 Mr. Speaker, let me, first of all, lend my voice to the many others in the house this morning that gave their condolences and sympathy to the family of the nurse that was sadly killed in this sadly very violent environment that we find ourselves in St. Lucia today. I believe that what makes this particular murder so chilling, Mr. Speaker, is that a person on the way to pick up their daughter to go to school in their car could be so gruesomely killed. And it's a person who we all can relate to, a hard-working woman, a person that probably more than likely did more things right than she did things wrong. And I think that we can all empathize with her and her family at this time of great grief and only hope that this government finds the courage to stop blaming everyone else for the issues and to get down to the work they promised the people of this country. Sadly, we still don't see any plan to curve the amount of crime that's taking place in this country. We hear lots of words, lots of things, but the actual getting down to dealing with the structural problems in our society, the government seems to be neglecting all of those things and to realize that it is a collective action of the economy socially everywhere that is going to be needed to turn the tide of crime in this country. And it may even start, Mr. Speaker, with the example that we set in this very same house. Mr. Speaker, permit me to congratulate the prime minister and the cabinet on the support that they have given to the majestic workers. This is support, Mr. Speaker, that was long overdue. If we recall, Majestics went out of business in 2004 during the SLP administration. And that was then soon followed by the then prime minister king. I think it was, if I'm not mistaken, the Majestics is in his own constituency of which sadly nothing was done. And then we had a second, another tenure of an SLP government, 2011 to 2016, in which again they were left wanting. And during my tenure, Mr. Speaker, when this was brought to my attention in the first three years when we were trying to put the economy right and we finally were able to get this thing sorted, we then were confronted with COVID. But I did meet with the NW and I did meet with the workers themselves. And we did come to very similar terms that the prime minister has outlined today. So I want to say I'm sorry to all of those workers that it took those numbers of years in order for them to have been reimbursed. But I'm glad today that it has happened. The prime minister also, Mr. Speaker, brought up the issue with regards to Liat. Liat is no stranger to us, Mr. Speaker. In fact, on more than one occasion in the history of Liat, Liat has actually found itself in financial disarray. In fact, on two occasions, the most recent one being I believe in 2009 and 2010, there was a regional bailout of Liat. The bailout was to forgive Liat of all of its debts, to provide Liat with new loans, to give Liat new planes, and to give it a new lease on life. In fact, Liat's greatest complaint was a competition from Caribbean Star. Caribbean Star was closed, all the other competition was closed. And sadly, Mr. Speaker, even before COVID, Liat had already found itself back into significant debt. So much so, Mr. Speaker, in 2017 at a meeting that I did attend with other heads, the other heads had even some of the ones which were the most ardent supporters of Liat had to finally say enough is enough. And many of those countries turned over their shares back to Liat. And sadly, when COVID came, it was the final nail in the coffin for Liat. But the lesson to be learned here, Mr. Speaker, is that the things that ailed Liat, which was not competition, was protectionism. And the fact is, one can go through a multitude of examples, and that's not the form today, Mr. Speaker, of examples of where Liat has been protected, and it avoided doing the right things. And the mess that we are finding ourselves into the, where persons, exactly what the Prime Minister said, some people who can afford it, and some people who have US visas, have the opportunity of going to Miami to go back down to Antigua and to Barbados. For those who cannot, they may have to find themselves going to Trinidad or to other places in order just to get to Barbados. But the reality, Mr. Speaker, is that the mess that we find ourselves into today is because we neglected all of the signs that were there that Liat was in trouble and that we needed to address the aviation industry in its holistic sense in order to be able to create a more competitive environment. Belize, Mr. Speaker, as an example, with a population of 350,000 people, has two airlines that have survived over 30 years, both of them making money. And there are many more examples, but sadly in this region, Karakom, we have eight civil aviation