 Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the resolution to permit the Minister of Finance to borrow the sum of $202 million. Mr. Speaker, the resolution states that the loan is repayable in 20 years after the grace period of five years from the date of the loan agreement commencing on the 15th day of May and 15th day of November in each year after the grace period. Mr. Speaker, it is to be noted that the rate of interest on the loan is at the rate of two percent per annum on the principal amount and outstanding. In other words, Mr. Speaker, on the reducing balance of the principal. From the foregoing, Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the terms of the loan for financing the construction and rehabilitation of the St. Jude Hospital are highly concessional and therefore extremely favorable, Mr. Speaker. This is the point that must be accentuated today as we borrow to complete the St. Jude Hospital. Mr. Speaker, a grace period of five years will allow for the project to be completed before the government commences the repayment of the loan. What a great day. What a great day, Mr. Speaker. In fact, the Minister for Finance has made it abundantly clear that the project will be completed in the shortest time possible and before the term of our office. Mr. Speaker, not even the best political liar can refute this fact. It's not there. There is no doubt in our minds, Mr. Speaker, that when we set timelines under the leadership of the member for Cassus East, our Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, when we set timelines, we are realistic, Mr. Speaker, and we know what we are doing and we plan properly. Its interest rate of 2% per annum on the reducing balance of the loan is extremely generous, especially when one considers, Mr. Speaker, that the federal funds rate is at around 5.25% to 5.50% per annum. And that inflation is at its highest levels for over 40 years, Mr. Speaker. The real rate of interest, which is the nominal interest rate, less the expected rate of inflation, is therefore negative. What a brilliant shot by the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance. Mr. Speaker, it is a fixed interest rate over the life of the loan, thus providing us with predictability and certainty in terms of the loan repayments, as opposed to a variable rate, depending on how interest rates internationally change, or what we previously knew as London Interbank offer rate, what we call the LIBORATE, Mr. Speaker, or what is now called the Secured Overnight Finance Rate, which has the acronym SOFR. Mr. Speaker, this resolution brings me personally much joy, as we now have secured adequate finance for completing the St. Jude's Hospital Reconstruction Project. Unravel members will recall that the St. Lucia Labour Party government, during the storm of office between 2011 and 2016, continued the project, which was started by the United Workers Party government following the St. Jude's fire in 2009. One of the major constraints that our government faced at the time was the fact that the requisite financial resources had not been secured for the completion of the St. Jude's Project. And our government, at that time, had to utilize the limited financial resources to continue the project, pending the finalization of a confirmed source for financing the St. Jude Project. The Prime Minister and Minister for Finance at the time, the member for Viewport South, worked assiduously towards ensuring that we kept the reconstruction of St. Jude's going throughout his term. And I will come to that momentarily, Mr. Speaker. The Prime Minister and Minister for Finance in his budget statement in 2002 stated that between 2010 and August 2016, a total amount of $98 million was spent on the St. Jude's Hospital Project. Our government subsequently secured a loan in the amount of $20 million U.S. dollars to complete and commission a fully furnished and equipped St. Jude's Hospital at a total cost of $148 million, Mr. Speaker. The project was, however, abruptly terminated by the former UWP government in September 2016, and they demolished two of the newly constructed buildings which cost approximately $7 million. The UWP government, Mr. Speaker, decided to construct a new building which had been turned the box by the member for Viewport South, in fact that monstrosity, which the executing agency, the Ministry of Economic Development, had cost at $118 million as of July 2021. They decided to build a box instead of completing the hospital and the box as at July 2021 was cost at $118 million, a box that is not stronger than one of the cardboard boxes that Winera used to make to export bananas. Just prior to the general election, the former government had prepared a draft financing agreement for architectural works and what was called transition cost to bring the ground floor into use, the ground floor of the box. The cost of such works outlined in this finance agreement was $70.75 million with a financing cost of EC $6.66 million. This amount had to be repaired in one year, Mr. Speaker. The total cost of completing the ground floor would have cost the government $188 million just to complete the ground floor. Just to complete the ground floor, the cost does not include furniture and equipment to furnish the hospital, Mr. Speaker. This decision by the last UWP government can be described as nothing short of scandalous and has resulted in a waste of hundreds of millions of dollars, scarce resources which could have been used for the sustainable growth and development of the economy to benefit the people of this country, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this decision by the UWP government, we must note that the last government spent close to one million dollars on a technical report, some technical audit which they refused to make a public document despite the repeated requests we made both inside and outside of this honorable house. Do you know what is even worse, Mr. Speaker? The technical audit recommended that the hospital could have been completed with some retrofitting works but they chose to ignore the recommendations of their own audit report. Pay one million dollars for an audit report. The audit report told them that they could complete changes. They ignored it and then they started to ponder hours and end up building a box. Now, Mr. Speaker, when we talk about climate change and we talk about the effects of a climate crisis, we have the original hospital buildings that was built to military standard that can withstand a category five hurricane. You don't want to keep the hospital there. Now, when you go and put them in a box, what do you do when there's a major hurricane with patients in the box? What do you do with the patients run and hide in the very buildings that you do not want to complete? Mr. Speaker, in contrast to the foolishness that they did, our government established a committee at no cost to the taxpayer to advise on the way forward for the St. Joe's reconstruction project. The committee recommended that we proceed with the completion of the original project. I repeat, the committee we put in place recommended that we complete the original project. Our government has approved of the recommendation made by the committee and proceeded to identify the financing for the completion of the project, as the previous government did not leave any resources available for the St. Joe's project. So after spending all that money on DSH, after you