 Welcome to Nation Beat. I am General Norville bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St. Lucia. Prime Minister Hon. Alan Sharpton receives overwhelming support as his stewardship is questioned. The NCA receives a helping hand in keeping the beaches clean and the community of Canaries working together for the common good. The House of Assembly spoke loud and clear from Tuesday through the wee hours of Wednesday, January 30, 2018 when government MPs strongly reiterated their unequivocal support for and confidence in Prime Minister Hon. Alan Michael Sharsney. The failure of the opposition's motion comes just two years after the St. Lucia Labour Party was voted out of office in favour of the United Workers' Party on June 6, 2016. 11 MPs out of 17 voted a resounding no following a day-long debate on a no-confidence motion in the Prime Minister presented by the leader of the opposition, Hon. Philip J. Pierre and which called for the resignation of the Prime Minister. The motion was unambiguously shut down as each member was called on to register his and her vote. Hon. Gail Rigabet highlighted the Prime Minister's interest and commitment to the education sector. The view for comprehensive secondary school, a school that does very, very well the alma mater of some people in this very chamber when I walked that compound teachers and students alike said to me Minister, termites fall into our school bags into our lunch boxes and into our hair by the time I got to castries and had engaged this Prime Minister he said go ahead and do what you need to do for the A-level block where the termites were falling in the hair of children, in the hair of teachers in their lunch boxes and their school bags and by the way the termites preceded us but it was this Prime Minister who gave us the resources to rehabilitate that block. Yes, in Viewport South incidentally. But let me say further outside that he gave later on in the year to address similar issues in other schools around the country. MP spoke to the Road Rehabilitation Programme the upsurge in the tourism industry the rehabilitation of schools the decrease in unemployment the support to the police force projects for the south of the island and the renewed investor confidence in St. Dusha as a whole. We speak about roads, maintenance and roads we speak about roads being done under the previous government what roads have been done under the previous government tell us what roads have been done under the previous government tell us the roads you know we have an extensive road rehabilitation program that has started and is continuing and Mr Speaker the people are no longer blind the people can see what has been done on the ground. Prime Minister Shasne was credited for the signs of recovery in the economy after years of significant low growth. Meantime Prime Minister Shasne updated the house on the excise tax on fuel in a detailed report the Prime Minister informed that government in maintaining stability in the retail sector raised rising global oil prices registered losses between the period July 3, 2017 and December 9, 2018 the excise tax collected was $3.24 for gasoline and $3.71 for diesel and not the stipulated $4 for the period July 17, 2017 and March 2018 $49.6 million was collected compared to $59.9 million had the tax been at $4 so what that means is that when the price of fuel dropped below the level that would have justified a $13.95 rate government maintained the $13.95 rate in order to be able to recoup some of the $9 million shortfall this year and $9 million shortfall from the previous year we're really trying to just recoup some of the money from then in addition to that all expectations have been that the price of fuel is going to go right back up we see what is taking place in Venezuela we see what's taking place in the Middle East and all the pundits indicate they expect that the price is going to go back up Prime Minister Alan Shasne the National Conservation Authority NCA has received a helping hand keeping the beaches clean thanks to Harry Spains teaming up to clean up is the slogan being used by Harry Spains in Glutia Limited as the corporate entity strives to play its part to create a cleaner synclutia the entity on Wednesday donated garbage receptacles for beach use to the National Conservation Authority NCA retail services representative for Harry Spains in Glutia Limited Kathy Charles Johnny explained the significance of the entity fulfilling its corporate responsibilities so now this partnership with the NCA is right on par with what we're doing which is the beautification of synclutia and the timing is ideal because we're looking at the 40th anniversary of independence and this is going to work well into keeping synclutia beautiful 40 years of a beautiful independence and we want to continue right along that path and as a corporate sponsor we are very pleased to be part of such an occasion we've done it in the past and we look forward to doing it in the future as well the donation comes as the indiscriminate dumping of garbage on beaches continue to pose a serious threat to marine life health risk to beach users and members of the public Chairman of the National Conservation Authority and Mayor of Grozile James Edwin described the gesture as timely we are about to celebrate our 40th anniversary of independence and I know as part of the whole programming for the celebration there is plan for a national cleanup campaign now I know that the National Conservation Authority is tasked with the responsibility of conserving certain areas as far as conservation practices and keeping our beaches clean so this presentation this morning of those receptacles I know will go a very long way with