He's going there last night, he was there. The member for Grozily. Mr Speaker, I feel humble as I rise to make yet another contribution on behalf of the people of Grozily to a budget debate. As such Mr Speaker, please grant me leave as I once again thank the people of Grozily for bestowing their confidence in me as the parliamentary representative and for the unwavering patience over the last year due to the many challenges we faced in our communities. Let me take this opportunity to remind them that unlike my predecessor, I am not hiding but I am buried under the stack of work that was not done before that I must complete on their behalf. Let me say this again. I want to take this opportunity to remind the people of Grozily that I am not hiding but I am buried under the stack of work that was not done before that I must complete on their behalf. Mr Speaker, if they decide to look closely, they will see that I am right there with them Mr Speaker. On the bus stops near the supermarkets, in front of the houses, on the playing fields, wherever they may go, town hall meetings, I am there right with them. And so Mr Speaker, I will continue to do just that. Mr Speaker, let me thank the almighty God who has blessed me with this desire with the ambition and temperament to represent the people of Grozily. I thank the most high, I always thank my loving mother Caroline Kazemi who has been with me from negative nine months and 39 years later Mr Speaker. Let me also thank my staff for the work in the last year including Meander Jaiab, the caller DuVern, Sharik Smith who has joined us this year Mr Speaker. And let me thank quickly just so that I ensure that I get all that I need for Grozily the honourable member for Castries East who has bestowed great confidence in me Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, the presentation presented by the honourable Prime Minister on this year's estimates remind me of a saying that you often hear when you watch basketball and cricket and any analysis, any analysis with statistics. Mr Speaker, as I said, women lie, men lie, but numbers don't Mr Speaker. Women lie, men lie, but numbers don't. Mr Speaker, the naysayers of everything this government has done say whatever comes to mind to satisfy their like-minded sibilants. But today, Mr Speaker, there are a couple of things that are indisputable. For the first time in years, Mr Speaker, the St. Lucian economy experienced a budget surplus. In fact, Mr Speaker, budget surplus of $29.5 million. Mr Speaker, for the financial year 2023-2024, we are expecting an even bigger surplus, Mr Speaker. This indicates that we are able to pay our interests and that mechanisms we may need to employ to finance our activities are palatable to our investors. Mr Speaker, women lie, men lie, but numbers don't. Mr Speaker, under wages and salaries, this government in this hard-gover season paid all civil servants salaries, Mr Speaker. Not only did they pay the wages and salaries, but Mr Speaker, the civil servants were treated to their back pay, Mr Speaker. Facts, numbers don't lie, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, we are also going to see a total revenue accumulated by this country being nearly a billion dollars over what was projected, Mr Speaker. And so, Mr Speaker, you can add to the saying women lie, men lie, pastors lie, priests lie, boper lie, belmer lie, but numbers don't, Mr Speaker. We said to the people of St. Lucia that it would take at least the first two years of this new administration to clean up the mess that was left behind by the previous government. And though we are not quite there yet, we are heading in the right direction once again, Mr Speaker. And so, Mr Speaker, as it pertains to the ministry of youth development and sports, I will say that this ministry, like our financial indicators, are heading in the right direction. It's quite obvious that to develop sports, we need to ensure that we have quality, well-maintained sporting facilities, and you would agree. And so, as a ministry, we have embarked on a systematic approach to the rehabilitation of our sporting infrastructure. And so, on the head 54, and the rehabilitation of playing fields, we'll see that the Mindofili Park has commenced the rehabilitation work after five plus years of no attention, Mr Speaker, and a doctrine that indicated to the people of Marsha, and to Woosh, and Castries East, a doctrine with a bell and a rose, that they did not dissolve the best playing field. We are seeing that the works have commenced. Mr Speaker, Belle Vee in the Viewfort North, Mr Speaker, the signs are up, and we're expecting that this work will commence this week for the people of Viewfort North, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, we saw in the financial year attention to the Souffre Ministry, we saw attention for the Cicero playing field, we saw the Cicero Court in Ancillary Canaries, the Deramo Court in Grosley, we saw the Goodlands Court, the Cicero Court, Larry Sue's Denry playing field getting some attention, the Corinth playing field getting some attention, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, as we said, the Mindofili Park, it was left in a historic fashion, Mr Speaker, a park that is used to develop all aspects of sports in St. Lucia, but Mr Speaker, very proud that this facility will be ready for the opening of jazz under this Minister of Finance, Mr Speaker. And so, Mr Speaker, we continue to work, Mr Speaker, in the best interests of our people. In the new financial year, we'll undertake work on several other sporting facilities. Some of those facilities include the Marigold playing field, Mr Speaker, the Philip Masler grounds, Mr Speaker, the Gardens in Central Castries, Mr Speaker, Hub of Talent, Mr Speaker, the Labry playing field, the Wend playing field, the Grand Ravin playing field will be given attention this financial year, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, as I said earlier, the Cicero works as already, well, we just plant in grass. We plant in the grass of the Cicero playing field, so it should be ready very, very soon for the people of Castries South. But Mr Speaker, perhaps the biggest project to be undertaken in this new financial year is the commencement of the National Aquatic Center. Mr Speaker, I must say, Mr Speaker, that this project has been