 I beg to remind senators that when the Senate rose, the question was that the appropriation 2017-2018 bill be read a second time. Minister for local government culture and creative industries. Mr. President, I rise in support of this budget, a budget I have assessed as a treatment plan to restore our beloved country. Mr. President, I say treatment plan because our country was hemorrhaging. It was hemorrhaging from a barrage of internal and external wounds or blows, which forced passions like myself to come out of our comfort zones to lend a helping hand to the rescue mission, of course. You see, Mr. President, when the patient goes into intensive care, professionals are needed, not amateurs. And from all indications, that's what we've seen. We had amateurs, and even at this point in time, they know where to be seen. We need professionals, and we are quite happy, and I'm quite happy to be a part of this team. Permit me here, Mr. President, to specifically thank the people of castries, and particularly those from the East who pulled me out. And I also want to thank the Honourable Prime Minister for granting me the privilege to serve in this Honourable House where changes are expected to be pronounced, and I say pronounced because that's where you say it, the public servants execute it, or they make it happen, and of course it's legislated right here. So changes are expected to be pronounced and legislated in this House. But Mr. President, the economic and social review, and I've looked quite a few of my colleagues quoted this morning, on page six, it reveals that Sinishah's economy grew by some 1.9 percent in 2015 and 0.9 percent in 2016. Mr. President, I'm no economist, and I know we have a few economists here, I'm no statistician, but what I understand very well is the vibrations of my country. You see, Mr. President, vibrations are important signals and undertones that truly reveal the state of happiness of the people. And so while the economy appeared to have realized some measure of growth in 2015 and 2016, whatever the data showed, the vibrations were not positive. Our people were still suffering, no jobs, no hope, nothing running, and they were not happy. I want to refresh your memory, Mr. President, on the vibes that prompted the change in administration on June 6, 2016. And I'm doing so because people must know where they came from if they're going to determine and appreciate where and how they can move forward. Yeah? These were the vibes. Economically, we had a repressive tax regime with that at 15 percent. Everywhere you went, or everywhere I went, I was hearing nothing running, miss nothing running, no work, our unemployment, the level was exceedingly high. Twenty-one percent, you understand, across our economy, 21 percent unemployment, and of course among the youth it was even higher. Businesses were folding up, particularly our small businesses in our communities, which are the lifeline of our economy. We are a small country. And I'm thinking of people like Miss Doris in Pave and Miss Maria in Pave. And I'm also thinking of Emily's boutique, which is to be on Brazil Street. Miss Angela in Menard Hill, Miss Leona in Bagatelle, Sabi's restaurant in Buforte, Susi's boutique in Souffre, and the list goes on and on across the country. In terms of our security, we had impact blues, yeah? Across the world, St. Lucia was known for this impact blues. St. Lucia's were worried. We had a demotivated or rather a demoralized police force. I can still hear the echo of the president of the police welfare association, Mr. Cameron Law, he was at a time crying out for help on public radio. All that time, our women and children were being raped. And worst of all, our forensic lab was out of commission and did not have the capacity to assist in resolving the cases. But yet the country spent millions of dollars building this facility. It was supposed to have been a savior to us. It didn't happen. You want to hear more, Mr. President? You want to hear some more? In terms of the social issues, there was a lack of appreciation and respect for our diversity as a people by our leaders. We have a health system that was in total chaos with no end in sight. Millions of dollars spent, millions of dollars, millions of taxpayer dollars spent with no end in sight. And I'm hoping that we can hear a little more about the end of this plight of our health sector. And of course we had an education system that was crying out for help in the fundamental areas of childcare development and the teaching of soft skills, basic manners, basic grooming, simple things. Our education system was not equipping our children in the way that it should to be able to live the life that we would want as citizens. We have a generally weak family structure with no focus nationally on the importance of that network. And I say this very seriously because even now when I listen to the stories of families who come to me every week, we in crisis and there is a lot of work to be done to heal wounds in terms of families and to connect people and to get that network right. So there is a lot of work to be done. Affirm, Mr. President, we had a general atmosphere by June 2016. We had a general atmosphere that was not conducive to engaging. People were angry, they felt trapped, imprisoned and were looking to break away. And if you recall, Mr. President, St. Lucia's mantra in response to this was break every chain, break every chain, break every chain. That was the mantra. And in people's daily lives, they ask for divine intervention in this land. And I just hope that they continue to pray because it's through our prayers that we are here today and we're all proud to be here. That was the reality. We all know it and above all, we all felt it. And I emphasize felt because there is a difference in feeling and hearing. Everywhere I went as a St. Lucia who travels abroad, everywhere I went, people were asking, what's going on in St. Lucia? What's happening to St. Lucia? Everywhere we went, national teams going away and people were asking, what was going on here? So where are we now? Mr. President, 12 months on in this new administration and as a student of psychology and sociology, I have seen and noted how this new government of the people, for the people and by the people, has been providing, sorry, competent, intensive care and begun to heal the wounds. It has generated a new type of vibe with a schedule of treatment that spells change, change, change and real change. Change that is focused on a reorientation of the mindset of our people by creating very deep vibrations. And all the changes taking place on all of these changes are taking place within an atmosphere of respect and understanding of each other, which is the foundation for a peaceful society. That's what this government is all about, a peaceful and prosperous society and we're working on this. So let's look at some of the change actions. Mr. President, this treatment plan is indeed about rebuilding our country. It's about inspiring confidence in all of us so we can stand up and be counted. It puts the growth of the economy into focus and the social development agenda of our people at the fore. It gives hope. In here, Mr. President, we have a series of strategic actions that will yield and inspire a renewed sense of work and well-being in our citizens. Mr. President, let us take a look back at some of the deliberate actions of this new administration which has aroused our people. We have woken them up. And so the first action, Mr. President, and the first order of business for us was our swearing-in ceremony, which was an all-inclusive affair. For the first time, it was held in an open public space in the town of Viewfort. People were shocked and were excited, but Viewfortians were elated that their community was chosen to lead that change. A simple activity which sent deep positive vibrations across the country, vibrations that signaled to the people of the South that the development of their area was going to be a priority for this administration. This is what we did. That's the first order of business. The second order of business, which was another phenomenal departure from the norm, was the announcement of the cluster of ministries, a different approach and structure which demands consistent dialogue and engagement and ministers working in teams. Citizens for weeks were in awe. Many sought after information and clearer understanding of how the clusters would work. I remember somebody saying to me, but you are lesser minister to spider? You understand because spiders seem to be in charge of the cluster and you are inside the ministry. How is this working? So we found ourselves providing a lot of information on how it can work and why it was different and why it was necessary for it to be different. That's how real change works. There was a search and thirst for information and of course people were demanding and asking questions. The important thing is they were inquiring about the new government structure. They were asking questions, so we shook them up and that was happening and we were happy. So that was the second thing we did. The third thing we did, Mr. President, and that's the next major statement on inclusiveness for us, was the right right here in this honorable house. We passed the legislation on the amendment to the Election Act. That ensures elections are or nominations, sorry, are not held on majority worship days. Right here we passed this. Ensuring, of course, that there is no obstacle whether philosophical or psychological to participation and that no politician at no time can play no cynical games and self-serving psychological games with the fundamental right of any citizen of this country. We must respect and facilitate the right of all citizens to participate in this once in every five years historic opportunity. We have to stop playing games with it and so right here we pass this legislation. Yeah, right here we did that. So that's the third thing. So we shaken the politicians up too. So we did that. The next thing we did, and the list goes on, but the fourth one we did was the Crown Proceedings Act. We passed the amendment to the Crown Proceedings Act to ensure that proceedings can be pursued against anyone any time that there is evidence that the state had been wronged. The message here is that the government will not tolerate any corruption and it will pursue those who have wronged it. But I hasten to add, Mr. President, that the execution of this law in particular is heavily dependent on the systems for accountability and transparency which are to be affected by our beloved public servants. I note that the director of audits, and I think I have a report somewhere here from the director of audit, the director of audits in her report for 2015, 2016, in this report for my colleagues in this report, she highlighted, she spoke to or she highlighted the lack of effective systems and risk management plans on critical projects resulting in cost overruns and wastage in government. We need to do something about it and that's the job of the public servants to do. This government means well, we want to avoid corruption but we need the public servants to assist us in ensuring that the systems within the establishment are clear enough so that it cannot happen. So we expect our public servants who are key to helping us achieve this to be proactive and work with us and be vigilant, yes my friend, to be vigilant and help us to prevent harm being done to the state and ensure that those who harm it face the consequences of the actions. This is the only way we can achieve what we're trying to do with the Crown Proceedings Bill. Mr. President, there are many more examples of change actions. The Jazz Festival, the Nice Initiative, the list goes on and on. But what I know is that, for a fact, is that these changes are for the better and if we are honest, we will all admit it. I am certain, Mr. President, you will agree with me. I'm certain, Mr. President, you'll agree with me that they were bold and daring. They were bold and daring and they were raising the consciousness of our citizens as never before. And that's why we are where we are today because the citizens have been shaken up. We've shaken them up and they're quite happy. But, Mr. President, within all of these gestures that I've spoken about, are important pillars for building that new St. Wusha we talk about. The pillars of inclusion, the pillars for respect and understanding, the pillar for participation and the pillar for accountability and transparency. These are the pillars upon which this government operates by. And I understand government well. I've done it for 34 years and I could tell you from sitting with my team that's what we are all about. Understanding, engaging, participating, working with people to realize change. There's sometimes you have to be bold and daring and there's sometimes you have to sit back and observe and watch what's happening. We are the point in this society where we need to push. We need to shake people up. And I think we've been able to do a good job of doing that over the last year. Mr. President, I really want to acknowledge the Honourable Prime Minister, Alan Chastney, who from all indications is a transformational leader. And I'm not just saying it because you heard my colleague mention it a while ago. Yeah? He's a transformational leader. He understands how this society works and is indeed focused on making the necessary changes for all of us to build that new society. He knows that harsh and hard decisions must be made if we have to move this country from its highest state of dependence to one of independence, where citizens recognize that they have the power to determine their own destiny. Mr. President, my Prime Minister, a Prime Minister I'm happy to serve under, he is fearless but respectful and we must commend and admire him as a country. Mr. President, leadership is not for people without gumption. It's not for people who have thin skin. It's not for people who cannot face the opposition or face the opponent or run away and run away. It must be for people who are not offended easily. It is for people who are prepared to engage and when they lose their bet, they accept their defeat but they go back and strategize and come again and try to do better next time. And that's the message you want to send to the young people of this country. That when we lose, we have to go back, work hard and come back and fight and not just give up easily and run away from the house. That's boyish and childish. And so one must have the gonads and it's unfortunate I don't have the two balls because I had a soft ball. I had a soft ball, Mr. Prime Minister, the soft sponge ball and I had a campo wheels to play cricket. And I was going to show the difference in the two but for some reason, I guess it was divine intervention. I forgot it at home this morning but one must have the gonads to stand up like Sir John did when as leader of this country, he publicly retorted that sticks and stones can break my bones but words care do me no harm. That's the mentality we want to be able to lead us. And so in the last four years, I have seen all types of insults and abusive language hurled at our Prime Minister. Today he's our Honorable Prime Minister. He has been abused. He's been abused and tested. He's the Prime Minister today and we've seen all of those. You know, I personally want to assure solutions as somebody who served in government in my previous life. I want to assure solutions that our Honorable Prime Minister is indeed prepared for the challenge. He's focused and very clear on the mission. All the signs of real positive change are there and I'm convinced that we will not be disappointed. Now the opposition knows that very well, you know. They know that very well and that's why there's a considered effort to create mischief and negative vibes and trying to catch at straws. And we all know in our students' companion what they see about people who catch at straws is drowning men who catch at straws and so every school child from grade five or even four would know that that's what drowning men do. So Mr. President, in the last year, under the leadership of Prime Minister Alan Shasne, we have seen every indication that our democracy is alive. And not only alive, it is very well because some of us are alive and we almost dead but our democracy is alive and well. Our people are even renewing their own commitment to actively participating in developments around them. The National Trust, Adrian, the National Trust, my colleague Senator, has seen significant increase in its membership and even its programming. The National Youth Council has been revitalized. Our telecoms providers are recording increasing sales because we're a lot more inquiring and we're talking. The Catholic Church is moving into uncharted waters. Our Calypsoians are having a fantastic season, yeah? All of this, you know, and the list can go on and on all because we have a leader who is facilitating and leading a real change movement. If you recall, Mr. President, about 12 months ago, just think back, 12 months ago, our favorite phrase was not a word, not a word, not a word. No one did speak out or no one did cry foul. Our citizens and more critically, our leaders, they feared reprisals if they stood up publicly on any issue. So we are in a good place, certainly a welcome change. As citizens, we know that we can protest without fear. They can even be assured, and these citizens can even be assured that we on this side of the house will give them a listening air and representation if needs be because we are government, like I said, of the people, for the people, and by the people, and we listen to the vibrations of our land. So we acknowledge the efforts of our Prime Minister, Shasne, for the consciousness creation, consciousness raising that is geared for change, and I say well done to him. And solutions must all understand that it is not business as usual. They must wake up and smell the coffee, and we want everybody to wake up and smell the coffee and be part of that journey with us. So Mr. President, I'm very happy to be a part of the change team, and in the cluster of the ministry of equity, social