 Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker first of all let me thank the members of parliament for their contribution to the budget and for their support. I'm very grateful to have to be working with a group of men and women who understand what we stand for and who we are and understand that we are in politics to serve people and not in politics for drama or excitement. I want to thank also the member, the former prime minister and my colleague and my friend, the member for V for itself, for his insight and for his support of the budget and for his advice and his counsel on the way forward. I think the member bringing his experience and his knowledge to the fore and all and every one of the things that I'm in any way, I'm in any way not appreciating his counsel is mistaken. Mr Speaker, there are some people who say there is no difference between the Labour Party and the United Workers Party. There are some people who say all politicians are the same and all of us here are the same Mr Speaker. But Mr Speaker, we are witnessing now in the politics in the politics of solution the worst and the most despicable acts of political behavior ever in the history of solutions. Mr Speaker, never before in the politics have people's families, their children, their friends been brought to this level in the politics. Never. But Mr Speaker, I remember again one day we were having a discussion about the political tactics for the elections of 2006 and the member for V for itself was the Prime Minister and leader of the party at the time and they were three of us at the meeting and one in our exuberance, one of us wanted to bring up an issue in the politics, an issue that had been pushed by the press, particularly by one newspaper and the leader of the party at the time said we are not going this way, we are not going there. We are not going there. The politics doesn't mean that you have to go there and if I have to lose the election, I will not go there. He was drawing the line with Mr Speaker and I took that advice and when I was running the elections again, my own postal elections, there was a relative of one of my opponents who wrote me a letter about my opponent at the time and I have the letter and I will even publish it in my book. I have the letter Mr Speaker and I declared that it was not worth it. I put that letter in the public domain because politics is temporary. You are in power one day and you're out of power another day. And I think that is the problem with the member for Microsoft and the United Workers Party. They do not understand that the people have voted against them and they have to win and come back again. So they're not coming back with policy, they're not coming back with ideas, they're not coming back with solutions. What they're coming back with is pure nastiness. If you can allow me to use that word Mr Speaker, the most gutter politics ever in the history of solution. Mr Speaker, when in these days you put on faith and you circle out people's children and you identify them as that is the child of X and Y Mr Speaker. Put them in the public domain. When you are there, there are people who are very emotional, there are people who take the politics to other levels that you may not want. And you circle out Mr Speaker and you publish it and your leader endorses it Mr Speaker and comes back to the parliament at some time and pretends that he's apologizing on other things when he's the one who is the mastermind behind all these issues and Mr Speaker some of us may want to throw it to slowly things across and that doesn't matter. All of you are doing that Mr Speaker. Some of us remember the music but it has never. I have been the politics for a long time Mr Speaker. I have never seen it like that before Mr Speaker but I've said to the men and women on this side that we will not recant, we will not go down to the gutter. We will continue the policies that will support the people of Saint Lucia. We will continue to do what we have to do for the people to benefit Mr Speaker and when we say the people that hurt them, they don't like us to invoke the people Mr Speaker. They like us to invoke the people but we'll continue to invoke the people Mr Speaker and that was what this budget was about. This budget was about the people of Saint Lucia Mr Speaker. This budget was about creating wealth for the people of Saint Lucia. In this budget we tried our best. We tried our best Mr Speaker because I'm not in the business of one-man-ship. We we tried our best to see if every sector in the economy could get some support Mr Speaker. We tried our best to see if we could ensure that the people who invest in the country, the business people, the hoteliers, who had not paid the taxes. It's important Mr Speaker that the taxes that we removed the VAT on, we removed the VAT on, the VAT penalties and interests, hotel accommodation tax, PAYE, hotel accommodation tax, withholding taxes and value added taxes Mr Speaker. These taxes were collected on behalf of the government and they ought to have been paid but we understood and Mr Listen to me. If you did not pay them we are saying you waive them, we are waiving on them. All penalties, all interests, all fines and we say pay what you took from the client or the people. So we are saying to you you are removing a big labidi from your books because if I remember the practice of accounting and I'm sure the member for Mikusov, sorry not Mikusov, wow, the member for Soufre will tell you that in the preparation of financial statements you have to include fines and taxes on taxes, you have to include the fines. So I'm saying you can withdraw it, so you are improving the balance sheet of your business, we are improving the balance sheet of business and then you're going to be paying the government what they owe. That is for business, that is our major concession to business plus the fact of the millions of dollars we give in incentives Mr Speaker. So no one can say that this party is anti-business, how can we say we are anti-business? But we are saying when we're giving you that you have to ensure that building materials that you are taking 12.5 percent we are saying give that back, do not charge the people for that. So we don't expect you to put it in your markup and that is very important Mr Speaker and then I and I want to be clear, I expect, I expect and we are going to monitor it. We don't want to interfere in the profits or in the pricing policies of businesses but we hope, we hope that that 12.5 percent that we are removing on that does not find itself anyway of the line in terms of markup. So even though the prices of these goods increase, once the markup doesn't increase by 12.5 percent, there ought to be a reduction in the in these goods. There ought to be a reduction in these goods Mr Speaker and we hope that the reduction there's a reduction in plywood, lumber, steel, cement and galvanized. So Mr. Speaker, I'm sure the business people understand that is the right thing to do and they are going to do it because it's the right thing to do Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we heard about the member of the Microsoft talking about a moratorium on loans as if he was the