 Mr. Svika, I rise in support of the estimates of revenue and expenditure 2023-2024 presented by the Honorable Prime Minister and Parliamentary Representative for Castries East. My support for these estimates is primarily because I see clear evidence of good financial management on the part of the Prime Minister who is responsible for finance and managing the country. Mr. Svika, I will speak to the relevant sections as they relate to the ministry of the public service, home affairs, labor and gender affairs. Mr. Svika, this is the first time I am completing a full budget cycle where I started and ended the full financial year. What a journey in my deliberation Mr. Svika. I will present on some of the achievements of the departments of the public service, labor and gender affairs as of this ministry is under one permanent secretary and then I will speak to the department of home affairs that is under another permanent secretary and I will elaborate on what my ministry plans to undertake in the ensuing financial year. I want to let me take, leave briefly Mr. Svika to welcome in our midst Honorable Joakim Henry who has recovered speedily No better than to call members by name Honorable member for Kastris Southeast who has recovered speedily and I think the Lord has answered our prayers. Mr. Svika I want to thank my constituents in Babunu I want to thank the prime minister for his confidence in me in assigning me a ministry to manage the affairs of the country I want to thank the staff of the ministry of the public service home affairs labor and gender affairs for riding the journey along with me I want to say good-bye to all of you with me this is the first time that I have come here to look after the work that has been done to look after the work that has been done and to look after the first minister to manage the affairs of the country Mr. Svika before I go into full details of my presentation I want to touch briefly on comments that were made earlier by the member opposite the seats are empty now but I'll speak to the chairs and the member spoke about milking the bull and he made reference or ridicule a previous member of this parliament but Mr. Svika as a typical teacher I normally ask my students to look at the jug and tell me what they see some will tell me it is almost three-quarter full or it is one-quarter empty Mr. Svika on July 26, 2021 I joined a team of men and women who decided to go down into that ocean to help pull Saint Lucia out of that deep hole I put on my diving suit and all of us plunged down and today Mr. Svika I am very proud of the honourable prime minister and parliamentary rep for caste resist and my colleagues in the cabinet of ministers and those who are in parliament too were not part of cabinet that we went out there to pull Saint Lucia out of that deep hole I heard a member opposite said how we planted, they planted some seeds and we are harvesting some of these seeds but one of the seeds that he did not speak to is what we are harvesting today and when we look at the issue of crime in the country I want him to tell me whether they planted that seed too Mr. Svika he also said that there are certain things the government could have done and had the government done that we would have done even better so it means we have done good Mr. Svika he also asked questions about the passport and the canine units and since that is within my portfolio I felt it is necessary that I respond to his concern there are 5165 passports that he said that were processed during the last financial year and it is also projected for the next financial year he has to realize that we are talking about an estimate, a projection and you look at the rate of turnover and therefore a gentleman who knows about finances will know how to do what you call an estimate and therefore the projection is that we are going to have about the same number of passports being processed in the coming year but for his information I want him to know that at this moment as we speak we have secured a new location for the immigration office to operate and if he had read the estimates he would have seen that the honorable prime minister put on a location of $200,000 for the new location for immigration he also mentioned about the canine units and Mr. Svika we had discussion with some very powerful agencies that are willing to work with St. Lucia and the issue of canine units is one of the areas they are willing to assist us so I need to let him know that and he mentioned the issue of scanners Mr. Svika we have brought in three new scanners to scan passports in the passport immigration department so there is no way the rate of processing passports will be at the rate that it was last year it will be a lot more it will be done expeditiously Mr. Svika my presentation I will speak on what has happened in the Babono constituency and I will also give you an indication of what we have in mind Mr. Svika when I examined the 2023-2024 estimate I looked at the overview which clearly stated that the economy continues on its recovery trajectory as economic and social conditions improve since the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions in 2022 Mr. Svika the report on the estimates highlighted some of the challenges which are impacting negatively on the economic viability of the country like the war in Ukraine increased global prices of oil bottleneck logistics transportation and general increases in price of goods and services Mr. Svika the estimates definitely reflect an increase in recurrent revenue and by 5.2 percent over the fiscal year 2022-23 expenditure over 10 Mr. Svika for 2022-23 is estimated at 1.5 billion dollars compared to 1.8 billion dollars approved expenditure estimates due to delays in project implementation and this is something that we have spoken about time and time again because we have inherited a system that is moving very slow and sometimes our constituents our citizens get frustrated and they blame the government for that we see a primary surplus it is estimated is expected to amount to 29.6 million