Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield has promised to introduce a new Architects bill to regulate the industry and provide for the registration of professional architects. A similar effort will be made with the Veterinary Practitioners Registration bill, bringing that profession into line with others like doctors and surveyors.

Ms Butterfield promised a slew of reforms for 2006, including strengthening Planning enforcement, pesticide control and stiffer penalties for ill-behaved canines.

The Ministerial Statement also promised $600,000 for the purchase or improvement of the Island's open space.

"Legislative changes will feature prominently in the Ministry of Environment's work during 2005," Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield said in the House of Assembly on Friday. "The Ministry is contemplating changes to the Development and Planning Act 1974.

"Some of the areas that we intend to focus on at this time include the simplification and strengthening of the process of enforcement; the formal incorporation of the role of the Planning Inspector into the Act; the removal of the ability to apply for retroactive Planning approvals in cases where there is blatant disregard for Planning legislation; and increases in penalties for Planning offences," the Minister said.

Ms Butterfield said the Bermuda Plan 1992, currently used as the guideline for all development outside Hamilton, was currently being revised for a draft new Development Plan to be produced in 2006.

The Ministry would also review current laws pertaining to the Bermuda Plan and determine whether changes were necessary to address sustainable development, she said.

Increasing toxicity in the environment led to Government classifying some pesticides as poisons. "The Ministry also intends to proceed with changes to the Agriculture Act 1930 and to introduce a Control of Pesticides Bill that will consolidate portions of the 1930 Act and the Pharmacy and Poisons Act 1979 to more effectively deal with pesticides in the environment, she said.

Illegal dogs will be collared in amendments to the Dogs Act 1978, she said, which would strengthen the Ministry's enforcement capability in regards to illegal breeding and attacks. "This will include stiffer penalties for various offences," Ms Butterfield said. "The Ministry will create Regulations listing protected species and critical habitats under the Protected Species Act 2003."

And she promised the world's endangered species would receive greater legal protection this year as Bermuda would more fully and effectively implement the Convention on International Trade and in Endangered Species (CITES). It was thought the creation of the Endangered Animals and Plants Act 1976 would implement CITES here.

However, Bermuda was chastised at an October 2004 United Nations CITES conference in Bangkok, Thailand, for being one of a number of UK Overseas Territories which did not have adequate legislation to implement CITES. As a result Bermuda's 1976 Act would be amended to more "fully and effectively" implement CITES, she said.