a long time coming. As the Minister for Infrastructure once said, it was first conceived in 1987, Mr Speaker, under his stewardship as a Minister of Youth Development and Sports. As a matter of fact, I poked him once and said, that means you looked like me when you became Minister of Youth Development and Sports. And so these days, I see him with his green smoothie, taking in his vitamins. And I just remind myself that this is what the member for Castries North used to be. And so we continue to poke each other as we embark on a healthy lifestyle, Mr Speaker. But he will be happy to note that the Lecleris playing field will also be getting some attention this year, Mr Speaker. The Morsi playing field, Mr Speaker, has been underrepresented, under-facilitated for so many years, Mr Speaker. And we know that we have so much talent from that lovely community. And finally, we will be seeing some infrastructure development at the Morsi playing field, the Enchipo playing field near the Leonhurst Comprehensive Secondary School, and Mr Speaker, the VG playing field, Mr Speaker in Central Castries. Mr Speaker, I got involved in sports at a very tender age. And I remember very early people were always saying, the VG playing field is in such a central location. And I remember asking very early on, why don't we have lights at the VG playing field? And that must have been in 1992 or 1994. Somebody explained to me that it was too close to the airport at VG. And Mr Speaker, this explanation festered and festered and festered until one day I decided, let me call Slasper, let me call the relevant authorities, considering that Anna's Vale and some of the other facilities in the region are right next to airports, low and behold, Mr Speaker, we can put lights on the VG playing field, Mr Speaker. And the instructions will do not put the lights facing upwards. Mr Speaker, it simply meant that the technology had already developed to allow planes to land and take off, as long as lights are pointed in the right direction. And furthermore, Mr Speaker, who points a light for a playing field in the direction of the sky? And so finally, our development programs in Central Castries, Mr Speaker, will be implemented beyond 6 p.m., Mr Speaker. An area where we know requires all that attention, Mr Speaker. And so, Mr Speaker, we'll continue on the head 54 to do the remedial works that we need. Mr Speaker, the George Audlem stadium in Viewfort, in Viewfort, Marigold playing field, Flipmaster grounds, the gardens, the Labry playing field, Wend playing field, Grand Ravine playing field, Mr Speaker. I read it again for my colleagues so that they understand that we do work all around the St. Lucia, Mr Speaker. And so, Mr Speaker, we'll continue to do the work that we are required to do, Mr Speaker, for our people. The George Audlem stadium, Mr Speaker, as you know, has been in abeyance due to the presence of the hospital. Therefore, the ministry of youth development and sports will be monitoring the construction works at the St. Jude Hospital while they develop the appropriate strategy, guided, of course, by the experts for the recommissioning of the George Audlem national stadium to a full-fledged sports venue, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, in addition to providing and maintaining facilities, Mr Speaker, we've provided as a ministry equipment and the basic necessities to a number of playing facilities. Mr Speaker, Shozel has been a hub of cricket talent, Mr Speaker. And so, when we had our discussions, we decided that this would be a perfect area for nets to be erected for cricket development, for bowling machine to be sourced for cricket development, and the requisite equipment given to the people of Shozel, and so, Mr Speaker, under this ministry, we don't discriminate. We don't say because you're in opposition, you don't get the requisite attention, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, another community that is rife with cricket development is the De Bauer community, Mr Speaker, in Babuno. And so, Mr Speaker, this lovely area, Mr Speaker, will be laced with the basic necessities for further cricket development, including stands and a lights and lighting system for the people of Babuno, Mr Speaker. And so, we will have more discussion on our alternative lighting program during the policy debate as we ensure that solar lights is the direction we are going to become sustainable sports fanatics in the global stage, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, under wages and salaries, you will see there is an increase in this year's budget to facilitate expenses for two Cuban coaches as we continue to partner with the Cuban government to improve athletic performance in this country. Mr Speaker, the sport of boxing, they've benefited tremendously, Mr Speaker, from this. We have a burgeoning program in Viewfort South, Mr Speaker, almost 25 boxes, young boxes in the community of Viewfort under program and tutelage of a Cuban coach, Mr Speaker. And Mr Speaker, if you've been following, you would say that this augurs well for the next generation of national boxers as we know the South has a history of producing excellent athletes. And this is what we expect from the intervention of this Cuban coach. Mr Speaker, the Cuban coach is working well with former national boxers and of course coach Conrad Frederick, who has an excellent program at the VG, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, the coaching unit also includes 21 coaches in the field of table tennis, boxing, cricket, football, volleyball, netball and track and field. And Mr Speaker will go into more of this during the policy debate, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, the ministry has also employed under wages, Mr Speaker, and salaries, Earl Bologger and Stuart Charles for an emerging athlete program, Mr Speaker, to develop the next cadre of footballers, Mr Speaker. And if you follow Saint Lucia and football, Saint Lucia is continuing and beaten streak defeating Dominica just a few nights ago, three goals to one as we continue to top our group in the nation's league, Mr Speaker. And so it's expected that players such as Shiloh will benefit from having the best football coaches in this program, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, over the last financial year, a novel and