 I support the borrowing of U.S. $2.343 million from the CDF for the implementation of the community tourism programme. My brief contribution will simply ask the parliament and the people of St. Lucia who are watching Mr Speaker to think of where we want to be in three years' time. Where do we want to be in three years' time? Mr Speaker, we came to the house today. The member of parliament for Kastris East and the Minister for Finance presented three motions. One, U.S. $15 million from the International Development Association for the OECS Skills and Innovation Project, which focus on upskilling for youth Mr Speaker. Then we had the 42 million dollar tax administration and modernization project and learn administration services programme. And this one, the 2.343 million U.S. million dollars for the community tourism programme. Mr Speaker, just imagine a place where within communities all around St. Lucia we have our people both young people and older people creating experiences for visitors not only visitors from out of St. Lucia but local visitors to experience the gastronomy meaning the things that we cook the things that we eat to experience the music to experience our hospitality on display in a well-organized way. Just imagine Mr Speaker, the connection between increased skills within our communities which is what we spoke about earlier when we spoke about the OECS Skills and Innovation Project. Just imagine a country where young people are given skills where they can use these skills to cause the people who visit our communities to benefit. Just imagine Mr Speaker a country where in different parts of St. Lucia you have the various specialties we saw in January the CMOS experience and so on. Just imagine in three years time, in four years time when all of these experiences will come to bear and more people all around St. Lucia benefitting from the tourist dollar and again tourists meaning people who come from overseas but people who are from Grozily but who never went to Bellevue and they want to experience a nice solo or a nice court or a nice storytelling evening all of these can be very very important. Mr Speaker, when you speak of community tourism we cannot divorce Mr Speaker the whole business of buildings and old buildings in the city of Castries for example the city of Castries Mr Speaker within the city of Castries there are many buildings that can be rehabilitated some of them are ruins but they have the potential for the development of experiences for individuals whether they be visitors or even St. Lucia and then you help Mr Speaker the leader of the opposition talking about an 80 year old building every time I had an opposition speak about and what they consider to be an old building they are saying that we are using an old building and returning a hospital to an old 80 year old building Mr Speaker, this is very shameful to hear them speak about this and I just went quickly Mr Speaker to look at within the context of tourism and rehabilitating buildings I went quickly Mr Speaker to look at the age of hospital buildings around the world and Mr Speaker, the oldest hospital building which is still in use in England St. Bartholomew the oldest one Mr Speaker is 900 years old the oldest hospital in England 900 years old Mr Speaker you know, when you had a leader of the opposition and again instead of educating St Lucia instead of telling St Lucia you know, believe them that this is not the way to think that because a building has been there for a very long time it's of no use you know, when people think like that Mr Speaker they translate it subconsciously to the way they treat people you know Mr Speaker they will put elderly people on the side they will put elderly people on the side they will put elderly people on the side it's a very subconscious way of telling you how to treat things that people have worked on for years and I want the opposition to listen to that the oldest hospital which is still in use in England is 900 years old in fact it's more than 900 years old it's about 902 years old if you go to Brazil Santa Catrina Hospital in Brazil was built in 1906 and it's still being used Mr Speaker the oldest public hospital in Canada where he comes from he's a product of the Kingston General Hospital KGH is the oldest public hospital in Canada it was opened in 1835 we are speaking about community tourism Mr Speaker I see you look at me we are speaking about the possibilities heritage tourism in the city of Castries that's right Mr Speaker and I have said to the doctors and the administration of the Millennium Heights Medical Complex and to the staff of the Ministry of Health I have said to them that the Victoria Hospital site is a prime tourism site and we have to turn it into a prime tourist attraction for locals the young people, the young nurses the young doctors and Saint Lucians need to know the history of Victoria Hospital and Dr Owen King and so many the metrons and so on Ness Lambert Ness Alsay these people and so many others these institutions are not just buildings but the buildings Mr Speaker the walls the hallowed walls have history and stories and for the leader of the opposition every time like that to just stand up and talk about all buildings you talk about Saint Jude where Mother Oma and all of these people sisters of the soulful mother struggle to ensure that we have a good community hospital at Saint Jude and every single time the opposition just stand up and they are people jumping up in pumpers and everything believing those kinds of things this is disrespectful it's deliberate and it goes to the heart of what the opposition represents and what they think about Saint Lucians when you diss Saint Jude Hospital and you talk about an old 80 year old building you are dissing all of those people who sacrifice 80 years old and they go even further to talk about the 80 year old program in health so when you tie all of this in Mr Speaker the opposition has no regard for Saint Lucians and just one more Mr Speaker he loves America the New York City Health and Hospitals Bellevue is one of the