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$18K a year to educate a high school child & $60K to keep someone in prison- Hon Skelton

- said there must be a way to protect local companies from some financial services legislation
Opposition Leader Hon Ronnie W. Skelton (AL) believes there must be a way to protect local companies when making legislation in keeping with international best practices in financial services. Photo: YouTube
Minister for Health and Social Development Hon Vincent O. Wheatley (R9) said legislators must be able to carve out an area in the Financial Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill 2024 to protect local businesses from becoming victims of international best practices and victims of the VI’s success as global players in financial services. Photo: YouTube
Minister for Health and Social Development Hon Vincent O. Wheatley (R9) said legislators must be able to carve out an area in the Financial Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill 2024 to protect local businesses from becoming victims of international best practices and victims of the VI’s success as global players in financial services. Photo: YouTube
ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI- Legislators in the House of Assembly, during the debate of the Financial Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill 2024, on October 25, 2024, held one voice in stating that there must be a way to protect local companies when making legislation in keeping with international best practices in financial services.

Deputy Premier Minister for Environment, Natural Resources, Climate Change, Labour and Immigration Hon Julian Fraser RA (R3), Minister for Health and Social Development Hon Vincent O. Wheatley (R9), Opposition Leader Hon Ronnie W. Skelton (AL), and Opposition Member Hon Lorna G. Smith, OBE (AL) also expressed similar concerns.

Hon Skelton noted that such bills are necessary and more like it will come because money is involved. “Money attracts the good, the bad, and the ugly, and you will always have the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

He said; however, that the Financial Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill 2024 was another bill about “finding, confining and putting in jail.”

According to the Opposition Leader, he has also said to his colleagues in the House that it costs the government about $18,000 to educate a high school child per year and $60,000 to keep someone in jail over that same period. “That’s four high school kids we could educate. So we need to find ways to fix some of these stuff, Madam Speaker.”

Legislation necessary but a ‘balance’ must be struck- Hon Wheatley

Meanwhile, Hon Wheatley said he understood the need for such safeguarding legislation in financial services as there are international NPOs like the Red Cross, Rotary and Lions and some of them have been used in the past for nefarious purposes; however, striking that balance to protect local companies is going to be a challenge.

“We must always be in front of the game because the goalpost will continue to be moved. So as frustrating as it will get, and has been, it will continue to be, we have to resolve ourselves and tell ourselves we are going to be here ever so often doing amendments.

“We have to be very mindful. I don’t know how we are going to do it but we have a lot of brains in this House, how to carve out an area to protect our local businesses from becoming victims of international best practices and victims of the BVI’s success as global players in financial services and so forth.

Hon Wheatley said legislators have to “dig down” in the Committee Stage “where we really look at the implications locally for this international piece of legislation that we have here.”

