 Mr. Speaker, at the end of this session of parliament, one of us in this chamber will walk home with the trophy for having the record of having walked out of this house more than anyone else in 40 to 50 years, modern Johnny Walker. Mr. Speaker, I have been here, I have been here, Mr. Speaker, from 1987 with the brick of nine years. I have never walked out of this chamber, never. I have seen other members walk out in my time, but for purpose, for purpose to demonstrate a point and to show that as a consequence of their position, they are walking out. But there's one member inside there, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Walker. Mr. Walker walks out every time certain members stand up to speak in this parliament. And so it's the demonstration of an individual, and I remember one member in the last sitting said, it's the demonstration of an individual who doesn't have the gonads to sit here and debate like a mature man and take his blows when the blows come. So he can come back. I saw a photo this afternoon, Mr. Speaker, of a garbage truck with a man sitting in the back of it heading to there. So they try all kinds of things, they're in, they're out, they're heading all over the place to gain prominence, to gain acceptance, but this government, Mr. Speaker, that I belong to, that I am proud that I took the decision to come to this side will never, ever in this term, reduce itself to the nonsense that I see here. Mr. Speaker, we have come today to debate the motion on the estimates of expenditure for the year 2024-25. Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister made his presentation, he very graciously presented the estimates and highlighted all of the areas of performances, challenges, achievements and of course vision. Of course, you know, we've heard before certain members say, well, I need to see your speech. But Mr. Speaker, what we are debating here is the motion, not a speech presented by the Prime Minister, what we are debating here is this. That is what we are debating, not the manner in which the presentation is crafted in the use of language. It is what is inside here to be able to sit down diligently and go through the estimates and if you don't understand, get somebody to at least show you what to do or to get you to understand. And so, Mr. Speaker, what we have come here to do is to debate those figures. Those figures, Mr. Speaker, then will be reflected in policy at a later date when it is presented on the 23rd of April for debate among the members of this Honourable House. And so, Mr. Speaker, I stand with much dignity, pride and conviction in supporting the motion before I say today in supporting that motion to approve the amount of 1.894 $110,800 as the revenue estimates of revenue and expenditure for the financial year 2024-2025. But, Mr. Speaker, before proceeding in that direction and to deal with the section which pertains to the portfolios that I hold, I believe it is necessary, Mr. Speaker, for me to have a kind of review of where we came from and where we are today. Mr. Speaker, in the current financial year which is coming to an end, I stand here proudly to reflect on some of the achievements of the Department of Infrastructure, particularly the Department of Infrastructure, Mr. Speaker, notwithstanding weather conditions, notwithstanding some of the elements highlighted by the Parliamentary Representative for Grosley in terms of the volume of vehicles now on our roads, the axle weight of vehicles, the damage that they do to our communities, et cetera, et cetera. Notwithstanding all of those challenges, Mr. Speaker, notwithstanding the burdens left behind for us to undertake in payment of debt, this Government, Mr. Speaker, under the brilliant stewardship of the Honourable Philip Joseph Peer, we have been able to achieve, Mr. Speaker, quite a number of rooms. Member for Castries East, when you, Member for Castries North, when you refer into the Member in this House, you refer to him not by name. Yes, the Member for Castries East, yes, my apologies sir. You see, I'm so passionate about the quality of leadership that the gentleman presents, I have to sometimes misstep and to refer him by name because, Mr. Speaker, he's a man of honour, a man of dignity, a man when he speaks, you can take his word and go to the bank with him. That is the man who sits over there, Mr. Speaker. Not like those who say something, and you know, when it landed in the courthouse, they say of strangers to the truth, this man is the man of his word. So, Mr. Speaker, I apologise for my misstep. And so, Mr. Speaker, when I look back and I scan through the work that we have done in this term, we have undertaken, apart from our normal porthole in works, Mr. Speaker, we have done works to begin with in Zone 1, we have done works in terms of the reconstruction of the Pigeon Island Cosway Road, the Grossley Cap Estate Road, the Gerum Motoot Drive and Boseju, and later on I'll give some details about Boseju in Grossley. In Zone 5A, we have done work in Opicon, New Connection, Opicon Loop Gap or Gap Loop, Opicon Plainfield, Opicon to the Main Road, Opicon Compash, Bellevue, Viencel, Viesel, Bellevue, what's this? Oh, very spelled wrong here. Viencel, Bellevue Perinot Lane, Bellevue Aldonze Lane, and Bellevue Aldonze Lane Connection. In Grèce Asoucaire, Grèce Tiaver, Vend, Zone 7, Marigot, Marigot, Mr. Speaker, it was done, and Marigot is one of those roads which was on a program and removed, instructed to remove it. This government did it, Mr. Speaker. Bar Saint-Joseph, again was on the program, removed, this program was done. Bar