justice, empowerment, youth development, sports, culture, and local government, the agency responsible for the happiness of the people. That's what we are. We are the agency responsible for the people's happiness. Mr. President, our vision is for a society where people no matter their ethnicity, no matter their political affiliation, no matter their religious persuasion, no matter their educational level, no matter their social strata, that they have access to services that are facilitated to empower themselves to participate in nation-building, freely expressing themselves and realizing their potential for the glory and honor of our beloved country. And so as a ministry, we propose to ensure that in this way, one, by deliberately reaching out to our citizens in every nook and cranny of the country, with a structure that includes tentacles that reach the grassroots. For too long, you have some agencies that are not connected on the ground. And so we are hoping through our new structure that we can reach every nook and cranny of the country to ensure that people feel a part of the process with us. The second thing we are doing as part of that strategy, Mr. President, is that each area of the country has its uniqueness. It has its own resources. And so we will create the environment for our people to collectively take ownership and contribute to nation-building with that unique flavor that each region or district of the country brings. The third thing we're going to do is by affording and creating opportunity through constant engagement, constant dialogue, for showcasing our development of community resources and harnessing those for the economic and social development of the country. Through our extension services across the cluster of ministries, we will connect to and obtain feedback from communities and as many citizens as possible, whether it be in public assistance, in the arts, in sports, in youth, in community development, and in the staging of festivals and events. We will, through our local government system, stay in tune and facilitate the empowerment of our people and give them autonomy in the management of the resources within their jurisdiction or their jurisdictions. We have had some excellent models in Souffre and most recently in castries. And we'll be looking to replicate that model in other communities across the country. You see, Mr. President, the ministry represents the pulse of the nation. And so the staff of the ministry must connect with the people at the grassroots. They must connect. And we want everybody in Sinusha to know that if you're representing the ministry of equity, social justice, empowerment, youth development, sports, culture, you have to be on the ground with the citizens of this country. That is the only way this ministry can achieve the goals that it wants. We need to stay connected with them at the grassroots. So the staff themselves must be efficient and effective in the delivery of the services that they have to provide. They must see themselves as that link to fostering a better society. They are the presence of government on the ground. They must embrace that responsibility for programming and creating the environment for balance living by our citizens. And so, Mr. President, because of this critical function, our ministry will be reorienting and continuously training and strengthening our staff capacity to ensure that they are focused on the mission of facilitating empowerment. You see, Mr. President, when people are empowered, they become self-reliant and self-sufficient and in command of their own destiny. And they are happiest because they have a great measure of control over their being. This is where I was as a human being. This is where I was. And this is what I would want for all citizens of this country. This is what I want them to enjoy. That freedom, having that state of mind that you recognize you have control over and you are not easily persuaded by those around you. A type of mindset that propels one to relish a challenge, to be optimistic and focus on improving one's community. We need our country. We need our citizens to get to that point. It will take a lot of work, but this government is prepared to take us there. So in this budget, if you refer to the standard object classification schedule, you will see a total allocation of $97,000 representing the investment in staff training, et cetera, for this year. With respect to culture, Mr. President, and as the Minister of Culture and Local Government, I have been privy to many studies, many reports which have been undertaken in both areas. And I have all of them here. A whole stack of reports and studies, you know? Reports and studies, national cultural facility reports. Since 2011, they've been searching for a new place. You know, we have the consultancy to prepare regional strategic plan. We have the creative industries bill. We also have policy, strategic and institutional framework. We have a sound diplomacy report with respect to music, you know, and the list goes on and on. So I've got quite a few reports, Mr. President. And I certainly want to thank the previous administrations for the work that has been done in all of the areas and also all the consultants who placed their recommendations before the government of Senusia, which was sitting on the shelf. All of these were sitting on the shelf, sitting on the shelf, nothing running. It's now time for us to act and we will continue to build on where the previous administration left off. And when it never took off, we will take off. So we have begun the process. We've begun implementing step by step, program by program, one at a time. With respect to the legislative agenda, that's one of the most critical areas for us, Mr. President. There has been some work done in both areas of culture and local government. There is a draft creative industries bill, incentives bill, and a draft local government authorities bill, both of which will receive attention from us this year. We will also commence a review of the Copyright Act and visit the 17-year-old national cultural policy with a view to assessing its relevance and making it more applicable as we focus on developing the creative economy and our heritage tourism. There is also a draft, well, I mentioned the draft creative industries bill a while ago, which we mentioned already. But one of the other things we've done, or one of the critical things we've done this year, Mr. President, is that we have established the events company. And I know we've been talking about this events company for the last maybe two decades, but the events company is now here. And the events company has been established specifically to enhance efficiency in the production of national events and festivals and also to increase the contribution of national events and festivals to the culture, social and economic development of our country. The events company has delivered two events as part of the Soleil summer package. And Mr. President, the verdict is not yet in, as we do have four more major events this year with the events company. And we would prefer for solutions to evaluate us by the end of the series. I think for us that would be a better assessment. While internally we do our own assessments, we meet our stakeholders and engage, but we would want the nation to give us that evaluation and scorecard at the end of the series. But for us, this was an important step in redirecting and linking our culture directly to our tourism product. And we are happy that we have been able to begin this. We've started it. So we're happy. We've begun a new process. Mr. President, I wanna thank the board under the guidance of Mr. Donovan Williams, a very cooperative and professional permanent secretary. My heart goes out to him at this time, Mr. President. As you know, he and his wife Jackie lost their daughter along with Jati, I think another writer in the creative industries. They lost their daughters just recently in a tragic accident. And so as a nation, we moan with them and we extend our sympathies to them as well. But I want to thank him and of course also thank the board of directors of the events in Lucia. Ms. Agnes Francis, who is also gonna be leading the tourism authority. We have Don Chalway-John, an expert in the field of tourism. We also have Mr. Daniel Belizier, an event planner. We have, of course, Ms. Leandra Voneau and of course, Lampere Cherubin. These, that's a team that has been working with us. Underneath, of course, and receiving good support from people like Yves Renard and other people in the industry. I also want to compliment the staff of the events company headed by the CEO, Mr. Thomas Leiles, for sharing the people's vision of Saint Lucia and understanding the need and value for constant change and improvement. We look forward to the remaining events with great expectations. Mr. President, we also wish the team well as they continue to collaborate and network with other established agencies. In particular, our Cultural Development Foundation, the Folk Research Center, our communities, as they work to develop the events for which we have made increased resources of $12 million available this year. With respect to the Cultural Development Foundation, Mr. President, we see this institution as pivotal to the development of our culture and creative industries. The CDF must continue to move from its current psychological position of backseat passenger to front seat passenger. In this era where the arts is expected to contribute a greater percentage to our GDP, the CDF is expected to lift itself and take its rightful place in the development of our society. It must lead and it must be given the assets and tools to do so. We are conscious of that. We will spare no effort to ensure that that happens. Our folklorists and our artists, in particular our young ones, they must see the CDF as an institution that offers opportunity for enhancement of their person through culture and the arts. And the CDF must be appropriately structured to respond to that need that we have. In the last year though, we've seen significant programming by the CDF. The institution has tremendous potential and we will be capitalizing on that. In the last year, they did the Sound Waves project and that was a project designed to transform in youth at risk through music. The project costed 420,000 United States dollars with the CDB contributing a total sum of 380,000 and the government of course contributing the other 20 something thousand. The program catered of course to disadvantage youth from across the country. They came from all over. So for a view for shows and castries, you name it, all of them. And it provided training in critical life skills as well as information technology, music theory, performance, recording, engineering, business development, marketing, special emphasis on business for the music and of course web page design. The CDF is also working in tandem with partners like the CDB, the National Skills Development Center, the TVET unit within the Ministry of Education to ensure that our young people who are trained not only in this program, but in all areas of the arts that they are able to receive certification and qualification, which they can use in the marketplace and not only in this marketplace, but globally as well. Honorable minister, you have 10 minutes left and wish to come please. Yeah, thanks Mr. President. I will try to finish up in 10 minutes. Honorable minister Valfa. Mr. President, I wish to invoke standing order number 35 to allow the Honorable Senator for local government, Minister for local government and culture, 30, 20, to allow for 20 more minutes to complete her presentation. Honorable Senators, the question is that standing order 45 free be suspended be invoked sorry to allow the Senator an additional 20 minutes in which to complete her presentation. I now put a question as many as of that opinions here, as many as of our country opinions, you know. The eyes of it, the eyes of it. Minister, you have an additional 20 minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. President and thank you colleagues. Mr. President, the second component of that CDB project is a very interesting one. It speaks to the construction of a recording studio which the trainees and other disadvantaged youth can access. It is expected that this initiative will give a boost to the creative expression in music by making it possible for disadvantaged youth to record the musical compositions and improve market access. And so we are working with the CDF to realize the studio for disadvantaged youth. An interesting note though is in the new general of music, Creole Linguish or what they call Kuduro which has emerged here more particularly in areas like Dennery, Sarot and Ansleray. And Mr. President, we support this development and we will continue to assist our musicians in the development of the craft as well as launching that music originally and internationally with the assistance of agencies like TIPA which have expressed strong commitment to the recommendations in the consultancy from the international film Sound Diplomacy. My new Mr. President, a key principle that will guide our work in this area is that the lyrical content or the lyrics must be uplifting and inspiring and not denigrating any gender or group in our society. Additionally, there is need to ensure that our local indigenous music receive more airplay. And over the course of the next year, we'll be working with the media owners to discuss this issue and how we can work towards the transformation of the music industry and giving more airplay and more time to our local musicians on the airwaves. With respect to the creative industry, Mr. Speaker, or him and Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, we are actively expanding the offerings in culture and creative industries. And this is one of our major priorities or one of the major priorities of this new administration. We have already established the events company and over the course of the next year, we'll be working along with the Ministry of Education in delivering a school of excellence for creative arts by 2018. This school will nurture and cultivate a culture of entrepreneurship amongst our people supporting the need for diversifying and growing the economy in non-traditional revenue-generating areas. You understand what I said there? The school will nurture and cultivate a culture of entrepreneurship amongst our people supporting that need for diversifying and growing the economy in non-traditional revenue-generating areas. Mr. President, we also have established a small grants program. It was there before and we continue to work with it. A total of $200,000 has been allocated. It serves, of course, to support artists and artisans in the development of the craft. We have fine-tuned the criteria and only those artists who are registered in the cultural mapping program of the Cultural Development Foundation will be able to apply for consideration. Another important sector for us, Mr. President, is the film sector. Recognizing the significant revenue-generating potential for film, the Department of Creative Industries will continue to engage all stakeholders with the intention of realizing a solution that benefits our country. Mr. President, we must stop losing. We must stop losing out on box offices who have approached us consistently to film hair. Too many opportunities have passed us by as a country and there is lots of revenue to be earned from tapping this lucrative sector. And so we'll be working on this ASAP. I guess it would be remiss of me if I don't speak to the Carrie Fester issue, Mr. President, but permit me to indicate again that I am in receipt of the proposal for participation for Carrie Fester. Given the fiscal constraints, our government will only provide a measure of support that hinges on the ability of all involved to contribute to the expenses to facilitate their participation. I have also requested on the CDF the selection process. The object here is to be satisfied that every solution who chooses to participate in the arts and who wish to one day represent St. Lucia in the arts that they have an avenue and an opportunity to so do. So whatever we do, we need to ensure that every child in every part of this country stands a chance of getting there. Carrifter is the pinnacle of our local events. That's what we aspire to go to. And so we need to ensure that every St. Lucia who is involved in the arts across the country has a fair chance of making it there. And so we will support the team, but of course that team needs to come and say this is what we can contribute. We have to break the cycle of dependence on government for everything. The artists, we understand the challenges that they have in selling their products locally, but equally we believe that if it is done properly, if it is marketed properly, they can generate a lot of revenue and of course assist in the process of getting themselves out there. With respect to local government, Mr. President, we see it as an avenue through which we will deliver the services and facilitate empowerment of our citizens. In this new era, we expect each council to be able to account for its people. Councils must know where the vulnerable people in each of the jurisdictions are. And they must target it, they must target them. And that's what the ministry is currently working on. A system to be able to target with the local government councils, all the people who are on the ground in those communities, those who are suffering, those who need care, those who are well off, we need to know where our people are. And so we're working on this. Across the country, we have appointed those councils and of course, many of these people we've appointed have been involved in the development of their communities for years. We are indeed proud of these leaders. And Mr. President, I would just like to mention the names. And grossly our chairperson there is Mr. James Edwin. In Babano, we have Mr. Evestros John. In Casteries East, we have Ms. Rosemary Pialouie. In Dennery North, we have Mr. Aloysia Scamberbatch. In Dennery South, we have Ms. Gabriela St. Paul. In Miku North, we have Brenda Paul. In Miku South, we have Mr. Arson