exciting addition to the ministry's national sports program was the introduction of an alternative sports officer, Mr Speaker. In July 2022, we employed the officer, Mr Craig Gustav and we saw during the season December 13th to February 22nd, close to 300 individuals from across the region coming to Saint Lucia to participate in some of our alternative sports events. This includes mountain cross feet. This includes chess. This includes a number of other activities including Moto X, Mr Speaker. And, Mr Speaker, we saw close to 100 young schoolgoers participating in the HRDC grossly in the National Chess Championship, Mr Speaker. Packed crowd, parents from all over Saint Lucia in full support. And, Mr Speaker, moving forward, Mr Speaker, we continue, there's a lot to say in terms of the development of sports, Mr Speaker, but I will stop here, Mr Speaker, for sports development because I want to ensure that I give grossly the fair share because today, Mr Speaker, I have to ensure that I represent three constituencies in one, Mr Speaker. And so the speech technically needs to be three hours if permitted, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, under the ministry or the department of youth development, Mr Speaker, and the head 64, this financial year presents an opportunity for young people to come to the table to change the course of this great nation. 54, sorry. Mr Speaker, I am pleased to announce that my ministry in partnership with the National Youth Council have committed to ensuring that another legacy emerges from the timely recognition of 2023 as the year of the youth, Mr Speaker. And so the ministry in partnership with youth agencies will focus on safety, security and peace where the aim is to empower young people and communities as agents of peace and safe national coexistence. Mr Speaker, we must drive home the message the young people are the positive agents of peace. I think those opposite can agree that for sure we as a people need a significant investment in our young people in the communities, Mr Speaker. And so in celebration of the year of the youth we will endeavor to roll out programs and activities that will lead to an awareness that this year we arrest this scourge and that young people will lead this evolution of peace in our beautiful nation. My ministry, Mr Speaker, our ministry of youth development is forging partnerships with national, of the regional and international organizations including the private sector and faith-based organizations for resource mobilization for this year's celebration and of course beyond. Our mission, Mr Speaker, is to pursue the goal of safety, security and of course peaceful coexistence. And you will see this happening as the youth take center stage in debates, song, dance and other mechanisms to address the issue of crime and violence, prevention and reduction. We are privileged to collaborate with the Development Alternative Inc, DAI and partner on the Youth Resilience Inclusion at Empowerment, the WIRI, the program funded by the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, and of course this is a five-year project that will strengthen communities and family systems in initiatives that will improve responses to gender-based violence, Mr Speaker. And so, Mr Speaker, we will speak further on this during the policy debate. This along with the completion of the National Youth Policy, Mr Speaker, and the draft Youth Policy Action Plan will be taken under, will be done this financial year. Mr Speaker, I am determined that these documents gain approval for the highest political office and in this document you will see some of the themes to energize, energize the inclusive participation of young people and youth partners to celebrate the contributions of young people, empower young people by building the capacity for leadership and vision a renewed commonwealth that reflects the views and aspirations of young people and engage development partners to increase investment in creating an enabling environment for youth empowerment. So, Mr Speaker, we know that we need to continue to engage our young people and those agencies continue to present themselves to us as a government to provide the funding and the mechanisms to get into the communities. Mr Speaker, youth unemployment remains a worrisome issue for policy-makers and for all of Saint Lucia. As a government and in collaboration with other stakeholders we are making strides to aggressively address persistent social phenomenon such as this. The ministry launched the Skilled 758 app or Skilled Saint Lucia in February this year. So, the Skilled Saint Lucia web browser and mobile app it provides a user-friendly feature. It's a rich platform which will be easily accessed by Android and iOS. Mr Speaker, initially we had some technical difficulties with the app but I can now tell Saint Lucia that it is readily available on both platforms for the usage. It will assist in finding needed jobs, employees and services within a geographical location and also nationally it will improve what persons can now access in terms of getting employment. So Mr Speaker, our young people on the blocks can take this app write on their fingertips and gain access to what is going on provide information on what jobs that they may be interested in so we can further provide assistance. Mr Speaker, there is still another route that we are pursuing to relieve the unemployment situation among our young people and just earlier we had a conversation I had a conversation with a parent who has a Form 5 student who is doing well but she is not sure whether or not she will get the financing to send the child to Sir Arthur Lewis or to continue the education and she asked what is left for her to do when that child lives secondary school you may also ask a child living Sir Arthur Lewis Community College may have had all the success but no ability to pay for university what happens to this child and so Mr Speaker, the school leavers program or the national service program is a labour market intervention to provide opportunities for young people to utilize their skills, talents and expertise in the workplace preferably close to the community where they reside and so with that program we will be able to provide some employment for those school leavers Mr Speaker so Mr Speaker with the efforts to counteract the