 Morning, I guess we have a couple of things brewing Julien Alfred of course off to our brilliant start to the season We know at the beginning of the season we have the shortened forms in terms of 60 meters This is where you get your impetus to drive you going forward. So we have that on going we have continued works at the Diane Sammy cricket grounds works continues at the Mendo Phillip Park just attended the Leon S secondary school Opening ceremony for the school sports and the grocery playing field is expected to be closed from tomorrow for commencement of works ahead of ICC cricket to work up In addition to that Tariq Edward returned to St. Lucia from the under 19 cricket to work up in South Africa Let's go No, you can't even send Oh Okay, so we Paris Olympics, it's a very individualistic sport in terms of track and field so we have two individuals who have Qualified and that's Michael Joseph from the community of Grozell in the 400 meters Julien Alfred in the community of Cicero in the 100 both athletes that have professional coaches Michael is in this the college system So he's still part of his college track and field team And so his training and his regimen would be based on that in terms of Michael Joseph There are a number of competitions that he's already written to me as minister of youth development and sport that he would like to participate in in preparation for the Olympics and so It is left to me to find the funding And of course we do have the funding with the national lotteries in our budget At the ministry to ensure that he gets that preparation that level of preparation what we want to see is the actual communal support behind our athletes So I've had meetings with some of his family members and we've set up a committee That will commence the Michael Joseph road to Paris The sort of activities in terms of fundraisers in terms of bringing the community Behind the athlete in terms of Julien Alfred Julien Alfred still has a budget from last year That we have set aside for her preparation for Olympics And so she continues to train with coach flow at Texas And we already see a very fast start to her season breaking the 60 meter record at the last event What we are hoping to do this time around is to you know, stay even closer with Julien Alfred We realize that she will not be in the collegiate circuit and we actually believe that works better for her So she will be more relaxed She would have more You know more focus on the Olympics and we are very confident that these two athletes will continue to do very very well Luke has not qualified. He have a couple of events coming up And we are hoping that he can do well We he's very very close. We certainly hoping that he would qualify and that would mean That for the first time in our history, we have two individuals from the constituency of grusley Participating in the Olympics. So I look forward to look meeting that qualifying standard He is somebody that is very focused. He has a very good mind on his Very good head on his shoulder very good parental support as well He also have a couple of initiatives that he wants to Undertake in the constituency of grusley in terms of you know, providing the sport to making it accessible to other young people And so as the minister and of course the parliamentary rep I will be providing that level of support for him. And so these are the three individuals That we are certainly hoping will not just represent us at the Olympics, but they will do very very well Okay, tell us anything about the meeting tomorrow the residents of grusley My business Okay, yes. Yeah, so in terms of the helipad I have heard most of that information, but I was not invited to that meeting And as parliamentary rep I've taken an approach to not get involved in things that I'm not necessarily Invited to but I do pay very close attention to what those developments are I am aware that is something that will bring some value to our community in terms of persons getting that additional option to land And to get into my community and my constituency and spend money So I'm just certainly hoping that when it's done That the level of persons who are able to afford to land In the community would definitely stop at our various bars our food outlets and support our people in the community We also have a meeting ongoing currently for jazz With the constituency council. I was invited to that one, but it's a cabinet day And this is actually the first day of my vacation for the next two weeks But with budget coming up and a number of initiatives Happening in my constituency this week. I thought it was important for me to come around and do what we need to do Yeah, and Mr. Minister, we know that That we focus on the infrastructure And we know the grusley playing field as the pivotal It's part of the preparations for the The work up I told you about it, but this year It's been talked about, you know Upgrading the grusley field in all this Works will let me some Some time taken to at least to some upgrade to the grusley playing field Absolutely Before the end of 2024 I'm hoping to describe the grusley playing field as the grusley mini stadium And so we've partnered with a number of corporate individuals that have committed large sums of money And also the national largest authority And of course some of the work up prep that we have going on right now To ensure that this becomes a reality as I said, we are closing the field next week And I had to write officially to sandals to allow us to use the area next to the landings For sports activities for our community of grusley considering