ponder hours, a whole letter, and they did foolishness with the fiscal space that we gave them, Mr. Speaker, to impact the lives of the people positively. But they spent $13.6 million to build some road for DSH. And they spent another $8 million to relocate the BOSESU agricultural project. Another set of money about $877,000 to rent some land at Volet, all types of foolishness including the abattoir, a gift from foreign governments. That spares money in other countries. What did they do with it? They said they had to demolish it because DSH suggests that pigs can be too close to their horses and all types of things. And of course, if the abattoir was in operation, Mr. Speaker, it would have created an improved framework for people to gain financial resources so that they can make an effective demand for goods and services in this country. Can you imagine the number of cattle, heads of cattle would need, sheep, goats, pigs, to keep the abattoir functioning? Everybody in this country could have been involved in producing and providing the abattoir with the necessary raw materials to ensure that it continued to operate efficiently. Thereby giving teachers, public servants, unemployed, everybody an opportunity to make money by producing for the abattoir. But no, horsey diggidic, horsey diggidic, horsey diggidic, that's all they were interested in. You know? For the entire five years the prime minister and all his ministers just called horse. You know? Horsey diggidic, horsey diggidic, wild, wild. You know? In all kinds of sophisticated aircraft, Shuval can't wait, it's here. Eqpame mbouhik, Keerlet Racklite. Abundant is like a white elephant, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in fact, they left a debt. After they did all the nonsense. They left a debt of $42.75 million which was allocated in this year's budget to meet outstanding payments to the contractor for works undertaken on the box. Not the original buildings. In our manifesto, Mr. Speaker, we promise that St. Jude will be reopened in the shortest possible time as we understand that this hospital serves people from January right down to Sufra, Mr. Speaker. And of course, the widest inclusion public. The financing provided by the Saudi Arabian Fund, Mr. Speaker, for development in the amount of approximately $202 million will be modern sufficient to complete the hospital as well as commence rehabilitation work on the Judge Odlam National Stadium. Mr. Speaker, the significance of that may not be seen by the naked eye. But I'll tell you, when you inherit a debt to GDP ratio of almost 100% and you have a fiscal deficit, which is way above the prudential limits, for any serious financial institution to invest in bonds or to give you a loan, they would have to allow a period where you as a country would have to bring down the debt to GDP ratio to prudential limits and the fiscal deficit. What we have done, Mr. Speaker, whilst we are restructuring the economy, we have secured $202 million to ensure that we complete the hospital, get the people out of the stadium to the original site and fix up the stadium for the purpose intended, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I cannot take my brief intervention to its logical conclusion without indicating that despite the condition of the economy, as I mentioned earlier, what the the member of Yufotsaw found, he could not have done the kinds of things that the former UWP administration could have done when the rebasing actually gave them unbridled leave tomorrow. Because with the rebasing, it actually caused an improved framework for them. And the GDP, the debt to GDP ratio during the Labour Party's time that was too high with the rebasing, even that went down. So our GDP at that time was underestimated. If we had that space, we could have expedited the construction of St. Jude's. But because of that scenario, we had to wait. So in 2014, the member of Yufotsaw, as Prime Minister, applied for a loan from the Taiwanese. It was approved in 2014. And the first 50% was disbursed in January of 2015. However, by 2016, the year of elections, the hospital was almost completed. When they came into office, they abandoned the project for three years. Whilst they were on the horses. Whilst they did nothing for the people of this country. And in the entire OECS, the former government borrowed about 40% of the total borrowings in the OECS. And by 2019, the end of 2019, the economy of St. Lucia was in a recession. The economy of this country was in a recession whilst the will economy was booming. Now, Mr. Speaker, when you borrow and you invest in the people, you invest in the country, there is no way you can have a contraction in the economy at the end of 2019. As a matter of fact, given the level of borrowing, we should probably have grown much more than any economy in the OECS. So when COVID came, because of the underlying condition of bad economic management, we could not have responded as we should have with fiscal policy to the pandemic. The economy contracted by 24.4% among the highest contractions in the world. And then the member for Mikusov comes into this house, casually walked there. He comes there when he's on vacation in St. Lucia. You know? And say for 13 years that the hospital would not have been finished. The hospital is not finished today because they abandoned the project for three years in the first instance and decided to build a box. Had they completed the hospital during the time that they had the fiscal space, we would not be there debating on St. Jude's hospital reconstruction project. We would not have been there talking about the stadium. We would have been getting those monies to do something else in the economy. Something else. Maybe pumping more money in the youth economy. Producing more resources so that small business can enjoy and talking about small business. During COVID, the IMF, the World Bank, the CDB, the Republic of China and Taiwan collectively gave us in the vicinity of $300 million for income support. They took $7 million, as if they bought two pounds of rice and just, you know, spread it in a yard, let the chickens eat it and took the majority of the monies to do what they wanted to do in their election projects whilst the people suffer. And during COVID, even those who mobilized for them in 2016 were gasping for air and sucking salt. And so, Mr. Speaker, today is a great day for us. That to-dos, without any fuss or fanfare, the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance has come to this house to ensure that we approve the borrowing so that it can expedite the completion of St. Joe's Hospital. And I want to tell the people of this country and the people of the world, the only way that this hospital shall not be finished within our term is if the world ends before our term comes to an end. And so, Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to deal with the financing. And therefore, I will take my brief intervention to its logical conclusion. By offering my full support to the resolution presented by the Prime Minister to borrow from the Saudi Fund for Development to allow the government to complete the St. Joe's Hospital. May God continue to bless the Prime Minister of St. Lucia, the Honorable Philip Joseph Pierre. As we continue to return this country to normalcy, grow the economy for us to deliver more to the people of this country in keeping with our theme putting people first. Mr. Speaker, I yield the floor.