social ills and provide viable alternatives to youth the safe spaces initiative was developed Mr Speaker this project it fosters a safe and supportive environment to facilitate the integration of programs and services that are geared towards positive youth development Mr Speaker the ministry has embarked the old reunion school to convert as a safe space as well as the conversion of the unused building in denry south Mr Speaker on a study in Canada last year we witnessed firsthand the importance of safe spaces young people need a place for them to have their cathartic interactions with each other for them to talk for them to be able to come up with ideas and develop different skills that can further develop the entire community and so the ministry is working on ensuring that we have as many safe spaces for the young people Mr Speaker the positive youth development paradigm is what underpins this ministry of youth development and sports the ministry values young people we acknowledge that youth are a vital resource and are critical for our future and so Mr Speaker we are inviting all of St. Lucia next week to the Derrick Walkout Square let me just put that plug in as we kickstart our youth month activities the theme will be empowering young people for peace, unity and a safer society so Mr Speaker how do all of these activities that we see in this year's estimates of revenue and expenditure how do these finances develop the people of Grosly Mr Speaker we see on the head 46 community tourism Mr Speaker Mr Speaker as somebody who was born and raised in the community of Grosly we saw during the year 2022-2023 we saw the reintroduction of Grosly Friday night and I say that every opportunity I get to interface with the member for Castery South that the first community tourism initiative in St. Lucia in the 1970s was the Grosly Friday night and so Mr Speaker I remember how saddened I was when I saw the politics play out Mr Speaker when we decided that we were going to reopen Grosly Friday night when my team in the constituency considered what we discovered about the new variant we decided to lead the charge and speak to the vendors on how to do it Mr Speaker Mr Speaker how people in Grosly they were suffering Mr Speaker would you believe that there were people on Facebook there were people in the community there were people on the playing fields Mr Speaker literally asking to see an upsurge in the coronavirus at that time because we reopened Grosly Friday night Mr Speaker Mr Speaker the politics so ingrained in the blood that they wished to have seen it fail in the community Mr Speaker Mr Speaker they said people would be dying in the streets they said baby is mad they said vendors could survive for another year so why reopen Grosly Friday night but Mr Speaker as the parliamentary rep I had to stand up for them I was tired of them meeting me and asking me for small tokens asking for money to pay bills that piled up due to COVID-19 a water bill here in excess of $2,000 electricity bill in excess of $1,000 books for their children basic groceries that we know the little cachada from selling at Friday night for them Mr Speaker a lot of people don't know this but it's not just the vendors who benefit from Grosly Friday night Mr Speaker it's not just the restaurants and bars Mr Speaker but ordinary persons in the small plywood houses that you see in Grosly they benefit from Grosly Friday night the one person the one house selling ice selling a big bucket of ice for $20 who sometimes on one Friday night makes in excess of $100 with a mask close to $400 to $500 at the end of the month Mr Speaker it may not be a lot for some people but it pays a bill Mr Speaker it buys groceries Mr Speaker the neighbor selling kerosene and I have first-hand experience because up to a day like today Caroline Kazimis still sells a on Maritair Street can make in excess of $100 for that Friday night Mr Speaker and $400 at the end of the month Mr Speaker she... I get into that Mr Speaker they may not know this but the individuals that are selling coals a few houses down the coals that they wanted to tax Mr Speaker the same coals that they wanted to tax Mr Speaker in excess of $100 to $150 with a coals for a Friday night and make $500 Mr Speaker and so Mr Speaker I could not in good conscience just sit back Mr Speaker Mr Speaker the barber shops, the nail shops, the air salons Mr Speaker Mr Speaker at Starrie selling his wholesale Mr Speaker employing two or three people Mr Speaker not sit back and do nothing Mr Speaker but Mr Speaker I had a conversation with my mom and I could not understand why grossly Friday night meant so much to me subconsciously Mr Speaker about 39 39 years ago it was a grossly Friday night while my mommy love Caroline Kazimis as a vendor was selling with me in a belly I decided it was time to come out Mr Speaker while she was preparing the coals she might have bought a couple of blocks down on the kerosene to light it up Mr Speaker it was on a grossly Friday night I decided I coming out right now Mr Speaker and anytime you meet her she will give you the story and so Mr Speaker she had to leave the grill she had to get some assistance another time vehicles were not as regular as they are now in 1984 and Mr Speaker shortly after Friday night Kenson Kazibi was born Mr Speaker and so Mr Speaker how can I sit back Mr Speaker and let these people who use this very safe mechanism suffer Mr Speaker and so Mr Speaker we decided we had to return grossly Friday night and I had to go to the compassionate member for Castro's East the Honorable Prime Minister and explain that due to COVID-19 that none of these vendors had a basic start up and so with the intervention of SSDF we were able to get $350 for each vendor to go by the basic necessities to kick start the microenterprise Mr Speaker but Mr Speaker these are things that are not known in the community when I see and I hear some of the rhetoric Mr Speaker I sometimes wonder do they understand the compassion and love that this parliamentary have for the basic people of grossly every single individual Mr Speaker so for the new year Mr Speaker I have said that this tourism product which brings thousands and thousands every year through grossly we need to have some additional assistance we know that we've had the upsurge in crime and so security has been