GREAT BAY--Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication Grisha Heyliger-Marten announced Wednesday that Government is formally reestablishing the Public Transportation Committee after years of inactivity, as TEATT enters the final phase of a nine-month cleanup of St. Maarten’s transportation permit database.
Once the cleanup is complete, the committee is expected to review the updated data, assess demand and saturation across the different transport categories, and make recommendations on the future status of dormant permits.
Heyliger-Marten said the reestablishment of the Public Transportation Committee, PTC, is one of the most important components of Government’s broader transportation reform.
According to the Minister, available records indicate that the committee has not functioned since approximately 2009, leaving the transportation sector without an important consultative and advisory body for well over a decade.
“This is significant because the committee, although provided for within our transportation framework, has not functioned for many years,” Heyliger-Marten said.
She said restoring the committee will reintroduce a layer of consultation, sector representation and checks and balances that has been absent from transportation decision-making.
Five transport categories to be represented
The reestablished PTC will include representation from the five recognized transportation categories: taxis, buses, T-plates, G-plates and car rentals.
Its responsibilities will include advising the Minister on transportation matters, reviewing applications and other matters referred to it, consulting with the different transport sectors and bringing forward concerns and recommendations.
Heyliger-Marten said the committee is intended to become a working part of transportation policy rather than simply another formal body on paper.
“I want to emphasize that this committee will not simply exist on paper,” she said. “It is intended to become an important part of how we manage the sector going forward.”
The appointments and formal reestablishment are currently moving through the required approval process. Heyliger-Marten said she hopes to shortly sign the final Landsbesluit, allowing the committee to formally begin its work.
Government has already signaled that the PTC will play a role in reviewing transportation permits. Earlier this year, IETA said late submissions under the confirmation-letter process would eventually be dealt with through a new permit-review framework and referred to the forthcoming committee once operational.
Database cleanup enters final phase
The first major assignment for the reestablished committee will be connected directly to the transportation database cleanup that TEATT and the Inspectorate of Economic and Transport Affairs, IETA, have been conducting during 2026.
The 2026 Passenger Transport Confirmation Letter Process began in January and was designed to verify permit holders, vehicles, road-tax compliance and other documentation across the sector. IETA said at the start of the process that the exercise was intended to centralize information and improve oversight of taxis, buses, touring cars, G-plate operations and car rentals.
Heyliger-Marten said TEATT is now making a final category-by-category call for operators who have not yet regularized their records.
For car rentals, the final notice period runs from September 7 through September 21. Approximately 48 operators are compliant, while around 30 permits known to IETA remain outstanding.
For Touring Cars, or T-plates, the final notice period runs from September 14 through September 28. Approximately 48 permits are compliant, while around 20 known permits remain outstanding.
For G-plates, approximately 14 permits are currently compliant, while around 18 known permits remain outstanding.
The final notice period for buses and taxis will run from September 21 through October 5, with updated figures expected to be announced next week.
Permit holders urged not to wait
Heyliger-Marten said the final notice periods are particularly important because Government has now spent approximately nine months attempting to establish an accurate picture of which permits are genuinely active.
Under Article 16 of the National Ordinance on Passenger Transport, a permit may be temporarily suspended or permanently revoked where, in the Minister’s judgment, it has not been used for more than six months. Government has previously cited the same provision during its transportation confirmation exercises.
The Minister said Government has deliberately gone beyond that six-month period to give permit holders additional opportunities to come forward, provide the required documentation and clarify whether their permits are active.
Her message Wednesday was that those who have not yet done so should act before their category deadline expires.
Permit holders are being asked to contact IETA at 559-7685, indicate whether their permit is active or inactive and submit the documentation required to bring their records up to date.
Once the respective deadline passes, permits that are not actively being used and for which IETA has received no information regarding their status will be recorded as dormant pending further review.
What happens after the cleanup
Heyliger-Marten stressed that classification as dormant does not mean an immediate decision will automatically be taken to revoke a permit.
Once the database cleanup has been completed, the results are expected to be placed before the reestablished Public Transportation Committee.
The committee will then examine the updated data across the transportation categories and assess the condition of the sector.
Among the questions expected to be considered are how many operators are actually active, the level of passenger demand, whether individual transport categories are already oversaturated and whether there is sufficient room for dormant permits to return to the market.
The committee will then submit recommendations to the Minister for consideration under the applicable legal framework.
Those recommendations could ultimately deal with the future of dormant permits, including whether individual permits should remain inactive or whether revocation should be considered.
Heyliger-Marten stressed that Government is not approaching the process as a blanket effort to remove transportation permits.
“The purpose here is not to take permits away from people arbitrarily,” the Minister said.
Instead, she said the objective is to establish an accurate and credible transportation database before making decisions on the future size and composition of the sector.
Permit holders will also retain any legal rights available to them to object or appeal decisions where the law provides for such procedures.
Data to guide future transport decisions
The Minister said completing the cleanup and reestablishing the committee are deliberately being pursued together.
The updated database is intended to provide the committee with a factual basis for evaluating the transportation market, rather than continuing to make policy decisions using outdated or incomplete permit records.
That information could eventually influence decisions on new permits, inactive permits, oversaturation and future transportation policy across taxis, buses, touring cars, G-plates and car rentals.
The confirmation process has already required individual bus and taxi permit holders and transport companies to provide updated permit, vehicle, tax and identification information, with corporate operators required to submit documentation covering their full fleets.
Heyliger-Marten said the broader goal is to move transportation decision-making toward a system based on data, demand, fairness and the law rather than guesswork.
“That is why reestablishing the Public Transportation Committee and completing the database clean-up go hand in hand,” she said.