Saint-Joseph, I'm coming to Marchion. Okay? Ansere, Venus Road, this government did it, Mr. Speaker. Okay? Jonas Road, this government did it, Mr. Speaker. And we go to Castrisis, Mr. Speaker. Marchion Road, which was on the program. Directives are given to delay it. This government did the Marchion Main Road. Commission within the same Castrisis, Boboville, Wavin-Tutel, Touge, Bocage, and in VG, Mr. Speaker, in Castrisis North, the VG Road was done through the community of VG. This government did all of those roads, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I'm not talking about roads to be built, you know, Mr. Speaker. I'm not speaking about roads to be reconstructed or rehabilitated. I'm speaking of roads which have already been done by this administration. So, when those empty germs are rolling down the road, making noise with nothing you can have a beat to. You know, people generally make or shake a leg once a germ beats. But those empty germs when they roll, Mr. Speaker, there's no beat. While those empty germs are rolling down the street, Mr. Speaker, this government of the St. Lucia Liberal Party did all of those roads. Mr. Speaker, we did and we are in presently undergoing the construction of the Osteel Hill, Denver North Road, Osteel Hill, Kazamba, Mr. Speaker, the Kazamba Road. And I think it was a member for Groesley who indicated, for 30 years the Kazamba Road was not attended to. This government has done the Kazamba Road. With the Yaminchuan Bridge, Mr. Speaker, for years on the surveillance, no resources to do it. This term, it has been done by this government, the Kazamba Bridge. Okay, Kazamba Road, with Yaminchuan Bridge, sorry. St. Jude Highway, Mr. Speaker. And I joined the parliamentary representative for VFOR North because when the instruction was given to St. Jude Highway, View Fort South, when the instruction was given to the parliamentary representative, to the engineers to get View Fort South, the St. Jude Highway done, it fell short of what should have happened. This term we come in and get it done. But we did send Jude to the Larisos Junction and we're coming back to do the Larisos Junction all the way to the View Fort Highway going into the library. Majo Mel, Mr. Speaker. Majo Mel. That road is presently under construction, Mr. Speaker, the Majo Mel Road. We are looking, Mr. Speaker, hopefully, to do the Kazamba Road and to continue, to continue, Mr. Speaker, the mission and the vision of this government of serving its people in reality, in reality. So, Mr. Speaker, these are but some. These are but some, Mr. Speaker, because even while we can boast of those roads which have been newly constructed, there are communities where we have gone in and we have done road maintenance. In fact, recently, the member for Casteries South was commending me on a work done in Sisuna, in a place called Sea View. And that and also my colleague to my right, the parliamentary rep for Miku North who also commended me on the work which was done there. But, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, when I speak of the challenges, let me give you an indication of one challenge. And the member for Grozily put it in a particular way. He said, we came in and we left with the burden of servicing debt. So the former administration went on the merry way and got loans to build road and then the debt was left behind. This Prime Minister has come here today and has said that we accept the debt but we this year will pay part of that debt upfront to give us the fiscal space to be able to undertake in a more aggressive manner, a more organized manner some of the other roads which need attention. Mr. Speaker, in last year's estimates of expenditure, there was an amount approved estimate of $109 million which appeared on the books. In the eyes of those who read, they would think, wow, what a sum of money that the Ministry of Infrastructure has been given to undertake roads. But in that amount, Mr. Speaker, an amount of $29,775,780 was ring-fenced as monies to repay the debt incurred by the former administration. Now, I am not saying that governments should distinct themselves from one administration to the other because we all say that we must continue the work of government. But do not make it to appear as if, well, hey, this government has come in, they have done nothing, they have not shown any interest in what we are doing. We have maintained our commitment and we are saying this year, apart from fulfilling our commitment of last year of paying the debt, this year we are saying we will not pay the debt in arrears, we are paying it ahead of time. And that is what the PM is saying so that it gives us more fiscal space to be able to undertake the work that has been presented to us in this fiscal year. But, Mr. Speaker, I will go back a little later to a few others as I make my presentation. But, Mr. Speaker, the Department of Infrastructure. In the recurrent, Mr. Speaker, you would recognize that head 43, an amount of $43,687,500 has been allocated. And that is the purpose of the current expenditure, which includes wages and salaries, et cetera, and other commitments normally which occur on a monthly basis. The capital expenditure includes $68,634,800, Mr. Speaker. The fiscal year, Mr. Speaker, 2025 has been declared by the Prime Minister, Minister for Finance, as the year of infrastructure. The Department of Infrastructure, Ports and Transport, coincidentally, has just completed its strategic plan dubbed Infrastructure 2030. I will come back to this. Mr. Speaker, when you listen to the presentation made by the Prime Minister, when he speaks about