Some food stores and health shops in Barbados are said to have started selling products containing cannabis extracts, despite no changes to the law prohibiting cannabis use.

And Minister of Health Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic has revealed that the Bridgetown stores that are guilty would be warned and made to feel the full weight of the law if they continued.

Bostic made the revelation during the opening of a training session for health care providers on Therapeutic Prescribing of Medicinal Marijuana Products at the Cave Hill School of Business and Management on Tuesday, where he announced that five medical cannabis products would be added to the drug formulary.

“We have been made aware that there are some stores in Bridgetown that are already selling these products, but let me say that we will issue a warning during this week, a reminder of the law,” said Bostic.

“After that we will enforce the law in its fullest to ensure that such persons come to a Christian understanding of right and wrong,” he added.

The Health Minister did not give details, but one source told Barbados TODAY that it was food stores and health shops that have been selling some of the cannabis-based products including CDB oil, and they have been doing so for some time. There is also speculation that pharmacies have also been selling the product, which is made from cannabis.

However, when Barbados TODAY reached out to some health shops and pharmacies they denied having such products for sale while others opted not to comment.

“I can tell you that there were food stores and individuals in health shops, who were in possession of CBD oils. Not pharmacies, but people with food stores,” said the source.

“The Barbados Drug Service and the inspectors at the Barbados Drug Service are aware and are putting the necessary things in place to correct that because it is still a violation of the laws of Barbados and pharmacists would never engage in that type of thing. We would like the police and various persons to address it because the laws have not yet been changed,” the source added.

During the start of the two-day workshop, Bostic told the participants there had to be training and certification before anyone could prescribe or dispense medical cannabis products.

“Another question too, is what happens in a year or two, will there be continuous training as the industry develops and more information is made available through research and other things?

“So we need to be able to keep this going as part of a continuous medical education and I also believe that the University of the West Indies (UWI) needs to look at this workshop and make it bigger and better and make it not only available to Barbados but to other parts of the Caribbean, and to continue with the training so that we can be assured that we have all the bases covered as the industry develops,” Bostic recommended.

Government will also be required to make amendments to existing legislation.

Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal of the UWI, Cave Hill Campus Professor Eudine Barriteau promised that the learning institution would continue to carry out research and help to educate the public on the issue.

“While we await the necessary legislative changes that this campus has been calling for since 2016 . . . that will create an enabling environment to facilitate this critical research, we are however, pressing ahead with our objective through collaborative international partnerships,” she said.

She said the university officials have also been using their expertise to envision what an “efficient and sustainable regional policy framework for medical cannabis” should look like.

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Sharp falloffs in the value of the British pound due to uncertainty over Britain’s departure from the European Union could spell trouble for Barbados’ largest tourist market.

In an interview, Virgin Atlantic’s Director of External Affairs and Sustainability Nathan Stower described this year’s high season as “decent”, but revealed there has been some concern about the future.

Recent Brexit reports indicate that the pound sterling has suffered its longest losing streak against the euro since the latter’s creation two decades ago.

According to a May 22 report from The Guardian newspaper, news that British Prime Minister Theresa May’s replacement may be willing to go for a no-deal Brexit, led to currency traders shunning the pound. The pound then slid to $1.2625 against the US dollar- its lowest level since early January.

“There’s no doubt that some of the uncertainty in the U.K - the political uncertainty and the economic uncertainty - is starting to have a little bit of an impact, not just in Barbados but to many of our destinations,” Stower admitted.

He spoke to the press after the certificate ceremony for Heartfelt Guest Care to Welcome the World training series.

“So we’re are kind of hoping for some certainty or some clarity on that situation to give consumers confidence to book ahead and look forward to their holidays to Barbados and the region.”

While admitting that Britain’s political and economic issues would not directly affect the region, Stower acknowledged that the pound’s decreasing value could make Barbados’ already expensive attractions even pricier.

“The exchange rate has an impact and we have seen the pound slightly weaker against the [United States’] dollar than it has been two to three years ago, so that has an impact on tourists’ ability to come here and spend their hard-earned cash in restaurants and all of the attractions.

“We had a very good start to the season, but obviously these bookings were taken 12-18 months ago, so we’re pretty pleased with the high season and actually the next few months are looking pretty decent.

He added: “We will be keeping a close eye on the exchange rate and we hope that when we get some certainty on this process, which we are confident we will still get later in the year, the exchange rate will improve so that people who come here can enjoy all that the island has to offer,” he said.

Given the level of uncertainty surrounding the critical British market, President of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), Patricia Affonso-Dass has called on stakeholders to improve their service.

“Those destinations that really deliver meaningful experiences are the ones that will stand out when everything goes back to normal. It’s those experiences that people will remember and the destinations that they will come to,” she added.

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An increase in bus fare, coupled with ongoing economic hardship, has put a huge dent in the operations of a charity that helps develop disabled young people’s skills to boost their job-seeking chances.

The situation is so dire for the First Barbados Association for Supported Employment (First BASE) that the charity may soon close, said its supervisor, Joy-Ann Grazette-Corbin.

“We do have financial challenges because our subvention doesn’t cover the cost of everything that we do and we do not have enough persons buying our products in order to support us or keep us going.

“So we are looking forward to our fundraiser to keep us at least for a certain amount of time that we are able to give these young people their stipend and keep the place functioning,” She told Barbados TODAY.

First BASE has been hosting an annual 5K Walk/Run in an effort to raise the much-needed funds. This year, the event, which attracts a $25 donation, will take place on June 8, starting at 4 p.m. at the Queens Park.

The event will afford participants an opportunity to see the work of the students and support them, Grazette-Corbin said.

But the registration has been very slow, though she expressed hope things would pick up in the coming weeks.