James. In Viewfort North, we have Mr. Paul Sammy. In Viewfort South, we have Mr. Orychi Dembo. That's a lady, of course. In Labry, we have Mr. Henry Amity. In Choselle Salty Bus, we have Mr. Brian Charles. In Souffre, we have Mr. Pius Grandgardeen. In Canaries, we have Mr. Andrew Lansico. In Ancelere, we have Mr. Stephen Griffith. And in Casteries, we have Mr. Peterson Francis. Now, Mr. President, I want to highlight the fact that in setting up the councils, all of our parliamentarians, all the elected parliamentarians, were invited in accordance with the Constituency Council's Act to make nominations. Or, I want to applaud those representatives who responded to the invitation to be a part of this established system for inclusion in our democracy. And I want to chide those, because you have those who come here and speak, but they refuse to accept their basic responsibilities for the people. And they know themselves. The message will reach the desired persons. But the show goes on. Mr. President, let me take this opportunity to applaud all the councils on the work that they have done to date. In particular, Mr. President, I want to commend the Casteries Constituency Council on the valiant effort, particularly the mayor. His worship, the mayor, Peterson Francis has made with his team to begin that process of restoration of pride in our city, which turned 50 years of age on 11th March, 2017. Mr. President, I can safely say, with respect to the human resources at the city council, we have found the right mix. We have a mayor who understands the vision, and it's always important for people to understand the vision. I heard my colleague, independent senators, speak to sharing that vision. And so the mayor understands the vision and the direction that our country is headed, and where the city fits into the scheme of things. He has a good understanding of that. The city council is now professionalized. In all areas of management, we have the right pegs in the right holes. Our team of professionals are guided by the long ethics, an understanding of the environment, and an understanding of the value and the process of revitalizing that city of Casteries, that wonderful city that gave both to me. We have been realizing much returns due to... We've been realizing much returns due to efficiencies and effective use of the resources of the council. In fact, companies are holding up and paying the taxes with ease because of the renewed confidence in the operations of the council. And you know, Mr. President, I just want to bring to your attention, when the team took on the council, they found a situation where there were a number of phantom workers. And in one case, there were 72 phantom workers earning $38,000 per fortnight. When the mayor did his checks through the system, only 13 of these people were legitimate. And there are many more situations like this. But he's done a good job. And we're dealing with the situation. But Mr. President, I want to add that the Casteries City Council has taken a new approach. Solutions would have seen the transformation of the building. And it's not just the building being repaired, but it's a building maintenance project which is being pursued in keeping with our agenda or developing that culture of maintenance around our public buildings. We believe that if we want the business community to spruce up their buildings and enhance their surroundings, we too must be do likewise. So we are building a new St. Lucia by not just talking, but setting the example. And so when we saw the removal of the vendors around the pavements of the Ave Maria School, I guess a lot of people were happy about this. But for me, it was a real shame that as a country, we had allowed a school, you understand, to be abused in that way. And I think it was so sad. And if there was a disaster, Mr. President, the children in that school would have all perished easily. And so we're happy that the mayor took steps to address that problem. And you asked the question, where were we the last 20 years? Where were we to allow that kind of chaos around the Ave Maria Primary School? With respect to our city police, we commissioned it last year and we are continuing to explore synergies with the Royal St. Lucia Police Force in working to ensure a safe and secure city for all through their community-based policing strategy. So, Mr. President, we commend the mayor again and his team and applaud them for being transparent in their undertakings to ensure that our city becomes the most favorite place in the Caribbean to do business and have fun. And they're doing this with the same allocation, the same allocation, the same allocation. And I say same a hundred times because people seem to believe that they're getting more money, the same allocation of $4 million per year from the government of St. Lucia. So we continue to give them the credit for the work that they have done and what they've been able to achieve. Mr. President, I mentioned earlier that in the coming year, we will be refining the draft local government bill and we will be working to institute a local government election regime for implementation by the next tone of local government. With respect to capital projects on the local government, we have received an allocation of just over $3 million and it is anticipated that we will complete the Souffre town square, the Grosjele HRDC, as well as provide some much needed equipment to some of our human resource centers. There's also some provision for the electrical wiring at the National Cultural Center. Mr. President, in these hard economic times, the government continues to substantially contribute to voluntary organizations under the voluntary organizations, particularly those under the remit of the ministry and there are many of them. But for youth development and sports, a total of $844,000 is issued to organizations. In social justice, a total of 1.7 million is issued. In culture and local government, we have 14.2 million. Of course, 12 million goes to the events company and the remaining 1.6 goes to the Cultural Development Foundation. Mr. President, I shudder to think of what our society would be like without these organizations and the many volunteers that serve them. These organizations represent the soul of our nation and we will never be able to repay them for the tremendous work and positive vibrations that they create in our society. The sense of family they offer, the structure they bring, the consciousness they create and there are many of them under the remit of our ministry and I speak of organizations such as the homes for the elderly and the vulnerable, the differently able, the uniform groups such as the Red Cross, the St. Lucia Girl Guides Association, the St. Lucia Cadet Corps, the St. Lucia Scouts Association, you have the junior achievers, you have the National Youth Council and it's affiliates, the District Youth and Sports Councils across St. Lucia. We have the SEA Perfinders, we have the National Sports Associations, you have the Folk Research Center. Mr. President, I salute them and I also salute the sports groups. I salute the under 16 or the under 15 team that won the fourth consecutive Winwin Islands Cricket Tournament just recently. I also salute our young cricketer Hiana Joseph of the Quaring Secondary School who is a current member of the West Indies women's team. The last time we had a women's team was in 2000, 17 years ago. You understand, our women made the team and so I acknowledge her and we recognize her and we compliment her. I also acknowledge our boxing team that recently won the OECS championship and note the current effort by the Boxing Association to establish its own headquarters, to continue to contribute meaningfully to the development of our country. I applaud the St. Lucia Olympic Committee which will formally open its own headquarters for its membership of 20 National Sports Associations in the coming months. I want to recognize individuals like Mr. Peterkin Richard who continues to serve across the globe as an ambassador for St. Lucia for sport. He also serves as treasurer of the continental body for sports and on the International Olympic Committee which is the pinnacle of sports. He's there representing our interests as well and he represents the entire region as well. I also say well done to the uniform groups, maintaining discipline and order, structure and challenging our young people. I also want to record the passing of Commander Lawrence James. This is a young man who served the Cadet Corps for years. He was a reporter for sports and youth development and Lawrence was a professional who was as cool as a cucumber but resolute in his work. Mr. President, the work of these organizations is too important for us to ignore in forums like this or forums like this. That's why I chose to spend some time on the vibes that they bring in the hope that more of our people will seek them out as avenues to contribute meaningfully particularly in the era of change that we are in. We cannot take them for granted. Saint Lucia recently hosted the Queen's Battle Relay. Her excellency, the Governor General, received that baton with signal, the commencement of the Commonwealth Games and of course the games will be held in the Gold Coast. Saint Lucia will be set in a team and what was interesting for us is that the battle was here. We also got the opportunity to engage the team from the baton, Saint Lucia is set in a team to the games in the Bahamas which is where the youth games are gonna be held and if you recall the youth games, Saint Lucia withdrew from hosting the youth games because we did not have the means to host it and so Saint Lucia will be set in a very strong contingent of 28 to the games in the Bahamas as a signal of our commitment to sport which is what we wanted to demonstrate when we agreed to host the games some years ago. In terms of youth development and job creation, youth of course is our present and they are pivotal to the development of all sectors in our country. So Mr. President, in building a new Saint Lucia, it requires that we not only create jobs but we create opportunities for young people that will facilitate them in culturing the work ethic and the mindset required for that new environment that we are creating. Where young people recognize that they have a stake in our country's tomorrow. Where they can dream and live their dreams and not blame others for their failures. Where they can work and stick and work with, sorry, where they can work with the stick to itiveness that a Laverne Spencer displays and you know, every time Laverne goes out we all are excited because we know something good will happen for our country. That's how some of us live of the good things that happen in our society and so she continues to radiate that for us. Where our young people, we would want to know that our young people are as respectful and determined and charismatic as a Darren Sammy who is a genuine champion, who understands competition, who knows what it is to face the opposition and go out there and beat them up. That's what we have to teach our young people to do. Face them, beat them, look them in the eye and beat them. We need to be able to do that. We need men who can stand up and do that and Darren Sammy can attest to that. He knows what it is to be a real champion. Where we have young people who are composed and humble and grateful as a Johnson Charles. Where they are as resilient as a Boo Hingson who has stood the test of time with his music. Where they are adaptive as a team of people where they know how to frustrate those who are trying to frustrate them like the father of this nation, Sir John did. And where they can chant like a shanty as they go about the daily chores. That's the type of young people that we want to have in our society. In this regard, Mr. President, we are revisiting the early childhood education curriculum to make it more relevant to building and sustaining a new Saint Lucia. We have also included citizenship and soft skills training in the school's curriculum so that we are better able to churn up young people who are ready for the world of work as entrepreneurs and employers and not only as employees. Our social cluster of ministries is paying close attention to our youth at risk within and without the school setting. The program offerings in the coming year will include all those that would allow for exploration of self and new areas of endeavor by young people. The youth empowerment program, the NAPS program, the after school programs, the National Skills Development Center will all work with our strategic partners to ensure that our young people are ready and certified for the world of work. Mr. President, further with respect to job creation, we have passed legislation that facilitates the ease of doing business by major corporations. We are fine tuning legislation with regards to facilitating our small businesses. We remain committed to the apprenticeship program which provides a measure of support to local businesses that wish to contribute to job creation. We are working to establish the Pearl of the Caribbean project. We have designed, we have signed agreements for two major call centers in artificial intelligence. And even while we speak, we have a number of construction projects to be implemented across the country. Mr. President, we are determined to assist our young people, to enable them to move from a state of dependence to one of independence as young adults in our society. Mr. President, fixing this broken country is a challenge. It's a challenge that requires us to push ourselves outside the box, to explore the unknown and create the results that we want. And we can do it. We have the capacity as a people to do it. We have an amazing team in here. Our team has persons who worked under the tutelage of the great Sir John George Melvin Compton, the father of this nation. Sir John taught us how to love our country, how to achieve, how to make that difference. So we are ready. Our team is ready. I am ready. And the environment is now right for us to take off. I particularly want to thank the staff of the various agencies, the CDF, the corporate center, the department of local government who continue to display a great level of professionalism in the delivery of their services to our country. I hope that over the next year, we can increase the level of efficiency so that our citizens can feel the positive vibrations because it's one thing for the politicians to be articulating and talking, but it's another thing for those persons who have the responsibility to execute, to actually go out and make it happen. And so we're hoping that over the next year, we can see a lot more of that and we can feel the positive vibrations and be proud as we can chant and we can chant the words of our Nobel laureate, Derek Walcott, saying, I say, I certainly see. I say, I saw tea. It's there I was born. I therefore want to reiterate my support for this budget. And thank you, Mr. President, for your indulgence. Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Planning, Natural Resources, and Cooperatives. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, I rise in support of this 2017-2018 budget presentation by my government. Mr. President, I am honored and humbled to make my main budget presentation in this Honorable Chamber. I wish to first thank Mr. President and Mr. President the Almighty for the opportunity to be here. I also wish to thank the many supporters of the United Workers Party, who placed their trust in me in the two weeks leading up to the June 6th general election. Mr. President, I also would like to take the opportunity to thank the prime minister for affording me this opportunity in his cabinet. To my many friends and family members who stood every day by me for the two weeks, I say thank you. Mr. President, since the election, the star boy of the Labour Party is no more. No more ministers' accounts. That scandalous ministers' account. I would also like to say, Mr. President, thank you to the Department of Physical Planning for the support for the past year. Mr. President, through the grace of God, the people of this country spoke on June 6th, 2016, with confidence, purpose, passion, and quiet resolve. Mr. President, I am humbled to be part of a great team of men and women who remain committed, passionate, and charged with timeless energy to transform this beautiful country of ours and to harness its vast human potential for the benefit of mankind. This team of ours, Mr. President, is a team, a government that is at its core, at its very core, that is endowed with the DNA of service to people through a people-centered approach to development and good governance. Mr. President, a group of individuals listening to the concerns of the people of this country and act on it. A group of individuals, Mr. President, with empathy, healing, and awareness, and conceptualization. As a government, we seek to nurture the abilities of the nation to dream great dreams for the benefit of the people. We have the foresight to understand the lessons from the past, the realities of the present, and the likely consequences of decisions for the future. We are a government, Mr. President, of stewardship. Peter Block, the American offer consultant and speaker in the areas of organizational development, community building, and civic engagement has defined stewardship as holding something in trust for the greater good of society. Those who were previously trusted to lead this country failed miserably in the performance of their duties, and hence, Mr. President, the United Workers Party was voted back in office to provide true vision, leadership, and positive direction to this country of ours. We, Mr. President, are building a new St. Lucia. Mr. President, this government is committed to the growth of people and is passionate about the development and building of communities. As a servant of the people, we believe that people have an intrinsic value beyond the tangible contributions as workers. Mr. President, we believe our people deserve more than step to make nice things for them. Such an approach to governance is short-sighted at best and devoid of vision at worst. Mr. President, our task as a responsible