infrastructure, when I speak about infrastructure, Mr. Speaker, we are not simply speaking about roads, or bridges, or culverts, or drains, as Chazelle said, large drains, the vehicles are falling in. We are not just speaking about those necessities, these are necessities in infrastructure. But we are speaking about infrastructure, what I call globally, infrastructure in as far as our education infrastructure is concerned, infrastructure as far as health is concerned, infrastructure as far as sports is concerned, infrastructure as far as agriculture is concerned, because we also have to put in the necessary infrastructure of roads, security, and even, Mr. Speaker, technology. So we speak of infrastructure, infrastructure in technology, advancing our technology, public utilities in terms of water, electricity, energy, all of these, Mr. Speaker, form part of what we call the infrastructure. Apart from that, Mr. Speaker, we are also speaking about in the first structure to underpin some of the other sectors, to underpin tourism. What is the country going to be like as we move forward? What kind of infrastructure do we need? What infrastructure must we put in place as we continue to develop the country? As we speak, Mr. Speaker, we have experienced for some time in the last few months a series of shutdowns in the water sector. What they say, Mr. Speaker, is that the infrastructure is deteriorating. The water infrastructure is deteriorating. And so we can no longer sit back and wait for a busted line to repair. We need now to put a strategic plan in place to ensure that we prepare for the future. As a Minister for Tourism with his ambitious plans to develop the tourism sector and to invite, you know, investors of calibre, of integrity and quality, we need to also ensure that we put the infrastructure to underpin the tourism sector. And this goes back to what I said earlier on. The question of the strategic plan that we in the Ministry of Infrastructure has just completed and hopefully will be launched, that is Infrastructure 2050. What it is, Mr. Speaker, it is a program that entails the infrastructure as we speak about the Department of Infrastructure. But it deals with infrastructure in ports, in transport, telecommunications, public utilities, et cetera, et cetera. And to look at the infrastructure, Mr. Speaker, and to develop a policy plan, a scientific plan, a strategic plan, Mr. Speaker, that will take us to the threshold of our development in 2030. So in other words, Mr. Speaker, we at this point in 2023 must erase the deficit in infrastructure, in any part of infrastructure. And I must admit, Mr. Speaker, from day one when I mentioned this initiative of Infrastructure 2030, though the Prime Minister upon the first announcement smiled, he has demonstrated his understanding and has underpinned the initiative, the idea or the vision, with what I call the practical aspect of it this year of doing the things that are needed to do in the area of infrastructure for the country. But Mr. Speaker, what this means is a Prime Minister of Discipline, a Prime Minister of Understanding, a Prime Minister who understands what it is to make commitments to the development of the country and to make the necessary sacrifices when it is needed. So when Mr. Speaker last said, the Prime Minister said, this year will be the year for security and health. And he introduced the 2.5% health and security level. What the Prime Minister was saying, listen, I understand the problem in the country. I understand the situation of security and crime, et cetera. I understand the challenges of health with the wastage that took place at St. Jude and all of the challenges in the health sector. And I am saying we all have to make a sacrifice and make a contribution of 2.5%. And that was a brave Prime Minister doing that. Not going around and making people believe that you can give them state-of-the-art facilities, but saying we all must make a small contribution of 2.5% towards the development of the infrastructure of our country, towards the development of our health sector and the development of our security in this country. And so Mr. Speaker, Infrastructure 2030 outlines the direction that the Department of Infrastructure, Ports and Transport will take over the next seven years. The primary purpose of Infrastructure 2030, which I shall elaborate further in the policy statement, is to ensure that there is alignment with the broader national development goals of the country and that infrastructure plays a major role in the sustainable growth and development of the country resulting in improved welfare to the citizens of our country. So it's more than just the physical infrastructure. It's about legislation, looking at our policies, reviewing our legislation, and speaking of legislation, the Works and Roads Act, which is a 1957 piece of legislation which governs the Department of Infrastructure, is archaic. And when you look at some of the penalties in that piece of legislation, they speak of shillings and pens and these sort of things. And so we need to look at our policies, review our policies, strengthen them, look at legislation, and make sure they're keeping up with the times. And therefore Mr. Speaker, the 2024-25 estimates of expenditure intends to commence paving the way to infrastructure 2030. This fiscal year Mr. Speaker, the Department of Infrastructure, Ports and Transport will undertake extensive roads and bridges rehabilitation. The DIPT Department of Infrastructure, Ports and Transport has an intense work program for the fiscal year. However, the department is always challenged by