 Hello and welcome to the NTN Nightly. I'm Nisha Trance. Thank you for joining us. From one students around the island are being educated about the immediate consequences of substance abuse. The sensitization campaign is being led by the Substance Abuse Unit in conjunction with the Royal St. Lucia Police Force. Officials say the campaign is critical, given that research shows that students as young as 10 years are both exposed and indulging in substance abuse, especially alcohol. The Life Skills for Drug-Free Living Program is aimed at providing students with the necessary skills to resist social and media pressure to smoke, drink and use drugs. Acting Program Officer in the Substance Abuse Unit, Nadia Smith Lambert says, this program is expected to develop greater self-confidence in students when making decisions about drug use. Given media, you find that we have advertisements for alcohol and also for tobacco and other drugs. Now students are also seeing those messages that are sent out to adults and thinking that it's okay, if it's okay for adults, it's okay for us minors. We want to clarify that it is not okay. Yes, it's a legal drug, but it is not okay for minors to be using any of the legal or illegal drugs. So at the end of the program, they basically develop skills such as refusal, skills, self-control, self-esteem, race and self-esteem to be able to say no when they see those messages, when they go out into the community and they offer those substances. Sergeant in the Royal St. Lucia Police Force, Alex Morgan says, it is necessary that students are aware of the effects of drug use on their education and future development. We felt necessary for the safety of our children to understand the dangers of drugs and the harmful usage of drugs, what we can do to them and how we can erode their futures as well. So if we felt it necessary to work along with them, to educate them as much as possible as to the dangers out there and what they can do to avoid themselves being caught in the trap of drug use and its abuse. Assistant councillor of the Rosalie Secondary School, Michelle Bess, believes this program will lay a foundation for healthy decision making among students as it relates to drug use. We're hoping that the students could use this information for themselves in making the correct decisions and also for the pairs to help guide the pairs because we know most of the myths out prevalent in society is geared towards encouraging the students to use marijuana to use drugs. So we hope that the students make the right decisions and we're hoping that they delay and also reduce the use of marijuana and other drugs. The Life Skills for Drug-Free Living program is delivered to students in six classroom sessions. Reporting from the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, I am Fynnell Neptune. The Parliament of St. Lucia has given consent to amendments to the Income Tax Act. Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Economic Growth, Job Creation and External Affairs, the Honourable Alan Shasne explained that the amendments would enable the government of St. Lucia to maximize the collection of revenue and reduce the level of arrears owed to the government by its creditors. So the amendments of the Income Tax Act, this amendment is to facilitate the collection of revenue by Inland Revenue Department where persons may be in receipt of payments from the government of St. Lucia, however, have outstanding tax arrears. In many cases, persons collect large sums of money from the government of St. Lucia whilst leaving their tax liability unsettled. These amendments will provide a mechanism by which the Controller of Inland Revenue Department can request from the Director of Finance or the Controller of Customs to offset any tax liability outstanding against the tax arrears of a taxpayer. Prime Minister Shasne highlighted the amendments to be made. The amendment of the Income Tax Act is as follows. Section 127 of the Income Tax Act is amended by inserting immediately after subsection 3 the following new subsections. 4. The Controller may direct the Director of Finance and Planning to set off the amount of tax debt or part of tax debt against sums due by the government to a tax debtor if the government holds controls and has custody or has monies belonging to the tax debtor and is due to make payments to the tax debtor. Or 5. The Controller may direct the Controller of the customs and excise tax department to set off monies due to a person against a tax outstanding by that person. That was Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Economic Growth, Job Creation and External Affairs, the Honourable Alan Shasne. In more news out of Parliament, the Minister for Commerce, Industry, Enterprise Development and Consumer Affairs, the Honourable Bradley Felix, presented a bill to amend the Trade and Export Promotion Agency TEPA in Parliament last week. The essence of the bill was to change the name TEPA to Export St. Lucia. According to the Honourable Bradley Felix, in recent times there has been a rebranding of St. Lucia and the agencies representing the country abroad. The intention was that the name Export St. Lucia would more closely align with what the agency represents. Although the current name Trade Export Promotion Agency speak to the agency's primary function of export promotion, it has become the norm whenever you refer to that agency, you refer to them as TEPA, which unfortunately Mr Speaker is devoid of any export of national significance or national significance. It was therefore suggested that TEPA's name be changed to Trade St. Lucia. However, in 2018, the National Export Council took a decision to request that Cabinet consider changing the name from Trade St. Lucia to Export St. Lucia. It was thought that Export St. Lucia