Bill To Shift Disaster Managment From Governor To Premier Passed

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(PLTM) - The Disaster Management Act 2021 has passed in the House of Assembly without any legislators in attendance opposing it.

The Act would see the Disaster Management portfolio move to the Office of the Premier from the Office of the Governor. The bill will now go to Governor Augustus Jaspert for assent.

Addressing the late-night sitting of the House of Assembly on January 5, 2021, Premier and Minister for Finance Hon. Andrew Fahie declared, “The Bill entitled the Disaster Management Act 2021 has passed through committee with amendments.”

“Mr Speaker, I move that the Bill entitled Disaster Management Act 2021 be read a third time and passed as amended,” he added.

After Premier’s declaration, there was a vote by the legislature which, according to the tally as read out by the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Julian Willock, eight legislators, voting “yes” to the Act being passed.

On the other hand, there were five absent members. No one opposed the Act.

Both sides of the political divide supported the move during the debate.

Opposition Leader Marlon Penn said he was supporting the Bill because the territory should have more power over its own affairs as it advances.

His Opposition colleague, Hon. Mark Vanterpool, who also supported the Bill said, when the Disaster Management Act was signed under the former NDP government, he affixed his signature without not understanding it fully.

“I signed off my name to something that I didn’t know about! When the reality struck me, that the Premier of the country who was elected to be the Premier was powerless, useless in that first week or two of that disaster,” he said.

He further pointed out that as elected representatives, and in his case as the then Minister for Works, he felt “useless”.

“I am not blaming any individual or any person, but the law that was entrenched where once there was a national emergency like that was declared, that we were rendered useless as elected officials, that the premier of this country during that period of time was useless,” he stated.

Premier Fahie, the mover of the motion, said the power shift was long in coming and it was one way of moving towards self-determination.

“The DDM is a department within our BVI territorial government for delivering the government’s service of disaster preparedness, mitigation, service, and part of the recovery agenda. BVI personnel within the DDM and other departments of government have the necessary abilities, and they have been demonstrating to transition administration of disaster preparedness and management to the BVI Government on behalf of the Virgin Islands people.”

He added: “As a matter of fact, technically, it has always been that of the BVI people. We fund it, the persons that staff it is us, the persons who run it are us, but Mr. Speaker, over the years we have neglected certain duties that caused a policy shift to have been made and have it where it is now.”

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