 Welcome to Nation Beat. I am General Norville bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. The Government of St. Lucia and the St. Lucia National Trust have agreed to consultations on the Royal Jail. The British High Commission is exploring the establishment of a Diplomacy Academy here and the Library Credit Union's real life lessons. The Government of St. Lucia and the St. Lucia National Trust have agreed to hold consultations regarding conservation of the buildings that comprise the former Royal Jail located at Bridge Street Castries. The site has been emacked for the construction of a new police headquarters as well as a structure to house the criminal courts. The former Royal Jail was abandoned in 2003 when all prisoners were transferred to the bodily correctional facility. The National Trust obtained an injunction restraining the demolition of the former Royal Jail on the grounds that the buildings were of historical significance. The consultative process shall begin with a joint site visit by a team of experts designated by the trust and a team representing the Government. Thereafter, further consultations shall take place in accordance with a timetable agreed upon between the parties. As part of the agreement, the court proceedings initiated by the National Trust have been withdrawn and the injunction previously obtained has also been discharged. Although not bound by law in the spirit of compromise, the Government has agreed that no further demolition shall be carried out on the former Royal Jail until the agreed process of consultation is completed. The Government and the National Trust shall provide a further update at the conclusion of these consultations. The Ministry of External Affairs in partnership with the British High Commission is exploring the establishment of an academy for the training of public servants in diplomacy. A seminar was recently held in diplomacy, protocol and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is an international treaty that defines a framework for diplomatic relations between independent countries. Irene Gaspard, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Department of External Affairs says this initiative would better equip public servants to deal with individuals in a sensitive but effective way. The combination of participants in the room this morning also gives a clear indication that we are not only concerned with our staff getting the requisite training, but we are equally concerned with staff of our supporting departments ensuring that they too are at the same level with us as it relates to certain areas of training. Besides capacity building and continuous development, remaining a core part of our strategic objectives today with the pace at which sectors evolve requires management teams to be ahead, way ahead of the game, especially with their trading strategies. Steve McCready, resident British Commissioner explained that a diplomatic academy has been formalized in the United Kingdom for approximately four years. One of the biggest drivers of the British diplomatic academy was a sense that we were really losing institutional knowledge every time someone moved on from a job or every time a new leader came into a particular section, they would have their own ideas and their own vision. But what was happening quite often was we were trying to reinvent the wheel for too many times. Minister for External Affairs Honourable Sarah Flood-Bober shared her vision for a diplomatic academy within the Department of External Affairs. What I'm thinking about is something that can provide training, good quality, exceptional training that can have structure, that can have focus, that can meet the expectations of all staff or stakeholders, that can provide staff and stakeholders with certainty in a correct path in developing skills, expertise and knowledge in particular subject fields, that staff themselves can become so well trained that they can impart training to others. The Minister stated that the session was a sample of the type of training that would be offered if the academy were to be established. From the Government Information Service, I am Manisha Antoine reporting. This is Nation Beat, coming up on more job opportunities for St. Lucian's in Canada. Everyone is at risk for getting a foodborne illness. While most foodborne illness cases are mild and go unreported, long-term health complications and even deaths can occur from a foodborne illness. Foodborne illnesses are caused by contamination of food at any stage of preparation. If you are a food handler involved in home-based food production, meat, fish, chicken or a big shop, as a food vendor, how you prepare food can put your customers at risk. Do you know the risks and how to avoid them? The St. Lucia Bureau of Standards can help you. For more information, contact the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards at 4560546 or email SLBS at candw.lc or visit the website at www.slbs.org.lc St. Lucia Bureau of Standards, making quality and standards our way of life. Welcome back. When Parliament meets on Tuesday 30th October 2018, among the bills up for discussion are the Child Care Protection and Adoption Bill and Child Justice Bill. The bills address a range of deficiencies in the juvenile justice system, including the legal determination of the age that constitutes a child. Director of Social Services Elizabeth Lewis spoke to the matter on a panel discussion on the new family law bills airing on NTN. Age is going to become an issue in respect of the changes of who is a child. So this in those bills, a child will be considered somebody under the age of 18. Now that is a major shift for us. That is going to be a major shift for us because as it stands now for us at the family court and at probation and at human services, a child is considered somebody under the age of 16. So with the passage of those two bills in particular, we will see age of a child now changing and so we are going to have a wider spread, a wider net by which we can provide support for children. The age of criminal responsibility in St Lucia is 12 years. In order to ensure rehabilitation of young offenders, a diversion program is being implemented. One of the things that is going