government is to nurture the astonishing potential of our people to achieve extraordinary outcomes as we endeavor to move this country to a path of growth and progress. Mr. President, I reiterate, we are building a new St. Lucia. Mr. President, as a people-centered government, we are committed to a great vision guided by strategic development plan led by our visionary prime minister, dedicated to effective financial and prudent financial management. Also, Mr. President, focused on human potential, development to provide transparent and accountable outcomes and results to move this country forward. Mr. President, the legendary management theories and practitioners, Peter Ferdinand Jerker, reminds us that management is doing nothing right, but leadership is doing the right things. Mr. President, doing the right things requires boldness and innovation. It is about communication, the vision and message as well as the tough decisions as the increases needed to raise money to fix the roots. Mr. President, the task ahead of us is reforming this country and putting it on the right trajectory is a mom-of-one, but we are undeterred and we remain steadfast and resolute. We are building a new St. Lucia. We need to get the right skill sets in the right places with the right attitudes to build capacity based on talent, giftings, and emotional intelligence. We are building, Mr. Speaker, a new St. Lucia. Mr. President, that is a part of what the Prime Minister was speaking to when he spoke about the educational revolution on page 23 of his budget address. Mr. President, we are getting on with the people's business of rescuing St. Lucia. And putting this country back on track. Mr. President, what the members opposite did not expect from us is that we have the courage, the tenacity, drive and passion to do what must be done to move this country forward. Mr. President, we have a leader who is not thin-skinned. He is designed and engineered to take the blues. Most times unnecessarily. Because he believes in the potential and capacity of this country and which is beyond the stretch and the elasticity of our normal limitations to achieve extraordinary outcomes through faith, hard work, dedication, innovation and people's participation. Mr. President, our leader is fearless. Bold. Daring. Not because he is afraid. He is unafraid. But because he does not let the fear of what could happen make nothing happen. And that is, Mr. President, why he goes the way. Because he knows the way and naturally shows the way. Mr. President, this year's budget is designed to grow and build a new and greatest inclusion. The Honorable Prime Minister has articulated a budget premise on a courageous, determined and farsighted program. Mr. President, on page 11 of the budget, the Prime Minister outlined the strategic areas of focus that will be aggressively and progressively pursued over the next four years with the underlying aim of achieving sustainable and inclusive growth. These areas outlined as follows, Mr. President, creating sustainable development, re-engineering social services, improving security and justice, building capacity in renewable resources, adapting to climate change and, Mr. President, reforming government to make it more responsive to the business community and citizens. On that note, Mr. President, this is a clear reminder that the fundamental plan of democracy is based on the government for the people of the people and by the people. We, the members of the United Workers' Party, are building a new St. Lucia. Mr. President, permit me a few minutes in order to deal with some household matters which needs to be dealt with before moving on to the substance of my very first budget presentation. Mr. President, I have observed the Labour Party in government from 97 and their propensity to increase the debt unsustainably. I come to the conclusion that this type of government and the Labour Party policies would not and still are not right for this country. Mr. President, the Labour Party management of the affairs of this country was not good at its best. The people of this country deserve better and so they voted them out of office once again in 2016. Mr. President, the parliamentary representative for Derrinov in his budget contribution for 2017-2018, he made mention of many issues which I believe needs to be addressed. Mr. Speaker, I again seek some latitude to answer some of these burning issues. First and foremost, Mr. Speaker, the representative insinuated, Mr. Speaker, that I portray myself as the parliamentary representative of the constituency through my activities throughout the constituency. Mr. President, I have a passion for this particular community, this constituency, the Derrinov constituency. I have spent majority of my life in that particular constituency. Actually, Mr. Speaker, I was raised in the community of Grand Riviera, part of the Derrinov. Mr. President, I am presently in a strategic position to assist persons within the different communities in that constituency. Mr. President, do you believe that it is fair or even right for someone to seek my assistance and I should turn them away? Mr. President, this is my nature to help and assist people. Every time this thing happens, I remember my mother clearly saying, I'm not going to have anything. Why? Because every time someone comes to me and says, could you help me out with this? Could you help me out with that? And there I try my best to assist in whatever way I can. Mr. President, why ask persons who require assistance to travel all the way to castries to see me when I could speak with them right there in the valley? I remember constituents crying out, going to constituency office spending hours, hours. Mr. President, lo and behold, they can't speak to the parliamentary representative. This is not me. This is not in my nature, Mr. President. Mr. President, a number of us tend to forget that the constituents are the ones important in this equation of politics. We have the tendency to forget that they are the ones who assist us in getting our salaries. What's so wrong in spending some time with them? I'm not going to stop hanging out around the nuke and cronies of the valley. I'm not going to stop socializing with persons throughout the various communities. I will continue to lend a listening ear to everyone, whether it be red, yellow, black, green, blue, whichever I am going to be there. Mr. President, the parliamentary representative again stood idly by. I could remember this thing clearly like it was yesterday and did nothing while people outside of the community were employed and not a single soul from the Tiller issues area was able to eat a bread. Mr. President, the parliamentary representative could not have at least engaged the contractor and pleaded for him to employ a few young men from that particular community. These residents stood there every day watching work being done and they did not gain a cent from it. Is that fair? Is that right? That is the kind of poor representation, Mr. Speaker, in sensitivity. I don't care attitude. Mr. President, that's what's being displayed by the parliamentary representative for this particular constituency. Last year, Mr. President, I was attending the swimming ceremony of the Derenov-Constituency Councils seated at the head table in my capacity as a cabinet minister and the MP for the Derenov constituency nearly got a heart attack. Why, you may ask, Mr. Speaker, why? It appears to be that this gentleman is so threatened by me that he can sit at the head table with me. Mr. President, the wonderful people of the valley will continue to invite me to community functions and I will continue to make myself available whenever I can. By the way, the current senator from Derenov-South, Mr. President, what I saw during the ceremony on the Derenov playing field last year as a matter of fact and with views of tapes, particularly at football competitions, you can see him following the Deren Minister very closely, like a close protection officer or bodyguard prior to elections. Nothing for that. Mr. President, it appears that the rep is more informed of the matters that happens in cabinet, apparently. It appears that it spends more time there than I do, despite the fact that 95% of the times I am there. And when I'm not there, Mr. President, I am being told what happens. Mr. President, the member neglected to mention in his presentation that the school assistance program and also the step included supporters of both sides of the political divide. He never mentioned that his supporters are still employed in the elderly care program and are even serving as supervisors because we are concerned with capacity and not party. We are responsible government, a caring government, a government that is inclusive, whether you are red, again, I will repeat, whether you are red, you are yellow, green, blue, whichever color. Mr. President, nothing substantial was done for us farmers in the constituency. The farm roads are now being rehabilitated thanks to the Minister of Agriculture. Mr. President, a number of farmers are back on the farms because our faith, because of our faith in the farmers in the country. We have carefully and deliberate policies to ensure that farmers can earn a living. Mr. President, the Labour Party killed agriculture and made the farmers of this country suffer. Our government, the government of the United Workers' Party will continue to work hard to make farming a respectable way of living in this country. Mr. President, this government has distributed more fertilizer to more farmers than ever before and on both sides of the political divide. It is not about politics, farmers are the backbone of this economy all farmers, whether from the Salvation Committee, whether the Kupe or Pa Kupe. We are not about playing politics as we are focused on getting the farmers back on the farms and to produce for this nation. Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, sorry, then we know is a farming community very little in the last four years very little Mr. Speaker was done for agriculture to sustain any kind of agriculture in this particular constituency. And mind you, there was a representative there was a representative in cabinet elected representative that is. I believe Mr. President that when investment is made by any government by any government in agriculture what happens is that no one especially in the denny of basin persons are involved in agriculture they don't depend on any government why? Because they have most likely they have a salary coming in every week every fortnight they are not going to come to any politician a tea canal or anything of that sort why? Because they have money coming into their pockets every time I want to extend on this Mr. President by saying that I personally believe in the eras of the deceased prime minister from a prime minister, Sir John Campton the last 40 years the country was not dependent and persons were not dependent on government why? One of the main reasons I believe is that they were not dependent on any government because every week they could have gone down to castries of few fort every week every friday and they had monies in the pocket so they were not bothered if what was happening in the country because they had monies in the pocket they had monies in the pockets every week or every two weeks. I want to move on to some youth matters Mr. President on page 22 of the budget address Mr. President the Honourable Prime Minister under the section re-engineering social services spoke to a more equitable and just society he went further to say that all sections of our population particularly the most vulnerable must have access to systems that provide support and services Mr. President the realism of recognizing and acknowledging the importance of the social dimension of economic development is critical as we build a society that is proactive and embraces risk in a positive way as the Prime Minister explained Mr. President this new society of ours must be anchored on pillars of the individual the family Mr. President there is a clear recognition that sustainable economic development cannot be achieved unless and until social development also takes place consequently the social dimensions of economic development and productivity are as important as the economic dimensions and so Mr. President our Prime Minister is right on target when he stated on page 22 of his address that our social services regime must be reoriented Mr. President our empowered youth stands the chance of succeeding in this society unlike those who lack such opportunities empowerment can be carried out by carried out by self or sponsored being sponsored or self empowered support is very important as it beautifies the youth and the country as a clutch Mr. President I now move on to my department the Department of Physical Planning Mr. President under policy planning and administrative services within the capital expenditure there is an amount of 198,445 dollars for the expansion of the Union storage facility the Department of Physical Planning Mr. President currently has two metal containers at Union which are utilized for the document storage as the cash of documents increases additional space is needed to create both offsite and in-house to accommodate new documents given the nature of the services being provided particularly by the Department of Physical Planning Mr. President documents are received daily on an average of 1100 applications applications in paper format annually for the process these applications are bulk as they include large copies of construction joins and other types of plans it is not uncommon Mr. President for technical staff to have to retrieve files that have been archived to assist with the assessment of new proposals it is against this back job that this Government has agreed to expand and upgrade the existing Union storage facility while consideration is being given to establish a secure digital storage platform for the Ministry's documents this project Mr. President is expected to meet the Department's storage needs in the medium to long term reduce document retrieval time improve security of documents and also allow for more comfortable staff accommodation within the various sectors of the Department Mr. President all pre-construction activities approval is expected to be completed all pre-construction activities sorry Mr. President that is preparation of designs and bills of quantities electrical and structural certification development control authority approval is expected to be completed by September construction end of construction by December and facility fully operational by January of 2018 Mr. President in looking at the computerization of the land registry and we all know all the issues faced at the land registry for the past year Mr. President working half day for a long time now Mr. President I'm happy to report Mr. President working back on track working the entire day the land registry automation of databases of lands with an allocation Mr. President of $193,620 the land registry is a service oriented section it plays a critical role in the economic development of the state it is the high traffic section since many transactions are dependent on the efficient operations of the section all segments and sectors of society including the ministry itself relies on the product provided by this section as a result of the foregoing it is critical that the digitization initiative is completed and the section be equipped with competent and knowledgeable staff members a number of challenges Mr. President unmotivated members of staff and high absenteeism due to poor working condition security concerns Mr. President have created security concerns have created some security concerns have created some alarm for employees a lack of surveillance footage in the office of the registry of lands defeats the purpose for which it was intended Mr. President the staff transfers or staff transfers of experienced and knowledgeable staff members have left a brain drain within the section this will be addressed seeking to adhere Mr. President to a lot of sometimes conflicts with the administrative demands of this ministry Mr. President a review and amendment of the land registry act which provides which gives effect to the current processes of the section is currently being undertaken front desk computer is a problem the progress of the computerization initiative is quite slow due to the technical and operational issues this initiative has been in effect for over eight years now Mr. President the computerization initiative is intended to be undertaken in the two phase process currently the land registry Mr. President is still operating within the first phase however a timeline of one year was given to ensure its completion so that the benefits of the project through the implementation of phase 2 can be realized Honourable Minister you have fifteen minutes Mr. President Mr. President the manner in which they seek to undertake this project was briefly explored during previous informal discussions with the company the company has a critical technical project coordinator who previously held the position of registrar of lands this tactical this technical expertise and knowledge of the land registry makes a competent option to pursue in going forward regarding this automation initiative further Mr. President meetings with this company will determine whether they will be the best option to complete this initiative given the need for the automation to be completed within the time expressed above and avoid the extensive delay which has persisted over the years in completing only the first phase of the project Mr. President based on a review of the aforementioned pieces of legislation sorry in order to provide the legislation proposals by the various sections of the department of physical planning Mr. President the following pieces of legislation will examine the Crown Lands Act the Land Survey the Physical Planning and Development Act and the Land Registry Act this is a review of the aforementioned pieces of legislation the overriding broad policies objective is the need to revise archaic acts and strengthen existing legislation in order to improve efficacy and