what we've been dealing with We do not want to have them displaced sandals has agreed to allow us to go in there and to Pretty much excavate a standard playing football field so we can still have our little competitions while For the next six seven months, we'll be having the upgrade of the grusley playing field What we will see is stands We'll see an enclosure and we will see an actual upgrading of the surface of the grusley playing field Which means grusley as a semi-professional team will have a home Come the end of this year for gate receipts and some of the commercial activities that People of grusley actually deserve Any new updates for alternative sports? This weekend well, we have a calendar of activities out. I do not have it with me right now But we have a number of activities happening In the following weekend independence weekend in terms of drag racing And so we're expecting a number of people to go to the place commonly known as the kaka bef In view fort to take in some of that. Unfortunately for me. Well fortunate and unfortunate the activities happen around my booth day So Not sure how much of it I'll be able to take in but I'll simply be in and around the area To support alternative sports. We had some challenges this year with motocross In terms of the venue But we continue to say to individuals in that sport in fraternity that we are here as a government to support them We provided and we started Initiated the alternative sports season so as to include them in our activities And so we certainly hoping that we can sit at the table and ensure that we do a little bit more we have national chess competition Coming up as well as well as that's and some other competitions in alternative sports So we're certainly hoping that everybody that is interested in a sport could have their time to shine With this government speaking of alternative sports We know that that e-sports has grown right there. There's an ongoing e-sports careers. I should say What has been done to develop that that section? Well The the thing about alternative sports since it's been left for so long Uncoordinated we have a number of different individuals with different associations with different organizations Doing their things so you would find there's no one central st. Lucia e-sports association And when I came in that was one of the first things we tried to hone in on to have a e-sports association It is a multi-billion dollar industry I mean a multi-billion dollar industry And so one of the first things I did as minister as I traveled with our national e-sports team to really take in some of the competitions and to ensure that we can have that here What we want to do in the near future is actually have a home For e-sports, which pretty much is a room with With you know widescreen televisions and you know at least sitting areas for for people to enjoy themselves But we certainly hoping that we can have our e-sport champion Be developed in the region of the world. It's certainly something that I'm passionate about as minister of youth And sport and so we're certainly hoping to have some progress in the coming year And briefly suggest I'm very satisfied with the progress that we're making on the grossly police station We have seen a number of young people from the community being employed, which is one of the things as a parliamentary rep You want to see Different skills being you know utilized in a way that is productive for the entire constituency We know the history of the grossly police station. It's non-existent for almost eight years And of course when we came in as a government We thought for for constituency of over 30,000 I mean security was something that we really had to hone in on and so we saw the commencement And I'm very satisfied with the piece at which the the works are ongoing So we certainly hoping that very very soon We'll have more visuals for you all in terms of pictures And we can have a safe place a comfortable place for our men and women to provide security for Our people. The old police station in Masad this is this is an area that is a map for a different sort of development at during my campaign and being mentioned of a A bank not a bank a credit union for Bruce Lee We know that library has the credit union more report has a credit union And for a while the most populous constituency did not have a credit union I've had some very good meetings over the last three weeks In terms of putting the dynamics together for grocery credit union And so very soon you will see some movements where that old grocery police station was As later on in the year we developed our grocery credit union I remember the honorable prime minister gave it an 18 month period I'm not sure how many months have gone by so far But I can tell you that I'm very happy to see the progress. I know It cannot come too soon because our police they are really struggling In terms of the accommodations at the HRDC and the pastoral center But it's something that we continue to appreciate in terms of their their sacrifice It's not ideal, but it is pretty much the best we can offer right now And we know that we will reap the the benefits of what we are doing right now in terms of their comfort going forward In terms of a gym in terms of a court in terms of a holding cell And so we just we are we are practicing the food gratification when it comes to policing In gross area while they still do the utmost best and so I want to say thank you to the police In gross area and tell them to just be patient with us. The progress is there The park is actually moving even