Since bus fare went up by 75 per cent to $3.50 from mid-April, she noted that disabled students were finding it increasingly difficult to get to the Greenwich Village, St James charity each day.

In a plea for help from Government and corporate Barbados, Grazette-Corbin said that  while the organisation did not make contact with Member of Parliament for the area, Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson, letters were submitted to Government explaining the situation and seeking help.  The organisation currently receives a small subvention from the Government’s Disabilities Unit. 

She said:  “[The increase in bus fare] has put a great strain on us and what we are trying to do. Even up to the fact that right now we are not sure how we are getting paid this month.

“They are still able to come, but like I said, right now our stipends are less than bus fare. So we are trying to figure out [to whom] do we speak.

“We sent out some letters to Government to see what can be done, if they can travel free or what can happen for them to be able to get here.” 

With some of the young adults coming from St Philip and Christ Church and needing to take two buses each way, even as they try often to take the cross-country ABC Highway bus, a new challenge of security for her students was being presented, she said.

Grazette-Corbin told Barbados TODAY: “We had an incident.... This road is very lonely and two of our young ladies were walking and a gentleman in a truck started to harass them and he wouldn’t leave them alone.

“When I contacted the police, the number of the truck was not registered to the person that was driving. It was actually registered to another car. So even in those circumstances we are really concerned.

“We would love more government support, more government funding. But I also know that places that deal with people with disabilities would like an opportunity also because most of us have limited space.” 

First BASE currently has Grazette-Corbin as the lone supervisor along with an acting supervisor catering to ten people. There is a waiting list of more than 200 trainees.

“To be able to pay the persons that we need to take care of these young people is more than we can handle on our own. That is one thing we would like the Government to get involved in. If not being able to pay them, being able to provide a facility where I can have more than just ten people. We have a long waiting list,” she said.

At least twice a week, the organisation sells a range of natural juices, baked products and crafts at the St James Parish Church.

While most of their support comes from taxi operators and tourists, Grazette-Corbin said sales have been down.

“Persons support children with disabilities, but then they seem to forget that these children become adults and they can’t just sit at home and do nothing,” she said. “They need to be productive and they can do stuff. When they are doing things, their parents are free to also be productive citizens in society.” 

The charity provides training and social support for people with developmental disabilities, ages 18 and older, who are expected to leave with skills and get at least part-time work after a year, but they are forced to stay “as long as they like” because job opportunities have dwindled, she added.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb

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Now is the perfect time to start a business, a University of the West Indies academic said today as an entrepreneur boot camp was launched at the Cave Hill campus.

Acting chief executive officer of the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management, Dr Justin Robinson said Barbados’ low level of taxation should serve as impetus for aspiring business owners.

“I want the message to go out there that this is an excellent time to be looking at going into business in Barbados.

“Barbados has one of the lowest corporation tax rates in the world at this time, you don’t pay any taxes on capital gains.

“So as an investor and entrepreneur Barbados has to be one of the most tax-friendly places to incorporate your business in the world at this particular point of time.”

Dr Robinson, who is also the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, said Barbados needed more entrepreneurs as well as new businesses.

“We need new Caribbean companies, we need new businesses, we need new sources of economic growth. There is a lot of anxiety and frustration in Caribbean society and I think part of it is we are all fighting over the same pie.

“Everyone is trying to get a bigger slice of the same pie and in some way a shrinking pie. What we want to focus on really is growing that pie so that there is more for everybody and everyone can get without anybody else getting less, but to do that you need new ideas, new products, new services and new businesses.”

Entrepreneur Christopher Harper, one of the facilitators, explained that there was a need for would-be businesspeople to think differently.

He said while he had organised similar programmes with adults with much success, he was excited at the opportunity to educate younger people.

Manager of the Government’s Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme Selma Green revealed that YES is offering scholarships to 12 people who had successfully completed an element of the recently launched Building Blocks programme.

The five-week long boot camp at the School of Business is to be held from July 9 to August 15, catering to a maximum of 40 young people between the ages of 16 and 21. 

It is being held in conjunction with the University of the West Indies, Goddard Enterprises and the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation.

With a course fee of $300, the foundation is offering financial assistance to a limited number of entrants, said Marjorie Wharton, the director of Strategic Business Services at the School of Business.

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Government’s defence of UK-based White Oak consultancy to restructure the country’s foreign debt, citing inadequate local expertise, was slammed today as “irrelevant” by the Opposition politicians.

The team of senators and party spokespersons who are to be formalized into a political party in two weeks, declared that Government’s lack of local alternatives, shed no light on the rationale behind the $54 million price tag for the two-man advisory team.

Speaking at a press conference at the Opposition wing of Parliament on Tuesday, spokesman Scott Weatherhead suggested that Government took a cavalier approach to a matter, which could have dire consequences later down the road.

“The sum should have been negotiated better.... [Government] did a poor job of negotiation. Maybe they didn’t negotiate at all, maybe there are reasons for not negotiating.”

He pointed out that White Oak’s bill was equivalent to ten per cent of the country’s loan from the International Monetary Fund.

The entrepreneur also accused Government of being less than transparent with the process.

Weatherhead told reporters: “Whether it could have been handled locally is irrelevant. Whether there was no experience locally to tender on the debt negotiation, may be so, but we never saw a tender.

“So perhaps the right way of doing things in the interest of transparency was to put the contract out to tender, receive some responses and then advertise that a suitable person was not found locally and that they were going to seek international expertise. 

“They [Government] should have announced their choice and negotiate the best possible price for the job.”

The criticism stems from Chief Economic Counsellor, Ambassador Dr Clyde Mascoll’s dismissal as “ridiculous” the notion that a local economist or firm could have done the job. He also addressed White Oak’s failure thus far to negotiate a settlement for the approximately $3 billion in debt owed to external creditors.

