 Hello and welcome to the live broadcast of the Senate for to the September 14th A via the national television network. You can also watch us on the government of solution where portal and the Facebook page Today's seating will start off with press to be delivered by father Cecil Goodman Followed by the oath of allegiance of a new newly appointed senator who will be replacing former senator Jimmy Henry president of the Senate Honourable Andy Daniel. We've been making some announcements to be followed by statements by ministers According to the order paper There was the appointment of sessional committees, which are really subcommittees Within the Senate several papers will be laid by the minister the Ministry of Finance and leader of government business in the Senate Honourable Dr. Ubalda Surayman under motions the minister in the Ministry of Finance and leader of government business will seek approval to borrow us 2,000,000 $860,000 from the CDB's special fund resources to finance the youth empowerment project Underbills the minister in the Ministry of Finance and leader of government business Will be presenting the automatic exchange of financial account information amendment for first reading It is the intention of the minister to seek leave of the Senate to allow the bill to go through all its Stages at this seating well present. We have of course the leader of government business Honourable Dr. Ubalda Surayman. We have the minister for health and wellness Senator Mary Isaac. We also see The minister for home affairs and national security senator Hummingill Francis also senator Senator Bellrose we also have independent senators And opposition senators at this time we take you over to the house as the president makes his way to the chair and Princes decree justice and From whom alone cometh all council wisdom and understanding With our unworthy servants Here gathered together in dining Do most humbly beseech thee to send down thy heavenly wisdom from above To direct and guide us in all our consultations and Grand that we having thy fear always before our eyes and lain aside all private interests Prejudices and partial affections the result of all our councils May be to the glory of thy blessed name the maintenance of true religion and justice the safety honor and happiness of the Queen the Public will peace and tranquility of St. Lucia and The uniting and knitting together of the heart of all persons and estates within the same in The true Christian love and charity one towards another through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us always forever more Amen. I Timothy mangal Do affirm that I will faithfully and their true allegiance to st. Lucia That I will uphold and defend the Constitution and the laws of st. Lucia And that I will concede conscientiously and impartially discharge my responsibilities To the people of st. Lucia. I do offer Good morning senators Senators, let me take this let me take this opportunity at this time To welcome our new senator team of him manga. I Receive correspondence from the governor general her excellency informing me that he was so appointed on the 14th of September So I hope your senators will join me in giving him that welcome So I hope that you'll stay here your stint here Is long and productive that your fellow senators will give you that welcome That I know that they've been that they've shared and given to fellow senators Senators also, let me take the opportunity and I know as we've done before That you will join me in expressing our support Solidarity condolences to the victims of hurricane Omar Like we've done before I will ensure that our sentiments are so express and Sent across whether it is through the ambassadors resident ambassadors here But you will join me in expressing that to our Caribbean sisterly friends and neighbors I Also beg to report that I have received correspondence from the speaker of the House of Assembly Advising that the following resolution and bill will pass in the House of Assembly Unfolded to the Senate for it concurrence Resolution of Parliament of arising the Minister of Finance to borrow us 2,860,000 from the Caribbean Development Bank's special fund resources to finance the youth empowerment project and The automatic exchange of finance account information amendment statements by ministers appointment of sessioner session of committees Leader of government business and leader of opposition business You may recall that we appointed committees We've done it. We did it last year. We had to do it at the news beginning of the new session Which we have not done May I suggest That we keep the same membership With only the exception on the government side we substitute the new senator in a place of Jim senator Jimmy Henry. Is that okay with both of you? very well Let me inform you members Standing orders committee chairperson president of the Senate government members honorable senator honorable hermangill Francis senator honorable for tuna Bellrose Opposition senator senator Jerome Gideon and independent senator senator Mauricio Thomas Francis House committee chairperson honorable president of the Senate government members senator honorable hermangill Francis senator honorable for tuna Bellrose Opposition senator Joachim Henry independent senator Vincent Adrian OJ committee of privileges chairperson president of the Senate government sign Senator honorable Mary Isaac And now senator team of emangal opposition senator Joachim Henry senator Gibyan Ferdinand regulations committee chairperson senator honorable you baldest ribbon government senator honorable Mary Isaac senator team of emangal Opposition senator Jerome Gideon and independent senator senator Vincent Adrian OJ all noted People's to be led honorable minister in the ministry of finance and leader of government business Mr. President before I leave Papers, I would like to beg for leave To join you also mr. President in expressing our support our Solidarity our sympathies and also provide our prayers to our neighboring Brothers and sisters in the northern Caribbean Who as we all know were affected by the devastation of hurricane umma mr. President? I am very very pleased that The governor's inclusion the prime minister has taken the lead in Providing the support that he has given so far to these individuals and Of course We it's well known that we have Given support to The I think one or two British overseas territories in in housing some of the prisoners And I know very well that it didn't go very well with some members of the public But I just want to remind the public That We are in the hurricane zone. We are in the natural Harder zone, of course, we are not spared hurricanes. We are not spared earthquakes So today is there's tomorrow could be ours and I also want to remind the public of that of the That prisoners are people too Let's not forget that prisoners have families They have loved ones And if we are concerned about people we should also be concerned about prisoners. So I'm very very pleased that the prime minister in his wisdom Provided it's providing such support to the UK government and the northern Caribbean Tori territories British British overseas territories and the same goes mr. President of that in times of adversity You will know who your friends are and conversely you will know who your enemies are in times of adversity And also mr. President, let me join you in welcoming our The new senator team of the mangal I have known him for quite a while since our time at Castro's comprehensive school. We graduated together in 1986 So I know him very well I know a lot about him and I am very very pleased that he has joined the government side here And I know that he will make a very he'll make a very good contribution to the debates Whenever we meet here in the parliament So mr. President, I beg to lay the following papers standing in my name statutory instrument number 56 of 2017 value-added tax amendment regulations statutory instrument number 57 of 2017 aliens licensing exemptions and Lucia distillers limited order statutory instrument number 58 of 2017 tourism incentives a land the limited order statutory instrument number 59 of 2017 tourism incentives Rodney Bay marina limited order statutory instrument number 60 of 2017 finance administration act Resolution of parliament authorizing the minister for finance to borrow by means of advances statutory instrument number 61 of 2017 legal profession illegibility lorry netto christianna yard order statutory instrument number 62 of 2017 price control amendment number 10 order statutory instrument number 63 of 2017 excise tax amendment of schedule one number two order statutory instrument number 64 of 2017 finance administration act resolution of parliament to borrow for capital expenditure OECS regional tourism competitiveness project statutory instrument number 65 of 2017 finance administration act resolution of parliament to borrow capital or recurrent expenditure 8 water denry north water supply redevelopment project statutory instrument number 66 of 2017 Resolution of parliament to approve draft added draft value added tax amendment of schedule three order statutory instrument number 67 of 2017 national savings and development bonds act Resolution of parliament to raise funds by issue the issue of savings bonds statutory instrument number 68 of 2017 legal profession eligibility the shona raffaella Toshua Andrews order statutory instrument number 69 of 2017 fiscal incentive Raj products limited amendment order statutory instrument number 70 of 2017 fiscal incentives barren fruit st. Lucia limited order statutory instrument number 71 of 2017 special development areas of amendment of schedule one order statutory instrument number 72 of 2017 tourism incentives the sport st. Lucia limited order statutory instrument number 73 of 2017 tourism incentives tropical breeze order statutory instrument number 74 of 2017 value added tax amendment of schedule three order statutory instrument number 75 of 2017 price control amendment numbers 11 order statutory instrument number 76 of 2017 excise tax amendment of schedule one number three order statutory instrument number 77 of 2017 invest st. Lucia library and view fort vesting order statutory instrument number 78 of 2017 special development areas amendment of schedule one order statutory instrument 79 of 2017 investments invest st. Lucia library vesting order statutory instrument number 80 of 2017 tourism stimulus and investments kalabash crew of resorts limited order statutory instrument number 81 of 2017 legal profession eligibility Algernon Gilbert Russell drabond order statutory instrument number 82 of 2017 International business companies declaration of head office company digital Caribbean limited order statutory instrument number 83 of 2017 price control amendment number 12 order statutory instrument number 84 of 2017 excise tax amendments of schedule one number four order statutory instrument number 85 of 2017 tourism incentives spice of India incorporated order statutory instrument number 86 of 2017 tourism incentives be gardens limited order statutory instrument 87 of 2017 fiscal incentives fresh start construction company order statutory instrument number 88 of 2017 price control amendment number 13 order statutory instrument number 89 of 2017 excise tax amendment of schedule one number five order national insurance corporation annual report 2016 St. Lucia electoral Departments report of the chief elections officer on the general election held on June 6th 2016 Government of st. Lucia report of the financial statements of the government of st. Lucia for the year ended March 31st 2010 and finally mr. President st. Lucia bureau of standards annual report 2015 2016 motions Honorable leader of government business Mr. President I beg to move the following motion standing in my name Finance Administration Act resolution of parliament to borrow for capital expenditure youth empowerment project Mr. President we believe in our youth and I'm sure that the Not just the government side, but the opposition side Believe that we should empower and support our youth in every aspect of their lives but we have to put Money where our mouths are and we have good action when we say we are in support of our youth and this Motion mr. President is a is being Of this project I should say mr. President is a project that is Which has a loan components and also a grand opponents Which is facilitated by the Caribbean Development Bank and it's a loan that was Approved on in Ock I think it's October 13 2016 in the amount of The loan component is 2.8 million u.s. Dollars and the grand component is 0.8 million or eight hundred and eight hundred thousand u.s. Dollars which makes a total of 3.6 million u.s. Dollars and an easy amount it's around nine million easy This is the amount That we do intend to borrow from the Caribbean Development Bank for the project Now in terms of the project itself mr. President we the project seeks to focus on The youth in terms of mitigating risk factors and These factors that we referring to are factors that actually trigger or trigger criminal and anti-social behaviors at every level at the individual at the family at the community and the societal levels and We do intend to the project intends to to emphasize on our young men and Vulnerable groups, especially children We are looking at at risk youth and also women and to achieve This mr. Chair or mr. President the project will Or is divided into four components The first mr. President is that we refer to as the youth the youth caught diversion program and this component mr. President have two separate Areas referring to the youth cough caught diversion program two areas One area is that of the youth recidivism recidivism reduction. I know it's a Fragus money had to ask my wife to help me there with the pronunciation and this area mr. President is will cater for young persons between the ages of 12 and 19 and It will include free and post-court diversion youth who have been recommended to the program or receive non-custodial Sentences since sentencing and we'll be focusing a lot the program will be focusing a lot on high school dropouts and I remember Mr. President that a study that was done done By was undertaken by the I think it was the the OECS For some juvenile I think program and the consultancy I remember Going through it. It was actually done by my wife and he looking at the the statistics and the characteristics the demographics of the The boys at the boys training center and the other institutions even the bodily We found out that a lot that study found out that a lot of the The boys and even the prisoner themselves the LD all the ones were house. How were high school dropouts or even those who? Drop out completely out of school even before reaching high before reaching high school. So I believe mr. President that This is a very very Critical area of intervention very critical area of intervention and And I must say to you also mr. President that the program in itself. It's a pilot program and I believe the pilot program will start in central castries. Am I right? It's anything and given the fact that central castries is is is the inner inner city of St. Lucia and we know of the social problems Not only in central castries, but in central castries, you know of it very well and therefore We believe that this pilot program will work very well in trying to mitigate Against such behavior. So we are focusing mr. President the the youth recidivism reduction on High school dropouts the other area under the youth court diversion program mr. President is The out of school suspension program We are looking at students who have been suspended for period greater than five school days Because mr. President just imagine that a child a student is suspended Beyond five days Are you really penalizing that child or you're trying to rehabilitate that child or you're really penalizing that child? That's the question and if a child Imagine a child stays home beyond five days What are you actually doing with that child? Are you re every are you rehab rehab within the child or are you really punishing the child? So the program will create some intervention where the state will come in and provide non custodial services to the child Okay, both of these components mr. President Will will target 20 participants on a six-month cycle 20 we are hoping that The out of school suspension will not have so many students every six months Not at all, but but clearly but for sure those who are high school dropouts We will definitely Target these individuals on a six-month basis 20 at a time The other one mr. President the other main area is that of integrated based transformation program and This broke this element will be implemented by the Department of Equity and will compliment some of the work already done It will include mr. President community after school programs community summer programs It will also include workshops and training related to sports and development Creative and expressive art and business mentoring and live coaching This is something I believe that The youth of central castries in the first instance will be very very excited about I'm sure Mr. President the other component is that of community based policing Of course this pilot includes development of community based policing strategy and training manual short-term training and study tours and community based policing symposium Mr. President The other components is that of the design options for George the fifth park Now I remember mr. President very clearly because I attended both the Anglican primary in front and primary schools and The gardens what referred to as the the gardens back then The official name of course is the George the fifth park this area used to be my playground Okay before and after school It was a place that lots of kids not even from not just the Anglican school, but of Methodist school and the the Ave Maria and the The Irish boy schools used to come and Socialize but we have seen over the years what has happened to this this park mr. President So this project will Will help to redesign or to have design options Which of course mr. President is to is get to revitalize and make the park What it used to be or even better than what it used to be and mr. President? The project is expected to be implemented over a period of 36 months the borrower the borrower shall repeat the amount withdrawn for from the SFR loan account in 82 or 8th of 8232 Sorry, it's 32 equal or equal approximately equal and conservative quarterly installments on January 1st April 1st July 1st and October of each year after the expiry of 4 years following the date of this loan agreement or On such later due date as the bank may specify in writing So mr. President Allow me to read If you may the I Know I did it from backwards mr. President, but allow me to read The instrument in full But sometimes mr. President you have to try to have the audience or the Senate to understand The justification of the motion so it'll be More understanding more palatable and more acceptable. So mr. President allow me to read it It says here whereas It is provided by section 49 one of this finance administration act capped 50 one That a minister for finance made by resolution of parliament Borrow money from a bank or other financial institution for the capital expenditure of government and Whereas it is further provided under section 42 one of the said act That there shall be charged upon and paid out of the consolidated fund all debt charges for which the government is liable and Whereas the minister for finance considers it necessary to borrow 2.8 6 million US dollars from the Caribbean development banks special fund resources to finance the youth empowerment project and Whereas The interest rate is payable at a rate of 2.5 percent per annum on the amount of the loan We've drawn an outstanding The loan is repairable in 32 equal Approximately equal and considered consecutive quarterly installments on each due dates of the first day of January the first day of April the first day of July First day of October commencing on the first due dates immediately following the expiration of Four years after the date of the loan Agreement or on a later date due date that the Caribbean Development Bank specifies in writing Be it resolved that parliament authorizes the minister for finance to borrow 2.8 6 million US dollars from the Caribbean Development Bank special fund resources to finance the youth empowerment project be it further resolved of that The interest is payable at a rate of 2.5 percent per annum on the amount of the loan withdrawn and Outstanding the loan is repairable in 32 equal or approximately equal and consecutive quarterly installments on each due dates of the first day of January first day of April First day of July and first day of October Commencing on the first due dates immediately following the expiration of Four years after the date of the loan agreement or on a later date That the Caribbean Development Bank specifies in writing So mr. President I believe That this program Will definitely make a difference in our youth and Will provide the empowerment that our youth truly needs in this country So I am looking forward to the supports of the Senate With reference to this project. Thank you honorable senators. The question is that Parliament of rise is the minister of finance to borrow us 2.8 6 million dollars from the Caribbean Development Bank special fund resources as FR to finance the youth empowerment project and Be it further resolved that a the interest is payable at a rate of 2.5 percent Put an arm on the amount of the loan withdrawn and outstanding be the loan is repairable in 42 equal or Approximately equal and consecutive quarterly Installments on each due date of the first of January the first of April first of July The first of October commencing on the first due date immediately following the expiration of Four years after the date of the loan agreement or on the later due date that the Caribbean Development Bank specifies in writing Leader of opposition business Thank You mr. President And I do stand to support This bill that is presented before us The St. Lucia youth empowerment project bill But before going further into this very short and brief 3-pointed statements to this bill I Wish to take leave for you mr. President and add my voice to yours in recognizing At this point in time the suffering that has taken place in North Caribbean territories and of course as we send our prayers to our brothers and sisters Who have encountered the the ravages of storms and hurricanes? We do remember our own vulnerability and remind ourselves that I Do not like to say spared but most people granted to us at this time and we Fasten ourselves and prepare ourselves to assist in the ways that Is best Permit me as well to recognize our newly appointed senator Senator Timofi Mangal and his family who is present here acknowledged them as well and as we will embark on this task of Edifying our public on matters relating to government. I do hope that the contributions across this side as he had will will add more clarity and And remain within the confines of what is proper first inclusion As it relates to this substantive motion before us I must confess That this initiative started off with the last administration and I personally made my contribution And the last that I did before election was the visitation of a number of communities with the Caribbean Development Bank for this particular project I also wish to inform through you mr. President that a number of activities leading to this Phase of the project we embarked with USA the UNDP and the Caribbean Development Bank and of course it seeks to to bring To St. Lucia to the to the families of St. Lucia while vulnerable as it were a holistic approach To youth empowerment and what do I mean by this? I know associated with this We were also looking at a number of family laws Because you really cannot isolate the laws put it into families from any from youth empowerment and the issue of Crime with associated with our youth And as the motion was being presented I couldn't help but to reflect on the challenges We have even in implementing a project like this and much care should be taken because We live in a very small society mr. President and whereas we may think of the intervention being in the city I Want to suggest or even reflect that the young men and women who are deviant In their behaviors are coming from sometimes. We're outside of the city to be in the city and if it's a holistic intervention where the families are involved of Course the assumption would be made that we are targeting families within the city But for some young people who are loitering in the city the families might be elsewhere of course Any attempt to deal with crime of course the ecological model Suggest that we should look at societal factors We should look at factors relating to the families So some factors relating to the individual Because it is about relationships So we are looking to empower youth and to give them the sort of Self-determining Position in our society where they could decide for themselves mr. President. It's very very important that we do so Because the powerlessness of our young people Contribute sometimes to the to the behavior and at this time I just want to reflect on this point made as We as as the leader of government business spoke to it and I just need to to mention it in a pastor Because yes, we are trying to assist our our sister Um families across and But our prime minister did indicate that he's or he's willing to accept the prisoners and of course prisoners are people too like like like The leader of business said of course we recognize because we're dealing with in this Initiative young men and the whole I see of the relapse of crime So we're dealing with persons who have altercation with the law, but on the part of assistant Persons from the UK territories. I would have suggested an express an opinion that the UK has approximately over 150 prisons In St. Lucia we have one and our