 It's a very important youth month for me as Minister because we are going to finally see the serious progress made on our national youth policy. Youth policy is a very important document that will guide how we develop our young people over the next couple of years. And so we will be having the launch of that youth program. In other words, in addition to that, this month we are also looking to ensure that we have a sports policy for St. Lucia. That is another very huge document that will really guide how we develop our sport in progress over the next couple of years. This year in youth month we will also see the final launch of Skills 758, an app that is getting all the skills on Island at a one stop shop available to St. Lucia in search of employees also in the OECS and of course the rest of the world. So we're excited about that and of course we'll have our usual youth parliament and activities going on in every nook and cranny in this nation. Very good. I was astonished when I spoke to some of the younger individuals and I said this in my brief remarks when Julian came in, the Cicero Primary School, we saw a number of the students in uniform and I went over to them at the UNR International Airport and I asked who is going to be the next Julian Alfred and male and female put their hand up. And so for me that shows that she's been a transformative figure for both male and female in this nation and I think having her on display like this only will motivate young people to see when you actually accomplish something for your country how much they will appreciate you and so I mean it was really amazing to see I mean the taboo dancers, the taboo itself, the stilt walkers and I mean the young people and I mean it was really heartwarming to see Julian emotional when she got to Cicero where she was born and raised. So I mean we as a government we believe in young people and we believe that when young people achieve good things we need to acknowledge it. We have so much about the negative ills in our society and when we have you and young person doing so well it's only incumbent upon us to ensure that the whole world knows and I think the whole world knows that St. Lucia truly appreciates the efforts of Julian Alfred and we as a government will continue to ensure that we do that as much as possible in August when she brings home that first Olympic medal. Absolutely absolutely yeah the ambition I have as a Minister of Sport is for us to have a 400 meter track available to our athletes north south east and west. It's an ambition that I have and I don't think we'll be able to achieve it within two and a half years off a storm but it is something I believe we need to have available to athletes and it's not just to athletes when you have a track north south east west you have the elderly being able to use it on afternoons in the community being a healthier community but talent identification when you have a 400 meter track available to a community it just means that very early on one of the first things in sport and people ask why am I so passionate about track and field is because I know it's the simplest sport to identify talent every single one of us here and anybody who's heard my voice they would admit that one of the first things they are one of the first experiences they had when they were on a field was to challenge the next person to see who was faster I faster than you are you faster than me no no no and so when you invest in facilities north south east and west we really will continue to develop track and field in Saint Lucia and so with the sports policy we would see also that there's a facilities management side of the policy the facilities upgrade and we've passed that part a long time ago and so we certainly hoping that as the year goes by within our year of infrastructure and within the amount set aside by the Prime Minister that we can have some significant upgrades to most of our facilities the George Audemstadium in terms of the rehabilitation the Minister of Finance would be able to finish with a lot more information as it pertains to timelines as it pertains to contracts as it pertains to the dynamics of reestablishing the George Audemstadium I will see that is a very ambitious project it's a project that would require a significant amount in investment because it is going to be one of the registered facilities worldwide globally the Olympic movement would have to come in and ensure that all the works are done properly and so the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports will continue to be the technical guidance for all the works that are going on there but for now that is all I have in terms of information on how we move forward in reestablishing the George Audemstadium we have 15 projects ongoing in the constituency of Grosjele four of them are major projects including the Darren Sammy Cricket Grounds including the Aquatic Center including the the Grosjele recreational area and including the Grosjele Plain Field being transitioned into a mini stadium but these are creating impacts because we have a lot of young people employed and I've heard a lot of people say we're not seeing enough Grosjele people employed at these facilities newsflash Grosjele is a large constituency so a lot of persons who say that they are thinking of Grosjele town but we have a lot of persons from Morshi, from Deremo, from Monnier, from Grand Revere and surrounding communities employed at the Darren Sammy Cricket Grounds employed at the facility Pigeon Pigeon Island and employed at the Grosjele Plain Field right now and of course as I said a number of other projects we have the Norbert Road infrastructure being developed as well and you will see more roads being developed as we head towards World Cup. In terms of socio economic impact I think a lot of persons right now if you go to if you speak to any small business owner they will be telling you the effects of all this government has been investing in our infrastructure in every single nook and cranny businesses are starting to see better days for sure. Even social programs Grosjele have a number of social programs ongoing including a music program including a program for after school at Grand Revere including we about to launch Dress for Success in the community of Grosjele for all constituents in Grosjele who have you know difficulty in actually getting clothing to attend an interview or to go to work and so as a constituency we have a lot going on in Grosjele. I don't get much time off as a parliamentary rep for Grosjele and I'm proud of the work that we are