“The notion that there is a Barbadian who is qualified and has been restructuring debt is not known to me and if there is one, then that person can step forward.”

Adding his voice to a chorus of Government officials defending the White Oak deal,  he stressed that 80 per cent of the gigantic debt owed to local creditors was successfully restructured late last year but admitted that negotiations for restructuring the external debt could continue to be challenging.

“On the external side, those people don’t have that kind of affinity for the Government of Barbados. They are purely capitalists and they invested to get a greater return… so yes, there may be some fallout from not being able to negotiate the external debt as fast, but it is not even a year yet and normally it takes longer to do external negotiations,” he said.

But Weatherhead argued that Mascoll’s defense of the time that the negotiations were taking, raised more questions than it answered.

The Opposition spokesman, who ran on Solutions Barbados ticket in the May 24 General Elections, said: “I think that when you are talking about the kind of debt that Government is trying to negotiate, it is not a small sum and there are a lot of creditors.

“So, if a debt negotiator was tendering on that, they would have needed time to understand what is involved in that negotiation. A lot of due diligence should have been done before someone could say this is what we are going to charge.

“So, it’s either possible that process happened prior to election that this company knew that they were going to be appointed after the election last May or they had no idea what they were getting into and quoted a high amount. We can’t speculate at this time, but we can say that the process was not transparent.”

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If Government is to bring down the country’s soaring debt through growth, an American economist is strongly advising the Mia Mottley administration to better handle disruptive technologies.

But while many pundits advocate a complete embrace of this technology, Michigan University economics professor Dr Linda Tesar is warning Government to expect significant short-term pain in order to gain potential benefits in the long run.

Disruptive technology has significantly altered the way businesses or entire industries have traditionally functioned.

In the most recent cases, much of it driven by e-commerce, businesses have been forced to change the way they approach their operations for fear of losing market share or becoming irrelevant.

With Amazon up-ending bricks-and-mortar retailers, Uber ride-sharing changing the face of public transport and Airbnb’s online hospitality marketplace disrupting the hotel and tourism trade.

Tesar, who was the featured speaker as the Central Bank of Barbados’ 6th Distinguished Visiting Fellow, said: “The thing about disruptive technology such as Airbnb and Uber, it is great, but it is disruptive for a reason because it disrupts what is already there. This means that the only way to take advantage of disruptive technology is to be willing to upset existing businesses.

“If you bring in Uber, the taxi drivers aren’t going to be very happy. For example, when driverless truck technology comes on stream, it is going to mean layoffs for many drivers.

“What are these drivers going to do? Re-training and re-tooling are all easy things to say but not so easy in practice.”

Dr. Tesar explained that because disruptive technologies are not contained by conventional rules, it is difficult to adequately plan for it in a growth strategy.

She said: “We don’t know what it is because if we knew, we would put a label on it. So, it is very hard to create the conditions for it to grow.

“I think it is tempting to say that growth is the way out, but I think it is dangerous to say that one is going to grow themselves out of debt. While it is probably good in the long run, in the short term it is very painful.”

The economist suggested that with a high debt to GDP, Barbados only has three options if Government is to attain the goal of bringing the debt to 60 per cent of GDP by 2033: taxation, cuts in spending and growth.

She said that of the three, growth is the most desirous option, but noted that in the quest for quick growth, unmanaged disruptive technologies become a concern.

Dr Tesar said: “In bringing down the debt there is only three things to do, spend less, tax more or growth. All three of those things are going to contribute to primary surplus, so that you can have a sustainable level of debt.

“Out of those, if one had to pick one, growth would be the one that they choose but getting growth is never that simple.

“How do we grow our way out of debt? One way is to create a climate where businesses can say this is a place where we want to invest.  Another is increasing efficiency by getting more out of what you are currently doing.

“Finally, there is innovation, which sometimes shows up as a technology factor in the production function. It ends up being the residual that we can’t explain.”

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The days of physical intruders being the main threat to business security are fast coming to an end, a leading security firm’s executive has declared, and he has suggested that businesses here must seriously consider global realities of cybercrime and corporate espionage coming here.

The warning came from the executive vice president of G4S Corporate Risk Services, Robert Dodge, as he spoke at G4S’s Ideation Seminar at Hilton Hotel this morning.

He told the audience that given the value of information, Barbadian businesses can no longer see themselves as outside the radar of the growing threat.

“Intellectual property in all of its forms, if lost, puts your companies at risk. If that key information leaks, it can put your enterprise out of business. This is what a lot of corporations are facing and while it may not be all here today in Barbados, I can guarantee that it is coming.”

The security executive explained that quite often business people are misguided into thinking that the security threats exist on the outside and correct firewalls are all that is need to prevent hacking.

But Dodge pointed out firewall protection was insufficient to meet cybersecurity threats, which he said quite often can come from an insider, sometimes unwittingly, and that guarding against this is not a simple task.

He identified hotels as quite vulnerable, as they are treasure troves of credit card information and guests’ personal data.

The G4S executive said: “I have seen a lot of stuff at hotels around the world and physical security does a great job of keeping out problems such as the prostitution rings and so on.

“But we have found things like electronic USB devices that have been uploading ghost key logger software.

“Luckily, we found them in time because this could have taken everyone’s credit card information and absconded with them.”

Ins some cases, employees had no idea that the threat was even present, he said.

Dodge told the seminar that often physical threats are localised and may affect very few people, while on the other hand, cyber threats can have potentially devastating consequences for many people at a time.

He said: “These are the types of things we are seeing where the virtual world meets the physical world. The younger generation that is fluent with this technology is having a serious impact on corporations.

“In one’s risk assessment, one must factor in the impact that these threats could have on your business.

“In setting your security programme, one’s systems, software, and people must be all aligned towards mitigating that threat.”