prison was designed by the UK exports the population was designed to hold Approximately 445 prisoners and I understand as it stands now. We have pretty over 500 Persons in at Baudelais So one would ask isn't the UK more able with a hundred and fifty prisons to to house prisoners than St. Lucia with only one prison that's already You know field to capacity and it's beyond that in itself is a discussion that upon reflection one may wish to consider but our actions as to how we deal with our Our population even within our prisons send signals to the wider community and to the young men who are Be even because they reflect on these issues as well The main part of my contribution resides on a statement made by our Commissioner of Police Recently with the rise of crime that has been taking place and he made the statement and I quote the young people really need help It clearly shows that they have no love in their hearts This statement was made a few days ago by our Commissioner of Police And it underpins everything that I would say thereafter That the young people really need help it clearly shows that they have no love in their heart and I wish to move on to to suggest that the best definition I've received from for for love was What is in scripture, you know God is love and That was that's that definition was echoed by dr. Stephen King in a consultation. We had some years ago When he used the same approach. So he said what is love and dr. King said, okay? Well, I have one definition God is love So the Commissioner of Police rightfully and he made this profound statement That our young people have no love in their heart and they need help And I asked myself the question. How are we responding as a nation? There's something there's one thing that I saw mr. President and I want to link it to this a Few days ago it was shown on social media that somebody was want somebody's wanted and is a serial rapist and it went viral and A few days later on social media. I saw a young man tied up with ropes and look like he was bitten up I saw it on social media and looking like the same person that I saw Apparently the person may have been apprehended And I am saying mr. President that as a society We must not encourage persons to take matters in their own hand Because when we're speaking of youth empowerment and we're speaking about a holistic Intervention that looks at family the society the individual We should spend some time and reflect on the individual because a witness in our society is one dealing with mental illness And I really do not want to judge anybody harsher than God I would want God to judge me and sometimes I ask myself do we know everything about the person that We somebody say that here's a serial rapist and then the next thing you find action has been taken I'm not suggesting that we should not stand strong in our society and send a stronger signal to Criminal elements. I am not suggesting that and I'm very much supportive of all police and I notice our leader of the police Well, not police department, but the our leader here representing the whole division of crime had to leave The parliament sometime a few days ago because You know matters business was really hot in town where persons are now attacking our own policemen But the issue of crime and youth empowerment and the relapse of crime We need to create an environment where we are not just saying that they do not have love in the heart But also society must become Concerned about our young people there must be Concerned being demonstrated and how is that demonstrated? That is demonstrated as to how we must restrain ourselves from executing judgment without persons going through The corridors of what our administration of justice. We must show love by as a population restraining by taking actions in our own hands and and hurting persons who may need Modern just incarceration So from the individual level, I think the whole issue of mental illness coming to play that comes into play And of course, we know the issue of mental illness in our society and the stigma that's associated with it you know And sometimes I want to believe mr. President that quite a few persons who should be treated for mental illness And not in a position to receive Because of the stigma attached to it sometime ago. We had a mental facility. We call la talk And the word la talk, which is the name of the place I took it took me a while to grow old to understand that la talk was not a name of a mental hospital but the place was referred to la talk and You could if you know if you behave in a particular way in castries, they will tell you with a la talk You understand So mental illness is an issue and any holistic intervention that dealing with youth empowerment Young men and the relapse of crime The ecological approach or the model we're using to do that intervention suggest That we should look at the individual at one level and be close attention I've been part of the interventions. We have had at the boys training center I've worked with the young men at grass street one of the communities that were visited during the setting up of this program and Of course I've heard from medical experts saying that a number of our young men at the boys training center You know, we should revisit them as it relates for mental illness and this sort of thing So yes, I support the initiative and the holistic approach comes into play At the community level at the community level this program is Expected to dovetail in existing programs within that we have established and the Ministry of Social Transformation through I think the Ministry of Equity at this time But I believe they're the nomenclature for the people who hold positions there in the communities as social transformation officers I believe They are in the communities intervening mobilizing working with young people and Might be the first set of individuals to get it to to to come in touch with these individuals schools the teachers So I asked myself in terms of community. How do we? Take this into consideration. How do we link it? How do we we we cause there to be a serious link in terms of youth empowerment and one Program that comes to mind and I think we need to revisit It's that of the laptop program for children and I'm saying this mr. President not to be Political necessarily But it's important that we look at the laptop program. I'll tell you why I've had the opportunity To to give a few young men who are going to their homes in Kulitana ride and I asked them What is it they needed for the community? I just asked them that At that time there wasn't an IT center. They said an IT center I said why they said I said but there's one in the school. They said well Look at the highway When it's six o'clock, we cannot go back to the school and any way the school closed We cannot use the laptop the school At the level of the Ministry of Education and maintenance and we noticed within this opening maintenance is a costly You know undertaking and when you have IT labs with with computers It calls for systematic maintenance of these labs So that they remain Therefore children to be used We are challenged by our ability to maintain our plant We are challenged to maintain those items what I noticed on the other hand when we had When there were a few laptops children were developing at their home the abilities to fix their own laptops as a matter of fact, I was amazed that my daughter took the phone she had to A level and had the screen change For $20 that the children were developing their own skill that you would imagine you would have to pace at some You know somewhere else for The issue of the laptop provided and allowed children to go home if a laptop they had Access to it. It contributes to youth empowerment and That to me is very important the other area that one at the societal level Of course The climate in our society Our policies and I know that this particular program has stated in the in the document by the Caribbean Development Bank is really to enhance the government's capacity to deal with youth and The problems associated with you, but I asked the question, Mr. President With just 2.6 or 3. something million dollars us approximately 8 to 9 million easy dollars And while while I heard that it's supposed to be a pilot program. I Suspect that a lot of the interventions we have done in the past you would find that there it's really being repeated So I do not see it as a as a as a pilot program I see it as another phase to some of the interventions that we've done as a matter of fact as Describe here you would if you go through The Ministry of Social Transformation the Ministry of Youth and Sports you go to the SSDF There isn't anything written in this that is so new that that's new that you call that's pilot These initiatives have been piloted in the past community policing As a matter of fact It's one of the things that I've said to a number of the donor agencies That usually come to our doors to assist us to take some loans and grants and they almost believe that they want to teach us What to do not recognizing that we most times Have persons taking consultancies for them in other countries leading other countries They need to understand that we do have some capacity Significant capacity to deal with our problems because we have done quite a bit but at the society level At the government level the political commitment to youth empowerment is significant and Whereas I heard the minister in finance Saying that we need to put our money by our mouth Well, if you're going to put money by your mouth in terms of youth empowerment And you start with ten million Mr. President I'll tell you put no money yet If you put a hundred million dollars I'll say wow you're talking something But I know you're just starting and I'm expecting that you will come with a lot more in future You'll come with a lot more, but I am saying that as a government must demonstrate That there's a pro-youth approach in its overall business a pro-youth approach and I do speak to persons at the other house at the other level in terms of how we engage youth within the communities a pro-youth approach in In terms of how we administer Social services existing social services because we are saying that it is to enhance our capacity I would tell you mr. President sometime it pains me listening to Some parliamentarians When they say what they have done in the community or what they're doing it speaks as If we were not concerned about empowerment I'll give you a classic example mr. President and we may wish to consider it So we have the school books School books program let's say we have a welfare program at the Ministry of Education Wouldn't it be best that a parent with the child can walk to the Ministry of the welfare department and based on assessment received as against in the culture of The minister send me Or they didn't send me because I'm not one of them How could that culture in gender promote youth empowerment? when the youth of this country believes that they would be assisted based on Political leaning or political affiliation and what best should a youth go for support? Is it in the parliamentary office of a politician if he or she knows that he's or her mother was not of that side? Or should there be somewhere else? within our culture of politics youth empowerment these policies These behavioral positions is something that we need to consider if we're talking about youth empowerment because we are Spending money's and maybe doing the reverse So it's important that we must demonstrate at a societal level at the policy level Because the ecological model that we're using for dealing with this program suggests That we we're going to deal with the young people at the personal level will deal with their families At another level will deal with the schools and the institution and the community and there's an intervention at the societal level policies of government and that Each one affects the other and causes criminal behavior I'm happy with the statement made by minister the minister with regards to school dropouts, and he asked the question When a child is suspended what damage? what are we seeking to do and Some years ago. I went to a school Because somebody was a source was working with me asked me to a to take to go and represent the child At the school because the child was sent home and I went and I spoke with the principal and I had to explain to him where the child was leaving Whereas the child was Geographically it seemed close proximity to the school the child had to take two buses to get to school But to go to town Moving away, and then take another bus and go back up and the home environment was difficult I said by punishing this child has a social problem and by punishing the child you're condemning that child Towards not even getting a chance That is at the community level. What's the policy towards this? So these are the areas That I like to point to These are some of the things that chairs us in the face Initiatives like the laptop program Certainly is one of empowerment of our youth. They can decide by themselves when they're going to use the laptop When they go to put it away youth empowerment is about autonomy of youth inequality in our society is one of the major indicators and Of course research would show that wealthier Less crimes even if you have wealthy people, but there's kind of crimes that we're talking about so finally, Mr. President just by Bringing all of what I've said to a close and it's only based on the experience I've had with This program in a direct way and the interventions that we have had in the past and we continue to do Mr. President we built The transit home at Kazaba For over eight hundred thousand dollars the transit home With approximately I think 25 to accommodate maybe 25 young people. I suspect at this point in time it probably proved And it's not far from the boys training center, but it's it's it's open But the transit home was supposed to provide an environment for children who Probably having some problem at home that the in transition you could house them in the design we Set up a room for even a single mother because you have young mothers Probably have a little problem and they need to be away from the family first one is not the other infrastructure this infrastructure Was designed and conceptualized towards youth empowerment and It's location in keeping with this. I notice in the budget and it's really for a question for the minister I notice in the budget that we have free point Think free point something million dollars for the for the same program. That's we speak into there three million there about but I noticed that there's grunt of 800,000 Dollars I would like to ask whether this is really the grant component that is reflected in the budget estimate For the youth empowerment program and I need to ask what is the government overall plan to dovetail a youth empowerment program with the Investment that has been made to achieve the same thing What is the government plan with regards to our family laws some of them that have already been drafted and is sitting our books? family laws some of the laws that we use to Take our fathers to task for not supporting the children. I think there's as old as the 1950s Long before I was born. I don't know if it's before One of our senators but before I was born and That piece of legislation is a very old piece of legislation that gives Fathers are absolutely that's that that suggests one lawyer one judge told me that makes fathers even in my marriage relationship a putative Relationship with the children. They are not seen as totally biologically connected To the case because in those days there was no law to suggest that a father is really the father of a child and therefore Those laws still exist on our books and Fathers do I understood have more visitation than rights and than parental rights Are we going to look at those laws because what I saw obtained within our family court dealing with young men if We are supposed to be successful in advancing a youth Empowerment program these must come into play just by example, mr. President I started one of those cases with a young man and the father was asked to be present and then the father was asked by the Magistrate or she said but it seemed like I know you and He said yes I was there the last time for not taking care of another child and the mother said I feel like sending that book behind you I was in the case and I said what society Where a young man who is not being cared by his father Goes to the court and the court asking for the father and the father is being reminded or the father is introducing himself as the one who doesn't care for the others that he has and What is the role of the state as it relates to the laws associated with family? probation Adoption of our children the safety of our children So I would like to see and hear not just an intervention Of a continuation of a program that was that has started, but the depth the belief and The pro-youth approach in everything that we do because the youth is a significant part of our population. I Support this initiative and I'm hoping that we apply or overlay on this What I consider to be the political relevant questions for whom by whom When and where we should consider Communities like cool it down because we visited cool it down again It's a very very interesting community some of the communities in our country poverty survey are There because it was a it was a participation survey And you may not get the statistics like you would get in some of the district populations like Ancillary countries we did ancillary countries But when you have these communities surrounding the city Like cool it down We visited cool it down with CDB at the time and thought that they should have been part of this intervention So I'm asking People who would implement this program not just the city Basin of and look at the demographics of the city where these people are coming from Not just grass street. Not just on the block. Look at where they are coming from See young men seated in some of those communities that have nothing to do. They're not from there Let us be strategic. Let us work well for you And let's keep in our minds the words of our commissioner our young people need love And of course, there's one definition for love God is love our young people need God. I thank you, Mr. President, and I thank members for the patient Senator Adrian. Thank you, Mr. President So I would like to join members who have spoken previously to Welcome our new senator into the fold I'm sure that his presence and contribution will add to the tenor and quality of the work done in this Honourable house. I wish to add to my voice to Those who have gone before in terms of extending our sympathies and Hopefully our tangible support to our neighbors particularly in the Leeward Islands The BVI as you would know the US VI have been particularly hard hit The storm lingered Over them for a long time this mammoth storm, which of course points to the inadequacy of Our building codes in the region our general unpreparedness for catastrophic disasters our Limit of resources to attend to such things when they do happen and the need for us to really consider the Monumental impacts of global warming and climate change as Priorities for us in these small low-lying Islands surrounded by water exposed to wind and with a lot less resistance than we would like to think Mr. President, I would like to also remind us that The USB US VI and the BVI served as significant outlets When prospects were not so rosy in the windwards a lot of persons went there seeking employment and onward Access to the United States particularly through St. Croix and St. Thomas and there are large populations of solutions still resident there Who I'm glad to note we have reached out to and are making efforts to assist Not so sure about the returning prisoners thing, but I will leave that for better minds and bodies to contemplate I would also like us not to forget our friends in Cuba. Mr. President the Cuba has been a friend to this country for a long time and although their coverage is not as sexy in the US media as other better known Locations they received the significant battering along the north coast of Cuba as Irma made her way Towards Florida and we should not forget To extend to them our sympathies and our tangible support where we're possible With regard to the substantive bill before sir I would like to rise in support of the bill. I think that use empowerment is a matter dear to all of us We often fear for our children We fear for what the society can turn them into and very much Sometimes the lack of alternatives Now I would like to speak on that for a short while The minister in his remarks spoke of the focus on school dropouts I think that this is wonderful It provides a second chance however We need to remember also that It is a second chance and We need also to focus on the first chance Which is the education system? Which mr. President is? desperately in need of reform its relevance to today's world to today's economy is compromised and Until we address the suitability of our educational system the curricula the type of person that it is creating the type of citizen that it is Empowering the type of values that it reflects the source for knowledge for life-long curiosity life-long learning natural inquisitiveness civic values Those are issues which we are not currently paying sufficient attention to in our education system Less than 5% and I'm being very generous here Less than 5% of our school education of our education of our school population is reaching tertiary education so 95% or so of our students go no further than primary school and This is one of the underlying factors contributing to slow economic growth to the problems we have with governance and We need to address this Urgently, I believe personally there is no greater expenditure There is nothing more important than fixing the education system so that we produce citizens Whose brains are turned on whose hands are useful whose minds are progressive So that we can build this country they the problems we have with growth and an Employment and the reverse unemployment in this country are a direct Reflection of the inadequacy of our education system and I'm not even beginning to speak about physical conditions I'm talking about the nature of our system what it produces what it fails to turn on especially in our young people. I am in constant interaction with young people because in the nature of my work and I suppose my outlook and There are too many stories of young persons who are not engaged who are not Turned on is the word that I use you know that the expression the lights are on but nobody's home young men in particular I met a young man just last week Who is an apprentice to a welder and I engaged him in conversation? We're in September. He hasn't bothered to go for his CXC results He doesn't think he got it So when I challenged him on this I said no you need to go and see what you did How well you performed at least find out so that you can have some kind of plan for your future Well, I was so insistent that he actually went for his results the following week How many months after sitting the exam and he was pleased to find out that he got two tools and three trees Are a couple things but the significant thing Mr. President is that he came out of our a good school in In in in St. Lucia out of the education system and had no further use for his own education In fact, he did not even know the meaning of the word apprentice when I suggested to him that he was an apprentice to a welder to a master welder That kind of apathy mr. President is dangerous. It is frightening and it results directly in the sort of crime that we are seeing because as we know The devil finds work for idle We cannot have an education system. Mr. Chairman, which is failing 95 percent of our population We can also look at the CXC statistics and see that although we often celebrate the successes and there are many They represent a very small percentage of the total population and we need to change that The fact that many citizens are opting out of the education system at an early age, Mr. Chair, Mr President, I think it's a problem for us I would also like to Comment very briefly on the subject of love in their hearts Our young people have a lot of love in their hearts. That's why you don't have anarchy in the streets But love needs expression as the president an expression is something that is learned the expression of vulnerability and tenderness frustration despair We have to give our young people the confidence the vocabulary the emotional intelligence to be able to express that And it is their frustration with themselves with their circumstances with their lack of prospects with their communities And the lack of facilities that manifests in the violence young people are not violent by nature They are violent because our society pushes them to that extreme and Everything that is important about changing the nature of our society is chronically underfunded in this country Chronically underfunded in this country we have resources to attend to everything else But the things that really underpin the development of a society in this country is always the lowest on the priority I don't need to go through the examples. We all know what they are governance justice education the development of the human spirit the arts culture These are the things that will distinguish us from the rest of the world our ability to identify Who we are and what we are and where we would like to go and what we would like to be Our history is unknown our geography is unknown our talents remain underrepres- underdeveloped in us People who do not have a language to express the frustration they feel must be at war They must be at war because we leave them no alternative, but to fight We don't give them words to use to express how they feel Their language skills as basic as that are underdeveloped Their numeracy is underdeveloped their ability to make a way in the world for themselves