dollars in contrast to a primary deficit of 220.1 million dollars as was projected in the 2022-23 estimates but what that says Mr. Svika if we had a negative 2020.1 million dollars and we end up with a surplus of 29.6 million dollars it says in simple language if we had a negative 2020.1 million dollars we would have a surplus of 200.1 million dollars and the Prime Minister and the government would have a surplus of 200.1 million dollars but if we had a negative 2020.1 million dollars we would have a surplus of 29.9 million dollars so it means Mr. Svika we are ready to take flight we are above water Mr. Svika to the department of the public service and the public service this department is the hub in the middle of the wheel and if department is not spinning then the wheel will not move the public service is there change and manage human resources and information communication technology to deliver exceptional public service to customers it has to give strategic direction leadership in policy planning management and administrative services and human resource management to support national development goals Mr. Svika financial year DigiGov and public service modernization had many achievements some of which include provision for e-services in 31 areas including application for both certificates and death certificates it has moved into transport when we look at the license issuing of license permits, renewals renewals of license and driver's license and in 2020 to 2023 there was 125,992 transactions on that site for example driver's theory test recorded 20,790 driver's license 17,124 both certificates were processed 10,321 renewals of driver's license 43,000 driver's license were processed from January to March this year Mr. Svika users online has reached up to 16,993 users Mr. Svika the department of public service modernization is in the process of establishing a further 32 stations for the GI net in terms of internet connection and we have about 90 stations that have been established around the island we are looking at the digitization where we will involve five government agencies we have to strengthen our legislation to deal with digital information because what is happening there is not part of our laws and therefore we have to advance the law change the law to bring it into line and the agencies funding the project is waiting for government to address the legislation that we can deal with legal areas electronic transactions transaction signatures crime evident sharing digital governance and data protection the following agencies will be benefitting from online services the department of the public service infrastructure police and tourism Mr. Svika the public service also has the responsibility for the training division and in training they look at study leave with pay study leave without pay tuition refund timer for personal studies training leave short term overseas training in service training Mr. Svika permit me to highlight some of the major activities that were achieved during the financial year 2022 to March 31, 2023 Mr. Svika we had persons who applied for study leave with pay and the government policy is one where it is not open for all persons who applied for study leave with pay to get it but those who applied was not too many the government approved and that has to be approved by cabinet and we had persons from the department of home affairs public service health and wellness finance postal service and forensic science service from ministry department of justice we also look at the issue of in service training programs and during the period under review we were able to deliver 23 programs in 25 35 codes a total of 934 public officers were selected and we had 591 officers who attended the program and 533 completed Mr. Svika out of the 1337 public officers who were available for selection of various training programs 70% were selected for training and 63% attended out of the officers who attended 94% completed the program so the government is actually making the effort to ensure that our public officers have access to training Mr. Svika the facilities management unit and when we talk of public service the public service is responsible for care and maintenance of all government facilities and therefore there are capital projects in the land registry condenser that's completed which costs $156,000 fire metal exit says in the Graham-Louise building that costs $300,000 and that's completed we have to get a water pump for the building 95% completes and that costs $220,000 electrical certification for the Graham-Louise administrative building 65% completes and that costs $460,000 some of the other major projects in terms of electrical certification public service training institute 100% complete and that costs $43,938.51 maintenance and survey assistant office 100% complete that costs $98,818.85 upgrading the public service training institute 85% complete and that costs $54,658.11 repair to elevator at the Graham-Louise building now it's over almost two years this other elevator is not functioning and right now we are in the process of facilitating and enabling and getting the equipment and it will cost us $134,424 to get this other elevator functioning and we are looking at public service storage container which is 50% complete and it will cost $83,652.80 there are some approved initiatives employee assistant program we need additional office space which will cost $100,333 security system upgrade $363,972 purchase of fire safety equipment $186,000 purchase and installation of generator the building is a 34 year old building and a lot of things in that building has gone bad and therefore we have to put it back in place and this building is owned by the government and therefore we have to maintain it it will cost us $230,000 to purchase and install the generator and purchase of air conditioning units which will improve the equality because now we have a lot of complaints about mold and all kinds of issues that will cost $175,600 so that takes care of facilities management we have the employee