putting in in that constituency. I think first and foremost we have to really look at ourself I think every individual has a responsibility to ensure that they take care of facilities and that was always my concern when I said left to me and I stand by this and I will say it again left to me sport is for sportsmen and women and for fans in stands that's the way I see it and so I am one of those who believe that the facilities that I for sports should be for sports and I believe that we can invest in having facilities for social events north south east and west in our country. We've had that discussion we continue to have that discussion as a cabinet. My fear has always been that when you allow people on the surface we've had irresponsible people all through our country. Person say well you can protect it by doing A, B and C but if our people do not take pride in the facility then we'll always have a situation where it's destroyed and that has always been my concern and we've seen remnants of it in the community of Souffre. I will say that when I said as a sports minister and I dare anybody to go and find a sports minister who would say otherwise no sports minister wants other activities other than sports on any facility none. I challenge anybody to go and find one that says oh let's just do it no we are concerned about it and my disappointment was not many persons of the higher echelons of sports development came out in support of what I said but now they are realizing that we cannot continue to treat VG playing field that we we cannot continue to treat Darren Sammy that we are Souffre. We need to continue the national discourse we need to find alternative venues we I have plans on how we can do this and we need to move sports in the right direction but we need to continue to move sports in the right direction in this country all right. Yes Arsenal is going to win the English Premier League and they're also going to win the Champions League. Bayern is getting six this week well I think we've started that blend and the disc government significantly this year the alternative sports is is a measure of sports tourism we had for our drag wars we had more than 500 individuals from the diaspora and other places come to St. Lucia to enjoy drag racing and the Kaka Bev. When we started the alternative sports we also thought of chess we also thought of drafts and all those other activities that the sum total of may actually attract more people on island than the traditional sport and we've seen and we've been seeing that the establishment of the aquatic center 50 meter and a 25 meter pool is also going to be a huge sports tourism initiative simply because the colder nations during their off-season they have Saint Lucia as an alternative to come and enjoy cooler weather enjoy the beach enjoy the sand and a facility in the tropics and so we certainly looking forward to the completion of that aquatic center next year and for schools to be engaged for other countries to be engaged clubs swimming clubs to be engaged to come and take part in our sports and our social life in St. Lucia. We've made attempts to bring representatives so far from clubs including Arsenal to visit St. Lucia we continue to push towards that we believe there are huge benefits to doing so we believe in offering different concessions so that they could come and enjoy St. Lucia and post St. Lucia over the social media and it's certainly something that we hoping that can get more and more traction through our semi-pro league we certainly hoping that Scouts will come down to St. Lucia and some of the big names past and present footballers will come to St. Lucia be a part of our semi-pro league part of some of the programs that we have for these young men and certainly post St. Lucia for the rest of the world to see. How ambitious is it to be in a career here? Very ambitious the dynamics of a FIFA World Cup would require something similar to what we've seen for cricket it would have to be USA St. Lucia USA the region and probably Central America but we are seeing that already Central America and North America will be hosting a version of the World Cup very soon that would have been amazing then we would have been able to boost of a George Audlum facility being available which is why this government is being very very forward-thinking and ensuring that as soon as we have individuals away from moving away to St. Jude's that we can start work on that facility in anticipation of whatever global event that the region may collectively come together to enjoy. Yes very good we we embarking on more marketing campaigns to ensure that more persons are sensitized about the semi-pro league the response from the diaspora has been overwhelming we had the sports ministers conference and every sports minister in the OECS they want to know how their footballers could come to St. Lucia to enjoy our competition but as we said we are going to crawl before we walk and run so this year it's all about our local footballers being on display and then we're going to have a transfer window and invite all clubs from all around the world to really start looking into St. Lucia and investing in the clubs it simply means that if an Arsenal team for instance invest in Eden Eve Charles in Grosly we know that the club in Grosly would yield significant benefits from that happening so this is what we've been looking at in terms of establishing the semi-pro league and it has tremendous potential yes this government did not spare any efforts in establishing the Olympic size pool for them we've we've ran into many different roadblocks on our way but I'm very very confident that before the end of next year we'll be seeing a ribbon cutting ceremony for that facility but I think they they are some of the more courageous people that we've seen in sports in St. Lucia the swimming association they've been doing they think very well organized very well put together the likes of Eddie Hazel and his team my heart goes out to them that this facility is not complete but they know that they have a minister that from day one has been working assiduously to ensure that we have this facility for swimmers in St. Lucia and I believe when we do establish that facility they would have absolutely no excuse but to produce somebody similar to Julian Alfred and I will not rest until they do good morning thank you very much I'm not sure if you want to start off with your questions if you have any yes hey hey hey so we saw the launch of Cannibal and does with anything about it and one of them being something where or it's a system