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The woman at the centre of the dispute with the British national who was reprimanded and released after an alleged  bottom-slapping incident, is outraged at how the matter has been handled.

Fifty-three-year-old Charmaine Alleyne has suggested that the move by the judicial system is making her look like she was telling lies because she wanted the visitor’s money.

James Patrick O’Rouke, 44, pleaded guilty on Monday, to unlawfully assaulting Alleyne in the Sol Top Rock Service Station, and resisting police constable Shaquille McClean in the execution of his duty on May 19.

[caption id="attachment_300055" align="aligncenter" width="500"] James Patrick O'Rouke[/caption]

The businessman who spent Monday night at HMP Dodds, was reprimanded and discharged and no conviction registered when he reappeared before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant yesterday.

However, Alleyne made it clear she was not happy with the outcome.

Alleyne said she was at an area close to the ATM making tea when O’Rouke walked in and started using the machine. She said he told her he thought it was possible to get US from the ATM machine and she informed him that was not the case.

“Then he turned and he said something else to me and he shoved the $50 in my bosom. I told him I don’t need his money.

“He went over to the cashier to purchase cigarettes. I then went over to the cashier too because I didn’t get my receipt for the tea so I went to look for the receipt.

“After he paid for the cigarettes, and on going through the door he slapped me on my behind. So the same time, as I was going through the door behind him a police vehicle came into the gas station.

“I went over to them, reported the matter and they went over to the taxi that [O’Rouke and his wife] was in. The police told them what happened and then his wife asked me what happened, so I told her. So then she start to quarrel with him. The police asked him to step out the car and he refused and started to put up a fight.

“I never asked him for money. I work every day for my own money,” Alleyne said.

She said she was outraged that she had not seen the CCTV footage which O’Rouke claimed cleared his name. However, she said she did see footage “from the gas station that the police showed me”.

“Now everybody is looking at me as somebody who is after somebody else’s money. That is violating my character,” she said.

Meanwhile, O’Rouke told Barbados TODAY, that the ordeal had left him feeling humiliated, embarrassed and disappointed.

Sitting next to his wife, he said he believes he should not have been treated the way he was by police and the judicial system because he did not touch his accuser Charmaine Alleyne inappropriately.

“I am very upset. Part of me wants justice; the other part of me just wants to put it behind me. Personally, I will probably just put it behind me and put it down as a bad personal experience,” O’Rouke who is from Willehall, West Midlands, England, said.

Today he walked out of the District “A” Magistrates’ Court thanking God that he was saved by the closed circuit television (CCTV) footage of the incident, which did not support the allegation of criminal assault.

Explaining why he pleaded guilty to assaulting Alleyne if he had claimed innocence, the businessman said while at the court he sought advice from a “representative”, who told him to plead guilty because the charges were misdemeanours and the punishment would be a slap on the wrist. He said he was told if he pleaded not guilty there was the possibility that he could be remanded for a lengthy time until his case was heard.

“I wasn’t sure what to do. I had no representation there. I was in the court and I was about to go onto the stand and I then thought I needed some advice and I asked a representative who was there generally. My statement was not guilty because I had seen the CCTV, the police officers had seen the CCTV and the reason I was kept in custody in Worthings Station for so long was because the lady’s statement did not correlate with the CCTV. There were a lot of discrepancies,” he said.

Asked to explain his resisting arrest by the police, he responded: “Of course I am going to resist arrest because I haven’t done anything wrong.”

Relating his side of the incident, O’Rouke said he went to the service station around 11 p.m. to get some money from the ATM and to make a purchase.

He explained that he got out of the car asked some ladies the location of the ATM and they pointed him in the direction.

“I put my card in, I pulled out $500. I assumed I was pulling out US dollars because that is what everyone charges at the resort [Sandals] and we were due to go and swim with the turtles on the glass bottom boat. So I was like, what is this?” he said.

O’Rouke said Alleyne then started “chasing him” asking him to give her some money. He said he told her his wife was in the car and asked her to leave him alone.

“She was like, ‘give me some money, come on, let’s go’. I was like, ‘take $50, leave me alone. If my wife sees me and you talking she is going to go crazy’. . . I then went to the counter and I bought some cigarettes and I walked off.

“So by the time I got literally out of the petrol station, got into the taxi, two police officers literally within 60 seconds, the door was opened, I was dragged out and I was being accused of what I don’t know,” he said.

O’Rouke claimed he was physically and verbally abused by the police officers because he resisted the arrest. He said he was hit “severely in the face” leaving his eardrum bruised and hurting. He also claimed that his wife, who was hysterical, was hit in the mouth by one of the officers. He said he was eventually taken to the police station and kept there for hours without knowing what his charges were.

anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb

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A local trade union leader is demanding the resignation of Chief Labour Officer Victor Felix over an industrial relations dispute involving a Cabinet minister.

Head of the Unity Trade Union Senator Caswell Franklyn is accusing Felix of failing to refer to the Employment Rights Tribunal, a complaint of unfair dismissal he made to him since last year on behalf of a client.

Franklyn, an Opposition Senator, told Barbados TODAY this morning that he had filed the complaint sometime in June last year claiming that his client, who had been employed by the Minister when he was in private practice, was fired without receiving pay owed to her, after her former boss was sworn into office following the May 24 General Elections.

“Felix has failed to do his job. He should go,” insisted the outspoken legislator.

He disclosed that he will also be making a complaint to Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Colin Jordan, regarding the conduct of the Chief Labour Officer.

Not only that, Franklyn told Barbados TODAY his client was planning to take Felix to court, but that the only thing standing in her way was a lack of funds to hire a lawyer.

However, in his defence, the Chief Labour Officer was adamant he had done nothing wrong in the handling of the complaint by Franklyn and his client.

“I am doing the work of the Labour Department in the best manner that I know how, and that I will continue to do,” Felix told Barbados TODAY this morning.

