By Carlos Atwell

Barbados may be returning fruit trees to the gullies in an effort to focus more on the sustainable use for all the island’s available land space.

Minister of Environment Denis Kellman made this declaration this evening, moments after launching the Sustainable Land Management Project in conjunction with the United Nations Development Programme.

Kellman told the media that along with Ministry of Agriculture and Minister David Estwick, his ministry was looking at ways to increase the island’s fruit stock.

“We also have to increase our fruit stock in Barbados. We are not going to be planting trees for the sake of planting trees, but we will ensure that we will be planting fruit trees, not only for Barbadians but to ensure that the monkeys remain where they should be.

“Over the years we have destroyed all the fruit trees in the gullies and we have not gone back to the gullies to replace them. In this ministry we will be looking at the possibility of utilising that large mass of land that has been ignored over the years,” said Kellman.

He said he believed as well that the gullies were the perfect place for greenhouses and plant nurseries.

“I strongly believe that instead of using lands like these [at Sturges] for plant nurseries that the best place you can use for plant nurseries will be the gullies. The climatic conditions are just suited for them,” he said at the National Heritage Unit at Sturges.

“In the gullies you will find a natural greenhouse where the trees provide the shade, take off the heat and so on. It will be things like those that we will be looking at.” They would also be looking at uses for the controversial Greenland, the minister said too, with suggestions thus far pointing toward a fish farm or a natural park.

“The Ministry of the Environment along with the Ministry of Agriculture, we are discussing it and that we will find a positive role for it and that is as you know is already in the Scotland District and we have no intention of damaging the environment. Further from damaging the environment, we will ensure that we protect the environment.

“Some time ago when we visited Greenland I suggested that the best use for it was a fish farm but I can assure you that there are many other ideas that we are tossing around within the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture. For example, it is in a natural park, so it can easily be a park,” he said adding that the suggestions would be revisited.

“It is something that we will have to go back to, but I can assure you that Greenland will not be a waste. We will find a solution to it and one that everyone will be happy about.” (LB) (Barbados Today)

Acting Minister of the Environment, Dennis Kellman, on the job. (GP)

Denis Kellman taking the oath before Governor General Sir Clifford Husband. At right is his wife Paulevette. (Kenmore Bynoe)

By Kenmore Bynoe

That’s the view of St. Lucy MP Denis Kellman, who said he was “sick and tired” of suggestions that the ABC Highway should be the centre of the island’s traffic woes, saying attention needed to be paid to the minor roads feeding into that main artery, which stretches from St. Michael to Christ Church.

Building flyovers was not the solution either, said the CARICOM ambassador.

Speaking in the House of Assembly during debate on major road works across the country, he said:

“As much as we continue to talk about the ABC Highway we are really fooling ourselves in here when we believe that the only solution to the traffic problems is to continue to expand that road. Every time you add a lane you add twice as much confusion and it is time that we recognise in here that the solution to the traffic problem cannot be the expansion of the ABC Highway, but the building of parallel roads,” he suggested.

“We cannot continue to attract traffic to one road. We need to build roads to take traffic off the ABC Highway and that is what is happening. We are in here all the time talking about the ABC Highway as if this is the only solution and the more you talk about it and the more you look at it from the time the ABC Highway was built you had traffic confusion, from the time it was expanded it got worse.

“There is no need that we continue to put traffic in Warrens when there is no need for the traffic to be at Warrens. We need to find side roads to take the traffic away from Warrens. If we do not do that all we will get is confusion.”

Kellman urged authorities to focus their attention on a number of roads, including as far as the St. Thomas Parish Church in an attempt to solve the traffic problems.

“I honestly believe that it is time that we recognise that when you get to … the St. Thomas Church that you widen that road through Content and you bring it down Cane Garden and all those roads, then when you get to Warrens … that instead of coming to get to Prior Park you have to come Warrens roundabout that you need to go through the development and put yourself into Clermont,” he said.

“Also, it does not make sense to have a road that leads to Collins (Warrens) and then on the other side of the development you can stand and see from one road to the other but yet still you can’t traverse. It is time that we connect those two roads and take the traffic off.