climate change, which I mentioned earlier on, with increased rainfall, which continues to severely impact the existing infrastructure. And this is quite evident. You drive the streets, it rains, and suddenly the next day you see portholes all over because the road is fatigued, it is stressed, and therefore it ravels. And so you have portholes appearing. Mr. Speaker, the completion of the Millennium Highway and West Coast Road reconstruction, as well as the rehabilitation of the Sir Julian R Hunt Highway and the reconstruction of the Shock Bridge will be major improvements in our road infrastructure, which will also contribute to smoother connectivity. Mr. Speaker, that is a must. Our quest in obtaining energy independence by pursuing geothermal exploration through our renewable energy sector development project, RESDP, continues this fiscal year with the commencement of drilling activities in sulfur and surrounding communities. Some of the major projects that are to be undertaken and funded under this program, funded this year, won Millennium and West Coast Road reconstruction program, rehabilitation of the Sir Julian R Hunt Highway, reconstruction of Shock Bridge, Castries East Road and Drainage Project, reconstruction and rehabilitation of major roads and renewable energy sector development project. Mr. Speaker, if I'm to refer to Head 43, Department Head 43 page 61 on the Capitol, Millennium Highway West Coast Road is one which you have been speaking about from time. I have become frustrated, the Prime Minister has become frustrated and the government itself is frustrated. This project is financed from the Caribbean Development Bank, the United Kingdom-Caribbean Infrastructure Partnership Fund. With counterpart funding from the Government of St. Lucia, the project cost is $154,310,439, comprising UK CIF 95,560, CDB 17,578,453. The objective of this project, Mr. Speaker, is to improve the condition of the Millennium Highway and 24.6 kilometres of West Coast Road, primary road network from Anselwe to Sufre. Mr. Speaker, this project which was initiated in 2015, under the leadership of the former Prime Minister, member for Viewfort South, during the tenure of Prime Minister Cameron, it's not Tony Cameron, Prime Minister Cameron of the United Kingdom, David Cameron of the United Kingdom in 2015 sought to develop projects in the Caribbean that will help improve our social and economic standing to be able to stand head and shoulders to other countries. Mr. Speaker, Lot 1, which is the Millennium Highway to Kaldisak, wronged about, which has given us a lot of problems, is identified as a section, as we all know, from the top to Kaldisak. Then you have Lot, that Lot, Mr. Speaker, the 18 months contract which commenced on August 19, 2021 has surpassed completion date. However, work continues on the side with some significant progress in recent times. Though the contractor has been tardy in completing the project, there are a number of factors that have negatively affected the progress among which are the unprecedented weather patterns on availability of materials and theft on the project site. Lot 2 being, Mr. Speaker, and I heard someone laughing, Mr. Speaker, and let me indicate that there have been a number of incidents, Mr. Speaker, of entry into the compound, theft of a number of tools and equipment affecting the contractor. This is not my information. In and out of the compound. This is not my creation. I am not in the habit of crafting lies. I am in the habit of speaking the truth. And so I am speaking the truth, as given to me by the technocrats who are supervising. Mr. Speaker, Lot 2B, construction of the Ansari Bridge, the contract was awarded to Obisado Engineering Services Limited which commenced on January 8, 2024. The project was delayed due to the contractor not gaining access to the site as a result of challenges and experience in relocating the project affected persons. Mr. Speaker, a number of people who had to be relocated. I move quickly, Mr. Speaker, on to the West Coast, the Kaldisap Bridge to Ansari Bridge, to Canaries and Canaries to Suffer Bridge. The contract has been awarded to Namalko Construction Services Limited, a company out of the island of Trinidad and Tobago. Works has commenced on Lot 2A with the construction of retaining structures and drainage and sidewalks along the road to be reconstructed. Mr. Speaker, project had 0456 page 631, slope stabilization, retaining walls, et cetera. An amount of $1.5 million has been allocated and that will be utilized to undertake repairs of slope failures that currently exist and have not been addressed within various constituencies on the island. And there is a list of constituencies where we have identified those failures for us to undertake works. Reconstruction of retaining wall at Itang's, a cost of $600,000, and I have promised the parliamentary rep for souffle of our commitment to do it and it is in the estimates. We have already commenced the process of procurement, interviewing potential contractors through the public procurement board and I believe by the time we are through with this element of the debate, of the process, we will have some serious work to be done. That slope collapsed during Hurricane Elsa in 2022 and we are well on the way to completing it. Other retaining walls, slope stabilization will be undertaken island-wide within the various constituencies. Project head 0102 page 631, reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads, $2.001 million. This allocation will facilitate road and drainage repairs along the primary and secondary road, island-wide, to bring