The Premier said the BVI was in the attitude of reform at the moment, and said one of those areas that needs reform is Labour.

“We need Labour reform and Immigration reform because of course both of them work together,” Dr Wheatley said on the Talking Territories show yesterday.

Premier Wheatley said when the BVI‘s economy expanded, it attracted many persons from many different places, who came to be added to the small population that existed.

“As it pertains to work permit exemptions, we have to truly define what we’re seeking to achieve in terms of the work permit exemption and what purpose is it seeking to serve.”

“I think if we can discover that, we can decide how we want to use it,” he continued. “But of course, permits are a way in terms of controlling the expatriate labour, but ultimately I think we want to go in the direction of developing our local labor.”

In this vein, the Premier said a conversation was needed with the business community to determine what the people were seeking to achieve in terms of the territory’s Labour and Immigration policies.

“We have to refine our Labour policies to ensure that businesses get the Labour and the expertise and the skill set that they need and at some point start transferring that skill set and that labour, having persons who are in the local economy understudy so those skills can be transferred,” the Premier stated.

But he noted that, in some instances, there will be some persons who because of their overall positive contribution to the society, “you’ll want them to become a part of your society and get some status as a part of your society”.

Dr Wheatley opined that those persons will no longer need work permits in that instance.

“So, I would say it’s a kind of very dynamic situation, a multifaceted situation, not anything you can give a very simple answer to,” the Premier reasoned.

“I believe we just have to ensure that we stay true to our principles,” the Premier continued. “And the principles we have is that we want to ensure that the persons within our society become trained and qualified to be able to participate in the economic activity in the territory and you have a process for persons who come from outside to be able to be a part of that to supplement where you’re not able to provide the labor from the inside.”

Quality workforce

In the meantime, the Premier, while conceding that there are many tensions in the workplace right now because of competing pools of labour from different places, felt that the BVI has a quality workforce in place.

“The position I would like to espouse is that we have an economy and we have a society that’s able to produce quality, a quality workforce. Of course, as I said, we have an economy [that] is really bigger than what we can provide from the inside,” the Premier said.

He further noted that the territory needed to be able to produce a quality workforce from persons that graduate from its local high schools, the local community college and persons who return from college abroad.

“But then we have to be able to help to streamline our processes to be able to assist the business community, to be able to find the labour that they need,” Dr Wheatley added.