SXMElections.com

Minister Gibson At Tax Summit: “Tax Reform Is Absolutely Necessary”

Prime Minister William Marlin (left) and Finance Minister Richard Gibson during the tax summit. To the right is Minister Emil Lee Read more

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Minister Lee Discussed Hospital With Minister Plasterk

St. Maarten News – Minister Emil Lee (Public Health) headed a delegation that included Kees Klarenbeek, Director of SMMC, Henk de Zeeuw, Managing Director of corporate finance KPMG St. Maarten, and Perry Geerlings, Director of the Cabinet of the Minister Plenipotentiary to meet with  Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations, Ronald Plasterk,  Erwin Arkenbout, Director of Kingdom Relations and Dr Read more

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Minister Lee Impressed With St. Maarten House

From left: Parveen Boertje, Kelly Busby, Minister Emil Lee, Perry Geerlings, Margie van Gijn and Carol Voges. Photo contributed

THE HAGUE – Minister Emil Lee (Public Health, social Development and Labor) paid a courtesy visit to the Cabinet of Minister Plenipotentiary where he met with the staff of the St Maarten House.

In the absence of Minister Plenipotentiary Henrietta Doran-York, Minister Lee was received by the director of the cabinet, Perry Geerlings.

Minister Lee was given a tour and orientation, where he was introduced to the staff, and enlightened about their function and specific fields of expertise Read more

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Minister Lee Focuses On Increased Labor Compliance

St. Maarten News – “In recognizing the progress that has been made in the field of labor over the years, we need to acknowledge that the creation of meaningful, stable and sustainable employment can only be achieved in partnership,” said Minister Emil Lee (Labor) at the Labor Day celebrations at the Divi Little Bay Resort last Monday.

Lee addressed the three stalwarts in the labor movement who were honored for their dedicated service said that this partnership between business, labor and government can only be achieved on a basis of trust, honest dialogue and compromise Read more

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St. Maarten Residents Call For Action To Solve Dump Problems

Minister Emil Lee (second from right) listens to the concerns about the landfill. To the left is Andy Wescot; Wycliffe Smith of the Christian party is just visible next to him. Photo contributed

St Read more

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Landfill Fire Out, But Still Smoking

On Sunday afternoon, the smoldering landfill fire still sent toxic smoke towards residential areas. Photo Today / Hilbert Haar

St. Maarten News – The fire that broke out on the landfill on Friday afternoon may be “under control” but on Sunday afternoon the site was still emitting toxic smoke. That smoke contains dioxins, carcinogenic substances that could cause cancer but also a severe form of acne, known as chloracne. At high dose levels, dioxin could furthermore cause abnormalities to the enamel of children’s teeth; it could affect the central and peripheral nervous system, cause thyroid disorders, damage immune systems and cause endometriosis (tissue growth outside the uterus that could in turn lead to (chronic) pelvis pain and infertility) and – last but not least – diabetes.

High exposure to dioxins also changes the male/female birth ration in favor of females.

Significant is the observation that small concentrations of dioxins in water could accumulate to dangerously high levels, because the substance does not dissolve easily in water.

The Collective Prevention Services advised this weekend to people living downwind from the landfill fire to close their windows and doors Read more

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Health Insurance On St. Maarten For Less Than 3 Dollars A Day

From left: Jim Rosen (executive advisor, cabinet VSA), Eric Ellis (executive manager of claims Dept. Nagico), Ash Hodge (taxi driver), Ellen Benjamin (Manager Medical Dept. Nagico) and Minister of Public Health Emil Lee. Photo contributed

St. Maarten News – One of the Ministry of VSA’s top priorities is to ensure that everyone has access to affordable and quality healthcare Read more

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St. Maarten / St. Martin Parties Sign Sea Border Demarcation Treaty

Préfète-Déléguée Anne Laubies and Prime Minister William Marlin sign the treaty. Photo contributed

Quadripartite meeting

St. Maarten News – The Government of Sint Maarten hosted the third annual Quadripartite Meeting last Wednesday. The meeting was formulated in 2014 as a forum for representatives of the governments of the French Republic (led by the Ambassador for Regional Cooperation for the Antilles-Guyana Veronique Bertile), the Kingdom of the Netherlands (led by Director of the Western Hemisphere Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Joost Reintjes), Saint-Martin (led by President of the Collectivity Aline Hanson), and Sint Maarten (led by Prime Minister William Marlin) to discuss issues of mutual interest.