is underdeveloped But we are we have good people in San Lucia, and I believe that this program is a good program But it must not become the mainstream We must not encourage people to drop out of the system or to make them believe that it is okay to drop out the system Because there's some remedial program into which a politician will recommend you and therefore you go there and speak to mr X, and you will get something out of it. No We must make sure that we educate our people for the world and on their list of options St. Lucia is their highest priority Thank you, mr. President Senator fortune a bearer Thank you, mr. President Of course, I rise to support the motion before this house and I also rise of course to Say that I'm Lucian and I've been around for a long time particularly working with the young people of this country and When I listened to the leader of the opposition Or the leader of yes the leader of the Senate on the opposition side It threw me back into the experiences I've had in the last four weeks Parents all coming looking for support to enable their children to go into the school system this year and I personally had to be walking into agencies with parents soliciting support so a culture has been created and you alluded to that earlier because If the minister SNU you can't get support and so We are looking to break that cycle Within here and I can attest to that because I walk the walk with the people of this country So mr. President I've been around And particularly around the business of youth development and that's been so for quite some time and this initiative Presents a holistic approach to addressing the issues that we have in this society and I say holistic for a number of reasons and While I support the motion That perhaps at this stage in our development. We should be doing these programs across the country I think we need to get the right mix and that is why we are here piloting this initiative today So you see mr. President and I think again the leader of your position here Mentioned it our institutions and agencies over the years have dealt with youth As if they are segmented parts are there as if they are in parts So we have the school focusing on one thing. We have the family focusing on something else We have the church focusing on something else and the community is something totally different So in building our new St. Lucia We want to focus on the whole person and that's the object of what we're trying to do We recognize that we have to design programs to accomplish the goal of producing the type of citizens that are mentally healthy physically healthy intellectually stimulated and Challenged you understand so that we can grow this country This is why we are here and this is why we are making that difference This integrated approach is being designed when we look at the various statistics around us and I was speaking to the honorable senator for honorable senator with responsibility for security and I was told that we do have an average of 65 persons who died through irresponsible behavior in any one year with respect to crime and The same statistics go with the Ministry of Health Because a lot of our behaviors as citizens a lot of our behaviors affect How we live and the lifestyles that we live and so this program Based on all my knowledge and understanding of it will provide an opportunity for our young people To understand clearly the various competencies that are required for them to live a full Healthy and productive life and a life that is not dependent on others But one where you are taught how to fish so that you can go out and earn your living and make a difference and more importantly contribute to the development of your society and of course my colleague senator across his spoke a while ago Mr. President with respect to the disaster in the education system this year from all indications We have begun a program with respect to education for democratic citizenship Where young people? Understand the value of being part of community where they understand what nation building is all about and where they know and They're given that ability and they empowered to know that they must contribute to the development of their society So we began this program in the education system because you cannot just revolutionize it one time It takes time it takes four steps to make a difference And so we began that program and in looking at the five core competencies that are required for citizens And there we're talking about health competency. We're talking about emotional competencies You talk about interpersonal skills learning to communicate learning to relate teaching them basic things How to keep a conversation? How to deal with issues how to cope having coping systems that you can fall back on in times of stress and troubles And tribulations That's what we have to teach our young people and that is what this program is designed to do And I just trust that we can get the right citizens Involving the program to make the difference that is required because our country has gone on this way for too long We need to stem and change the tide and I'm trusting that given this opportunity We will make that difference. I thank you Senator food man Thank You mr. President Before I move to My contribution on the motion. I want to join the rest of our colleagues in welcoming our former comrade Timofi manga Interprets that well, and I don't get involved in that And I know him and when you say the word comrade is synonymous with a certain group. So you understand that I Apologize if the rest of us don't but he does and I also want to also Welcome him not only as a colleague in this honorable house, but as a former schoolmate, you know attended the same secondary school and we've we've socialized and Interacted in other spheres. I as I told him earlier this this some in this environment It's not like the sports program where he's my guest and then I can only talk to him on certain levels I I just you know, I want to congratulate him and I just hope that his Addition to this honorable house will add value to the contributions that are made So we look forward to that and of course, we will sometimes disagree, but we always try to maintain mutual respect for each other I also want to join the colleagues in expressing our Sympathies and empathy for the other countries north of ours As most of us may have relative friends and some other connection to the northern Virgin Islands British Virgin Islands US Virgin Islands And I know there are several efforts locally to assist So I hope that St. Lucia will find the appropriate means and ways to assist My colleagues spoke about the two colleagues spoke about the prisoner story I I will leave that for another discussion But I'm hoping that we'll find as a country and as a people appropriate ways to reach out to our brother brothers and sisters up north To the substantive motion I rise in support of the motion It would it would really Not make much sense if I If I would see that I don't I mean any initiative any motion any Activity on the part of any government towards youth empowerment Is something that I think all of us should support And in support of the motion we must not lose sight of certain very important Dimensions While it is a motion that when you read it and you look at the wording is very fancy very nice We must keep in mind that if we are going to raise or borrow in excess of 2.8 million US dollars and invest Almost nine or they are about nine million EC dollars in an initiative It has to have some impact. It has to bring about some You can see measurable or some significant change I Know it's a project a pilot project, but even in that it has to have some relevance and some meaning and It was not strange that the Independent senator senator oj when he made his short presentation used the the or mentioned the issue of The You know, he actually used the term that I think is pretty much similar to one that I had intended to mention He's talking about empowerment and he referred to education. I mean which which better way Do we have to empower young people than to educate them? And we must never think that education is within four walls of anyone building or exists in a vacuum Education is all-encompassing it begins even before both and It continues right through in the in the family in the church in schools in the parliament on the streets Education evolves and it continues its path everywhere we are So you must be mindful that we don't limit our efforts to specific institutions when we speak of education And I think the approach that has been referred to in this motion seems to be more of a corrective Intervention than a preventative measure now while we cannot prevent everything But I I think it is important as a country that we focus on Nipping things in the bud and doing what we have to do to prevent the problems that we encounter Because once you have the problem You you have a lot. You have to do a lot more to alleviate it than if you could have done something to prevent it in the first place We spoke about school suspensions as a former principal. I clearly understand the pain That you have to go through Sometimes to tell a child that he or she must remain home for whatever period of time and in some cases We very well know that these suspensions could not even be out of school I remember doing what I considered in school suspension as a principal where the child was Suspended but was given permission to return to the building because that is the safest place for that individual Putting that child setting that child home. There was almost no home This school is the only was the only safe haven for the child So the child was allowed to be in the school receiving counseling receiving supportive supportive care for the time But just so that you demonstrate to the to the students that the behavior was not acceptable You you make some adjustments to the to the child's routine for the day and this is how serious it becomes so when we speak of These these interventions and I heard the minister in the prime minister's office for foreign affairs Make a very important statement that I have made in this honorable house that the best investment we can make in this country Is in our human resource? It's a statement that I have uttered several times Our human resource is all we have we have no oil We have no box site Right. There are certain resources that we wish we had but we don't have them What we have is our people and how we treat them and how we take care of them We'll make the difference between a successful society or a society plagued with crime and deviants. And so if we are serious about Youth empowerment we have to consider dealing with these issues early as early as we can and in several different spheres not only within isolated institutions It is important that we know when these interventions are necessary It is important that we know for whom because you might very well be trying to help people who don't need the help and Ignoring those who need the help based on the way we diagnose them So we have to be very careful with these interventions as to whom there needs to be some measure of coherence this center that we spoke about that Was used for the students who would be out of school Is the president? This is very a very familiar Concept to me because in a previous slide. I remembered having several discussions at the NPA level where There was actually a group of us commission. I didn't go but a few other principles Visited a center with that model in Barbados known as the Edna Nichols Center And what was done there is very much what I am hearing that this center is supposed to to provide It basically gives a child who has gotten into trouble at school an opportunity to Instead of being home go to a place during the suspension period to receive Certain interventions depending on the child's issues, but I want to issue a word of caution in the implementation of that Initiative and say or ask the question to our Ministry of Education specifically and perhaps to a lesser extent Ministry of Health and Ministry of Internal Security we must take a look at the difficulties The implications and the challenges that are faced by these Centers that have already Experimented with this practice So I don't know if there was a Commission group that went over to Barbados. Yeah, right next to us But it is a pretty good model for education Visited the center take a look at what's going on there Listen to the challenges that they are facing because they are challenges You cannot send every child there all the time. They are resources and make sure that we do not repeat those mistakes that they're gonna make We must be prepared to invest the relevant resources. We have a budget of 2.8 6 million You know to be borrowed and I think 9 million easy We have to project and see for the period of the intervention Is that going to support the activity the last thing you want is to make a decision to invest in an initiative? Not having assessed the implications of the action and halfway through You find that your resources are not adequate or your your your your your practices need to be to be Changed so I just asked that before we actually go into this initiative, which I have no problems with We must make sure that we look at the difficulties and implications I Also note that while we speak of the The youth empowerment issue it sounds as if it's Something that we are not consistent With regarding the actions of the government generally I have said it before that any time there is an initiative presented by a government It does not reside in the initiative alone to show what the government is about the government's actions have to be in support of the laws initiatives policies that they intend to implement and How are we offering hope to our students our former our colleague who spoke earlier did mention the Issue of relevance of the education system. He mentioned having to Make changes. I just want to use that as you know for whatever better way to look at whether the education system that we have really takes care of the needs of the country and Really takes care of the realities that we face Does it provide for a global citizen Does it provide for what I remembered the Prime Minister of Jamaica? He was then the Minister of Education a few years ago when we visited Jamaica on an education trip made reference to seamless education and Creating the ideal Caribbean child What are the characteristics of that individual? And I want to agree that to some extent we need to pay attention to that when we take any initiative on behalf of young people Are we making sure that these? Initiatives embrace other entities and they are not in isolation so When a government takes or presents a bill like this in the house and I stand in support of it I expect to see that there's some effort made Towards ensuring that in to use the words of the Minister of Education in the lower house. No child is left out No individual is left out But I have to say sadly that some of the actions do not suggest that this is the case Second chances will always be necessary We want to avoid them, but they will be necessary and I want to use an example of an existing institution that seems to be reaching its, you know, it's it's the end of its tenure or it's going to be ended that Offered second chances to students. I had mentioned of care and that is good But I didn't I realized that NSDC Which several of the students described by senator Oji earlier? Who are not even Don't even care to go get the CXC results because they don't think it has much use to them They look to engage in some form of apprenticeship and NSDC provided just that in Several areas particularly in the technical areas and what are we doing? While we come here to forward this bill and to present all these lovely ideas we are shutting this down or we are looking away from this in favor of Private funded institutions that most of these young people Do not have the Ability to access they have to pay thousands of dollars to enroll and they cannot afford it and I'm speaking of Some of these these these private entities like CHTT I Although the government is investing its its resources in it The young people who are not able to get to access food They the tertiary education who have difficulties because their parents cannot get fancy mortgages to send them to university That is where they get a second chance a couple of hundred dollars and they can access a course in small engines repair in Electricals in plumbing, you know, and even in basic Good good manners Etiquette, you know table manners. These are all things that were taught that are taught to these people Can they access this are we giving them a realistic chance? To empower them so we must be consistent I Support this I think it is a good initiative But our actions must always reflect in our practices as a government generally I So I saw the the level of excitement in the lower house When the debate started on this on this motion, it seemed very Pensive and low-key until they remember for We fought north at the time made the Observation and then I saw it picking up and I was very concerned up to that point because I thought that That emotion like this one would have excited even the presenter of the motion and everybody else Would have had something to add and something to show the young people that if we are going to come to Parliament To make decisions like that on their behalf that we are excited about it that we really want to see it happen Whether it's the opposition the government every single member of the house needed to show a level of enthusiasm and interest But it was you know It was looking really low-key until it was brought up and then the debate really picked up on that And I think these are the the the actions that the young people are looking at they always tell you It's not about what you see but what you do. We have to look At least look like we are serious about this. We have to be convincing We have to show the young people that we who are the leaders put in this honorable house to represent their interests I excited about the things that we bring into them And I was I was wondering if that that member had not raised issue how many persons that have spoken on that bill Whereas other bills that do not have anything to do with these young people hours and hours are spent on it All kinds of things go on But when it relates to their business and they say to you a lot of young people do not follow Parliament They don't sit at home and watch. They're not interested Right, they think it's not that it's not their business because nothing that relates to them is being taken seriously at that level So we must communicate the right messages to our young people and I think that The issue of the and I want to use an example too I Have to to refer to the leader of government business when he was Presenting the the motion and he admitted that he was having difficulty pronouncing Decidivism and I asked myself You know, I know he was you know, he was a bit jovial about it But you know, even that could be interpreted as you mean, you don't even know the word We have to we have to be very serious about this young people get those unintended messages And I hope they didn't get that message from you honorable member I hope I hope not. They have to you know, and really recidivism is really The tendency for one to return to a behavior that they previously, you know, you know And we must let them know that we're concerned about it We do not want them to relapse Because that is one of the reasons in schools that principles and teachers have to have to revert to punitive measures rather than Non punitive because you you know the efforts that you've made with parents with the private citizens We've and the students seem to revert to the same behavior the undesirable behavior We must ask ourselves why these things happen And so I speak on this to suggest that we need to think about prevention Prevention rather than Interventions or correction Whatever interventions we have they need to be focused on prevention So that we do not have to Invest all that money only to find out after the pilot project has been completed that the same behaviors The same problems are reoccurring in the same communities where we had the initiative that would Sadden us very much So mr. President I Want to continue to express my support for the bill But I want to see that Pilot programs alone will not do it for youth empowerment And I'm not suggesting that I am against what is going on. I'm seeing it's not enough and Since the government of the day has decided to make a move. I want to see that we have to do a lot more It mustn't look like we're just trying a little something It mustn't look like that at all and so we must back it up and there must be some sustainable Strategic motions or moves following this initiative. So I look forward to hearing some of these when we return to this house now we talk about Empowering people but to empower anyone apart from providing them with good education is to provide them with opportunity and Opportunities have provided for tertiary level education for employment and And for any opportunity for people to grow you must let them feel a sense of inclusion But they are not isolated from what is going on now the people who are responsible for the minds or for shaping the minds of Our young people the custodians of education are teachers and while we talk about Empowering young people we have to also empower the people who are responsible for taking care of them teachers for sure Especially teachers in the lower brackets of the school system preschool infant school teachers primary school teachers We have to make sure that these people are placed and are properly catered for Have incentives for them to do a fine job at that level Of course the church and the family has its path to do but within the school system if the children have a good foundation It is less likely that they will be deviant later on But what are we doing as a government? We are bringing a policy on youth empowerment parliament But the institution that is supposed to provide training for these teachers for these people who are custodians of the children We are stopping the programs there So after lowest community college division of teacher education What is happening there in? 2017 in September no training offered for primary school teachers And we know that there are over 25% of our teachers in the schools who are still untrained Who don't have the pedagogical knowledge To impart the knowledge to the children we have to make that a priority So that the young people know that the people and the parents also that the people that they are going to the people who are going to be their custodians Who are going to give them the love that we spoke about and the attention Are themselves provided with incentives too many of our young ambitious teachers are leaving the system especially the males If you look at the primary schools you can hardly find a male teacher there. Why are the young men leaving the service? You know why? Men have to provide for their families too, Mr. President. They are leaving the service because there are no incentives for them to remain there And not only about the pay but about opportunities for upward mobility When young men who want to do well and who love to teach and want to give their best to the education system Look and see that there is no mobility for them There is nowhere to go because they can't get trained. They can't get to be permanent The Bachelor of Education program that was offered at South Aloysse full-time in two years in St. Lucia Where a young man could have obtained a degree in education To improve himself is now offered part-time With no busries and no support and the whoever wants to pursue that has to negotiate with his principal to get time Often an afternoon some of them are having difficulties doing that depending on who the principal is and where they live To be able to access this thing so that they can improve themselves and There is no incentive. They have to fund it all on their own. So if we're serious about this empowerment We must also be serious about ensuring that the people who are taking care of these young people are also Empowered and they remain there to help us with the job So the best the better you do within the school system is the less my dear minister of internal security my dear minister of health and my minister of Social transformation and and so on will have to do they will be able to focus on the hospitals and and you know better Policing and so on rather than having to get to to to get involved in dealing with children being suspended from school So we need to make the teachers happy so that they can make the children happy Now going I don't want to spend much time on the other issue because it has been probably exhausted by But the school that I was principal of mr. President It's a typical example as we speak today in the house The children who go to that school are at home They are not at school and you see where the deviants, you know begins or it continues They have been on eight weeks vacation. They are looking forward to entering school and going back And when they get to school on the first day the children don't know about our problems That's not the issue. They are they have their books. They brand new uniforms. They have succeeded the common entrance They're looking forward to the new school. They report to school all excited only to find a minister and their teachers and their parents in some kind of conflict And they have to be sent back home The parents have made the arrangements some of them have nowhere to put these children They have to go to work It's not like you have a daycare. You can put little babies You have adolescents on your hands. Some of the parents work outside of the communities where they live Where are these children now? I can tell you the population of migo secondary is over 700 almost 800 children So you have 800 young people somewhere doing what