assistant program we know our public servants have a lot of challenges and therefore government has assigned allocated $100,033 for additional office space for them to operate and over several hundred persons have received therapy sessions we have had 136 intake sessions and 156 individual therapy sessions and 25 intakes so some persons have challenges and therefore they need that kind of support and this is what the government is investing in to ensure that our employees get the right assistance Mr. Speaker I move quickly to the Department of Labor Mr. Speaker had 49 page 399 the allocation is $2,816,800 was allocated for operating and capital expenditure for the financial year 2023-2024 and the Department of Labor has been experiencing many challenges and during the period under review there were several discussions on the taken with staff and management which highlighted the challenges at present there is a new deputy permanent secretary and a new labor commissioner who are willing to undergo major reform to bring in line to bring the labor department in line with regional and international standards a new labor tribunal was established however they have to deal with a backlog of cases which had been there and that is creating extreme challenges for the new labor tribunal and therefore they need the support for them to clear I understood Mr. Speaker that employers and workers whose cases had not been heard for how many years they are so excited when they get a call for them to come and discuss the cases the government has promised the people of St. Lucia that it will put them first and protect their rights and we are left with very little choice but to deliver on our promises to them Mr. Speaker the government established a minimum wage commission according to the labor act and I'm pleased to let you know Mr. Speaker that the commission has already presented an initial report to me as minister with responsibility for labor and they are getting ready to finalize the report to present to the prime minister and cabinet of ministers shortly the employment unit has been working very hard to continue to expand the overseas employment program because the request for St. Lucia citizens to work overseas is very high the department is currently conducting needs assessment to map out its plans to strengthen the department of labor to improve on the industrial climate in the country the ministry of finance and the prime minister kept his promise and paid the liat workers and the majestic workers Mr. Speaker civil servants have benefited from the millions of dollars which the prime minister promised to pay and gave them back pay prime minister he paid the liat workers to work here with the majestic workers who have been working for 10 years to work as civil servants prime minister paid the liat workers as civil servants he paid the liat workers to work here with the majestic workers prime minister he paid the liat workers to work here with the majestic workers prime minister prime minister so people are happy that the prime minister and this government has kept to his promise Mr. Speaker the labor department has also reported that they are dealing with a lot of collective agreements in fact they have signed in excess of 60 collective agreements with the different trade unions and they are in the process we did not have a registrar of trade unions and we are in the process of appointing a registrar for trade unions because this is the person who has to ensure that the trade unions comply with the legislation Mr. Speaker we have actually seen an increase in the occupational safety and health unit because there was a shortage of personnel and government has given them additional staff so that they can continue the work Mr. Speaker if I move quickly to gender affairs the department of gender affairs Mr. Speaker this is the first time in the history of the department of gender affairs where they made a request to the minister of finance and the director came in all in smiles said this is the first time that they have seen the minister of finance given them all what they asked for indicated me that I said my government and my prime minister is gender sensitive they are concerned about both men and women gender is not about women it's about men and women they are concerned about equality between men and women and that is why this government passed the domestic violence bill Cabinet has also the authority to establish gender focal points in every ministry and right now senior officers from 22 ministries department and agencies serve on a gender focal point and Mr. Speaker this is very good language for Saint Lucia at the local, regional and international level governments agencies out there will have great respect for a government that takes this type of steps and we are on the right track Mr. Speaker at this point the government has secured put on a location for additional space for the gender department to operate and they are creating shop shop position for persons who have been affected by violence they will be getting counseling immediately if they are in distress and therefore the department of gender affairs will work with the other departments to mainstream gender in all sectors government programs and that is where you open your eyes and you look at what government is doing and if you notice when I listen to the different ministries and funding coming to the government every component has a gender part and this is what will help us out in terms of getting the commitments from a number of agencies out there Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker we have a program blueprints for gender equality funded by the Canadians and implemented by Kuso International they are going to give us technical assistance in a number of areas where we can do capacity assessment and development we have the program what we call the Build Back Equal which is a project that will cost about two million US dollars over a four year period and they are giving us technical persons to help in the implementation of this project