was more in line with the main functions of the agency and would actually have more impact. The name changed to Export St. Lucia became effective July 1st, 2018. The countdown is officially on for the Ireland's 40th anniversary of independence. A Yolong calendar of spectacular events has been planned. Among them is a community drill series by the Royal St. Lucia Police Force. Here's Anissa Antwine with the details. In commemoration of St. Lucia's 40th independence anniversary, the Royal St. Lucia Police Force will be hosting a display of drills in four communities around the island. The drill force will include 40 police officers from different divisions accompanied by the Royal St. Lucia Police Band. Elvis Thomas, acting assistant superintendent of police, explained that the force will be performing a series of drill displays and battle drills which will culminate with a short match. Every year during independence we have a parade. The officers will be matching but they will be having some special drill displays as part of that match. So you'll see us doing left, right and slow match and these things but it will have a combination of some maneuvers as if they're dancing. If many of you can remember our 30th anniversary, the parade, we also had a special drill display there but then this one this year will be even better than we had before. Sergeant Alex Morgan of the Community Relations Branch who is responsible for preparing the showing as well as the right marker on the parade encourage the public to come out and support the initiative. The display is a treat more or less to the public from the police in precision and fancy drills. We will be doing activities which is not the normal police drills but something in the mix, something to captivate the public as well as the interests of the persons doing it. We will be doing north, south, east and west and we'll be going to various districts around the country namely Souffre on the 8th of February. On the 10th we'll be visiting the community of Viewfort and we'll also be visiting on the 13th, we'll be in January, that's Larishow specifically and then we'll be doing Grosley on the Friday night. Now do we do the Friday night on Grosley? We know Grosley Friday night have the activity but it's a way to start the Friday night. The drill displays will take place in the communities at 5.30pm. From the Government Information Service I am Anisia Antoine reporting. Members of the public will soon be able to report on lawful activities and make general inquiries when the city police department launches its three-digit toll-free emergency phone line next month. His worship Mayor Peterton Francis says the new service will permit city police officers to speedily respond to any incidents taking place within the city of cash trees. According to Mayor Francis, introducing such a new service is designed to reduce the pressure on the official 999 system. The new emergency phone line will also make it easier for the general public to share information. And this is NTN Nightly. Preparations for the hosting of the Animal Sports Awards are heightening. We get the inside look on the other side of the brick in the sports segment with Ryan O'Brien. Small household electrical appliances when faulty can give rise to big problems. If you have just purchased a small appliance from a store and you are concerned about the safety of the item, an appliance has been at home for some time subjected to wear and tear from regular usage. Have it tested by the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards. It is better to be safe than sorry. For more information contact the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards at 456-0546 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. Now for happenings at the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports, I'm Ryan O'Brien. The organizing committee for the 39th National Sports Awards due to be held on February 16th at the Royalton St. Lucia Resultant Spa held another of the weekly planning meetings on Monday morning. Arrangements are progressing smoothly and judges are expected to deliberate sometime this week to determine who will walk away with the prestigious awards on the evening. A shortlist of nominees was announced during a press briefing last week and will be presented to the judges for the scrutiny. Among the shortlisted are for Junior Sportswoman, Julian Alfred Athertics, Katie Kyle Swimming, Megan Williams Tennis, Junior Sportsman, Shelton St. Rose Athertics, Kimani Melius Cricket, J.N. Odlam Smith Swimming, De'Andre Caldron Table Tennis, Sportswoman, Laverne Spencer Athertics, Kiana Joseph Cricket, Eliza Markey Football, Sportsman, Albert Reynolds Athertics, Lindell Masler Boxing, and Larry Edward Cricket. An estimated 22 teams are expected to compete in the 2019 Massey United Insurance Secondary Schools Cricket Tournament, scheduled to begin on February 14th, 2019. Officials from the sponsoring company and organizers at the Ministry of Development and Sports met this week to iron out logistics of the tournament that sees Archipel secondary and the Arthur Lewis Community College as joint defending champions. Teams will be placed into four groups and a number of venues have been identified for the playing of matches that's expected to run for a three-week span, barring any unforeseen circumstances. These venues are the Mendoville Park, Rosalie Plainfield, Larry Seuss Denry, P.I. Plainfield, Philip Marsley-Ground, and the Wend Plainfield in Monipo. Four matches will be played daily, and several teams are expected to have members of San Lucia's successful Winner Islands and the 15 Cricket team among their ranks. Now to Schools Volleyball. The Ministry will be staging a Schools Volleyball Festival on Thursday, February 7th at the V.G. Mullipurper