some of the things one particular thing that we need additional support for Mr Speaker and so I'll be speaking to the minister to see what we can do to help the vendors fooder Mr Speaker also under community tourism there was another aspect of grossly life that needed my immediate attention as it pertain to ensuring economic activity returned in a big way to grossly and that was the grossly jetty and a lot of people do not understand the significance of the grossly jetty Mr Speaker this is where a number of persons who would use the option of using the sea from ancillary from canaries from Souffre to attend grossly Friday night some of the individuals actually transport other individuals to grossly on a Friday night and this benefits all the people in grossly Mr Speaker the economic activities Mr Speaker there are some people in grossly who have amnesia selective amnesia Mr Speaker for almost 5 years the jetty was in disrepair Mr Speaker and Mr Speaker within 6 months of being in government Mr Speaker within 6 months of being in government we were able to secure the services of private sector individuals to commence the jetty Mr Speaker we had to deal with a lot of logistics Mr Deputy Speaker for now Mr Deputy Speaker Mr Speaker and so Mr Speaker after we had the verbal agreement on fixing the jetty Mr Speaker we had some glitches and it took a little while and Mr Speaker the same people who said nothing for the 5 years the jetty was not in existence the same people were going around the community talking about this government and doing nothing look at the state of the jetty look at the state of the jetty Mr Speaker we all know that in certain communities you have private sector individuals Larry Shiriki owner of Hobbies Kabot in the community so Mr Speaker this is not new to engage private individuals for a community project and so we did and they could have done it for 4 years and they did not the 5th year came and they did not and so I'm happy to announce that the grossly jetty is back and ready to rule Mr Speaker after just 18 months in government we have a grossly jetty that our people can be proud of Mr Speaker a jetty that is equipped with lights Mr Speaker brand new lights Mr Speaker a symbol of our commitment to the people of grossly Mr Speaker and so Mr Speaker I'm very happy that we can continue to develop certain aspects of grossly Mr Speaker the grossly recreational park Mr Speaker the people of grossly know all too well what arrangements were going on at Pigeon Island Mr Speaker there's a time just before the election all of a sudden we saw a structure just erected at Pigeon Island one closer to the Bay Street Bridge one towards the middle and one next to the Pigeon Island National Park all of a sudden Mr Speaker I remember going on Bay Street and asking what's happening I was saying that it was for a particular person's son and that the restaurant will be at the bottom and the bar will be on top and then a particular person will be managing it and I was wondering what is that how government work and so Mr Speaker lo and behold the election is called into government and we have always had our desires to develop that particular area and so contacted the DCA just to get an idea of what was happening zero DCA approval zero planning approval zero and so Mr Speaker I had to wonder what was going on as I said earlier I am not hiding but buried under the work that was left for me to do that was not done we had to recommence the process from start to get it done right and so I can gladly say that in conversation with the Minister of Tourism the funds are there DCA approvals check planning approval check and we will see the commencement of the Grossely Recreational Park in this coming financial year Mr Speaker Mr Speaker still under community tourism Mr Speaker there was another issue that we had to jump back into to get done for the people of Grossely Mr Speaker Morsi Jazz Morsi Jazz represents one of the premier activities during the month of May in terms of having economic activities for Morsi Mr Speaker it started under the member for Soufre and of course Mr Speaker because of course of the lack of ideas the lack of desire the lack of ambition it was stopped and so Mr Speaker I am happy to announce that the Morsi Music Acreol will be back come May 2023 Mr Speaker Mr Speaker thousands of dollars are made by our vendors and we are expecting that on May 9 to have the likes of Buenksun to have a number of other individuals in the community to enjoy the cultural capital of Saint Lucia and I know the member for Viewford North don't like to hear that but Morsi with the likes of Secret Band and some of the nicest people in the world is the cultural capital of Saint Lucia and I'm sure Moolin Nelson is smiling from ear to ear Mr Speaker Mr Speaker under Head 43 Department of Infrastructure Mr Speaker under the Ministry of Infrastructure Disaster and Response Management we saw an estimate of 13.3 million dollars the revised budget of 14.4 million dollars for 2022-2023 Let me take this opportunity to thank the Ministry of Infrastructure Minister of Infrastructure for their interventions during the difficult times the people of Grosley face as a result of the Travesty of November 6 Mr Speaker Mr Speaker we were there as a government for our people Mr Speaker I was literally on the ground as it happened in Corinth, Marysil, Buadwaj all throughout the community Mr Speaker we never left our people stranded let me thank the Honourable Minister of Finance the Minister for Local Government and the Minister of Education for their swift interventions on the ground in the immediate aftermath of this event Mr Speaker full team Mr Speaker when events like that happen you understand why you become a member to be true to being part of a team of the St. Lucia Labour Party Mr Speaker they dropped everything and they came to the community but Mr Speaker this Minister of Finance has dished out hundreds of thousands of dollars in aid to the people of these areas while many more persons are still willing from this disaster will continue to provide assistance to those we have not been able to assist yet so we ask him for little patience because we know people are not through this disaster as yet but Mr Speaker under disaster risk and response I must say that I fear the event which occurred on that day will