Draft Bill. Without access to the
information, there is no ‘public consultation’. I am now aware that it was
printed in the recent copy of the Weekly News which was published on the 10th
October, giving anyone who purchased the paper 4 days to digest the Bill.”
The Turks and Caicos Reef Fund also believes the
Bill, if one gets their hands on a copy, is difficult to digest.
“I have
some top notch environmental lawyers reading the bill and making comments
so that we the people can understand. TCIG should give us a
digestible version of the Bill as, I’m not a lawyer and it’s a
dense 43 page document! The stakeholders are fishermen and people working in
watersports, I doubt they can understand this document either.”
Photo from TC Reef Fund on Facebook
The draft legislation called:
Petroleum Exploration and Exploitation Bill 2020, essentially outlines
what will be permitted to happen, who is allowed to enter the market and who will manage
the industry.
Specifically the draft says:
“This Ordinance applies to activities for and associated with the
search for and recovery of petroleum in the territorial waters, exclusive
economic zone, continental shelf and land of the Islands.”
A Commissioner, as is stated in the draft, will govern the industry with six key functions. Some of those functions are: “to consider and determine applications for licences; (b) monitor licensees and determine whether licensees are in compliance with the terms and conditions of the licences and this Ordinance and (c) to monitor the effectiveness of the Ordinance and any Regulations in providing for the supervision and regulation of the activities undertaken by the licensees within the islands to internationally accepted standards…” – Excerpt from draft Petroleum Exploration and Exploitation Draft Bill 2020.
Hon Goldray Ewing, Minister of Home Affairs, Turks and Caicos Islands government
Concerns may
be calmed by the fact that the draft explicitly states, the exploration process
does not include drilling and no exploration can take place in areas protected
under the National Parks Ordinance.
Still, the distribution,
access and mixed messages linked to the consultation on the draft law is
sloppily done.
“Currently, as of mid-day on the 13th October
2020, there is an update on gov.tc stating that public consultation has been extended by a
week. The information however is incongruous as it now says that there is a two-week
on-line consultation from 1st October to 21st October,
2020 (this is a three-week period) whilst also saying that consultation has
been extended by one week to the 21st November, 2020. This
extension of time for public consultation has no meaning if the Draft Bill is
not available and consultation meetings aren’t happening.”
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The TC Reef
Fund has reminded the Ministry of Home Affairs of best practices when it comes
to consultation by outlining the guidance for conducting meaningful public
consultation as crafted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a recognized authority on environmental
assessment and public consultation.
Among the eight actions shared with TCIG’s
Ministry of Home Affairs are:
identification and engagement with key stakeholder groups; provision of
a workable strategy and timeframe to the public for the proposed project;
provision of available information to give background of the proposal and a
public information campaign which ensures affected people are aware and have
sufficient time to respond.
Consultation should make the effort to reach out to specialty groups including women, vulnerable and religious groups and the process should include public meetings and hearings, surveys and polls and in the end, reflect the concerns of the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
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#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – Revenue from the Turks and Caicos’ Financial Services Sector will more than double in the next few years, if E Jay Saunders, Deputy Premier and Finance Minister gets his way. It ‘s one of the reasons the country is investing so much capital into getting off of the EU blacklist and becoming a secure trustworthy financial destination.
“The FSC’s revenues for 2020/21 was $10.5M— the figures for 2021/22, would be about similar,” he said. He further explained that $10.5 million from the FSC represented about 2.6 percent of the country’s 408.5-million-dollar revenue. Though it increased to $14 million in the 2021/22 financial year, finance is still a small fry compared to tourism or even stamp duties but that will change, says Saunders.
“My revenue goal for the Government by the year 2029 [or] the election after the next election – is $500M. By that time, I want the financial sector (FSC) revenues to represent at least 5% ($25M). So that’s my goal for the financial sector by 2029.”
This goal, should it be met, would increase the Government’s revenue by 100 million dollars, a significant increase in spending power for local upgrades and improvements for Turks and Caicos residents and visitors.
Saunders says it’s time for the TCI to diversify its sources of revenue to make sure that what happened in the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw residents out of a job for months, will not happen again. Tourism now makes up around 80 percent of the country’s GDP. The Minister of Finance wants to push that down to 60 or even 50 percent.
#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – Musicians from the New World Symphony will be in the Turks and Caicos in concert next month and residents are invited to attend in support of the future of Ashley’s Learning Center.
A fairly young orchestral academy based in Miami, the New World Symphony was launched in the 1980s by 1987, Michael Tilson Thomas and Ted Arison,Carnival Cruises founder. From the 1500 applicants who vie for a spot each year, the symphony accepts around 35 music graduates annually for training fellowships.
A select few of those graduates will be in country on April 8th headlining at the Ashley’s Learning Center concert ‘We’re all in this together’. The concert which also feature local artistes will be held at Brayton Hall on Venetian Road from 6 pm to 8:30 pm
Tickets are available ON ISLEHELP $75 PER GENERAL SEAT $125 PER PREMIUM SEAT $195 PER GALLERY SEAT – with /FREFRESHMENTS.
For TICKET RESERVATIONs you can call: 649-341-2304 or email EVENTS@ASHLEYSLEARNINGCENTER.ORG
#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – As the country moves toward new fiber optic connectivity, bridging the digital divide could be a game changer for healthcare and other family-friendly services in the TCI.
The power of universal digital connectivity across countries was one of the recurring themes when the United Nations in partnership with the Network of Afro Caribbean Women and the Diaspora recently explored how technology, innovation and education are being used to address women’s health issues.
The session aimed to highlight success stories and explore how those processes can be replicated to help women and girls globally including in The Turks and Caicos.
The UN explained that despite holding a 70 percent majority in healthcare jobs, women are poorly represented in leadership roles and subject to systemic gender inequalities that can make receiving healthcare challenging.
As delegates from Chile and Rwanda, who were also partners in the session, shared the upgrades to their countries’ systems that had significantly improved the level of care available to their women, digital connectivity was a deciding factor.
In Rwanda the health ministries have begun to use drones to deliver medicine, SMS messages to alert about health threats and a completely digitized health care that eliminates paper documents for pregnant women and makes records accessible to any doctor, immediately.
Rwandan delegate, Rose Rwabuhihi shared tips that countries should keep in mind when trying to implement new processes to benefit women and the wider community.
Partnership and sustainability are key factors to successful programs. She urged governments not to give up on projects or allow their partners to give up on them halfway.
Education campaigns to introduce residents to the technology: “We need to build skills and deepen the knowledge so they can use the innovations that have been put in place especially in rural areas.
Poor connectivity and technological issues have plagued the TCI for years especially in the islands outside of Providenciales. Government has substantially acknowledged this disparity in communications services and is investing in a new undersea cable to augment services in the Turks and Caicos.
The UNs perspectives can now ignite a fire for even more family friendly, digital services.
In fact,Senator Yasna Provoste Campillay, the Chilean Delegate explained how connectivity and videoconferencing had been used to reach the county’s women in the most rural of areas. Chile is a long country, its landmass spread lengthwise creating unique communication challenges. While healthcare in Chile is separated by length the Turks and Caicos islands are disconnected by the ocean and solutions that prove useful for the South American country could well be worth implementing locally.