LCDS 2030, Hemp Bill among landmark matters on parliamentary agenda today

– Finance Minister hopeful Opposition will turn up to fulfil its duty

The National Assembly will have its 49th sitting today, with a number of transformative measures on the order paper. But with the threat of an Opposition boycott looming, the Government may well be laying its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030 Bill and discussing its request for supplementary funding in a half-empty chamber.

In a recent sit-down with the State media, Senior Minister with Responsibility for Finance in the Office of the President, Dr Ashni Singh spoke about the importance of these motions and also the participation of the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC). That participation seems unlikely, as Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton recently signalled that the coalition parliamentarians would boycott today’s sitting over the suspension of eight of their own.
“There’s the Low Carbon Development Strategy. We’re going to be debating a motion (on that). That, as you know, is a very important national strategy. It addresses the climate services that our country is providing, through our standing forests, the global community; and how those climate services are being provided by our standing forests, how they can be monetised. And then in turn, how that remuneration can be deployed to advance economic development,” Dr Singh said.
“I would have liked and I’m still hopeful, that the Opposition will come and will add their voices to the debate of the LCDS. I’m hopeful that they will see the merit in the strategy. But we want their participation to the debate. We want to hear their perspective. There will inevitably be things we may not agree with and we want an opportunity to hear what perspectives they offer and to answer them. Because that’s how Parliament works.”
The Finance Minister noted that LCDS 2030 was particularly important in the context of COP26.

Hemp Bill
According to the Minister, the Hemp Bill is another important Bill on the order paper. He noted the economic importance of hemp and its use in various industries.
“We had said we would go the route of establishing a hemp industry. We’ve already spoken of regions where we anticipate that hemp cultivation can take place in a commercially-viable manner. And we’re looking to advance hemp, which will help a lot of farmers.
“The industrial Hemp Bill outlines the legal framework within which the hemp industry can emerge. This is extremely important and I would have thought they would have wanted to add their voice to such an important issue. Here again, it would be most unfortunate if they don’t avail themselves of the opportunity to be in Parliament,” he said.
And the Minister noted that there were other important Bills on the order paper, such as the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Bill and the Mental Health Protection and Promotion Bill 2022.

Supplementary funding
Additionally, there is the $44.794 billion in supplementary funding being sought by the Government for a number of programmes. As Singh put it, the funding will include $21 billion for the Housing and Water Ministry. The Minister noted that by withholding support from the various programmes designed to help Guyanese, the Opposition was sending a clear message about its priorities.
“If one were to go beyond the $44.8 billion and one were to look at the composition of the $44.8 billion, you would see in there a number of extremely important allocations, allocations that go to the core of improving lives of the Guyanese people,” Minister Singh said.
“Perhaps the lion’s share of the $44.8 billion is going to the housing and water sector. And there’s two main components in that allocation: housing and water together, if my memory serves me correctly, will be getting $21 billion. Almost $16 billion of that will be going to housing development. And about $5 billion will be going to water.”
Singh noted that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has resumed the national housing programme since its return to office, moving swiftly to address the backlog of housing applications its inherited. According to the Finance Minister, a lot of progress has been made in reducing the backlog.
“We have distributed, to date, in excess of 10,000 house lots. We have resumed the “Dream Realised” programme. We’ve had a number of house lot allocation activities. We’re not only allocating house lots, but we’re doing all that comes with ensuring that that allocation letter translates to actual homeownership,” Singh explained.
“We have accelerated the identification, preparation and infrastructure development of new housing areas. So, there are a vast range of housing areas being developed, that were previously not developed. Here I’m speaking of things like Little Diamond, Greater Diamond, Cummings Lodge, LBI, and that whole area, south of the East Coast or east of the East Bank, where we are developing this entire new corridor of commercial, industrial and residential developments.”
And as the Finance Minister put it, this is just in Region Four. He said that similar developments are taking place in other regions too. Meanwhile, other funds listed in the Financial Paper include $50 million for the Office of the Prime Minister; $40.5 million for the Finance Ministry as well as another $6 billion current estimates which include $4 billion to pay electricity arrears to Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL).