OGIER, Scott John

Dear Elector,

Firstly I am sorry once again I am unable to meet you face to face, due to a bad knee I am still unable to walk the parish as I once did. However, I welcome your phone calls, e-mails or tweets to discuss any issues you feel are important.

I was born in Guernsey 45 years ago and grew up around L’Islet and Baubigny. I was educated at Capelles Junior School and Elizabeth College. Working first in the finance industry and then in manufacturing, I spent three years IT contracting in the UK and Europe. I am married to Rebecca and we have three little girls.

In my spare time I enjoy the beach in the summer with my family and reading when I have the time. I support the following organizations:

National Trust World Wildlife Fund Avaaz
RSPB Woodland Trust NSPCC
In 2004 and 2008 I was elected as a Deputy for St. Sampsons and have spent the last eight years working on your behalf in the States.

What did I say?
I said in 2004 and 2008 I had strong environmental and social concerns. I told you I was against the incineration of our waste unless it had been sorted comprehensively to remove everything of use. I said I would work towards recycling and renewable energy such as tidal power and to see the Energy Plan completed. I wanted to see new schools being built.

So what have I done?
As Deputy Minister for Public Services Department and chairman of the Waste Disposal Authority I worked hard to bring a new waste strategy back to this Assembly and it was adopted in February 2012. This new strategy will see voluntary doorstep collections being introduced for dry recyclables. Food waste will also be collected and composted for use by farmers. We will work towards 70% recycling and look to export the rest, with Jersey looking hopeful as a destination. Importing our waste would make their incinerator run more efficiently and, coupled with high recycling, makes a very environmentally friendly solution. I finally feel we can be proud of the responsible way we will handle what our society throws away.

On Social Security we have increased pensions by above RPI which shows the commitment to helping out our older residents during this period of economic instability. The island pension fund has undergone fundamental change to its strategic asset allocation under our stewardship and as a result it is robust, weathering the financial storms well and being managed wisely and prudently.

After the Airport firefighters situation which led to the Public Sector Remuneration Committee resigning, the Assembly elected me on to that body to help get things back on track. We did.

When Education had a new Minister this year, the Assembly elected me unopposed to fill the position vacated. We are working very hard to tackle the identified shortcomings as well as checking for any others with a review of primary education. Things are improving and this will continue, but there is also a lot of good going on in Education which should be recognised.

My attendance was once again amongst the top 5 for recorded meetings.
Education
The Education of our children has been thrown into focus recently by the poor results from some secondary schools. The department is currently conducting a review into primary education, as well as working to improve the education of our children by implementing many of the recommendations made in the first Mulkerrin report on secondary education. There has been over centralization in the department and our challenge is to enable schools to make more decisions for themselves where appropriate while retaining economies of scale in the centre. Things must and will improve.

Schools
We gave the go ahead for the new school at St. Sampsons which is complete. We are also building a new school at Les Beaucamps, which is nearing completion. The next in line is La Mare de Carteret.

Energy Policy Steering Group
I am also a member of the EPSG and as I said in 2008 we would, we pushed hard to get large scale renewable energy moving. The Renewable Energy Team is predicting we should have tidal arrays toward the end of this decade and an agreement to work together has been signed with Sark and Jersey. We are looking for companies to license areas of our sea bed and install their equipment. This would not happen at our expense. Alderney is looking to get involved in tidal power with a cable running between France and the UK via their island. Things are finally happening.

Population
I think most of us want to see a stable population. What we need to avoid at the same time is losing so many good teachers, clinicians, nurses etc because they have to leave after 5 years. It costs a lot to recruit new people financially and socially, often unnecessarily.

Disability
On Social Security we help with home conversions and vehicles, accessibility discriminates against no one. We are financing a very successful primary mental health service at doctors’ surgeries to help prevent severe mental health issues developing. This is a really great development with good results.

Island Wide Voting
I am in favour of island wide voting if we can find a system which can work without having 90 names on a sheet. Any ideas welcome!
Economy
Due to the introduction of the zero-10 taxation regime, the island is running a structural deficit of around £27m. It is intended that efficiency savings will largely eliminate this deficit: up to £31m per year by 2015 through the Financial Transformation Program, £6.5m of that this year. Indirect taxes are an option, but in my view the people of Guernsey have already done their bit with wastewater charges, waste charges & increased social security contributions. We must reduce our deficit in a way which does not impact on islanders indiscriminately by ensuring that we target individuals and companies most able to contribute, that means no GST. We also still need to look for new opportunities to broaden our economy and diversify into new areas without coming under greater negative scrutiny from Europe or the UK as has happened with LVCR for example.

What’s left to do
I would like to continue my work at PSD to see through the implementation of kerbside recycling and ensure we find an export destination for our residual waste. The years of ideological difference will be over and we will have in place a modern, high recycling solution we can be rightly proud of. I want to see through the Education reviews and ensure we have a top notch Education system once again. Our taxation system needs to change and we need to ensure the burden is more fairly shared.

• Animal welfare ordinances need completing.

• Island wide voting should be back on the agenda.

• We need a census to make sure our current method is accurate.

• We need to address our deficit position and return to the black.

• The final secondary school needs to be rebuilt.

We have an allowance of up to £500 of tax payers’ money for manifestos and postage. Were we to have 90 candidates we could spend up to £45,000. I believe that is an unnecessary expense; I did mine at home on a printer from Longue Hougue reclamation yard for £15 and then shared an envelope.

Please take the time on Wednesday 18th April to go down to the Douzaine room or Church Schools and cast your vote for Scott Ogier.

Telephone 243012 Mobile 07911 143012

scott.ogier@deputies.gg

www.deputyogier.com



Email: scott.ogier@deputies.gg Twitter: @DeputyOgier