 Mr Speaker, I rise in lending my support to the bill, where we will collect 2.5% levy for health and security, and that is in keeping with the theme of the Prime Minister's budget for 2023-2024. And as I articulated earlier, promises made and promises kept. Mr Speaker, I lend support to the bill and to add to the contributions made by my colleagues, and specifically to the contributions made by the Honourable Prime Minister, member of Cass Street East, on the area of security. And when we speak of security, Mr Speaker, many times we only speak of the police, and we do not broaden it to include the protective services, all these areas contribute to security of the country. And when we speak of security of the country, Mr Speaker, I speak to the role of the police, the fire service, borderline correctional facility, probation and parole, and we are in the process of establishing the youth justice unit. Mr Speaker, the police, they have agreed to look at rebranding the police. They are developing the strategic plan and setting their agenda on how they will operate and deal with the issue of security. This is the best time, Mr Speaker, to give the support that is needed to improve health and security in the country. And when we look at, for example, the operations of the police, there are quite a bit of support that are out there to give support to the police. But many agencies are willing to give you support if you are making a contribution. And if, Mr Speaker, we say, well, we have nothing and we are expecting other agencies to assist us, they may not be forthcoming. Therefore, Mr Speaker, I see this levy as an effort by the Government of St. Lucia to march and support any support that we are likely to get from outside. Because before people offer you support, they want to know what are you doing on your own to support yourself. And you cannot just wait and wait for support outside and expect things to happen. And with that, Mr Speaker, the law enforcement officers will get opportunities for exposure and training at the regional and international level so that they can improve on their skills and abilities. Mr Speaker, I can share with my Cabinet colleagues, as I have always said, that many times we speak of people, we speak about people, but we must learn to speak with them. And it's when you visit the site where these persons operate, you get a better understanding of the issues that affect them. And I have reported in this house that I have visited mostly all the police stations, all the fire stations, bodily, probation and parole. And when you see the conditions, you see the need to invest a lot heavier in these departments. And Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister has invested heavily and is planning to invest a lot more in equipment and infrastructure. And Mr Speaker, the records are clear that between the St. Lucia Labour Party and the United Workers Party, just check the records as you travel throughout the country. And you will see which government has built most of the police stations, fire stations in this country. And it is all, well, Babolo started and we finish it, that's the police station. But mostly all the police stations and all the fire stations, including Borale Correctional Facility, all these were built by the Labour Party government. And that is heavy investment, Mr Speaker. Then this government came in and there was no custody suit, Mr Speaker, deputy speaker. And government now is planning to build a custody suit. It's building it. So all the heavy weight is left for this government to do. The heavy investment is left for this government to do. And then we are hearing the member on the other side is saying it is not the right time. He should have told us which time is the right time. Money do not fall from the sky. And you heard what the people in St. Lucia said. They are willing to contribute for health and national security. They want to ensure that the funds go for the purpose. And this government without a levy has invested so much in health and national security. The hospital OKEU was built by the St. Lucia Labour Party. The records are there, Mr Speaker and deputy speaker. Deputy speaker, when we look at the situation with immigration, Mr Speaker, they are complaining about the environment in which they work. And that has created a big scandal in the whole country. Now this government has to find a new location. We have to invest money in that new location to ensure that the workers get a decent place for them to work. Deputy speaker. The passport issue, Mr Speaker, a lot of talk. But when the mafia is addressed, you had nothing on the other side. Everything is about scandals, scandals, scandals. Yes. And the pipe that was choked, it took about two weeks to unjoke it, where over thousands of passports that were clogged in the pipeline was cleared within a week. Deputy speaker. Deputy speaker, this government is going to invest heavily in borderline. And the prime minister spoke about it earlier. The borderline correctional facility, deputy speaker, has been in existence for almost 20 years, exposed to the sea blasts from the Atlantic Ocean. And all the metal is rusty. The condition is like a forgotten institution. And this government in this budget has allocated approximately $7 million to fence borderline. Without a levy, how will government raise all that money to improve the situation for security, Mr Deputy Speaker? Technology is the way to go. We are talking about crime and in discipline and everything. We cannot deal with the situation in the old-fashioned way, deputy speaker. We have to use technology to address a lot of the challenges we have. And technology comes with a cost. Deputy speaker, we have a situation at borderline where we have mentally ill and the present institution did not cater for that category of illness. Borderline is for persons who are unremanned or convicted. But the mental state of the individual is not factored in. And they cannot go to the wellness centers because the wellness center was not designed as a correctional facility. So now we have to look for that midway facility that will cater for mentally ill inmates. And the deputy speaker that comes with a cost and that is where the levy will assist government in creating that environment. And that government does not get sued for not giving adequate care and treatment to inmates. Deputy speaker, we also speak of persons who have served their time at borderline and they are released. Some of these persons, deputy speaker, they cannot fit into the society. They have been out for too long. And that is why we have a high percentage of recidivism. Some of these persons who have been to borderline and they commit a crime and they go back. About 43% of these persons go back. What is missing is what we call the halfway house. We need an environment where the people make a transition from borderline into the society. And we are in discussion now with the visiting justice to see whether we can get that facility. They have already started identifying a place where we can do some retrofitting and refurbishment. So these people spend about three to six months in that area where they begin to reintegrate into the society and find work for them. And sometimes when they stay at borderline when they go back, they don't. Most of their families and friends have disappeared. They feel lost. So they feel more comforted if they go back into the prison. So we have to create that transition for the inmates. And as has been indicated Deputy Speaker, we are trying to convert or ensure that the borderline correctional facility is a correctional facility. It's not a prison. We have to do rehabilitation so that when these people live there, they are better citizens. They will conduct themselves better and they will not engage in activities that are contrary to the law. Deputy Speaker, we are looking at the fire service. The fire service played a critical role during borderline. I'm doing COVID. Encouraging people up and down. The ambulances were busy every