authorities, eight different regulators. We had an incestuous ECA in which former pilots and workers of Liat were employed at ECA and protected Liat. But again, we're paying that price today, Mr. Speaker, and there's nobody to blame but ourselves in this particular situation. So, Mr. Speaker, I want to address the specific bill at hand, Mr. Speaker, which is a very important one. And I want to again thank CDB for making these concessionary funds available to Saint Lucia. And I notice, Mr. Speaker, that they are specifically to deal with the what I call COVID fallout that we have, the aftermath of COVID that's still with us. And the reality is, Mr. Speaker, sometimes when I hear the members on the opposite side speak specifically about COVID and the economic situation that we have found ourselves in, it boggles the mind. And when the Prime Minister would go on and on about what he considers to be irresponsible statements being made about debt, I want him to remember, not too long ago when he was sitting on this side, that's exactly what they were saying. Despite all of the evidence, and I just want to go back through what that evidence was, Mr. Speaker, because it's very important. If we go to the social and economic review, Mr. Speaker, on page 122, we'll see that in 2000, sorry, sorry, Mr. Speaker, 2021, the revenue in 2019-2020 was $1.185 billion. That revenue actually would have been higher, but we had already started to see the impact of COVID in February and March of 2020. And if you look at 2018-2019 of $1.2 billion, for the year 2020 and 2021, government revenue dropped to $925 million, Mr. Speaker. It's one that the Prime Minister speaks about, that he's only recovered $40 million of the gas subsidy excise tax. Really? And this is a problem? This is a crisis? We lost almost $250 million of tax revenue, of which there was zero ability to recover any of that money. The current revenue, Mr. Speaker, dropped from $1.14 million to $870 million. Well, I'm a member from Cass Tree Central. You know what? I have to say to Mr. Speaker, he really entertains me. He really does. So Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, you're telling me that he wants to make a reference to that? The fact is that when we drop the VAT rate, Mr. Speaker, from 15% to 12.5%, which was a campaign promise, revenue, which was expected to have dropped, that's according to the IMF, by $55 million, only in the first year dropped by $15 million. And within 18 months, we had recovered to where we were previously. And the only way that that mathematically can take place, Mr. Speaker, is that there was economic activity. And that economic activity is to sustain by the fact. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, the increase in the the fuel tax happened long before COVID. I'm talking about before before COVID, right, the revenue was $1.8 billion. And it dropped to $925. Recurrent revenue dropped from $1.4 billion to $870 million. Mr. Speaker, taxes on goods and services dropped from $277 million to $168 million. Taxes on international trade, which is primarily your tourism sector and your airlines, $517 million to $398 million, Mr. Speaker. But sadly, Mr. Speaker, when revenue had dropped over $250 million, and then the other invisible cash burden that the state had, Mr. Speaker, was the rollover of bonds. We had almost $800 million of bonds that were due to be rolled over that year, Mr. Speaker. And there was a 25% redemption on those bonds. These are people that had not, like government, like the rest of the world, had not anticipated that COVID was going to come, had invested bonds, and now needed the cash either for their household or for their own businesses, Mr. Speaker. So over $200 million of additional cash had to be found. And that is why when you read the financial and economic review and the numbers are netted off because what happened, Mr. Speaker, is we converted shorter-term, more expensive bonds into longer-term borrowing at a cheaper rate. And that is why the average interest rates, average interest rates, of what? So you borrowed $330 million of longer-term revenue, is that not true? From the World Bank, from the IMF, and from CDB to provide for budgetary support. Okay? But for budgetary support. And what you did is when you were paying back on the bonds, you did not pay, you did not take any additional bonds. You ended up converting it. And that's the point, Mr. Speaker. All of a sudden, they just want to figure out the numbers disappear by themselves. The reality is, the reality is exactly what the Prime Minister just said, Mr. Speaker, that the borrowings that were undertaken were there to provide budgetary support. And let me show you, Mr. Speaker. Let me show you, Mr. Speaker. So you're talking about wages and salaries during 2020 and 2021. What's $413 million? Interest payments was $164 million. Goods and services, which is the operating cost of government, your rent, your utilities, your contracts, was $279 million. So it means that you had, Mr. Speaker, expenses of $1.5 billion. And you only had a revenue of $925 million. Plus, you lost the money from the bonds which you had to pay out. So the monies that we brought in literally, literally were used to pay for salaries, were looked to pay for goods and services and current transfers. Because we could not use the IMF money or the World Bank money in order to pay any debt. So it's the remaining revenue we had. So again, Mr. Speaker, we've heard members on the opposite side repeatedly speak about how was the largest borrowing ever? And what were the options? And then, Mr. Speaker, they had the audacity. The audacity given that kind of problem, which was unprecedented, to say that when we gave $500 a month to provide for income support, which they to date have not been able to do. And I hopefully, I didn't hear the minister say it specifically, but I'm hoping there's going to be some level of income support in the $15,000 they promised people. Maybe that's going to be in this bill or the next bill. So here it is today, Mr. Speaker. Revenue has recovered to where it was before. Revenue has recovered to where it was before, Mr. Speaker. This government does not have that excuse. And they still have not been able to do it. Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker. In part, NIC money was used and also in part, monies from the recurrence was used. But guess what? We found mechanisms to be able to provide that support. You've been there, Mr. Speaker. Here is a man who said that he was ready for the job. He's been in training. And he was ready. And here's a year and a half has gone by, Mr. Speaker. The fishermen are still waiting. Everybody else is waiting for the $15,000 because he was so adamant, Mr. Speaker. He said that $500 was in civic. That was an insult to people that we should be giving $1,500. Well, here it is, Mr. Speaker, that he has an opportunity. He has an opportunity. Revenue has recovered. The member for Mikusov is continually, Mr. Nowes. I never said so. What I know is I beat him in the election. You see, Mr. Speaker, you know, when people have to resort to that kind of rhetoric in order to justify their own existence, I feel sorry for them. But the reality is, Mr. Speaker, the reality, Mr. Speaker, is that the people on the ground are feeling it. They have lost confidence in this government. They know that this government has now fooled them. They know that they were bluffed because almost 18 months has gone by and none of the promises that they've made have come through, Mr. Speaker. And again, time will now show. Time will now show what had happened, Mr. Speaker. Boy, Mr. Speaker, you know, Mr. Speaker, after one or sometimes, right? If it was not for the United Workers Party and how we transparently conduct our business, instead of artificially, a man wins 100% vote support. Really? You want us to believe that everybody, Mr. Speaker? So, Mr. Speaker, one of the things is I know I'm confident myself. The United Workers Party has a process for its leadership and that process will go through. And I am very confident that I will prevail at the end of the day, Mr. Speaker. But I'm very happy that the members on the opposite side can gain that form of entertainment. But that does not work on me and it's not working on anybody else. What the reality is is that they cannot deflect the people of this country from the pain that people are feeling. The pain in their pockets, the pain in their bellies, the pain in their and the fear in their hearts, Mr. Speaker, significant amount of pain that the people are suffering in this country. And this government is providing absolutely nothing to be able to give them any form of hope. So, Mr. Speaker, I continue. So, when we now look at the labor unemployment, during before 2019 or when we came into government, unemployment was a 24.1% Mr. Speaker. By 2019, we had dropped it to 16.8% Mr. Speaker. And then all of a sudden, during COVID, which would be expected, tourism closed, it went back up to 21.7%. And I was very heartened, Mr. Speaker, although it was very late in the day that the Ministry of Statistics put out a report to show that the unemployment by the first quarter of 2022 had dropped back down to 16%. Sadly, Mr. Speaker, I'm pretty sure that number is in excess of 21% today. But it showed that, where's that unemployment? 