“Also in Arthur’s Seat when you go in by the (One) Accord building we have to find a way to put an exit onto the Arthur Seat road and take that traffic off the Jackson Road. If we do not do these things we will continue to have confusion.”

The MP said the problem was most pronounced during evening rush hour.

Kellman also said flyovers were not the solution because they kept traffic on the highway. (SC) (Barbados Today)

“This belief in this day and age that one can go into another country’s territorial waters and just fish like that is no-no with me also, because we have a serious problem as it relates to drugs and other crimes and we must learn to appreciate that everybody must have a right to look after their own security and that is why I am saying that we must be proactive and see this as something that must occur within CARICOM and not just Barbados and Trinidad. We must have a regional fishing agreement even if it means moving out of my hands and into someone else’s hands,” Ambassador Denis Kellman said during an exclusive interview with the Barbados Advocate.

However, Kellman who is charged with the responsibility of securing a fishing agreement between Barbados and T&T, said that several avenues are being explored in this regard and so the probability of finalising such a bilateral pact remains possible. On the other hand, he noted, as a country we also have to take into consideration that the situation which drove Barbadian fisherfolk to initially pursue the flying fish in Tobago’s waters, has changed. The ambassador explained that in fact the fish stocks in our waters have increased, and the demand to go to Tobago is not as great as it used to be.

“…As it stands right now, the best judge is to monitor the catches of the day boats, people tend to monitor the catches of the ice boats. But I am telling you that last season there were some day boats that could have beaten a lot of the ice boats or equalled them with their catches. Moreover, when you multiple the daily catches by seven days and consider that some of those ice boats go out for two weeks and you do a conversion, the days boats have been doing a lot better – so it tells you that the flying fish would have to be close at home,” he contended.

Nevertheless, Kellman said that negotiations with Trinidad are still on the cards, but persons must recognise that in negotiating, parties have to be very careful that they do not come over as if they are begging.

“…You also have to be very careful how you relate to the other party. There must always be a situation where you have something to give in exchange for what you want. If we are going to have a fishing agreement I strongly believe that Trinidad must come to the table with what they would expect from us and for us to sit down negotiate with them. Barbados has never been a begging country and I do not think that as Ambassador to CARICOM and with responsibility for the fishing agreement, that anybody can expect me to be in a biting capacity, it must be equal ground,” he added. (JRT) (Barbados Advocate)

Speaking with the Barbados Advocate recently, Member of Parliament for St. Lucy and Ambassador to CARICOM Denis Kellman, maintained that both tax regimes are presently working against the country and not in our people’s best interest. He went on to explain that if the move is made to do away with both taxes, efforts would also have to be made to discontinue the payment of overtime and promote moonlighting. That, he maintained, would ensure that there is greater productivity within the business community.

“What we need in this country is the expansion of business, not retention of business. Right now what we are doing is keeping the same status quo and it is because we have something called corporate taxes where our businesses want to save, so they spend to save. But what they spend on, is to paint a wall, paint a building, change a light, you don’t want that, you want businesses to add a room, expand their production. So instead of going towards corporation taxes, you need to have a tax that will come off the sales,” he said.

To that end, Kellman is suggesting that value added tax (VAT), currently set at 15 per cent should be increased and a sales tax to replace the corporation tax introduced in Barbados. The MP is suggesting that by doing the latter, Government would attract more revenue. He added that by abolishing the income tax, they would be increasing the disposable income of those who currently pay that tax and for those who do not pay income tax and receive the reverse tax credit; he is suggesting that that credit be increased.

“You have to see it now as a tax on foreign exchange for the using of money. So as you consume you pay, if you don’t consume, you don’t pay,” he said.

The MP, who is also suggesting that overtime become a thing of the past and that Barbadians get into the habit of moonlighting, contended that this and the elimination of income tax should have been explored back in 1997, when VAT was first introduced.

“Remember that at the end of the day, what we are pushing for is a reduction in the cost of producing goods, so you cannot do it without thinking about the switch from overtime to moonlighting and the abolition of income tax. So it is not a piecemeal approach, it is a complete approach and a complete overhaul that I am asking for,” he said. (Barbados Advocate)