Pressed to specify if he had refused to refer the matter to the Employment Rights Tribunal, he replied:”Needless to say, there are matters before the Chief Labour Officer; and we continue to deal with them, using the process we have been using within the labour department to deal with matters.”

Asked to state categorically whether or not he had refused to refer the complaint, Felix stuck to his story.

“I would say that we are following the process.”

When reminded that the case was filed since last year, his response was: “Well, we are following the process. We have a procedure for dealing with issues and we follow that procedure,” Felix emphasized.

But Senator Franklyn is not buying Felix’s argument and has told Barbados TODAY that the same procedure to which the Chief Labour Officer refers has been contravened by him.

He referred to Section 44 (1) of the Employment Rights Act which states: “Where the Chief Labour Officer is unable, within 42 days of the making of a complaint, except in extenuating circumstances, to effect settlement of the complaint under Section 43, he shall make a report to that effect to the Tribunal.”

Barbados TODAY checked the Act and also found that Section 42 (1) said that where an employee believes there is a dispute concerning infringement of any right conferred on him by the Act, he may present a complaint to the Chief Labour Officer.

And according to Section 43 (1) where the Chief Labour Officer receives a complaint under Section 42, he shall as soon as practicable enquire into the matter and process the complaint for conciliation and referral to the Tribunal.

Senator Franklyn noted that nearly a year has gone since the complaint was filed and “there are no extenuating circumstances. The Minister is not in hospital or anything like that…and still the matter has not been referred to the Tribunal. I have written him (the Minister) and he has refused to respond. There can’t be one law for a minister and another for ordinary citizens.”

When contacted, neither the Cabinet Minister implicated in the dispute nor Minister Jordan was available for comment. emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb

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Police are seeking the public’s assistance in locating a missing girl.

She is 16-year-old Whitney Mary Rock of Edgecumbe Tenantry, St Philip.

Rock left the home of her aunt Karen Weir, of the same address, on Tuesday, May 21, around 7:30 a.m. At the time she was wearing her Anne Hill school uniform and carrying a pink haversack.

Rock is five feet, ten inches tall and has a dark complexion.

She is stout, full breasted and speaks with a high-pitched voice.

Anyone with information about Rock's whereabouts should contact the District ‘C’ Station at 416-8200, Police Emergency 211, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIPS (8477) or the nearest Police Station.

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The Anglican Church is seeking to get down to brass tacks with the young people of the nation in a major way.

Bishop Michael Maxwell said the church was currently working towards actively engaging the youth to see exactly where their minds are at and what are their future goals and plans.

Bishop Maxwell told reporters today that the church would be embarking on a pilot programme, facilitated by the Social Justice Commission, in conjunction with the Youth and Family Commissions, entitled Empowering Our Young People for Positive Living.

He said the programme was geared towards seeking out those young people from within the primary and secondary schools who were struggling for one reason or another, and offering them meaningful support, guidance and motivation to assist them with life skills.

This, he added, is a positive move towards being that ‘rising church’ that seeks to nurture the nation’s youth to equip them for life.

“Our church must be such that it can enable not only the spiritual development of our youth, but also enable them to discover and design a response to other needs that they are faced with.

“The Anglican church needs to develop and design programmes by way of consultation with the young people. That is one thing that came out of our Synod. We need to develop a consultation with our youth, to hear their needs and see what they are struggling with and then of course make a concerted effort to respond to them,” he said.

Bishop Maxwell was speaking about plans to work with the youth, during a press conference held at the Christ the King Centre, Rock Dundo Park, St Michael this morning.

The head of the Anglican Diocese also said he believes the church has an integral part to play in nation building, as it relates to raising the nation.

“But for that to happen and for the church to be able to accomplish that I believe that the church also has to raise itself from where it is in order to be able to shine forth and have a positive impact upon the nation and its situation as it stands,” he said.

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While the ban on single-use plastics has been welcomed, a campaigner for marine conservation suggests Barbadians still need to change attitude and behaviour to protect the sea creatures under threat from plastic waste.

Director of public education and awareness at the Barbados Sea Turtle Project Carla Daniel suggested a lifestyle change is necessary if the environment is to reap benefits from the ban.

At a public discussion on the ban of single-use plastics at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, Daniel said while the ban was a step in the right direction, Barbadians needed to adopt a new mindset.

Since April 1, the importation, retail, sale and use of petro-based single use plastics has been prohibited.

Daniel said: “People are talking about what are the alternatives… but what we need to change is not the disposable item that we throw underneath the bearded fig tree or that we throw on the beach, but we need to change our culture and we need to change our attitude and out lifestyle.

“We really have two options; we have the other single use items, some of them made out of questionable substances and there are some made out of stainless steel which are reusable options.

“Basically, our choice to my mind, is whether we are going to continue with a disposable lifestyle that continually consumes very valuable resources that we use only for a single moment, or are we going to move towards something more sustainable?

“Really to my mind, it is not necessarily looking at the single use culture and moving from one type of single use product to single use alternatives, but it is really looking at our island and our country.”

She made the comments in response to a concern raised by an audience member about the viability and safety of the alternative materials being used, and queried whether enough research had been done on those alternatives.

The audience member also questioned whether those alternatives were of a good enough quality and whether they presented a health hazard.

At least two other people said they were disappointed at the way in which the ban was implemented.

One woman, who said she was a small business owner, said she was appalled at Government’s “high-handed” approach, in which hefty fines had been proposed for people caught using the banned plastics after the April 1 deadline.

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The clock is now ticking for approximately 2,000 recipients to pay back $5,000 loans from the six-month-old Trust Loan Fund, with a warning that they won’t get away from repaying what they borrowed.