to be different for us, apart from now having a wider span of children to deal with, now we are moving from just focusing on children under 16, now to focusing on children under 18, is that we will also have the responsibility for adoption. Currently adoption is being done at the Ages office, the Attorney General's office, they are responsible. But this new bill is going to move forward and that there is going to be an adoption committee working very closely with Human Services for adoption because we recognize that adoption is still a child protection issue and it is not just facing a child if anybody anywhere, sorry. So it is going to change how we do things at Human Services really and truly. We are going to see a difference in the type and number of orders that the court can provide to ensure protection of children. We are going to see changes in how we do our own processing at Human Services. There are going to be issues on time limits for investigations. That is going to be very critical as we go forward in ensuring that we respond in a timely fashion to issues of children. With the passage of the bills, the Human Services Department will be empowered as the lead agency in matters of child care and protection. Divergent is going to speak to a procedure that the courts will use for children in conflict with the law to send them to programs that will help with their rehabilitation. So these programs may be day programs, hence they will not stay in any residential facility for that matter. Copies of both bills are available for viewing on the government website, the Department of Equity, Social Justice and Empowerment, Division of Human Services, the Central Library, Family Court and the Probation and Parole Services Unit. Public comments can be forwarded to tommydescat at t.descat at gosl.gov.lc. The Library Cooperative Credit Union gathered over 250 students from the Southern Educational Districts to its second annual Financial Reality Fair. A Financial Reality Fair is an interactive physical literacy tool for secondary school students. It's a hands-on experience in which students identify their correct choice and starting salaries, then complete a budget sheet requiring them to live within their monthly salary while paying for basics such as housing, utilities, transportation, clothing and food. Additional expenditures such as entertainment and travel are factored in as well. As a child, I would say we have a lot of big dreams and a lot of things to accomplish. And sometimes we don't even check the budget that we have to accomplish those dreams. So in the future, I feel I will be more open-minded about a lot of decisions that I make. As a cooperative, one of our principles is actually member education. And we think this is an important way of imparting knowledge to the general populace of scholarship, particularly the young ones through our financial reality. After the students have visited the various both discovering components of independent living, they balance their budget and then sit down with a financial counselor for review. Toya Smith is the financial counselor at the Library Credit Union. For instance, if they go over budget, we tell them whether or not they should have probably left that out, save towards it rather than taking it from their salary or whether they should have probably just chose something cheaper. In terms of, for instance, the gym, some of them come with some very ex-commitant prices for the gym. In the financial reality fair experience, students are encouraged to save a minimum of 10% of their income, placing a portion towards long-term retirement and shorter-term investment. The financial counselors explore the importance of planning for future needs and unforeseen finance-draining situations while tempting them with the niceties of everyday life. Annika Joseph is a teacher at the Bynfield Comprehensive Secondary School. I've exceeded my expectations. It's extremely real because I did not actually expect them to be given a budget to work with and they actually have to manage, balance, choose between how much you spend on utilities, how much you spend on rent. It's very real. It's what we do as adults in everyday life and they are experiencing it and they're coming to me missed and it helped. I might need a loan. So it's very real. I'm quite impressed. For over 40 years, the Library Cooperative Credit Union has demonstrated its commitment to providing its members with opportunities to gain financial knowledge and skills. From the Government Information Service, I am Anisia Antoine reporting. The Department of Labor is inviting members of the public who are interested in seeking employment in the Canada Caribbean Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program to collect application funds at the department from October 24, 2018 to November 12, 2018. This program involves working on farms in Canada in areas such as vegetables, fruits, greenhouses, flowers, tobacco, inclusive of nurseries, stables, poultry, swine, sheep, mink, dairy, bovine, apry, products. The length of employment may vary according to the type of work and can be for periods of 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 months and for periods of 1 to 2 years. Applicants must be 18 years and older and should note that work on these farms are very strenuous and demanding and involves working very long hours in various types of weather conditions which can be cold, chilly, snowy and rainy. Applicants will be required to prove that they can meet the full requirements of the employment conditions satisfactorily and conduct themselves in a manner that reflects in the most positive way on themselves and the country's inclusion. Application forms are to be collected at the reception desk of the Department of Labor between the hours of 8.30 am to 12.30 pm and from 1.30 pm to 4 pm. All persons who previously applied for employment in the Canada Caribbean Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program during the period of 2016 to 2017 must reapply. That's a nation beat. Join us next time on NTN at 7.30 pm with a repeat at 7.30 am and on this station as we fill the pulse and heart of our community. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Janelle Norville.