By Staff Writer
The main opposition Progressives party is applying pressure on the PACT government to finalise the contract signing for the ReGen waste-to-energy project.
“Cayman cannot wait any longer. Mr Premier, get that contract signed,” deputy Progressives leader Joey Hew demanded in a statement.
Referring to images showing the current state of the landfill site, Mr Hew said nothing has changed there apart from the continuation of the remedial capping, which was started by the last Progressives-led government.
“The view of the dump could and should have been very different today. If the Premier and the PACT government had rolled their sleeves up and done the necessary work to get the Project ReGen contract signed on time, we would see significant building works underway, not just a landfill site,” he stated.
According to the Progressives deputy leader who served as Commerce Minister in the last administration, if the former government’s timeline had been followed by the current PACT administration, “then today, the new state-of-the-art waste-to-energy plant that will be built under the ReGen contract would have been well underway by now and we would have been looking forward to the opening of the plant next year.”
“But instead of that,” he said, “the picture remains the same. And with that comes continued environmental risk from landfilling and fire risk” while pointing out that “at the end of September, yet another deadline set by the Premier for the financial close of the contract was missed.”
Mr Hew claims that this has been the pattern throughout the two and half years in office of the PACT government led by Hon. Premier Wayne Panton and outlined a timeline to back his argument.
“He tells the country that the contract negotiation is progressing well. Then, he sets another new deadline for a few weeks or months. And lo and behold, that deadline passes without the contract close being achieved. A year ago, in October 2022, the Premier told us that the end of negotiations was so close that a financial close would be achieved the following month. It was not closed. He told us there was a new agreed long stop date of January 2023. The contract was not closed by then either.”
According to Mr Hew, since then what he termed “this saga of dithering and delay by the Premier” has been allowed to continue.
Noting that the latest long stop date to conclude the contract is the end of November 2023, the Progressive deputy leader said he is urging the Premier to pull out all the stops to ensure that, finally, his latest deadline is achieved.
“We cannot continue to rely on an unsustainable landfill. We need the modern waste facilities for composting, recycling and energy recovery that ReGen will provide. We are already more than two years behind schedule. Cayman cannot wait any longer. Mr Premier, get that contract signed,” Mr Hew insisted.
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