(Trinidad Express) Speaker of the House Wade Mark says the Parliament “wants to get into serious discussions with” Chief Justice Ivor Archie about “the future” of the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court.
The discussions are to centre around long-term plans for what is being called a “companion” building for the Parliament located north of the Red House.
The building, which Mark says would be “14, 15, 16 storeys” high, is to be built on the block where the Ministry of National Security building, a Regiment post and the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court as well as a law firm are currently located.
In addition, MPs are to receive iPads—the touch screen tablets (portable computers) that are being used by many instead of laptops.
The Speaker made the disclosures in a TV6 News three-part special report aired last week on the future of the Parliament as it plans for life after the 50th anniversary of this nation’s Independence on August 31.
The Parliament is now housed in Tower D at the International Waterfront Complex in Port of Spain, as its original home—the Red House—undergoes a $241-million-dollar renovation.
A Joint Select Committee of the Parliament (JSC) chaired by Tourism Minister Stephen Cadiz recommended the construction of “a parliamentary companion administrative and business centre” in a report adopted by the end of the second session of the Tenth Parliament in June.
The companion building is estimated to cost TT$205 million.
The Speaker explained the long-term vision for the upgraded Parliament which will not only affect the nearby national security offices.
“So it’s not only the restoration of the Red House. It is also a companion building which could be 14, 15, 16 stories high given the circumstances of our needs,” Mark said.
This means the future Parliament, as envisioned by the Speaker and the JSC, would include the Red House and the entire block across the street bordered by Knox Street to the south, Abercromby Street to the east, Duke Street to the North and St Vincent Street to the west.
A proposal under the People’s National Movement administration for a new Parliament building to be located at that site and for the Office of the Prime Minister to be relocated at the Red House was never implemented.
The JSC which recommended the companion building said in its report that the structure was needed because “the Red House does not have sufficient space, at present, to accommodate all the core functions and requirements of the modern Parliament.
The Speaker said there will also be special facilities for Members of Parliament.
“So that when Members come on a Friday and they have work to do, there can be some cubicle, some office that they can really go to relax and carry out their work and then we want to have a pedestrian walk whereby, for instance, they can leave the companion building and walk straight into the northern wing of the Red House,” Mark said.
He also gave TV6 News an update on the restoration of the Red House.
“We have the assurance that, all things being equal, the weather being included, that we should be able to have some restoration and some occupation, sometime December of 2014, January, February of 2015,” Mark said.
On March 27th, 2008, then Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday was suspended from the House of Representatives for defying a ruling by then House Speaker Barendra Sinanan “that MPs must seek his permission to use electronic devices and that such use must relate to matters being discussed in the Parliament on that day”.
Panday was using a laptop at the time.
Speaker Mark told TV6 News last week that very soon the Parliament will be providing such technology but will go one step further.
“And we are proposing that by September or November of this year, Members of Parliament will be given iPads. We remove, for instance, what is called the laptop which is very cumbersome for Members of Parliament and in your iPad will be all your documents whether it is the Auditor General’s report, a report from Petrotrin,” Mark said.
Mark said this is all part of a new project called eParliament which is meant to provide an environmentally-friendly paperless environment in the Parliament.
And this is not the only aspect of the Parliament’s operations that are to be upgraded in keeping with the demands of the 21st century.
The Parliament’s Standing Orders which govern the proceedings of the House of Representatives and the Senate came into being in December of 1961.
Mark told TV6 News the committee is considering one proposal which, ironically, is used in the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the country from which we gained independence in 1962.
“One element of it that we are going to put for the members consideration is something called Prime Minister’s time. Where for instance, every week or every fortnight, the Prime Minister would be subject to question time on the spot and not as we now currently have,” Mark said.
He explained that under the existing Standing Orders Opposition MPs “need to get 21 days to qualify” to have their questions to the Prime Minister and all other Ministers answered.
He noted that the upgraded Red House will have two Chambers— one for the House of Representatives and one for the Senate. As such, there will be simultaneous sittings of the Parliament which, according to the Speaker, would have to be a full-time Parliament in the future.