mastermind behind the moratorium on loans Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the moratorium on loans were given to all islands in the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. There wasn't anything special because of his actions. All islands were given to Mr. Speaker but there is a basic difference between now and then. At that time Mr. Speaker, at that time the whole world was suffering from COVID. Not only is it unusual, the entire world was suffering from COVID. The entire world. There were concessions given to everybody. Concessions were given to everybody. For the first time the IMF relaxed almost all the conditionalities on loans for the first time for the entire region because of the COVID crisis. So when he comes and speaks about this master management because oh my how does it feel and he goes and he mentions to his servants names Mr. Speaker and how it has a great masterful piece by him, he and these civil servants Mr. Speaker. That's the same man who said to civil servants mind your business. The same guy you know Mr. Speaker but Mr. Speaker, I want to ask a few questions. Did the member from Microsoft consult, listen to the civil servants when he called Eun Sun Young to prepare the budget? And I remember in my first contribution as leader of the opposition I said what is the difference between the budget now and the budget prepared by Eun Sun Young? Hands up we'll show you that Mr. Speaker. I asked that question. I asked that question. What is the difference? Did he think about the civil servants? Did the member from Microsoft listen to the civil servants when they told him do not change the PPP arrangement for the airport? Did he listen to the IMF when they told him not to change it? The same civil servants he's speaking about. Did he listen to them? Did the member from Microsoft Mr. Speaker listen to the civil servants when they said to him to continue with the transition team led by Stephen King to move Victoria to OK Hospital? Did he listen to the civil servants? He fired Stephen King and he employed K-Mon City to which we have to pay a million dollars a month Mr. Speaker. Did he listen to the civil servants? Did the member from Microsoft listen to the civil servants when he commissioned a report on St. Jude and the report said to him there are issues but the hospital building can be used as for its original purpose which is as a hospital. Did he listen to them? He paid a million dollars and he cast them aside Mr. Speaker. That's the guy he's speaking about talking about civil servants Mr. Speaker. Did the member from Microsoft listen to the civil servants when they told him do not abandon the castries highway casting grocery highway project but continue? Did he listen to the civil servants Mr. Speaker? This is the man talking about the civil servants Mr. Speaker. Did the member from Microsoft listen to the civil servants when they told him do not pay down Lockerbie $32 million but instead repair the playing fields $32 million for two playing fields? Did the member from Microsoft listen to the civil servants when he brought in some people from Singapore to analyze to do some management consultancy for him to end up with nothing? Did they listen to the civil servants? Exactly. Did they listen to them Mr. Speaker? So Mr. Speaker when this bluff and this new found humility and some people subscribe to that and they think the best way to survive is by attacking me personally the best way to get away from that Mr. Speaker. The people of St. Lucia will not be fooled by that new form humility and regardless of what is written or what is said the people of St. Lucia feel it Mr. Speaker. The people of St. Lucia know that the only fried chicken when election is not not around the corner. Even a people from St. Lucia don't know that fried chicken in forest here or lying down in the back of a van and drive and drive down Bagatella wave people Mr. Speaker is will help you? Comical or in a sudden you found a new humility or you're such a nice and you like people so much or in a sudden Mr. Speaker. I mean this this this hypocrisy it won't last Mr. Speaker and no matter how you attack me personally the people see through you I am who I am and I remain who I am and I was always who I am Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker we talk about management of the economy COVID as I said COVID was there for everyone but which party had to deal with a Delta variant which what it is a Delta variant and I remember them saying that there will have been so many dead people by the hospital outside the hospital. I remember there were people saying that during COVID because of the Delta variant and because of the mismanagement or the minister of health there have been people dying in box in outside the hospital door in the corridors and I remember calling the minister and I now forget these moments Mr. Speaker and the minister was in distress I said to him comrade hold on let's stand firm hold on let's do what we're doing because they were saying that the Delta variant will have been so destructive that there'll have been people in the corridors of the hospital Mr. Speaker. I remember that but we fought it the minister of health and his team and remember when we're going to government they said first thing we would have done we would have fired the CMO it may recall he said to Mr. Speaker they said so they said we'll have fired everybody and how you're victimizing people Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker I want to tell you that we are the government that kept the most civil servants in place than any united workers party government because we respect the professionalism of civil servants once you prove you're not professional and I've always said to the civil servants allow me to be the politician not you so Mr. Speaker that is our story about COVID so not pretend you had you had you were the best manager of COVID how are you the best manager of COVID you were the best manager of COVID and you are absolutely no surpluses in your economy so you have to go and take the people's money at the NIC all governments the governments of Grenada the governments of Dominica they paid the people through their surpluses we are absolutely no surpluses in 2019 when COVID hit what management economy you're talking about what hotels that had started in 2019 COVID stop since COVID hotels have been built in Antigua hotels have been built in Barbados hotels have been built in in Dominica hotels have been built in Jamaica since after COVID because these hostels started before which hotel was built in solution before COVID and which hotel has been in solution when the member from Microsoft was a minister of tourism so Mr. Speaker when you attack me personally you have to attack me on the facts you have to attack me on the facts and the reality I have said to people raise your hand and tell me one thing one hotel that was built under the member Microsoft one and you know what they say he has vision Coco had vision too vision vision for a people and you can't produce anything we don't want to have vision because wise we are producing we are looking to the future Mr. Speaker and that is why we ensure that