Trust Loan Steering Committe chairman Dr Clyde Mascoll, issued the warning in response to questions during the annual CFA Society of Barbados panel discussion at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination on Wednesday.

With the six-month grace period now passed, the borrowers are now required to start repaying the loans.

“The test period is coming, the repayment has started this month and there are some people that don’t expect to repay, but I can tell Barbadians, there is no way we are going to tolerate using taxpayers money for people to come and access and don’t repay. So, you will be pursued if you don’t repay.”

Mascoll stopped short of saying whether Government would go the extent of taking defaulters to court, but described the fund as “a meeting turn and therefore for a meeting turn to work you have to replenish the stock”.

At the start of this month, Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce Dwight Sutherland did report that some business owners had started paying back what they borrowed even before the grace period expired.

The $10 million fund, which was launched at the end of October last year, provides loans of up to $5,000 to qualifying applicants, with an opportunity for them to borrow twice the amount upon successful repayment of the initial loan.

Besides capital, entrepreneurs were also offered an opportunity to improve their skills in an effort to better manage business processes and promote their business through a training and mentorship programme under a Financial Literacy Bureau.

Mascoll, Government’s Chief Economic Counsellor, also declared that while Government would not overregulate any industry or restrict innovation, it would “have to get our slice” of taxes from those who find new ways of doing business.

Using Airbnb and Uber as examples, Mascoll explained that with the proliferation
of technology, people were finding new ways of making products and services more accessible to more customers while enfranchising others.

But, Dr Mascoll said: “We have to get our slice because it would not be right for you to have parallel market here doing well while all the others who have invested continue to pay more tax and you continue to hide more from the tax man, so we are coming because we are using the technology to come.

“This is what we have to do because people are going to innovate with technology and therefore taxing is going to become more complicated down the road, and one of these days soon we may not be able to find who is paying the tax, but as we now, this thing has evolved, but we are coming because truth be told, in order to take care of the vulnerable, the well-to-do need to play their part.”

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb

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One Canadian investor is eager to start sourcing marijuana from Barbados to export to other regions.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Green Stripe Naturals Wayne Isaacs told Barbados TODAY he was anticipating the passing of legislation here so he could invest significantly in helping to develop a medical cannabis industry.

“Our main goal in the cannabis industry is to produce enough cannabis from the Caribbean so we can start looking at exports across the world,” said Isaacs.

“In Barbados specifically, what we are looking at doing is potentially acquiring product from cultivators and again processing and extracting so that we can create more end-user products and also produce products for the medical market,” he said.

However, with Government yet to put legislation in place to allow for the development of the much-touted medical cannabis industry here, Isaacs said he was yet to make a formal proposal.

Notwithstanding, the entrepreneur, who was in Barbados for the first time last week to meet with officials from the University of the West Indies (UWI) and other stakeholders, told Barbados TODAY he was keen on forming critical partnerships.

“We have the ability to bring forth the technology and the equipment. I would like to have the academia and the intellectual processes surrounding what we are dong here in terms of extraction processing,” he said.

Isaacs said while he was in favour of “very sober and deliberate legislation” he believed developing a legal cannabis industry in Barbados and the rest of the region has been slowed by the legislative process.

“The legislation must keep pace with what is happening in the world market. The Caribbean could potentially run the risk of falling behind other world markets. We have seen some of the markets in South America that have come on very strong with very strong legislation that was done relatively quickly,” he pointed out.

“What I am seeing here in the Caribbean is that the legislation seems to be dragging a little bit. It could happen a little bit faster so that the Caribbean region doesn’t fall behind. The region has a lot to offer in the cannabis space – ideal lighting, ideal soil conditions, lots of multigenerational experience especially on the cultivation side. So I don’t want to see us start lagging in the industry simply because there is an over-abundance of legislative processes that just doesn’t get done fast enough,” he warned.

The Toronto-based businessman said his one year-old company has so far invested more than US$0.5 million in the cannabis industry in Jamaica, building out some 20 acres of cultivation facility there.

He also has conditional licences with various partners with a plan in place to invest significantly more in research and development, processing, transportation and dispensaries.

Following Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s announcement recently that Canadian investors were interested in participating in a cannabis industry in Barbados, there have been several concerns that locals could miss out on a lucrative opportunity.

However, Isaacs said he did not see that happening, adding that there was room for collaboration.

“We are not taking over. The beauty of what we are doing in Jamaica is that we have partnerships,” he said.

“One of the beautiful things I have instituted as the CEO is that majority or all of our staff will come from Jamaica. The only time we will bring foreign staff in Jamaica or any other islands in the Caribbean where we are located is for training of staff,” he said.

He also pointed out that any local worker on his farm would have “the ability to earn a certain percentage of an acreage” after they have been with the business for some time. “The only condition is that they can’t sell it to somebody else,” he explained.

Isaac said he was also keen on working with cannabis growers who had smaller acres across the island providing them with “financial and capital resources” including fencing, security measures, pesticides and fertilization controls.

“I believe the region itself has the best potential worldwide for growing premium cannabis. So in terms of scaling I would like to scale regionally. Barbados is definitely on our radar, [as well as] St Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, potentially Belize and other areas in the region,” he said.

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President of the Barbados Pharmaceutical Society (BPS), Paul Gibson, is joining Minister of Health Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic in calling on shops to immediately cease the practice of selling marijuana-based products.

Applauding Government’s decision to loosening some of its controls on medical marijuana products by adding some to the national drug formulary, Gibson is calling for greater public awareness on the new parameters of medical marijuana usage. Gibson told Barbados TODAY that his organisation is concerned that some persons in the public may run away with the notion that it is now a free for all when it comes to the use and sale of cannabis by-products.

“That process has started when the Minister turned the key, but the gate has not yet been opened. The Minister is making sure that everything is in place first so that it could be done properly. I am very concerned that at the moment there are many persons bringing in CDB oils into the country and they may or may not know that at the moment it is illegal,” said Gibson.

