 I want to be able to respond if I can, Mr. Speaker, to this motion that's on the floor and certainly certainly the very healthy debate and the many married issues that have been brought up to the attention of the house in considering this motion. Let me deal with probably some of the issues that… Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me deal first of all, Mr. Speaker, because it came up on two different occasions with the government's decision when they were in office in 2011 to 2016 to move the infrastructural works from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Infrastructure. And when we first came into office, we continued that trend. And one of the things that came very apparent very early in the game, and particularly with the amount of repairs that now we were instigated, because a long period of time, Mr. Speaker, had gone by where there was no repairs to the schools. I hear the prime ministers claim that the million dollars a year was not for repairs, but it was to help the teachers or the schools with basic operating costs. I thought that that's something that would go into the recurrent costs. So I'm not 100 percent sure. We did not see, and nobody else felt, the level of infrastructure repairs. But let me get back to the point. The Ministry of Education's technical staff continuously complained about when the works were being done, and that the staff at the Ministry of Infrastructure were insensitive to the urgency and the timing of issues when it came to repairs. And we had a long discussion. It's not something that just happened overnight that it was a knee-jerk reaction. And despite the assurances of the then Minister of Infrastructure, it was an issue we could not get resolved. And so therefore, the decision was made to move it back into where it had always been in the Ministry of Infrastructure. Sorry? Sorry, moved it back into the Ministry of Education, if I said it incorrectly. And that had always been where it was. And the Ministry of Education is very aware of the timing of schools and reopening of schools and when we can do things. And as I said, the level of coordination that we would have expected between the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of Education did not happen. And it was very vexing. I have to say to you, as a prime minister and particularly the head of cabinet, trying to sit down between the two ministries to resolve this issue every single time because repairs were very important, Mr. Speaker, could not get resolved. And so the decision was made to move it back into education. I believe that that's where it remains today. I also want to say that, Mr. Speaker, that when we came in and I had the opportunity of going to visit some schools, Monde d'Or was one of them. And I was shocked that from the time that that school had been built, the level of disrepair that that school was in. In fact, it was an odd situation where that when it rained, it was easier for the teachers to move the students to the balcony than it was to keep them inside of the school. And don't even begin to talk about the state of disrepair and the condition to the Washings. Babano, Soufraire, literally when he went to every quarter of this country, the state of our schools were in utter disrepair. And I could not believe that we had found ourselves where we were sending children to those schools. And that is after we spent $30 million plus $50 million from CDB. $80 million has been spent in repairing the schools. Every single school in this country was touched in every single constituency, whether it was a renovation, whether it was a roof repair, whether it was bathrooms, whether it was new furniture, whether it was a new wing. Every single school, Cicero, John Odlem, just a name to in your own constituency, and many more. Which Cicero? Your Cicero school. Which one? No problem. I'll be happy, I'll be happy to get the details from the member for Castery's south because he may have forgotten. But this allegation that we would ever play politics with education in this country, I resent that statement. I resent that allegation and that's not true. So Mr. Speaker, the member from Castery's southeast recanted a story of me and the Adenry school. And I want to say there was some truth to that story. The fact is we went in and fixed up that school, roof, furniture, plumbing, we did all of the bathrooms. And when I went on a tour at the beginning of the school season, which was one year after the repairs had been happened there, it wasn't to say that the bathroom was in a poor state because of overuse. It was vandalized, urinals were smashed, sinks were smashed, mirrors were smashed, windows were kicked in and we were two days before we were getting school. And I asked the principal, opening up school in two days, how could the bathrooms be in this condition? Several Prime Minister, I made a request to the Minister of Education to get them fixed and they didn't have enough money to get them fixed. And I said, so you're going to open up school with them in that condition? I said, didn't we just redo these entire bathrooms? He said, yes. I said, but this is not broken. This is vandalized. At what point would you all have realized that it was vandalized? And who are you going to hold accountable? I remember his