compliance with the said acts the Land Registry Act I would like to touch on Mr. President the bill is intended to incorporate greater access to the public regarding Land Registry information also Mr. President simplify some of the Land Registry procedures and make it more adaptable to modern day life preparing the computerization of the Land Registry records assisting in the ease of doing business also Mr. President the Land Acquisition Budget has been increased to $14 million while it has it does not begin to address the issues faced at the department with regards to the acquisition of land for compensation finally Mr. President there is no doubt in my mind that our country is moving in the right direction I have full confidence in my leader in taking our country again I have full confidence in my leader in taking our country out of the mess which we inherited from the Labour Party and I have no doubt again I have no doubt that our beautiful island will be back on track once again I thank God for being here and I want to join my other colleagues in the appropriations bill for this financial year I thank you Minister for help fellow Senators guests of this honorable senate good afternoon media personnel fellow Senators it is wonderful to be here with you once again to conduct government business special good afternoon to you Mr. President it surely has been a long day for us usually we are out of here by now I wish to of course wish all public workers a very happy public service day as we all look forward to a very exciting and bright year ahead it is indeed sad today that our opposition Senators are not here of course I have grown used to at least having somebody on the other side to oppose if not just for opposing sake at least in the name of representation nevertheless the work of this country our downtrodden country must continue and every effort must made to regain our prominence in the region and the world and to bring some sense of civility and national pride back to our people in St. Lucia I want to take this opportunity Mr. President to thank all the doctors and nurses who work tirelessly in our healthcare institutions taking care of our sick families, relatives and friends I truly appreciate the care that they provide day after day and the extenuating circumstances and to them I say thank you for serving so well I wish to thank the staff of the ministry whom upon becoming minister of health and wellness they welcomed me to the ministry and they have continued to assist me to carry out the mandate of our healthcare sector to my fellow cabinet colleagues I want to say that it has been truly an honor to serve with such a special group of people the experience has made me more tolerant more understanding and a better person all in all our prime minister and of course we have heard much about him today but that is because in our heart of hearts we understand what it is that we the people of St Lucia have put this prime minister through Mr. President my heart goes out to our prime minister to his family the first lady and to both of these families I say you cannot begin to imagine or understand the warmth the love and the caring that comes from these two families I do not know Mr. President if you are aware that we have merged we have merged two of the most prominent most conscientious most decent and honest and most giving families we have in St Lucia in the first lady and our prime minister these two families Mr. President it's not only that they have means but they share those means with the entire community they have given they give and they continue to give to the people of St Lucia Mr. President I started by asking if you are aware that Mr. Dunstan Dibole our first lady's father he served as minister for a term for a government and during his service he never took a salary from government he never took a salary from the government of St Lucia he served without getting paid and this is how good this family has been to our country St Lucia so when we hear people making derogatory remarks and trying to take down any of these two families as private citizens of this country ought not to tolerate it it is a disgrace so our prime minister he is truly a rare gem in this society where in the world in this day and age you find a man with such vision with wisdom foresight and insight I want to say here today this is a man of pure substance look at his posture Mr. President fearless and you've heard it here today he goes where no one else want to go without security and without fear there is no nuke or cranny in St Lucia that our prime minister fears to tread that is a leader true leadership and I want to place on record here today that among all the prime ministers that I see in the region our prime minister stands at the top and is the best prime minister in the entire Caribbean I thank our prime minister for allowing me this opportunity to serve my country at a level where I can make a difference so it is with wholeheartedness that I stand in this honorable house to fully support the appropriation bill 2017-2018 Mr. President I believe more has been said here than I can ever say to you we at the ministry responsible for our nation's health and wellness recognize that our population has aged at a much faster rate than our level of development in this country over the past two decades we have seen sustained high life expectancy at both and people living much longer than they used to before we believe that this is driven by a reduction in communicable diseases as major causes of death and illness diseases such as HIV and AIDS yellow fever sexually transmitted diseases these diseases are more or less under control now and what we are seeing is a reduction of these diseases in our society I want to pause here to say when we speak about HIV and AIDS we tend to target a certain group of persons and I want to beg you today to consider the fact that any one of us can be struck with these illnesses that we tend to target certain groups of having I do not want to lead you in a vacuum here so I'm going to say when we speak of HIV and AIDS we tend to target a certain group of persons and we ought to develop a higher level of tolerance in our society for all people of all colours and all ages we also believe that is as a result of a steady reduction in fertility we have seen women today postponing child bearing until a much later age and a lot of women in our society are only having one child per family as opposed to four per family about 20 years ago so all of this has resulted in a healthcare system having to change its modus operandi we now have to refocus our priorities that has impacted on our demographics and that is also mirrored by our biological changes so the emergence of chronic non-communicable diseases has taken over the cause of death which used to be communicable diseases we also have the increase in premature deaths due to violence and injury as a result of these new changes Mr President we must urgently shift and re-engineer the way that we look at life and healthcare we have to look at place a greater focus on healthy aging as well as a better quality of life throughout the life cycle we must provide the best maternal on child healthcare for the fewer babies that are being born and I want to report here today that the ministry has successfully eliminated the mother-to-child transmission of HIV and AIDS in St Lucia that is quite an accomplishment because we are one of the few countries in the world that has been able to do that we also must eliminate the risk factors for hypertension, diabetes cancers and other NCDs to improve quality of life NCDs are the main causes of death and morbidity in St Lucia by NCDs I mean non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and so on and so forth in 2014 NCDs contributed to 81% of total deaths compared to 71% in 2008 so these NCDs are the leading causes of death in St Lucia today that is cancer, heart disease strokes, diabetes and diabetes but this year Mr. Speaker this year marks the 10th year that the curriculum heads of government promised to unite to stop the epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases so we are of course focusing on reducing smoking of tobacco in public places and there is a draft legislation that speaks to that that is currently with the AG we also are looking at unhealthy diets lack of exercise and other risk factors that contribute to the development of NCDs we have recognized that we need a multi-sectoral holistic society approach in order to challenge the rising impact of NCDs in our population and as a result the following policy decisions have commenced and will be fulfilled in the coming financial year we will reestablish the national multi-sectoral NCD commission of course I have already mentioned the legislation and regulations to engender tobacco smoke free public places which is currently in draft form we will promote healthy foods and increase physical activity in schools by engaging the relevant stakeholders we particularly want to target food items such as soft drinks in the schools because while we are complaining that in the school cafeterias we have soft drinks in some school cafeterias even when we look at removing those soft drinks in the cafeterias in a lot of schools we have the vendors right outside of the schools selling those very same drinks that we are asking to be eliminated from the school cafeteria so what you really doing is you asking the school child to get out of the school and go right outside and get one of those soft drinks which is really unhealthy for them so we have to look at strategies so that we can remove these kinds of unhealthy foods on the school premises in the school as well as on the school premises and you know we are saying we need a holistic approach because we do not want to try and do this and then you hear as soon as they ask the vendors to move away from the school that everybody start saying how they are making a little leave in and they have to make a bread and this and that because at the end of the day if we do not do that it is costing the country a lot more money to take care of the resulting illnesses that will occur later down the road and these very same people who are saying that they have to make a bread and so on they themselves are doing more harm than good to the people whom they are providing these soft drinks to so we are going to take a very proactive approach in terms of getting rid of these unhealthy foods out of the schools and I want to applaud the mayor of Cassries for clearing all around the Ave Maria and the RC boys and so on because that really was an eyesore and a real health hazard for the children that attend those two schools Mr. President we also must detect and control from the onset new and emerging reemerging communicable diseases whether they originate within this country or outside illnesses such as Zika, Chikungunya yellow fever we have to be able to detect these diseases before they really affect or impact our population we must also reduce the premature deaths and illnesses due to violence and injury our entire country can relate to the loss of lives due to violence and injury Mr. President deaths due to the illegal drug trade gang violence vehicular accidents economic strangulation and these things continue to rage havoc among our people particularly among the youth our population must understand Mr. President that any activity that has the potential to cut down on one's life is not a viable option our people must learn to work hard to afford their needs and to take pride in doing so and we have heard the Minister of Culture speak on those issues bringing back the pride in our people it is not worth making a quick buck at the cost of losing one's life Mr. President our people must understand what God intended when He gave us the commandment thou shall not kill killing someone is not a solution because after the person is dead the reason why the person was killed in the first place continues to exist we kill each other and that does not solve the problem it does not bring comfort to anyone so we have to just stop that sort of scourge in our society it is putting a lot of pressure on the healthcare system because some people in those kinds of violent acts they end up just being deformed they spend lots of time in our hospital that is already under pressure and a lot of them do not have the care that they need when they go home they repeat visits so it is putting a lot of pressure on our healthcare system you had an ambulance all the time and where is it going to the hospital so we really need to curb those activities in our society I can understand that the root of it all may well be socio-economic conditions because a lot of people complain that it is because people do not have work people have no jobs therefore they engage in negative activity I understand they have to survive and I know that this government is putting every emphasis and making job creation a priority so when they tell you about preserving your patrimony for those 40% also who are unemployed ask them who exactly will enjoy that patrimony after somebody gets cut down in a violent act who is going to enjoy that patrimony the dead man's children the mother who has died her children will enjoy that patrimony that patrimony dies with that person they take it to the grave with them they have left nothing for their children a lot of these people who are involved in those violent acts they have nothing and they leave nothing for these children so what is there about protecting a patrimony that you don't have to begin with those of us who have it we can talk about it but we already have it these people who really need it are the ones that are getting killed on our streets and their children are left behind these children don't enjoy that these people go to their graves and it turns to dust just like them that patrimony we are talking about so let us create jobs for our people first and then these people will be empowered to look after their patrimony Mr President this is certainly not what our citizens in this country want for us to be protecting patrimony while they go hungry while they do not know where the next meal is coming from they do not have money to buy shoes to put on the feet of their children to go to school $500 to every child that passes the command entrance how long is that going to last by the time you buy uniforms shoes, books where is it going for the rest of the term you have to provide transportation, bus fare you have to provide food for other activities let us not be fooled yes we have a patrimony to protect but first of all we have to protect human life we have to provide jobs for these people and that is what is important and I have heard the opposition preaching for no peace in our land there will be no peace they said there will be no investors and there are investors now they are calling for no peace are they inciting violence in our society remember when they called a whoosh the blood has not stopped spilling on our streets now they are calling victimization and then of course for as he thinketh in his heart so is he every day you had victimization victimization but they were able to tell us the percentage of workers employed on the nice were labor party workers labor party supporters so who is victimizing be careful what you ask for you just might get it they are also promising to carry out their mischief by any means necessary well for as sure as I know that Jesus Christ is the alpha and he is the omega that's right when my government decides and the people of St. Lucia decide that DSH is going to go on it is going to go on make no bones about it it is not the labor party that decides what happens with DSH it is the government of the day and the people of St. Lucia so Mr. President our healthcare policy direction is to promote and facilitate preventative care and provide good quality affordable healthcare for all St. Lucia not just those that work and they can afford it but for all St. Lucia as such the ministry has designed a health system strengthening project that aims to increase access to essential services reduce the inequality that exist in terms of access in healthcare and preventing the poor health outcomes that we currently experience in our healthcare system this project will also address the dependency on our out of pocket expenditures as you know you always see people with little sheets of paper with sometimes pictures on it of people who need healthcare and they ask you for a donation the people have to go to matinee and so on and so forth and they cannot afford it this is the program that's going to speak to universal healthcare so a national insurance plan is going to be set up of course we are still sourcing the funding and this is why we did not roll it out in this current budget but throughout this year we are going to continue to source the funds to roll out that program most likely in the next budget in the upcoming budget so I want to say to you that there is hope for those people who cannot afford healthcare right now who have to come to the ministry on a daily basis we see them coming to ask for health assistance and we only have a limited amount of funds that we can use to assist these people with a national health insurance plan everyone is going to be able to access healthcare not just a select few the main components of that program is the president include governance policies financing and coverage human resources health infrastructure quality and health information systems and that is the policy direction Mr. President that is the policy that is going to guide us in the commissioning of the OKEU as well as the St. Jude Hospital Mr. President we have heard a lot of hoopla about the OKEU and I want to give you a scenario that actually happened in April of this year just to show you the status of the hospital where it is at because we have heard that the workers were ready to go to this hospital we have heard that it is there it is waiting to be opened and it is not opening so I just want to demonstrate to you where this hospital opening is at on the 11th of April Mr. President I got a call from a desperate mother her grandchild was dying well she felt the child was dying