 Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker I want to join my colleagues who spoke before me in expressing support for the motion before this house. Mr. Speaker I ask your permission to express condolences to the Joseph family of Cicero. Diana Joseph, 96 years was the matriarch of the Joseph family. Wife of Rudens Joseph, a founding member of the Senutia Labour Party and many meetings discussing the formation of the Senutia Labour Party took place at her home and she would recall preparing supper and meals for many of the funders of the Labour Party as they sat with George Charles to form our great party and she is a lady who everyone would tell you was one of the most lovable souls that you'd ever meet. And at the same time Mr. Speaker that I am expressing condolences I want to as I will not have an opportunity before express you know the satisfaction at seeing yet another constituent in Kastri South reach the milestone of a hundred years in the next two days. Felicity Sonny the matriarch of the family and I pray that God will allow her to see her birthday on first day. She's from a family of many others who've reached that milestone and certainly on first day in Basel Joseph there will be a grand celebration. Mr. Speaker this motion comes before this house in rather trying times. We all know the consequences that COVID had on our nation, on our people and on our economy. We inherited the government in July 2021 and the Prime Minister made it very clear then that he had to as a matter of priority to stabilize the economy. There was a lot of borrowing by the previous government. We all knew that they had to be borrowing because of the consequences of COVID. Virtually the world shut down on us and with our economy so dependent on tourism you can imagine the severe consequences that it would have had. I think everyone in here would remember in the early part of 2020 we will be told in this house that the economy was so well managed that things were booming and that we were on a steady course and you would remember Mr. Speaker we stood in this house and we asked the then government, the then Minister of Finance a member from Mico South how could you last month say to us things were so good it was booming and then unexpectedly COVID hit us shut down and then we crash. Now it would not have been unusual if other islands suffered the same fate we suffered. Well we all suffered the same fate but ours was exceedingly worse. Why if we were doing so well we were the best performing the same event confronted all of us but we came out the worse for it. Now we can argue on opposite sides about who is better managing economy but the truth is there for everyone to see and that truth is guided by facts by facts and we cannot contest that. The fact is St. Lucia did the worst in the Caribbean because of the COVID pandemic and it led to a significant amount of borrowing beyond what other territories had to do and it's because of how this country was managed. Now again we can spend a lot of time arguing who is right and who is wrong. The point is the previous government took a certain pathway which proved to be disastrous. Our task when we came in was to steady the ship. We did not have the luxury of going out and borrowing excessively or without discretion as a member from Cassius North just stated. So this Prime Minister has had to be exceedingly cautious and deliberate in the decisions that he has made. But Mr. Speaker important in all of this is the whole role of tourism and I want to say a few things before I come back to the point I was making. We all understand how important tourism is and when COVID hit how it affected us. Mr. Speaker equally important for us as a tourism destination and more so one which is starting to promote with greater vigor the notion of community tourism of creating authentic experiences and saying we want our visitors to leave the resorts more than before and to visit the communities. That is what we're selling now. There's a clear reason why we are doing so. It comes back to the core of our economic philosophy that more solution should participate in the tourism industry and more solution should own the tourism industry. That is a core of our developmental trajectory and it has been there from times but now this historical moment requires us to push that agenda more than ever. More than ever because the Prime Minister himself in an earlier life was one of the architects of that approach and I am only continuing that whole approach that has characterized our notion of what tourism should be all about. So we are saying visitors should go out to the communities more. We are saying communities should build more assets that can attract visitors. But in all of that Mr. Speaker the events of the last few days really tells us how difficult the task is. Let's not deny it and the member from Sousel Saltibas called on everyone to play their part to fight the scourge of crime that we are facing and he expressed his support for the Commission of Police and the words of the Prime Minister and I want to join all of them in saying Mr. Speaker that if we are to succeed and fulfill the dream and the vision that we have we must endeavor to win this battle against the monster that crime is Mr. Speaker. I know Mr. Speaker I can recall as far back as 1987 Mr. Speaker I was then a youth leader. The member from Kastri's North will remember that. It had gotten to a point in St. Lucia where the then Minister of Education Louis George and his public secretary was then Dr. Frederick and his chief education officer Dr. Michael Louis fought it necessary to form a national task force on indiscipline in St. Lucia because the indiscipline was starting to raise head in St. Lucia in an unprecedented manner and I recall I was the NYC the youth rep on that national task force and I remember we presenting a paper to the task force where we said to the then government that we were going to face severe consequences in the future if we did not invest more on the development of our human resources in St. Lucia now the UDP government of that time was a very prudent government if you study our political history the political economy of St. Lucia you will get a lot deeper understanding of the approach to economic development then there's a government that did not invest heavily money that they thought they did not have that they had a certain approach to it and we're not passing judgment we not be normative we just said it is what it is what it was and we in the NYC were saying no invest in the future invest in our people in those days Mr. Speaker children there was no national stadium there was no cricket ground you know the facilities for young people we felt was not enough in fact some of