15,000 hotel workers, Mr. Speaker, woke up and didn't have a place to go to work. And I'm very happy that the member mentioned unemployment insurance. And the reason why we had to borrow the money, or not borrow the money, the reason why NIC was creative in what it did was to make up for that fact, because NIC is a pension fund, not an unemployment insurance. Many people get confused, Mr. Speaker. And so NIC was able to take money $100 million out of its future in order to be able to provide some money to the people. And it was the initiatives of this government, my government, that allowed us to go and negotiate a wholesale moratorium on loans for everybody in this country. Yes, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm so happy that the member brought that up. In fact, it was in case of St. Lucia, and I have to really thank the Bank Association here in St. Lucia, because the ECCB did not want there to be a whole holistic moratorium. But the reality is that, Mr. Speaker, with tourism being impacted and the number of indirect businesses that also would have been impacted, the run on the banks, big banks would not have been able to handle it. And I'm very happy that St. Lucia played a very critical role, Mr. Speaker, in influencing the ECCB and agreeing to an overall moratorium. And those discussions, Mr. Speaker, with the Banking Association began as early as the end of February. So in anticipation, and that's the difference here, Mr. Speaker, there are many crises that are coming. We warned the government about the crises of the supply chain issues and inflation. Up to today, there is no policy position. You're all living in denial and people in this country are paying the price for that blindness, that level of arrogance of not wanting to be able to deal with the problem, Mr. Speaker. That is the difficulty that I have. I continue, Mr. Speaker, HIA on page 114. We'll see that, Mr. Speaker, in 2019, there was 384,000 people, or 764,000 both ways, that went through HIA airport. In 2020, that number was down to 276,000. 500,000 less people going through HIA in one year, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you then go to the actual tourism arrivals, which is on page 104. Tourism arrivals, Mr. Speaker, in 2019 was 423,000. In 2020, it was 130,000. So, when you talk about a contraction in the economy of 24 percent, and you want to leave it like my good friend, the psychologist, a half-truth and want to make it believe that there was some mismanagement of the economy and that's why all of a sudden there was a 24 percent decrease. No, Mr. Speaker, it was our dependence on tourism and our GDP had been rebased. It was the first one in the OECS to be rebased. It was rebased, no, sir. It was not rebased five times. In my tenure, it was rebased once. Once in my tenure. Five times in my tenure. Five times in my tenure. I want to hear. During 2016 to 2021, it was rebased once. And when it was rebased, it was rebased because they said that tourism was being under-recognized in our numbers. Not me. IMF. IMF is the one who did the study. Okay? So, Mr. Speaker, so, Mr. Speaker, we went down to 130,000 arrivals. When we go down to the cruise ship arrivals, Mr. Speaker, which is on page 102, we went from 1.2 million in 2019 to 454,000 in 2020 and 301,000 in 2021. A significant impact, Mr. Speaker. Now, I want to say, Mr. Speaker, that when you now go and you look at page 9, Mr. Speaker, and there's a macroeconomic indicators of the debt to GDP of the countries in the region. St. Lucia in 2020 was 92.2%. Dominica 109. Antigua 98.6. St. Kitsunivis 67.9. And St. Vincent and the Grenadines 87.4. By 2021, Mr. Speaker, Antigua had gone from 81.1% to 80.2%. Sorry, Antigua went from 98% to 95%. Dominica went from 109 to 111%. Grenada went from 72 to 71%. St. Lucia went from 92.1 to 90.6%. St. Kits went from 67.9 to 68.2%. And St. Vincent and the Grenadines went from 87.4 to 92.4%. So, Mr. Speaker, you then also then look at the economic growth rates for those for that period of time. And St. Lucia outshone everyone in 2021. So, what I'm saying, Mr. Speaker, is that by the time 2020 had ended and the policies that we put in place to do what, which was to quickly recover tourism, which we recovered 50% of it, and focus on construction and to use the monies from the lockbox in order to be able to fund the DCFs, okay? All of those things created now what? It created the second highest growth rate in the whole of Karakong and the highest growth rate in the OECS. By far, last year 2021, under our policies, Mr. Speaker. Okay? So, Mr. Speaker, this government now have come in and reversed all those policy positions. So, here it is, Mr. Speaker. We're going to come here to borrow money for a six-month program of something that we have to be looking longer term for, Mr. Speaker. This government has been in office almost a year and a half. All the experience I see around the table, they brag about all the financial gurus and social hearts that we have, Mr. Speaker. You'd have thought that by now we would be cooking with gas. But, Mr. Speaker, all