Managing the pandemic, keeping up with the Commission of Inquiry, and overseeing changes within the public service made for a busy first year in office for Governor John Rankin. Mr. Rankin, a former Bermuda governor, recently sat down with the Beacon to share his experience serving as governor during such tumultuous times. In the interview, he recounted his time working to secure support for addressing Covid-19, learning more about the Virgin Islands community, building relationships with the premier and other elected officials, and collaborating with public officers to tackle serious crime, among other efforts.
The governor also laid out his goals for the year ahead, including initiatives to support environmental projects and youth programmes. Come April, Mr. Rankin expects the COI team to put its report on his desk, and he explained the next steps in preparing it to be made public, without speculating on its contents or the possible outcomes. Regardless, he said leaders are seeking ways to better support the independent institutions responsible for investigating corruption in the future.
Mr. Rankin added that he has been grateful for the opportunities to connect with residents this year and looks forward to getting more involved if the pandemic wanes in 2022.
What are some of the key issues that you’ve been glad to address this year?
Well, it’s been a very busy year. It remains a real privilege to be working here in BVI and getting to meet the people of this territory. Part of my job has been to get to sister islands, all of which I enjoyed visiting. Obviously, getting to meet also the communities in Tortola — getting to meet people from all different sectors for financial services, public service, the voluntary sector, particularly young people. They’re so important to the future of the territory.
And I visited different schools, met young people involved in different activities. I was particularly pleased just last week to be meeting students who went to our climate change competition. They were great.
I’ve just seen the young people so enthusiastic, and getting to see the different green initiatives of the island.
So all of that has been really helpful for me in terms of understanding the territory and seeing so many good things going on.
But, of course, there have been challenges. The biggest challenge has been responding to Covid-19, which has affected every community across the world. Unfortunately, we had deaths. The first thing is to offer condolences to all those who have lost loved ones.
But my main job has been to give BVI the support it needs. So that has been the supply of all the vaccines.
And being able to do boosters now —
Boosters remain the best protection we have against Covid. To give you an idea of what we provided in terms of ventilators and [personal protective equipment]: Since 2020, the UK has provided, together with vaccines, $1.7 million worth of support to BVI. Most recently, we delivered on the 15th of December the first Pfizer doses — 4,680 Pfizer doses plus another 2,000 of AstraZeneca.
We remain committed to providing all the vaccines the territory needs. There’s more to be done. We now have just over 17,000 adults double vaccinated. That’s over 57 percent of the adult population. But that’s not enough.
Of course, we are thankful for the fact that omicron may be less severe in its effects than earlier versions of the virus, but we do know that those who are elderly, those who are vulnerable, and those who have not been vaccinated and received boosters are the ones most at risk. So we’ve got to get that figured out.
That’s been a huge effort, working very closely here with the minister of health, chief medical officer, and Public Health England to help the territory to tackle these challenges. That has been my biggest focus of work.
Second has been carrying out my responsibilities under the Constitution, and, in particular, my responsibilities for security, for policing; supporting the police commissioner and his team in the work they do; helping to tackle serious crime; helping to tackle the transit of drugs through the territory; and helping to safeguard people on the island. I want to recognise the results that the police have achieved in 2021 in this area. They have in the past year seized 30 firearms, 1,650 rounds of ammunition, two tonnes of cocaine, 150 scooters in breach of the regulations or not properly insured.
We’ve been tackling cold case murders, and bringing evidence to the [director of public prosecutions], and in turn there have been people to book for murder and attempted murder. And we’ve seen a decrease in robbery and in sexual offences.
Now, we must not be complacent. I know the police commissioner isn’t complacent, and there is work to be done.
But I will continue to support the police in terms of their training, specialist ballistic identification, body armour cameras, and practical repairs to the Road Town Police Station and the stations to be built on Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke. That’s been a high priority for me.
