The projected timeline for signing the ReGen project’s financial close has been extended by a month until the end of November, Premier Wayne Panton has announced.
“This date is still well ahead of the project long-stop date of 31 January 2023,” Panton said, as he addressed Parliament on Monday morning.
Negotiations were not completed
In announcing the extension, Panton said delays in the negotiation process prompted the shift in deadline.
It follows extended negotiations by his PACT government which, he said, were due to the previous Progressives-led administration not finalising a number of areas in the financial close process.
Panton suggested, as he updated Parliament on the project on Monday, that the Progressives presented it as ready for construction because at the time the 2021 election was fewer than three weeks away.
However, Deputy Opposition Leader Joey Hew, in response to the premier’s statement, said, Panton “continues to make excuses for not making any real progress on the ReGen project after almost 1 1/2 years in office. Outside of continuing the landfill capping, which started under the last government, no real progress had been made”.
In March 2021, the public-private partnership between the Dart-led DECCO consortium and the government was formalised under the Progressives-led administration, weeks before the 14 April general election.
Panton, who addressed the House in the absence of the Opposition as they continued their boycott, said in his view there was “quite simply no way” that the project agreement that was signed in 2021 could reach financial close in the timeframe that was being promoted.
“Not unless one, or both, parties were prepared to make significant concessions on some key points in the negotiations. Concessions that would run the life of the contract and, quite possibly, concessions that the people of the Cayman Islands would quite literally be paying for over twenty-five years of the system being in operation,” he argued.
In August 2021, he said, government’s legal advisors shared a report providing an overview of the outstanding items for financial close, “the vast majority of which were showing as ‘not yet agreed’ and were significant issues to be addressed – that report ran for nearly forty pages… and it had page, after page, after page of outstanding items that still needed to be negotiated and agreed”.
Panton said, while there were areas that had been agreed on there remained a number of “significant conditions precedent” that needed to be negotiated when the previous administration signed the agreement at the end of March 2021.
Working towards value for money
While acknowledging that the project agreement was signed and progress had “most definitely been made”, Panton took issue with the previous administration indicating “the project at a point of ‘pressing the button’ to execute”.
The plans, he added, did not include space allocated for the Department of Environmental Health’s solid waste collection operations, and “the project agreement required for the DEH to be relocated on a timeframe that, much like their projected financial close date, would be nigh on impossible to achieve”.
Earlier this year Cabinet approved an extension to the financial close deadline of no later than 31 Oct. 2022 and a long-stop date no later than three months after the proposed financial close date of January 2023 was announced.
It followed an extension from the previous October 2021 deadline.
Panton said the PACT government and the Governor’s Office, when his Ministry of Sustainability and Climate Resiliency took over responsibility for the project, had asked the Office of the Auditor General to review the project and “provide initial insights and advice”.
“Reviewing the project in that moment, as it stood when the project agreement was signed, the Auditor General found that it did not represent value for money and identified opportunities to address and try to mitigate this as the negotiations are being finalized,” he said.
Government, he said, is committed to “taking every step that it can to address this concern”.
He refuted Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart’s suggestion recently on government radio that it would cost $105 million.
Panton said when the previous administration signed the commercial contract with Dart in March 2021, the facilities were projected to cost at least $205 million.
“This was an increase over initial cost forecasts that was tied to a decision to increase the capacity of the facilities in response to improved data regarding the amount of waste that would need to be treated. For clarity, I believe the previous administration’s decision to increase the capacity of the facilities prior to signing the project agreement with Dart was a sensible one to take given the data they had before them,” he said.
EIA process restarted
Panton also announced that work on the environmental impact assessment for the project has restarted.
Dart, he said, is working with a number of environmental consultants to undertake the baseline technical studies set by the terms of reference that were finalised in October 2021 after the required public consultation process.
Hew, in his statement, said despite the premier’s comments, he was glad to learn of updated commitments about the future of the project.
“It was good to hear that the EIA process that was stopped will be restarted. And that the government is now committed to completing the necessary work to ensure that the ReGen waste-to-energy facility will be completed in 2026. It was also good to hear that the current landfill will be managed so as to ensure that it serves the country’s needs until the waste-to-energy plant is completed,” he said.
However, he said, given that the landfill is in his constituency of George Town North, he continues to have a real concern that there may be more fires flaring up at the landfill.
“But the Opposition is hopeful that the Government is providing the DEH with the resources needed to ensure proper landfill management as promised,” he said.
Hew added that he is satisfied that had the Opposition not pressured the government, “we would not have been where we are with these commitments. However, we will continue to be watchful, and if the commitments given by the Premier turn out to be no more than talk, then we shall again let the people know.”
Next steps
The environmental consultants appointed by the project team, in discussions with the Environmental Assessment Board, Panton said, will undertake technical studies and baseline monitoring of noise and vibration, marine and terrestrial ecology, hydrology and hydrogeology and air quality, among others.
The EIA process, he said, is expected to be completed by October 2023.
“The environmental studies conducted as part of the EIA will form the basis of an Environmental Statement… [which] sets the precedent for the project’s environmental performance, informing final design and construction, along with permitting and operational requirements of the facilities once commissioned. The Environmental Statement will also be subject to a public consultation period before it is finalised,” he explained.
Panton also addressed the waiver granted to the Dart consortium which removed the requirement to obtain planning permission for the project.
That waiver, he said, will be gazetted soon and while it is a waiver of planning permission, it “does not exempt the facility designs and plans from review by the relevant Departments and Statutory Authorities… nor does it impact in any way the EIA for the project”.
Panton added, “The plans and designs will still be subject to review and comment by the Department of Planning, the Department of Environment, the Department of Environmental Health, the Water Authority of the Cayman Islands, and other commenting agencies, as require.”
However, he said the waiver means that the Central Planning Authority will not provide final approval for the facilities.
Additionally, he said, instead of the usual notification of planning applications that are sent to nearby landowners, the Cabinet waiver will be publicised through a Gazette notice.
Related Videos