the mother was too distraught to talk to me and what the grandmother said to me was that there are no ventilators at the Victoria hospital and the child needs to be placed on a ventilator so Mr. President I immediately contacted my acting prime minister and we took a decision that whatever needs to be done to save the baby I should put in place Mr. President we immediately asked the technical people to go to OKEU the new hospital and get the OKEU had three ventilators idle so we immediately asked them to get one of the ventilators to take to the Victoria hospital so that the baby could be placed on that ventilator Mr. President the ventilator was taken to the Victoria hospital but on arrival there we were told that none of the staff who we have heard were trained and were ready to move into the OKEU hospital none of the staff were able to operate that ventilator none of the doctors there at the time was able to hook it up and the technical people did not know how to hook up that ventilator Mr. President this is not high science we're talking about a ventilator is something you can just put the model and the brand on the internet and you will get a demonstration on how to hook it up and we were not able to get the ventilator hooked up the call came Mr. President around 7.19pm on that day and the parents were very encouraged when I informed them that we are going to take the ventilator from OKEU and send it to Victoria hospital so that the baby could be placed on the ventilator but then around 11pm that night a very distraught grandmother with a lot of crying in the background called me and informed me that the baby had passed because the people at Victoria hospital were not able to get that ventilator going so that the baby could be hooked up to the ventilator and that would have saved the baby's life Mr. President now Mr. President when I became Minister of Health I was told that the hospital was ready the staff were trained and everything was ready what was not ready was during the following months was being put in place so I say this to you to give you an idea of what we are faced with in the hospital and then you can take it from there Mr. President I have stopped giving opening dates for this hospital because I am not a technical person I am not a public servant and from what I see on the ground we are going to have to make a real desperate and concerted effort to open the OKEU sooner rather than later because as we speak we have St. Lucian's who are dying because they do not have access to a lot of the equipment that now sits idle in that OKEU I believe Mr. President many of our people who were involved in that project they have failed so many St. Lucian's who have passed as a result of not having access to people Mr. President we must have a conscience it cannot only be about making money I am going to move on Mr. President of course the new and you know we hear the opposition sitting and giving us advice on what to do we didn't do it so why don't you all do it open the hospital why don't you all open it it's as if Mr. President we have a case of ribbed and wrinkled they went to sleep for the past 15 years and all of a sudden they woke up realizing that the United Workers Party is in power and all the ideas and the things they dreamt of now they want to implement but it is too late because they slept for too long ribbed and wrinkled Mr. President we have a former prime minister that operates as ribbed and wrinkled now Mr. President Mr. President is crawling in all kinds of little holes in view fort talking to all kinds of mischief makers to come out and create mischief but the people of St. Lucia are awake that's right and God is watching they be ex did not die in vain we are going to open OKU but it's going to take a lot the Ministry of Health and Wellness Mr. President these are all services located within a 3 mile radius like the health centers and so on we have 42 wellness centers to operate 2 district hospitals Souffre-Denry and Rosalie Poly Clinic we provide tertiary secondary care programs and these focus on acute health conditions which require inpatient emergency or specialized services such as lab services, general surgery and outpatient care Honorable Minister you have 15 minutes left in which to complete your presentation Mr. President I would like to invoke Section 35 to allow the Honorable Senator to an additional 30 minutes Senators the question is that Standing Order 45 to allow the Minister an additional 14 minutes in which to complete her presentation I now put the question as many as are of that opinion as many as are of country opinions you know I think the eyes of it Mr. you have an additional 40 minutes Thank you Mr. President thank you colleagues I'm going to do this quickly because the time seem to have flown by Mr. President our we have public health programs which involves monitoring this is where we have the septic sewage systems and so on when people have problems they call us and we have a lot of these problems Mr. President we have Port Health surveillance which is an intervention aimed at strengthening health security to reduce health risks associated with international travel and trade this is where we have our workers go on the cruise ships and make sure that everything is okay we have the food safety program which seeks to reduce the risk of food bond illnesses and exposure to unwholesome foods which usually takes place in the restaurants and food areas the workers go in there and make sure that the food is wholesome and we have a water and wastewater management program which addresses issues pertaining to the quality of water used for domestic and recreational purposes Mr. President this year we have capital projects accelerated health system project we have a national health management information system project we will be purchasing medical equipment for St. Jude's hospital we will be purchasing six additional renal dialysis machines to complement what already exists at St. Jude's hospital currently we have 46 patients on dialysis at St. Jude and we have 27 on the waiting list so you can well imagine that these machines will be quite welcome for St. Jude's patients some patients at St. Jude's has been transported to Victoria hospital and Tapion to get dialysed and Mr. President we are talking about St. Jude's hospital the only hospital in the south of the island that is right smack in the former prime minister's constituency and he claims to care about the people of St. Lucia Mr. President seven years and St. Jude is still not completed but after two years in office the Labour Party was demanding that the United Workers' Party Administration deliver St. Jude to them completed an additional five years later and this hospital is just about 40% complete and a lot of the infrastructure will have to be torn down because it does not meet the right standard of hospital but they were shouting that we should have delivered that hospital to them we had already started other equipment that is how close we were to refurbishing the wing that had been down and that equipment Mr. President stayed in containers a lot of it disappeared a lot of it stayed in containers and it has expired expensive equipment and today they could not open St. Jude Hospital but we are going to open St. Jude Hospital this is a government that care about the people we care about the people Mr. President that breaks my heart that in the former prime minister's constituency this hospital was allowed to stay there and after seven years five years in their hands they will be able to do it but the entire world will see why the former prime minister will do whatever necessary to ensure that DSH does not come on stream Mr. President he knows that DSH with DSH all the people of the south will get jobs he is afraid of that he knows that with DSH the people of the south will understand and they will understand why he kept them under that oppression because it was deliberate and it was necessary so that they could keep voting him back in power but you know Mr. President with this budget and DSH this government is going to deliver the people of the south from bondage we are going to deliver them and give them socio-economic freedom that is what we are going to give to them and no amount of will stop that Mr. President there is so much more that I can say we have a meg budget this year of $110 million just about $2.3 million increase and that only is going to our pharmaceuticals purchasing of pharmaceuticals so really and truly the Ministry of Health will receive any much additional budget to carry out all of these activities that we have to carry out but we have learned that we have to do more with less and we are going to conquer the challenge Mr. President we are going to deliver at the Ministry of Health this is the first time that we are allocating so much to purchasing of medicine because we recognize that our people need the medication so the budget increase of $2.3 million goes towards purchasing of pharmaceuticals Mr. President right now we have 78% we have 69% on dialysis at Victoria Hospital and we have 59 waiting for dialysis and some of these people they die waiting Mr. President so you see the urgency to open that so that we can have the additional dialysis machines 11 dialysis machines to service those other 50 something people that need dialysis it's critical Mr. President and that is why my government has made it a priority to open those two hospitals St. Jude's we have 36, 10 have passed and we have 26 waiting for dialysis but that too shall pass because I want to say to these people there is hope hope is coming we are not going to allow Ali Baba and his band of thieves to continue to run this country how they want or to dictate to us how to run it Mr. President there is an audit report that we receive Mr. President and throughout the report there is a lot of management of funds every area that they looked at on this report except for the finance department you find that there are areas where funds were mismanaged but you know the interesting thing for me Mr. President is on page is the audit that was done on the management of traffic tickets because you see Mr. President I have always had to pay my traffic tickets and when I saw on that in that report that on page 25 Mr. President when I saw that out of of 700 out of 781 traffic tickets Mr. President page 21 sorry 220 tickets were processed only 220 tickets were processed Mr. President and you probably can relate to that because you are in our justice system out of 780 tickets issued a sample of 780 tickets issued only 220 of those tickets were processed and 561 tickets remain non-processed and I'm saying to myself why did I even bother paying those tickets there must be a way I could have gone around and not pay for these tickets it would seem that some people get away with not paying the tickets in this country and Mr. President on page 20 25 section 2.81 we were informed that in 2014 a project was initiated to deal with warrants issued prior to 2012 the initiative involved employing two beliefs and one financial analyst at a cost of $81 million and as June 2015 they were able to collect over $40,000 under this project however it cost them $81,000 and no it cost them $81,000 to employ these people to collect $40,000 in my mind that is counterproductive Mr. President you are paying people $81,000 to collect $40,000 makes no sense at all so why is it that we have department setup we have police officers we have a justice system to process those tickets and we are only collecting we have to then employ additional persons to do the job and at the same time the money that we are spending we are spending more to collect those tickets than we are getting it is all these kinds of things Mr. President that our prime minister takes a look at and he says we are going to stop it that is why they say he is a stop in prime minister but there are some things that need to be stopped they need to be stopped in this country Mr. President the donor funded projects I wish to take this opportunity Mr. President to thank the World Bank for so many projects that they are assisting us with so I wish to thank them very much for assisting us with these projects I once again to point to draw your attention to page 65 Mr. President of that very same report on page 65 5.85 of that report we are told that capital expenditure including the purchase of a Mercedes Benz S350 Blue Tech L for 49,528 pounds a private individual donated 33,521 pounds towards the cost and the high commission paid the balance of 14,000 and something pounds towards the cost of that Mercedes Benz 5.86 says we reiterate that this practice is not in accordance with the regulations because ministries and departments should use the appropriations approved by parliament to finance their operating expenses and that has to do with the London mission Mr. President and we know who you are asking who was there we know who was the high commissioner to London at the time Mr. President and we are hearing of the purchase of a Mercedes Benz part funding by some private individual and of course according to the finance which is not right so Mr. President there are a lot of these misappropriations of the finance act all kinds of things that took place in these missions Mr. President I want to say that we know who was in charge of the mission at the time and for the very same reason at the Ministry of Health I have such high and low Mr. President for something to indicate that the dialysis that the diabetics research centre that we were told was promised actually exist but I have yet to find that there is nothing at the Ministry of Health to indicate that there was ever anything about a donation of a diabetics centre but yet the people who are an authority on CIP and the people who are an authority on St. Lucian Passports gave away free diplomatic passports and we got nothing in return but now all they are doing all they are doing they are complaining about CIP and what we are getting and what's enough and what's not enough at least if you sold the passports we should see something you gave them away free diplomatic passports not ordinary St. Lucian passports free diplomatic passports and St. Lucia got nothing in return for those passports and these are the people who are an authority on CIP it's right there in the audit these very same people buying Mercedes Benz Blue Tech L so Mr. President I want to where is the forensic lab Mr. President there is no forensic lab sorry there is no diabetic lab there is no research lab free diplomatic passports and Mr. President we are dealing with an opposition that is very destructive very destructive the cultural center everybody is aware how desperate this country need to put the legal system back on track everybody is aware of that the minute we said there is a location for it I don't think it would have mattered where we selected to put it the Labour Party would still take objection I think if we put it in the sea they would say they have sold that to Grindberg so we cannot put it there they will take objection no matter where you put it you put it in the air you will obstruct the air they will always find a reason the people of this country I know you are awake anyway you are not going to let them fool you you are not going to let them fool you we need to put when we need to implement change in this country the people of this country have elected this government because they saw the wisdom they saw the proof in what we were going to provide for them they have their faith in us they have confidence in us and they have said I am selecting you to lead me and the people the Labour Party need to allow us to lead they need to allow us to govern they need to allow us to take the decisions that they couldn't take because you see they want us to keep doing things their way but it didn't work that is why the country is in the mess that it is in so we are going to take it out of that mess and what do they do they try to put stumbling blocks all along the way well the Justice Department is going to be at the cultural centre grounds because that is where the government of St Lucia has said is going to be the cultural centre we will find a place for the cultural centre and eventually everybody will love it people don't like change but when you have an instigator pushing you and supporting you to even dislike that change even more it makes things worse but it's not going to work well for this country Mr President there is another thing that people in St Lucia may not be aware of Mr President and while they have taken so much objection to this budget and they've stormed out and the others didn't show up Mr President you know what this government we include everybody when we are doing our activities, our projects, our programs you heard the Minister of Culture telling you how these people were elected under councils all the elected MPs not me not people like me, no all the elected MPs and sometimes when we send to us for them to participate they turn it down or they don't respond you know what we do anytime we get invitations to attend meetings training overseas for parliamentarians we take them with us we take them with us Mr President and you can attest to that we invite the opposition we travel with members of the opposition we go to the training sessions we sit as a delegation and when they are out there we are united, we are like one and this is why sometimes people don't vote for people because when they know that you go out there and you sit with each other you unite out there and you come home and you fight in each other that sends the wrong message we have to unite our people socially economically, politically we have to unite our people we must stop allowing the Labour Party to divide our country we have to stop allowing them to do that Mr President I want to take this opportunity to thank a remarkable woman Mr President who has raised a formidable family and she did it exceptionally well one of the problems we have in society today is that the fabric of our society is broken and this woman has raised an exceptional family she continues to labour and give her time to the needy and the less fortunate in society in many ways than we are aware