 Welcome to Nation Beat. I am Janelle Novel bringing you this brief on the pearls of our nation and highlights around the heart of St Lucia. The St Lucia Parliament moves to facilitate further development of the key tourism sector. The reform process for the juvenile justice sector enters a new phase and the spotlight falls on St Lucia's sports fraternity. Prime Minister, the Honourable Alan Shastney on Wednesday presented amendments to the Tourism, Stimulus and Investment Act. He indicated that there were two parts to the Act to be amended. The first part addressed incentives within the realm of the value-added tax, including remittances. The Prime Minister explained the second part of the amendments. An owner-operative or tourism project that has been declared to be an approved development may make an application for tax reliefs and exemptions, other than tax reliefs and exemptions specified under this Act for the remainder of the development period. An application under Subsection 1 must be in the prescribed form, specified to tax reliefs or exemptions required, be accompanied by supporting information and be submitted to the Minister. On Section 4-2 and 3 applies to this section as it applies to the supporting information for the application of an approved development, where Cabinet has declared a tourism project to be an approved development under Section 11. Cabinet may grant tax reliefs and exemptions, other than the tax reliefs and exemptions specified under this Act. It is satisfied that the approved development complies with the laws of solution. Parliamentary representative for Viewport South Dr. Kenny Anthony found many falls with the amendments, calling for it to be taken back to the drawing board for full revision. The MP's concerns were backed by Leader of the Opposition and MP for Castries East Honourable Philip J. Pierre, as well as MP for Castries South Honourable Dr. Ernest Hiller. It collides frontally with all the statutory regime that you have in place, because it is a statutory regime that you have in place that grants you the authority to give you precise incentives. It means, therefore, that Cabinet is positioning itself to ignore the entire statutory regime that has been enacted, and proceeding on its own to grant its incentives. So it collides. It collides. The second problem with this is a fundamental rule that governs discretionary power. It is that there must be no uncertainty, there must be no over-breath. If there's uncertainty and over-breath, you get into trouble on constitutional grounds. Prime Minister Shasne reaffirmed that the amendments were lawful and fair. He sought to further clarify the concerns of members opposite. We've clearly put here that the incentives that we're making here today are for investments in excess of $50 million. And we've said that when people are making those kinds of investments, there's some level of a shorter team that they want in being able to move forward. The other part, Mr. Speaker, that is at least a member from View Fort South recollected that, in fact, it was his government that actually created the stimulus and I said that, that he created the stimulus act. And in the stimulus act was what's called a tax credit. And based on the amount of investment that you were going to make is how much tax credits you would get. And if I'm not mistaken, and I'm pretty sure I am not mistaken, that tax credit could be used for any duties during the construction and also the operation, which also included food and beverage, something that has not been exempt. But we have it classified. We're talking about goods and services. Goods and services have always existed. Everybody knows what goods and services are. The big change here was that you could now give the VAT redemption on goods and services during the operation of the hotel. The Tourism Stimulus and Investment Act is geared towards facilitating the further development of the tourism sector and to provide for special incentives, tax relief and exemptions for proposed new and existing tourism projects. The Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment and Local Government continues to undertake efforts directed at the comprehensive reform of juvenile justice sector. We get an update in this report. Child Justice practitioners have welcomed efforts of the Government of St. Lucia with the assistance of USAID and the OECS Commission to improve future outcomes for children and young people in their care through process amendments to child protection laws. In order to deliver such critical services to our nation's children and youth, the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Local Government and Empowerment hosted a restorative justice training program for child care justice practitioners from Tuesday, January 28 to February 41, 2019. So when we look at restorative practices, we look at both the part of justice, the part of this practice that builds community. Minister for Equity, Social Justice, Local Government and Empowerment, Honourable Leonard Montute, stated that the Child Protection Reform has modernized the legislative climate for children in St. Lucia. The reform project placed priority attention to modernizing the legislative climate for children, which ensures compliance with international treaties such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which St. Lucia ratified on June 16, 1993. