PM: Bigger fines for environmental breaches
Government to overhaul legislation to balance environmental protection, economic growth
Published:Thursday | August 4, 2022 | 12:05 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
PRIME MINISTER Andrew Holness says suitable legislation that protects the environment, as well as supports economic growth and wealth creation, is coming.
According to Holness, the country’s natural assets are under serious threat as persons seek to exploit them for economic wealth. He also says that additional legislation is coming to hold property owners accountable to maintain good environmental standards and practices, especially for lands with natural resources and ecosystems on the property.
The prime minister, who has ministerial responsibility for the environment in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, says private interests have started to pose a threat to social order.
“We now need to ensure that the legislative framework matches the energy that exists for growth and development and also for deviant behaviour in the country,” he said.
He notes that while the current structure of the country’s laws provides protection for these natural assets that may exist on a property, tighter measures are needed.
“We, however, have concluded that for greater protection, ecologically sensitive natural assets should not just be protected by law enforced on private owners, but where the sensitive natural asset is significant, the Government should seek to reclaim those, should seek to own them, which would mean that we will have to engage with owners and buy those properties,” Holness explained.
Continuing, the PM said: “We have developed the policy, and we will be moving to legislation shortly, to put in regulations and laws for the Government to begin to acquire ecologically sensitive natural assets.”
“We are moving ahead with that kind of legislative reform to make sure that we can protect these natural assets and preserve them for generations to come,” he added.
Holness says the fines for environmental breaches are inadequate to prevent deviant behaviours.
Earlier this year, reports by residents of Great Bay in St Elizabeth of illegal sand mining were met with swift action by the authorities to stem the practice. One person was arrested and charged, but later pleaded guilty in court and was fined $15,000, a penalty that Holness says is grossly inadequate to prevent the practice.
“Clearly, the fine is outdated and the risk analysis [and] cost benefit would show that they would have made significant profit from the sand and paid a paltry fine,” Holness told journalists during a tour of wetlands in Great Bay, Treasure Beach, which is part of the site where the illegal sand mining occurred.
“As minister of the environment and supported by Minister Matthew Samuda, who is doing an excellent job of being on the ground and following through, it is clear that the Government has to take legislative action in increasing the fines,” the PM assured. “And it’s not just in the environment, it’s right across the board.”
Although the lands in Great Bay on which illegal sand mining took place are both owned by private parties and the Government, Holness says no decision has been made to acquire the privately owned portion at this time.
“I am not saying that this is one of them. Just to be clear, the destination and identification of an ecologically sensitive natural asset would be purely scientific and done by experts and not necessarily driven by political or other kinds of forces,” Holness insisted.