repeat itself if the mitigation works that is needed desperately and not done immediately we have a number of rivers including the Bonter River the Corinth River and these rivers have not been desilted Mr Speaker we have walls that came down that protect homes that have not been repaired we have retaining walls and gibbian baskets that are needed in Asokanal, Corinth, Rivemeter, Piat, Monye, Moshi, Degazo Flamboyant Drive, Inglewood and Bonter this intervention is not a want we need immediate intervention they are not just a desire these interventions are desperately needed so I'll say again to the minister of infrastructure we are grateful for all the support but we are not quite out of the wood yet Mr Speaker and so while I'm on head 43 during the financial year 2022-2023 we found it extremely difficult as a government to focus our limited resources in infrastructure Mr Speaker I remember a cabinet meeting when the prime minister came in very early on and he explained to the cabinet of ministers that out of every 100 dollars at that time that came to this government 67 dollars of it 67 dollars went into recurrent expenditure paying civil servants rent 67 very early I remember he explained that a further 20 out of every 100 went into debt servicing which meant for us as a government that 87 dollars out of every 100 dollars that came into this country we could not touch or even see and I remember sitting in that cabinet meeting and saying but Kimania my cafe a year about how am I going to do anything about the 57 roads that require interventions in Grusley when only 13 dollars out of the 100 dollars was there for 17 constituencies and so Mr Speaker I left that cabinet meeting I remember it was after it I went home I took a shower and it was a stark reality that I needed to communicate to the people of Grusley that I am unable to give them carpet roads throughout the constituency at this time I had meetings with Emitter 15 minutes left kidding guys I need more time I need more time definitely Speaker I would like to member for then and enough you wait for the chair to acknowledge you thank you member for then and enough I apologise Deputy Speaker I would like to invoke standing order 40 to 10 in order Deputy Speaker invoke 40 to 10 in order to allow the member for Grusley an additional 25 minutes within which to complete his presentation members question is that standing order for the 210 invoke another member for Grusley be granted an additional 25 minutes to complete his presentation as many of that opinion see I as many of our country opinion see no I think the eyes of it the eyes of it continue member for Grusley thank you Deputy Speaker thank you colleagues so Mr Speaker it was an eye-opening day for me Mr Speaker because I thought back to being on the campaign trail and seeing every Tuesday Madi Puete Madi Puete despite the fact that this is what befell its government Mr Speaker and so Mr Speaker I had to explain to the people of Grusley in the Kazaba area Boseju area Grand Revere area the Monnier area and it's not a lack of desire to fix your roads it's a fact that it's impossible to do it fiscally prudently right now Mr Speaker and so Mr Speaker we're seeing a pothole in budget Mr Speaker increase which means that Mr Speaker we had to continue to provide those interventions in the different communities and we ensured that persons were given some relief but I'm still under tremendous pressure in the Kazaba area the Boseju area Piat Grand Revere in every hole in Moshi for roads and development Mr Speaker Mr Speaker the Monsito to Riviameter Road has been in abeyance for 45 years Mr Speaker it's a connection from Babono to Grusley and I am happy that the member from Babono and the member from Kastri's North came to a meeting in Moshi to explain to everybody what the desires were on the way forward in connecting Babono to Grusley and I think that has implications for Babono's township moving forward and I'm very happy I am very happy that the commitment is to get it done this year Mr Speaker absolutely very well still under CDP Mr Speaker we're able to moving into CDP we're able to commence construction of a drain in Monsepo Mr Speaker we did not have all the financing to complete the entire drain that drain from the traditional shop to in front of Marie Senor's house to pass in front of Rocket Home Mr Speaker we have started those works which has significantly lessened the amount of water that flows directly into this home Mr Speaker and so we are very happy about that intervention Mr Speaker Mr Speaker Norbert to Asu Canal Road Connection Mr Speaker again under CDP Mr Speaker I'm not the type of rep to do a project and end it in front of a supporter's home Mr Speaker and so Mr Speaker when I came in and I was given stories about a road from Norbert that started and it ended in front of a former supporter's home Mr Speaker that really angered me and so we set off to start the work required to join the Norbert Asu Canal Road and connect and provide those people with that alternative. I want to thank Andy Joseph for his telework in the area so far and will continue to represent not just some people but all of the people Mr Speaker Mr Speaker one year road rehabilitation there are a number of secondary and secondary roads that require attention Mr Speaker and as we have said to our people the initial fiscal space of government did not allow that and so will continue to provide all the mitigation that we can in one year we have started a number of interventions and the CDP to make roads more motorable Mr Speaker you will see in Corinth as well a number of interventions Inglewood Mr Speaker we've been communicating with the people of Inglewood Mr Speaker the community required some serious attention just like the communities of Corinth Asu Canal and Buadawaj Mr Speaker they continue to live in fear of flooding. Mr Speaker Inglewood was built pretty much under Monsepo and so we have a situation where water continuously flows from Monsepo into Inglewood Mr Speaker and so I constantly get calls from the Guidaris Sicilia Guidari and the interim committee to provide some relief we have commenced work on the road Mr Speaker we've commenced work on the drains Mr Speaker and we certainly will be continuing this year and we'd look for a long-term plan for the community of Inglewood which