day and every night. And this department saved many lives for us. And now they are asking for the headquarters. The Prime Minister has allocated some money to start the feasibility study to get new headquarters for the fire service. All these are areas where we need money to provide the services that are needed. The police is asking for the new police headquarters. This comes with a price. Everything that the government has to do, we have to get the money. And we have a responsibility to convince the people out there that they need quality care, health care, and they need maximum security for them to live in a safe and conducive environment for them to become productive citizens. I know many people well the opposition has completely disappeared now. But 50% wasn't there. The other 50% just left. But we have a responsibility, Deputy Speaker, to educate the people in St. Lucia and to let them know that this government is committed to their safety, to their security so that they can continue to be productive citizens in this country. Deputy Speaker, what is of greatest importance at this point is to build a network among the protective services so that they can provide maximum safety, protection, and security for the St. Lucia citizens. Our visitors, everybody must feel safe in our environment. And therefore, Mr. Speaker, we see the collaboration among all the protective services working together, developing a plan so that together we can move forward. Upon assumption of the position for home affairs, when I met the organizations representing the different protective services as Minister with Responsibility for Labour, the report that came to me was that they were wrong. They felt wronged among the protective services. They said the police are rank number one, fire rank number two, and bodily rank number three. And therefore there was always this tension among them as to who is more important, what category of officers are more important than others. But over time, having worked together, Deputy Speaker, we have noticed the collaboration among them and seeing all of them as of equal importance playing different roles in national security protection for the people. For this reason, Deputy Speaker, Prime Minister commissioned to prepare benchmark qualification for persons in the protective services. And the reason for this is because they were treating the protective services like ordinary public servers. And because of the nature of their work, you cannot equate them with regular public servers because a lot of them were promoted based on certification and not so much on skills, knowledge and abilities. And if you have to engage in protective services in security skills, knowledge and ability is critical in carrying out your duties. Not whether you have a master's, yes that is important, but the emphasis has to be on how well you can carry out your duties. And Deputy Speaker, I want to report and I have mentioned to the Prime Minister and Cabinet of Ministers that the report is in for the protective services it captured police, fire and bodily in terms of the benchmark qualification for these officers and what would be necessary for the women where they fall within the rounds. And when you have to do promotion what is it you have to look for in an officer and not so much competing with public servants that say they have a master's in this that and the other so they move from this grade to but for these officers you have to look at it differently based on the nature of the work. Deputy Speaker, we need to strengthen the leadership in these organizations end up being bottleneck bottleneck in the sense that you find only one or two persons at the top you need a broader group for strengthening leadership we need to base secondary leadership it's like when the top leader is there you don't know where are the others how many, you know you should have a pool of persons who can do the job almost of equal level Deputy Speaker so these are the areas we are looking at building the capacity of the protective services and changing the whole landscape and Deputy Speaker we are also comparing what we do in St. Lucia and what's happening in other countries in the Caribbean in the UK in the US in France we have to compare and raise the back for the women back for our protective services and law enforcement and for this reason Deputy Speaker that way we will play a critical role in ensuring that the government can meet the expectation of the officers Deputy Speaker some of the lady has said she said I certainly see she said we need security she said we need to express the message what will we do the way women with disabilities who believenie must answer that she may fall a hit and Deputy Speaker when you sit in the cabinet and you see the report of vehicles seeking medical assistance it will cost this country . . . . . . and the elderly affairs for his energy and his drive and I know deputy speaker we will achieve and very confident that we are going to get health and security under control and that is why the prime minister is investing heavily in this area for this financial. One of the critical areas deputy speaker in looking at health and security for this year which the prime minister has put as the main area of focus is for us deputy speaker to look at mainstreaming health and security across all government programs The department must factor in areas of health and security in all the plans and when they get support they must secure support for both health and security in the funding and that will help boost the contribution that goes directly to health we cannot say that's ministry of health that's not my business I don't have anything to do with that no health and security is the business for every department of government every agency every NGO everybody in the society must focus on health and security at least give it priority for this year and that is how we are going to raise the revenue we need not just the levy but other areas to give it the support that it is and with that mr speaker I am confident that during the financial year 23 to 24 we are going to see a significant dent made in that area a significant push and one of the things I am very pleased about Mr Deputy Speaker is the fact that St. Jude the St. Lucian population is waiting with better breath on what will happen with St. Jude and those on the other side that have reduced their attendance to zero are hoping that nothing happens nothing happens that is where they want to give us a pass or a fail grade and strategically the prime minister and his team is on course the sale is up in the air and there is no turning back there is no turning back and this is why the levy will come to give us the additional revenue and support to achieve that objective and I am very confident with the drive from the minister of health the support from the prime minister and the broader support from the cabinet of ministers we are not going to focus on the detractors they are trying to find all kinds of story they have tried to drag me in so many things but I am so focused I don't see them on either side Mr Deputy Speaker I keep going back to the project I go back to the manifesto and I say this is what we promise the people and let us remain focused on that and that is what the people will use to judge us by what we promise and what we deliver and I am telling you Mr of health talk about comforted that I am part of a government called the Deputy Speaker you must first go in labor so now we are in labor we are getting ready we are pushing we are pushing and that baby will be born and when that baby is born that baby will be healthy strong good and ready to go Mr. Speaker I applaud the prime minister for his vision for his stewardship is very full and at this hour of the night we are still discussing health and security for the people of St. Lucia it tells us that we are serious about the work that we have to do Mr. Speaker and with this I give my 110% to this bill and let us go ahead and serve the people and deliver what we promise them