every child will have a laptop that is vision vision Mr. Speaker so this COVID situation as if only us only we are COVID COVID of course and we sat here and we supported the government in COVID even at the time when some of the things they were doing we thought they were pushing a little bit we said no let us support it because the means justifies the end so not come here and take take credit for COVID and pretend that COVID stopped you of course COVID impacted on us what happened before COVID what happened before COVID what happened before COVID where were the surpluses you had before COVID you borrowed 220 million dollars and when we came into government we only found 18 million dollars to deal with what what did we do we had to maneuver we had to sit in civil servants and talk we had to sit in the capital we had to be prudent we had a cut of expenses that's what we had to do that's what we had to take them away towards so Mr. Speaker don't pretend because your management of the economy can only be seen in the results of the management and look at the social economic review you don't manage economies if your mouth you know you don't manage economies by saying you are a good manager you don't manage economies by saying if it was you or when you were there you manage economies by the right of the situation and it is clear it is clear that when the labor parties in power the figures of the economy are better than on the united with us 2006 6% economic growth the highest in a long time Mr. Speaker where is the evidence of the transformation that has taken that has happened in the united with us party where in the end government where is the evidence of the transformation what's the evidence and that's the question you must ask yourself so any boast about economic management gave me the evidence i'll give the evidence in 1997 when we took over the economy of this country Mr. Speaker and when the member member for view for itself made the point that the economy was in transition they really killed them of course it was in transition it was coming from a situation where we were making at least three million dollars a week for bananas to nothing of course it was in transition what did we do we transformed it look at this country look at the changes have taken place in this country and tell me which government has been the forefront of these changes universal primary school education universal secondary education and now universal health care the oku hospital the darren sami field ground cricket ground the view for stadium the east coast road we're surfacing the new west coast road the opening up of karelia in these areas which government the grossly highway which government which government which government has transformed this country more than the party which government built all the police stations you talk about security which government built all the police station mr. Speaker and i remember and fire stations i remember one day going to marigold and when i came to the cabinet i said to the prime minister prime minister we must do something about the marigold police station i remember that the marigold police station was a wooden building a wooden building mr. Speaker who transformed it talk about government soft on crime he talked about us not this little party which of my ministers ever said that they commit a crime on their own which which which one which of my ministers ever had any dealings with pigsties the pig pens which are them so when they want as you missus bigger what they don't understand is anything that they can say negative about us they've done worse mr. Speaker they've done worse so don't tap me personally and think you will missus bigger that is water on the dashing leaf i'm a man of the people and i'm a man of god so mr. Speaker you have to look at the reality of the situation who transformed tourism who transformed it who brought it to the nature heritage tourism program to convert the tourism using natural assets who started answering friday nights and then mr. Speaker and i remember again there was a member for view what's up who sent the denry representative sleeping lands to go to view for to barbed us to look at oysters and came back and said and we worked on it to get answer it and then denry who did it who transformed this country who transformed it who gave the most scholarships for students to go and study anywhere in the tenacious time who did it than what do you do and you talk about vision who did it missus bigger who did it so missus bigger we we and who is going to further transform it with the tourism with the tourism development acts which the member for cast yourself the means of tourism the bit where minister so clearly enunciated who will who will transform it who transformed the cip in the whitest today let me just speak up evidence and that is why they don't like me because i was telling them come with evidence does i stammer you only understand some of the greatest men this world stammered job biden was a was a stutterer he admits it winston chochill oh and after some prime ministers now so i believe you can break me down when you see imagine that people who have absolutely no political metal people who have swung from side to side people who are spineless will attack me missus bigger we think i they engage myself in arguments with missus bigger who diversified agriculture who had to deal with the issues we went into agriculture missus bigger who got all the fisheries complexes going who negotiated with the japanese for the fisheries complexes who dealt with these things missus bigger who transformed the agriculture economy of this country who transformed it missus bigger and now the facts are staying them in the face and they can't deal with it we fact we have the lowest unemployment since 2010 missus bigger fact and we have the lowest youth unemployment since 2010 fact and i've said that we need to do we need to do better we need to bring it down to at least single digit figures and we are working to that miss missus bigger we are working to it and what do you do you want to go and you want to attack the member from view for south missus bigger the main view for south can can defend himself both in and out of this parliament but missus bigger the member for cash reserve made a point when you become the leader of a government the leader of people leader of a government and your colleagues missus bigger you always think about your colleagues first because this is a team sport i've always said to my colleagues this is a team sport and i remember very well in a certain island in the region one person won by a small island by over 1200 votes and the guy next to him lost by less than 12 votes and the lost elections i remember that i remember that that has been a lesson for me missus bigger so it's better if you ask you at the prime minister you see about your colleagues and my constituents understand that and i'm sure and that is why in spite of what they say and do the member for view for south and myself i have been in government from 1997 and god 1997 and god willing will be there for a long long time again you know why missus bigger you know why you know why they've done all kind of