this is a band-aid. What I would have liked to have heard from both the minister of equity and also from the prime minister that this is the beginning of a program and start to lay out the policies, Mr. Speaker, that they're going to be implementing to be able to sustain this on a regular basis. How are we going to do it? Because, Mr. Speaker, when we go to our social and economic review, when we go to, sorry, when we go, Mr. Speaker, to the campaign promises that we've made, that's exactly what we were talking about. Unemployment insurance, Mr. Speaker. A regular subsidy to the people who are unemployed, the vulnerable persons in our society, the single mothers who don't have work. In order to be able to help those people, we have to give them regular contributions coming out of the recurrent expenditure of our country. But in order to do that, Mr. Speaker, and that's where the feeling of this government comes from. In order to be able to do that, you have to first grow the economy and you have to be able to create a situation in which we have a surplus revenue in order to be able to do that. Because the fact is by running the deficit you have, all you're able to do is to cover salaries, pay the debt, and pay the operating cost. Any additional things that you want to do will have to come at the expense of borrowing, Mr. Speaker, and that is where this government falls apart. But you know what happens, Mr. Speaker? It becomes a balancing fact. And that balancing fact is that it becomes a point in which you cannot borrow any more money. And if you continue to run those kinds of deficits. So, Mr. Speaker, I continue to say that this government does not have a plan. No plan, Mr. Speaker. All they want to do is to lay blame to everybody else. You know, there was a trough and I'm very sorry for what happened. And to hear the member from Castries North try to, I mean, to justify what happened, a person of his own experience, I'm shocked. We're shocked. I mean, I would have thought that by now, Mr. Speaker, he would have known that when you go and you desult early in the year and you have heavy rains, all of a sudden now you're going to have the desult to go now and want to blame what people are dumping in the rivers. That's been going on for years. But if you do your desulting and then you put a program in place to prevent people from doing that, that's the solution. But to come here now and to justify the place being flooded the way it was, Mr. Speaker, okay, by blaming it on the people who are dumping things in the think who can probably get proper solid waste collections. This is wrong, Mr. Speaker. That's why we cannot go anywhere, Mr. Speaker. Everything is somebody else's fault. Everybody else's fault. They never want to be able to accept the responsibilities of what's taking place. You want it to be in government, you're in government, govern. Take care of the people. You're coming here with band-aids. This is nice, Mr. Speaker. But this is not going to solve the medium term and long term problems that we have in this country, where we have too many people who are living way below the level of standard of living. And it is about the standard of living, Mr. Speaker. And everything the United Workers Party has done in the past and everything we've been doing has been focused on that, but in a practical way. And it is this government that wants to malpally all the things that we're doing when the member, when the member from Cass Street is North, Mr. Speaker, tries to talk about how people want to come and say things. I leave that, I leave that for the Labour Party. Y'all are the best at that. Half-truths, blame game. But you what? Can't solve anything. That's why they always used to say, and we can say it again, Labour pains. That's what this country is now suffering from. Labour pains. And where those persons who had forgotten, there are many people today, Mr. Speaker, who are regretting what they have done. But there's more, there'll be more on that, that subject, Mr. Speaker. So again, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the CDB for making these concessionary funds available. I'm hoping that the government will use this as an opportunity to rethink, retool, re-engage, and figure out how they're going to pay for these resources, these important programs, out of our own recurrent revenue. And I'll give them a little bit of a hint, Mr. Speaker. It can only come when you generate higher revenues than what your operating costs are. That's how you start to grow the economy. But the reality is, is that they themselves don't know what to believe in. So anybody who comes in and tells them some story, that's what they're going to follow. And that's exactly what we're seeing going on today, Mr. Speaker, in this country. I thank you very much.