And when when they return to school to begin the academic year, they have lost two and a half weeks or so They are not settled It takes another, you know another two or three weeks just to settle them So you are losing on important instructional time. You are losing out on Time that the government has to pay the teachers for because the teachers still have to be paid So the resources that we we we are investing are being wasted Only if someone saw it fit to pay attention to the repairs that had to be done This week and last week Should have been done in july august and I am not going to argue the issue about the You know or to to support the issue about the allocation was not made. What is our priority? I have asked that question before in this country if we believe in youth empowerment We believe in mobility and education What is our priority in terms of who we pay attention to? If it was one million dollars that was allocated to school repairs And the minister can justify that fine because the previous government And I always say that no government has given enough money to education So if the one million was not enough in any government If it is 100 000 you have to spend to make a school ready for for for september spend it but spend it in july and august Do what you have to do before the children have to come to the school and return home and the media and everybody is all over the place That is not as important as the children's education So I think that there are certain protocols that are in place by the ministry of education. I'm very familiar with them Principles submit the priority areas way before july As soon as you finish staffing and appraisals that goes in These should have been taken and that issue we're dealing with should have been addressed long before september 4 So I think there needs to be deliberate planning An organization within the departments that are responsible for ensuring that children Are placed in a proper environment for learning And not let the chaos begin and then have to go and fix it. I hope that this bill is not a repetition of this I use that analogy because it really makes sense to prevent the problem then to have to go and deal with it afterwards Because even if now micro-secondary gets a nice form three block that would be great, but the damage has been done The damage has been done So we have to prevent that Mr president I just want to move quickly because I didn't intend to see I just had to make two or three points on that and let me make the next point I think that when we tell young people that we want to empower them We must show them that we trust their ability And there is equity In the distribution of our resources as far as they are concerned We must give them hope that those we teach to be honest to obey the law To be truthful To love each other all the ideas we teach them at at home and in church and in school When they look around us all around them, they are supposed to see that being reflected among us the leaders So what do you say to a young man or a young lady? Say between the age of 14 and 30 or 14 and 25 Who has done all the right things Obey these parents because we like to focus on the negatives Let's focus on a few positive things that children actually do You obey your parents. You never got into trouble. You never got suspended You went to school Primary secondary you did your A levels or your technical You got all your subjects You went to university your parents had to mortgage their home To spend thousands of dollars to put you through university. Mr president. You are successful. You graduate with first class honors You are the top of your class You return to your country And you're struggling to get somewhere a little squeeze in the system at grade 10 or 12 after about 10 or 12 years Or 15 years sometimes or even 20 depending on those who have to do it part time You may spend 20 years to get to that point and as a young man as a young woman you did everything right You didn't deviate you did all the things that you were told only to find out That after all those years you look at across the road and you see A political Operative or you want to call them sorrow gets whoever you call them Spends two weeks Doing a certain course and can take up a job that is about 10 grades higher than yours Put yourself in the place of a young man or woman who has done all those things even their parents Mortgage the house invested thousands hundreds of thousands of dollars sometimes Just to make sure that their children do the right thing that we want them to do to get to where they want to And what is the reward if they look around them and they see a well I only somebody could just do that in two weeks with state funds And get to grade 20 or so You know what that causes Anger frustration It's not fair And the young people see those things, you know, they see that They we teach them that you must earn the right to be who you are. You must earn your your stripes You don't you don't do shortcuts to get to the top, but we are taking the shortcuts ourselves And so when the young man, I am not suggesting that anybody's deviance is is appropriate But when young people realize that taking the the winding routes the appropriate Are measures Are not rewarded Then they figure boy, I better take a shortcut Because the shortcuts these big boys are taking So we must talk walk the walk Mr. President We are teaching our children by our behavior the very things that we do not want them to do And the example I just used was very deliberate because it's current And it's relevant And we cannot hide that from the young people no matter how many bills we pass in parliament No matter how many Nice programs we put in place Children young people especially they watch what you do They watch what you do I remember telling children no skinny pants, you know, I was very firm principal. No skinny pants One day I came to I was I came from a funeral And I stopped at the school and the pair of trousers I was wearing for some reason It didn't have you know, the the bottom part was not the usual And you know, some of the boys came back so you're up skinny today I did for the first time I realized that the width of the of the you know, of the trousers was a little The boys were on my case But I had to put that pair of trousers away They are watching us madam. Mr. President. They are So we must not speak out of one corner of our mouth with our policies and our fancy language and so on And then the children look and they see the very things that we are telling them we shouldn't do is exactly what the system is doing Finally, Mr. President I want to turn to a couple of examples used by the minister for social transformation equity Some in the in the sitting of the lower house And he referred to the two centers of excellence He referred to the center of excellence for art And the center of excellence for sports Now hear me very well, Mr. President As an educator, I have absolutely no problem with any center of excellence As a matter of fact, I think we should strive to make every single school A center of excellence for whatever whether it's for Information technology, whether it's for arts, whether it's for music, whatever it is What's what whatever we decide that is important for the development of our country We can strive to make every single school or institution a center of excellence That will get my support anytime The only issue I have Is that you have chosen two schools Azure secondary and grossly secondary But I can't say much about grossly secondary because I don't live in that area, but I do live very close to azure And based on my background checks and my investigations I want to ask how much do the teachers and the people of that community know about that initiative? Have they bought into it? Do they think that it's Important to them Do they see a stick for them in it? Are they going to support the initiative? And when the when the whole implement implementation begins that they will be anxious and eager to allow their children to participate Mr. President, we must watch those initiatives There is need for us to collaborate communicate mobilize educate Right and let people become part of the decision Consultation what level of consultation has been done now? I don't want to be to presumptuous and say that it is going to be implemented Implemented as of tomorrow, but I am just just on a word on a on a on a side of caution We need to ensure that the concept is understood by the people who are going to be responsible for implementing it And the people for whom It was it is going to be done Because if we don't do that, Mr. President, there's going to be resistance because it's a change and people are generally resistant to change And I hope the same will happen in growth in it Because when I think of the elite athlete development program, I can see how that would have Worked well with an initiative like that, but I don't know if those who are going to implement it have taken that into consideration So that is a key factor that I think we need to consider Now to wrap up I love the idea of the Initiative I love the idea of change But I also want to say that any change you're going to make especially at that level In government it has to inspire People it has to excite people I don't know how excited young people are about some of the things that we talk about Especially if they themselves are not part of the discussion So we have to provide opportunities for them to have the input. We have NYC. We have youth and sports councils We have football clubs. We have voluntary organizations We have a whole lot of groups where youth Congregates where youth have structure And they recognize I would ask the question to what extent are these organizations going to be part of the discussion In terms of implementation and I see my my colleague nodding I I imagine that she's in agreement and that they will see to it that this is done Because as a young person who has committed my entire life To youth development I would hate to see any initiative that the country is going to invest nine million dollars in for youth Not bring about the desired results And what you do is that you want to make sure that when you implement change There is a change of in behavior For those That you have made the change or on behalf of those that you have made the change So mr president How do we ensure that this becomes a success We have no guarantees, but I think that we need to focus on leadership in the communities Voluntaryism There is too much focus on money And in and paying for things I think that some of the structures that exist right now can work If we empower them by giving them Responsibility and making them part of the of the of the program So I expect to see volunteerism the community spirit being brought in National pride I heard the The minister who spoke before me mentioned the issue of citizen not citizenship, but democratic education for democracy National pride. This is critical This is very critical And how do you do that without a comprehensive program that involves schools and community? You have to Because that's the only way they can identify with it. It has to look like them Even the people who are going to champion this thing have to look like them. So I expect that there will be youth There will be lots of young people in the implementation of these programs And these young people are not going to come there and see people Calling them in to do certain things that don't look like them That don't speak like them that don't understand them Now don't relate to them So I hope that it'll create some youth employment opportunities. Mr. President Because we know the situation of employment now So I call on the government while I support this motion to ensure that Whatever is done with this initiative That it results in the true empowerment participation And brings about the desire changes that we want in our young people So having said that, Mr. President, I want to again reiterate that I support the motion And I hope that the implementation is effective For the people, the young people of our country. Thank you, Mr. President Senator Marisha Thomas Francis Thank you very much, Mr. President I'd like to join All other colleagues in welcoming our newest senator To the Senate Congratulations sir And as previously mentioned by my other colleagues, we look forward to your contribution in the house As we are anticipating that you create much value in the discourse in this house. So I wish you all the best I would also like to echo the sentiments expressed by members before me In terms of the victims Of the recent hurricanes And I said I say hurricanes because while we are focusing on Emma We also had hurricane heavy Which wrecked havoc in Texas I'm not sure if honorable members are aware but a number of our st. Lucian's Have actually migrated from the virgin islands into texas and I do have friends and family who have actually been impacted by the ravages of Heavy So let us continue to keep them in our thoughts and our prayers and whatever assistance that we can give on an individual level As well as a collective level. I believe we should Mr. President while I'm on my feet before I delve into the substantive matter through you I'll just like to advise this honorable house That I represented parliament at a two-day conference in Trinidad and Tobago last week uh, the delegate From a they were delegates from across the region comprising of mainly parliamentarians St. Lucian was represented by myself and the speaker of the house of assembly and the main thrust Of the conference was to look at how parliaments across the region can strengthen accountability through transparency through transparency and accountability we Explored how accountability and transparency can be improved through independent financial analysis We also discussed at length the challenges which which exists due to the information asymmetry That exists between executive and legislative branches and explored ways of overcoming such challenges We also looked at gaps in availability and accessibility of information Throughout the parliamentary financial cycle and explored opportunities for greater openness and improvement To allow parliament to better achieve its role Also, we explored opportunities to engage the citizens And promote the active participation in the legislative process to ensure inclusive Participative and representative decision making and only speaker citizen We looked at all the stakeholders especially the youth And of course the private sector all in all mr. President and fellow parliamentarians It was a very enlightening enlightening exercise. It was very informative very educational and beneficial and I shall present More detailed reports on the conference that all parliamentarians will have an opportunity to review Mr. President In terms of the matter being debated this morning I would like to add my support But mr. President When we speak of youth empowerment We must not do so In a one-dimensional fashion So therefore I would like to take this opportunity To remind all of us of all the good stuff All the great achievements that some of our youth have actually Got into In fact made us proud a lot of our youth. They've made us proud. We have youth who have excelled in sports We have youth who have excelled in business And if we recall the Chamber of Commerce every year rewards the efforts of youth who actually do well in business One significant person who comes to mind is the gentleman who actually Came up with the idea of Transferring or utilizing the sagasum seaweed into fertilizer. This is a tremendous achievement And we have several other youths who have done tremendous things in the area of business in sports We cannot forget Levone Spencer We cannot we cannot forget Darren sami we cannot forget general shaper and the rest So I'd like to applaud them And I would like to implore other youth on the island to emulate what they have done in the area of education We have our youth who excel not just locally but internationally They go out there they attend university and they they they excel tremendously So we must not forget the good That our youth do and compliment them and continue to encourage them and inspire them to continue to achieve Mr. President In looking at the youth we have to understand that human behavior and indeed youth behavior Is a function of various dimensions personality type mood values how they're socialized in the community And within the education system What motivates them intrinsically and extrinsically What motivates the young person to get a gun? What motivates that youth? To get involved in drugs knowing that perhaps yesterday or day before another youth got killed on the streets What motivates them? I'm heartened that our Senator Bellrose mentioned that government is looking at taking a very holistic approach to the Strategic direction of youth in st. Lucia It is very important It is very important because we often Have the dictum that the youth are the leaders of tomorrow and if we have to produce Leaders we have to produce formidable leaders and my colleague here mentioned Leaders with emotional intelligence young people who are inspired young people who are motivated young people who have confidence We have to ensure that we add teeth to the word integration And when we talk about adding teeth, mr. President We have to make sure that we define the role of every stakeholder in the process The parents have a role to play So we need to define within that plan. What is the role of the parents? What is the role of the private sector? As we are where the private sector employs a number of persons who are youth when they get into the place of work How are they treated? How are they led? How are they inspired? How are they motivated? What are the structures within the private sector which assist in ensuring That we take an individual from being a youth into adulthood and into being the best leader that we can have in this country We have to look also At the role of religious organizations And I think one member mentioned that already the religious organizations plays a very very important role And that role needs to be strengthened and we need to define that role adequately such that every player knows Exactly the definition of the role that they are required to play to get our youth to the level where they should be Mr. President we often heard of course about addiction that the Dictum sorry that it takes a village to raise a child There's a role for the entire community. How are we going to involve the community in that holistic? Youth development strategy shows that such that they have a say in determining which direction that our youth goes Mr. President parliament We have a role to play as parliamentarians We have to set the example what we say in this honorable house How we say the level of our debate needs to be such that we inspire Confidence in our youth and they see us as leaders They see us as leaders that they can emulate as leaders that they can trust So there is a significant role that we can play and in terms of The holistic development madam senator. I do hope that that is taken into consideration When we speak about a role of government my senator my colleague has spoke about the role of education And this is very clear. I think he was very eloquent And very thorough in the manner in which he addressed this particular Dimension and also our senator ruby unfurdy and he I think he did some justice there as well so in terms of Government I do just want to add there that when we speak about youth empowerment What better way to empower our youth if in addition to providing them with the requisite education That we empower them such that they can create employment for themselves and feel empowered that they are able to take care of themselves and their families And madam senator in looking at a youth development strategy in looking at a holistic youth development strategy We cannot forget the need for us to ensure That in terms of the youth who want to create employment for themselves that there is an enabling environment Currently based on my experience The environment is not enabling the agencies that we have that support persons in Investing in businesses. It's not user friendly if you like Too many agencies too much bureaucracy and I think it's a real turnoff if we are looking at Empowering our youth if we are looking at enabling our youth to be able to create employment for themselves So we need to look at that in a very profound way madam senator in terms of the The policy document madam. I am aware that the current youth strategy document based on my research expires in 2017 So it is very opportune for you to undertake this critical exercise And it is hope that for us to achieve maximum effect and create value which is sustainable in that space that you Bring before this honorable house The comprehensive document for us to debate and for us to add our voice add our suggestions add our feedback And add our contribution towards making the document and making that strategy as effective As it could be because frankly our youth need help We have several youth at risk We only have to visit body lay and visit the boys training center and visit uptown girls center And just look at what is happening in the news regarding the number of young persons who are falling Victim to crime and will realize that we have a very very very long way to go So I would like to once again support the bill and also to Commit myself to providing assistance and support where that support is needed to ensure that The thrust In terms of youth empowerment is done in a very holistic and meaningful way. Thank you very much, mr. President senator Thank you, mr. President, is it possible I can get the Elected Thank you very much. Mr. President fellow colleagues Good morning. I want to take this opportunity to welcome My fellow senator mr. Mangal To this honorable house I also want to join with the sentiments expressed by everybody who has spoken before me about the ravages of hurricane Irma I want to ask you mr. President To allow me some leeway to read certain exits of my presentation because I think it's going to be very important As the minister with responsibility for home affairs Justice and national security. I think there are certain parts that I would have to Read so that persons understand what the law actually says about certain incidents that are occurring in our community at this time So I said I want to start by saying that I was pleased to hear the prime minister Presenting a bill to borrow the sum of 2.8 million dollars to implement the yep Program, which is a youth empowerment program in the law house this bill as senator from Me could indicated that it generated some debate in the house, which was was good to see I want to indicate my support for this very important program In the caribbean many youths face the prospect of being economically and socially marginalized And I had risk for violence They grew up in a context of increasingly high levels of crime and violence Peak rates of unemployment and a lack of vocational life skills training and family support services The community family and youth resilience program funded by the u.s agency for international development supports family Networks communities service providers and government agencies to implement successful approaches To this crime and violence and increased opportunities for our youth in our country One a number of youth most at risk for violence and their families will receive targeted counseling to lower risk factors To a number of youth will gain improved workforce readiness skills to boost livelihood opportunities Three the program will deliver an integrated program that provides family counseling Connects youth with positive role models As if assists youth to develop new skills and become more employable It will deliver recreational and cultural activities and build community resilience to confront insecurity The program will use community crime And violence prevention plans that strengthen data driven observation observatories To conduct hotspot crime and violence mapping Adapt a public health approach to reducing violence Connect the community to the police and other service providers to support at risk Youth and build linkages with the private sector to support youth unemployment The program will support a number of communities in implementing holistic crime and violence prevention plans Which in a large number of families There will be an evidence-based approach to build youth resilience Taking a public health evidence-based approach the program provides targeted intervention activities to reach youth across three risk differentiate differentiated risk levels Including the general population of youth in crime affected areas. That is the primary Youth at risk for violence secondary And youth in conflict with the law the tertiary. So we have three components of our intervention Youth will be matched with interventions based on the level of risk And these interventions will seek to increase their protective factors or resilience Based on a positive youth development approach This continue Continuous services include primary prevention services Shuttered civic activities to build social and leadership skills Workshops will be implemented to increase youth workforce readiness Community activities that promote positive youth police contact And campaigns to challenge those gender norms that contribute to an environment that is permissive of violence To support youth who are living the juvenile system and reduce the chances of recidivism The program produces targeted support to Strengthen successful reintegration of this youth into the communities We will strengthen the families and communities The program provides specialized secondary private prevention services For families whose youth are empirically most vulnerable to becoming involved in crime and violence A sustainable network of trained family counselors Will work in close partnership with the families of high-risk youth To