things about what people do for mashup how kind of thing that's why you know why missus bigger our constituents understand us understand me and they trust me and no matter how they try this divide and rule strategy it is not going to work my purpose my reason for in politics is to support an ideal is to support a vision is to support a people is if people do better not for me to be able to upstand on another man not for me to fight as who want to be leader the party not for me to decide what kenny antony thought of me i am in politics because i want to serve the people of solution missus bigger that's why in politics so in spite of what they try in spite of what they try divide and rule it's not what they try to make me believe i'm a lesser person i know who i am and my people who who i am and god knows where i am nothing can change me nothing can change me speaker and whilst i have the honor and the privilege i will serve the people of solution with humility and its integrity missus bigger that is what i would do so missus speaker you in this budget we spoke about a health and security level missus speaker and this speaker the hypocrisy again the member for himself wait wait wait from again microsoft came with a massive bag he couldn't even carry it he has somebody carry a massive bag for him poor poor police officer he has a poor guy carried a massive bag brings a massive bag then chicken licking on it but the hypocrisy in that the hypocrisy who owns soul markets before exactly he has a hypocrisy in that massive bag in that massive bag there were only two items there that were local the eggs and and barrens pepper sauce everything else in that bag was imported do we make cheese do we make macaroni do we make cheese we make some macaroni look about verse the verse macaroni in in the bag no we don't all these things were imported missus speaker i'm saying today that i'm going to instruct the customs to look at all the duties on full items so that we can make an announcement by the foot of july because we have removed the service charge on all the goods in the bread basket we moved the service charge so we're going to look at it comprehensively to see what we can do to support the people of celusia because that food is imported it's not created locally missus speaker but in the meantime in the meantime i want to urge people in celusia to set your own liquor back back back the yard garden set it grow liquor tomatoes and my colleagues laugh laugh at me you know miss speaker when i tell them i'm a farmer i'm not a farmer i'm not a farmer like the member for for for himself but but when missus speaker i need i plant a few things on myself missus speaker yeah you understand missus and when i send them when i send for them pictures of my produce they say bought it in the market tell me the speaker remember again their short-sightedness i made the point about bananas baby and missus speaker i said again if there's ones that hurt me the poison in celusia is when i saw the patio the member for microsoft bring a little child on television and say p i want me to eat banana oil p i want to eat fig oil that hurt me missus speaker because i knew very well that was child abuse thank you using a child to do what you know is not right cheap political propaganda nastiness that's why it was nastiness now but thank god for the people of celusia they didn't agree with them but they said to use bananas to do several things missus speaker now banana is a full of choice for the people of celusia just like cassava just like cassava just like cassava i was really killed when i said we can do things with cassava flour et cetera i was really killed i'm a bluffer by talking about missus speaker cassava is not only a full of choice cassava is a health food now for the people of the world missus speaker cassava and i want to urge farmers to plant more cassava and let's talk to do the byproduct of cassava and this is why we've done we've changed the i-culture diversification act we're going to get incentives for all sorts of i-culture produce so we're going to increase our our agricultural production missus speaker and very shortly very shortly we're going to have a special thing for farmers very shortly we've seen about the youth we've seen about the tourists we've seen about the young people and their computers we are going to see about farmers very soon wait missus speaker health and security we put a 2.5 percent levy on health only health and security speaker and i want to say to the public of celusia and to the business sector the 2.5 percent levy definitely will not be on food as to how it's going to be applied do you think there's any measure that the minister of finance would propose and after his signature and to propose it he will not discuss the implementation with the private sector i mean what what and you cannot discuss a budget measure first so when the chance of the extractor has his black box before he goes i say i do this i do it in his black box when you discuss the measure when you discuss with your colleagues and your technocrats then the way it is rolled out you may discuss so i'm saying to the private sector and to the public of celusia next week we are going to instruct for discussions to be held on how the health and security level will be rolled out there can be nothing to worry about missus because far as that's concerned but missus speaker the health and security levy this year this year for health and security measures we are going to be spending 298 million dollars for health and security measures all aspects all aspects all aspects 298 million the all assets of the speaker and you know let me give you some of the things that we are going to do as far as health and security is concerned with the speaker apart from the normal capital and recurrent expenditure continuation of the cuban nursing supports universal health coverage project castries urban urban polykinic rehabilitation of the mental wellness center health strengthening health system strengthening project emergency response covid-19 we have a station of st jude hospital the stadium i really laugh at us when we said we're going to be repairing the book in the stadium reconstruction of the larry sus wellness center we have to pay contributions to the whole health organization st jude reconstruction we still we have to pay 32.7 million dollars on the box 32.7 million dollars on the box construction of the sufre hospital two million dollars these all the expenses the new things we we are doing for health missus speaker for national security the things we are doing regularization of police officers police officers who were in that system for years and they have got any status and the member from north knows that for the first time we are going to regularize them it costs us 282 thousand dollars this week we're going to have two additional probation officers 60 more police recruits training for the police 650 thousand dollars from zero in 20 in in 2020 one zero is going up 600 percent also training for the bodily officers hundred thousand dollars for the bodily officers missus speaker funds to rental for immigration office and i want to tell you missus speaker in spite of what