quicker than initially anticipated The only the only problem we've had is the constant rains I don't know if anybody's realized but every single month in the year We have rain as if it is the hurricane season and we saw that again last weekend And so the progress we've made Has been good, but again because of the rain We have you know different times where we not being very productive But the contractor is working every day again an opportunity for young men and women in the constituency of Bruce Lee with Skills to get some level of employment and that has been working very well so far So we should be having the opening ceremony for that park the grossly recreational area Towards the middle of the year. I'm hoping weather permitting with everything in solution Now you have to see weather permitting and so before the end of the year We should be having a ribbon cutting ceremony for the grossly recreational park Congratulations, Julian Alfred continue to make us proud and we open for big things this year Keep following. Thank you Yes, good day And um I have not spoken to the solution public Through you for 2024 And i'm very confident that 2024 Is bringing out some very good news for the public service Right now we have a consultant on ground Who is preparing a strategic plan for the public service As well as an operations manual and an action plan This report when it is released in the coming months will certainly set the path for us to Really look at reforming and modernizing the the public service As you know the public service is a very challenging Entity not just the public service department but the entire government machinery and we have over seven thousand persons In the public service There are over 14 about 14,000 people Who are actually compensated by governments coming from governments recurrent expenditure On a monthly basis and each ministry has to manage their human resources And the public service as the managing entity It is like the clearing house for the human resource capacity of government machinery It also looks at facilities management The older premises that government rents and those government owns The public service is responsible for lease agreement as well as upkeep of these departments We also deal with IT information communication technology as well as organizational development and This public service has the staff orders the staff orders that has been in existence for over 40 years And at this point we are in the process of revising and bringing a new bill For modernizing the public service. So we have the bill ready It is now in the public domain for discussion and feedback From the public and we also have the regulations that will accompany the bill And from all indication The administration of the public service will be moving to a new location sometime. Hopefully this year Where we call the orange groove plaza There are two floors that government has Actually committed We are actually ready to pay the rent And over a period of time it will be owned by the government So the public service administration will be located in that place And I think public officers are bracing themselves for that new New arrangement one location two new regulations and three we speak about a strategic plan that will guide The way forward So they are very excited and we have to ensure that we prepare The public officers for that change and the change will require some serious training Reorientation so that they understand what that new creature that new entity Will be like in order for us to improve the quality of service that we give the central public We want it to be efficient and we want it to be effective Who is the consultant and how much is it cost in the government? Um, the the consultant is somebody who has been working in the public Domain he's a very experienced regional consultant because sometimes we do choose consultants that Will speak to what we want to hear so it's good to hear the views of somebody who is not Ascent Lucian because when we are in our own corner we prepare things for ourselves. So we actually got a consultant in the name of Dr. Aubrey Armstrong He has a long history of working with public servants throughout the region And we felt that he was the best person who would be able to do justice to what we want Um, the the consultancy I don't want to disclose the cost of the consultancy Before I prefer the prime minister to handle matters of finance Okay, can we expect more from the digital platform the online platform for the public service? Can we see more? Agencies more units having their services being available on a platform this year Right because we are supposed to provide a hundred and fifty four services And within the next few months we are putting in 16 more So they are actually steadily improving the number of services that we are Trying to provide to to the government agencies So there was a little slow down But now they are full speed because that project is almost coming to an end in the next few months or so Not too sure of them which ones now, but I was informed that there were 16 of them coming on stream Yes Right, um, this project is going on full steam In fact, as we speak now, they have a stakeholder consultation at the harbour club hotel Where we are developing a gender policy for st. Lucia And today we are actually Expecting feedback from the stakeholders so that we can finalize the document As you know, the know your rights campaign is a project that is funded by the french government It costs that one. I can speak to the cost it cost about 600 000 euro And um, they are actually