He added, “Everybody needs to stop and follow the law. There is only one gate to come through and that is the law. My concern is that there needs to be more awareness because we have to make sure that the processes are followed.”

In an interview with Barbados TODAY, the society president revealed that the industry in Barbados is fully prepared to safely usher in the use of medical marijuana. Gibson, who is also the Opposition spokesperson on health, also expressed satisfaction with the pace at which Government was moving, as it relates to the rollout of medical marijuana.

“The pharmaceutical society is fully involved from the standpoint that we are informed as it relates to the pathology, pharmacokinetics [how the body processes drugs], storage, as well as the laws and mechanisms. This is something that we are accustomed to working with in terms of medicines,” he stressed.

In keeping with its manifesto pledge, Government has approved five marijuana-based drugs to be added to the drug formulary.

This means the drug service will soon be in a position to procure those medications and doctors will be able to prescribe them. The next drug formulary is due April 2020.

Bostic did not disclose the names of the new drugs but said the approvals, granted more than a week ago, was a critical step in the development of a medical cannabis industry.

Bostic said that it was found that the law governing the drug formulary already allowed for the prescribing and dispensing of medical marijuana and therefore “there was no need to change the law”.
colvillemounsey@barbadostoday.bb

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The first batch of 20 former civil servants who lost their jobs in Government’s retrenchment exercise last year have begun training in digitising documents for an e-government drive.

The training started on Monday at the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology in Baobab Tower, Warrens, where the first members were drawn from a pool of 250 workers signed up for the course.

Permanent Secretary Charley Browne said the trainees will be deployed throughout the public service to digitise records.

The training is being organised by the House Mitigation Unit, the government department that has been mandated to cushion the blow of job loss to civil servants.

The Government’s Special Advisor on Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development Goals, Corey Lane, who collaborates with the unit, said the training was available only to those workers who were retrenched in 2018.

Some workers, who were retrenched in 2014 under the Freundel Stuart administration were  “outside of the mandate of the unit”, Lane said.

Retrenched workers from 2018 who wanted to be trained in digitisation but had not yet heard from officers from the Mitigation Unit, have been urged to contact the Unit at 832-0092 or 832-0093, according to a Government Information Service release.

Lane urged the ex-civil servants to ensure they provided accurate contact information, as some of the details submitted were incorrect, inadequate or missing.

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The priest who allegedly leaked the answers for an exam paper to scores of Barbados Community College (BCC) students, has been temporarily suspended from his pastoral duties in the Anglican Church.

This morning, Bishop Michael Maxwell told members of the media that Reverend Reginald Knight, an assistant priest at the St Peter’s Parish Church, would be investigated over his alleged actions.

“I have called for a pastoral committee meeting that deals with these sort of issues to review the situation, and they are supposed to meet on Monday the 3rd of June.

“This is because I am going to go off tomorrow to the Provincial Synod in Trinidad. On my return, I will be meeting with the pastoral committee in order to review this particular situation. He has been asked to take temporary leave from all priestly duties at present, until the meeting of the pastoral committee. This is the due process that we normally take for an incident like this,” Bishop Maxwell said.

It was back on May 14 when the CORE 101 Ethics and Citizenship examination was halted at the last minute after a breach in examination regulations.

Approximately 600 students were expected to write the exam.

Knight, a part time tutor was said to have leaked both the examination’s questions and responses via social media sparking a strong outcry from students.

Days later, BCC Principal Annette Alleyne told Barbados TODAY that Reverend Knight had been barred from the college’s examination process.

She further disclosed that a full investigation would be launched and a full report on the incident would be made available to the Ministry of Education

“So, the investigation is not quite finished but once we have made a decision, I would be relaying them to people,” Alleyne said.

In another section of the media, Reverend Knight said he had tendered his resignation as a part-time tutor.

He said that the leak was a mistake, and noted that he apologised to the principal and the registrar.

anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb

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The highly-publicized US$400 million Beaches project being undertaken by Sandals Resorts International (SRI) remains in limbo, the northern site a ghost town.

However, Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds is still optimistic that the multi-million dollar project at the old Almond property in St Peter will be restarted.

His comments have come two months after Prime Minister Mia Mottley broke the news in Parliament that Government was not willing to grant Sandals the excessive concessions it was asking for.

Mottley revealed Sandals was seeking assurances and guarantees from Government over the next 40 years.

The Beaches project was originally expected to get off the ground in January, but has since come to a halt with the two sides failing to reach an agreement.

Speaking to Barbados TODAY Wednesday following a meeting at Government headquarters, Symmonds said no progress had been made since the Prime Minister’s announcement in March.

“There has been no movement yet and discussions are continuing. The position is identical to the one we were in when the Prime Minister would have spoken during the Budget.

“As you know the Attorney General would have been in contact with the legal representatives of Sandals [and] I am not sure that there has been any fundamental movement from Sandals’ side and certainly there hasn’t been any from ours,” Symmonds explained.

“The doors of discussion are open but I certainly haven’t had any communication from them since the Budget would have taken place and I haven’t heard that the Prime Minister has had either.”

But the Minister said he would be surprised if Sandals did not reach out to Government with the intention of restarting the project as it had already invested significantly in the Beaches.

“It’s at a temporary standstill but obviously it can’t remain that way. The process was overtaken by the investment conference we had here two to three weeks ago. I would imagine that following the expressions of interests there, there will probably be some knowledge on Sandals’ part that Barbados is still very committed to opening its doors to investment and I would imagine that would move any wise investor to get on board, but I have not heard from them yet,” an upbeat Symmonds said.