oldest hospitals in America it was built in 1736 there is another one the charity hospital in Louisiana it was closed because of Hurricane Katrina but it was built and it continued to function it was built in 1736 Pennsylvania Hospital 1751 and has he gone to visit the hallowed walls of all of these universities in England and these old universities in Oxford and Cambridge and although it's recent has he gone to Saint Augustine and all of those they are a little younger but still we do not discard buildings because they are old we say they are old you understand you go to the morn and maybe that's why Mr Speaker over the years maybe that's why over the years we have such disdain for us Saint Lucians what we have built so they mash up the prison that's old that's whatever so Mr Speaker I speak about community tourism in that context because when you really think about it you know when you really think about it community tourism is really about traditions and culture and food and gastronomy and discipline and when the member for Choselle spoke about what he said the member for Choselle spoke about how we treat ourselves and our environment when you really think about it community tourism is not just about the building and the sea and so on it's about our we are reaching into our heritage the manners our Saint Lucianness greeting people nicely not the violence and so on so in a way if we do it well and we bring back community and let's work on an experience or singing or taking people to the farms or whatever it is how we take care of the rivers and so on when you really think about it community tourism really is about us our Saint Lucianness that we can share with as the brother for Kastri South he said we can share with ourselves in Saint Lucian and we can share with others and when we develop ourselves and we show what we truly are something has caused a small group of us of our people to become violent you know we have to stamp it out but that's not us that's not that's not us that's not Saint Lucianness that's not the Saint Lucianness in us so what community tourism does or what it will do so when you go to Plaskasab and when you go to fish fry the community itself will build an experience where you'll feel safe it's not about making sure they have less police on them kind of thing the moment you feel well in your community tourism is whole town police we need to have then we need to revisit how the community itself so it's a community vibe so in Viewfork North where we have CMOS I know Mikul North is doing the CMOS thing so they can tell the story CMOS CMOS the people of Viewfork North needs to know that I'm being challenged about us having a sea a sea front we have endless sea Servants Bay even where the new hotel canals this is Viewfork North yes so look now I'm being accused of rejoining the maps but Mr Speaker Mr Speaker look at this community tourism we are the Saint Lucianness what we want to do is to kill the Saint Lucianness who are we we don't know what is violence we don't know what is violence We don't know what is violence all we want is to kill our own people we are the same people we want to cross we are the same people because simplification we are not violence we are the same people we are animosity we are the same people that love the fighting because of the community tourismleness when we dig, how high we go, you have to do something and all is normalselma to be还是 and there's only one thing and there can be many other countries, that is the culture and arts that castries city must become a place of art and culture and people on a Sunday a Saturday on a Wednesday evening need to wan to live souffre or vie fort and say well you know tonight. There's a play at the walk at house in the castries let go down for the vibe Robert Lee has a poetry reading or there's an art display let's go to castries and maybe on a Sunday. పత్పణాక్ప్త్త్త అట్న్న్ల �我在కోన్న్ళికుతిస్ఙికౄరంత్పరడివ్ ముక్హిక్యాన్మోత్సిదులాట్తోతేనోకూనాధిక్ధలపిక్సిత్ముక్యనూనో� the painting by itself without a story, without a vibe, without a context is just paint but when you put context to paintings and poetry and art and food and so on then you have an experience and that's what the member for castry south and the prime minister and the cabinet is trying to do so this thing about old buildings and all people and so on anytime the opposition comes in that we have to match them up with ashes tomorrow is ash Wednesday match them up with that because they are trying to denigrate our ourselves our culture our the essence of solutions what we stand for so what what i can see mr speaker what i see happening what i see happening is i see a revival of not just things for tourists but a revival of us so that when we value us there is no need to even tell people in the communities because we're going to mobilize the country around hey this is important how you throw in a refrigerator in the river when the river is connected to us when long time ago that's where our people took water from and cook from and when people understand these things i'm not saying it's going to be easy mr speaker it's going to be challenging because it is a process going to be challenging but if we start one or two places and the successes we can multiply the successes and so on so mr speaker it will help to build to build us and to build ourselves i want to say to you also mr speaker that i want to tie the community tourism activities to what the prime minister laid early in the house the motion and what the minister of education spoke to so we are not only building skills for services like like in restaurants and so on these are very important but when the young people get additional skills just imagine we have a place in vie for north called vijay tranquil a lot of land flat nice beautiful you had a win there in a different kind of way after all the people are the best camping site that's the best place for camping in senhuja just imagine if we turn that into a place where every year you have hundreds of people camping there with services and and and you have young people with