TO PRIME MINISTER Freundel Stuart:
Dear Sir,
While we commend you for finally addressing the proposed Cahill Plasma Gasification Plant, it is unfortunate that you did not respond to our correspondence as your statements at the constituency meeting on September 13 did not address our concerns.
The members of this group are still unsure of the meaning of your statements and are seeking clarification. Will the building of the said plant be delayed? Are you awaiting a specific time to forward the documents to Town and Country Planning Department? Are you awaiting information before you send the documents on to the Town and Country Planning Department? In addition, what are the legal implications about the matter that is currently unravelling in the Ontario court surrounding Ms Cowan’s legal difficulties? How will this impact the credibility of Ms Cowan’s company Cahill Energy? Why was Cahill Energy selected based on an expression of interest only?
We also want to raise the issue of your labelling the concerns of the people of Barbados as “incoherent noises”. It is felt that summation of the people’s voices on the above matter gave you a golden opportunity to denounce the actions of the ministers of finance, housing, the environment and energy with regards to signing contracts on the behalf of the Government and people of Barbados, as well as the opportunity to abandon this project due to growing public outrage.
We can now express what we see as a flaw in governance on your part for not making those four ministers accountable for their actions by:
(a) acknowledging that they erred with respect to signing documents on the behalf of the Crown;
(b) making the document public for the people of Barbados to know what was signed away on their behalf;
(c) disciplining the ministers who by their action can cause irreparable damage to the reputation of Barbados.
However, we are willing to forgive the ill-considered comments if you wish to work with us. We can marshal the social forces in Barbados to help you with this problem, if you will just declare that you are on the right side of the Plasma Gasification Plant issue. We can work with you to make the whole process more transparent, and to offer a forum that thinks of Barbados first, and politics last.
Please provide an answer by Friday, so that we can seek the support of civic and other groups, to join us in this quest.
– Heather Cole,
For the Barbados Lobby.