Doing all the billboard the campaign and sensitizing the public as well as training It is supposed to last for about two years Before it is completed So definitely the project is on stream and is moving at peace. We have some person's consultants that were brought in by the french Embassy and they are actually stationed here and working with the department of gender to implement the project And what about the impact with the community? What about the feedback on the different NGOs? Well, they have to do community engagement and that's what they are doing today They are getting feedback from the NGOs and the stakeholders on what is happening with gender and gender equality Because you see in the absence of a clear policy You hear a little piecemeal of different things that Different groups and different persons are doing with regards to gender and gender equality But when we establish a policy everybody will be clear on what direction the government is going And what are the things that we need to do to ensure that we achieve gender equality as we are mandated One by the united nations and other agencies that are willing to support us in advancing The the issue of equality between men and women in our society Domestic violence Yes, in fact, we have quite a few Projects that are going on. In fact, after we passed the domestic violence bill. We got an outpouring Sources a set of sources that came in to give us the the resources both financial and human resources To push that agenda forward We have done training for about 50 policemen on how to handle domestic violence issues Because when people find themselves in domestic violence cases The police did not know how to distinguish a regular criminal activity or one that is A domestic one So in that case we did not have data to to disaggregate what is domestic violence and what is not So now the police are getting training so that they understand when somebody comes in to make a report They can decipher whether this is a domestic violence case or this is just a straight criminal offense My miss any updates on the passport office? Yes, the passport office they should have moved in maybe about two weeks ago But apparently there was some little work that went on there without the knowledge of the landlord And that actually contaminated the air in the air conditioning unit So they had to go back again and do a general cleaning We have done an air quality test and everything is okay now So they are all set. They have contracted a An agency to help them in the moving So they are ready to move all the equipment In fact, initially they were short of furniture because it's not when you move into a new home You may not want to carry all old things you had in the previous home So therefore they requested some new furniture And as a result we had to acquire these including what they will be moving across with so they should be ready to move now In fact, as far as I was told they should be moving around now They have already packed up all the things So the agents supposed to start because they were just waiting for the all clay for them to move into the room What since they had packed up things to move They had decided that they were going to deal with only emergency passports Because remember things are not settled In fact, we have the canadian bank note that are supposed to be here on island to help them set up all the electronic And the technology par they have to come in to assist to do that We have geeks that is also assisting So everything is in place all the wires and everything Is already in place for them to to start working there So we just have to give them a little breathing space in term of a week or two for things to be settled And I the media will be informed when everything is ready so we can do a little media lunch Of the the the new space So you'll get a chance to visit the space to see what it is like I have a question about AI as minister who is responsible for digitalization of The government I guess the public service Many individuals are questioning whether the implementation of AI For them to lose their job or lose income opportunities What is your thoughts on that? How can it help or what are some of the things that we must pay attention to? Well Information technology Is not a matter of reducing the workforce. It's a matter of creating new skills And new avenues for people to work So you will find the same things that you used to do manually Now you are going to do it electronically So now you are moving into a new stream of work And therefore that will require quite a bit of training so that people can adjust From moving from the the manual work into the technological world So we are not looking at reducing The the the workforce, but we are repurposing what they are doing and giving them new skills to To do the things that we want to do at a more expeditious rate Within this year, we have just been in a High Recording for this for the last two months As opposed to Homicides I think what government has been doing and what we will continue to do Is to improve the social programs in St. Lucia And as we talk of violence, we have to find out why why do we have violence in the society? And you have to look at your surroundings in terms of is it something that St Lucia Is the only country or the highest and why? And we look at what's happening in the region And for those persons who know our physical location And there are quite a few studies going on now To find out why st Lucia Is attractive for certain persons who want to carry out certain activities And you will know that