skills with technology and we increase the bandwidth and so on and and people are that's that's tourism people come into our communities to work not just to come up the cruise ship you know that's good but just imagine if we develop spaces in senhuja where somebody decides you know what i come to spend a week in babuno in belvia by the waterfall and we have all the facilities or you know and then i can do my work and i'm i'm safe and everything we can imagine the kind of exchange and so on so reskilling and obscuring all of these things tie into the community tourism i love it mr speaker because i know that my constituents will benefit in addition to the rest of the country i've said before our dream is to have a a place of it's already fresh and green and with our waterfalls is to have arts cultural exchanges and amphitheater at piero we started our drum the drumming festival you want to continue with that but with exchanges just imagine you have this drumming festival and for a whole weekend as the the member of castry south has said to me and that is a vibe that he wants a whole weekend you have people from from french gaiana you have people from godloop you have drummers from africa coming down for a whole week having workshops in belvia and grace and so on can you imagine what what can happen so you have a kind of community tourism that's based on culture and on art we've spoken about fisheries and seamos at savans bay grace woodlands a huge farming area with forests and even that too people want to come to see your local wood what what what kinds of flora you have and so on researchers people you know students coming into the research so i do not want the parliament and and the country to think when we speak of tourism we are only thinking of people who come of the cruise ship no the vision is wider and you'll hear from the from the minister of tourism i mean it's wider than that it is connecting people with communities and the airbnb concept very good and certainly i can't speak of what the minister of tourism will be presenting to the house and the prime minister in short order but the whole business of airbnb and how people can accommodate visitors and so on i am excited miss i am really excited about the future i'm excited about the future mr speaker i'm excited about the plans look at what the look at the way the prime minister presented today and the and the the benefits for the people of senhuja i'm excited i'm excited for the young people of yufotnofu who are getting all of those benefits one university graduate per household the labs for the children the youth economy haven't even gone there yet the youth economy a number of people in my constituency have benefited i want more to benefit but i am excited for them it's not a doom and gloom thing where the leader of the opposition comes to chastise solutions we have no plan and this and that what we're not resilient what were they doing for the young people they said that four thousand young people will be employed to clean horses and then they turn back mr speaker and told the young people that they will not be able to raise the local horses among the high class four bread horses in air condition you understand that is not what we are saying we are saying here we are going to up skill we are going to provide community tourism opportunities and we are going to work hard with our people but mr speaker i don't want to end if i do not pay tribute to the minister for tourism and investment mr speaker after covid when we came into government you remember covid and remember what happened to investment and and tourism and our economy and when we came into government under the leadership of the member of parliament for castries is the minister for tourism and his team went to work the cabinet of ministers helping to guide and look at what has happened to tourism and to investment mr speaker it is not my place to speak about this budget is coming but look at what has happened and so i want to to congratulate the member of parliament for castries south and the work which is doing mr speaker and i want to tell him move on i want to congratulate the prime minister people say sometimes boy you're in government just one half years why you're congratulating and talking about yes i want to congratulate the prime minister on his handling of this economy mr speaker and that is how we are able that is how despite the challenges interest rates internationally rising the ukraine war inflation but we were able mr speaker to climate change issues we the prime minister has been able to guide this economy create new avenues the youth economy and so many avenues for our people to become resilient and to deal with the challenges mr speaker he took the three loaves and and fed thousands but i will say i will to you mr speaker i joined all who will say to our own people everywhere in sen lusia that this is not a one man or one woman job this is not just a job for the government in every nook and cranny of sen lusia this is a job for all of us if you have a fence by the road and there's grass and bush just behind the fence i mean if you don't clean that yourself it says something that i will not describe here in the parliament but we have to be open if you have a house whether it's by the road or inside or wherever and you are not you have to clean around your house and if everybody cleans around their house we eventually we'll have a clean country so i encourage everyone to do the basic things pa vo voe fridge or lie there pa je te galvanize or lie there there's some basic things we need to all of us all of us need to work harder on to keep our communities clean and i wish to congratulate the council the chairman of the council in vie for no for a wonderful execution of the baton relay and i wish to congratulate the minister for housing and local government on his team but mr speaker i support this community tourism um motion and i say to you i'm excited about the future you saw what can happen to the future if we ever allow the presence who walked out back into this chair thank you much