of because she does it from the bottom of her heart she has nothing back and you don't hear anything about her nobody knows she is doing all the work that she is doing I know because sometimes I call on her when I have people that need things when I need her to assist me with some purpose and I know the amount of work she is doing Mr President I wish to thank Mrs Jane de Boulay the name comes up again for her dedication and hard work in helping poor people in this country Mr President she is a phenomenal woman because you don't hear a word about it and she does it every day I will wind down Mr President I also wish to thank a gentleman called Gasper Mr President he sits in the pulval this gentleman started a feeding program on his own strong labour party supporter very awesh my friend Mr President you know why he is my friend because I saw when he started this program and he is doing a wonderful job he has done something that most inclusions would not do when he started he was not getting a penny from anyone he started doing this from his own hard work paying him and the wife feeding the poor in castries providing the number of meals he could on a daily basis and this man I tell you Gasper is doing a wonderful job for the poor people of castries and the surroundings he provides them with family every day now he is getting assistance from people and so on but Gasper started that on his own and Gasper years ago and Gasper is still at it and I think that is really admirable and I want to tell Gasper today I have not forgotten him because every now and then I give him a little like I have not forgotten him Mr President I wish to wind down today by saying that we have a beautiful country we have a lot to preserve and to protect in this country I see people on a daily on a daily basis who need help people who are destitute they come to the right now we have the gentleman from the blast he has been discharged from Victoria hospital but we have no place to send him I said this because hopefully somebody will hear and come forward to assist us with this gentleman and we have other Saint Lucians local people who go through that sort of thing every day so imagine when a person is so destitute and they get sick and they come to the Ministry of Health Mr President it could be mental wellness and in the case of mental wellness it is even worse because the people you know people are really afraid of people who have mental issues in Saint Lucians sometimes it is not that people should not be afraid of them but we have to continue to do the good work that we do as a Saint Lucian people and there are a lot of Saint Lucian people Mr President who are good people we turn to them with these people and they assist us with some of these people and I want to say thank you very much today I want to say to these people thank you for assisting us with the sick people that come to us we take care of them at our different health institutions but they have nowhere to go and some people assist us with these people Mr President I also wish to say to people who have people, family and friends who are mentally ill they must not turn their backs on these people the healthcare system has no place to put these people when they are sick we take them to their wellness center but once they are treated and they are ok again their family must claim them their family must come forward on a system they must not just drop these people on the street because these people are human these people have a mother and a father who made them just like you and I and I want the families to come forward and take responsibility for their mentally unstable family relatives and friends St Lucia we cannot leave them on the streets the way that I see them roaming the place with nowhere to go so Mr President as I end today I am making a plea to St Lucia that they must start supporting their government because they put the government in power your government is not going to lead you astray and you have a prime minister that is phenomenal you have a prime minister that is a true leader he is not in it for the money he is not in it for the power he came in with all of that all he wants to see is a better St Lucia he wants to see all of us on our feet working hard to take care of ourselves he wants us to develop national pride and we have to be able to stand up as a people and be proud of who we are I thank you Leader of government business before you before I call on you to speak and I know we at this time rounding down I would just like to bring it to Senators attention standing order 47 4 and we need to be careful our choice of words even if we may not be referring to specific individuals or persons or members so I would just like to see that and I'm saying it here because of the choice of words spoken by the Minister of Health I don't think she attributed it to any particular or to specific members but I do not want the impression to for us to leave here and I'll refer to the words when she said Sen. Lucia does not want to be led by Alibaba and a bunch of I did not my interpretation is not that she was referring to a specific group but that she was making a general comment that Sen. Lucia should not be okay Senators so let's be careful what we see. Leader of government business Mr. President my colleague Senators asked me the question what is there to rebut when there isn't an opposition there is or there are two independent Senators although there is not much to rebut because their contribution was more support and advice and more or less guidance very good ones for the current government which I appreciate very much but I would have hoped Mr. President that the three opposition Senators would have made a contribution to the House today because I believe that they have a responsibility to the people of Sen. Lucia not to the Sen. Lucia Labour Party for making themselves present in the House of Assembly and I think they need to understand that that they are Senators Senators of the Sen. Lucia Labour Party but Senators of the government and people of Sen. Lucia so making yourself absent when there is a sitting of the Senate is a disservice to the people of Sen. Lucia so I'm hoping that in the future that they at least show themselves and make the contribution to be made on behalf of the people so unfortunately there is not much to rebut but to give some support to some of what has been said or was said by my former colleagues and just to say thank you to the the independent Senators now Sen. Lucia started his presentation by listing the five principles of governance of the United Nations of good governance well said of course and I just want to talk about just one thing here when he speaks of the engagement where good governance should engage the public and I believe the Senator was making reference I am suspecting Mr. President here that you were Mr. Senator I think you were giving some hint and I hope I am not wrong that these five good governance principles especially engagement I tie it I'm not saying that you were speaking specifically of the DSH but I think that you had a DSH in mind when you spoke of these five good to discuss these things but I must say to you and to the members that the government has been engaging the public but you know the opposition has a tactic they have a strategy in creating a lot of noise so the engagement that we have undertaken with the public they are hoping that the engagement will be lost in the noise but the people of St. Lucia they have good hearing and they have good understanding and they know exactly what the mission of the St. Lucia Liberal Party the opposition Liberal Party is about what they about they understand so we have engaged and we are listening we have had I think about three or four town hall meetings in the south asking answering the various questions by the constituents you remember Mr. President when the DSH came out there was a lot of noise about the mangrove and I believe that was good noise and good agitation and the government listened the government listened and the government went back to the investor listen to the government this is negotiation that's how you negotiate but it's the hypocrisy with the mangrove it was a dying mangrove and nothing was being done to resuscitate life in that mangrove but as soon as we said that we were going to have a project in the south all of a sudden the lovers of mangrove showed up so we changed the plan we changed the plan altogether and then they moved from the mangrove to Maria Islet now bear in mind the government has not made any decision as yet you know the government is just in negotiation mode the government has not said we'll be doing this we'll be doing that or specifics I should say but they are attacking various aspects of stuff in the project that has not been confirmed but guess what there is actually there are no more talks as far as the Maria Islet is concerned now they have absolutely nothing within or anything specific in the project to talk about they talk about a project as a whole and you hear the skeptatics you hear them not under my what my dead body this project will never ever take place now they talk about a project not anything specific about a project but a project as a whole we knew very early it has nothing to do with mangrove it has nothing to do with Maria Islet it has everything to do with the project as a whole and as I said earlier we as a government understand very well the impact the social and economic positive impact it will have in the south and the people of St. Lucia we know it very well and the opposition knows it very well and they are scared to death they are scared so they move around they parade around they jump around they make noise trying to fool the people of this country with lies and propaganda that's the modems of Baranda of the Labour Party as a student of economics especially development economics I understand the importance of the environment physical environment I understand that and with development there is always a clash between nature and nature always a clash especially with projects with that magnitude always a clash and the question is what is the balance and you have to assess the critical need of that society and what are you willing to compromise to achieve more than what you are compromising you have to balance the cost and the benefit or you have to weight the difference between the cost and the benefit and we know the ills viewfort and the south are facing how do we create jobs in the south how do we create jobs in the neighboring communities in the south where are the plans where are the policies where are the projects what else if not DSH for 20 years nothing and now something has emerged and you want to kill it that won't happen we will do what we have to do to ensure that you create jobs in this country we will do it nothing will stop us because we are the workers the workers of the united workers party government nothing will deter us because we are focused we are focused we came with a mandate and we shall deliver on that mandate as I said this morning and we will not apologize for creating jobs for the people of this country there is no apologies we should not and we will not apologize for doing the right thing for the people of this country absolutely not so I sympathize with the organization like the national trust I understand I am with them but I am also with the people of this country we are crying out for jobs we are crying out for livelihood we are crying out to take care of the children the husbands the wives the grandparents the aunties the nenens they are crying out and who are they crying out to they are crying out to the government they elected they believed in what we sold them what we gave them what we told them leading up to the elections they believed in us and we will not disappoint them but we will do what we have to do responsibly of course we will we will we will and when we said that we will be building a new St. Lucia we meant that we meant it so Mr. Honorable Senator we are engaging but there must come a time when the government has to do what it has to do there must come a time when we have to do and Senator Francis Thomas Thomas Tances thanks again for your insightful recommendations as far as the tourism sector is concerned and we believe a lot of the concerns that you brought out or you expressed will be dealt with with the concept of the village tourism developing the local crafts and local foods and we are we have great intentions in developing that sector the village tourism in fact we are reviewing incentives to provide the incentives in the tourism sector as a whole but most specifically for those for the tourism for the village tourism I understand the need for backward linkages and the development of village tourism and the tourism product that we have in said Lucia will results in very positive backward linkages it has been announced time and time again by the Prime Minister that we will be building about additional 2,000 hotel rooms within this term and we have and are developing a very liberal incentive regime because as a government we believe that you should give the best and the most competitive incentives as possible to attract the investors because what you need you will make money out of what the rooms when the rooms are built that's when you start making money the government will collect revenue and permanent jobs are created of course during the construction phase you will have or phases you will have jobs created so we are not afraid of having very competitive incentive regime for the tourism sector and if you can recall a lot of the SIs I read this morning it had a lot to do with the local tourism investors local not just a foreign but local so they are taking already taking advantage of the incentives within the tourism sector already now Mr. President I believe all of us on this side here has given much praise to our Prime Minister and I believe it is well deserved it is well deserved I remember Senator Bellrose said made mention of how our Prime Minister has been abused and she is right I believe that he was the most attacked viciously attacked Prime Minister or even leader of opposition ever in St. Lucia you see Mr. President when something big happened when something someone great is about to establish themselves you will always have people who will try to kill that promise people who will try to kill that dream and from the onset our Prime Minister has been under attack from the onset they went beyond his himself and they attacked his family that's how nasty it is they said so many things about him but the most laughable thing they said was he will never become Prime Minister they said in fact my good friend from library not over my dead body I remember meeting him in Antigua shortly afterwards and I reminded him of these words and he said this is a figuratively speaking they said that he will never become Prime Minister they said that he cannot speak patois so he is not qualified to be the Prime Minister of this country but I have been around with the Prime Minister on various trips and never once not once Mr. President he had to speak patois to the people that he met not once when he has to speak on behalf of the country negotiate on behalf of St. Lucia not once he ever had to speak some Creole not once but you know something Mr. President the last campaign really helped his patois and his Creole and he was able to say eloquently you fashé you fashé eloquently you see sometimes when they try to kill the bill when they try to cover you up they lift you up and it reminds me of a preacher who once said that a gentleman was placed in a pit alive and his oppressors try to cover him alive so what they did by shovel by shovel they threw into the pit and guess what the man did every time they threw in dirt on his back he will shake up the dust the dirt of his back and stamp on it every time they threw another one when they threw another one shake it off stamp what happened he was able to come out and get lifted up from that pit and that's exactly what they did with the Prime Minister of this country he was able to shake off the dust the dust and the dirt of his back and his back is broad enough they even attacked his education they said he doesn't have a certain degree in fact they said the very same thing about me you know that Prime Minister he did leading up to the elections in Kashmir's East the Prime Minister had the gall to say that my PhD is not in economics it is in some regulation that's why let me tell you something sometimes you have this respect for certain people and it takes just something just to lose it I've lost everything because when a man can go after a man's reputation professional reputation and he went further and attacked my career record and he was making reference to my stint in the Tucson Caicos Islands talk about how I got fired and all nonsense like this I remember walking the beach with my wife on a morning and there was a beach cleaner and she said where where where open your PhD you're fired you see how our leaders are actually misleading people and causing division and causing hatred so it's about attacking your reputation professional otherwise and then I remember I remember vividly what it did to others what it said about John John Compton, Sir John Compton the things they have said about George Odlam the nasty things they said about Sir Vaughn Lewis they even attacked the number one reporter and talk show host Timofipolion when they see that you are threat and that's exactly what they did with our prime minister but you know Mr. President when God has a plan for you no man can interrupt it no man can interrupt it stumbling blocks will become stepping stones no one nobody and what I like about the prime minister I am emphasizing this Mr. President because when you have a good leader you have to praise him you have to support him because I know of bad ones you know a good one and a bad one when you get a good one you have to praise him and support him my prime minister his back is very thick not thin and my colleagues will tell you you can't disagree with him and when he is wrong he will say I am wrong and he will say words like I apologize I am sorry that's the quality of a