Under the chairmanship of Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis the Honourable Dr. Terrance Drew, the Federal Cabinet of Ministers met on Monday, September 5, 2022. According to information released to the public the Cabinet of Ministers, during their meeting, discussed several matters of national importance and took several significant decisions to benefit citizens and residents of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Cabinet Secretary Dr. Marcus Natta during a post-cabinet briefing outlined the decisions taken
At the top of the list were a number of steps taken in regard to the restoration of capacity at the St. Kitts electricity company SKELEC. SKELEC, on Monday, began a load shedding exercise which includes a series of scheduled outages to account for reduced generation capacity at the Needsmust Power Plant.
According to Dr. Natta, the cabinet is committed to rectifying the situation.
“The Cabinet received a presentation from the management of the St. Kitts Electricity Company (SKELEC) and has immediately approved the purchase of additional generation capacity to enable SKELEC to alleviate some of the load shedding that is currently being experienced by the general population due to reduced capacity at the Needsmust Power Plant. The Cabinet has also agreed to facilitate the purchase of dual-fuel, high power density generating sets (GenSets), in order to resolve the problem in the long term. Notwithstanding these generator solutions, the Cabinet continues to explore various renewable energy projects.”
Gratuitous payments to victims of what has become known as “the Covid 19 no jab no job policy” has been approved by the cabinet.
“The Cabinet has approved gratuitous payments for employees who were unjustly terminated from their workplaces for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine, and who have not benefited from severance payment. Further, a comprehensive review of the Protection of Employment Act has been mandated in order to strengthen the protection of workers.”
The cabinet has also approved a project for the construction of desalination plants in an effort to solve water shortage issues.
“To help address the long-standing water shortages in the country, the Cabinet has approved a project to build two (2) partially solar-powered desalination plants. The project is funded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and is part of a renewable energy project for the Caribbean with similar projects implemented in Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Bahamas.”
Payment of economic costs for all students pursuing studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI) was also approved.
“The Cabinet has approved to grant economic cost to all nationals studying at the University of the West Indies in all disciplines, thereby reversing a policy of the previous administration.”