where constituency representatives go for the national kind of something like that so as opposed to just a selection of contestants the contestants from one from each constituency well yeah okay I think I know some what you're saying I don't think the National Cannibal Queen pageant should be one from each constituency I believe the formula that is used is still the best formula you put out a call for persons interested and they're sending their particulars from throughout St. Lucia throughout St. Lucia and then you have the auditions of all the persons and at the end of the auditions seven or whatever number is chosen and I think that's the best way to do it the idea of doing one from each constituency and just to make sure each constituency is represented I don't think it is the right way to do it I would advise each constituency or community to have their own pageant and then probably as their pageant winner to to send in and to audition and to see if they can be selected for example in Cicero we've had our community pageant we've had persons from Cicero take part in the National Cannibal Queen pageant competition and that's how I think it should be so but you know each one has its each person have their own opinion and if there's one thing about Cannibal you can be sure of they'll always be back in Cannibal regularized you know I call it stadiums or entertainments and you know the sports minister was very I don't you know using the playing fields but you know extracurricular activity is there some impetus and frustrations you know getting more entertainment facilities in the country yeah well for sure I think I have stated previously that one of the projects we're looking at is have a youth creativity park in Kali Sak as well as a entertainment center to host mass gatherings you know and some of those shows of course you know Darren Sammy cricket ground and pigeon point is still our preferred venues my own personal thinking on it is such that I don't always shed a view that we should not use spotting facilities I think we should build facilities that are multifunctional we should spend money on proper surfaces that can take the way and tear of multiple functions and the idea of building a facility solely for cricket of solely for football I think those days are long gone I think if you spend sufficient money on a proper proper surface you can I remember when you were building bosses you in 2002 or on that time I was a permanent secretary then and I was overseeing the project and there's one reason I explained to them when people talked about the amount we were spending on the outfield at both is you and I said that's why we spend in so much money on a grass on our son outfaker we were the first cricket ground to have a son cap you know in the outfield is forced to be able to have multiple functions and very easy to restore it because of the nature of the surface but there are some sports people I believe a spotting facility must only be sports and nothing else however I am sensitive to the fact that we need to have dedicated facilities so you don't have to put off spotting events because you're going to have a entertainment event if you primarily a spotting event you're spotting a spotting venue your spotting venue and for you not to have you know spotting events because you have in other mass crowd events that's why I believe I will support the establishment of a entertainment center I have severe difficulties for example of the Central National Trust and how they they manage in Pigeon Island and some of the the challenges you know that event promoters and even the government is you know trying to use it but again you know you constantly dialogue and you try to work it out we have to understand we are an island with limited space and limited facilities and we have to make it work and that's that's really critical so yeah we are looking at building an entertainment center and hopefully it will be dedicated but even in designing it in my mind but why can't we design it so some spotting discipline can also use it because we can decide to put in the surface gravel or some hard surface but it means the rugby players cannot use it rugby doesn't have a home in Zaloja where they use luckily replay in field which is not the best surface for rugby but if you create a facility when you're not using it for entertainment some the guys in goodlands can use it as a play in field you know I'm saying because the idea of in our limited resources having you know such dedicated facilities for me is a bit limited I'm borrowing the the dependence on the government you know to provide this we know the private sector we know of the gate team of clerks you know you know there were private entities who would show up would there be some kind of incentive you know to allow these private entities to at least compliment what the government is you know looking to push well I think if any entity wants to set up any private interest wants to set up an entity venue they can approach government for incentives you know that that for me is a is a no brainer and government would always be willing to look at us drawing back to carnival we know that with the increased promotion of carnival concerns have been raised that our culture is being lost and that it is becoming over sexualized what are your thoughts on this well we've been through that maintenance before carnival is our culture is part of our culture culture is dynamic is not static is not frozen in time you know culture will change they'll be unwanted influences and they'll be welcome influences and we've been through that you know so many times in in the past you know I even remember many years ago I was associated with carnival ban and they are more than things that have been said about bikinis and bikini and bra and you know and you know basically the concerns that it should still be very traditional and it should not be just beads and bikini and bra and it's all about finding the right balance and making sure you have a multiplicity of interest represented in the art form I mean who says you cannot have a theme vibrant theme even historical theme represented you know in the traditional forms you know does it always have to be you know a lot of cloth and coal pot on your head and you know that kind of stuff for you to be traditional so I really believe you you have to have all ideas content all influences shown we must at the same time though recognize that we must keep something which is distinctively solution about it about the product there must be our big support of King and Queen