The agenda of the 50-delegate strong meeting touched on issues related to military cooperation between both the French and Dutch state on the island and the police cooperation treaty, which will regulate the manner in which armed forces exercise their authority in instances of transnational policing Read more

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St. Maarten Civil Servants Move To New Building On July 1

St. Maarten News – The signing of the necessary documents to initiate the start of the completion of the new Government Building situated on Pond Island is certainly a step in the right direction and according to Minister of Finance Richard Gibson Sr, such a move will save the Government 300,000 guilders per month.

The signing of the agreement between the contractors, Windward Electric Company, Windward Roads, Lievense CSO and the SZV was a big moment in the history of St Maarten; it was the first time that all the ministers in the government converged in the still to be completed facility.

The Interim Director of SZV, Glen Carty was the first to address the gathering Read more

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Little Opposition To 2016 Draft Budget

MP Tamara Leonard: “I feel like we have to take a hit too.” Photo Today / Milton Pieters

St. Maarten News – The parliament seemed to be going in record tempo through the debate about the draft 2016 budget yesterday. By 6.35 p.m. all speakers had put in their two cents in the first round; only nine MPs used their right to address the issue Read more

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For Development New Hospital: Szv Signs Consulting Contract With Royalhaskoningdhv

Standing: Henk de Zeeuw. From left: Minister Emil Lee, Glen Carty, Eduard Boonstra and Robert Jan James. Photo contributed

St. Maarten – Social and Health Insurances SZV signed a consulting contract on Friday with Dutch engineering firm Royal HaskoningDHV as part of the first phase of the development of the new national hospital of St Read more

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Armand Meda Writes: Running Sewage And Mosquitoes

Dear Editor,

You’ve got to give honor to whom honor is due. The Honorable Minister Emil Lee stepped out from the comfort zones of his air conditioned office and upscale neighborhoods and visited one of the homes in Middle Region that has been experiencing hell when it comes to running sewage and mosquitoes. Though I applaud his visit to that one location, I am curious as to what steps are being taken or even considered to bring an end to that deplorable situation Read more

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New St. Maarten Hospital Construction To Begin In Third Quarter

SZV receives bids from engineering companies

St. Maarten News – Social insurance agency SZV received bids from four engineering companies to develop terms of reference for the new hospital. SZV says that construction could begin in the third quarter of this year and that the new facility would be ready in 2019.

Lievense, Independent Consulting Engineers (ICE), Arcadis and Royal HaskoningDHV have submitted bids and SZV accepted them on Monday for consideration.

Interim SZV-director Glen Carty thanked Henk de Zeeuw, managing director of KPMG for his help with the process so far Read more

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Dutch-French St. Martin Cooperation To Boost Healthcare Service

St. Maarten News – Last week Minister Emil Lee (Public Health) initiated a stepped up level of cooperation between the Dutch and French sides of the island with regards to health care. “As St. Maarten continues with its plans for the development of a new hospital, determining the level of cooperation between the Dutch and French sides is a critical element of our development strategy,” Minister Lee states.

“Our hope is that instead of two independent hospitals, struggling to provide quality care in a sustainable manner, that we synchronize our strategies.”

A formal cooperation agreement has existed since 2014 and is known as the Observatory St Read more

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Plasterk About Dispute Regulation “Kingdom Cannot Deviate From Decisions, Unless …”

St. Maarten News:  The Kingdom Council of Ministers cannot deviate from an advice issued by a dispute regulator, unless such a deviation is properly motivated,” Kingdom Relations Minister Ronald Plasterk said at a press conference yesterday at the end of his visit to St. Maarten. With this statement, Plasterk seems to come back from his earlier stance that the Kingdom Council of Ministers should always have the last word in disputes between the countries in the kingdom.

The only issue that separates Plasterk and the Caribbean autonomous countries St Read more

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Minister Lee Wants Study Unemployment Insurance

St. Maarten News: Minister Emil Lee (Public Health, Social Development and Labor) intends to merge the social services and the labor department to promote integral services.” This appears from the explanatory notes with the draft 2016 budget.

The ministry will conduct a feasibility study into unemployment insurance. “The jobless employee currently does not enjoy benefits linked to his unemployment Read more

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Prostitutes Become Entrepreneurs

St. Maarten News: – Today reported already on January 9, after a presentation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation (Ipko) that the ministry of justice would not issue any more permits for prostitutes to local brothels. In that sense, reports about a ban on these permits are nothing new. Because there are two types of permits involved – residence and work permits – this newspaper asked a clarification in Wednesday from Minister Emil Lee (Public Health, Social Development and Labor).