good leader he takes criticisms and never once have my colleagues have ever spoken ill of him behind his back never unlike others I knew who would say all the worst things about the leader and in the presence the tailing in behind I don't want to be led by anyone who will not take my criticism none and when you take it I have no fear that you will victimize me I know a good leader from a bad one you know Mr. President during the budget process it was very painstaking for the ministers very painstaking because you have them coming with a wish list I want this I want that and I always remember when I have flashbacks of the budget process I always remember the honorable minister of home affairs national security I always remember the man wants everything and the prime minister would look at him in the eye and said minister I just cannot afford we just cannot afford it and you go one by one with the other ministers we just cannot afford it that's irresponsible prime minister one who understands prudent fiscal management prudent good finance management and remember they said to him that he cannot manage the finances of his father's hotel all kind of stuff like that will he be able to manage a country my goodness I'm telling you I would like to draw to the senator's attention standing order nine free because at six I think I will end before six o'clock mr president I believe I will end leader of government business is not just you ending before six o'clock the senate has procedures to keep to so I'm just bringing to your attention that we have things to do procedures to keep before six you would have to do what you have to do okay mr president I understand and I will wrap up very shortly before six o'clock so mr president I was saying what we as ministers had to go through the budget process and you know mr president the various needs and that were brought to the various meetings budget meetings what children needs by the ministers when you talk about vehicles for the police force and police stations and a courthouse and a kitchen for bodily and many other things and the prime minister will say to you I just cannot afford a country just cannot afford on the other hand mr prime minister on the other hand when the government has to write up a check to deal with the matter of grindberg it hurts me it hurts me when the government has to have one hundred and fifty thousand US dollars as a retainer for the grindberg attorney in the US a retainer and when it falls to a hundred we have to replenish it hurts me because not only do we have our seabed in jeopardy we have nothing to show for it and yet still we have to give up money that we don't have and who brought this upon us mr president who brought it upon us who brought this upon us okay okay I get you yes mr president I'm saying that we have so much we have limited resources mr president I would like I would humbly move for the suspension of standing order 93 to enable this senate to sit beyond the prescribed time of six o'clock in the afternoon honorable senators the question is that this senate that's standing order 9.93 be suspended to allow the senate to sit beyond six o'clock in the afternoon and I'll put a question as many as are of that opinion c.i as many as a country opinions you know I think the eyes are thank you senators mr honorable we have four on this side here and just permit me, just permit me because it's something that's within me I need to get out because I just feel the pain of our senators and ministers I felt the pain during the budget process and I saw the great need that this country has and where we have to spend the limited resources on a matter that had nothing to do in the people of this country on a matter that had nothing to do with this current government on a matter that had to do only with one person one person the entire nation is paying for that nation and the thing about it mr president we don't know how much grindberg will cost us monetarily we don't know because the lawyers are constantly fighting on behalf of the government and we have to constantly replenish that retainer we have to we have to take ten years we have to keep going is that fear is that fear mr president I don't think it is I don't think it is especially in this difficult fiscal situation faced by this country so when the police officers realize that the vehicles that they needed are not in the parking lot of the police stations they should remember grindberg when teachers don't have the material in need to teach they should remember grindberg when nurses don't have the materials to take care of the patients they should remember grindberg when firemen don't have the fire trucks and the hoses and proper buildings they should remember grindberg and be angry when they remember grindberg because we are throwing money in our ocean we are throwing money we don't have in our oceans and who caused this mess who did it who did it and you have 10 minutes left I need 10 more I need 20 Mr President I wish to invoke stand-in order 35 free to allow the Honourable Minister in the Ministry of Finance 20 more minutes additional time to complete his presentation Honourable Senators the question is that the leader of government business be granted an additional 20 minutes in which to complete his presentation Mr President as many as are of that opinion here as many as are of the country opinion you know I think the eyes have it the eyes have it thank you Mr President and thank you to my Senators and I know very well if I had asked for two hours did I give me two hours because what I'm saying here is very very important extremely important Mr President and one of the reasons why I have faith in his government is because we are strategic thinkers very strategic thinkers that's why I am 100% behind the Minister of Agriculture 100% because we believe that if you are developing your tourism products it must go hand in hand with the agricultural sector and currently I'm working with him in ensuring that finances are received by his ministry to undertake our agricultural feeder roles we want our farmers to have access to the lands access to lands will increase acreage increase acreage will increase hopefully most likely profitability profits and of course that will lead to greater employment or lower unemployment in this country we want to build up the agricultural the agricultural sector and I have a natural love for agriculture and now I'm not one Mr President who boasts or brags I'm not one I don't do that but my first two degrees my master's degree and my master's degree both were in agriculture agriculture economics and agriculture business respectively I'm saying this for a reason I'll tell you why and my second master's was in economics and finance and PhD in developing economics I'm saying this maybe for the first time they gave me a different thing they gave me something else nothing you know so I am saying it for the public record so my great grand children when they read the Hansard they will know that this is coming up position and propagandists so for the record's sake and it's very easy to verify very easy to verify just call the schools Alabama A&M call Howard University of Economics and they'll tell you but I have an affinity for agriculture and I will work hand in hand glove in glove with the Minister of Agriculture to see that the agricultural sector gets robust and improved in this country we are strategic fingers, strategic now let's compare Mr President in 97 when you had the new labor let's compare let me just give you one example if you turn to page page is 93 not 93 sorry I want to show you something here talking about strategic thinking where is that where is that they should have been marked anybody with the book I want to go into education in the school number of schools in the country number of schools in the country where is that anybody with that page what 68 is a table a table and I want a table I want a table I am wrong for doing that where is that oh I got it it's actually pages 125 and 126 well and 127 Mr President you would see in 97 98 we had a total of 15 schools in St. Lucia 15 schools that is secondary schools or let me first start with the primary schools we had a number of 84 schools in the country and a total number of the total number of pupils 1437 roughly 31.5 in 2015 2016 the number of schools in primary primary schools dropped from 84 in 97 88 to 74 decreased by 10 schools primary schools and guess what the population of pupils dropped from 31.5 to 15,000 almost half almost half now let's look at let's look at the secondary schools that's on page 127 table 67 we had 15 schools 15 schools in 97 98 in 2015 2016 we had a total of 23 schools so what should have guided what should have guided the building of schools of secondary schools in this country the primary the primary should have guided the building of secondary schools where was the strategic thinking where was the strategic thinking here and what's the problem today what are we facing what are we facing today in our schools we have over capacity in our secondary schools over capacity and that's not only the problem you know Mr. President you have school maintenance and these are high costs high expenditures here was the strategic thinking but in the name of what universal secondary education so we have provided universal secondary education we have built more schools but have we changed our curriculum what is different from a student who graduated 20 or 40 years ago to a student who graded today what is different what is different what is different what is the advantage that a student who graded 20 or 30 years ago has or the student who graded today has over a student who graded 20 or 40 years before what has changed we are living in a technological era age and have we been able to bring into our schools these changes have we so we boast about universal secondary education what's that what's that so what should have been done Mr. President at the time is to undertake a demographic study demographic do your what is called a histogram and you will see where you are in terms of the size of the population the age and you will know how to plan ahead but you know what there was no strategic thinking in that none at all absolutely none and today we have secondary schools I think now we are talking about we are talking about the Grusley secondary school we are turning to a sports academy or academy an excellent center a center for excellence I bring up this point Mr. President because in spending government money we must be strategic we must so Mr. President I am very very proud that in our short stay or stint in government or year 12 months we have mixed rights and we are seeing signs of positive changes just recently we had there was an announcement that we have a lower unemployment rate okay we said that lower unemployment rate we are seeing increases in our visitor arrivals too we are seeing increased investor confidence these are positive signs aren't they we are slowly getting there we will get there we will get there we are going to ignore the noise out there the opposition noise and the chaos we are going to ignore that because guess what we are focused we are focused as a government you know and one thing about the Prime Minister I understand why he put me in the Ministry of Finance I understand why he want to make sure and again he is not about me he want to make sure that whatever he does is above board there is accountability there is transparency it passes through me it is not just one Prime Minister who does anything and everything he wants there is transparency transparency that's the leader we are not saying that we will get to the promised land in one year or two years but we are getting there we are getting there and we are getting closer and closer and closer and closer we will get there it doesn't matter what they say about us we will be resolute we will put our hands to the wheel we will get there and I want the people of St. Lucia to be patient with this government and let the opposition do whatever they want to do let them do it what is good at doing opposing for opposing's sake the President I rise on a point of order the point of order is 27 content of speeches I think we have been very very tolerant and accommodating and accommodating in allowing the honourable member to deviate from the main matter at hand I think the time has come Mr President just repeat because which point of order? 37 content of speeches yes specifically to the content of the honourable member's speech I think he has been deviating I think he should be rebutting in relation to the presentations we made today but he has been bringing in other matters relating to outside matters and so on so I just wanted to draw his attention through you Mr President to this important fact Good Senator I know you are wrapping up on the afternoon blues we may want to call it but Mr President I don't agree with the member of independent member I don't agree at all because everything here is connected absolutely everything here is connected I'm speaking about strategic thinking strategic thinking I'm speaking about the ills of mismanagement of the past which has an effect on our finances today it's connected you cannot erase the past because the past is affecting us today and we have to make reference to the past we must Mr President we must because we didn't create this monster we are not the government that created this monster and the public must where it came from who did it from whence it came from so these are not these jointed arguments they are joined together they are connected so I respectfully disagree with you and I solemnly do that let me now inform you leader of government business that you have 15 minutes in which to complete your presentation I cannot disagree with you Mr President you are absolutely right and always right so Mr President my government will continue to hold a mantle of governance of this country we are going to hold hard we are going to hold strong we are going to push forward we are going to climb if we have to climb we are going to go through the mountains through the valleys if we have to but we have one destiny we have one goal we have a common goal among us and that common goal is to improve the lives of the people of this country and we will not do this things of this blindly Mr President we will do it responsibly understanding where we are and where we want to go understanding the limitations that we have fiscally understanding our boundaries but we will get there we will get there and we shall get there Honourable Senators the question is that the appropriation bill 2017-2018 be read a second time I now put a question as many as are of that opinion as many as are of a country opinion say no I think they are they are an act to provide for the services of the state of St. Lucia for the year ending on the 31st day 2018 Leader of Government Business Mr President since this is a money bill I would beg to move that the appropriation 2017-2018 bill not be committed to understanding order 65 and that the appropriation 2017-2018 bill be read a third time and passed Honourable Senators the question is that the appropriation bill 2017-2018 be not committed to committee stage and that it be read a third time and passed I now put a question as many as are of that opinion say aye as many as are of a country opinion say no I think they are be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the House of Assembly and the Senate of St. Lucia the authority of the same as follows this act may be cited as the appropriation act 2017-2018 appropriation of one billion five hundred and thirteen million six hundred and fifty two thousand two hundred dollars for services of the state of St. Lucia for the year 2017-2018 there shall be and there is Herbar granted to her Majesty the Queen her heirs and successors for the year ending on the 31st day of March 2018 the sum of one billion five hundred and thirteen million six hundred and fifty two thousand two hundred dollars to be paid and appropriated out of the general revenue and funds of the state of St. Lucia for the said year in such quality sorry quarterly amounts as the minister of finance may consider appropriate and to be approved and to be expended in the manner and for the purposes mentioned in the schedule to this act leader of government business Mr. President I move that the Senate stand adjourned, Senator Honourable Senators the question is that this Senate do stand adjourned Senator I now put a question as many as are of that opinion see I as many as are of a country opinion see no I think the eyes of it the eyes of it Senate is adjourned State the 22nd of June 2017 just a recap on the floor for debate was the appropriations bill 2017-2018 it began with the laying of the bill in the Senate by leader of government business and the minister of finance Honourable Dr. Ubaldash Raymond following which comments were received by independent Senators Honourable independent Senators Mauricia Thomas Francis and Adrian Auger they proposed some recommendations to government for its policies and programs for the upcoming fiscal year and moving forward we heard about the developments in the agriculture and physical planning sector as well as some of the issues facing the health sector and how government intends to respond to overcome those challenges Honourable Fortuna Belrose did give comments on her portfolio as a minister for local government culture and creative industries as well as the overall umbrella ministry and the plans for youth development and sports Honourable Herman Gill Francis did speak to the state of our uniform services in terms of the St. Lucia fire service and the plans for new fire station as well as refurbishing new ones and some restructuring that should take place with the St. Lucia fire service and he did speak to some of the challenges and the way forward for the Royal St. Lucia Police force and the judiciary as well this certainly has been an informative session of the senate do join us on Tuesday that is next Tuesday for the House of Assembly sitting from the Government Information Service I am Alicia Ali thank you so very much for joining us Welcome to the National Television Network