he told you about the passports and i want to apologize to the public and to the staff in particular for what they went through for passports we have we have issued 22 000 passports 20 000 passports we have issued and i want to apologize to the public and i want to tell them that day we are moving and that was not our creation we found it the world did not start in july 2021 the world didn't start there the world was there before we didn't start it we are moving to new headquarters and i had a conversation with the owners of the building in the presence of the immigration boss and he said to us said to us he's trying his best to make sure that they get the building so on they said i want to thank the staff of the immigration department and apologize to them and thank them and the public that we are the the the premises have been prepared and they are going to be moving there shortly i also want to thank the staff of the national printing association the national printing corporation sorry the people who printed the estimate etc i want to thank them again they are working on this on the conditions that are deplorable i want to thank them and tell them that the new premises there's money in there for the for the for the for the new premises speaker and the new premises has have been identified and they are going to be moving to the the new premises very shortly missus speaker and missus speaker we have 947 000 dollars for purchase of special equipment for the police and the taiwanese are helping us in this regard we already have some some some supplies that that arrived this week and the scanners will be coming very shortly missus speaker thanks to the taiwanese repairs we're spending seven million dollars on the bodily correctional and correctional facility that didn't happen that did not happen from the 26 of july mean i mean 18 months the the bodily situation deteriorated 18 months no it was left by them they neglected it and and we met the correctional officers if you have stories missus speaker if you have stories of what this people went through with that former minister of justice hoping in his mouth now and talk missus speaker but missus speaker i ignore that that's noise i remain focused and i ignore noise you understand if you are if you had stories of the correctional officers if you had stories of the police officers about the former minister of justice your heart will will hurt you but i'm not going there i'm not going there missus speaker so we're going to spend seven million dollars on bodily this year seven million on bodily this year in terms of police stations after we build the police stations they allow it again to deteriorate nothing they also have dinners to help the police station dinners that's how you know we have an allocation of one point eight million dollars to repair the police station missus speaker you see and we talk about police police who has shown more care and attention to the police party the records are there who the records are there the history is clear history is clear i always tell them to beat me with facts not if what you think what your mind tells you you have vision beat me with facts who has done more for the police than the solution of a party of any government when we were building bodily they said we were being a five star hotel they ridiculed us they said they ridiculed us they said you've been a five star hotel you understand we were ridiculed i remember i was there i was there so missus speaker this time right now we're going to assist the the the police in other situations that can be said in public listen but that's what we are about missus that's what we are about missus speaker what we are about we we're going to deal with the with the rehabilitation to the first district courts and who did that these things didn't happen from the 21st of july 2021 they were there a long time before missus speaker so missus speaker in terms of health and security we understand that the health situation in this country has to be improved we understand that we are cognizant of the fact that there's need for our health offerings to be better but i'm i'm going to say to you i'm going to say to you in spite of all our shortcomings i can tell you that the people the professionals and the people at the hostel in senusia they do a very good job 90 percent of the time of course it was important you know we come here and we talk we talk we talk we talk because many of us all of us the general public we can't afford to send our father in a helicopter for two was for a lifted for treatment abroad nothing wrong in that you know now don't get me wrong because they're tired of misquoting me nothing wrong in that if you can afford to send your relative abroad for treatment you must do that you can afford but you must look at the cost missus speaker the cost look at the cost of health care abroad and think about what you pay at the ok u ok u hospital sometimes for the same outcomes look at the cost and the men and women who work in these hospitals they deserve all the accolades and the thanks and the gratitude that we can give them the nurses and the doctors miss speaker and i know that's that we made a promise to the nurses and the doctors we said we'd have done something we did it for the vehicles but i tell them hold on when things work and the means of health will not know when things work missus speaker we are going to show the doctors and nurses in a special way how we appreciate them in a very special way in a very special way in a very special way we're going to show them how much we appreciate them missus speaker so missus speaker everybody talks about health care but we must find means of paying for health care we have to fund it it's expensive period of constant medicine for seven years to come back and work for thank you we have to fund it we have to fight against competition for our nurses we have to keep our nurses here we have to do it so we have to fund it missus speaker nobody nobody's happy to pay more taxes so under the circumstances i must say that we need improvement but under circumstances i think we are trying our best and we can't continue to criticize and condemn but we must work together to improve the health outcomes in this country and this is what this budget intends to do missus speaker to improve these health outcomes of course there are issues of course sometimes people behave unprofessionally of course but the majority of the cases the majority of the people who go to the hospital and what do they pay that's the question you know how much do they pay for it there are people i know i know one person personally who came to st lusia a lady to do a particular operation here because she says in st lusia is the best to do it yes you will believe it came here for the cost i know people who live the united states and coming for dental treatment because it's cheaper i know that so let's do condemn condemn condemn for for for our politics let's work together to improve missus speaker missus speaker so the levy the health and security heavy will help i said we have 298 million dollars being spent on health and security we hoping to bring in 34 million from the health and security levy