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SIMPSON BAY--"The time for decisive action is now," says St. Maarten Timeshare Association (SMTA) chairman Marcel Javois in relation to the Advisory Council's remarks on the Timeshare Ordinance brought to SMTA's attention recently. The SMTA is calling for a summit on the matter to discuss the best way forward.
"The SMTA has taken keen note of the recent comments and statements surrounding the Timeshare Ordinance. We believe that it is now time for urgent action, with this matter having been on the table for over 18 years," Javois was quoted as saying in an SMTA press statement released January 28.
SMTA said it had "just learned that the Advisory Council is unhappy with the Timeshare Ordinance Civil Code amendments and the Timeshare Authority Ordinance that will assist government and consumers in regulating the timeshare industry being drafted in the English language.
"At the time the laws were drafted for Member of Parliament [MP – Ed.] Leroy de Weever, the initiator of the laws, then-Minister of Justice Roland Duncan, and the supervising expert of the legislation, Judge Professor Jan de Boer, believed that there was ample justification for the laws to be drafted in English as it is one of our two official languages.
"In April of last year, the SMTA met with Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson, who said that many timeshare concepts were so English-specific and given that Holland has only one small timeshare property, that English should be used, but the law should be as a separate national law rather than part of the Civil Code, which needs to be as uniform as possible throughout the Kingdom.
"We understand that the Advisory Council is also not satisfied with using that as a solution.
"Given the late hour and the urgency of the issue as a national priority now that two large timeshare properties are having serious trouble and government has no tools to help, the SMTA hereby calls for an immediate summit to be convened."
SMTA called for the summit to include players that might have input, including current parliamentary initiator of the law Democratic Party ((DP)) through its leader MP Sarah Wescot-Williams, Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) Claret Connor, Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson, the Advisory Council, the Ombudsman, Department of Legal Affairs and the SMTA, "in order to make a plan to get this legislation corrected and, if necessary, translated accurately to Dutch, and passed in the shortest time possible."
As reported in Tuesday's edition of The Daily Herald, the hold-up in the processing of the draft initiative laws to regulate the timeshare sector has come down to a matter of language. The two draft laws are written in English, but the Advisory Council has requested that the law be re-submitted by the (DP), the initiator, in Dutch.
Wescot-Williams said at a press conference held in Parliament House on Monday that she intends to take up the law with TEATT Minister Connor when they meet on February 5. A package of documents related to the draft law has been sent to Connor.
She hopes government will decide to pursue the completion of the law process, as it has the apparatus to change the law readily from English to Dutch. Parliament, in its fifth year of existence, still does not have a legislation department.
Should government take charge of the laws, (DP) will have to pull back the initiative law from Parliament.
The reason for presenting the law in English, according to Wescot-Williams, was to match the language of the timeshare sector. Timeshare owners and timeshare companies are generally English speakers or have English as their language of business.