establish positive relations and behaviors to lower the risk factors In addition To strengthen a comprehensive array of wraparound services for high-risk youth and their families The program supports Zare the program supports local youth and family focus initiative for small grants That improve community safety and cohesion and expand opportunities for young people The program's place based strategy concentrates complementary preventative prevention activities in a set geographical area to boost overall community resilience and empower local stakeholders And government institutions to shape the next generation of youth and family interventions This includes improved legal and policy frameworks to reduce risk factors for violence Stronger referral systems to support youth and families Smarter violence observatories that use modern data and analytics Coordinated community councils and much more Honorable Leonard Mottut in his presentation indicated that his ministry Will be responsible for rolling out the program He touched on the after-school program the elite sports program the um The arts and the arts program Right And also touched on the after-school programs We want to revitalize some of our sporting activity facilities As you know and the senator referred to it that we have a number of sports personnel Who have made sandwich a proud and we want to give them the best avenues to participate We want these young persons to participate participate in the club structure We should not only teach them sporting skills But enable them to manage those clubs thereby teaching them leadership skills As important as these interventions are we as a people must decide that crime The crime situation in st. Lucia is unacceptable In our society We must collectively as a people say enough is enough We must take some positive steps and actions to stop the criminology occurring in our society I have stated before the honorable leader of the opposition presented a paper where I said That crime is not only the police business. It is all of our business The police are the only ones being paid to actually perform the duty that all of us Have to perform to keep our community safe So when persons criticize politicians and say that um We are not doing enough for crime I do not take it as an insult or a problem I think that they want us politicians to do better and so As a manager or the person with responsibility for justice Home affairs and national security I welcome some of the The interventions made by any politician What I would require from them is that they come in and we have a discussion And we see how best we can put our heads and minds together to make st. Lucia a better place Criticizing politicians for criticism's sake will not solve the issue I tell people like my history and the police force is speaks to myself And sometimes as a minister I am tempted to to go into the crime fighting activity that police officers are engaged in But as a minister I'm not allowed to to get into that So I have to sometimes stand by and watch it play out My life in In public office has been very open and transparent I do not attach Such importance to myself as an individual That will allow me to become cynical Or disappointed in other persons when things do not go my way I remember a former minister in the united workers party By past me for the post of commissioner of police and give it to a one mr. Broughton a white English Gentleman at the time I could have challenged that decision The law was on my side But at the end of the day What does it profit a man if he gives the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul? I could have been commissioner, but the would the government support me in my endeavors So I decided that I needed to follow along during that time the honorable Richard fedrick Organized what we call peace and love competition Mr. Broughton was invited To meet with the fedrick and the young Men of the castries basin Immediately he came into the room There was an opera And the young person said now we don't want this man here But it was important that the police Play a part in that in that activity And so he asked of them Is there any police officer that you think that you trust sufficiently that you want to be part and parcel of that program? and without any first The overwhelming response was that the humble servant would be welcome I participated I took part in this in this competition in this in this program and the history will show that in that year 2007 there were only 29 homicides the lowest since 2002 So it worked and and I say that Because sometimes we have to think out of the box politicians must By nature be the leaders in our society And when things are positive Regardless, there is a beef or you do not like an individual. You must support And this is what I did in 2007 Everybody knows my history of the individual I want to indicate that police officers presently demotivated The performance is lackluster And everybody Decides that the lehi law Is what is hampering the police force? I would not want to go into detail of the Impacts report But I will give a ball-by-ball commentary on this matter So that solutions will see the genesis And the chronology of the facts of events and decide in a very dispassionate manner whether operation restore confidence Was the issue that brought about the lehi law One operation restore confidence to place between 2010 2011 under the government of united workers party two the american visas of A particular politician and a police officer were revoked during that time United workers party lost elections in 2011 In 2012 No action was taken against an ocean In 2013 No action was taken against an ocean as a matter of fact trade winds which is an american sponsored Operation was held in st. Lucia One of the most successful trade winds to ever take place in the caribbean No action 2014 Commissioner, mr. vonan fasua is not permitted to to board an american airlines flight To attend the commissioners conference held in united states of america That same year 2014 The lehi law is imposed On st. Lucia So I've given you the facts So that you can make up your own decision As to whether the 12 homicides was the determining factor in imposing the lehi law Honorable musa jabatis made a statement about young people committing crime and that is statistics bear that fact But he asked a very important question very very important And he says that most of these young persons come from single parent homes Where the father figure is nonexistent Then we have the fact that a large number of single mothers are employed in the hotel industry They work very hours This year and I left to fend for themselves And are very impressionable at this point in time of the development They are attracted to men who Have a lot of money And who have big positions in society That is the forest that the honorable musa jabatis was before into These are the people who are taking advantage Of our young people And who make them believe that they are above the law because nothing happens to them Our politicians must not only pay lip service to our young people We must by necessity Our actions must instill some confidence in those young people There is a saying that all politicians are dishonest And who are the persons that are causing that The very politicians are the ones accusing each other of all sorts of impropriety Thereby giving the populace the ammunition To treat them with esteem and distrust When our young people hail the dishonesty of politicians Serious accusations are exchanged in parliament and no action is ever taken against anyone What do you expect the young people to think of us? We need to speak out Loud as a community Against those criminals who to my mind are some of the biggest cowards in our communities Our parents must speak to the children The school teachers must do their bit and instill in discipline In our children our education system Has to be drastically amended to allow our young people the ability to survive in this changing world The churches must speak out in unison And it was good to see the Catholic Church having their march for peace The talk show hosts Who talk about all other things must condemn the actions of those criminals at every turn Against this background I say we need to highlight our heroes Identify persons who have contributed positively to our country Speak about persons like Sir Vincent Flossac Our first Chief Justice and first member of the Privy Council I'm sure that a lot of Senators don't know that But this is this is a fact Frederick Clarke our first national governor Sir Arthur Lewis Nobel laureate for economics Sir Derek Walcott Nobel laureate for literature Our own Bum Charles A very business acute Acute businessman and cricket hero I'm sure persons don't know that Bum Charles represented Senators and Divino and it's a cricket Our own Francis Mindo Philip Sportsman by XLS We will never see another Mindo Philip in our in our in our lifeline And persons like that have to be celebrated Marshall Francis and I'm sure that my fellow colleague here will be very happy to hear that name But he was an inspiration to me at St. Mary's College The second Individual whilst attending school To have made and represents and Lucian cricket and he didn't just stop there He went to represent the West Indies youth team. How many Saint Lucians know about that? You know, then we have Sir John and And we had a politicians or like Julian Hunt, you know, George Orlam, Josie Our own Kenny Antony Then you have Brick Wayne because people like Cessan Descartes, Ramon Ampollio, Jeff Elba How many Saint Lucians know those persons and can have a conversation about these individuals? There's a saying I'm not too good at the um, the quail But the saying I think goes Sahai Shea Medi Die Blanc Yes, and so that that is what it is. We have to give each other our heroes and celebrate our people Darren Sommi, Lavone Spencer, all those persons Are positive individuals that we have to sell to our young people and as a Senator from Miquud was saying that when we're going to be speaking to these young persons These are the individuals that must come forward and speak We don't want anybody that the person doesn't even know They will ask you the questions. Who are fair? Who told Sahti? We don't want that we want persons who they can I associate with And every time I had Dr. Oji in the in the Senate here, I sit and I have to Take a little slide and comprehend some of the things that he's saying Those are persons that can speak to our youth You know and and we need to do that I want the police to understand that the mandate as protectors of life and property Has to be done properly They train in Has instructed them as to how to execute the duty properly Every day must be a day of restoring confidence in the minds of our citizens So I don't need that there is no need for a restore confidence every day by the performance Supposed to instill confidence in the minds of our citizens If they perform their duties professionally and without fear of favor The citizens of this country will have the confidence in them to give them the sort of assistance That they require to keep our country safe For our citizens and for our visitors Again, Mr. President I want to Ask you to give me some permission to read because I'm going to be quoting some sections of the criminal code And our constitution and I don't want to make a mistake section 30 of the criminal code of senorcia states one a A person a wafer without a warrant or other legal process Arrest and detain another person whom he thinks Or knows to have committed an indictable offense b If the other person having noticed or knowing that he or she is accused of an indictable offense A voiced arrest by resistance of flight or escapes or endeavors to escape from custody May use any force which is necessary for the arrest detention or recapture And may kill And may kill that other person If that person cannot otherwise be arrested Detained or retaken by any other means that is the power given The constitution of senorcia section two deals with the protection of life A right to life Section one says a person shall not be deprived of his life intentionally Saving the execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offense under any law Or which he has been convicted A person shall not be regarded as having been deprived of his life In contravention of this section If he dies as a result of the use to such extent On on such circumstances as are permitted by law of such force as is reasonably justified A for the defense of any person from violence or for the defense of your property B In order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained See for the purpose of suppressing a riot insurrection or mutiny Or the in order to prevent the commission by that person of a criminal offense Or if he dies as a result of a lawful act of war This is not me saying so saying so. This is our constitution The constitution of senorcia saying this Therefore I implore the police to enforce the law As long as they act within the confines of that law and are able to justify their actions They should not be fearful of what some people may say The general public afforded similar rights and they too Must not be afraid to take action That the law permits them to do Section 427 of the criminal code makes it an offense For someone to disguise themselves and unlawfully assault another person The punishment if found guilty is two thousand dollars or to imprisonment for two years Section 521 of the criminal code says Makes the wearing of mask in a public place an offense A person who in any public way or public place wears any mask Is liable on summary conviction to a fine of five hundred dollars That we have to revisit And we will revisit that Two a person who in any public place or way Wears any mask within ten to commit a crime Is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for one year Again An amendment is definitely required in that position Three subsection one does not apply to a person wearing a mask in a public place At or during a carnival a drama or dance performance or spectacle of a medical purposes Lately we have had a spate of homicides and arm wrongness The police are trying their best with the resources available to them, but the public must play their part We must use the same social media to get information out instead of all the negativity that we engage them The criminals are now emboldened and are now killing security officers firing shots at police officers So I empathize with the security officer who died Doing his work to try to get Food and books and To take care of his family and he is killed in that fashion But the criminal code deals with that And section 87 85 says a person commits murder if he or she causes the death of another person A intending to cause death or B intending to cause grievous bodily harm In times past a person charged with murder And found guilty in a court of law was automatically sentenced to death There was no If or but or maybe As long as you're found guilty It was automatic that you be sentenced to death The case of spenson news Deemed the automatic imposition of the death penalty to be unconstitutional And there again, we can we can highlight and celebrate one of the lawyers involved in this Mr. Foster Marcus Foster was one of the young lawyers in that that was able to have this case Put in place Again, how many solutions do that Marcus Foster was was panel parcel of the case of spence use and expense As a result the law evolved a very long way So now we have what we call capital murder and non-capital murder And in the category of capital murder Means when you have killed a member of the police force a correctional officer a judicial officer Or a murder committed by a person in the course of a photo of a robbery burglary housekeeping sexual offenses etc We also have where a person by an arrangement whereby money or other thing of value passes to someone To another person or third party to commit a murder I'm sure that members around this honorable house We'll see that this song familiar it is happening in st. Lucia persons are being killed for payment And it is rough. It is serious The court states that the procedure for capital murder and the punishment may be death I know that the persons in society and my good friend Mr. Rick Wayne Will take me up on this because I know he's against the death penalty Some persons are for and some are against Some persons argue that hanging is not a deterrent Those in favor of punishment say it is I personally am not getting involved in the pros and cons of the death penalty All I am interested in Is that the laws of st. Lucia mandates That the death penalty be used So I think I will be paying a visit to the bodily correctional facility next week to make sure That the gallows are in good working conditions So that we are ready to impose the law of st. Lucia That is what the law calls for I am not there to decide whether it's a deterrent or not a deterrent If solutions wanted death penalty And I know for a fact that they voted yes that they wanted if they do not want it Then they will say that they do not want it But this is what the law is and as long as the law remains it must be applied We also have police officers being involved in private security Thereby taken away from their substantive duties I am not against police officers In that doing that practice because there is a procedure that governs that But when it is done at The default of the substantive work then there is a problem And it must be regulated So I was moving to the commissioner of police and we are going to review that Presently the big discussion Is where the honorable prime minister has Volunteered That the st. Lucia government Housed some prisoners from ticks and kickers islands and the british virgin islands At this moment. We are not sure how many But I've had discussions with the Director of bodily and the commissioner police And we are Aware of the number of prisoners we can accommodate Without jeopardizing the security And safety of our people It must be noted and I want to give them the kudos The st. Lucia labor party Must be commended for having to foresight in building this ultra modern facility So much so that it is the envy of the other caribbean islands Nelson Mandela stated and I quote and the honorable minister for opposition senate Representing from library alphabet is didn't in fact make use of that quote And on Monday It is said that no one truly knows a nation Until one has been inside his jails A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens But its lowest ones on quote These caribbean islands are in desperate need for help The most dangerous elements facing those persons Are not lack of water or electricity But the safety from the criminal elements rome industries We have heard of chaos that those prisoners are causing women girls old people are at risk And most importantly There are solutions living there being impacted By assisting We are allowing those persons the space And comfort to rebuild the communities without fear Most of those prisoners are not going to remain in these countries They will come down the chain of islands and may very well settle here Do you want them to get to our country that way? Or do you want them to be here in a controlled environment This is the question I'll call you the department say question we've won. So that's how it is In closing Mr. President and thank you for the latitude that you've given me I want to thank the honorable prime minister for taking this bold step In borrowing the money to pay for the much needed support for our young people I also want to tell my fellow colleagues and I I think some of The persons before me have spoken about that To tell my fellow colleagues, especially the politicians That we must do better We must do some introspection And try our very best To become the role models That these young persons out there so desperately need. Thank you. Mr. President Senator Timofimanga Thank you very much Mr. President Mr. President, I would like to take this opportunity to find the honorable prime minister and his cabinet colleagues for Giving me the opportunity to serve in this honorable upper house It is certainly a privilege for me to be able to serve this country and the people in said of st. Lucia, especially in constructive debate I would like to also take this opportunity to thank you, Mr. President for your warm words of welcome And your advice I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank All my colleague senators, especially Those on the opposite side And I want to make special mention of my dear friend from senator from miku For giving me the advice that instructed me very early That this is not the television where he's interviewing me But this is constructive criticism and constructive debate And I don't want to take this opportunity to Take his advice and to tell him that I will engage him in constructive debate whenever That time do come I also want to thank the independent senators For the warm words of advice and welcome her and to my colleague on this government side Thank you very much for welcoming me and thank you very much for All of your support and your words of advice Mr. President I want to take this opportunity as well to lend my voice to Send out sympathies to the people who have been affected throughout the caribbean and also throughout texas during hurricane harvey and hurricane urma I know that we have a number of st. Lucia's Living in texas and i'm aware of their plight and of the sufferings that they're going for My encouragement is to them Um to be strong and I also support them in this regard For our caribbean neighbors barbuda tuxan kekos The us virgin islands the bvi especially tortola We also on national television And on facebook and all other social media The level of devastation that occurred in this country And I am thankful that our honorable prime minister And the people of st. Lucia have seated feet to come forward and to lend support To the people of those countries up north We must always be our brothers keeper and we've had cases Especially during hurricane allen hurricane thomas tropical storm debbie and orders the christmas in trough where we saw our neighbors countries like St. Vincent Antigua and orders come into our support and to our rescue I believe that we must collectively support our neighbors And as much as we support our neighbors we stay united and strong as one people and so I want to Thank the prime minister and the people of st. Lucia and all those who are contributing to the relief and support effort to the hurricane ravish areas Mr. President I rise in support of this motion Motion for the youth empowerment program For the government of st. Lucia to borrow 2.8 million u.s. Dollars To be invested in the young people of this country Mr. President an investment in the young people of this country is an investment in the future of our nation Without an investment in the young people. We are certainly Dome to fail in terms of the future development of our country And so we've seen what this government has been doing Throughout the tenure in office so far. We have realized that this government Has been investing and I again proposing a greater form of investment in the youth Over the last few years mr. President. We have seen a rise in unemployment in this country And we have also seen a rise in crime in this country I believe that there is a direct correlation between unemployment and crime And so we have seen this government to date Investing in reducing the unemployment in this country We have seen the numbers of unemployment go down And as a result, I believe in the future. We will certainly see the level of crime going down in this country An investment of 2.8 million dollars in the young people will help to increase Or to actually expedite the process of development of our youth It will also help to reduce that level of unemployment It will also help to reduce the level of crime and also help eventually to reduce our prison population Mr president There are many ways in which we in the past have failed our youth And we need to be able to take the necessary corrective measures In addressing those problems to dealing with the youth crisis and youth unemployment in this country And so I remember hearing my honorable friend senator for miku Indicating that it appears that the government is moving away from the national skills development center and investing into private Prize and investing into private development for developing youth programs I must disagree with him I believe that the government of this country remain committed to the national skills development program But I also believe that the government of this country is encouraging The private sector to get involved in the development of our youth by providing the necessary funding initially And by providing the necessary incentives to ensure we have a holistic approach This cannot be an only a government thing This has to be a government a private sector and a national effort to be able to assist our young people In coming to the development level that is required in this country And this is what we are doing. Mr president This is what we are doing This project is a pilot project Care at the constituency of castry central I heard the leader of opposition The opposition business indicated that he would love to see coolie town involving this project I have a business right next to coolie town, mr President and I employ some of the young people in coolie town like him I know of the plight of the people in coolie town And I do support his suggestion that one day coolie town should be implemented in a project like this But I must tell him that this is just a pilot project And I believe that with the success of this pilot project That the government and people of st. Lucia will see this project spread throughout the entire 17 constituencies in this country I believe that 9 million dollars or 8 million is $2.8 plus the grand fund of 800 thousand us dollars is not