 Welcome to the NTN Nightly. I'm Nisha Charles. This edition stops stories. Public servants encourage to find their role in building excellence and promoting good governance. Canada's premier luxury golf resort brand invests in Cabot St. Lucia, breaking barriers in a specially designed Cupgate War. All that has the latest in youth development and sports. Transforming our public service, building excellence and promoting good governance. That's the theme for this year's celebration of Public Service Week. Wednesday, public servants attended an ecumenical service at the mine of the silica of the Machleic Conception, where they were encouraged to continue playing their part in nation building. Here's Chanel Norville. Virgin Lucia Public Service will join the United Nations in celebrating Public Service Day held annually on the 24th of June. A week of activities has been planned in an effort to commemorate the day. Part of the week's activities included an ecumenical service for public servants, where a permanent secretary in the Department of Public Service Peggy and Sudat addressed the congregation. The permanent secretary reminded public servants that what they do is not just a job but a vocation and not about the money but the service. Sudat also addressed what she described as a misconception about the public service. We must be called to service. We must want to serve. The name public officer is usually used synonymously with the words or phrases lazy, incompetent, bad attitude, unwillingness to work to name a few. Most of us know that this is a misconception, a myth. It is not the brush that should be used to paint all public officers. But we must be cognizant of the fact that this may be a reflection of the actions or inactions of a few, which obviously have resulted in an undesirable experience for the citizens. We must be committed to change the public perception. After all, can you imagine life without public officers? This year's commemoration is being observed another theme, transforming our public service, building excellence and promoting good governance, our journey, our future. The day is dedicated to celebrating the value and virtue of public service to the community, highlighting the contribution of public service in the development process, recognising the work of public servants and encouraging young people to pursue careers in the public sector. So that referencing the theme explains that transformation is necessary. As we continue on our journey of transforming the public service, we must go beyond the buzzwords and make the change happen, and more importantly, ensure that it is sustainable. To do so, public service leaders must communicate vision, design and delivery must incorporate people. What we need is more leadership, not more leaders. Public service transformation is necessary for the future, and therefore we must make it happen efficiently and effectively. Ladies and gentlemen, as we celebrate Public Service Day 2019, I urge you to reflect on your role and your contribution to national development. Be the difference, make the difference. Other activities include a panel discussion scheduled for Thursday 20th June, and a health fair in the parking lot of the Greyham-Louisey Building Waterfront Castries is scheduled for the 21st of June from 9am to 2pm. The public service invites all public servants to come out in large numbers. For the Government Information Service, I am Janelle Norville. Meanwhile, the Department of the Public Service has embarked on its revamped comprehensive orientation program for new officers in the public service. The new orientation program brought together its first cohort of 22 staff members from various government departments and focused on topics such as professionalism and ethics in the workplace, customer satisfaction, time management, productivity in the workplace, stress management, understanding NIC benefits, conflict prevention, safety and health in the workplace, and personal financial planning. A new training policy for the public service has also been approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in February of 2019. The unit has proudly touted Cabinet's decision to reintroduce study leave with pay and tuition refund for public officers who meet the set criteria. The Organization of American States, the OAS, is assisting St. Lucia in developing a sustainable heritage tourism sub-sector through an endorsement program. This will allow for sites, attractions and other heritage tourism activities to officially endorse and certify. St. Lucia signed a memorandum of understanding with the Organization of American States, the OAS, geared at developing a sustainable heritage tourism enhancement program. The program seeks to enhance the socio-economic potential of cultural heritage in the Caribbean. According to the program's country coordinator, Ramona Henry-Winn, the program will highlight the cultural values that lies within communities which will enter and enhance the tourism product. What you want to do is to ensure that the values, the cultural values that lies within communities can rebound to tangible benefits for St. Lucia and ultimately for our visitors to