relief to our people. And this, Mr. Speaker, may I say, is really what I call the normal program of the department. So where you have reconstruction and rehabilitation, that is the program of the ministry every year. Where you have slope stabilization, that is the program of the ministry which happens every year. The actual program for infrastructure 24 will be a separate program that will be launched in time to come in terms of announcing to the nation those projects that will be undertaken. But as we speak, Mr. Speaker, we have already started that infrastructure 2021, 2024, within the resources of the department. So if you were to drive on the Larisos Road, you will see a segment of that road being reconstructed as part of a strategy to save the East Coast Road. So if you drive along the East Coast Road, you'll notice that there are some parts that are very good and some parts that are very bad. One section that was very bad is that of the Larisos Road. So that road is being reconstructed and we're reconstructing it to a standard above what we have done ever before. So you'll see a wider carriageway. You'll see the shoulders are wider and it presents room for getting off the carriageway. And also, when it is marked and the delineators are put on the road, it will make driving at nights much easier because not only would you rely on just the white markers, but what you'll see are those what we call, some people call it reflectors. They're really delineators. So they will be placed there. And so we're hoping that we can continue that exercise, save the road because if we are to undertake the construction of the East Coast Road, Mr. Speaker, the cost of that entire road from Viewport all the way through to the Badlil is about 125 million EC dollars. That's a major investment. And so for us, it is better to save the road than to believe that we can do it to impress people. I think we have to be prudent about our spending. We have to be clinical in all that we do. The reconstruction, sorry, rivers and water cost maintenance, Mr. Speaker, this is a program that we have continuously undertaken of what we call the silting and maintaining our water courses. But I'm sure that the Parliamentary Rep for Henry South would say that rivers are not always meant to be desiltered because you interfere with the riverbed. You interfere with the hydraulics of that river. And so if you intensify the hydraulics of the river by desilting it, then it means that you're prone to more slides and more movement and erosion taking place along the river course. So Mr. Speaker, that is rivers and water costs maintenance. We then move Mr. Speaker to the shop bridge construction. This bridge, Mr. Speaker, that is head 0507 page 631. This bridge has been under constant pressure. During the Hurricane Thomas, there was some damage done. We were able to save the bridge, replace the material onto the Amco pipe and to pave it and to be able to keep it running. But over the years, what we have seen is the deterioration of the upper part of what we call the Amco pipe. It's a cylindrical galvanized structure. We have seen the deterioration taking place and through inspection it calls for reconstruction. And therefore it is estimated that that bridge will cost some $3 million for which we have already been able to source a supply of the bridge to ensure that the bridge can be built within the shortest possible time with as little downtime as possible. It's a prefabricated bridge, not a Bailey bridge, but another design of bridge that you can lay down. Once you have the head walls in place, you can lay down in no time and get your roadway open sooner than later. Rehabilitation of Sir Julian R. Hunt Highway, Mr. Speaker. We have an allocation here of $8.34 million. I will leave that piece to the Prime Minister in his policy statement to elaborate as we are attempting to do a collaboration for which we have had some positive news coming out. A collaboration which will include the Kuwaiti government, the CDB and other financiers who will build that road from the shock bridge all the way to the Gross Day Junction where the Cap Gross Day Road ends. And that will itself enhance and bring what I call greater sensibility, Mr. Speaker, to the design and construction of that road. Mr. Speaker, we move on to head 0508. Castries East Road and Drainage Project. 0508 paid 61. It reads Castries East Road and Drainage Project. Mr. Speaker, as we battle with traffic, as we attempt to manage our traffic, some of what we intend to do calls for improving what I call the secondary roads. So in the case of Gross Day Road, where we intend to do the Gross Day Road, total rehabilitation, it means that there are secondary roads which we must pay attention to. One of those roads in Gross Day Road is the VSCQI-Norbey Current, VSCQI-Norbey Into Astro-Canal. We have done some work at Astro-Canal recently and I think the rep mentioned it. We still have some more work to do there because what we are trying to do is to be able to divert traffic off the Castries Gross Day Highway, particularly traffic intended to move to the east of the highway, to go to Babunot, to get to Daimpolet Risi School, to move on to Balata and to get over to Mondadon into the valley. We believe if we can take that traffic out, then we can ease the congestion on the Castries Gross Day Highway and allow the highway to breathe. So before we start the major works on the highway in terms of building that falling highway with some other measures that we intend to take, we are saying let us go ahead and look at the VSCQI road and to make it a more attractive