us supported the member from Kastri's North becoming Minister of Youth because we believe then that he understood our language and that you would have made a difference although I must admit we told him we ain't sure he gonna succeed because within that setting they didn't understand that kind of language he was not blue yet Mr. Speaker we were not investing in our people we were calling on the government to have a clear cultural policy to invest in creative industries as far back as 1987 I Mr. Speaker as far back as that but it was not he did I was a teenager then and we were saying in the years to come we will pay the price for not creating that enabling environment in solution where our young people can thrive and grow Mr. Speaker I remember in 1997 Mr. Speaker when the Labour Party came into power and we spoke of universal secondary education there were people who criticized us for even thinking that every child in Senonsha should go to secondary school think about that when we announced we had every child in Senonsha can now go to a secondary school they said we will wasting money because some children are too lazy to go to secondary school that they should leave school at 6 4 at standard 6 and we said no as much as the system might not be perfect it's better to send them to secondary school we started vocational education it had been started by the previous UWP government but we tried to take it to a different level all together with the construction of the CCRA secondary school and in view for the technical school Mr. Speaker all because we believe that you must invest in your people to create an environment where your people see opportunities in life and social ills and social degradation would be less of a pathway to take Mr. Speaker today the chickens have come home to roost Mr. Speaker we have a problem and they have been successful prime successive prime ministers the member from castries north has had to deal with the problem the member from you thought south has had to deal with the problem the member from Miku south has had to deal with the problem this is not a new problem I must say to your social media makes it appear in a way which we were not accustomed to before but it is not a new problem Mr. Speaker it's not a new problem and each former prime minister you actually former prime ministers each of them can give you their own experience is a member from you thought south will tell you the number of police stations he builds the number of vehicles he bought the legislation he changed the member from me castries north can tell you about his own attempts equally the member from Miku south so the challenge Mr. Speaker has been there successively facing government after government it is now our turn to try to solve it and I believe Mr. Speaker we can solve it we have to solve it if we are to succeed Mr. Speaker we have to find a way to solve this challenge we have before us and when challenges before you it is not a time to run for shelter it's a time to stand up and to be content Mr. Speaker and this government will stand up and be content Mr. Speaker so as we offer condolences to all the victims of crime Mr. Speaker we want to say to St. Lucian's that we must fight collectively to overcome this menace we have to overcome this threat to our society Mr. Speaker we have to do it we may not even know exactly how to do it but we know we must fight we must do something Mr. Speaker I don't know the answers I can't tell you I have my own common sense solutions that I can give but I know we must fight collectively and when you heard about the citizens meeting yesterday announcing their own program to fight crime I want to applaud them Mr. Speaker I want to encourage them Mr. Speaker and I have said to the Prime Minister that I want for us in the next budget and he agreed with me totally he said to me he was thinking just like me we're on the same page to give more money to the churches who have more crusades to go out there and play their part equally to give more money to youth groups to give more money to the sporting organizations let us spend more in the social intervention programs Mr. Speaker we have to Mr. Speaker you see this I Mr. Speaker I also remember in 1997 when the Labour Party came into power Mr. Speaker when we saw the level of youth unemployment and what was going on we started the step program you you know Mr. Speaker others may not know I was the one who Dr. Anthony remember from himself had given the responsibility to start the step program and I was the first chairman of step and we did so because we wanted to create opportunity for persons who had been deemed the unemployables in St. Lucia and we will criticize we will give in money away we will make in many kinds of people even in elections in the 2016 that same thinking was perpetuated because they believe when you have social intervention programs that you make in many kinds of people you're throwing away money that instead you should give it to the private sector I'm not in the private sector should not get but that cannot be the only solution Mr. Speaker so we are determined as a government we're going to fight this through law enforcement we're going to fight it for social interventions and social interventions will carry the full range of options from the religious the spiritual the community right from Mr. Speaker but we must also fight it in the international arena Mr. Speaker because I've said it before we do not manufacture guns in St. Lucia Mr. Speaker we don't and recently we had a presentation on money laundering you know the the whole framework that exists and we've been asked to look critically at the financing of terrorism and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in St. Lucia and we ask the question who is looking after the financing and the trafficking of small arms because to be told terrorism is not a threat to us weapons of mass destruction is not a threat to us but trafficking of small arms and the financing of that trafficking is a threat to us and we must let our voice be heard internationally and call on the countries that manufactured those guns to take responsibility for the consequences of them and the transshipment roots somebody has to take responsibility for it we cannot believe we can fight this on our own and the member from Straszl Solid bus was right it comes down despite all the complexity of crime it comes down to a fundamental point there too many guns on the streets how did they get there who's bringing them who's financing them we cannot solve that on our own we can do as much as we can in our own confined space of St. Lucia but there's a bigger force that can overwhelm us so do not believe we can solve this problem by social intervention