ReGen row rolls on in the absence of a final deal

| 01/05/2023 | 28 Comments
George Town landfill
George Town landfill

(CNS): The row between the PACT government and the PPM opposition over the long-delayed waste-management project, ReGen, rolled on in parliament this week. In his Strategic Policy Statement, Premier Wayne Panton said that, given the circumstances created by the previous government, the government had little option but to pursue the negotiations with Dart, while the opposition has accused him of dithering.

The Integrated Solid Waste Management System with the proposed waste-to-energy facility has been a hot potato across several government administrations, the premier said in his SPS Wednesday.

“Though a significant financial commitment, it is the only viable option we have available to the country to responsibly manage our solid waste, given the previous decisions taken,” he said, noting the decision to keep waste management where it is and to enter into an agreement with the preferred bidder in March 2021.

A Dart-led consortium was selected as the preferred bidder in October 2017, but the PPM-led unity government did not sign anything with the group until just weeks before the General Election. However, the Progressives did not secure enough seats to form a government.

Since then, the government and the opposition have been engaged in a tit-for-tat over ReGen and what the premier said he found when coming into office. This, he said, was only a deal to make another thirty deals, all of which were plagued with significant shortcomings.

Meanwhile, the opposition has accused Panton of dragging his feet on the matter, which has been an issue for successive governments stretching back to the last millennium. Nevertheless, Panton said Thursday that the government was now “on the cusp” of finalising an agreement.

“Despite the comments made by various members of the opposition, what was left by the previous administration was hardly a ‘nearly done deal’. In fact, as some of the project team have described it, ‘it was an agreement to sign 30 more agreements’. After two years of analysis, evaluation and negotiation, we are close to reaching mutually agreeable terms and getting to financial close.”

Although it is now apparent that the deal is not necessarily the best value for money for the public purse or even the best solution to Cayman’s growing waste-management problem, there is no time to start over.

“The reality is, we do not have alternatives which can be developed, approved and made ready before the current landfill runs out of space,” Panton said but maintained that the project was still manageable from a fiscal perspective. “For forty years, we have kicked this can down the road, and now we are running out of time. Now is the time to solve the problem while we are at the tipping point.”

In his response to the SPS, Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart accused Panton of taking credit for the work of the previous Progressive administration but also claimed credit for the work of PACT. When it came to the ReGen project, he said, there had “been two years of endless prevarication”, and there was still no indication when the negotiations would close, regardless of what the premier had said earlier.

“We are running out of time,” McTaggart said, adding that comments by the premier that the PPM had claimed to have left a done deal were untrue. He maintained they had never said there was a fully negotiated contract, but rather an agreement that set out the basis of a deal and the agreed price. He said that PACT could have secured the negotiations but had not given it the priority it deserved.

“It was left to one side,” McTaggart said, and claimed that PACT had missed the agreed deadline for closing the deal that the PPM had agreed to, which he believed had led to the increase in the price tag. “The fact is that not meeting the financial close by the end of September 2021 meant that the Project Agreement terms had to be renegotiated,” McTaggart said. “Most crucially, that applies to the price that had been agreed upon.”

The total cost to build the facility and the subsequent operating costs outlined in the deal the PPM had signed was fixed at less than $607 million, the opposition leader said.

While the premier has not revealed the true cost, the government has not refuted estimates that it will probably be around $1.5 billion, which, McTaggart noted, is more than double the expected costs in 2021. He said he looked forward to the premier’s explanation for the cost increase, which had been due to his “inattention” and the failure to complete the talks. Despite the premier’s claims of transparency, he had not answered questions raised about the project, he said.

During his contribution, McTaggart also stated that his wife working for Dart does not mean he has any pecuniary interest in the ReGen project, as alleged by Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan during the SPS debate Wednesday. The opposition leader said his wife’s job has nothing to do with the waste-management project and does not depend on it. He said she has worked for the education arm of the Dart Group for over 12 years, which has been declared on his register of interests.


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Category: Environmental Health, Health, Politics

Comments (28)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Can’t get the numbers to make sense. The Premier says that the cost would be about $165 per ton and we produce 400 tons per day. That equates to $66,000 per day for 365 days per year that equates to $24 million per year. Over 25 years that’s $602 million dollars. How do we get to $1.5 Billion over the 25-year period and even more consuming how does the Government get comfortable with that number. It should also be noted that this is meant to be using Waste to Energy, what about the sale of that energy. Who gets the benefit of that obviously not the Cayman people so it must be the same person that is getting the $1 Billion dollar profit.

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  2. Anonymous says:

    Wondering who is the cost consultant representing CIG on this Project? Is it the famous two we have on island

  3. Anonymous says:

    Time to cancel. Recognize the deal is not going any further. Solicit new proposals from actual waste management companies.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Rebid with a fair and open process.

    Keep politricks out of it.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    Let’s use Solar to burn the rubbish, like in that James Bond movie, we just need a wealthy evil billionaire to build it….

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  6. Anonymous says:

    After we have dredged the North Sound for cheap fill, we can use the barge to transport all the dump garbage about half a mile South of Cayman and dump it into the Cayman Trench, problem sorted, for a generation anyway

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  7. Anonymous says:

    Were the Progressives planning to include the Sister Islands in this agreement?
    Are PACT including them in this agreement?

    If so, what is the added cost resulting from this change in scope?

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    • Talkin' Garbage says:

      The bid scope in 2017 (and on which the CNIM/Wheelabrator consortium also bidded against Decco/Dart) included for waste management ‘collection’ points on both Brac and Little. The compacted material was to have been barged to Grand for porcessing, incineration and disposal. Since the relegation of the ‘other bidder’ to alternative bidder pending negotiations with the ‘preferred’ bidder Decco/Dart, few details have been released as to the retention of the bid scope or the Sister Islands’ inclusion in the scope currently ‘under negotiation’.

      One must wonder what else has been adjusted, amended and otherwise compromised scope-wise since 2017- and if the Auditor General is also in a similar state of wonderment, should think about making an enquiry into the deal once consummated, to verify that the public’s best interests have been served, and that the deal is corruption-free…

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  8. Anonymous says:

    So the people of GTC must continue to suffer from the effects of the mismanaged dump, stench, flies, cancer, smoke inhalation, etc. so that Kenny can engage in a childish blame game?

    That’s okay though Kenny, we keeping a list. Your time running short. Remember Ellio? “Dr” Frank? Ask them how their careers going now.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    what do people expect from do-nothing=ppm or no-plan=pact?

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  10. Anonymous says:

    How about just fixing the damn dump already?

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  11. Anonymous says:

    chock that $1.5b up to the cost of ignoring the issue since the 60s.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Waffling Wayne strikes again…Saunders did say that it was PACTs lack of commitment that has led to this disaster and increased cost. We need to think long and hard before putting this bunch in charge again…ever!!!

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Sleepy Roy and his pearls of wisdom are so comforting, if he could just get into power than all our problems will be fixed.

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  14. Anonymous says:

    Nothing ever gets done here. Govt is falling apart and most departments are barely functioning.

    So best to forget fixing the dump and just light the whole thing on fire. Otherwise the island is going to sink under the weight of the great cloud of mosquitoes.

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  15. PBG says:

    Just get on with it. Something has to be done. A better solution can be found when this agreement ends. Prevarication does nothing helpful.

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