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Local Government and Empowerment, Velda Joseph, stated that the reform agenda comes at a time when crime is under rise and is in keeping with the Ministry's mandate. We at the Ministry cannot overemphasize the importance of this training as we grapple with ways to address various types of deviant behaviors and criminal activities engaged in by segments of our population. We believe that this training is very timely and we are grateful to the donors for facilitating this workshop which is intended to build or rather to enhance the capacity of multiple agencies, which are represented here, to deliver on the shared mandate within the framework of the new legislative agenda. Social Worker, Ms Deborah Shalmine shared her opinion and stated that the Restorative Training Program would help the staff of the Human Services Department deal with the rapid change in child and family behaviors. Most of our families in society, they are unable to deal with the updated behaviors or the new behaviors that children face and because of that, we would like to provide a very, very collaborative effort with our families and our society. The Restorative Justice Program is aimed at getting offenders to take responsibility for their actions and most studies suggest it makes offenders less likely to re-offend. Restorative Justice is part of the wider study of restorative practice. Reporting from the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Local Government and Empowerment, I am Chevrolet Marius. This is Nation Beat. When we come back, the spotlight falls on St. Lucia's sports fraternity. Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation and storage of foods in ways that prevent foodborne illness. Here are some food safety tips. Be careful when purchasing food items on sale. Examine all items carefully prior to purchasing. Check for damage to food items and expiration dates. When purchasing local meat from butchers, look for the inspected and past stumps which indicates that the meat has been inspected by the Department of Environmental Health. Avoid keeping foods such as meat, fish, chicken or foods requiring refrigeration in your vehicle or other location for over 4 hours. Before preparing foods and in between handling raw meat or chicken, wash hands thoroughly with soap and warm water and dry thoroughly. Use a separate cutting board and utensil for your raw meats. Prepare foods as close as possible to mealtime. Refrigerate leftovers immediately after mealtime and use refrigerated leftovers within 2 to 3 days. When reheating food, ensure that it is steaming hot to at least 75 degrees Celsius. A message from the Bureau of Health Education and the Ministry of Health, Wellness, Human Services and Gender Relations. Welcome back. The capacity of health officials in the planning and monitoring of health programs is expected to be strengthened as the Pan American Health Organization, PAHU, hosted its Biennial Meeting recently at the Coco Palm Resorts. More from Miguel Morissette. The Biennial Meeting provided health officials with the opportunity to assess the degree of progress in the delivery of products and services for 2019. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Meline-Fedrix James expressed gratitude to the Pan American Health Organization, PAHU, for its assistance over the years in the development of the health plan. The Ministry of Health focal points and these are the heads who work in various areas within the ministry. They are here discussing the different program areas with PAHU. Looking back on what it is that we've achieved and I must say that our implementation rate has been increasing and improving steadily throughout the years, as well as planning for future events and work programs. PAHU and the World Health Organization's representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Dr. Godfrey Schrebb says, such an initiative is important as it allows health officials to identify priority areas in the health sector for the period 2020 to 2025. We started these in-country activities last year as part of our planning to ensure that over the year we plan the work that we are doing with the countries in a more cohesive and more effective way. We've seen results, we've seen very positive results because the Ministry of Health and PAHU timeline is being adhered to. The projects that we identified this time last year have been achieved or are in progress to being fulfilled and that means that the allocation that PAHU gives to St. Lucia for technical cooperation is executed at 100% or close to 100% when it comes to both the biennium and also to the six-year strategic plan. The biennial work plan focused on areas such as non-communicable diseases, mental health, health promotion and health emergencies to name a few. From the Communications Unit in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Miguel Morissette reporting. As the island prepares to celebrate 40 years of independence, the achievements and successes of nationals will be on full display. Among them are the athletes who, through their discipline and hard work, fly the St. Lucia flag high on the local, regional and international stage. Their efforts will be recognized next month with the hosting of the National Sports Awards. There's Ryan O'Brien with the shortlist of nominees for the top awards. The shortlist of nominees for the annual National Sports Awards has been announced by the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports. The announcement came during a press briefing held Wednesday morning at the Ministry attended by a wide-cross section of the local media and members of the Organizing Committee for the awards. Nominees on the shortlist will be judged for the prestigious awards to be presented on the night. Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports, Leota Charmaine Mason, made the announcement of athletes who made the cuts. In the Junior Sports Woman category, we have Megan Williams, Tennis, Katie Kyle, Swimming and Julian Alfred, Athletics. Junior Sportsman, Kimani Melius, Cricket, Shelton Central's Athletics, Jeanne Odlam Smith, Swimming and Deandre Cauldron, Table Tennis. For Sports Woman, we have Keanna Joseph, Cricket, Laverne Spencer Athletics and Elisha Markey Football. Sportsman, Cricket, Larry Edward, Boxing, Lindell Masler and Athletics, Albert Reynolds. The awards will be held on Saturday, February 16th, 2019 at the Royalton St. Lucia Resort and Spa, commencing at 7 p.m. From the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports, I'm Ryan O'Brien.