we are bilingual We speak Creole And therefore we are strategically placed Close to countries that are linked to the what you call the demand countries in terms of Europe And that is one of the reasons they have given that st. Lucia is an attractive location A more attractive location than maybe st. Venson or Grenada where Creole speaking is not one of the The languages However, you know the strategic location of the Caribbean Between South America and North America And therefore we are caught in the middle not just st. Lucia We are caught in the middle of where you have the supply of sitting Stocks and the demand on the other side And as a result we have to The bulk of the pressure comes on us To take care of ensuring that undesirables do not enter our shores And we do not allow it to go to the other side So whether you're dealing with drugs whether you're dealing with guns These are things that are in high demand right now And therefore we have to protect our borders and that is where we are equipping the police And the law enforcement persons and bringing the most sophisticated equipment to deal with what we call the care And hopefully that we get a cure But in addition to that we are also looking at the preventative mode Where our young people We have programs to involve our young people. So they do not resort to criminal activities And as you know, the prime minister has spoken about the youth economy We are looking at the semi professional league There are a lot of persons who just sit on the block and they can play good football We are going to compensate them for that. We are doing skills development We have to find a way to keep them in schools And we do not want some of the undesirables to infiltrate the education system So we have to ensure that we work on the preventative mode Because the cure and the care is very expensive Because we have to give policemen all the ammunition they need. We have to give them vehicles We have to hire more policemen to go out there to fight crime What we can do is to prevent our young persons from engaging in criminal activities And that is where the social programs the number of social programs that government is putting in place You may not see the results right away But now we are actually working on it so that we keep our young people If you look at the the statistics It will show you that a lot of the persons who are involved in criminal activities are young persons And we have to find out what would be the cause of that and what can we do And I go under preventative while the prime minister deal with the care and the cure with the police Madam minister, the last time you were here, you updated us on remission done unmodally There was a report that was submitted to the public service What happened after that? The public service commission Some people do not know the difference between the public service and the public service commission The public service commission is a separate entity an independent entity that operates Under the constitution The prime minister kind of tell the public service what to do the public service department Kind of tell the public service commission what to do So when there is a case like what you mentioned with regards to borderlay The findings of the the case is submitted to the public service commission And they have to sit and call the parties is almost like a court case For them to hear what are the pros and cons what are the arguments and then they take a decision as to what the outcome So we are actually awaiting the outcome of the from the public service commission on that matter But it has been submitted to them Well, we have I can tell you based on what I have heard before there were some Cases that have gone to the court and it took forever There were some that have gone to the commission that took four five years We cannot tell the commission you need to call that case now and deal with it All I can see is that we have submitted it to them and will await We are hoping that the they move quickly on the matter One of the issues under the department the meetings with the labor commissioners also the representatives for the info is what's happening right now Okay, um, we had a meeting with all the staff that is the only department where I have met the staff twice Usually I meet heads of department But in the case of the labor department, I met every single person There are about 30 persons who are employed at the labor department And in that discussion we looked at a number of challenges That they have what um is in our favor is that we actually commission a needs assessment We actually get somebody to do a needs assessment We got the outcome of the needs assessment and we had a meeting with the staff To report to them. What were some of the findings in the needs assessment? We addressed the issue of human resource Um capacity. There were some areas we had some vacancies. We have submitted that to the public service commission for them to advertise the post And we also look at the issue of training Because what we have discovered is that there are many persons In the past who were sent to the department of labor food transfers And they may not necessarily have the skills for the job So now we have to look at training and we also look at the refurbishment of the building so that we enhance the work environment For them to work. So these are some of the critical issues that came out of that Of that meeting we had with the staff at the labor department And yes, we learned a lot about the border control In terms of infiltrating the criminal elements in the