of the bands for example because I believe no place where you get great expression of creativity and design than in the King and Queen of the bands so you have to have those elements you must support those aspects of the mass that are of historical significance and put in an emphasis on creativity what not but at the same time you have to respond to market demand to some extent you know when you look at it for case of Calypso government virtually funds 90% of all expenses for Calypso in St. Lucia literally King and Queen of the bands look at you know panorama is another one government puts in a lot of money that carnival bands and maybe the Soka shows can be and the private parties you know make money but the other elements don't and government has to come in to support it so we need to constantly be aware that we should manage unwanted influences and really promote the more welcoming aspects of it after last year's carnival the Christian Council actually met with me to express their views I think the Ashby shop had penned a piece about you know the Bamba mall and some of those other aspects and we had a frank dialogue on it and we did agree to work with the church and hopefully we will be you'll be seeing that reflected in this year's carnival where we will have a moral responsibility campaign to say to persons carnival because it's carnival it doesn't mean you have to be a load and you have to be you know behaving in inappropriate ways it doesn't mean that you can enjoy yourself without crossing the boundaries and we will work with the church and they provide spiritual guidance for us to reinforce those messages the same way last year we started a campaign to drink and live responsibly to say to individuals you don't have to get drunk to enjoy carnival you know and also you don't have to drink all those carbonated drinks high sugar you know so you can you know enjoy carnival and live responsibly so we had water stops along the way we tried to promote you know coke zero for example or coke nose no sugar whichever one because we want persons to enjoy carnival and to live responsibly we want them to enjoy carnival and act in with moral responsibility and you will see more of those messages reflected okay um you mentioned the national trust I brought something back to mind whenever we talk about cultural preservation and these things especially for what happened in River Dory I mean the the main thing is is money there needs to be a lot of significant investment by the government to preserve this and to continue preserving it so from your standpoint as culture minister what can you say is the government's position on continuing to invest for the preservation of culture well the government is doing quite a lot you just look at the estimates for the last three years since this government came in and you will see the significant increases in allocation for creative industries and culture I mean this year alone we increased it by 700 thousand dollars more money has been made available to the cdf for training and development programs you will see quite a lot of money being put in for training for dance you know for for musicians there's quite a lot we've put in more money in la rose la margaret we've sat in emancipation month celebration we've put in more money in um creole heritage month um there's a lot more resources have been put in in the last three years in creative culture worked up of the government and it's because we believe in providing support and as we I mean we've achieved some major um you know objectives in tourism and you'll see this year and next year we're shifting more towards the creatives and the culture um because we believe those are essential components of our national development okay so we recently saw the launch of the jazz seducia jazz and arts festival last year we had some stage management issues with artists what has been being put in place this year to prevent this from happening um some of those issues really be on your control um you set your standards for how you want your event um to be managed and unfold and you expect artists to to fall in line and you manage it as best as you can um we are festival 30 odd years um we have a certain reputation certain standards and that's going to be it so we're going to continue to work with artists as much as possible to make sure um that you know we've made the obligations um we have under the contract and likewise they do um so I'm hoping we have no um you know aberrations this year and that all will be okay in fact we're looking forward to having a phenomenal art and jazz festival this year it's really going to be special from all indications ticket sales are ahead of what it was last year and last year was massive in terms of attendance um the planning we're going to refine quite a few elements so the traffic management was our biggest deficiency last year and we're going to put in place and very soon there'll be a public announcement of the traffic management plan for jazz solutions are I'm calling on all solutions to um to cooperate with the arrangements to find out about it and if everybody just cooperates we'll have a fantastic um system in place um so I'm really looking forward to it I think the look and feel of the venue will be enhanced so last year people were really blown away with the lighting um this year will be even better so they can expect to see a real fantastic look and feel um the layout will be improved even more um so persons going there will find it easier to get the food and the drink and you know so it it would be really great this year and of course can evolve too I believe will be epic this year CPL says uh they generated approximately 55 million U.S. dollars while Bitcoin is that a good return on investment but what are your thoughts about that? Well um yeah I saw the data from CPL um I've had a long experience in especially cricket the economic impact of cricket um so I'm a big supporter of sports and the impact it can have and we we believe the CPL is value for money um we've had some frank exchanges of CPL where we believe we can be better and where we believe they can also be better in terms of delivering a product that can even bring greater benefits um to us um some of the challenges in the last couple years were not CPL's responsibilities are fault because regional travel as we know is still quite challenging but um we believe the CPL can go even more and we believe it can have an even greater impact in St. Lucia so we we are working with them this year um to ensure that happens second piece of data if you review