our shores to benefit from that endorsement. At the moment we are in the process of doing the community elicitation component of the program where we have a team of trainees along with volunteers who will go into the community and we are using three methods of research. We are using a photo voice method, we are also using a focus group method and we are using an oral mobile history method through the research in the community. Laurent Jean-Pierre is from the Archaeological and Historical Society and is responsible for the biocultural heritage aspect of the project. In essence what we are trying to do is document our biocultural heritage. The Petroplace, where you make the foreign centers, where you have La Rose, where you have Margaret, where you have special things and who best to give us this knowledge but the people who have lived it, say, we are trying to do it and for them to benefit from it from their own biocultural heritage so that the wealth remains in the community. People can come to the community, both locals and visitors alike to enjoy what we have and to create livelihoods in these communities. Project Development Office at the Ministry of Tourism, Information and Broadcasting, Culture and Creative Industries, Donalyn Vite, says the program also seeks to develop a heritage tourism endorsement which is responsible for coining sites, attractions and other touristic activities as that of a heritage tourism nature. What it would mean for us for St. Lucian and our tourism landscape is that we are able to develop the criteria by which we could bring sites or new touristic attractions into the realm of heritage tours. We could endorse them as such and promote them as such. We still continue under the Ministry with our heritage sites that have been developed previously but this dispensation allows us to really define in concrete terms what makes them a heritage tour, why their heritage tour and to look at the cultural features and the cultural assets and values of those sites that we can now transmit and transfer to visitors and other persons who want to enjoy those amenities and sites as they come to St. Lucia. Canada's premier luxury golf resort and residential community, Cabot Links has announced its plans to develop, manage and operate a new master plan resort community in St. Lucia, the brand's first international property. Located on Point Hardy, Capestead, the crown jewel of the luxury resort will be the 18-hole Bill Core and Ben Crenshaw designed golf course. Prime Minister Alan Chastney says the investment will boost St. Lucia's tourism portfolio. This is coming at a very opportune time for St. Lucia. St. Lucia has really chosen a path to continue to develop tourism but to make sure that we're going more to the high net worth segment of the market. So this project which will include a championship 18-hole golf course will also include if I'm not mistaken a 90 room suite boutique hotel as well as I think about 250 lots is coming and I just want you to know that the government of St. Lucia is not just saying in words our support but putting those to action. Canadian entrepreneur Ben Coendura created the original Cabot Links on an abandoned cold mine. Opened in 2011, it is one of Canada's top ranked courses and sits in the world's top 50 of golf digest world 100 ranking. Coendura says he sees the same potential in Point Hardy. We've been so blessed to get to look all over the world for sites for golf and we have an amazing site in Nova Scotia, Canada that we built over the last 15 years and I sort of had these pangs of thought that we would never find a site that was as beautiful as the one we worked on at Cabot Cliffs. I remember Ali and I stood up here and we looked around and Ali said this feels like it and like all of these things that we think should take three months, three and a half years later here we are and that's due to an awful lot of hard work. Prime Minister Chastonay who really I met shortly after that and we connected on all things Canada and really became a great champion of the project. Phase one of the Cabot St. Lucia will begin this summer with golf play slated for 2021. Another layer of oversight has been added to the operations of the Citizenship Buy Investment Program, the CIP, more from Nicole MacDonald. On Tuesday, June 11, Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Hon. Alan Michael Chastonay introduced a bill before Parliament to establish the St. Lucia National Economic Fund. The bill strengthens oversight over the management of Citizenship Buy Investment Funds and corrected gross inadequacies in the legislation governing the use of CIP funds which was passed by the former administration. As he presented the bill, the Prime Minister explained that presently the Citizenship Buy Investment Act, passed in 2015, establishes the St. Lucia National Economic Fund. However, the present administration felt it necessary to strengthen the legislation as the fund operates outside of the consolidated fund. On this basis, the provisions under the Act were considered to be absolutely inadequate. In relation to the governance, the bill identifies the fund as a special fund that will be used to advance