sufficient And this is what the government realized That is why we have made it a pilot project designed specifically to a specific geographic location of st. Lucia Thereby increasing the intensity and the effectiveness of that project to that particular jurisdiction And based therefore on the success of this project We will see the implementation And the widening of this project to the entire consequences I remain confident mr. Speaker that this mr. President sorry that this project Will be successful And in addition to this project I believe like my honorable senator independent senator oj suggested and said we need to look at our education system And we need to look at the development of our people from their education We need to train our people from the time they grow And if I may use the analogy When you have a child that is born the parents of this child Would grow this child would take this child fit this child through the toddler stage this child would therefore start to Walk etc provide all the necessary support and when that child becomes of adult age That particular child would be required to go out and to become independent Likewise mr. President I believe that we need to have our people in this country our young people in this country Develop in that same format that we provide them with the necessary nurturing and the necessary support That we need to guide them along So then when they reach that age of independence They will be developed into proper citizens of this country And so I believe that our education system needs to be Augmented and added to be able to provide that necessary support I believe that there must be a direct correlation Between education and sports and i'm sure my colleague said it on the other side. We'll be happy to hear that We must have that direct correlation between education and sports There in my mind lies nothing better than sports to be able to get a young man or a young woman confident in themselves Being able to develop themselves being able to take the initiatives of their own when you put a young man on a football field He knows that he's a team player if he does not perform his duties adequately and properly his team would fail His effort is not a single effort But it is a team effort, but the role that he's performing remains very significant to the success of the team And that gives him the confidence Mr president I am a businessman today and I did not become a businessman by chance I became a business person by a process of development And if I had to live my life again my life in the beginning was a very tough one a very rough one But it created me with that opportunity to be able to succeed by having a focus goal I did not have this focus goal just by myself But I had the support of people like my grandparents and my parents who created that kind of a channel for me I believe we need to provide our young people with the same support mechanism to be able to move forward and to move forward Successfully and so I believe that our education system despite it is great and it is good etc But I believe it is too much bent on having training our young people to going out there and to look forward for our job Or an employment from some person and this is why I believe national skills development center and all the other Encouragements and all the other private entities that the government is encouraging to provide that technical and vocational Assistance to our young people is what we require in this country to be able to develop our young persons And so I believe mr. President That our young people in this country will grow that degree of confidence Once we start to invest into them in this manner we start to provide the mechanism We suppose we provide the facilities we provide programs like this yet pilot project For us to be able to move forward and develop our people in this country And I'm looking for the day mr. President that our young people especially with the technical skills A technical area is one we have Develop in some of our schools, but I think we need to develop it in more of our institutions And to ensure that those persons we provide them we develop them not only for the academics And not only for them to go out there and seek employment from somewhere else But we need to be able to develop them in a manner where they would have the confidence To be able to go out there on their own and to venture and take the necessary risk Without risk mr. President there is no success And I believe we need to create the confidence in our people so that they could develop themselves Create that form of risk and be able to see no success And so mr. President in concluding I would like to say thank you again to all the senators there who supported me Thank you to the government. Thank you to you mr. President I support this bill in its totality this motion And I would like to see the proper development of a youth structure in st. Lucia. I thank you Head of government business What is Mr. Mr. President i'm just i just beg to move the suspension of the sitting For lunch for one hour Senators the question is that the Senate be suspended For the next hour And I'll put a question as many as are of that opinion c i As many as are of a country opinion, you know I think the eyes of it the eyes of it Well, this takes us to the end of the first half of today's sitting Which has been brought live via the national television network and the government of st. Lucia Facebook page and portal at the start of today's sitting We witness the newly appointed senator timothy mangal taking his oath of allegiance senator mangal was Sworn in by governor general excellency d put it easy on september 13th The senate president senator and daniel and other Senators welcome the senator timothy mangal Also, we saw the leader of government of business and minister in the ministry of finance senator honorable dr. Ubaldas reman Tabling of motions taking parliamentary approval for the government to borrow us two million eight hundred and sixty thousand dollars From the cdb's special fund resources to finance the youth empowerment project This motion formed the basis for most of today's contributions and presentations Now this project consists of several components and generally seeks to provide Some form of intervention and assistance to many school dropouts This motion was unanimously supported by all of the senators who have contributed thus far But with some of them expressing some concerns About the program To senator dr. Kim henry Thought that part of the program might be duplicating already exist in Intervention intervention sorry for for the youth Well, as we just heard from the senate president The senate will resume in one hour time, which is about 20 past two So be sure to join the gis when we resume live broadcast of the senate Senators when when the house last rule the question is that parliament Offerizes the minister for finance to borrow us two point eight six million dollars from the Caribbean development bank special fund resources sf r to finance the youth empowerment project And be it for the resolve that a the interest is payable at a rate of 2.5 percent Put an arm on the amount of the loan withdrawn and outstanding and be the loan is repeable in footy two equal Approximately equal and consecutive quarterly Installments on each due date of the first day of january the first day of april The first day of july the first day of october commencing on the first due date Immediately following the expiration of four years after the date of the loan agreement Or on the later date later due date that the Caribbean development bank specifies in writing Senator gideon Rise in support of the bill Referring to providing Support for young persons of st. Lucia. I also want to share my voice With other senators with reference to Offering support for the Islands that were you are sitting during the storm Or the various hurricanes Of the past few days I also want to welcome comrade Mangal amongst us And we are hoping that together We are going to share Whether you on the other side, but we're going to share In matters of interest As it pertains to whatever that comes before us for debate in the house mr president I want to say that young persons I share the interest I share the concern And anything that would Come into this house To support And to help them Growing and developing themselves to be Accountable citizens in st. Lucia I would support And so I give my support to the bill or to the motion I first want to say that While we speak about Young persons the youth There are lots of things that we need to consider As we make preparation For them With this project Our young persons have been Sivali Humphred In st. Lucia. I must say In the last year and the four months With all the dismissals and the various from the various Projects On island All various Work environments that were created by the last administration We saw that The young persons in particular Who spearheaded These projects were Dismissed And So they were placed on the bread line And of course we know that unemployment and Whatever activities that they get themselves involved in Go hand in hand if you are unemployed And you are frustrated you need money You need to eat You are going to do things That Would lead to you getting your food And you getting your 10 cents or your 5 cents placed in your pocket You see if The programs that were There before were left in place And were monitored I think that these young persons or The incidences of crime Could have been lower in our country I'm convinced of that But Idle minds are the devil's workshop And if you have a mind that is idle If nothing serious To contemplate to think about Therefore it is necessary that the first thing that comes to your mind that You will tend to go into it Okay, you pass you realize this man has His sack of potatoes You decide you know what I need a few potatoes I don't have money But the only thing I can do At the moment is to try to get myself a few And I'm going to help myself to a few and suffer the consequences Or if it comes for me to retaliate at the end I will retaliate and whatever happens Let me face The consequences Mr president In saying this I want to First look at the Tools if you want to put it like this That our young persons are going to Be utilizing in some instances Within this project I'm sure that they are going to be utilizing the playing areas And um of late we've realized that Even this morning on radio You had and television you had this whole cry About the conditions of our playing areas And these are the areas that I think would be used By our young persons if they're engaged in the program If they're placed in the program Playing areas would be part of The equipment for this um for the program and so I am hoping that these areas would be taken care of Put them in a pristine condition for our young persons to be able to utilize and then to Create and demonstrate what they have so that persons can see and if possible if possible that coaches Scouts from outside of our Little island would see them visualize see them and who knows take them off Allow them to Continue their trade in another territory young persons are special. We are special and What has been done here is a good thing Providing That it is done in the right way There is always the right way of doing things. We just don't sit Come together we plan And then when we when it comes to our execution It goes wrong We miss something very important an important point is missed And so we have our young persons again Right there with this program feeling misused feeling that you know What is prepared for them is not exactly what They were looking for or forward to and so they stray away Young persons. We know they are very very very sensitive and so In Preparing for them. I want us to be sure that whatever that we are laying there Would be able to attract our young persons We want The programs We want the activities Whatever that is going to be placed in this program within the program Would be able to create this Awareness to encourage young persons to come into the program and then Develop and produce Well enough that our persons would at the end be able to care about it crime and the young persons seem to be of Tremendous concern to st. Lucia and We are fortunate we have with us our minister of security And i'm sure his head Is not at peace every day. He has to think every day. He has to meditate And come up with the possible solutions For our young persons and so I want us to understand very clearly that This program must be well thought of It must be well planned and when it is in motion that persons Are not isolated from it And others taken but it will be open for everybody within The constituency within the area within the where it is going to be lunch and then allow everyone possible to be brought into this program and of course Whatever that has to be done will be done. So we do not want anything where persons will be marked out You know and you said to this person, you know what you are too Involved you're too much of a hardcore person, you know stay out and let this person come in and whatever But we open it to everyone and allow everybody to have a fair and free rule to accept it is important that Someone said it earlier that the persons would be Literally coordinating the program The coordinators of the program Would be persons that the young people The young people that are targeted will feel Comfortable being around You know, they have to feel comfortable with these persons. You see if You are undergoing a problem. There's a problem that you you figure out you have a problem You will not easily open up to someone you don't feel confident You don't feel all right with to speak about it and then to get the possible solutions to your problem You understand so we need to allow these young persons To get around persons that I'm not going to say they are confident About but persons that they feel okay. They feel open. They feel comfortable in sharing their experiences And then to receive the possible solutions to their experiences and then put it into practice put the practical Terms into into into use so that they at the end would be able to change Because I would love to see the day where St. Lucia walking in St Lucia that everybody would be singing from one tune This one would say i'm comfortable. I'm all right with it. I can live with that. I can stay a little Forbid But we have to find persons who are experienced persons who are devoted persons who are concerned about What affects young persons in st. Lucia? Not anybody and everybody you know not because I'm walking the streets You don't okay you I want you to head this program and then in heading the program the turnout is zero because persons Have no confidence in new persons are not You know, they don't feel comfortable around you We need to find persons where these young persons would be friend And understand and learn from them and take from them and then follow up I also want to say that The stakeholders must come and come in strong the stakeholders must come in and play the necessary role that they have to play as senator Mauricio said early on We need the stakeholders everybody who is involved to be involved and be involved seriously We do not want Government and then we have important persons like maybe the the private sector they are Shed it off We want everybody to be involved and everyone when you get on board they would put their hands in Strongly do whatever they have to do to make sure that this program succeeds The program must succeed. We cannot allow this program to be implemented at nine million dollars and fail We cannot allow that we need the program to succeed And therefore i'm hoping that careful consideration was taken in identifying If it has been done in identifying key persons Key stakeholders and involve them involve them seriously For this program to succeed Okay, um our Country at the end Will benefit The young persons at the end will benefit Because I think if everybody put The best foot forward If everyone sits Reason look at the pros and cons Sit and bring up the possible solutions and then share it with those Involved I think it will succeed I also want to say that the whole aspect of of The youth empowerment project The aim is to empower young persons give young persons an opportunity to shine give them an opportunity to be in the spotlight And one of the things that I've realized that we do not do And that is to really get proper adequate Rule models we talk about there in sami. Yes, we have there in sami. But how much do we use him? How often do we use him? you know How often do we go to him speak with him? Organize and then tell him, you know what? Okay, you speak to these young persons about cricket train them And then let us see where it's going to go You know, we have all the young persons with all the zest with all the zeal all the ambition They come without our input. They come and they try They try and they succeed they continue along the path They continue along the path and For us in st. Lucia They don't exist. We allow other countries to Really open up and share these persons And then only after Then we have persons coming on the on the on the local level talking about. Okay. Here's darin sami He has been the captain of western district team He is the only captain to have won the cricket world cup and also the t20 and so on and This gentleman needs to be put out there and let st. Lucia's let those persons who were Who aspire spotting me? You know who wants to have this spotting strength to say, you know what? Okay, let me try sami Okay, if i'm not playing cricket i'm playing football, but let me use the same Kind of courage that he had let me use the same kind of ambition that he had In my football game so that I could produce you know, but These persons we don't get them You know, we don't get them with easily You're placed on the side allowed to go on the way and so on and once in a while or when it hits us Then we decide, you know what? But we have sami. Let's use him You know, we we have um lovin spencer. Let's use her You know, let's let's try to get that in in a quote, you know in a in a training session Let us let us have us speak to these individuals speak to these young persons Direct these young persons tell them that with patience They can achieve they can do this they can do that But you just have to be patient your time will come when you will be given the opportunity to shine you know and In saying this we have this young 12 or 13 year old who attends school in in in jamaica and um, I mean Nothing short of of of glorification Could be spoken of her She was able to work her way through And here she attained She won the gold medal at the carifter games and this is a proper spot in model for st. Lucia In the commonwealth. Sorry the commonwealth games. This is a proper spot in model for st. Lucia and These are the persons that Whenever she's available St. Lucia should be using To target other young persons her age her age group To get them to understand that yes, there is hard work, but with the hard work one day you will receive You will receive something good will come of it and so I believe we have to begin targeting Our young persons in st. Lucia persons who have Sean persons who have shown persons who have done something remarkably well To put them in the spotlight you use these persons and you make other persons Learn from them or copy from them And when these things happen when we begin to happen when things like that begin on a small scale small small It will sooner or later St. Lucia and I would be This country where or this little island where persons are just going to you know what let's follow her And you will make it we don't have to organize or have special keep targeted programs You know we speak to each other you speak to this Young person have this person speak to her or him and then from there we can move on Is it so it takes the beginning? Let us have the program. Yes Let us have it well organized well targeted well instituted for the young persons whether it is In Cassie central it is been off loading Whether it is in denry wherever but let us make sure when we put it out it is done Effectively it achieves its goal. Then we can look back and say you know what? Here's what we did This is what we did it worked. Let us continue it. Let us spiral it in denry Let us spiral it in and still we let us spiral it in in in in in back So let us spiral it somewhere else where it is going to Hope to achieve is the very same goal that they did in Cassie central So i'm very much excited. I'm very much thrilled with this youth empowerment project I want us to understand that It is just just about mouth It's not about just coming and talk about it Or we start it off and we leave it on its own Make sure we have good Follow-up activities make sure that there is an evaluation There must be evaluation At some point if it is every three months if it's every four months every six months We must come in and evaluate the project See what it has achieved see whether or not it's achieving its intended goal Whatever we we we put it there for make sure it is achieving that and let us not just You know we're doing this we're trying it. So let it just run And it runs off it burns out and nothing comes out of it And then we have more problems on our hand So I think that the program is a brilliant one Anything for young persons in St Lucia? I am for it I am not young as I may look I'm not young as I may look but I participate I want to be involved in everything that concerns young persons So don't think me standing there in physical form that I am That young Yeah, don't think I am I am just a very energetic Person love Young things youthful things things that involves young persons things that bring young persons to understand That they can play an instrumental role in the development of the country And I coming from the teaching profession I will still be a teacher Doesn't matter wherever I go I'm single to be a teacher Sports person very much involved in sports and that is why I love the program Because it deals in the area that I think St Lucia lacks the most In sports we have lots of sporting talent But we just lack persons to tap onto it and make it work for us And if we can get that and if we can do that and we do it effectively maybe Mr our former my former or my colleague next time We'll have Maybe more time to relax You know and not be running everywhere trying his best to sort out ways and means of getting Persons of the streets, you know persons we we we've Characters that are that are not accepted in society, you know So we need to engage our young persons and I not want us to say that it is You know it's just for a time, but let it be continuous continually Let us continually engage if this one doesn't work to our satisfaction Let us immediately Look for another one and put it in place, but make sure that we attend to our young persons in St Lucia We cannot allow our young persons to stay Idol to stay single-handedly thinking of what should I do and um My dear I'm calling Adrian was giving us a little um Situation that involved him in in in the um In the lunch room and he was telling us that this young person at that um school you know he went there And he had to be calling on them by name. He called on this one by name and said certain things to him That had him to understand. Yes This is what I have to do. This is what I must do. This is how it is. This is how it goes We have to fall in line in order for successes to occur You know, so on our own we can begin doing it. We can do it on our own But it is even more important when government is involved When government is involved it shows young persons that government is interested in you Government wants to understand you and government wants to work with you And when that happens we know for sure that Young persons on the road can say, you know what? This is a government that seem to be serious about us This is a government that really wants to look for us and after us And then if we collaborate and if we work with them then everything is going to be okay So I want to give my full support for the borrowing Just make sure that the borrowing is utilized To what it is borrowed for You know, make sure it is used for what it is borrowed for Don't borrow ten cents and use five cents over there and then put five cents in it Make sure the entire ten cents is used there And it is used it is utilized Whoever the managers are whoever the the coordinators are whoever Those persons involved in the distribution of the monies are it is distributed Appropriately distributed correctly and so then at the end of it all Then we can sit down and evaluate the value of our nine thousand nine million dollars So I want to give my full support for borrowing And I'm sure if this is rolled out Effectively that the young persons in St. Lucia Who would jump at it? They would jump and they would put the best foot forward to do what it is intended to do for them And at the end our country is going to be a better one Our country is going to be safer We can sit we can relax and then we know for sure that our young persons are not Crime driven but rather they are Ambition driven to achieve whatever they have to achieve in life. Thank you, mrs Senator Mary Isa Good afternoon, mr. President fellow senators staff of the senate media Houses that are there with us Invited guests and other guests Good afternoon I too want to lend my voice to Others who have gone before me in lamenting the passage of hurricane Omer and the destruction that it has caused On our fellow Caribbean people will lament And pray for them I wish to welcome our fellow senator mongal And I know that he for sure is going to bring Um, he's going to add to the positive debate that goes on in the upper house So I welcome you senator I rise in support Of this motion mr. President And to say that as we speak We have a little five or six year old boy at the victoria hospital Who was knocked down by a vehicle on tuesday of this week? He