Now I know they are out of their minds!
Legislators say it will cost $13-17 million for the new home for the elderly, on top of the $1 million for the foundation (which will probably be cracked or inadequate when the time comes to build on it). Do they realise that is around 15 percent of the probable cost of the new hospital?
But we can’t afford it, so we will build it piece by piece, $2 million this year. This is not the 19th or early 20th Century, when folks built houses brick by brick when they could afford it. But it seems that we, or at least our politicians, are still stuck in that mindset. A private building, U.P.’s Cineplex, springs to mind. No wonder they were quite happy for the hospital to trundle along, reaching, what, 16 years, $120 million and counting?
What hope for the airport (how many million?), cruise pier, Queen Elizabeth II Park, or any other project?
‘Slanging match’
Now the member for the Third District has some valid points, but he chose absolutely the wrong way to go about raising them. The spectacle of a slanging match with the Speaker of the House was most unedifying: Now it will probably go viral on YouTube© and Facebook©, and show what an ignorant, immature institution our government debating chamber can be.
Opposition walkout
To those commenting on the “boycott” by the three opposition members, and comparing it favourably with the National Democratic Party’s “walkout” over the vote of no confidence, I would point out that the two actions are quite different.
All members well know that all previous governments have spent unbudgeted money on capital, pet or unbudgeted projects. They obtain often unrealistic, or unrealisable, expenditure budgets from departments (often just wish lists), and then, when that money is not spent, purloin it for other projects.
This is not responsible financial accounting at all, playing fast and loose with the taxpayers’ dollars. As The BVI Beacon reported earlier, just see how many promises are unfulfilled, or budgeted items not completed. It makes a mockery of the government’s attempts to run the territory responsibly.
Pier project
As for the pier project, it now looks like we are going to be paying the cruise lines to come here. Isn’t there something wrong with that scenario?
Meanwhile, radio commentators, taxi drivers and bloggers either can’t read properly or don’t even understand the present arrangement with the ships’ agents. There is no difference, and they are certainly not talking about bringing in outsiders and doing “our people” out of a living.
Whilst it would be nice to have (if we have to have it at all) a pretty village at the dock, similar to those in St. Maarten, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and so on, the first time I see a pair of Mickey Mouse© ears in town I will … (best left unsaid).
{fcomment}