supply of guns and stuff And even let the Jamaica one of the bigger countries say that they cannot do it or not You know they need cooperation What what is the mission's case in that situation and we get outside the health community You know is there is the dialogue to help? Yes, but as I as I want to stress quickly is that when we deal with Law enforcement, we deal with the issue of crime The same way the criminals have a network of operating governments to have a network of operating in terms of combating it So you will not find Jamaica, Trinidad, St Lucia, Grenada working in isolation They actually work together So that we use intelligence to know what is happening in one country and how we can protect our borders So that I know is in place and the prime minister as minister with responsibility for national security Last year he was heading cosod security in carricum. And that is All the countries in carricum dealing with national security within the respective countries He was actually chairing that committee for a whole year And in this late last year he handed over That that chairmanship, but during his tenure as chairman for cosod security in carricum We managed to get a number of things in place and we also got a number of agencies that came in to assist St Lucia And you have the british the canadiens the european union the french and a number of other outside agencies have in fact OAS all of them and we have a small committee that are working with us to look at all our needs They have asked the police to submit the the list of needs and how they can assist So from our end we are doing our part in St Lucia But we also network with the other countries to get some best practices from them What is it? They are trying what is working and then we cannot put it in the public domain exactly what we are doing But there are quite a bit of work done on the ground to deal with border control and national security under the prime minister And with with my portfolio as home affairs, which is the other part where we deal with borderly fire The marine unit probation and parole Mm-hmm The prime minister we have a report that was presented And the prime minister will be inviting the persons who Involved in designing that plan to come forward to make a presentation to cabinet on that that's where we are Okay, morning again everybody richard frederick The minister of housing and local government I am just pleased to announce that The battle relay is going pretty pretty well As you all know we started off last week sunday in castries southeast Um yesterday we were in castries south It culminated there for the day It was handed over to the prime minister in his constituency of castries east As we speak now The battle is currently in taiwan And sent lutions are participating today In the diaspora over in taiwan And my instructions are they are enjoying it to the max They are given coverage which will be here subsequently But I have had the opportunity of viewing a life piece and I could tell you Solution's are indeed elated To participate in that leg of it We are not sure but arrangements have been made arrangements have been made For um the battle to continue in morocco tomorrow There may just be some difficulty that may not Cause the event to unfold the way we wanted to But as we speak now those difficulties are being worked on and hopefully The moroccan leg of our solution contingent will have a feel of the battle tomorrow And on wednesday We resume with the honorable prime minister in philip joseph pier Who will tour the entirety of the castries east constituency Where we expect to have a blast So far I can say tell you without Any fear of contradiction and it is beyond the niota of doubt That the battle really Has had the footprint Of a program that unites us That transcends the political divide And bring out the best in our people There are loads of people in the various constituencies Who have made contributions throughout the length and breadth of st lusia And those people remain relatively unknown The battle relay is one exercise That bring the efforts of those people to national acclaim So I am indeed pleased that it's going on very very well And things are happening in a manner that we expected It is just that it's getting bigger and better I am sure you all realize that loads of corporate citizens Now come on board and if it were an exercise they believe That was not worthy of being associated with They would never volunteer to come on board and I speak of st lusia helicopters I want to express my gratitude to them They came on board and in souffle Auntie emma had land sea and air She had the boats She had the helicopter And of course she had land So it is something that I don't know what next we are going to do I rather suspect in the not to this turn future One of the constituencies might dig a tunnel somewhere And they'll have the battle to pass under the tunnel But this is just wishful thinking Because the battle really has brought out a lot of creativity in our people It has brought out a lot of if you want to call it friendly banter It has brought out a lot of friendly competition so to speak And you know everybody wants to get involved I want to see hats off to the guys in viewfort The guys of shanty town in viewfort When we all thought that you know The guys would not get involved in an activity like that I was indeed elated I was pleasantly surprised to have seen participation to its fullest extent By the guys in shanty town I want to see hats off to them I want to let them know that you know We can just pretend there is a