a drop in the ocean but it will help missus play it'll help missus speaker we spoke about helping people missus speaker and the member for for the member for labry middle point about the budget gives us so much everybody there's a vexing issue of contracts ten thousand dollars and below missus speaker and i want to make it abundant declare it is that is not only for construction contracts it's for everybody so if you are a musician you're there if you are caterer you're there any service that you provide for the government once the government is paying you the 10 percent will not be taken from you if your contract is ten thousand dollars and below i want to make it abundant declare it is not only contractors is anybody who provides a service for the government and the legislation will show that missus speaker as time goes on missus speaker housing again missus speaker we know that the minister of housing sometimes gets into trouble with me for moving too fast but missus speaker is because of his urge and his desire to do well but again missus speaker and the member for cast yourself mouth mouth open secret job out but missus speaker there's something that'd be so big in housing i'm afraid to see i'm afraid to see but i can tell the public of st lucer just wait the mayor for cash yourself told you i'm not announcing anything or till i see the money that was the case in the grant i said to the minister of commerce i'm not going anywhere and say anything about grants unless money in the bank when the money go in the bank we sell about grants now people collecting the grant money for the msm e project so the housing the housing there is something not to use a pipeline phrase that pipeline thing is a thing that's used too often there's an initiative for housing that is will be so comprehensive and we'll deal with so many of our issues not all that i'm saying to the public just wait this week give me 10 weeks 10 weeks 10 weeks member for castries east you have 10 minutes left there's about 15 member for castry south mr speaker i wish we invoke standing order 40 to 10 to allow the honorable member for castries east an additional 15 minutes to complete his presentation one of the members the question is that standing order 30 to 10 being invoked to allow the member for castries east an additional 15 minutes in which to complete his presentation and i'll put a question as many as that opinion say aye as many of a country opinion say no i think the eyes have it the eyes have it thank you very much colleagues thank you very much mr mr speaker this is because tonight we have a very important event the george charles lecture george charles again they want they want to hide the history they want to hide the history george charles was the founder of the leo party george charles is one of the most progressive leaders we ever had but they want to hide his history in fact they say the reason why they're down is because they say that poor so that's why they want to hide the mr speaker but this labor party will always honor george charles so there's a lecture tonight mr speaker at the financial center so this is why colleagues want to go to lecture mr speaker and i want to invite everybody so mr speaker we we speak about housing mr speaker so this housing that housing initiative is going to touch everyone everyone mr speaker and i said give me 10 to 12 weeks and we're now on to mr speaker but i can say to the public of st lusia that there's something big coming for them in housing mr speaker something big coming mr speaker so so mr speaker this budget aims at doing a few things it aims at stabilizing the economy retaining the growth creating wealth and ensuring that the less privileged among us get some support and some help mr speaker that that that is why mr speaker that that is why in terms of social interventions mr speaker in terms of social interventions we have 25.9 million dollars in terms of direct poverty support it's 25 million dollars we've increased public assistance by 5.8 million dollars mr speaker but that's not all we have 10 million dollars in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable 10 million dollars and we have eight million dollars in the home care program and every day colleagues want us from from more home care givers and again that was under the stewardship of the member for view for some of me the speaker again another thing they've forgotten our education they they've forgotten that that's why they have to attack me personally because they've forgotten these things mr speaker we just got another 5000 lab 5000 chromebooks two weeks ago that is 10 000 very soon our vision and that's what vision that's what vision is you know vision not talking if an accent that's not vision vision is action vision is every child even children of the people who do not support us even children of people who defame us on facebook their children will have a laptop or chromebook to go to school to put them in the modern world mr speaker and mr speaker the policy that will transform st lusher is the policy of one university graduate per household that's going to transform st lusher that's vision and i want to thank the minister of education for running if it running if that to be that understanding that education mr speaker one university graduate per household and this year we put in half a million dollars for it this year but the ministry of excel affairs has been have they've been instructed to work with governments to see if they can augment the scholarship that we get for this country and the ministers and that's what we all about that's our vision not talking nonsense that's our vision giving a ten every child to school give every child education that's our vision that's what our vision is all about mr speaker and mr speaker the national housing program i spoke about housing a house in a while ago mr speaker very soon we're going to be risk we're going to be recommencing our housing program where we try to assist people to fix the houses and i want to say mr speaker this that program is for the poor the low income the differently able mr speaker and the desolate so it's not a program where we build houses for people it's a program where we repair houses for people who really can't afford mr speaker and we've spoken about the distress fund the distress fund is back mr speaker and many people have benefited from the distress fund mr speaker so so mr speaker this budget tends to create the issues that i spoke about mr speaker but there are certain things that we didn't mention the integrity commission remember we spoke about the integrity commission we have allocated 50 000 to improve the integrity mr speaker mr speaker we have a special crime initiative 850 special crime initiative mr speaker where we're going to help non-state actors who are who are engaged in crime reduction we're going to help them we're going to give them some money mr speaker people involved in crime reduction i don't mention any names but the people have been working constantly sometimes with the with the lives working the lives at stake to go into deal with the crime reduction she should be going to help them at least with the transportation mr speaker