Gail Alexan­der

Deputy House Speak­er Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, who re­cent­ly com­mend­ed UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, has quashed spec­u­la­tion she may be sup­port­ing the UNC's up­com­ing no con­fi­dence mo­tion against Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning. Beck­les said yes­ter­day she would like­ly be pre­sid­ing over the de­bate of the mo­tion since she would be act­ing as House Speak­er from this week un­til March 24. This is due to the ab­sence of House Speak­er Baren­dra Sinanan who is go­ing over­seas from to­day. The UNC's no con­fi­dence mo­tion is ex­pect­ed to be de­bat­ed af­ter March 21 and be­fore month-end. Beck­les, at a women's func­tion last Sun­day, com­mend­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar in the con­text of her achieve­ment as a woman in the re­cent UNC elec­tion vic­to­ry.

Beck­les al­so would be pre­sid­ing over to­mor­row's Par­lia­ment de­bate con­cern­ing Ude­cott which was brought by the UNC. A mo­tion for de­bate by the UNC calls for the rest of Ude­cott board mem­bers to be re­moved fol­low­ing the re­cent res­ig­na­tion of for­mer Ude­cott head Calder Hart. The de­bate would be done on the Low­er House's ad­journ­ment at 6.30 pm. Per­sad-Bisses­sar would lead off de­bate and a Gov­ern­ment mem­ber would re­spond. Each would speak for 15 min­utes. The Op­po­si­tion ex­pects the Gov­ern­ment will have to state its po­si­tion on the is­sue and say whether or not it will seek the res­ig­na­tions of the en­tire Ude­cott board.

Yes­ter­day, Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials could not say who would re­ply on Gov­ern­ment's be­half–whether it would be Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, Plan­ning Min­is­ter Emi­ly Dick-Forde (re­spon­si­ble for Ude­cott) or Works Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert. A Gov­ern­ment spokesman could not say if Man­ning would de­liv­er a state­ment on the Ude­cott is­sue in Par­lia­ment to­mor­row. It was not­ed that at to­day's Cab­i­net meet­ing the Ude­cott is­sue is ex­pect­ed to be dis­cussed. Al­so in the House to­mor­row, Gov­ern­ment is ex­pect­ed to present a fi­nance bill to tie up cer­tain loose ends aris­ing from the 2010 Bud­get. The bill in­cludes pro­vi­sions to ex­pand fund­ing for per­ma­nent sec­re­taries to en­gage con­sul­tants (from $200,000 to $300,000) and for the HDC to use pri­vate con­trac­tors to build hous­es (from $250,000 to $450,000).