Crematorium saga continues! Hurst refutes claims

Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office Lionel ‘Max’ Hurst has responded to recent claims made by the CYW International group over the fallout of the construction of the country’s first-ever crematorium.

News broke earlier this week that the trio of Shelley Challenger, Minnelle Williams, and Shari Yearwood would be backing out of their proposed deal to build a crematorium in the country.

The Canadian trio, who are of Antiguan descent and who also form part of the CYW team, shared their concerns over what they deem as a breach of confidentiality.

“At the core of our concerns is the unfortunate breach of confidentiality that resulted in the leaking of our detailed business proposal to the media,” the team reportedly mentioned over the weekend to another media house.

The Toronto-based trio explained that their business plans were leaked to the media which they believe compromised the project’s integrity. The information they mentioned was only to be seen by the government.

On several occasions, the trio had to refute public claims being made by government officials regarding the project.

 The most recent coming was from Health Minister Sir Molwyn Joseph who had stated that a detailed proposal was never given.

There was also the dispute in terms of how much money would have been invested where Hurst himself rubbished suggestions made by the investors about capital.

The entrepreneurs felt that these acts significantly undermined their trust in the project, and they could no longer execute this initiative with full confidence.

But Hurst is firing back, squashing these notions that any of the information was confidential.  

“They have issued a statement which we find far from rational. Clearly, there was nothing unusual about what had been written in the report or in the submission to the Cabinet. They are not private documents; this is not a deal that required the Antigua and Barbuda government to remain tight-lipped.

“In fact, we had to reveal what we were doing with these three women if we were not to be unfair to the existing two funeral homes. So, it is a little strange that they would argue that the reason that they are pulling out is because we shared the document with members of the media. This is what we do and the Antigua and Barbuda government under the honourable Gaston Browne does not have secrets, especially so having to do with any kind of commercial arrangements between itself and others.

“When negotiations are in a delicate stage, we might withhold something until such time but that would not have been the case in this matter,” Hurst said.

Talks of building a crematorium in the country were hinted at by the government for months. Originally, the government had turned to the two local funeral homes to assist but it was later determined that it would be too costly.

Sometime later, Cabinet announced that the trio proposed to construct a crematorium, news which was welcomed by many.

 The women planned to invest up to US$3.5 million in the project which would have included the crematorium, a garden, a chapel, and a nice place where urns could be kept.