and mr speaker this year is my pleasure to announce that we are going to complete our ascension to the caribbean court of justice and there is an allocation for us to compete that that is and it's my dream mr speaker it's my dream it's our dream that when we begin work on our new halls of justice we're going to have our ascension to the caribbean court of justice at the same time mr speaker that's my dream i'm mr speaker we have we have to we have an allocation of five million dollars for rental of the orange growth plaza i showed the mr housing jump we'll we'll leave it with the minister of housing his head will he'll poke up when i say that because i know where he stands and that mr speaker we have to allocate five million dollars for the five million dollars mr speaker for the orange growth situation that they put us in but we are government of integrity that's what we have to protect the good name of this country and that is why we have to pay k-man city we have to respect the good name of our country this country don't belong to any member in the parliament it belongs to the people of san russia and we are custodians for the people of san russia and we have to protect the name of this country mr speaker so we have five million dollars to deal with that in the meantime then mr speaker we have we had an issue with wages for people in the government information technology the gifts which again we inherited we are going to be paying it mr speaker trading the stuff for the for the the department of gender mr speaker mr speaker we are increasing our location to the legal aid office because people must get proper legal aid we increase not allocation mr speaker we're also increasing the allocation being paid to to to lawyers who defend who are appointed by the state to defend the murder people in murder trials because we believe in in a fair justice system so it is difficult to get representation for them because i said the money was not enough we're going to be increasing that so they can get some more money mr speaker we're going to look at the public public prosecution office to see how we can improve it there's money the defilat mr speaker and mr speaker there's a stipend for a fire license in board a stipend but you heard what his party said his party said that we were giving people licenses for money mr speaker that's how these people ten i create people mr speaker you're speaking about people in a licensing board who have not even been appointed but you're saying that collusion and we and we are people are paying for these licenses speaker and when they say these things they don't retract it you know they just say it spoiler try to spoil the good name and leave it just say it mr speaker so right now the fireman the fireman licensing board is going to be is going to be put in into effect and there's a stipend for them mr speaker mr speaker we are we have put increased the bodily last week we sent 25 new recruits to bodily we have an allocation there for a staff doctor and a remedial teacher a nurse and a clinical worker to increase the staff at bodily mr speaker so you're going to have a doctor a remedial teacher a nurse and a clinical worker mr speaker for the body institution to make bodily a pure a rehabilitative place mr speaker mr speaker the price of food and that's another problem supplies and food for bodily we have to increase that at that allocation this year but i'm pleased to tell you that under the new leadership bodily has begun to plan their own food and understand they are doing very well mr speaker and doing their own food and we have a hundred thousand dollars for staff training for for bodily and there are sixty thousand dollars for maintenance of staff mr speaker i mean i was told about bodily that there's something called a skills allowance which is 150 dollars per month mr speaker and the last government refused to give it so what happens is that the people at bodily the inmates who have skills they need somebody to help them to that if they are carpenter or electrician or mason's he's about to help them so they can do the work there for 150 dollars a month and when these guys talk when and the minister will tell you when these guys talk about what they did and how they perform they refuse to pay these people a hundred and fifty dollars a month a skills allowance so they can work with the inmates to improve the situation of bodily well we are going to be paying it mr speaker i'm mr speaker i forgot to tell the fire service i know the fire service always say that we've forgotten them we have a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to regularize the status of fire officers i'm sure the fire officers will be very happy to hear that mr speaker we are also seeing about the fire officers mr speaker mr speaker i spoke about the rental of premises for the immigration for the immigration officers mr speaker mr speaker we also have i said i spoke about status of police constables i spoke about the major crimes units we're going to have two new probation officers mr speaker we have to ensure you know mr speaker all the talk these guys are talking about they said when they came they there were no boats etc you know these boats they don't have no insurance i mean what do you say mr speaker you know that you only had as far as on the on the road on the sea on the high seas so we have to allocate six hundred twenty seven thousand dollars for insurance of the new marine fleet mr speaker mr speaker the fingerprint situation we have to deal with mr speaker and then we have an outreach program for people in the community but the police to deal with the community mr speaker mr speaker we're giving the marketing board a two hundred fifty thousand dollar a subvention for them mr speaker and we also have to deal we also give ten thousand dollars for farmers with disabilities we're going to that helps them mr speaker ensures that and that doesn't that doesn't speak about all the increase in grants that we have given to to the other bodies mr speaker we've given we've increased every association except i think one or two we've increased the allocation from one point eight million dollars in twenty two twenty three to two point two million dollars in twenty three twenty four apart from the twenty five million dollars he's spending that's what we are giving to charity groups and organizations mr speaker the ministry of commerce they speak about subsidies to food we're giving them one million dollars extra to assist them in outstanding debts and they need more but in christian as an invention to the the export exports and lucha they're doing a very good job but we have to give them some some more support me mr speaker we are trade consultant for the for to regularize the cannabis industry mr speaker the ministry of infrastructure we uh we have two million dollars more in road maintenance we increase it one point six million dollars increased for the care take a program mr speaker we increase in the subvention to to the nook the nook has a very important job to do of two and fifty thousand dollars the allocation to the nook is increasing and i want to implore the nook to work in the ministry so we can deal with the