a preview to it already uh the central statistic office has said that the unemployment average of about 14% internationally last year is at a good number and why should any government or your government be proud of that? Well I mean we're very proud of it and we're working to bring even lower even lower and I think with the projects that Prime Minister announced during the estimates and some of the announcements he will make at the policy statement the end of April you will see there's a lot of space for optimism that the number will go even lower and we are working hard to do so um what will be critical for us is to make sure that solutions make use of the opportunities that exist because it doesn't make sense that jobs have been created because there are new hotels new investment projects and infrastructural development taking place in the country and jobs have been created and our people you know are still saying there are no jobs and the developers are saying look we need persons to work and that that issue has to be resolved um you know we really need to do a lot of training until both soft skills training as well as skills training hard skills training for our unemployed because it's one thing to say come to a skills training class 92 basic masonry carpentry whatnot but the attitude is not there the idea of waking up five o'clock getting ready to take the bus at seven to get to a site for eight o'clock and to work eight to four and then to go home and to come back and do it next morning is a discipline and we need to reinforce and make sure that persons who want work are developing the attitudinal um dispositions needed for that kind of work and you know we really have to talk about productivity as well because developers are saying to you you you or even employers that they really have an issue of productivity so there are challenges for us in the society generally but i expect the number to go even lower um the lower the number goes the lower it goes is the better for the country it means more of our citizens are productively engaged they are earning revenue the earning money they can spend on their families and that you know is better for everybody so certainly working hard for us so make it even better yeah these are free access to the shengen region is at risk because what's the status of our visa free access well i i i read the statement made by Dominic Fede and i must add difficulty even understanding the statement seriously um because it just did not make sense to me and maybe someone in the media can you know help him out a bit so for example he speaks well last year after the announcement was made that Dominica had lost their visa free to the uk they said solution was losing it and it's because of cip blah blah blah that has not happened solution did not sign the moa and now we're going to lose europe for the same thing but in his statement he makes some strange strange um well claims one of which is the reduction of the price from 200 000 to 100 000 but i was done by his government why we we're not responsible for this when we passed legislation in 2015 for the cip we had 200 000 we had an annual limit of 500 we had a net worth of three million dollars we we had those in place they removed it they reduced the prices to bring it in line with the other islands and then to claim that they are the ones we are the ones who reduce the price but could you be part of a government you reduce the price we went to parliament we had a parliamentary debate on it and boldly post and send a statement to an outlet media outlet saying that it was the last this government that did it he spoke about you know the the russia and senator was the last to put sanctions on russian applications but that's not true i mean we were among the first to do so but we said when you were doing it we already had people who had applied in the system and i remember coming in this room and explaining that we cannot just throw them out i mean we're likely to be sued there people we have approved and are waiting to make their final investment you cannot just remove them you know those people have legal rights and in any case we were asking genuine questions does it apply to everybody who was born in russia or is it persons living in russia because there are russians living in united states because of the war they would not be able to get renewals of their passports they need travel documents they already worked in the united states they have american visas to allow them to work there they've been cleared already why can't we consider them so we there was a discussion going on and that's how responsible governments act so the idea that st lusher and this government was the last it's not true and let me just repeat our position on the moa every provision of the moa st lusher supports except one the provisions of the moa we've already implemented them some of them are in our legislation they're not a non-binding agreement they are they are provided by law in st lusher no other island has a more robust due diligence process in st lusher none the one provision we had a challenge with is the reduction of the the increase of the price from 100,000 to 200,000 and we wanted a discussion on it why because we were already up there the last government brought down the price in line with every country since then we have negotiated financing negotiated projects in housing in infrastructure and now they want the price to go up to 200 and we seen well look you've built all your houses all your roads all your hospitals we haven't we're just about to start well can we get a grandfather clause that says let our contract runs out and then we are prepared to increase and they decided to go ahead and sign it we have to protect the interests of st lusher we have to protect the interests of our people and our view is that we're not against it we wanted it from 2015 to be like that in fact modern justice we wanted an annual quota we wanted a network for each individual applying those who the standard st lusher had set so we have no difficulty in putting in place arrangements thing and we support the efforts of their countries but we were saying give us some time so we can exhaust our arrangements that we have in place and we're still hoping at the end of the day you know some of our suggestions because I mean I'm sure prime minister now is in Brussels and he'll be meeting over the next couple days so lusher has quite a few suggestions we want to make as to how to strengthen the program and we hope when we present it they will all be agreed to thank you very much