words, he said, well, they have X number of students here and we don't know who they are. I said, but it's the boys' bathroom, so it's down to half the population. But the reality is, is that government must be doing education because we all know, we're all in here repeating the same thing, that we don't have enough money to bring the schools to the level that we have to. And therefore we have to include our communities and there must be a shared responsibility for maintaining our schools. It is their children who are going to the school. I the first person to talk about a quidme at a school, I know that how many capable people they have in Denry who are hard workers, carpenters, masons, plumbers, electricians and to bring the parents in and for them to take some level of responsibility and for the principal to hold everybody responsible. It's a state asset that belongs you a hundred percent right, not Alan Shastney, it belongs to the taxpayers of this country. It belongs to the students and the people who live in those communities who get to use it. And what we're going to know, going to borrow money and allow people to just abuse a state asset and nobody wants to hold anyone accountable. I'm sorry, if we're going to make it through this crisis that we're in, we have to manage our resources. You can't come here and just use it as a political ploy to suggest that we mismanage resources and just say that, but when it comes to the actual practicality of holding people accountable in this country, for what we're doing, sort of if you want to take it out of context, that's not a problem. And Mr. Speaker, the double standard by some of the members in this house, you know, it's beyond me. It's not even worth responding to some of the comments that I hear, and I'm not going to. The reality is I'm not the one who came and spoke about the story. The member from Caster East Southeast is the one who did it. And as I said, and I stood up to say how he is conveying facts that he believes to be true is incorrect, and it's out of context. I was not getting anywhere with the former speaker. So I waited my turn. I listened to the rest of the stuff he had to say, and I'm going to address it. So Mr. Speaker, here we are today, Mr. Speaker, that we're boasting. Heard the member from Laverie talk about how great the economy is doing and the management, fiscal management of the Prime Minister. And you're going to tell me, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Minister of Finance, member from Caster East, that you're going to borrow money at 6 percent for five years, a two-year moratorium in five years. That's the kind of money you go and borrow at a bank. That's commercial money to go and what, to fix up schools. Now, I'm very happy the money is being spent on schools. But I have to say to you, the revelation of that has raised all kinds of alarm bells in my mind as a former Minister of Finance to say, whoa, wait a second, that's the best we can do. Those are the best terms that we can get to get one loan. And when we get the loan, $5 million of the $15 million is being spent in one school. So how much more money is really being spent in the other 16 schools? So if one of the schools is $5 million, and of the remaining 15 schools, we're going to spend $10 million. That is not even going to be close to solving the problems that we have in education and lifting our education product to another level. We are far away from achieving the minimal amount that we should. And that brings up a much bigger issue that we're scared to discuss in this house. And we play politics with it in terms of how do we resolve the problems in this country? Six percent for five years. Wow. The member from Castery Southeast spoke about the cost of operation in Martinique. And the point I was trying to say to him across the floor, make sure the public can hear, is that Martinique is 440,000 people. And that hospital was built not just for Martinique, but also for Guadalupe, which is another 300 and something thousand people. And completely subsidized by France, you know, not taxed monies that are generated in Martinique, the French government is sending them money. And the question is, how do we take advantage of the French government spending that kind of money? But it brings up a much bigger issue that we have to deal with, because he's 100% right. When we came into government, the only thing that the former government could have achieved with OKU is to do a naming ceremony. You couldn't open it, and you weren't honest with the public as to why you couldn't open it. You could not open it because you did not have the money to operate it. But we've repeated it. Victoria Hospital is $35 million, and it was not even being run properly. OKU is air conditioned and automated and bigger. Therefore, it's going to cost us much more and more money, even though it had a little bit less of the number of beds. But OKU was built in design because we were supposed to be decentralizing our healthcare services. And that work had not even begun as yet, Mr. Speaker. It had not begun, and there was a report by the University of West Indies that said that to move into OKU would cost $75 million. So you're talking about $40 million more a year than what Victoria Hospital was. And already healthcare was the largest budgetary item that we had, and of that budgetary item, 85% of that budget is for salaries, nurses and doctors. 