My EIA, Part 2: Jobs

Jobs don't really come under the 'environment' part of an EIA but do come under the 'impact' part. The claim is, the jobs created by a refinery would be of critical importance. Big project, lots of jobs building it. Then a few running it. But given it's claimed will be state of the art, you know it would be very automated. I suspect in both areas, they'll be more Venezuelans benefitting than Dominicans.

But you have to look it's the impact on tourism. It's the fastest growing sector for employment and the income from tourism outstrips any other sector. The Visit-Dominica.com database has 135 accommodations, 50 tour ops, 10 dive ops, 32+ restaurants, 15 car hire companies. Let's say 250+ businesses directly involved in tourism. Now for each one of those, you've got several supporting employees. Then for every person staying, you've got to feed and water them. That's employment for farmers, fishermen, and sales for the Kubuli factory. And as you wave each tourist off, we take their departure tax, and remit all the sales tax/VAT. And you also have to include all the people employed in constructing the many projects still underway.

So in short, one tourist visit employs dozens of people directly but possibly twice as many indirectly. I don't see a refinery drinking Kubuli and eat local food.

And building a refinery would without a doubt impact on tourism. We market ourselves as an eco-tourism destination. As I speak of here, our tourism product has an inbuilt wow factor that generates untold publicity for us. Replace that wow factor with a 'what a shame' factor and we're just another Caribbean island that's harder than the rest to get to. And that will impact on jobs.


Next: the environment