By: Spokesman Newsroom

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Wednesday 22nd October 2025)-Deputy Political Leader of the opposition Nevis Reformation Party (NRP), Dr. Patricia Bartlette, is calling on citizens and residents on both islands of the Federation to pay close attention to the ongoing debate surrounding the Sustainable Space Zone (SSZ) Act, warning that it is not a Nevis issue.

“St. Kitts and Nevis collectively have to wake up and start paying attention,” she urged, while speaking on ‘Issues’ aired live on Freedom FM with host Juni Liburd on Wednesday 22nd October 2025.

Dr. Bartlette dismissed the notion that the matter is only of concern to Nevisians.

“By the time I leave here today, I want St. Kitts people to understand that this issue is not a Nevis issue, and then that is why I was looking forward to coming back because the last time I was here, I was getting the impression that on the ground here in St. Kitts that people are thinking that this is a Nevis issue but it’s not,” she said.

She added: “I know that a lot of people have been coming around now and have realized now what we have been saying, and I’m hoping that today we’ll delve a little deeper and that at the end of the day, we all would be pushing forward as one with the same accord.”

According to Dr. Bartlette, the NRP is developing a schedule of activities aimed at educating and engaging the public about the SSZ issue.

“…we’re not going to relent. We have to keep full throttle on this one and so we’ve been reaching out to people on a one-on-one basis,” she said.

She revealed that she has been fielding questions from constituents who still lack access to official information.

“A lot of people still have questions related to this. I don’t know how many copies of the SSZ has been circulated on St. Kitts but I’m still aware that a lot of people on the ground in Nevis have not gotten a hard copy and I have invited some people to go online and get these things,” she explained.

“And so we’re hoping that we’ll be able to saturate the whole of Nevis. Nobody within the population ought to be ignorant about what is happening as it relates to SSZ and so our activities within NRP, we’re strategic… and deliberate and so we want to go to public when it is the most opportune time.”

She added that the party has “given the government a little chance for them to do what they should have done in the first instance,” but questioned whether the series of town hall meetings being held would make any difference.

“I don’t know that it makes …a lot difference now the ways things have proceeded because ultimately all these town halls that they are having, not likely it seems to change minds as it relates to their timetable as to what they’re gonna get done, and we don’t even know what their commitments are and the timetable for delivering on their commitments. All we know is that they are in a haste to do things.”

Asked what legal options were available for the NRP to pursue the matter, Dr. Bartlette explained that her party has been leading the way in raising public concern about the legislation.

“As it relates specifically to the SSZ, we have been on the forefront. We have been leading on that. I think we are the ones who started calling ‘Fire, Fire’,” she stated.

“And it is very comforting to me now that we have the engagement of the legal luminaries on St. Kitts who-they carry some weight when they speak. I’m hoping that they are the ones who see now that we NRP would have done as much as we can as a political party but recognizing that we would have already established that this issue transcends politics; that this issue goes to the core of who we are,” she continued.

“These are sentiments that are not just residing over in our camp as it relates to being a political party. This is something that we all of us ought to be engaged on, and so we’re hoping that the politicians would have done as much as they can up to this point. We should be able now to pass on the baton to the legal fraternity; let them challenge the legality of what has been laid out in terms of supporting the advancement of this SSZ in Nevis.”

Dr. Bartlette shared the view that the SSZ initiative might have started on Nevis but its impact will not stop there.

“And the thing is SSZ might have started in Nevis but I can assure Kittitians that SSZ is not going to be limited to Nevis,” she expressed.