Work permits for prostitutes are issued under the euphemistic moniker of animeermeisje (exotic dancer) Read more

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Wescot-Williams (Dp): “First Get The Hospital  On A Good Footing”

St. Maarten – “It is important to know where we stand. Before we start about a new hospital, the St. Maarten Medical Center must be on a good footing,” DP-leader Sarah Wescot-Williams said at a press briefing yesterday afternoon Read more

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No Concrete Plans For New Hospital

Minister Lee: “Investing in existing facility makes no sense”

St. Maarten News: – It does not make sense to invest further in the St. Maarten Medical Center’s current facility, Minister Emil Lee (Public Health, Social Development and Labor) said yesterday morning during the continuation of a parliament meeting about a national ordinance that contains regulations related to public health.

The minister showed that the losses at the hospital are steadily increasing Read more

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Open Government

Our government wishes to be open and transparent. We have seen some examples of this given by Public Health Minister Emil Lee and only last week, Education Minister Silveria Jacobs confirmed that she is on the same page – actually, that the whole government is on the same page.

Well, let’s test those statements against an initiative that came up in the Netherlands and that seems to fit St Read more

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Maho Group Appreciates Dedicated Team Members

St. Maarten – The Maho Group recognized its outstanding and dedicated team members as Stars of the Hospitality and Tourism Industry this week at Sonesta Resorts’ End of the Year Team Appreciation evening.

The resort group singled out a number of team members in various categories such as Employee of Year and Supervisor of the Year and in novelty categories like Best Smile and Punctuality and Grooming. All team members were observed throughout the year as they conducted their regular assignments and when they went above and beyond the call of duty.

Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor Emil Lee, who was very active in the field of hospitality and tourism prior to his current post, was a guest at the appreciation evening. 

The awardees were pulled from Sonesta Maho Beach Resort and Casino, Sonesta Great Bay Beach Resort Casino and Spa, Ocean Point, Casino Royale, Diamond Casino, and Golden Casino.

The recognition of Employee of the Year was received by Diane Burnett and Maria Mercedes (Sonesta Maho), Soledad Van Lamoen Rivera and Pierre Banno Charles (Ocean Point), Ruby Coby and Marie Philippe (Sonesta Great Bay), Elmira Hodge and Richard Renjifo-Tinini (Casino Royale), Juan Nunez and Maria Bryson (Diamond/Golden Casinos). 

The Best Smile Award were presented to Anna Nelson (Sonesta Maho), Clarissa Clement (Ocean Point), Jonathan Puente (Sonesta Great Bay), Karoll Gil-Huertes (Casino Royale), and Celine Oliente (Diamond/Golden Casinos)

The Supervisor of the Year nod was given to Preciosa Teleisi (Sonesta Maho), Alma Harry (Ocean Point), Miguel Felix (Sonesta Great Bay), and Daniel Ottley (Diamond/Golden Casino).

The Leadership Award went to Irene Correa (Sonesta Maho), Damion Bailey (Ocean Point), Unelta Cherry (Sonesta Great Bay), Yacqueline Rivera (Casino Royale), and Rosa Isaac (Diamond/Golden Casinos).                                                    

The resorts have also paid keep attention to punctuality and grooming of team members and those who have exceeded the ordinary were commended for their commitment to being on time and being well put together Read more

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Minister Emil Lee: “Up To Parents To Regulate And Guide Their Children”

St. Maarten – Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor, Emil Lee, addressed a packed room at Port de Plaisance during the Women’s Desk awareness event and cultural display focusing on “the impact and influence of Music and Media on Violence against Women and Girl”

Minister Lee touched on how the internet is radically changing the way we access information, evolving media continues to increase its influence and penetration into our societies Read more

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Pm Marlin: “First Electoral Reform” No Elections In February

Ministers Silveria Jacobs, William Marlin and Emil Lee (l.t.r.) at the first press briefing of the new cabinet Read more

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Congrats For Emil Lee

St. Maarten – The Caribbean Society of Hotel Association Executives (CSHAE) has congratulated Past President Emil Lee for his leadership as President of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) and wishes him success in his newly appointed post as Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor for the Government of St Read more

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