and a number of ministries and different communities will benefit from that program Mr. Speaker since the passage of the Domestic Violent Act No. 11 of 2022 on International Women's Day 2022 a practitioner's guide for the implementation of the Act was developed and has been used to train over 50 police officers and social workers including 25 senior police officers Mr. Speaker we are well on our way in ensuring that we provide the support to our government agencies to work with non-governmental organization to strengthen the issue of gender equality in our country we have developed a lay persons guide for major streets that is being developed and it will be circulated this year in the coming year we are also looking at supporting as we say the one stop center response to gender so the new venue will have space to address these issues Mr. Speaker I move quickly now to the department of home affairs and home affairs the budget for home affairs and national security is one budget and for those who are confused the prime minister takes this decision on national security and he gives me to hold a post so we have to decide where we put what and Mr. Speaker as you know the home affairs department is always a hot spot every single day there is something new in the department of home affairs deals with the police borderlay fire service marine unit immigration probation and parole and now we are in the process of establishing the youth at risk unit head 36 Mr. Speaker if you look at the allocation in the estimates for home affairs people will say wow it's a lot of money $129,250,400 but it cannot be a wow Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker because a small country like St. Lucia with social challenges and limited finances the resources that we have should go towards social programs to improve the quality of life for the people not to invest in security safety and protection from each other why do we have to secure ourselves from each other that money should go into education into health but because there is a social breakdown lack of conflict resolution lack of understanding the breakdown in the family structure now we have to invest millions of dollars for our own safety and security secure from who we don't have lions we don't have tigers so what are we protecting ourselves against human beings just like us Mr. Speaker on the Roman numeral item 36 you would have seen what is allocated for home affairs and national security I'm happy the prime minister has declared national security as a priority area this year and therefore we have to ensure that our people are safe the police service has allocated on page 137 code 043 head 36 53,239,666 dollars during the last financial year the government invested heavily in a number of areas some of which are repairs and AC units were installed to the tune of 2,818,987 dollars in several police stations Denry police station Labry police station Grosile, Richfond, Soufre, Masha, Miku the marine unit Babono, Ancelare the SSU North and SSU South government invested in providing the police with vehicles 3,732,157 dollars and 14 cents and other equipment 915,845,53 cents they need to carry out they need this equipment to carry out their duties we may not give the details of what the equipment are but the police have gotten that and Mr. Speaker we have 69 vehicles in the police force that are over 10 years 13 are between 6 to 10 years and 65 are less than 5 years of which 27 were purchased by this government so we have we have a real mess on our hands but we have started addressing it because the prime minister has made a commitment he has already started investing in giving the police the tools and the equipment that they need for them to do the work we are not backing down we have to do what we have to do a large number of correctional law enforcement officers and firefighters got opportunities for training and Mr. Speaker you would have wrote the long story about training in in 2022 98 police got training in 2021 68 we have 28 officers on an average we have 28 officers that get monthly training in the fire service many of them also got promotion at bodily officers were trained locally and 4 regionally 12 officers got promotion and 3 were appointed and government had to find 611 dollars 611,734 dollars and 59 cents were spent to do that Mr. Speaker in the fire service 405 officers were trained in 2022 in 2021 probation and parole Mr. Speaker on page 37 code 047 and a location of 2,166,767 dollars was assigned to the probation and parole unit this department needs attention so we can build its capacity to address many of the social challenges we face in the country the department has done some work and are almost ready to launch the youth at risk unit which will include representative from bodily correctional facility youth justice services police, mental health substance use counselors school resource probation officers trained gun social worker human resource services department of education and health the report is ready and the government will launch a youth at risk program or youth delinquency to deal with at risk youth needing care and protection that unit will be launched sometime in May this year immigration and marines unit Mr. Speaker government invested in a new e-passport system amounting to about 4 million US dollars to be paid for over 3 years implemented a bottom management system to the tune of US 2.5 million dollars increase the training budget for protective services visited all police stations so far I have visited most of them except 2 police stations 4 police stations and 2 fire stations established we have established and strengthened bilateral cooperation and agreements in national security with framco sendlusha cooperation taiwan sendlusha OU, RSS, OAS Canada program etc including a visit of a sendlusha delegation headed by the prime minister to martinik and visit by the french to sendlusha so we have been doing as much as we could in order to bring comfort to our people and so far we need to put on record seeing some results from