14 Responses to “$18K a year to educate a high school child & $60K to keep someone in prison- Hon Skelton”

  • jack (28/10/2024, 12:18) Like (30) Dislike (0) Reply
    Simple, put them to clean the streets and cut the bushes.
    • Greg (28/10/2024, 20:04) Like (8) Dislike (0) Reply
      @ Jack. Yes, I agree. In the states down south, we call them the chain gang because of the chains on their ankles so they can't run away. We would see them on the roads cleaning up debris or working in the fields picking vegetables, and they did NOT get paid for it. Those who gave the guards some talk back, were put in solitary confinement until they begged to go outside to do work. This was part of their punishment for being in prison. Each day a different group would go out whether permitting. No sympathy was given to them.
  • ... (28/10/2024, 12:27) Like (11) Dislike (0) Reply
    Serious thing
  • hmm (28/10/2024, 13:12) Like (9) Dislike (0) Reply
    exactly. first time I agree with you. we need more extra Math and English lessons for all kids in all districts
  • Real Talk (28/10/2024, 14:34) Like (3) Dislike (0) Reply
    I LEAVING THIS COUNTRY I YES UP SEE R YO
  • mad max (28/10/2024, 14:53) Like (5) Dislike (5) Reply
    At $18k per child, the government should close the High school and send all the children to Cedar!
  • Identify Early (28/10/2024, 15:00) Like (3) Dislike (0) Reply
    Identify children that might have a propensity to go in the wrong direction and put a program in place to course coreect.And i dont want to hear any nonsense abut stigmatizing them either. We all know the ones , fighting ,being disprutive in class ,rude to Teachers etc, we know the behaviours we just need the will to address it.
  • chupes (28/10/2024, 15:45) Like (15) Dislike (1) Reply
    Honestly I does hate to see Ronnie in the news just rattling off bout figures and cost of things. He's the reason for this broken NHI system we're stuck with. He may have gone to a country that has hundreds or thousands of people paying into insurance and it works. Bring it to the BVI and expect it to work on the back of MAYBE 20 thousand people paying into it if that much. Until he's man enough to admit it's not working and he made a mistake he needs to have a backseat. When he took sick a few years ago, we didn't see him sitting down waiting for NHI approval to run go America for treatment cause he can afford NHI plus his other fancy insurance but he's subjected the rest of us to it and wait for approval from this broken system. Scrap this nonsense NHI and let people get what insurance they want.
  • mhm (28/10/2024, 16:07) Like (3) Dislike (1) Reply
    We have to ask ourselves why local law makers would write and pass a bill that prefers foreign business and puts unreasonable expectations on small local business to the point of fines and jail time.

    Why would they sell us out and then turn around now to correct their mistake? Stop sucking up to strangers interest!

    What works in their country is not meant for us as a tiny circle of island & people who came out of slavery and see each other time & time again.

    The stranger who colonizes a village will always cry corruption when the tribe help each other, because the stranger wants benefits, with no history of earning it besides the killing of villagers to back it up.

    They want to be treated as if they earned a reputation. Want to act as if they built the village. They left our ancestors for dead & in poverty. Facts.

    There is no space for loyalty and earning rep for a colonizer. They come late, take what they want, kill, enslave, breed up forcibly, steal and then say you are corrupt when you give your childhood neighbor a extra helping.

    You see your neighbor everyday, you know their family, their history. You grew up with them but where do these people get off calling us corrupt. It is only a tactic to break the village bond used time & time again.

    I blame our own too because you all went along with it, to this day people can not work as a village again because someone will cry corruption!!! Run to the 'master' for a COI. sucking up.

    Surprise! 'Master' wants the constitution suspended. Idiots.

    The same masters had no problem decimating the native tribes world wide, and to this day will not apologize for the slavery that made their countries rich. Do we really think they care about corruption?

    Helping your neighbor is common sense unless you live in a city rural folk always help each other.

    People should be outraged that there is a willful attempt to make no apology for slavery, and tailor our laws to truly protect our own fully sober and aware of their conniving colonizing corruption in mind.
  • Legalize (28/10/2024, 16:51) Like (3) Dislike (2) Reply
    We need to legalize weed yesterday. Plenty more people get fined & jailed for it than for business fines.

    The kids will come out of school and end up right in a alley buying some tainted dusted sprayed down pesticide ridden BS from someone who might have other products & maybe tools for sale. Weed is a gateway to crime because it is illegal.

    Let them grow it themself or pick it up in a store or call a guy with legit reviews who isnt potentially violent and unscrupulous. If they get shorted or stolen call the police, no violence.

    One move can save us from continuing a culture of crime, hiding, and hating the police for upholding a law no one respects.
  • Lb (29/10/2024, 02:20) Like (1) Dislike (0) Reply
    All of a sudden the premier expertise is in education has absolutely no solutions! But he knows everything about everything else
  • Wellsah (29/10/2024, 08:34) Like (2) Dislike (0) Reply
    18k a year to educate a high school student and 36k a month to rent your warehouse to the government. stay in school kids.

  • Stealth (29/10/2024, 13:05) Like (3) Dislike (0) Reply
    If the Hon R. Skelton numbers are correct, $18,000, $60,000. The decision is clear; it is more cost effective, more beneficial to the society and taxpayers, to educate, not incarcerate.


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