“I’m optimistic though, because a lot of work was put into the preparatory stages of that project, so it would not surprise me at all if Sandals still maintains a very strong interest. We toured down there in October, the Prime Minister and I, and they were doing a lot of clean-up work on the beach and they had a soft opening where they said that they just wanted a period of time before they could start doing recruiting on the ground here, then this new issue arose.

“I understand it is a financial concern from their end [and] they have to come to an understanding of what our position is. I believe that has been made very clear here in Barbados and across the region and I guess they now have to make some tough decisions as to what they’re going to do,” the Minister maintained.

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb

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Agitation by teachers at the Elliott Belgrave Primary School has forced officials from the Ministry of Education to order an industrial cleaning in response to persistent complaints about a build up of mould at the facility.

When Barbados TODAY visited the Boscobelle, St Peter institution, the usual sound of children playing at lunchtime was replaced by that of birds chirping and trees rustling in the wind. The school was empty after the termination of classes at approximately 11:30 a.m.

In the administrative office, Principal Norma Worrell and officials from the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) were locked in what appeared to be a heated discussion.

Barbados TODAY understands that the 127-year-old stone school building has been affected by small accumulations of mould from time to time, when moisture seeps inside. On this occasion, the seepage reached a cupboard in one classroom. Efforts were reportedly made to have the area cleaned on Monday, but unsatisfied teachers refused to enter the classrooms and in fact reportedly stayed away from work on Wednesday.

On Thursday, they showed up, but again refused to enter the building, leaving the Principal, Information Technology teacher, senior teacher and a Ministry of Education official to pick up the slack.

The teachers’ persistence reportedly left some parents of the school’s 98 pupils demanding answers about why their children were being denied access to education.

While Principal Worrell declined to comment on the issues, Vice President of the BUT Richmark Cave told Barbados TODAY that the challenges with mould and “rotting cupboards” had resulted in the illness of at least one teacher.

“We were here in 2017 when teachers raised concern about it. I don’t know the extent of the students’ or the teachers’ illnesses, but I can tell you that one is on sick leave and over the past two days, there were a number of others who were at home sick,” said Cave, who praised the Ministry of Education for cooperating with the demands of teachers.

“All I can tell you is that I saw what appears to be mould but I cannot say definitively that it is mould, but I saw it in a number of areas… The ministry has agreed to send in the relevant agencies to clean and we will allow the process to take place and will follow up after they have given back over the school.”

Given the prevalence of referred ‘sick’ buildings in the public service, the BUT vice president promised to continue monitoring the issues at various schools.

“We had a near ten-hour meeting with the Ministry of Education. The Minister and the Prime Minister were there. They are aware of the concerns, and I feel satisfied after that meeting that there are about to address the concerns in the coming summer programme. Not all will be done, but they have given us the assurance that the most serious ones will be looked after,” said Cave.

Meanwhile, Henry Gittens, General Secretary of the BUT urged teachers to continue to take matters of health and safety seriously.

“The union will continue to take health and safety issues very seriously and we want to advise teachers that where you have concerns, at all times, you need to keep the union informed of issues so that we can represent your issues with the Ministry of Education,” he said.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb

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Government has raked in close to $30 million more in revenue than expected at the end of the last fiscal year.

And Government’s Chief Economic Counsellor under the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme Dr Clyde Mascoll has admitted that the Mia Mottley-led administration “missed an opportunity” to invest more in some sectors.

“I can tell you that at the end of March this year we were so pleasantly surprised by the performance of our revenue and we actually missed an opportunity to spend more,” Mascoll told the modest audience at the CFA Society of Barbados annual panel discussion at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination on Wednesday night.

“We had a target of two per cent of GDP [gross domestic product] for a primary surplus, but we actually did 3.4 per cent. It meant that we could have spent at least $25 million more doing things for schools and doing things for health, but we missed the opportunity,” he said.

“But because we were trying to be cautious it meant that we did not get that opportunity and the reason we didn’t is because in remaining cautious in our forecasting of revenue, we actually did not anticipate that our VAT (Value Added Tax) collection would have been more than the 17 per cent that we were forecasting,” Mascoll explained.

Revenue intake for the fiscal year climbed to $2.99 billion or 29.3 per cent of GDB, of which a whopping $933.1 million came during the January to March 2019 period.

In delivering his economic review earlier this month, Central Bank Governor Cleviston Haynes reported that tax measures outlined in the June 2018 budget “boosted the revenue intake even though the resumption of timely payment of current year tax refunds offset some of the gains in revenue”.

Haynes added that the VAT and the fuel tax proved to be efficient sources of revenue.

Mascoll explained that in making its forecast, Government took a number of issues into consideration including possible changes in oil prices and a catastrophic event such as a hurricane.

He also pointed out that Government was “extremely worried” about the situation in Venezuela and tensions between the US and China.

“We do not want to see any outbreak of any activity at all, if not it is going to compromise everything,” he said.

“In order to protect against that we have been very cautious in our revenue forecasts and projections,” he added.

Insisting that it was “best to be cautious”, Mascoll said the overperformance of Government revenue intake implies there is “an underlying improvement in the economy” that Government hoped would continue through the second half of 2019.

He said the efforts made to improve the international reserves, lower the debt, shrink the fiscal deficit and stop central bank financing, was due to the leadership of the country.

He also explained that Government was being cautious in its forecast in relation to tax reliefs.

“We have proper systems by the way. We can easily go and look at 82,000 taxpayers in Barbados because of the information sent to BRA [Barbados Revenue Authority] and do forecast in adjusting the rates of the marginal tax and that kind of thing. So we know with some degree of certainty that we would lose X amount of income tax over the next year, but we have built that into the forecast and we have sought to recover in other areas,” he explained.

The central bank had reported that taxes on income were buoyed by improved performance of personal income taxes - $482 million, and corporate taxes - $356 million.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb

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