MYERSVILLE, St Elizabeth — Opposition spokesman on Transport and Mining Mikael Phillips says should the People’s National Party (PNP) form the next government it will focus on ensuring mined out communities receive more benefits and the reopening of a refinery near here.

“What I can guarantee for a next People’s National Party Administration is just radical policies to deal with the mining sector and how it is that residents are dealt with within the sector itself and mining communities. One is to ensure that we have an office within Government that is a buffer between the sector itself and the community,” Phillips said on Wednesday at the Austin Primary School in south-east St Elizabeth.

He said a PNP Administration would also set up an impartial body to oversee the bauxite/alumina sector as it relates to communities.

“When a claim is made on JISCO or Jamalco it is really a conflict for them to investigate and then to report back and expect the resident to be protected, so just like we have to Office of the Utilities Regulation, where you make your complaint about JPS [Jamaica Public Service Company] or NWC [National Water Commission], it is a similar thing that we are proposing, because at every juncture the citizens of Jamaica has to be protected,” he said.

Phillips explained that he was not suggesting “fighting against the bauxite/alumina companies”.

“The investment that they are making is millions of dollars, but at the end of the day residents — after they finish mining the communities — ought to be [in] a better place,” added Phillips who also argued that land titling needs to be fast-tracked for mined out communities and relocated residents.

“Land titling has to be on the forefront of what we look at, because that in itself feeds poverty. When you are uprooted from where you were born to a new location and can’t even utilise that land to go to NHT [National Housing Trust] or even to the bank to build a proper house for yourself it leaves you in a worse off position. There are too many land titles that are still incomplete or not delivered by the bauxite company and it is not the bauxite company alone, but Government overall,” said Phillips.

“That is why we are proposing that there has to be an office within the ministry… liaising with the bauxite companies to fast-track these land titling. That is something that has to be done if we want to move the thing forward,” he added.

Phillips also reiterated his call for the continuation of the bauxite levy to assist mined out communities.

“Because that was originally set-up to put back in the communities and as I said earlier that even as a Member of Parliament whose constituency is affected by bauxite, I have not seen a cent in the last five years or more,” he said.

“We have to ensure that when it is collected it not only finances the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, but we ensure that it goes back at least into the communities. Those things that have been agreed by the communities and the owners of the plants, be it JISCO, Jamalco, that is why we set up that body of regulation to ensure that they meet their end of the bargain,” he added.

The Opposition spokesman further argued that there must be an emphasis on land reclamation.

“Too many mined out lands have not been reclaimed and the first thing is to find out the total amount of land and ensuring that even if bauxite is still left on it that they mine it, reclaim the land, and get it back into the hands of the people for useful purposes,” he said.

Operations at the bauxite-alumina refinery Jiuquan Iron and Steel (JISCO/Alpart) in Nain, St Elizabeth, have been suspended since 2019 to facilitate the plant’s modernisation and expansion and Phillips has repeatedly called for a timeline for its reopening.

“I will be pressing on the minister [Floyd Green] where JISCO is concerned. We want to know the timetable if the plant will be reopened or not. He said to me in Parliament that it will be reopened in a short while, but it was vague, so I will get more specifics, because we have been hearing that for a very long time,” said Phillips.

He also called on JISCO to secure the mud lake near the plant and maintain the road network in the area.

“I was able to just drive off of the main road into [there]. I am sure that when they hear that I went over there they are going to say that it was illegal for me, but it is left open and there are children in the area. Some security of the borders ought to be done,” he said.

“The road where the relocation was done, it needs to be maintained. It is my understanding that it has not yet been handed over to the Government, so they are still responsible for it. All mongoose can take you weh from the road if you are walking on it the way how bush lock in the road,” he added.

People’s National Party aspirant for St Elizabeth South Eastern Norman Scott shared a similar sentiment.

“I am very concerned the way in which there is no security to the mud lake. Anyone unauthorised can go over there. I am very concerned [and] the operators of Alpart should do something quickly to put in some security over by that mud lake. Between the months of January and June, it is always a dry period and that is when the dust nuisance is most emanating and so the residents are concerned,” he said.

Scott, who is also the Mayor of Spanish Town, said if elected he believes a PNP Administration will see to the reopening of the JISCO/Alpart plant.

“It was said the closure was to be for only two years. We have gone six plus years now… We think the last time before it was closed it was the People’s National Party that reopened it and we are again of the view that it is going to the PNP that is going to reopen this plant, it is of economic benefit to the citizens of south east St Elizabeth,” said Scott.