Falklands : Summary of Executive Council Meeting Held on 28 July 2011
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 07.08.2011 (Article Archived on 21.08.2011)
MLAs in attendance at this meeting were the Hon Sharon Halford, the Hon Gavin Short and the Hon Roger Edwards who was standing in for the Hon Jan Cheek who is currently overseas.
Summary of Executive Council Meeting Held on 28 July 2011
MLAs in attendance at this meeting were the Hon Sharon Halford, the Hon Gavin Short and the Hon Roger Edwards who was standing in for the Hon Jan Cheek who is currently overseas.
As usual the meeting commenced at 9am with the confirmation of the minutes of the previous meeting before moving on to looking at and commenting upon the Task Status Report. We then moved on to the 21 item agenda.
Approval was given for the minting of a commemorative coin to celebrate the Lifecycle of the Butterfly, subject to the approval of Her Majesty the Queen of the relevant design. The proposed design incorporates the image of the Southern Painted Lady with the lifecycle of caterpillars, chrysalis, emerging butterfly and butterfly in flight depicted on the outer ring.
A refund request had been received in respect of the 2011 Illex season. After much consideration and debate members decided to refuse the refund request on the basis that the refund policy was clear, and fishing effort was fully allocated taking account of the fishing periods requested.
A paper on International Shipping Options was next on the agenda and from this members determined a preferred bidder. Executive Council reaffirmed its commitment to containerisation and detailed negotiations are now on going with the preferred bidder. A further meeting of Executive Council is expected to be held on the 16th August to take this matter forward and hopefully we will be in a position to let you know more detail at that stage but at the moment it is still commercial in confidence.
Two applications to visit Beauchene Island later this year were approved. One by Falklands Conservation in October and the other by the Max Planck Institute, led by Dr Juan Masello, in November. We have asked that FIG is sent copies of any studies/reports written as a result of these visits.
The Sale of Brown Trout was next on the list for consideration and led to a fairly lengthy debate. It resulted in the paper being referred back to the Environmental Planning Officer for him to revisit the subject and see how best he could balance the need for restaurants to be able to have this fish on their menus whilst also taking into consideration conservation concerns.
Approval was given for the Falkland Islands to sign up to the Convention on Migratory Species Memorandum of Understanding on Sharks. This list covers seven sharks but only one of these, the Porbeagle Shark, is found in the waters around the Falklands. In giving their approval MLAs said they would only do so on the same basis as Australia who made it very clear that in doing so they would not change their fisheries management relating to the shark species covered by the MOU in their waters.
An application to de-list a building was deferred pending a review of listed buildings which is to be undertaken shortly.
Our Legislative Drafting Priorities was next on the agenda and approved with a couple of minor amendments. We should give our thanks to all of those in the Attorney Generals Chambers who are forever having to draft and change our legislation. Approval was given for the Electoral (Amendment) Bill to be published in the Gazette before going to the August sitting of the Legislative Assembly. Approval was also given for the Draft Livestock and Meat Products (Welfare of Livestock) Regulations, Draft Codes of Practice on Animal Welfare. This paper had been circulated for comment and was also discussed during Farmers Week.
A report from the Public Accounts Committee on the use of FIG vehicles was considered and this will be responded to in Legislative Assembly.
Approval was given for a Mortgagees Register, criteria and application, under the Fisheries Ordinance. The Fisheries (Conservation & Management) Ordinance 2005 regulates the manner in which Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) may be mortgaged. Any mortgage of ITQ can only be concluded by a mortgagee whose name appears on the Approved Mortgagees Register.
The continuation of the Saladero Farm Unit and Manager Recruitment was next on the agenda and approved.
We had several applications for Falklands Islands Status all of which were given approval.
We then considered the long list of very deserving people who had been nominated for the Falkland Islands Queen’s Certificate and Badge of Honour. His Excellency the Governor will be writing to those who were nominated and these names will be made public in due course.
In AOB I raised the possibility of a Public Holiday for the Queens Diamond Jubilee on the 4th June 2012 and this was given approval.
There being no further business the meeting concluded at 12.15pm.
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