is in intensive care and he's fighting for his life So like my colleague on the other side said This ought not to be just talk We have to walk the walk We have to be very very careful, especially during the The time when we have children in school We the adults on the road We have to be careful when we are driving We have to look out for those little children who may decide to cross the road at any given time So I am calling on everybody that can hear me every driver To please be careful on our roads We know that our roads have much to be desired A lot of them are narrow We have lots of potholes And we are always in a hurry to get some way I do not know why on a small island like this People have to be driving in such a hurry Sometimes I wonder where they are going 238 swear miles It's no wonder more of us don't end up in the sea Because we are so busy Driving fast and killing people So while we talk about the youth mr president We must understand that we have the first responsibility as adults To take care of these young people To be more tolerant of them because they are going through real trying times We have to be Their guardians So we must not just give it lip service We must be our brother's keeper And I think we have heard it all here today And we had more more than an air full on tuesday of this week So I am not going to go through How important it is For us to have initiatives like this Like what this motion speaks to I want to say mr president that sometimes we too have to watch our language And I'm always lamenting that We said prisoners are people too Maybe we need to drop the two prisoners are people When we add two Then it's like an afterthought So let us see them as people Because they are people Although some people think that since they don't have the right to vote They should be disregarded But then since we build such a beautiful prison for them We should at least be able to acknowledge their presence without demeaning them So let us please remember All human beings are people And I know I heard it on both sides. So I'm not just Chastising anyone here. I'm just saying let's watch the language Mr president There is so much I can say about This resolution It is really just a spark of hope Because it's a pilot project However, it is really a ray of sunshine for young people Because like the principal explained to us We feel the pain of these young people when you have to send them home And some of them the homes that you are sending them to barely exist For some of them the school environment Is the most positive environment that they get exposed to on any given day And I can just feel the pain when a principal has to send these children home on detention suspension and all of that So We in here we understand the significance Of the borrowing that must be done for this project But mr president I need to clarify A few anxieties that I am feeling Some undercurrents from The issue of the prisoners From the virgin islands, I believe From the british virgin island teams I do not know that this is a decision that we consciously took To bring prisoners to st. Lucia We were asked By the british government To take in just free prisoners so far We would of course welcome If they asked us to take students Or anybody else for that matter But this is what we have been asked And given our meg resources We are not going to put ourselves out there and say Send us other people or students or whatever When we are asked to assist We will assist because we believe that The uk Assist us Quite a lot And it is just we are just Reciprocating as little as we can So it is not A decision to say We decided to take one set of people against another And of course like I said It's people We also looked at our that may also have come out as Because of our proximity To the virgin islands as opposed to the uk So again and we see these people as our own caribbean people And therefore we have acceded to that request Young people I heard Maybe We are taking it out of context because I did not hear The commissioner make that statement myself But in this honorable house, mr. President I heard mentioned that it was said Young people have no love I want to say That as adults We must remember that The same way we impact knowledge We also have to impact love And if we are able to impact that love To our children From the time they are born from both or maybe sometimes even before both Because we know about all the abuse that is going on in our society We know about incest that is a form of abuse We know of child molestation These are forms of abuse Beating women That is One of the worst forms of abuse Because when a person beats a woman That same person who's the beating doing the beating has a mother That person has sisters That person will have daughters of their own most likely someday And that person ought to remember That this woman I am beating her today May well The same thing that I am doing to her may well happen to these other family members that I have mentioned And when you do that to a woman remember the woman is the childbearing person That is where We have to start looking at where the love is going to come from Where is that love coming from if the child if that love was never imparted to that child Where is it going to come from if all that child know Is hate if that child was conceived out of rape Out of an abusive father How can that child in love anyone You cannot give What you don't have or what you you don't know or what you've never been exposed to So we have to go back When we hear people say That young people do not have love It really really has to cause you to think Why is that we are talking about young people Young people who came out of the same society With our carnival queen Same society with Lavonne Spencer Same society with all these other youths that are performing at such high standards today These are the same we are talking about people who are coming out of that same society We are talking about people who are coming out of a society that produce two Nobel laureates That is almost unheard of So how come now we are saying They have no love We have to remember to impart that love So that it can translate Into young people who know what love is about We need our young people to have respect for self To respect society to respect us But how many of us here Know of young people that are being abused We know of young people who do not even have a proper home How can these people be expected to show any kind of respect? I am not saying that it's justified, but I'm saying when you think of these situations I pray and I beg you to be tolerant of our young people Because they are coming from such diverse backgrounds I know that some of us cannot understand that because our own environment is so protected and so loving But you just have to speak to the people who are fostering children To the people who are in the administrative part Of foster care in St. Lucia and they will tell you of the many atrocities That they come across that's happening to young people So this Motion Like I said, it is just a little spark And I know that we have been encouraged to continue the effort to bring about more youth programs Now I have heard mr president also The talk about We started this project This project that you are talking about This motion that you have brought here today the monies The borrowing it started and the the former administration I want to make it clear That this is not about One person starting something one administration starting something and the other administration coming and getting rid of it If it is something good that you start we must continue it And when we start good things If we happen to get out you have to continue it Okay Nothing is permanent in this life so I am saying these programs They are for the country They are for st. Lucia and for st. Lucia's And regardless of when or how they started What is important Is for us to bring these programs to life So that our people can benefit from these programs That is what is important Governments are not elected to sit in office and do nothing You come into office And you are mandated To put structures in place To put systems in place So that the country can prosper So that the people can develop And this is what we are here to do It is not a favor that the people ask of us politicians It is a requirement that is mandated of us and we must comply In terms of putting the necessary infrastructure The necessary programs the necessary legislation and so on and so on in place So that life can be better for everybody and that we can progress and grow Mr. President, I also heard about the Miku the school in Miku And again, I'm saying this this is not a reproach But when we allow things to deteriorate to the point where They become uninhabitable That begs the question When did it start? Where was I throughout all of this? And where is my place in all of this? It cannot be that that school just fell apart this this month It has to be that the deterioration led to the school falling apart So let us not play the blame game Let us take responsibility Both sides For what has happened and let us correct it and move on The pointing fingers Is not productive It is just Causing those same young people that we are trying to protect and put in programs in place to look at us like a bunch of idiots So let us Take responsibility and move on Mr. President I want to assure you that the two programs That was spoken of this morning The grozily secondary school and I think it's dug up There was consultation, Mr. President So much so that The grozily secondary school is oversubscribed Because so many parents are transferring their students to that school because they want their children to go and experience that program That is the amount of consultation And knowledge that is out there. So in spite of the fact that some of us may not be aware There was consultation. I will not stand and tell you everybody Every stakeholder was consulted, but there was consultation Mr. President now This is not going to be said in jest But I believe that This is something that we must pay attention to I heard here that The former administration put in place a very nice prison I heard that It is It was it was You know It was so necessary But We are looking at a program for youth And I'm saying to myself we are talking about prison and crime the youth And that seemed to go hand in hand these days when you speak about the youth then people talk about crime And our fellow senator here mentioned that it is not always gloom and doom. We must not always preach gloom and doom And then we hear of this nice prison That the former administration can boast of But I'm saying to myself was that the foresight for the young people? Was that the dream For our young people? So if that was the expectation Maybe they are living up to that expectation It just causes you to think It doesn't matter really who who put it there The fact that you can think of a state-of-the-art prison and so on so forth. Why? Why not state-of-the-art schools? Why not state-of-the-art sporting facilities for young people? Why not state-of-the-art State-of-the-art a state-of-the-art prison just like a state-of-the-art hospital. Yes health care State-of-the-art prison and I'm saying to myself why why why why not Use that same thinking When you are looking at programs for young people Sporting events sporting activities facilities for young people Facilities for young people Look at where it is. George Adam Stadium. Where are the the mass of the the young people? Where are most of the schools? But George Adam Stadium was built in view fort and For what? So mr. President i'm saying If that was the expectation if that is the legacy Then maybe that's why the young people are living up to that legacy So mr. President i'm not going to belabor the fact that you know This is a very good program And it really gave me a lot of satisfaction today to be in this house to actually witness That every single senator in here Is in agreement with this motion I started feeling very fuzzy in my stomach When my fellow senator there last spoke Because it's almost as though Maybe it's time to invite him to the other side because he spoke so nicely and so you know There was there was no innuendo. No So this is the sort of thing mr. President that really makes me proud To be in the upper house When I see that we are getting along that way we are able to you know It's almost like we are having a discussion and we are agreeing to agree with each other So mr. President I want to end by saying Muesa sently see And I know i'm not saying Muesa sently see because that is different When I say Muesa sently see I am saying I am a St. Lucian When I say Muesa sently see Which is a reflection of our theme this year. I am saying I am St. Lucia So everything St. Lucia is mine So I am ending here today by saying Muesa sently see If you say Pousa Muesa sently see This can Muesa sently see Thank you Leader of government business Senator please ensure that you're collected Mr. President I I am very delighted that I received universal acceptance For the resolution That I presented to the house this morning It's very encouraging However, there are a few Responses that I must give Based on the contributions of members opposite First of all, I want to make it clear mr. President that The resolution the motion speaks of Of a 3.6 million us dollars of which 2.8 Loans and the remaining are actually grants But the total cost of the project according to the budget book is actually 11.9 million dollars So the loan that we are We have Agreed to with the development bank is 2.8 us dollars To 8 million 2.8 million us dollars plus the grant of 800 3.6 which makes about 9 million but a total cost of the The um The project is 11.9 million dollars I heard where's the rest Remember, this is a three-year project That's a lifespan of the capital project This year we have allocated 3.3 million dollars and and we Actually have we have a bonds we have bonds of 702 thousand dollars Going towards this expenditure so and also The need to have some clarification reference to Senator Henry Who said that this is an ongoing program Now While I am not doubting that what he's saying is correct But when I look at the budget book On page 493 The column which actually states that there is an estimated cumulative expenditure of March 31st March 31st 2017 in in other words the Fiscal year that just ended There wasn't any balance or there was not any accumulated Expenditure which means that there was not any previous expenditure on this particular budget or item so One will have to conclude that this is a new pilot project It may have one. It may have had one that was similar to it But as far as this project is concerned, it's a new pilot project Based on the information that is presented in the budget book So as I said earlier, Mr. President that we will be spending 3.3 million dollars this year and there's a balance of 8.7 million dollars At the end of this fiscal year Of course, there are 36 months To undertake this particular project and as Senator Mary as I said, Mr. President that This administration we intend to Continue whatever we see that's good in spite of Who started the project we will continue what we feel that is good and It doesn't mean that we have to continue in the manner in which we received it and this reminds me Mr. President that Of the debate last last last evening it was or Tuesday evening um On the c.i.p. You know we inherited a c.i.p We believe that the c.i.p. Is necessary at this juncture But the form and the structure in which that we received The c.i.p. We believe that it needed to be changed and that's exactly what we did we did so we are for Keeping what is good And throwing out what is not what is not good And we do all of this mr. President to the benefits Of all the St. Lucian's the senator Henry also He asked some very pertinent questions, and I I wish I had answers to his questions Mr. President, but I believe that the answers Or the questions that he raised the answers to these questions would be better um be answered by A program details because we don't have the program before us We just came here and presented what the program is but not the program itself not the details of the program I mean he raised very very important questions You know, and I believe that I'm hoping that the program details would be able to answer these questions But he also said mr. President um that That the uk should actually uk Given that they have 150 prisons They should have actually asked these prisoners to go to be fitted Into one of those um prisons I I don't I don't I don't I don't support that. I believe that um because of proximity close proximity It is it is more What I would say It's it's better. It's it's a better. It's a better way of doing it logistically. It's better And of course we have to show that we are very We we have a big heart We have a compassionate heart So we have to look after our brothers and sisters now The statement about love in the hearts of the young people Mr. President I I do not support the The notion that there is no love in the hearts of young people Mr. President I meet with them almost on a daily basis And when you sit and you talk to these young people You will truly understand that They have love Some of these young people Unfortunately, sometimes they have just They will just happen to grow up in in the wrong household The parents themselves may have had some social anti social behaviors and problems And therefore mr. President we need to stop blaming our young people Although sometimes mr. President That you may take them to the water Sometimes and they will not want to drink And sometimes you have some young people you may want to clothe them But they will take off the clothes and they would and do whatever they want to do with it But generally speaking the young people Mr. President for the 6b point of elucidation On the on the matter that I quoted there The commission of police. I I think the commission of police was The statement said the young people he was referring to the specific a specific crime incident and Mr. Commissioner muster is And I quote what was written the young people really need help it clearly shows That they have no love and he was referring to this specific incident So it was not a general it was not generalized that young people do not have love But he was referring to a specific crime incident with a specific group of young persons So I I just thought I should elucidate. I certainly in agreement that Most of us who have Young people and we see our young people around the place can certainly see that our young people do have love and they Demonstrated that in a number of instances However, we cannot help when we cite certain criminal elements and some of the things that we go through The commissioner was describing a particular incident and I just thought I should elucidate them. Thank you They don't comment business But mr. President I will still say that I agree with you that the young people sometimes especially the young men If we take time and we sit down and we talk to them And just be a shoulder where they we can they can lean on Give a give an air to them Mr. President you can make a difference in their lives and sometimes we depend on programs like yep But most times the biggest empowerment that they can receive is us the people I mean it reminds me yesterday morning. I was Washing my vehicle early morning And there was a gentleman I haven't I had not seen for a while and And he passed passed me and he said a boss man and He just moved straight ahead But I call him by name I call him by name And just by calling him by name he stood and he turned back and started talking to me about a situation I will not say what it is But I had to say to him, please don't go down the direction. In fact, it was a frustrated young man first treated with the system I took about 10 to 15 minutes talking to him And finally was he was convinced that he should move in a different direction Now it wasn't a yep It wasn't a yep that empowered him It was just 10 15 minutes of my time And I'm sure that most of us can do this Not just in this house here, but people outside Be a mentor be support be a support to the young people. They need us They need us I'm talking about that. Mr. President. I senator oge spoke of the The opportunities for tertiary education and inclusion The death the lack of the need for And I agree with him. I agree with him Mr. President, I agree with him because I I have seen What tertiary education have done or has done for a number of Young people who want at risk kids at risk youth because mr. President's eyes taught at four major united u.m. US universities all HBC use historically black colleges and universities alabama a and m Howard university Oko University and florida a and m university And I remember I'm talking about historically black colleges and universities These were men young men young boys Who? grew up in I would say quote-unquote unprivileged homes Communities that were ravaged by crime and antisocial behaviors Drugs and on and so on But there was a supportive or there were supportive mechanisms. There were interventions in this in these guys communities And they were able to come out of these communities And head to college head to universities And they start with me at school in my after-class before class and they gave me the stories The interventions that the the local communities the local jurisdictions Provided for them, but they were they had they were inspired Inspired and when you talk to them when you go on campus mr. President when you go on campus these campuses Most of these individuals and I did it myself. I kind of did my own survey I did it myself Most of these individuals They either want to become social workers You know why mr. President? because they believe that They were helped And now they want to help They want to give back They want to become psychologists Because they believe that if you understand the mind if you understand how the brain works You'll be able to help most of them Want to become not want to become but they will undertake Courses or programs in business management because as I said, I don't I don't ever want to become What I refer to as a a street pharmacist A street pharmacist in other words selling drugs on the streets So they want to own their own businesses I'm saying this to you mr. President because These young men and even young ladies they were able to Be inspired To something bigger Something higher because the opportunities were offered to them So I quite agree with senator oge that we need to focus On tertiary education in this country senator food and spoke about Our educational system And the moving away of the male gender away from teaching and I'm wondering if this has an effect on our boys I'm sure i'm just wondering My young i'm in my son nine year old fifth grade or tense dumplets And there is only one male teacher at that school And it happens to be his teacher And I have never seen a young man so excited this in the in the years he has been at at um at dumplets He's excited And I have a strong feeling That it has to do with the male teacher that he has I cannot say much about the college boys say mary's college. I have a young boy I have a 15 year old attend school there a class there. I know they prefer the The male or the male but the the female teachers especially they they are cute But seriously speaking mr. President I We need to look into this I don't know what can be done What has to be done to attract more male teachers in our school teachers I'm hearing incentives So that's something we need to look into Mr. President there was also mentioned that it appeared that we this government Is no longer Put an emphasis on nsdc. I disagree because there is no evidence to suggest That's the case There has not been any reduction in in in the budget the budgetary allocation for nsdc And I think he tied this with the fact that We have engaged or we are engaging the private sector in training our young people And there's a policy that government has to be doing all the training. I don't believe that I believe the private sector knows best in terms of what skills That are required in the job market So I don't buy that policy because you have ch8 chtti Training young training young minds that it is wrong I don't think The senator was correct on this on this one here Now I remember also mr. President that he made mention to a word that I was I was trying to pronounce to my wife and it was it wasn't Asking of what it was I knew what it was But it's just that I tried pronouncing it and it gave me some problems And I do have that problem off and on trying to pronounce certain words Okay, mr. President also May senator food and then also mentioned the fact that Some young people Could end up being very frustrated when they see and when they do all what has to be done on their part and Some political operative is implanted In the system making grid 19s and so on I think I have an idea who is referring to I think I have an idea because he said it is current But let me remind the president are the senator food and then That in 1997 98 A number of individuals Political operatives were inserted and parachuted in the public sector and these were people who were Who displaced the individuals who were supposed to have taken up these positions these pss positions frustrating these individuals And unfortunately mr. President The public sector has not been the same since then Now mr. President I turn my attention again to the senator Well, you have Henry to Henry's Okay. Yes, and it's a Henry When he spoke about laptops we took away laptops and laptops were supposed to empower young people I don't know about that I don't know about that And I have made my point very clear. I have made my my I have made it clear in the past of that The laptop program like other programs Should be one or need when I say need economic need Okay And there was a study done by in fact there was a study in fact the last census They had the what