road, a safer road, and one that people will see as an alternative and probably a preference of a road to travel. So this will be done, Mr. Speaker. The works to be undertaken on the other hand will be at Bakatele and that is what we refer to as the Castries East Road and Drainage. That road from Marsha, which many of us use when we're heading east or south, is a very efficient road once it is cleared. But in some instances, they're bottlenecks. So what we want to do there in the first instance for $350,000 is to go in and improve the drainage system, slab the drains, and so to allow for two-way traffic without interruption. It means again that instead of congesting the city, what will happen is that persons heading south from north, once they hit the shock roundabout, they enter into Vibhutel on to Shosie Road, hit the Marsha Road on to Bakatele and into the valley via Trappito and into the aglow. So Mr. Speaker, that is the intention of this project. It includes the side clearance, the reconstruction of drains, to include box drains and curb and slipper drains, installation of dog bones and slabbing of the drain, construction and installation of reinforced concrete drain covers and slabs. While we speak of this, Mr. Speaker, one of the projects which should have started this weekend and is already funded is the Marsha Entrance Enhancement Project. This project, Mr. Speaker, is to enhance Marsha as you enter Marsha, to make Marsha more appealing. So the government has already done the necessary groundwork in producing a design that will enhance Marsha and present a grand entry to Marsha, the constituency of the Prime Minister of St. Lucia with dignity. Mr. Speaker, this is going to be a very exciting project. No longer for demonstration. This is going to be a very exciting project, Mr. Speaker, and it will also attempt to address some of the issues of the navigation of the network of roads between Water Works Road, Marsha Road, Shosie and the Riverside Road. So probably in the whole redesign of that junction, we may be able to put in a roundabout there to allow that traffic to be able to flow around the roundabout, get into Marsha, coming from an acute angle onto the roundabout. So Marsha people will be happy. They'll be proud. And the Prime Minister has some other great ideas for the people of Marsha, who I'm sure today are proud people. And I must say, Mr. Speaker, once upon a time Marsha had a reputation. There were people who were scared to walk in Marsha. Today is no longer. Marsha is a place for safety. Marsha, you can walk there, nobody troubles you. The streets are clean, et cetera, et cetera. Some people thought that Marsha is a place for demonstration. So you ban them from demonstrating in castles and say, go and demonstrate in Marsha. But Mr. Speaker, Marsha is a place which has dignity and when you speak to the people of Marsha, the indigenous people of Marsha, Mr. Speaker, they have a lot of dignity. Mr. Speaker, supervision of major roadworks project head 0024. It's really an head, Mr. Speaker, $625,000. And it is to provide project management supervision, road maintenance management systems. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we have been criticized at the Ministry of Department of Infrastructure is the quality of project management. The ability of the department to manage project effectively, efficiently. And so what we're doing here, Mr. Speaker, is to strengthen the project management of the department in terms of procurement, technical services, to provide quality supervision and consultancy on major capital projects to be able to be more independent rather than depending on consultants in that regard. Mr. Speaker, this will make the department even more agile. One item, Mr. Speaker, that's in the estimates, project head 0505 page 61, Mr. Speaker, is road safety. $200,000, Mr. Speaker. This is the component of the government of St. Lucia. I'm sure, Mr. Speaker... Member of the guys from north, you have 15 minutes left. Okay, Mr. Speaker, I'll try to rush through. Mr. Speaker, if you look around St. Lucia, you will see an intensification of street signs, traffic signs, an intensification of guardrails. You'll see, Mr. Speaker, that pedestrian crossings have been painted more frequently. And hopefully, Mr. Speaker, the British government under the UK CIF grant program has factored into that project a road safety component that will take care of road safety throughout the country. And road safety is about education, Mr. Speaker. It's about introducing and installing street furniture. It's about putting in place traffic common measures. So many times when you build a road, immediately after people are saying, put speed bumps. Some people don't like the speed bumps, but the other traffic common measures that can be put in place, Mr. Speaker, to take care of the situation. I'll run through some other aspects of the estimates, Mr. Speaker, and the question of planning and design unit. Mr. Speaker, for some time I've been indicating the need for a planning and design unit within the Department of Infrastructure. What happens? There's no planning and design unit. When a decision is taken for a major project, Mr. Speaker, a consultancy is awarded to somebody to do the design and et cetera, et cetera. We are saying, Mr. Speaker, the time has come to have a planning and design unit so that we can vision where we are going. And once we have that vision, Mr. Speaker, we can begin to prepare the designs and when the time comes for implementation, it's ready to go to be implemented. Upgrade of the materials laboratory, Mr. Speaker. Again, with