Senator Sophia Fraser Binns, Opposition spokesperson on Land and Environment - file photo
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Senator Sophia Fraser Binns
The parliamentary opposition wants the government to carry out a cost benefit analysis to determine if Jamaica has benefited from bauxite mining.
Senator Sophia Fraser Binns, Opposition spokesperson on Land and Environment, said the analysis should also assess whether mining is the best use of the country's lands.
"We must do a cost benefit analysis to find out if after all these years, Jamaica has something else to show apart from the foreign exchange that it has brought in. And the truth is you know, we talk about the bauxite levy; what has happened to the bauxite levy? It has not done what it ought to do, because the bauxite levy was implemented to help to develop communities in bauxite mining areas and if you take an objective look and an objective assessment, then you will see that some of the communities in the bauxite areas are no better off," she contended.
Senator Fraser Binns was speaking against the background of the debate on the proposed mining in the Dry Harbour Mountains in St. Ann and vicinity of the Cockpit country.
She was addressing the launch of a recycling project in Mandeville, Manchester on Thursday.
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