loans and provide investment for government-approved capital projects, reduction of debt, purchase of government bonds, or for monies required for a purpose approved by Cabinet. The Minister of Finance is authorized under the bill to make an order that will identify the government-approved capital projects once approval is obtained from Cabinet. The monies of the fund will be the qualifying investments of cash that is currently stated under the Act, and these monies will be deposited to the credit of the Minister in the Financial Institution approved by the Minister. The bill will also establish the St. Lucia National Economic Fund Board, which will include the Director of Finance as Chairperson, the Budget Director, the Chief Economist, a Representative from Invest St. Lucia, a Representative from the Ministry of Commerce, from the Attorney General's Chambers, and from the Private Sector. And this is the NTN Nightly. Ryan O'Brien is up next. Welcome back. We join Ryan O'Brien for the latest happenings in youth development and sports. Thanks, Misha. And welcome everyone to your update from Youth Development and Sports on the NTN Nightly News. I'm Ryan O'Brien. Minister responsible for youth development and sports, the Honourable Edmund Estefan, has cautioned sporting administrators here that they have some work to do as far as making their operations efficient. The Minister made the remarks while addressing those in attendance as the St. Lucia Olympic Committee Incorporated dedicated their conference room to the memory of late Honourary Member Jonathan Everett. Minister Estefan stressed that part of the mandate of national sporting associations is to uplift athletes using the necessary ingredients for them to flourish in their chosen disciplines. Meanwhile, President of the St. Lucia Olympic Committee Incorporated Senator the Honourable Fortuna Bellrose told the administrators present that how they delivered to those they served was very important. Senator Bellrose suggested that national associations should seek skill sets that are needed within their executive body to boost their administrative capacities which will assist in better structure and functioning of associations. Schools that were successful over the last year in various sporting competitions put on by the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports in collaboration with the Ministry of Education will come together on June 28 for the staging of the annual Schools Sports Awards ceremony. Winning schools and student athletes will be receiving trophies and awards acquired over the Schools Sports Program. Meanwhile, preparations are ongoing for St. Lucia's contingent due to participate in the Winner Island School Games set for Dominica at the end of July. That's your update from Youth Development and Sports for today. I'm Ryan O'Brien. Thanks Ryan. Sufra Comprehensive has emerged champions of the WinFresh-sponsored Chefs in Schools culinary competition which was held on Thursday and Friday of last week. 10 secondary schools participated in the annual event. The students were trained for the event by senior chefs who are currently employed with the major hotels on the island some of whom are former participants in the competition. The two students competing for Sufra Comprehensive were Sherqueen Franke and Kayla Joseph, both from four students. Chef Ruben Kumar of Anne Shastner Resort served as their coach. They were representing Lucia at the Caribbean Junior Chefs competition scheduled to take place in Bombay this later this year. Last year, the national champions from the Sufra Comprehensive secondary school went on to win the regional competition and do stay with the NTN Knightley. When the authority of the heads of government of the OECS and its other ministerial councils meet and adopt policies for the organisation they rely on the OECS commission to transform these into action. The OECS commission is the secretariat of the organisation a grouping of officials headed by a director general mandated to implement the decisions of the governments but also empowered to make recommendations on the strategic directions of the organisation. The OECS commission organises meetings, prepares budgets, conducts research, undertakes projects, negotiates for and represents the OECS member states. It is organised along several components. There are the commissioners from each member state who along with the director general form the commission that oversees the work programmes. There are also technical divisions with specialised units between them as well as diplomatic missions in Brussels and Geneva. All these complement each other to make the OECS commission the engine of regional integration in the eastern Caribbean. The OECS has a proud past and together we are working towards a brighter future for all our citizens. For more information visit www.oecs.org Welcome back. It was all about inclusiveness for the St. Lucia Blind Welfare Association as a stage the first ever cupcake war involving blind and low vision participants. This one-of-a-kind competition was judged by Rosie Joinville, the owner of Big Chef and Tappers on the Bay alongside two executive chefs, Odine