they call the the The computer penetration rate In other words the average the average Number of computers per household Okay and But if you go and you Into a more granular study And you look at the individuals the school kids And look to see which which individuals which households already have Access to a computer That's a starting point And those without I don't know how truthful they would be in terms of reporting then you provide them Even more so in terms of cost effectiveness, mr president I believe that if you're talking about computer literacy Then everyone should have access to it. And how do you do that mr president? It's for the schools If you have computer labs and you have classes that where kids have access to computer labs and believe me mr President I don't think access to internet Is a big issue It's almost universal I'm saying I'm not speaking in general terms. I'm not saying everybody has access But almost everybody in St. Lucia has access through the phones Smart phones and so on So I don't believe in the idea of laptop supposed to be given to young people for empowerment I don't buy that. I don't see the I don't see how that could be tied into such and mr president They also spoke of the fact that Might if they I'm referring to the opposite side spoke of the situation in Mikunov And my senator on this side in the Isaac She said that this is not a problem that just came on us overnight It has been a problem that has been accumulating over the years And we have to be very careful mr president when we talk about infrastructural projects A major factor a major component of the whole costing Of infrastructural development of programs is that of maintenance We always leave maintenance out, but maintenance is a cost It's a cost If you don't take care of the cost upfront Or as you move along The cost will be even higher At the end and this is exactly what we have seen us seeing At our schools at our hospitals, especially at our police stations and so on So that's a very very very important and we should not Blame on the current minister of education Because she actually found a deteriorating School or schools So mr president, I think I I have addressed Oh How can I ever miss this this one here the last Is the contribution made by Yes, sir point. Yes, mr president on a point of elicitation 36 Beak. I just wanted to Make sure that I was not misunderstood With regard to the situation at secondary school because both fellow senators have Made reference to the point of The situation not being new that is true. The point I was making was that it whatever is being done now Within you know from from the 4th of september currently which has caused students to be out of school could have been averted if the problem Had been addressed During the time that it was supposed to be addressed So my focus was not on whether The situation exists it has and that I have been a principal for the last 10 years at that school So I'm aware that this is not a new situation. My area of focus was that Children should not have been home at home now And that that matter should have been addressed because their protocols in place to address the matter and it should have been addressed between july and august and not After school reopened for the repairs to be done. So I have no difficulty in saying. Yes The problem did not begin with this government or even with the last government But my essential point just to make it clear is that the matter is being addressed At a point where it is causing Inconvenience and it could have been addressed the very same work that's been done now Could have been done between july and august Mr president I I think the member is Basically supporting what I'm saying is that I'm saying that if The schools were being maintained. We would not have had the current situation. That's all I'm saying the Other senator, um, I always forget his name. Sorry, uh gerum You know he spoke about the dismissed Workers step workers. I mean the president. I don't know how long and how many times I must say that in this house The government never dismissed anyone or the government didn't didn't dismiss anybody A contract came to an end And that's it And even if I was accused of being fired in my last job Which is far from the truth In fact, that's propaganda from the political, um platform A contract came to an end a contract came to an end And the government issues contract all the time and If the contract is not renewed, it doesn't mean that you will not you will fire If you were dismissed before the contract ended that means you were dismissed But if the contract comes to an end and they said no longer they Renewing your contract. You were not dismissed. You just didn't get a renewed contract. That's it so Step workers were not dismissed by this government. It was meant to be a short term Employment A short term is not For five years. In fact, when you look at the capital the capital expenditure in the budget book, it showed a three year capital projects for the for the step program, but the step was going on for almost five years okay and I've been hearing also mr president the The need for role models and so on and so on and I've heard the names that have been mentioned as role models okay and mr president sometimes We have to identify individuals in our sources in our society who the young people especially the individuals we are trying to target here can Can identify with Because sometimes The young minds the young people the young men the young women May see some individuals as individuals that they can never be like They're too far away They are perfect individuals But when you have individuals who have probably have had the same journey Or similar journeys that they have had or they are having But they were able to become successful people They were able to move beyond the barriers They were able to climb the stairs mr president The stairs of frustration and reached the heights of success These individuals are more prone To moving forward to move forward And there are lots of stories. There are lots of them around in our societies now society mr president Again, I'm very very excited Very excited about this program That the government will shortly implement And I'm even more excited that I received Universal support For its in the house today. Thank you Senators the question is that parliament authorizes the minister for finance to borrow us 2.86 million dollars from the Caribbean development banks special fund resources SFR to finance the youth empowerment project Bait for the resolve that a the interest is payable at a rate of 2.5 percent per annum on the amount of the loan withdrawn and outstanding And b the loan is repayable in 42 equal or approximately equal A consecutive quarterly installment on each due date of the first day of january The first day of april the first day of july The first day of october commencing on the first due date immediately following the expiration of four years after the date of the loan Agreement or on the later due date that the caribbean development bank specifies in writing I now put a question as many as are of that opinion. See I As many as are of a country opinion. See no I think the eyes of it the eyes of it Bills leader of government business Mr. President, I beg to move the first reading of a bill shortly. I title automatic exchange of financial account information amendment Automatic exchange of financial account information amendment honorable leader of government business Mr. President, I beg to move for the suspension of standing order number 49 to To allow the bill to go through its remaining stages at this sitting Honorable senators the question is that standing order 49 to be suspended In order to allow the honorable leader of government business to proceed with the remaining stages of this bill at this sitting And I'll put a question as many as are of that opinion. See I As many as are of a country opinion. See no I think the eyes of it the eyes of it proceed honorable Mr. President, I beg to move for the second I beg to move the second reading Of a bill shortly entitled automatic exchange of financial account information amendment Mr. President, we have brought this bill to this senate before and I must say to you mr. President that this bill Or the act rather mr. President Would be ever-changing It will be an ever-changing Act mr. President because this act is tied To The transparency standards set by the OECD for the for the global forum and as a member mr. President we will always have to keep in compliance With the various changes and requirements by the global forum and mr. President as I have said before this The automatic exchange of financial account information Is put together As a means to avoid or minimize tax evasion And other illicit activities Now there are various amendments that We are seeking through this bill mr. President and One of those amendments is that of section 4a Which stipulates that the act Shall prevail where there is any inconsistency between the act Or the convention of any other act Also mr. President the amendment to section 9 removes the need to go to gazette the addition of a country To the list of participating jurisdictions In the schedule based on the frequency with which the lists will be amended To add a new jurisdiction Mr. President to refuse to exchange with the participating jurisdiction Will affect st. Lucia's assessment To be conducted by the global forum on transparency An exchange of information for tax purposes of course, mr. President as The instrument shows that there are other adjustments other amendments to the act And as I said earlier These adjustments are just in response To st. Lucia's compliance With this international body And we don't ever ever want to be blacklisted We don't ever want to be heard or read about As a country that is not complying Because we understand The implications of the retaliation If we do not comply We already have over our next Around our next rather the issue with With um The risking so we turn our best to do what we can do on our side To ever to be ever compliant With the international treaties and agreements that we have Sign ourselves up to in times past So mr. President with these Brief notes I present this bill to the honorable house Honorable senators the question is that the automatic exchange of financial account information amendment bill be read a second time honorable senators The question is that the automatic exchange of financial account information amendment bill be read a second time I now put a question as many as of that opinion see I As many as of a country opinion see no I think the eyes of it the eyes of it An act to amend the automatic exchange of financial account information act number 22 of 2016 and for related martin It appeared that we this government Is no longer Put an emphasis on nsdc I disagree because there is no evidence to suggest That's the case There has not been any reduction in in in the budget budgetary allocation for nsdc And I think he tied this with the fact that We have engaged or we are engaging the private sector in training our young people And there's a fallacy that government has to be doing all the training. I don't believe that I believe the private sector knows best in terms of what skills That are required in the job market So I don't buy that policy because you have ch 8 ch tti training young training young minds have it is wrong I don't think The senator was correct on this on this one here Now I remember also mr. President that he made mentioned to a word that I was I was trying to pronounce to my wife and it was it wasn't Asking of what it was I knew what it was But it's just that I tried pronouncing it and it gave me some problems And I do have that problem off and on trying to pronounce certain words Okay, mr. President also, um May senator food and then also mentioned the fact that Some young people Could end up being very frustrated when they see and when they do all what has to be done on their part and Some political operative is implanted In the system and making grid 19s and so on I think I have an idea who is referring to I think I have an idea because he said it is current But let me remind the president are the Senator Ferdinand That in 1997 98 a number of individuals Political operatives were inserted and parachuted in the public sector and these were people who were Who displaced the individuals who were supposed to have taken up these positions these ps positions first treating these individuals And unfortunately, mr. President The public sector has not been the same since then Now mr. President I turn my attention again to the senator Well, you have Henry to Henry's Okay. Yes, senator Henry When he spoke about laptops we took away laptops and laptops were supposed to empower young people I don't know about that I don't know about that And I have made my point very clear. I have made my my I have made it clear in the past of that The laptop program like other programs Should be one on need when I say need economic need Okay And there was a study done by in fact there was a study in fact the last census They had the what they call the the The computer penetration rate In other words the average the average Number of computers per household Okay and But if you go and you Into a more granular study And you look at the individuals the school kids And look to see which which individuals which households already have Access to a computer To me that's a starting point and those without I don't know how truthful they would be in terms of reporting Then you provide them Even more so in terms of cost effectiveness mr. President I believe that if you're talking about computer literacy Then everyone should have access to it. And how do you do that mr. President? It's through the schools If you have computer labs and you have classes that where kids have access to computer labs and believe me mr. President I don't think access to internet Is a big issue. It's almost universal I'm saying I'm not speaking in general terms. I'm not saying everybody has access But almost everybody in st. Lucia has access through the phones Smartphones and so on So I don't believe in the idea of laptop supposed to be given to young people for empowerment I don't buy that. I don't see the I don't see how that could be tied into such and mr. President They also spoke of the fact that um might see they I'm referring to the opposite side spoke of the situation in Mikunov And my senator on this side in the isack She said that this is not a problem that just came on us overnight It has been a problem that has been accumulating over the years And we have to be very careful. Mr. President when we talk about infrastructural projects A major factor a major component of the whole costing Of infrastructural development or programs is that of maintenance We always leave maintenance out, but maintenance is a cost It's a cost if you don't take care of the cost up front Or as you move along The cost will be even higher At the end and this is exactly what we have seen us seeing At our schools at our hospitals, especially at our police stations and so on So that's a very very very important and we should not But blame on the current minister of education Because she actually found a deteriorating School of schools So mr. President, I think I I have addressed Oh How can I ever miss this this one here the last Is the contribution made by Yes, sir point Yes, mr. President on the point of elucidation 36 b. I just wanted to Make sure that I was not misunderstood With regard to the situation at secondary school because both Fellow senators have made reference to the point of The situation not being new that is true. The point I was making was that It whatever is being done now It within you know from from the 4th of september Currently which has caused students to be out of school could have been averted if the problem Had been addressed During the time that it was supposed to be addressed So my focus was not on whether The situation exists it has and that I have been a principal for the last 10 years at that school So I'm aware that this is not a new situation my area of focus was that Children should not have been home at home now And that that matter should have been addressed because there are protocols in place To address the matter and it should have been addressed between july and august and not After school reopened for the repairs to be done So I have no difficulty in saying yes The problem did not begin with this government or even with the last government But my essential point just to make it clear is that the matter is being addressed At a point where it is causing Inconvenience and it could have been addressed the very same work that's been done now Could have been done between july and august Mr president I I think the the member is Basically supporting what I'm saying is that I'm saying that if The schools were being maintained. We would not have had the current situation. That's all I'm saying the Other senator, um, I always forget his name. Sorry, uh, gerome You know he spoke about the dismissed Workers step workers Mr president, I don't know how long and how many times I must say that in this house The government never dismissed anyone or the government didn't didn't dismiss anybody A contract came to an end And that's it And even if I was accused of being fired in my last job Which is far from the truth In fact, that's propaganda from the political, um, platform A contract came to an end a contract came to an end And the government issues contract all the time and If the contract is not renewed, it doesn't mean that you will not you were fired If you were dismissed before the contract ended that means you were dismissed But if the contract comes to an end and they said no longer they Renew in your contract you were not dismissed You just didn't get a renewed contract. That's it so Step workers were not dismissed by this government. It was meant to be a short term Employment A short term is not For five years. In fact, when you look at the capital the capital expenditure in the budget book, it showed a three year capital projects for the for the step program, but the step was going up for almost five years okay and I've been hearing also mr president the The need for role models and so on and so on and I've heard the names that have been mentioned as role models Okay I mean the president sometimes We have to identify individuals in our sources in our society who the young people especially the individuals we are trying to target here can Can identify with Because sometimes The young minds the young people the young men the young women May see some individuals as individuals that they can never be like They're too far away They are perfect individuals But when you have individuals who have probably have had the same journey Or similar journeys that they have had or they are having But they were able to become successful people They were able to move beyond the barriers They were able to climb the stairs mr. President The stairs of frustration and reach the heights of success These individuals are more prone To moving forward to move forward And there are lots of stories. There are lots of them around in our societies now society Mr. President Again, I'm very very excited Very excited about this program That the government will shortly implement And I'm even more excited that I received Universal support For its in the house today. Thank you Senators the question is that parliament authorizes the minister for finance to borrow US 2.86 million dollars from the Caribbean development banks special fund resources SFR to finance the youth empowerment project Bait for the resolved that a the interest is payable at a rate of 2.5 percent per annum On the amount of the loan withdrawn and outstanding and b the loan is repayable in 42 equal or approximately equal A consecutive quarterly installment on each due date of the first day of january The first day of april the first day of july The first day of october commencing on the first due date immediately following the expiration of four years after the date of the loan Agreement or on the later due date that the Caribbean development bank specifies in writing I now put the question as many as are of that opinion. See I As many as are of a country opinion. See no I think the eyes of it. The eyes of it Bill's leader of government business Mr. President, I beg to move the first reading of a bill shortly. I title automatic exchange of financial account information amendment Automatic exchange of financial account information amendment honorable leader of government business Mr. President, I beg to move for the suspension of standing order number 49 to To allow the bill to go through its remaining stages at this sitting Honorable senators the question is that standing order 49 to be suspended In order to allow the honorable leader of government business to proceed with the remaining stages of this bill at this sitting And I'll put a question as many as are of that opinion. See I As many as are of a country opinion. See no I think the eyes of it the eyes of it proceeding honorable Mr. President, I beg to move for the second I beg to move the second reading Of a bill shortly entitled automatic exchange of financial account information amendment Mr. President we have brought this bill to this senate before And I must say to you mr. President that this bill Or the act rather mr. President Would be ever-changing It will be an ever-changing Act mr. President because this act is tied To The transparency standards set by the OECD for the for the global forum and As a member mr. President we will always have to keep in compliance With the various changes and requirements by the global forum And mr. President as I have said before this The automatic exchange of financial account information Is put together As a means to avoid or minimize tax evasion And other illicit activities Now there are various amendments that We are seeking through this bill mr. President and One of those Amendments is that of section 4a Which stipulates that the act Shall prevail where there is any inconsistency between the act Or the convention of any other act Also mr. President the amendment to section 9 removes the need to go to gazette the addition of a country To the list of participating jurisdictions In the schedule based on the frequency with which the lists will be amended To add a new jurisdiction Mr. President to refuse to exchange with the participating jurisdiction Will affect st. Lucia's assessment To be conducted by the global forum on transparency An exchange of information for tax purposes of course, mr. President as The instrument shows that there are other adjustments other amendments to the act And as I said earlier These adjustments are just in response To st Lucia's compliance with this international body And we don't ever ever want to be blacklisted We don't ever want to be Heard or read about As a country that is not complying Because we understand The implications of the retaliation If we do not comply We already have over our next Around our next rather the issue with With The risking so we turn our best to do what we can do on our side To ever to be ever compliant With the international treaties and agreements That we have Sign ourselves up to in times past So mr. President with these Brief notes I present this bill to the honorable house Honorable senators the question is that the automatic exchange of financial account information amendment bill be read a second time honorable senators The question is that the automatic exchange of financial account information amendment bill be read at second time I now put a question as many as are of that opinion see I As many as are of a country opinion see no I think the eyes of it the eyes of it An act to amend the automatic exchange of financial account information act number 22 of 2016 and for related matters Senators we'll be going through the bill By clause Close to Interpretation Close two stands part of the bill Close three amendment of section two close three stands part of the bill Close four insertion of new section four a Close four stands part of the bill Close five amendment of section nine Close five stands part of the bill Close six amendment of section ten Close six stands part of the bill Clause seven. Amendment of section 22. Clause seven stands part of the bill. Clause eight. Amendment of principle act. Clause eight stands part of the bill. Clause one. Short title. Clause one stands part of the bill. Honorable Senators, the question is that the committee rises and the bill be reported. I now put a question as many as are of that opinion and CI, as many as our country opinions, you know, I think the eyes of it, the eyes of it. Honorable Senators, I beg to report that the automatic exchange of financial account information, amendment bill went through committee stage with no amendments. Honorable Leader of Government Business. Mr. President, I move that the report of the committee be adopted and the bill be read a third time and passed. Honorable Senators, the question is that the report of the committee be adopted and that the automatic exchange of financial account information, amendment bill be read a third time and passed. I now put a question as many as are of that opinion, CI, as many as are of a country opinions, you know, I think the eyes of it, the eyes of it. Be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent majesty, ban with the advice and consent of the House of Assembly and the Senate of St. Lucia and by the authority of the same as follows. This act may be cited as the automatic exchange of financial account information, amendment act 2017. Honorable Leader of Government Business. Mr. President, I move that the Senate stand adjourned, stand or die. Honorable Senators, the question is that the Senate do stand adjourned, sign or die. I now put a question as many as are of that opinion, CI, as many as are of a country opinions, you know, I think the eyes of it, the eyes of it. She's in adjourned.