the investment in the government and in the in the communities where we have hotspots Mr. Speaker let me turn quickly to the babono constituency and on the 26 of July 2021 many people in sendlusha got the biggest surprise of their life and that was when the people in babono decided that they wanted me to be their representative for election the gentleman that I oppose was going around and using his hand and passing around his throat saying that that would be the end of me but the babono people did not say that and Mr. Speaker was a very unassuming person but it is very difficult to destroy a tree that has its roots way down in the ground there are some people that come in and they offer their services and they say they want to represent people but the people can see for you they know if you are genuine and if you are not genuine and sometimes you cannot buy people because you have money and at this point Mr. Speaker I need to find the people in all the communities in babono and we can start with debara we go down to bogis Lager, Monsito, Plateau Pabush, Gara, Lakwa Babono Central, Tishime Fawasaw, Shasetalvan Kakojihua Hill 20 Kabish Balata, Timon and Union Terrace these are the 18 small communities and we have development committees these communities Mr. Speaker, as we speak now I am proud to say that we have completed 22 of the CDP projects in Babono and we have 55 of them ongoing now every single saint the Prime Minister gave me is underground in the pockets of the Babono people 55 and some people who saw the last model where a few people said a few people told me there will be millionaires there will be millionaires under this government and I told them they are millionaires and I don't take pride in being a millionaire but I am busy creating millionaires however the projects that we have undertaken Mr. Speaker in the CDP project we are building we are building bushelders we are doing footpaths we are we are building drains putting grills and every single community is going to get a project is massive right we have repaired three we have repaired three community centers and the Babono Central which is supposed to be our capital for Babono the people are very pleased we have spent about $200,000 in that location Mr. Speaker yes and yes and they are the people are seeing the change and they are feeling it Mr. Speaker I want to say so far we have been seeing results coming from the pod rolling unit at long last the minister of infrastructure is responding the people are very pleased Babono is big we have not completed some work to be done still but so far they are getting a relief the ministry has undertaken a number of disilting work in the area Mr. Speaker we have an ongoing project in Debara which is funded by the European Union in collaboration with OECS and WASCO and that will give the people purified water treatment to the tune of 1 million dollars Mr. Speaker the ministry of education this is the first time in history that on the day of the reopening of school Mr. Speaker I visited all the schools in Babono we have only one secondary school and six primary school and all the principals told me they were very happy that the ministry of education had attended to the problems and they said convey that to the government convey that to the minister of education that they had attended to schools open and they had no problem there was no toilet problem all the schools were in motion Mr. Speaker there are two schools in Babono we have working the SMART school SMART classroom that is Babono primary and Babono secondary that is done in collaboration with Taiwan and Afalwis community college and the Babono secondary school got the share of laptops which was presented by this government and when I visited the school there were hundreds of parents there to receive the laptops I have given financial contribution from whatever the prime minister gave me to all the primary and secondary schools and then the early childhood center so Mr. Speaker head number 51 025 major repairs I saw in the estimates that Debar will be getting some attention and the four saw day care facility but Mr. Speaker we also have a challenge with the Balata primary school and the school has a lot of tonight the galvanize is rockin and the teachers are complaining and this is one of the best performing primary schools in the Babono constituency so we have to find a way to give them some relief Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker Ministry of Youth and Sports I am very pleased that the Ministry of Youth and Sports sofa have maintained the four major playing fields in Babono in terms of keeping it clean we have some resurfacing to do we look forward to see how we can get that done and I am also using some of the CDP funds to help repair two toilets one in the Lager playing field and the other one in the four also playing field Mr. Speaker I have started the parliamentary cricket tournament and it will wrap up later next month and we are going to start the football tournament and four also you have new generation this is one of the strong football teams in Babono that four also is the hub for football when I was principal there I actually promoted football and at this point I just want to express my condolences to the late Mr. Walter Sukwa he was one of the main coach for footballers in the Babono area and four also Mr. Speaker Member for Babono you have 10 minutes left Yes I will finish Mr. Speaker and if I need more minutes you will give me Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker when we look at social and cultural and for the last 16 years we never had Babono Day and we were able to bring Babono Day back last year and Mr. Speaker it cost us about $45,000 to put that event together but we were able to pull it through Right? We can support from my ministry my parent ministry of creative industries Mr. Bishop and Babono Foundation Mr. Speaker whatever the Prime Minister gives me I bring it to the people we were able to get connection to water and electricity we were able to give school assistants to over 570 persons Christmas toys to over 600 children young farmers assistants there is a young man who told me he wants to go and do his university degree and he has a little rabbit he is developing his rabbit business so I gave him some assistance and his rabbit is multiplying so he makes enough money for him to go and study University Mr. Speaker and we have the kitchen garden the kitchen garden competition is starting and we have a gentleman I think I saw the Prime Minister gave him an envelope he is one of those that might get the contribution from the youth economy so he is actually spearheading the kitchen garden competition and those of you who are living in Babono you are free to participate registration fee is $150 and the first prize is $1000 for the best kitchen garden we have second prize $750 and third prize $450 and the biggest is lettuce they are going to grow the biggest head lettuce will get a prize of $150 Mr. Speaker we have 99 homes connected from the flow program for needy homes out of the $270 that the Prime Minister think we should get in Babono and we have 2 bagai you can wear them get all the schools and give them some financial support short term and long term employment for over 100 persons in Babono we have distributed hampers vouchers and give medical educational assistance we have been very real we have been supporting equipment and Mr. Speaker in the step program we have had over 1000 from this program Mr. Speaker it's 2023 we will have jazz even in the streets so we want all of you to be here at the queen show and carnival jump up in Babono this year the kitchen garden competition is on its way and for this year we had our second plebe village community for independence so we have to call all the communities that participated together so that we can give them the prizes first prize is $1000 second prize $750 and third prize $450 and they decorated Babono very beautiful for the 44th independence and industry when are they going into the smart school that costs $7.7 million Mr. Minister of Education we have to go in the children in Lagaya have been in the school it was supposed to be for 20 years but now they have been in it for 1970 and it is almost over and that school started after I put out the video because apparently they should have started and when the campaign started I went to the school and I asked them whether they wanted the school started they told me that never happened because every time they say they will never start and the following week I put out the video because I taught in that school for 8 years and I showed them whether the remnants of the old school was and they told me the same night my opponent called the contractor to come and sign the contract that's how the school started Mr. Speaker okay I'm the Lagaya I'm Health Centre Minister of Health we need a pharmacy there and we are in the process of creating the centre of Babylonu which will be like a little town and we need to refurbish the Babylonu multipurpose centre which was established in 1987 the roof the flooring and so on we need help to make sure and we will repurpose it and make it the Babylonu multipurpose and administrative centre so we are bringing government services to that building okay you will help me okay minister of infrastructure will help me out there yes we will do the password and we have the gentleman overseas has asked about the password the department of home affairs has ordered the $25,000 and we will have the mobile password unit which will service viewfort and sufre so we are on our way 5 minutes left I'm doing well Mr. Speaker ring road from Gara to Bogis so that we can have the connection between one part of Babylonu to the other Mr. Speaker we are looking for rehabilitation of the playing fields the courts and building toilets in some of the areas and I heard my minister of sports said he will give some attention to Debara I am pleased to announce that the minister of education will be establishing a pre-k classroom at the Babylonu primary school so that will be done minister of education you are out when I was giving you all your okay my people send good news and they tell you continue the good work this session Mr. Speaker whereas I am limited with time after every government debate I usually have a parliament session in Babylonu at the same multiple percent there I go and present exactly what I present in this house to the people in Babylonu I give them a report of what I have done Izikal is my opposition and they ask me questions and I declare what the plans are but I will wait when budget is finished I do the same and we have our parliament and we discuss that Mr. Speaker I have had the most town halls and community meetings in my life and everything I do in Babylonu it does not come straight from my head it comes from the people so I discuss with them and they come up with what programs and what projects they want and with that Mr. Speaker I am very confident that when I engage in an activity that it reflects the needs of the people and the priority Mr. Speaker as you know the ministry under my watch is a huge responsibility as well as a large constituency to manage what I need most is the resources to deliver quality representation to the people of Saint Lucia and my constituency with the estimates as presented by the Honourable Prime Minister Mr. Speaker I remain confident that the Honourable Prime Minister will pull together all his knowledge and skills in economics and with the support and advice of his Cabinet colleagues as well as the financial gurus in his ministry distribute the resources though limited to the best of his ability for the development and advancement of the people in Saint Lucia as he continues to put the people first Mr. Speaker I give my full support to the estimates of revenue and expenditure 2023 to 2024 as presented by the Honourable Prime Minister and parliamentary representative for Castries East for those who see the glass half empty we see it half full so in the next budget you will see the water overflowing I thank you Mr. Speaker