electricity supply act and lucha is losing his competitiveness because of the cost of electricity we have to ensure that we deal with that electricity supply act mr speaker and i am putting the minister and the nook on notice that we have to bring these negotiations to an end very very short to mr speaker they must come to an end i know they they are working but we have to work harder we have to we have to ensure that we bring it we bring these negotiations on end mr speaker the street the street lighting program we have increased it by a million dollars and i know that's a vexing issue for all of us we need lights mr speaker for once i hope once and for all we'll solve that k-light program and again that that member from microsoft we had a arrangement alone properly completed with the cdb when they came into power they stopped it for the pejora letter they stopped it and they want you to forget the pejora letter attacking me personally will not make the pejora letter run away don't attack me personally don't like pejora then mr speaker and all those who believe mr speaker the ministry of tourism eight thousand dollars for seven eight million for seven lucer tourism authority um we're going a hundred thousand dollars for emancipation the activities hundred thousand dollars for labor day activities and we started last we started yesterday very good labor day activities mr speaker but it was it was a low key and again we need to thank the workers in this country for their contribution to the to the the congress and mr speaker and i have put a notice that we want to start negotiations very early with the public servants so we can come to an amiga resolution at the shortest possible time mr speaker mr speaker the the the department of labor mr speaker payment of medican and his show education grant to the service association subvention to the trade union federation six thousand dollars for the establishment of a minimum and livable wage commission that commission is meeting mr speaker we need to have a minimum slash livable wage for the workers of seducia we are just we are not going to just impose it we're going to have discussions but this discussion cannot be open-ended they have to end at some at some point so we're going to we're going to be discussing the private sector we're going to be discussing everybody so we can come to an amiga resolution as far as a minimum or equitable wage is concerned mr speaker mr speaker the mission of education we are working with mono college one million dollars for the mono college the mono college partial scholarship mr speaker five first generation scholarships half a million for the one graduate per household mr speaker and the minister of education um for the increasing in stipend for students who got the morocco scholarship the morocco scholarship mr speaker and mr speaker university of the western days our university the university that many of us inside there went to the member for for view for the south the member for central castries the member for view for the north the member for then we know the member for castry south and myself mr speaker all of us graduates all of us in this but there are some people in government who believe that it was of us in this is second second field they're the same way they laughed at saffa louis they laughed and he was in this mr speaker we owe the university rescinders about 26 million dollars and there's another vaccine issue which is the land the money we owe people for when we acquire the land we have to deal with these two issues mr speaker so we have a little two million dollars to reduce the arrears owed to the mystery so mr speaker we helping the the four new daycare centers mr speaker helping them with a stipend to help them in their operational expenses and we have 150 000 dollars for the foreign language program mr speaker to help children because you believe that right now if you cannot speak a foreign language for a young generation you're almost illiterate mr speaker you must be able to speak a foreign language so we helping in that regard mr speaker the ministry of youth and sport mr speaker 400 000 dollars for an expensive internationally of the youth and then we also have a semi pro footballing we helping the ministry with some money for that me mr speaker and the julian alfred situation mr speaker so mr speaker what we are doing is and the youth economy which is because i'm very pleased with how that project is going i'm very pleased with mr speaker so mr speaker in number of casualties you have five minutes left yes mr i'll end so mr speaker so you see the reason why the member from microsoft and in surrogates are so desperate you see the reason why the reason is this government is performing way beyond their imagination mr speaker when we started they said that we would be fighting among ourselves they said we'll not be able to pay civil servants they said the economy to collapse mr speaker right now mr speaker none of that happened so they are desperate they and the surrogates are desperate i have said to them let us argue policy let us discuss policy let us discuss what let us discuss how we can do better but what it has gone to personal attacks mr speaker and mr speaker let me put them on notice and put them on this now you can say whatever you want about me whatever you want about me about my family everything these things are aimed to do me both personal and physical injury that's what that's the aim to create personal and physical injury to me and members of my family mr speaker i will never yield my conviction to improve the life of the people of this country i will never yield mr speaker you will never be able to embarrass me you'll never be able to say i stammer you'll never be able to say you will never be able to make memes of me to make me appear as to what i'm not you'll never be able to say things about me that are not true that will ever affect me mr speaker i go on my conscience and the support of the men women in the linear party and particularly men women in this cabinet mr speaker i believe that they have the same conviction as me to improve the lives of the people of st lucia mr speaker i believe that i believe that so mr speaker i'll continue to work with the members of this cabinet and the members of parliament mr speaker and the people who are interested in the welfare of st lucia mr speaker to ensure the life of the regular person in st lucia improves mr speaker that the education improves that they grew up that the young people grew up with a sense of dignity a sense of pride a sense of understanding their wolf and their place in the history of st lucia and the place in the history of the caribbean that's what i stand for so your noise will not detail me mr speaker your noise will not detail me i'm a proud man mr speaker i'm proud of my achievements i'm proud of where i came from i'm proud of who i am and i'm proud of where i'm going mr speaker i will not be in that job forever i've not been a job forever that job will pass me but when i leave when i leave i would have known that i've made a contribution to my country together with my colleagues to improve the lives of the people of st lucia i thank you mr