Sports Complex. It's a teaser head of male and female under-20 competition due to commence February 12th. Thursday's Festival is also open to both primary and secondary schools. Isabel Alexander Markey is School Sports Coordinator at the Ministry of Development and Sports. And what it is it is geared towards is sensitizing all those schools, the players from the various schools in the under-20 category, notwithstanding since our coaches have also been working with the primary schools, they are also invited to that festival. So it is not competition to say, but you get a feel of the different skills and drills of volleyball and we will come in it with maybe a four-side volleyball scrimmage between the teams, whichever how many teams that we are able to muster out of the schools that are common word for the festival. That's our update from Youth Development and Sports. I'm Ryan O'Brien. When the authority of the heads of government of the OECS and its other ministerial councils meet and adopt policies for the organization, they rely on the OECS commission to transform these into action. The OECS commission is the secretariat of the organization, a grouping of officials headed by a director general, mandated to implement the decisions of the government, but also empower to make recommendations on the strategic directions of the organization. The OECS commission organizes meetings, prepares budgets, conducts research, undertakes projects, negotiates for and represents the OECS member states. It is organized along several components. There are the commissioners from each member state who along with the director general form the commission that oversees the work programs. There are also technical divisions with specialized 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 And this is NTN Nightly. Almost 10 schools in St. Lucia are set to benefit from book donations from the non-profit organization Hands Across the Sea. More in this report from Alicia Ali. Hands Across the Sea is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising the literacy levels of children in the eastern Caribbean. To date, the organization has partnered with the government and civil society to complete over 90 projects on island reaching almost 30,000 children. Clara Paul is one of the literacy links for Hands Across the Sea in St. Lucia. She said she is encouraged by the strides that have been made thus far. Every year, Hands Across the Sea purchase tens of thousands of only new children's books from the publishers. All books are sent, all books sent are selected purposefully for the students in mind. We link with principals, teachers and Peace Corps volunteers who are in some of the schools to get a wish list that we use to put the books together. In this project cycle, almost 10 schools will have in-house libraries with completely new books catering to every skill level and competency. Education officials say they are elated and encouraged by this development. We at the Ancelary Primary School are extremely grateful this afternoon for the opening of the Ancelary Primary Schools library. This resource is of vital importance to the school in its quest to encourage and motivate pupils to read. I am hoping that with the opening of our school library today that our students can continue in the quest to achieve even greater heights as Hon. Derek Walcott himself would have said. We are going to read more, we are going to know more, we are going to explore more and I am hoping also that makes us better people. The special education unit is always excited when members of civil society and the corporate community take an interest in supporting special education. My excitement is partly because sometimes it feels as if we in the special education family are engaged in the struggles all alone. It feels that way sometimes. But when you make a contribution to special education like you are doing today and we are here to celebrate what you have contributed you are showing us that you are standing with us shoulder to shoulder. In addition to donating new books hands across the sea works with schools to create or rejuvenate lending libraries and partners with the schools to ensure the gains in literacy are sustained. The beneficiaries during this cycle are the Ancelere Primary School, the Forsay Jack Primary School, Lady Gordon Opportunity Centre, the Saint Aloysius Artsy Boys Primary School, the Roblo Combined School, the Laquamengo Combined School, Diga Combined School, Beanfield Secondary School and the Antropo Secondary School. From the Communications Unit in the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development, I am Alicia Alley reporting. The electrical division within the Ministry of Infrastructure, Ports, Energy and Labor is embarking on a public education drive on the legal requirements for routine inspections of domestic and commercial electrical connections. The Electricity Supply Act which regulates the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity on St. Lucia, stipulates that all connections must undergo periodic inspections. According to the law, all commercial establishments must have electrical inspections done every two years, and for domestic connections the inspections must be done every five years. All swimming pools must undergo annual inspections. Citizens and business owners are advised that they are to hire a certified electrician as part of the procedures for applying with the electrical division for an inspection. The electrical division plans to hold meetings with key stakeholders to promote greater adherence to the law. And that brings us to the end of the NTN Nightly. Join us next time at 7pm with a repeat at 7.30am. You can also catch up with us any time on the St Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel.