PHILIPSBURG:--- The streets of Sint Maarten are on the brink of a filthy disaster, and for once, you can’t blame the men and women picking up the trash.
A furious coalition of local waste haulers—All Waste In Place, Garden Boyz, and WILCO N.V.—has finally drawn a line in the sand. In a blistering formal grievance sent to the Minister of VROMI Patrice Gumbs Jr, these companies have exposed the rot at the core of the government's new Terms of Reference (TOR) for 2026-2029. The document isn't just a contract; it’s a suicide pact for local businesses and a health hazard for the public.
The government is playing a dangerous game with public health, demanding champagne service on a tap-water budget while tightening the noose around the necks of the very people keeping our island clean.
The Budget Myth
Let’s look at the numbers, because the government clearly hasn't. The proposed budget of XCG 6.8 million is an insult to basic economics. We are living in a world of skyrocketing fuel prices, expensive parts, and rising insurance premiums. Yet, the Ministry expects haulers to do more with less.
They want 24-hour on-call service. They want night coverage. They want emergency response teams ready to jump at a moment's notice. But they refuse to pay for the standby wages and overtime required to make that happen. They are asking haulers to operate at a loss, effectively demanding that private companies subsidize a public service out of their own pockets. As the haulers rightly pointed out: "Garbage collection is not just a contract. This is public health. This is food on tables."
When the budget doesn't cover the work, the shortfall comes out of the families behind these companies. It is a direct attack on local livelihoods.
Unfair Burdens and shifting Blame
The hypocrisy in the new TOR is staggering. The government is requiring haulers to pay for repairs to government-owned bins—assets the contractors don't own and won't retain. They want contractors to install expensive GPS tracking on trucks but refuse to foot the bill for the installation or monthly fees.
Even worse is the "Split Parcel" clause. The government has reserved the right to slice up a winning bid and hand pieces of it to a third party, someone who may not have even qualified or bid fairly. This makes a mockery of the tender process. It opens the door to nepotism, incompetence, and sabotage. If this third party fails to collect the trash, guess who gets the blame? The original hauler.
The Tipping Fee Trap
Perhaps the most delusional proposal is the introduction of tipping fees without a plan to control illegal dumping. The government wants to charge for dumping, which anyone with common sense knows will lead to the public dumping their trash at collection points instead of the dump.
The haulers will then be fined for not keeping those collection points clean, while the government sits back and collects fees. It is a rigged system designed to punish the hauler for the public's bad behavior and the government's lack of enforcement.
A Recipe for Disaster
The haulers have issued a 24-hour deadline for a response, and they are right to do so. This situation has gone too far. We are looking at a system that forces local operators to invest in new equipment they can't afford, denies them reasonable contract extensions to recuperate costs, and treats them like the enemy rather than essential partners in public health.
If the streets of Sint Maarten pile up with garbage in the coming weeks, do not look at the trucks. Look at the Ministry that tried to starve them out. The haulers have carried this country on their backs long enough. It is time the government stopped treating them like trash.
PHILIPSBURG: --- In significant development today, the Council of Ministers (CoM) has rejected the Prime Minister's request to suspend Suenah Laville-Martis, Chief of Staff for the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development, and Labor (VSA). The imposed measure has been lifted, granting Laville-Martis access to all digital platforms and government buildings, except the Government Administration Building and events attended by the Prime Minister. This decision will remain in effect until the ongoing criminal investigation is concluded. A formal letter from the Prime Minister to Laville-Martis is still pending, SMN News has been reliably informed.
