Members of Parliament debated the Urban Renewal Authority Bill on Wednesday.  Debate was led by Minister of Housing and Urban Renewal and Member for Carmichael, the Hon. Keith Bell.

He begun his presentation by paying tribute to former Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie for his role in creating the Urban Renewal Program.  Bell said, “his role, Mr. Deputy Speaker, in envisioning, coining, launching and championing this transformative initiative has been invaluable and this is part of his legacy.”

Bell said the passing of the bill will solidify Urban Renewal as a national priority.

The bill establishes the Urban Renewal Authority which will be governed by a board of directors.  The board will consist of two co-Chairs, the Permanent Secretary responsible Urban Renewal as Board Secretary, the Managing Director (ex Officio) and not more than eight other persons.

Also participating in the debate was Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Michael Pintard.  He questioned why Urban Renewal will be mandated to do the job of other government agencies.  “Why is Urban Renewal doing sports programs when you have sports officers whose expressed job is to do that?  Much of what Urban Renewal is doing, I say to my colleagues opposite, they already exist in other ministries.  It’s duplication of services.  We are ineffective now in those existing portfolios.  We will now duplicate areas where we will be ineffective,” Pintard said.