was also visited by the member for Castries North Mr Speaker of VSCQ road construction Mr Speaker community of VSCQ has also received some attention I want to thank the motor in public for their patience Mr Speaker as we dealt with the collapsed culvert a few weeks ago this is expected to hold up very well we are also able to do some work some support hold it in the area Mr Speaker and we will continue to do as much as possible the community has also seen the commencement of roads one in particular is a community on the right when you come from the bread area or in that area you will see the construction commenced on that road under our CDP Mr Speaker during the financial there we had a number of challenges in the Morsi community and as indicated the community required a number of interventions and so Mr Speaker we had a situation where the Deramo Tito Fair Road required a lot of relief and we sent in the porthole unit to fix it into the river meter bridge and as a result Mr Speaker the road is a little more motorable but I'm happy that the Monsito Tulafe through river meter and through magnitude will be given this attention and we did not tell the people of Morsi and the minibus drivers go and find a way and find a way to get the money to fix the road we as a government will get it done on their behalf and so Mr Speaker we had some interventions in Deramo the court was given attention Mr Speaker we know that is an area this individuals love to to spend some time play their football and gather on a Sunday and so we are moving forward to the grass area where we are going to erect the Zibo under CDP we're going to put some benches up we're going to ensure that we have a toilet facility so we can have activities on weekends in that community Mr Speaker Mr Speaker the river meter bridge Mr Speaker today I stand proud as the MP for Grozily on my efforts to reconstruct the river meter bridge Mr Speaker we've had issues in completing the bridge but no one can say for straight face that I as the member for parliament for Grozily no one can say for straight face that I waited months and even years on end to start the process of rehabilitation in that community nobody Mr Speaker Mr Speaker sometimes as MPs we apply pressure we make calls, we visit the site we do all in our power to get the work done faster Mr Speaker I've even wish that I was a contractor but the work has not been complete but Mr Speaker it is in stark contrast to waiting four years for the river bridge Mr Speaker and I want to tell the people of river meter Tito Fair Lafayee Deramo that just have a little patience we are very close the work has recommenced it is ongoing and so we expect very soon for the river meter bridge to be completed and we can have some relief for the people in that area Mr Speaker the community of Corrin for another area that requires some infrastructure interventions we had a situation where we had a single parent dealing with a child that was wheelchair bound we had to ensure that we got a two strip concrete road for that community next to the St. Hills ensure that we built a drain so that the community can get some relief Mr Speaker we are looking forward to continuing this road from Corrin's to Asu Canal Mr Speaker we are also getting a lot of complaints from the people living in the Richard Frederick portion of the Corrin area I have to say it like that because the road does not have a name and for you to describe where it is you have to say the road leading to where Richard Frederick lives Mr Speaker when I came in as the member for Grozily I was not surprised that the area was a mess simply because of the doctrine one individual who lived in the area and so Mr Speaker I said to them that I as the MP would do all in my powers to assist them and so we started some road works Mr Speaker we've commenced a concrete road and we've done the cleaning that the community has been begging for for a number of years Mr Speaker the Corrin Road next to Boyle is another road we have commenced some intervention on Mr Speaker in consultation with the community we had a nice meeting and we charted the way forward for ensuring that the entire road was done done and we started with phase one we did the drain and we will continue all the way to the adjoining road Mr Speaker Mr Speaker we've also done we've commenced some work in Twia the original design would have placed the drain from the entrance of Mulcair and go all the way into the direction of Winjama but we decided to take another direction but we will come back and we'll let the people of Twia know that we'll continue to provide this assistance Mr Speaker we've spoken at Nosium about the need for electrical lights in our communities and I'm happy that the Minister for Infrastructure and the Minister for Finance have worked on a mechanism to ensure that we of all the communities can be safer and walk to their homes safely Mr Speaker Mr Speaker under Head 36 National Security Grozile Police Station Northern Headquarters Mr Speaker we know the history of Grozile we know the numbers in Grozile we know the weekend numbers with the influx of tourists the influx of individuals from the south to the north for entertainment for leisure and we know that Grozile deserve and needed a Northern Headquarters and finally I can say to the people of Grozile they are getting their wish Mr Speaker we've commenced the construction of the Grozile Northern Division first off with the demolition of the Scouts Headquarters moving the police operations to Rodney Bay and Grozile Town and we will see this financial year the construction of the Grozile Police Mr Speaker the Grozile Police have had my attention they've asked for vehicles the Minister of Finance have provided they've asked for better working condition and with this government we are providing it to the Grozile Police Mr Speaker Mr Speaker we've not just done infrastructure work in the community Mr Speaker we've undertaken programs social programs for the people of the ground and so I will invite people from all over St. Lucia to join us at the Grozile HRDC as we have our youth in dance program Mr Speaker we have a lot of talent in Grozile as we say we have a lot of talent and so we are nurturing the next generation of talent in our program the dance program Mr Speaker one o'clock Saturday morning Grozile HRDC Mr Speaker