our intention to improve quality. Quality control, Mr. Speaker. We will be upgrading the materials lab so we can do better testing of the quality of material that we use on the road. As people are saying, the road is patched and the next thing the rain comes and it unravels. Mr. Speaker, this year the Taiwanese government has been approached to look and to collaborate with us in terms of one strengthening our materials laboratory through technical cooperation, assisting us in road safety, et cetera, and also giving us support in areas of traffic management, doing traffic management studies to be able to plan scientifically the issue of our traffic in this country. Maintenance of government buildings, Mr. Speaker, the usual thing, $1.5 million. The union office complex, Mr. Speaker, there is some expenditure to be done in that area considering that the government now has paid off that building and there are some works to be done to enhance the environment. The Denry Mechanical Workshop, Mr. Speaker, we are strengthening the Denry Mechanical Workshop so as to be able to better service the public service of vehicles. Government House, Mr. Speaker, it's an old facility, an old building and so we have habitation of the fencing. There's the replacement of a generator and the habitation of a section of the road to Government House. Prime Minister's residence, Mr. Speaker, well, of course, one effort was made some time ago to do some repairs to the residents, but instead a whole block was demolished. Mr. Speaker, an allocation of $431,200 has been allocated to deal with the roof upgrade of surveillance system and the erection of chain link fence around the property. Then, Mr. Speaker, we have disaster vulnerability resilience recovery and that pertains to bridges and culverts which are spoken about extensively. That of Mr. Speaker will be dealt with during this year under that head of $500,000. Head, 22 Mr. Speaker, reconstruction of bridges, the cul-de-sac bridge, there is still a final amount to be paid of $400,000, Mr. Speaker, to conclude that project and to connect the bridge with the Millennium Highway and West Coast Road. Sustainable energy sector development project, Mr. Speaker, I will deal with that extensively in the policy statement so as to give a full understanding of what we are doing, how we intend to proceed in terms of legislation, policy, legislation, et cetera, and the intention of the government as far as renewable energy is concerned. Electricity supply bill, Mr. Speaker, the national energy policy has been completed and approved by the cabinet of ministers and will be widely disseminated and then the modern legislation will be sent to cabinet for some onward transmission to parliament. There has been some increase in recurrent expenditure, Mr. Speaker, and these are trivial, but it pertains to the Warrity Unit in bringing in more officers. The Chief Engineer's office, in other words, capacity building in a number of those offices, including the buildings and grounds unit improving their capacity. I want to quickly just mention, Mr. Speaker, in closing just a few other matters, one of them being the division of telecommunications, the telecommunications unit. There's a provision for $400,000, a provision for digital telecommunication subsidy. What that is, Mr. Speaker, this government two years ago in conjunction with Flow, we were able to negotiate at a very concessionary rate a program called the Home Communication Bundle in which we were able 5,000 St. Lucian families under the threshold who cannot afford to have connectivity, internet connectivity. We were able to help them out. Digital has now come forward to the government and I said, listen, we would like to do the same thing. And they have also been negotiating a very concessionary rate with us and the government's contribution on an annual basis will be just $400,000. Now that is not going to be coming directly out of the government's coffers because under the arrangements of the NTRC and ECTEL, every year the government is able to get what they call a surplus out of the budget of ECTEL which comes to the government and that can be used for such programs as these to provide to the underprivileged, the people who we care to help them get the kind of services that they're looking at. I just want to gloss through, Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have? Five, eight minutes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll try to run through this. The land registry, Mr. Speaker, which is within the Department of Physical Development is the problem, Mr. Speaker. We have undertaken to do a number of changes there and to try and see how we can enhance the efficiency of the department. We are now at the juncture where we are speaking to the World Bank to digitize the land registry. And I think that is so important because what it means, Mr. Speaker, if we are able to digitize the land registry, it means that the information that we sit there on that we waste so much time to be able to stand outside and to take the line and to get in there. We can enhance the program in such a way that, you know, the lawyers, for example, from the office on the desktop can log into the system, get the information without being able to compromise the information and to make the application for whatever it is they're looking for and get it within a very short space of time. That we'll call for training of staff, some kind of also movement of staff too. We're working on this, Mr. Speaker, and that also includes one expansion of the vault and the investment in the program that the