Minister Usher Defends GOB’s Legal Approach in Stake Bank Land Dispute

While the union believes the government erred in selecting in using the proper legislation, the Minister of the Public Service Henry Charles Usher says otherwise. The unions claim that the Attorney General’s Ministry did not take the full extent of the land dispute into consideration. Yesterday, while Usher couldn’t say much about the union’s letter, he challenged that notion and reiterated that the decision was made in the public’s interest. 

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service: “So I can’t comment on what is actually in there but I know in terms of the legislation that was used I know that the Attorney General’s Ministry looked over the legislation, advised the government on how they should proceed and so the legal advice was there from the Attorney General in terms of how to proceed in this particular manner. The issue did come to the Cabinet and the Cabinet supported the public acquisition of the property to make sure that this project, which is an important project for cruise tourism, for the tourism industry on a whole, to get this project completed. I think it is important so Cabinet felt that the public interest was met, the public interest was satisfied in terms of acquiring the property and making sure that this project could complete. But I will have more comment on the release when I take a read.”