 Hello and welcome to a briefing on government business forwarded during proceedings of the House of Assembly sitting on Tuesday, the 2nd of June, Wednesday the 3rd of June and the Senate sitting on Thursday the 4th of June 2020. My name is Jesse Leance. In the honorable House of this week, Parliament approves the US $7.9 million for the joint venture to upgrade the Millennium Highway and West Coast Road. The House approves financial relief for St. Lucian residents in the form of an extended period for barrel concessions from now June 2020 to January 2021. In addition, the parliamentary opposition lend support for governments proposed the Labour Code amendment to extend the layoff period during national crises like this pandemic COVID-19 and the tourism levy bill intended to help small tourism related businesses is pulled from the order paper ahead of the sitting of the Senate pending further review acknowledging legitimate concerns with the proposed legislation. First order of business added to the well-advanced preparations for the reconstruction of the Millennium Highway and West Coast Road. The government of St. Lucia has received approval in Parliament to fulfill its funding commitment to the joint venture by way of a loan from the Caribbean Development Bank's ordinary capital resources OCR of an amount not exceeding US $7,945,000. The government of St. Lucia will keep its end of the bar game in the EC 99.4 million dollar undertaking. Minister for Infrastructure, Ports, Energy and Labour the Honourable Stevenson King gave a breakdown of how the Millennium Highway and West Coast Reconstruction project will be bankrolled. The proposed project will be financed in the following weeks. A loan from the government of St Lucia by the CDB of an amount not exceeding equivalent of 7.945 million dollars which is what we are here to this evening debating and for which we anticipate approval. That Mr. Speaker represents 15% of the project cost. 15% of project cost is what forms our commitment to the project. Then a grant to the government of St Lucia of an amount not exceeding equivalent of 27.83 million dollars which is US 35.342 million from CDB's SFR which is the allocation from resources by the United Kingdom through the Department of International Development under the United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Fund UK CIF resources request representing 67% of the project costs. So 67% comes from the United Kingdom. Counterfeit funding of EC 24.61 million representing 17% of project costs to finance land acquisition, project preparation, institutional strengthening, project management and to partly finance infrastructure works. Reconstruction of the Millennium Highway will cost approximately EC 32.2 million dollars and the West Coast Road EC 66.2 million dollars. The interest rate on the US 7.9 million dollar loan to partly finance the project is a 4.8% per annum on the amount of the loan withdrawn and outstanding. The commitment rate is payable at a rate of 1% per annum on the amount of the OCR portion un-withdrawn. The loan is repayable in 48 equal or approximately equal and consecutive quarterly installments on each first day of January, first day of April and first day of October of each year commencing on the first due date immediately following the expiration of five years after the date of the loan agreement on a later due date that the Caribbean Development Bank specifies in writing. Providing a status update on the Millennium Highway and West Coast Reconstruction project in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, the Honourable Alan Chastney, indicated that the feasibility study and final design were complete and disclosed that contractor bids were being evaluated this week. The next component will see the construction of a roundabout at the junction of the Millennium Highway, West Coast Road, East Coast Road, commonly referred to as the cul-de-sac junction and the reconstruction of the bridge at Ansleray. We're really hopeful that we can start seeing construction particularly on the Millennium Highway as quickly as possible. We want to take advantage, Mr. Speaker, of the fact that schools are shut right now until September. Also, we don't have our doors open to any tourism and even if we were to open our doors, we're not expecting that tourists are going to be traversing the island in the initial part like they did before. So it really is to use this opportune time, Mr. Speaker, to commence the work at hand. That was Honourable Alan Chastney, Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Economic Growth, Job Creation, External Affairs and the Public Service. The Millennium Highway and West Coast Reconstruction project upon completion will improve commutes, road safety efficiency, enhance sectors reliant on this key infrastructure and build climate resilience of the roads. Now, speaking of climate resilience, St. Lucia has scheduled to benefit from road improvement works fully funded by the Government of Japan through the Japan International Corporation Agency JICA. The cul-de-sac bridge reconstruction project, airmarked for later this month, is designed to build climate resilience in St. Lucia's infrastructure. The project running alongside the Millennium Highway and West Coast Reconstruction Initiative includes road realignment work, expansion of the existing bridge, river retraining and involvement in the construction of the proposed cul-de-sac roundabout. Minister for Infrastructure, Port's Energy and Labor, the Honourable Stevenson King, explained that the project is designed to address flooding in that prone area and will be supervised by engineers from the Department of Infrastructure. What the Japanese are going to do in cul-de-sac, Mr. Speaker, is just not to put two I-beams across the river and put slabs on it and say we have a bridge and say it costs 42 million dollars. It's much more than this. The studies which had to be done, Mr. Speaker, to determine the hydrology of the river in terms of the flow and all of this thing, Mr. Speaker, because it's not water running down a hill, it's water settling in a flood plain and it is likely if the hydrology, Mr. Speaker, isn't adequate, you are likely to have much more rapid flooding than ever before. The Japanese were the ones, Mr. Speaker, who undertook all of the feasibilities, design, finance, engineering, you name it, all of the feasibilities costing, Mr. Speaker, we will merely, we will merely the recipients of donor funds. Reconstruction of the cul-de-sac bridge will cost an estimated EC 42 million dollars, courtesy the Japanese government, and take 24 months to build, commencing this month, June. In more parliament news, the government of St. Lucia sought permission to guarantee two World Bank dispersed loans in the Honourable House this week for the Caribbean Regional Communications Infrastructure Program, CARSIP, and the Human Capital Resilience Project. The government's guarantee for the