FOUR GOVERNMENT MINISTERS yesterday endorsed the Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister David Thompson.
Outgoing Minister of Agriculture Haynesley Benn says he is leaving that job with a few regrets but “looks forward” to his new Commerce and Trade portfolio.
Benn told the SATURDAY SUN the regret comes from not fulfilling some of the goals he had set himself in the sweeping move to revitalise agriculture.
He said he regretted that he did not make the kind of progress he had hoped for towards having a significant number of greenhouses established across Barbados because “greenhouses have enormous potential for agriculture in Barbados”.
However, Benn said that under his tenure Barbados had seen the number of 4-H groups increasing from about a dozen to 48, improvements in the livestock sector and significant growth in production of vegetables and root crops.
He said his new job posed a number of challenges but a master’s degree in business administration and 33 years of working in the private sector and establishing contacts with leaders in trade and commerce would stand him “in good stead”.
In announcing the Cabinet reshuffle Thursday night, Prime Minister David Thompson named Dr David Estwick as the new Minister of Agriculture.
He named Chris Sinckler as the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs and gave Steve Blackett Sinckler’s old portfolio – Social Care, Constituency Empowerment and Community Development.
He also switched Minister of State Patrick Todd from the Ministry of Economic Affairs to a reshaped Ministry of Housing, Lands, Urban and Rural Development.
Blackett, who was moved from the Ministry of Community Development and Culture, said yesterday that he had not fully analysed the switch “but I have a level of enthusiasm about it”.
He added: “I am prepared to go wherever the Prime Minister, in his wisdom, determines that I should serve the people of Barbados, and to fulfil the mandate he sets me.”
Todd said he looks forward to helping Government improve the country’s housing stock and accelerating the removal of pit latrines, working with agencies including the Urban Development Commission and the Rural Development Commission.
He also spoke about the need to build more concrete pathways so as to give people in some troubled areas easier access to their homes.
Minister of Health Donville Inniss, whose portfolio remained unchanged, declined to comment on two of the portfolio shifts that set tongues wagging – Sinckler’s and Estwick’s.
He said that Estwick and Sinckler “are two competent colleagues” in the Democratic Labour Party and Government.