battle really every day And let us live in peace and unity And they went about singing It was a really really good display And once again let me compliment the viewfort south constituency council And all those guys from shanty town and across the constituencies That saw it necessary to get themselves involved in this exercise That no doubtedly unites us across the length and breadth of this country I want to hold on Jerry Okay yesterday I have some good news as well I taught the constituency with my honorable prime minister And it's one thing with Philip Joseph Pierre When you believe you are tired as a minister Like the energizer bunny he keeps going and going and going And I have an amazing prime minister in Philip Joseph Pierre He called me yesterday and he said to me Mr minister let's meet in castry central And so we traversed the city We walked actually through the city And certain suggestions were made And I can tell you Those suggestions that were made yesterday Are already being worked on The parking lot next to the print tree For those of you who don't know the print tree is Emak for demolition Given its physical condition It is challenging from an engineering standpoint To keep this property there It's like one of the old CDCs if not even older Anyhow it is Emak for demolition And so the print tree is almost in a vacant state It's a structure that is almost unoccupied And what we did was we had parking lots Next to that place That were Emak for Pussel's government workers Who worked at the print tree And only yesterday the prime minister said Mr minister why don't we build a nice arcade like Beautiful colors painted properly newly built For the vendors who sell in that general area The vendors who unfortunately make an ISO of the city I don't think it's the intention But invariably that is what happens On a Sunday when you walk the city And you realize that they leave the tools of trade Hanging about you come to the realization That look we can do better as a people So in compromise he has asked me to almost immediately Start construction of some vending booths in that parking lot And I could tell you they started He has also asked me to rejuvenate or rehabilitate Bidu Park And that already is being worked on as well So we shall be building some vending booths there To ensure that that person is somebody who sells Right at the junction there by the print tree Under the amontree it's an ISO it is And I've always said that this government Is not against anybody making an honest dollar If somebody would have been against some Or any Malawi so to speak making an honest dollar It would not be me And that is why when I said nobody would Touch my vendors I remember it brought to mind What the last administration had done to the vendors On two consecutive murders they took all this stuff And went and dumped it at Masha I don't know if some of you remember that They used to if guys were vending in carts They would take the cart or take the trolley Just take everything confiscate everything I don't think this is right I believe we can arrive at a compromise There are competing interests invariably You have the interest of the vendors They have a right to survive You have the interest of business owners Who have a right to use their property unimpeded And of course the pedestrians have a right To use the sidewalk without any kind of impediment Pleased on that sidewalk So those are balancing interests that we need to take A middle ground in as I said earlier No one should go far left or far right It is something that we have to reason out And to do what's best in the interest Of compromising the situation So it is in that regard The prime minister has asked me The mayor was with me And I can tell you We have already allocated other parking spaces So those persons who still use that parking lot And we shall be proceeding with due alacrity On the construction of those new vending boats With a view of removing those persons there Once and for all After this is done I have to send a warning To persons who in a haphazard way Just start the construction of all those little Booths all over the place That cannot be tolerated It is not aesthetically pleasing It is not something that you want your visitors to see Yes, we have a right to survive But we need to do it in a manner That lends according to We don't want to do it in an unlawful way In a sporadic way Let's do it in a manner That lends according to the beautification of our city In the interim I know that some of the vendors who were Fending they had complained That they are now displaced In the interim Where can these people go to sell? Well, I'll tell you this When I'm asked Where are you putting me I would respond by asking Who put you there You see Persons do whatever they do On their own volition On their own accord And accept Expect it to be embraced by all and sundry This cannot be right And I could tell you Without mentioning names There are few vendors I know personally Who occupy Booths around the place Okay They are tardy on their payments They owe city council a lot of money They leave the booths With their children And then they take trees and go elsewhere This cannot be right It cannot be right And so Like I said It's a matter of striking a balance I do believe that construction will not take very long We are proceeding with due haste So I do believe in the not to distant future The situation will at least be partially resolved And this is the way we want to proceed We cannot do everything at once But we want to proceed in a manner To ensure that those interests Are taken