Martin of Big Chef Restaurant and E.K. Lough of the Royal St. Lucia Hotel. More from Glenn Simon. Are you ready for cupcake war? A first-of-a-kind cupcake war competition was organised on Saturday June 8th for blind and low vision clients of the St. Lucia Blind Welfare Association, SLBWA. This was one of the activities for Blindness Awareness Month 2019. Three teams of two battled it out for bragging rights of being called SLBWA Cupcake War Champion 2019. The blue team comprised twin boys Mark and Marquis Brandis. Mark is totally blind and Marquis is low-visioned. Hi, I'm Malika. The green team brought together the mixed pair of Malika and Tevin who are both completely blind. They were up against stiff competition from Team Orange, Juliana and Julia who are themselves totally blind. Well, this is the first time I'm trying this. Event organiser Denise Goudin informed participants that the criteria for judging was based on appearance, taste, creativity, teamwork and presentation. She also mentioned the modest monetary prize. There's the first prize of $100 that you will share, second prize $50 and the third prize is $20. Executive Director of the SLBWA Anthony Avril said the lesson in the Cupcake War competition is a part of inclusion. The teams are having fun here today and for some of them that this is maybe the first time they're stepping into a kitchen environment. However, the important thing for us is not only the fun that they are having and the lessons that they are also learning but is the message being communicated to the general public. Nothing is beyond them. They are given the opportunities if we are given the opportunities because I am part of that community myself. If we are given the opportunities the sky is the limit. Challenge is employment. A secret ingredient was also thrown into the competition with each team having to dip for this ingredient which they had to add to their cupcakes. The blue team got carrots, the green team bananas with the orange team settling for lemons. Each team had one sighted guide to assist them. Mina Espielta was the assistant for the blue team. They are quite confident in what they are doing so that is a big thing. They are not afraid to try things that they have never tried before. This unique competition left the judges in awe of the competitors and this was the first time any of the three judges had presided over a culinary competition involving blind participants. Head Judge Rosie Johnville owner of Big Chef and Tappers on the Bay and Odine Martin, Executive Chef at Big Chef Restaurant shared their views on the competition. This is something very new for us and I think it's something that's a really, really great experience. It's really humbling for me to come here to really experience something like this for the first time and hopefully in the future we are looking forward with Mrs. Johnville of course coming back and really and truly assist in this venture. Though completely blind Malika from the green team is currently self-employed running her own cake making business for a living. I bake cheesecakes, vanilla cakes, chocolate cakes, carrot cakes, fruit cakes, pineapple upside down cakes and sometimes if anyone requests anything specific I can do that too. Malika shared with us her views on the competition and the limitations sometimes imposed on persons with blinding eye conditions. No, you can't do anything you set your mind to. I mean with practice you get better at it. It's just a matter of attempting to do it and doing what you love. So it doesn't matter whether it's baking, art, dancing, whatever it is. You just put your mind to it and you'll be able to do it. When the tasting was all done the judges handed in their final results. The third place was awarded to Team Blue with their carrot cupcake. Second place went to the Orange team whose secret ingredient was lemon and the title of SLBWA Cupcake War Champion 2019 going to the Green team with their banana cupcake covered with chocolate and vodka glaze. The winners also received the $150 gift certificate for Big Chef or Tapas on the Bay. Cupcake Wars was sponsored by Rosie Johnville and individuals from Parasol charity. Glenn Simon reporting. And here's a look at what's happening to us weather-wise. A tropical wave will produce cloudiness, showers and isolated thunderstorms mainly over the southern portion of the region during the next 24 hours. Another tropical wave located over the eastern tropical Atlantic is moving westward near 20 miles per hour or 31 kilometers per hour. Tropical Cyclone formation is not expected over the tropical Atlantic during the next five days. Saharan dust haze will continue to cause a reduction in visibility around the Lesser Antilles. The sea is locally rough with waves and swells 6 to 9 feet or 1.8 to 2.7 meters. Small craft operators and sea bathers are advised to exercise caution due to brisk winds, rough seas and reduced visibility. The sun will rise Thursday at 5.36 a.m. And that brings us to the end of the NTN Nightly. Join us next time at 7 p.m. with a repeat at 7 a.m. You can also catch up with us anytime on the Lesser Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I'm Nisha Charles.