CARSIP loan taken out by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union will result in financing in the sum of US $4.1 million to complete St. Lucia's end of the regional connectivity infrastructure to increase bandwidth, ICT-led innovation to remain competitive globally and implementation support, integration and harmonization of regulations, as well as training activities and business incubation loans. In his bid, Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, the Honourable Alan Chasne, reiterated the significance of CARSIP and the convenience of this loan. I'm very grateful that we were able to secure this money at this time, particularly at the cost of the money, at a very, very low rate, Mr. Speaker, for a period of 20 years. Actually, sorry, for 40 years, Mr. Speaker, in total. So, while this will increase our debt to GDP, Mr. Speaker, but the fact is the burden on the coffers to pay this loan back are at relatively inexpensive, Mr. Speaker. And when one considers the significant capacity change it's going to make, both for us and our daily lives, and the opportunity for attracting more people in the St. Lucia because of this additional broadband width, and more importantly, Mr. Speaker, a critical component of this project is the development of our youth and giving them the opportunity now to open up their own businesses to compete on an international basis. The motion was approved in both houses this week. Parliament also approved this week a draft value-added tax order that is on the rate of a tax on goods and services provided by hotels and other providers in the tourism sector to vary the rate of tax for goods and services provided by hotels and other providers in the tourism sector and the draft value-added tax amendment of Schedule 2 order to amend Schedule 2 of the Act. And that is to A, set the rate of tax for goods and services provided by hotels and other providers in the tourism sector as follows, the rate of 7% tax, supplying with regard to a supply of an accommodation service, a water sports service, a tour conducted by land, air or sea within St. Lucia that does not include transportation provided by an external provider. The rate of 10% tax applies with regard to a supply of food and beverages, including alcoholic beverages by a restaurant or an admission service to heritage sites and other touristic attractions. In Schedule 2, under Item 1, A, by deleting the definition of commercial rental establishment and B, by deleting the definition of dwelling and by substituting a new definition that outlines the places that are not considered a dwelling. Under Item 2, by deleting paragraph M and by substituting a new paragraph to specify the type of accommodation service that is exempted. In other tourism matters amid concerns over certain sections of the draft of the Tourism Levy Bill and after careful consideration, the government of St. Lucia pulled the proposed legislation from the order paper after the House of Assembly sitting. It acknowledged that the bill might seem ambiguous, thus giving rise to a certain level of misunderstanding and misinterpretation. A statement from the Office of the Prime Minister indicates that the Act, which intends to help small tourism-related businesses, is too important a piece of legislation to be misunderstood. This legislation is intended to complement what is being done with village tourism, the marketing of brand and other destination enhancement programs to further incorporate and provide benefits to small and medium-sized tourism and hospitality businesses. An early start to the barrel concessions period has been approved in the Parliament. This week, the bill to amend the usual Christmas barrel concession was passed allowing St. Lucia to enjoy duty-free barrels now from June, instead of the usual November start. First mentioned in the Social Stabilization Plan by the Honourable Prime Minister, the Honourable Alan Chastney, in an address to the nation, this initiative is part of a wide range of relief measures to help citizens cushion the social and economic shock brought on by the ongoing pandemic. Mr. Speaker, my government recommended the following. The barrel concession program commence on June 2 to run for eight months and expire on January 31, 2021. The number of barrels granted under this program be restricted to two barrels to each household. Let the beneficiaries of the concession be granted 100% waiver of import duty excise tax on unsolicited personal items, food, clothing, toys, and other household consensuals to obtain in barrels imported. Let the concession not apply to electronic items. The persons are to pay the requisite taxes, duties and charges on barrels outside of the concessionary provisions as applicable in normal trade. Let the unusual penalties and fines be applied if goods are used for commercial purposes and there will be an upper limit of $2,500 per barrel on the value of items qualified. The application of requisite taxes, duties on charges and nonprovisional items like electronics or commercial goods remain. And finally, a bill, the Labor Amendment Act seeking to increase the layoff period during a national crisis like COVID has been passed. The layoff period as enshrined in the Labor Code or the Labor Act as it is known is to allow a business person to face with the condition to lay off its workers for a period of 12 weeks, three months. Upon the expiration of the three months, the employer therefore would it means that that period would would qualify for severance. And the employer would have to pay the worker severance fee. But with COVID and other natural disasters which may protract that period of downtime and a very slight it gives the employer the opportunity to benefit from an extended period which period would be declared by the minister. So once a national emergency is declared and it is protracted over a long extended period, the minister can make a declaration and extend it by a further 12 weeks to allow for a longer period of time for recovery and to get the business back on its feet. However, it doesn't disadvantage the workers because if the worker, the employee feels that he rather just at least sever his own relationship with the employer, then it means that the employer would have to pay his severance pay after the after the three months. The redundancy his redundancy after the three months and to allow him to move on with with his own business. While the employer, it gives him that extra period of time to recover to full business. And that extension, Mr. Speaker, is only provided for periods such as a national disaster, a pandemic or other situations such as these. Now that concludes the highlights of the parliamentary sittings this week of the lower house, the House of Assembly on the second and third of June, as well as the sitting of the Senate, the upper house on the fourth of June. My name is Jesse Leon signing off for now. Do stay tuned for more NTN programming.