or by changing legislation or just law enforcement we have to call on the international community to recognize what is happening to us if some countries are concerned about terrorism and about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction we must put on the agenda our concern too and this government will have to do so we will have to do so miss the speaker and we need to let all solutions know you must be brave you must be courageous you must believe in our capacity as a people that we can overcome this challenge it is what lies before us and if we are going to develop this country into a prosperous nation we must overcome this challenge and we have the capability to do so so let us start working together to do so we must not be soft on crime we must be understanding of the circumstances that can cause one to go into crime but we must never be soft on it miss the speaker I have had over the last two to three months not two months miss the speaker to know some individuals I know personally personally lose their life because of gun violence in my constituency personally and over the next few days I have to participate in the funeral of another one miss the speaker a lovely young lady miss the speaker who lost her life miss the speaker so all of us as parliamentary reps probably no individuals who are affected we have to dedicate ourselves as leaders as well to do what is necessary to fight this threat that we face miss the speaker and when I have in a press conference the former minister of tourism boldly say to the world that we are hiding the figures that it affects stories crime against stories because we want higher numbers in San Wusha it really makes you wonder miss the speaker yes as politicians we sometime undermine and we question and we challenge and we know we take on each other miss the speaker maybe they believe in their own minds and they say it all the time oh that's what you all used to do I know I never used to do that and I know for fuck my colleagues would not like that it doesn't mean we were not critical but nobody glodes over the destruction of the country miss the speaker but maybe again they're not from this country mr. speaker but that's another story for another day miss the speaker that's another story for another day you know mr. speaker we cannot be happy when Saint Lucia is facing a challenge such as this we cannot be happy you know there are many other things you can criticize us about mr. speaker but certainly you cannot rejoice when the country is facing some of its darkest times miss the speaker but again I keep saying I know we will overcome and I know we will succeed and I know that economic philosophy I spoke about of creating a prosperous nation by giving Saint Lucia's more opportunity and making them owners mr. speaker of the economic pillars of this country we will achieve it we will achieve it I think mr. speaker this is why this borrowing becomes even more important because it is guided by a philosophy mr. speaker that always places people first mr. speaker always the prime minister the member for castries is stood up and he listed the number of occasions we came into this parliament and borrowed monies and five out of the seven if my calculation was right had nothing to do with new expenditure it had to do with expenditure commitments made before we got into government which we had to fulfill and when the leader of the opposition post how many times we've come to the house to borrow and how much we've borrowed well again he believes misinformation is the way to go but a lot of it was not even commitments made by us and similarly when you speak of 60 million dollars in land acquisition cost that has to be paid that was not done by us in 17 months it wasn't but we have an obligation to meet those costs we have it like the member from castries north said it is grossly unfair to take somebody's property and make them suffer and wait for years to get their money it's wrong you talk about payables mr. speaker over hundred and almost 170 140 140 or million dollars in payables when we came in in payables on what an ad in payables mr. speaker do we say to those individuals those service providers that we were not in government so therefore we will not pay you it's been 17 months mr. speaker some of them have not been paid we have to pay mr. speaker the DFC is mr. speaker I mean we've been through this before in this house we are responsible government we've waited 17 months we've tried to manage this economy to stabilize it not to engage in excessive borrowing just manage it well enough that we do not put more pressure on our debt that stop stock mr. speaker we've reached a point where we have to fulfill some of those obligations so we've had to come to this house to fulfill what the prime minister said in his budget statement and this is what we are doing today this is what we're doing so mr. speaker I am glad that we finally reached it today we can take care of those outstanding matters leftover bills from COVID learn acquisition payables and many others we can clear this mr. speaker we have no choice but we have to do it and at the same time mr. speaker there are some new course of course the operations of government must continue must continue I hope in them mr. speaker there is something for the bastard Joseph community center mr. speaker but I hope so mr. speaker because you know I'm patiently waiting and I must say mr. speaker that I'm very thankful mr. speaker to the member from countries north and the prime minister member of countries is for the lovely roads we have in marigold and bastard Joseph right now mr. speaker I would also like roads in but I'm monkey tongue repaired to mr. speaker but I'll be a little patient so like the member from baboon who says she knows a lot of that money will be filtering down into baboon oh I want some of it to filter down into the bastard Joseph mr. speaker community center and by the way we're already using it even if it's not finished we will have solo night there on December 23rd so those of you will follow solo can come and join us and listen to will a TT and some of the other groups perform mr. speaker yes mr. speaker so mr. speaker I really want to express my support to the for the motion before us and to ask the prime minister to continue in this present approach there's a lot I can say to speak about the community tourism program to speak about the micro enterprise fund speak about the youth economy so much mr. speaker that we are doing to offer more opportunities for our people to empower people is a whole process of economic enfranchisement that is taking place in this country mr. speaker and we're going to accelerate it so mr. speaker thank you very much I support this motion