World Bank is funding. Part of our contribution is $115,313. We constantly do heating, ventilation and air conditioning system improvements, and that will cost $223,000, what we call the HVAC. Then we also have the Labry Square Market, which is probably the main project for the department at this time, Labry Square Market Rehabilitation. That project this year, it's going to be $1.5 million in grant and $1.329 million in bonds. The project has already started and we're hoping that very soon we will complete it. Land administration, Mr. Speaker, it's a major problem. The issue where the government for decades have acquired persons' private property and when the time comes for payment we are unable to pay or we just refuse to pay them. This government this year made a tremendous mark in not just allocating resources for payment to landowners but what we have been able to do is actually pay the landowners. We have spent this year well over $4 million for land administration system where we will look at the lands which have been acquired over the years and ask ourselves, do we really need those lands? If we do not need the lands, let us give it back and just pay them the interest and save our money. We also believe, Mr. Speaker, that we need to look at this Five minutes left. I want to say that we are looking at the issue of land administration that when we undertake projects that the cost of acquisition must be factored into the cost of the project. It is not a situation where you say the acquisition of the land is $250,000 and we will put it under the budget of the Ministry of Physical Development. It must be factored into the cost of the project and so government must get the money up front so as to pay the owners of the land. I shall go into even greater detail, Mr. Speaker, during the policy statement and to address a number of other issues which today I have not been able to deal with. One issue I just want to mention, I forgot when I was discussing the issue of the Julian-Arrant Highway is some soft measures that we intend to take and we should have started on Tuesday. I think there were some delays and that is how do we come the traffic along that highway? Particularly in the zone, the northern zone, north regional zone and that is from the Rodney Bay Junction down to the Bwardewanj Bridge. That section between the Bwardewanj Bridge and SNS and then as you go lower down that section from the Bwardewanj Bridge in the vicinity of the Orange Grove Plaza. Central Grovesville. Thank you, sir. So, Mr. Speaker, we have come up with an initiative that has worked in other countries and that is to design a roundabout that is not an island as we call it but develop a roundabout that can either be just a culvert that has circles marked around it and you adopt the philosophy or the practice of going around a roundabout. So, if you have say an 18-wheeler truck which needs a little more space to manoeuvre the roundabout and yes, a culvert standing in that location it means the truck can manoeuvre without having to ride the pavement and so we'll be doing the first one at the entrance of SNS the other one will be done somewhere in the vicinity of the Bwardewanj Bridge and the Orange Grove Plaza but in the long term we're hoping that what we can do is to put a roundabout smack in the middle of Orange Grove Bwardewanj Plaza and the Galaxy Station with a road going in between Bwardewanj Plaza and Galaxy Station a new bridge will be established and condemning the bridge by Computer World which with me now you can navigate a lot easily in that junction so that is the longer term plan we're looking at which would allow to manage the traffic a lot better. So, Mr. Speaker, I have come to the end I would have loved to mention a few things in my constituency but we'll have some time I want to thank the Minister for Sports for having committed to improving the LeClaire playing field LeClaire now Mr. Speaker the LeClaire Football League the LeClaire football team has moved as he said from the bottom of the ladder in second division got to semi-finals now the island champs I've worked with them Mr. Speaker and I've done a lot under my CDP to develop the team and every year I spend $1,000 for the youth development program in football and another $40,000 jointly with sponsors and CDP to provide the right coaching for the team so this is what we need to do Mr. Speaker if we are to advance in sports in every sector Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you I thought it necessary for me to highlight the LeClaire football team and the league for the work they are doing the young people have formed themselves in a cast reason of enterprise development institute called Synedy the last year before they did youth expo last year they did an enterprise expo and they work in Mr. Speaker to try and to maintain that kind of momentum in the constituency and to continue to develop the constituency I want to thank the Prime Minister for the opportunity he has given me to serve in his cabinet and the confidence that he has placed with me the trust that he has developed in me as the leader and Prime Minister and to say that I am here all the way to serve the people of this country who need the quality of service that this government has given them a quality of service that is sincere a quality of service that demonstrates commitment, a quality of service that demonstrates conviction and one of sincerity and I want to associate myself with it and to say that this year's estimates of expenditure capital and recurring certainly has my full support and I look forward to the policy I thank you