15% was being allocated to the operating cost of that, of Victoria. And when you went into Victoria, the operating procedures there were zero, zero. I remember walking in and seeing the cashier, and she had a big box. I said, wow, that's a lot of people in one day. She said to me, no PM. They come here every quarter to get the receipts. There are some people who profess to have some accounting backgrounds in this house. How are you going to reconcile your accounts on a quarterly basis? In fact, as Victoria was not even collecting the money. That's a sad reality. So when we talk about the problems that we have in education, we also have them in health. We also now have them in the police force. We have a serious operational deficit in this country. But there are no two more important in my mind than health and education. So how much money are we really going to have to spend? And we already had accepted as a government that we were going to have to increase the allocation to cover the cost of OKEU. And that does not even take into consideration an expanded operation at St. Jude's. And let's not run away from St. Jude's. Because we fool ourselves every day. We fool ourselves every single day in this country about St. Jude's. Because we treat it as a semi-statutory agency. And we send an allocation. In my day it was 18 million. I don't know how much it is now. But that's not money. It's sufficient. And St. Jude's has survived because they have found a way to collect money where Victoria hadn't. But it's not enough. And when we move into the new facility, wherever that new facility is, whether it's a new building or the old building, the operating costs are going to go up significantly from what they are now. So we have a financial crisis that is looming in this country with health care. And yes. And that is why there are two different solutions that are being proposed. This government that wants to tell you that they're going to have universal health care. So if you're going to have universal health care, so the state is going to pay for all of it. You're raising $33 million. And you said that you're going to divide that between security and health. Again, we have no idea how you're dividing it. Member for Microsoft. Member for Microsoft. I've allowed you a certain degree of latitude to go out and respond to what some of the members would have said. But I don't know how health care and St. Jude's ties with the motion that we have before us, which deals with a loan from the African import export box. So can you just come back on track? So Mr. Speaker, I'm speaking to health care as it is relative to the financing of our budget and the limitations that we have with education because of the financing of the education budget. And we're here to talk about borrowing money for education. And Mr. Speaker, I sat here and listened to the latitude that was given to the members. We spoke about Carrie Chris report. We spoke all about other things. So Mr. Speaker, I would certainly like to be given the same latitude and particularly given that I am only two opposition people here. Member for Microsoft. Member for Microsoft. We have a motion before us. Motion speaks clearly. I've given you latitude as I've said. And you will not dictate what the chair does here. And you will not dictate what amount of latitude that I give you. That is solely with the chair. I would appreciate if you would continue and address the motion before us. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, with the greatest amount of respect, I'm going to take the same latitude that everybody else took. So I will continue. So Mr. Speaker, we have to look holistically at the financing of our government if in fact that we are going to be able to provide healthcare services, infrastructure, education, even crime. We have a serious crisis in this country. And when I'm seeing a government is going to come and borrow money at 6%, Mr. Speaker, 6% two-year moratorium at five years, how do you use that kind of money? If you're going to be using that kind of money to repair schools, Mr. Speaker, we're in trouble. This country is in trouble. Mr. Speaker, members questioned the VAT rate and everything else. The reality is, is that we have to grow this country. A member from Labry, Mr. Speaker, quoted the carrot Chris report and spoke specifically about the $300 million that we borrowed during the COVID period and said we were such a wicked government that we did not provide support. And he listed a whole bunch of things which were all erodist because we did provide support to all those groups. But the $300 million that we borrowed, Mr. Speaker, was to make up for the shortfall of revenue because the economy was shut and exactly what the member said from Labry, the economy contracted by 24%. And we've had that discussion. It contracted more than anybody else in the OECS because our GDP had been rebased to create so that because tourism was given a much bigger role in our economy than it had before. The same thing that will happen in all of the other OECS countries. Sorry? $300 million? Oh my gosh. We borrowed $300 million. And the $300 million, Mr. Speaker, was used to pay salaries. Salaries. We had an operating cost. We had $44 million a month for salaries. $30 million for debt financing and $30 million a month for operating the government. And the fact is the monies that we borrowed from CDB, the monies we borrowed from the IMF, the monies we borrowed from the World Bank, we could not use that money to pay on debt. So that means the revenue that we were generating, which was limited because it dropped from $100 million a month to $50 million a month. So where's the rest of the money going to come from to pay salaries and to pay the operating cost? Where was it going to come from? And when he speaks about stimulus, every single civil servant in this country went through COVID without a pay cut and got their salary every single month. That was a form of stimulus. That was a form of stimulus. And we made sure and every single person that was owed money, they were paid so the government did not go into default. And that is why we can have a report from Caracus. But you know, Mr. Speaker, I didn't have to go there because it's the same government that was in opposition that said, who believes that tourism can come back? Tourism could never come back. There's only one person who believes that tourism can come back. And who said that we should not be focusing on construction? What are the two things that drove the economic growth for this country in 2021 and 22? Tourism and construction that put us in the place. This is the same group of people that said that the debt to GDP was gonna go past 90%, 100%, scaring everybody, telling everybody how we had missed magic on them. And guess what? It made it to 90%, which we knew it had to go to 90% because when you have a decline of your GDP by 24%, there's nothing you did. It declined from one day to the next day. Not a gradual decline. The whole thing just dropped. It dropped. And we said, we will get tourism going. We will use construction and stimulate the economy and grow at a much faster pace than we were before. It was the opposition that said it could not happen. Today, you are enjoying the benefits, the fruits of that policy. You are. The economy grew by 12.5%. The economy grew by 18.5%. Read the Karris report based on what? On tourism and construction. On to the same people who said you can't eat roads. And we said the things that we could not do right now. So let us focus our effort on how we can create jobs for people. So it means all the civil servants stayed employed. The government paid its debts. And the government stimulated and opened up the doors for tourism. And I'm waiting for the minister because he gave it a very nice report. I hope he knows how to read it. I hope he knows how to read it. So when you speak about you, that we inherited a surplus, I don't know what planet the member from labry is coming from. I honestly, I think he's gone from being in a plane now to a rocket. He's flying at an altitude that I don't know. What happened to something went wrong and we cannot borrow any money? Is that the statements a minister of finance would make if in fact the economy was so great because you had one year in which you were able to balance your stuff. And then when the member wants to talk about in 2019, the economy is in recession. You know what he's talking about? The economy contracted by one-tenth of 1% in 2019. And we've explained repeatedly because COVID hit in February and March and it impacted the revenues. A half, a negative one-tenth of 1%. Mr. Speaker, when members want to now, he talks about people misusing or misquoting facts. That is a complete misquote because if it was not for that, we agree with the economy every single year, something the liver party could not do. They couldn't do it, they couldn't grow it. And now you've come in and you want to stand on a box as if you did something. Every single thing that caused the economy to grow in 2021 and 2022, every single thing. You criticize, you said no, you said no, you said it cannot happen. The members sat there multiple times and said that it's only Alan Shastney who believes, nobody else in the world believes that tourism will come back. Member for Library. Who said so? You did not say so? Who said so? You said so. Yeah. I'm gonna say that loud for everybody to hear. The Prime Minister is saying he never said that I was the only person that believed that tourism grew. The same gentleman who said, I never knew that tourism was so important to our economy. A former minister of tourism. That's what he said. And I'm very happy to repeat it because it's very easy to show that because the tapes are there. This is a government I was lost. All y'all know how to do is to protect the victory. That's it. And that's what you did. So minister, when we now talk about a caring government, a passionate government, right? Wow. I have to sit there and reflect on that statement, Mr. Speaker. Honestly, you're telling me that you know, you told us the stories about the smell of poverty. You've told us the stories about the fish horn and people who wanna buy fish and they cannot buy fish and the hardships that people are going on. You know all of that. Yet, you will increase taxes in San Lucia. You will allow bus fares to go up. You've not once reprimanded, looks like about the fuel store charges that are taking place. And then you implement a policy. You say it yourself. I didn't say it. You said it. You said it's not going to impact the cost of food and it has. And yet you still don't want to admit that. Remember for Miku South. Remember for Miku South. We are debating a motion to borrow the amount of U.S. $6 million from the African Export Import Bank to finance the construction of social infrastructure and other facilities damaged or destroyed by tropical storms. Bread, condom, education, rehabilitation, climate link facility. Please ensure that your contribution is in line with the motion before us. I will not allow you to continue if you are not going to address the motion that is before us. Continue, remember for Miku South. Mr. Speaker, I continue to address the motion, but I also continue to say, to speak to the lack of foresight on this motion that this government would now recognize the need for education, this late stage in their administration, this late stage in their administration and are so desperate to go and do something now, would turn around and borrow money at 6% for seven years and want to come home and say that, oh, we're heroes. Remember for a letter, remember for a letter, and now remember to be heard in silence, please. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. That's what we're here to discuss and examples of other things that they have done to mismanage your economy. Of course, I have nowhere to run to, okay? In fact, I like to stay here and listen and be entertained by other stuff. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, I have to say to you, Mr. Speaker, if there are more presentations like the presentation by the member from Cassry Southeast, which I found despicable, disrespectful, and there's no place for that kind of discussion in the house. If the member wants to that, all means go to the market steps and speak away, but it was a disrespect to this house to have that kind of conversation. And of all the people who wants to now question people's character, oh, really, really. So, Mr. Speaker, I applaud that we're fixing up schools. It's necessary. But I'm concerned, Mr. Speaker, that there is no plan for any continuity of the work that we're speaking here, talking about here. I also want to say, Mr. Speaker, that the member, the minister of education, hopefully will give me that latitude, Mr. Speaker, spoke about the eBooks. The eBooks was an initiative to give kids a learning device that would have restricted their access to the internet. So it would be only for educational purposes. When the member, the minister, the member from January North, and the minister of education wants to mislead the house and speak about a foreigner bringing the content into the books. I mean, I had to sit there and ask the member from Schwozell if, in fact, I heard that correct. Where do you think the curriculum came from? The curriculum is the same books in our curriculum. And then when the member wants to try to play as an economist, right, you should stay out of that domain and speak about, oh, the money for the license fee is money that's being exported to the US. So when you're buying books for $1,000, where's it going? Where is it going? The school books he's buying because the license fee was to replace the school books. And so instead of the students having to spend annually $1,000 plus on school books, now they could have gotten an eBook in which it was $250. And the fact is because of COVID, the same government who said, they wanna say that we had no stimulus, the government paid for the license fee for three years for everybody. Now I want to say that he's heading in a direction that I applaud, but it has nothing to do with the eBooks. The eBooks created the platform. And I'm glad now, I am so glad now that they've recognized that empty computers are not going to solve the problem. And now that we're investing and creating a program to do what, to take the same curriculum, so what you're paying, the license fee that you're paying for, the license fee that you're paying for is for the technology, is for the technology, $250. Instead of spending $1,000 plus. And more importantly, no, not U.S. Easy, easy, 250, per subject. Oh, minister, minister, minister, minister, please, minister, minister. Minister, get your facts right. Get your PS's there, I would suggest you go and speak to the PS, okay? Crazy, crazy. At the end of the day, we did it for three years during COVID and to get people so they had a choice if they wanted to stay on the books, they could, and we knew over time that people would much rather the e-books. You're talking about the e-books have gone bad? You're all the ones who abandoned the e-books. Where was the concern when you made the decision to go and get laptops and you had all the e-books already that we paid for? Where was that concern? And with the e-books every single time that their new edition was updated, it was updated for free. And it was also a training tool for the teachers. Maybe you want to come to the house and you want to discuss. Let's have a debate. The member from the library said, let's have an intellectual debate. Let's have that intellectual debate. Any day you want to have the debate to compare the e-books to the laptop, I will have that debate with you. And it goes through the cost and the