PM: We aim high on housing

THE Prime Minister yesterday defended his Government’s goal of aiming to build 6,000 housing units next year (and 3,000 in each year subsequent) as stated by Finance Minister Colm Imbert in his budget on Monday.

At the Spotlight on the Budget forum at the Radisson Hotel in Port of Spain on Thursday, Newsday asked whether 6,000 units was realistic.

“Well, it is the target, right,” Rowley replied. “If you aim for the sky and you don’t make it, you fall in the clouds and you’re still way above the ground.” The audience clapped.

The PM was also applauded when answering Newsday’s suggestion of a $1 per bottle deposit refund scheme to curb the chronic plastic bottle pollution across the country.

He said, “We lived in this country very comfortably a long time ago before it was fashionable to be using the modern products. We grew up on Solo bottles and juice bottles as returnables when the word ‘returnable’ wasn’t a fashionable word. We all had glass bottles. Our beverages were in glass bottles, and the bottles were deemed to be valuable to be returned and to be put back to use. “There is nothing to prevent us from going back there.”

Chamber of Commerce head Gabriel Faria said the chamber had had talks with the ministers of Public Utilities and Planning. "We had a stakeholders’ meeting last year where we brought in all importers, all retailers and all manufacturers. We are working, and we expect to be seeing the draft bill shortly – the Beverage Container Bill.”

Faria said that apart from the bill, the plastics in these bottles can be recycled. He vowed to work collaboratively on the bill when the AG sends it for public consultation.

"All stakeholders recognise we must do something positive in dealing with this.

“The one thing we want to do is change the mindset of just collecting and throwing away. We want to create a post-consumer/post-production production.”

TT Manufacturers Association head Franka Costelloe said, “The manufacturers are very much in support of this, so when it does come for collaboration it will be expedited. It is not going to be stalemated at the manufacturing end. We are very much in support of this. The same way you feel, remember we are citizens and we feel the same when we see the littering and the flooding happening as a result.”

While the budget will ban the import of Styrofoam, Newsday asked about locally-made Styrofoam. Faria said, “Many manufacturers have re-engineered the inputs into their product. They are being audited to ensure they meet the environmental standards required.” Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Stuart Young, said manufacturers have worked to increase biodegradability.