care of Whilst we try and beautify the city But I want to tell vendors again To please discontinue the practice Of putting up things all over the place The reason I started the vending booths I could never forget In 2007 I was the minister of physical development And the district rep for Castry Central And I almost cut my face Whilst walking by the Ave Maria School With a piece of steel that was protruding Of which a vendor had left there I started building the vending booths Because I realized I could not send them on the streets I demitted office in 2011 And between 2011 and 2021 Not one single booth was built So you have a situation where the number of booths available Are stagnant But the interests of persons who want to vend Keep growing So there was no kind of congruence In terms of availability of booths To people who wanted to vend And so we now have to confront the situation as it is I have resumed and I'm sure most of you know I have built a number of booths since I came But they are still not enough And so we are continuing on that trend Until the situation could be brought To one of at least or approximate normalcy Whilst balancing the interests of beautification And the interests of vendors We balance that and we find middle ground To ensure that Castry's looks Are appealing and aesthetically pleasing In the interest of law and order in the city We hear that we are review of the city police To compliment the Royal Central Police What is the status of this development? You see the sad reality is Some journalists and I would say all that They would just take what they had put it in the news But I am in charge of the city police And I have no knowledge of the city police complimenting It is not something that's far-fetched But I don't think that as we speak This is something that's been worked on I am unsure about that And I believe I would have been in the know So do you say that the city police Are working effectively enough to help? Oh, now you're asking me a different question Okay, let me just say The city police in my view have been doing a phenomenal job Where there is a void Where there is a lacuna in terms of law enforcement presence The city police would step in Only last night City police were able to arrest a poopy traitor Who was equipped with A what was it? He had some kind of instrument To break into one of the huts By the customs department And the city police were informed And they ended up there with Haste And the person is currently in custody I am sure you realize when we have the visitors around town You see a heavy, heavy presence of the city police If they can complement or if they can work together Or if they can form part of the police force I have absolutely no qualms with that All the better this government is working to one objective I creating a safer space for the sent Lucian citizens And no matter what kind of device that is used No matter what kind of strategy that is used to reaching that objective Once that is the objective of the exercise Then invariably we will be on the same page I know they complement them very well They work together as to whether They can be part or not part of the police force That invariably would be a policy decision That cabinet would have to deliberate on And that is what I am saying Probably I don't think this is something that has been worked on Now I am not sure But as and when we get to that bridge Most definitely we will cross it with letting you The journalists of this country know exactly what is happening So there is no review of the city police The prime minister I think earlier the last month He did indicate that he reviewed not I don't know if it's to join the... Ah well that was a totally different question Because the question was I can't He said he spoke with you Yes To undergo a review of the operation Yes now that's totally different With a view of joining or working alongside the police Yes invariably we aim for excellence We aim for excellence and in all departments Whether government or otherwise You would find that there are areas Once you institutionalize Something that had not been there before You would have teething problems As you recognize and realize what the teething problems are You figure well look We have to do this to COVID We have to do that to COVID And yes indeed we are looking at the operations For example right now We are deliberating over whether we use The manpower within to promote and create a hierarchical structure That basically simulates what happens in the police force Whether you know so there are a lot of little operational things That are being done now And the prime minister was correct But I'm not sure the objective of the exercise As you asked me was to work or to join The Royal Saint Lucia Police By no compliment But one of the complaints has been that Past five or six o'clock you don't see the present When you said last time you were able to Yes yes So that is part of the strategy Yes yes exactly The operational thing is Whether they work longer hours Whether you increase the amounts Whether they can work in plain clothes All of those things are being looked at Because obviously you want a situation Where police presence is necessary in uniform To serve as a deterrent Otherwise you want the police presence To be one where you apprehend offenders With minimal suspicion kind of thing So all of those things are being looked at And at the end of the day when the recommendations are made With respect to the operations We invariably will look at it And decide whether it is worthy of implementation Or part thereof is