Harris Paine starting up this initiative this is exactly what we are looking for from corporate partners to be sensitive to issues like that issues of our environmental concerns and to act Edwin also challenges Harris Paine St. Lucia Limited to collaborate with the Grozile constituency council in a bid to assist with its beautification cleanup and restoration campaign General Manager of the NCA Jacinta Lee urged members of the public to practice what is more responsible disposal of garbage people need to respect those bins they are very nice so they might be stolen and I hope that doesn't happen but the other thing too and the experiences we've had with bins is that people place dead animals in the bins and it's not fair to our cleaners our conservation assistants who have to deal with maggots so we are hoping that this doesn't happen this time around we will be enclosing the bins so it will be very difficult for people to place large objects in there Harris Paine St. Lucia has also donated garbage receptacles to other entities including ancillary fish fry as well as ancillary infant and primary school we are back in a moment there are signs everywhere pay attention whether you are male or female visit your health center to get screened it's a preliminary test to determine if you are exposed to the HIV virus an STI or tuberculosis some people who are HIV positive also have tuberculosis but there is hope tuberculosis can be cured and yes you can live a full life with HIV talk to your doctor be responsible stop the spread of TB, HIV encourage everyone to get tested welcome back prime minister and minister for finance economic growth, job creation external affairs and the public service the honorable Alan Chastney on Wednesday moved to make amendments to the national honors and awards bill according to the prime minister the change would facilitate more individuals receiving national awards annually with our highest award which is the San Lucia Cross previously the committee was limited to being able to give two awards in three years so there was no more than three persons in any two successive years that were permitted to get the award and we are making an amendment to allow for there to be two awards per year so in essence we are increasing the allocation instead of having three people over two years we are going to have four people over the two years and the intention here Mr. Speaker is to basically have one award on a regular basis which will be given to an outstanding international individual prime minister Chastney explained that part of the aim is to ensure that the deserving members of the international community are able to receive awards as well what we would like to be able to do is to associate our award with persons internationally that stand up to the same values as our country very similar and I am certainly lofty with regards to the noble lawyer being able to issue awards internationally to support people that share their values of their country so the intention here is not to dilute the award because I think that was a concern in terms of recognizing that many people on a per annum basis but to at least reserve one of the awards that would be specifically for the international and I look forward to the support of members in this amendment that we are making the community of Canaries is another step closer to realizing the goal of acquiring an ambulance appliance and it's your Antoine reports under the patronage of the parliamentary representative for ancillary canaries the St. Lucia social development fund and the canaries UK association are undertaking a number of fundraising initiatives to procure an ambulance for the community of canaries one of several fundraisers was a lunch and auction supported by the business community at Royalton Beach Resort and Spa on Sunday January 27th Andrew Lansico is the head of the canaries ambulance fundraisers in committee the support have been overwhelming we originally planned on having an activity catering for about 250 people but level of interest and support that we have gotten we have even had to increase it to 300 so we are indeed grateful for the corporate partners and the locals as well who have come forward and showed that they are interested and willing to assist us in our quest to bring back our ambulance service to our village the community which was previously serviced by an ambulance for over 20 years has been without that service for the last four years parliamentary representative for ancillary canaries Honourable Dominique Fele expressed his gratitude towards the Ministry of Health for their support great support from the Ministry of Health I want to thank them for making sure that they are the ones who are paying for the driver of the facility paying for the staff personnel they are taking care of all the insurance as well and all of the maintenance costs will be beared for by the government of St Lucia so this is a good partnership between the government of St Lucia and the people of canaries and as the parliamentary representative I am extremely gratified we also have the canaries UK association they have agreed to do a fundraiser as well to aid our efforts so that we can see the goal of an ambulance being met Honourable Dominique Fele also expressed his appreciation to the village council members for their contribution towards making the initiative a success from the Government Information Service I am Anisia Antoine reporting That's Nation Beat Join us next time on NTN at 7.30pm with a repeat at 7.30am and on this station as we fill the pulse and heart of our community You can also catch up with us anytime on the St Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel I am Honourable