effectiveness. Teachers now know that students are doing their homework. We know how much time the kids are spending on the programming. We know that they have the proper links and we're giving them a device that when they get into the workforce, that's exactly what they're going to be doing. Correct. Mr. Speaker, I know the members on the other side know better and they're just blowing a lot of hot air. Something they're very accustomed to being able to do. But the facts speak very differently to what the members are saying on the opposite side. Very differently to what they're saying. I look forward to the report. Invite me. Invite me. I'm very happy to come. No problem. I want to be able to participate. So, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker. I applaud the government for continuing the program as my colleague said. You know, Mr. Speaker, I heard two members in particular from the house. I'm very happy the entrepreneur school is getting repaired. But I'm also happy with the fact that and during our administration, we started repairs at the school. I'm very happy that we did one report on Mondadon. And so many other schools. So don't come when the member from Castry's north wants to sit here and talk about talk, talk, talk and everything else. Really? How many years he's been in the house? He was prime minister, minister of education, all of these things. And all those years that the state of the schools in his constituency remained at that level. Really? Had he never gone to Mondadon? Had he never gone to Mondadon? That's good. I'm very happy. But I need T. Rocher. Okay? So Mr. Speaker, every single school was touched. There was nothing to do with politics. So I wanted to dismiss that right away. And I want to dismiss the idea that they have members in this house who are bragging about how many years they've been in parliament and have been at different levels of ministry and now want to come and talk about, finally, that there's some work taking place. How come you didn't do anything before? You cared so much? You cared so much? You cared? And that was the condition? You didn't see what the state of the bathrooms were? You didn't see the state of the electricity? Everywhere I went, tell me about the Blasher schools. What about it? And I fixed it. And every year you have to fix it. The roofs, the electricity, the plumbing. Ah, there we go. Horses, horses, the same horses that you just came from doing. Mr. Speaker, you see that, Mr. Speaker? You do not want to have a serious discussion. You do not want to be held accountable for your own deeds. If we're going to move this country forward, we have to recognize, Mr. Speaker, if we're going to solve the problems in education, we need to grow the economy. But this government wants to tax the economy. You will never grow this economy by taxing it. Never. And I guarantee you that even with the march that people are going to suffer even more in this country if this government insists on holding on to the two and a half percent tax. Do you want to pay enough for health? No, absolutely. And that's why we wanted to put a healthcare insurance program and the way the healthcare insurance program. And you know, the member wants to talk about, may I, because they brought it up. The member from Castery Southeast wants to speak once as always my time. The member from Castery Southeast wants to talk about the health insurance versus universal healthcare. What a joke. What a joke. Yeah, seriously. So the insurance, the insurance program we were putting in was the first step, but it was the first step that would help everyone. And everybody would be making this step up for us. You want to come in now, it's there. You didn't want to do it. You're the ones who went and promoted universal healthcare. I want to see how you're going to do universal healthcare. And you think that by fooling the people and telling them you're going to help the elderly at 80 years old, people are laughing at you all. People are laughing at you all. You're not here, you don't want to hear. People are laughing at you all. And they didn't laugh at you for not doing that thing. Oh, they did, and they put me out. But I'm saying to you, what we did, what we're doing is much better than what you're doing. So I think the collapse you're going to have is even greater. And now that you're in, and you said all the misinformation and the propaganda, now it's time for you to deliver. Go and deliver to the people of this country a better education system. Go and deliver to the people a better healthcare system. And good luck in thinking that you can do that by taxing the country. Do good luck in pretending that you're listening to the poorest of the poor. Keep fooling yourself and being fooling yourself as to how people, the resilience that people have, solutions are the most resilient people. Really? Because they suffer in silence? They suffer in silence? That's okay. It's okay. I'm only saying to you, it's for you whether you want to take the advice or not. Okay, no, obviously you're not. You know what you're doing. And that's why I'm saying to you, you all are on a road to catastrophe. And the sad reality is too many people in this country are going to suffer because of your incompetence. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.