No Vote Of No Confidence Before Budget

An attempt to bring a motion of no confidence in P&R before the budget debate has failed.

Deputy Carl Meerveld, backed by deputy Lester Queripel, brought the procedural motion just after the roll call.

He argued it was a matter of good governance and that P&R shouldn't bring forward a budget, when, as a committee, it could be replaced on 22 November.

"If the Policy and Resources Committee is replaced, the new P&R would be lumbered with a budget into which they had no input at all."

The motion to debate was supported by fellow SACC member Simon Fairclough, who condemned the political uncertainty of the third successive failure of P&R to get its fiscal policy, underpinned by GST, through the Assembly:

"So more than a month when we haven't known who is going to be leading this Assembly for the last 20 months of this political term. Uncertainty and instability."

Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller disagreed:

"Bringing this motion, basically as a SACC committee, is completely misguided."

The vote was lost after a verbal pour or contre. A recorded vote showed 24 against and 12 for the procedural motion.

The motion of no confidence will now be heard of 22 November.

Introducing the budget, deputy Mark Helyar, the treasury lead for P&R, thanked all those who helped out during Storm Ciaran:

"Some 350 trees have been lost, so P&R will be providing £15,000 to the Nature Commission to invest in Guernsey's woodlands."