music and me CDP Mr Speaker have used this financing to ensure that a paid program brings in the musical talent from Grozile into singing Mr Speaker an enjoyment for our young people Mr Speaker the peanut butter pantry Mr Speaker many of our young people go to school without breakfast let me applaud Mr Dr. Vinus Cherry and the boys at Seaview who decided to come up with a peanut butter pantry at the HRDC get in contact with Corporate Grozile and Corporate St. Lucia get the financing to provide peanut butter, creeks all of the crackers and milk so that our young people in the community can have breakfast and so on the CDP have provided additional financing for that peanut butter pantry in the community of Grozile Mr Speaker this year we are hoping to launch our youth in agriculture program throughout the communities and I must say Mr Speaker that Grozile has not been viewed as an agriculture community but Grozile still has the largest pig farm in all of St. Lucia and I'm very happy that the Minister of Agriculture has committed support to provide the feed to the people who need it at the best cost in the community Mr Speaker and so Mr Speaker we continue to ask for interventions for the ITC Center in Riviameter the ITC Center in Deramo and Lafay to ensure that we can engage our young people in meaningful programs in the community of Grozile Mr Speaker Underhead 47, Ministry of Physical Planning Land Acquisition Mr Speaker the people of Monsepo has been waiting for the land that they've lived on for a number of years in some cases persons have been in Monsepo in that community for 40 years some cases 40 years Mr Speaker after much deliberation I can declare a few things today to the people of Monsepo I must Firstly, number one almost zero representation was made on their behalf almost zero representation was made on behalf of the people of Monsepo before July 2021 except for the attempts obviously made by the member for Souffre with regards to that land dispute Mr Speaker I say almost zero and the only reason I say almost zero was because the people said leading up to the election that they heard something was happening but Mr Speaker I will move to two the land belong to the JQ group who was willing to negotiate with the previous government willing to negotiate and from the initial meeting the initial meeting we were told that zero attempts directly to them were made in five plus years number three, engagements negotiation commenced within three months of being elected as the MP for Grosily within three months we met with Gordon Charles Mikey Pilgrim and myself and we had meeting after meeting as it pertained to Monsepo this was after five years of nothing happening in that community Mr Speaker Mr Speaker we reached an agreement with the Ministry of Physical Planning and we are now ready to meet with the people to regularize survey and move forward and so now cabinet has officially declared a protected area and so anyone who attempts to move in will be moved out but we have finally arrested this issue in Monsepo on behalf of the people of this community and of course I had some conversation with some people and they said to me oh the boss man the boss man had come and made that happen and you refer into the fact that the member for castries is during the campaign rocked down in that very community and said to the people of Monsepo we as a government will work in your favor and now they have all the evidence in the world that this government truly puts the people first Mr Speaker and so Mr Speaker in the community of Corinth we see in the lighting program Mr Speaker the field being developed Mr Speaker and of course we are moving towards ensuring that the community center is placed in that area Mr Speaker and the ministry of agriculture and fisheries upgrade of that's head 41 we see $700,000 Mr Speaker and I'm glad that Grosley is mentioned we need it Mr Speaker the fishers absolutely need it for years they've been working on the dilapidated conditions and so I'm very happy I can go and look at uski in his face right now and tell him that the help is on the way I can look at all the other fellas in the fisheries and say to them we are working in your interest the fact for the Grosley fisheries is also on the cards and so that should work beautifully for them Mr Speaker Mr Speaker on the head 42 over $300 for Seymour's production and a lot of people who say Grosley Seymour's production the fact that the matter is Mr Speaker even along the Grosley shores we have people like Pop Out and Bandit and the rest they can benefit from their Seymour's production as we professionalize this in the community and so Mr Speaker there is a lot more that we have done in the community of Grosley Mr Speaker we have a situation in T-Village where again no DCA approval no planning approval and these are all facts but we just see all of a sudden a few months before election that construction has commenced opposite Bank of St Lucia next to the fire station and when we get into government we are trying to connect electricity trying to connect water all sorts of issues part of the land does not belong to the Crown there is no approval there is and I mean the Grosley Council and we are seeing pictures of members opposite eating wings at the place posing for pictures along the highway Mr Speaker and now it is left to the Grosley Town Council to address all these issues Mr Speaker Mr Speaker I am very happy that the team has discovered all those infringements and we are going through the process of a proper design with a proper gazebo proper entrance and exit to ensure that we can have some entertainment there a better menu for people and a proper activity in that area and so Mr Speaker I want to commend Jackie Trim and the rest of the council for their work and we just looking to ensure that very soon we can rectify this situation Mr Speaker let me conclude by thanking my staff at the ministry of youth development and sports for their unwavering support during the financial year let me once again thank the women's organization in Grosley let me once again thank the constituency group in Grosley let me once again thank all the well-wishers let me thank the haters Mr Speaker because they provide the fuel Mr Speaker every time they say something that is untrue I go back on the ground D.P.U.M.A.T. na fae plee man ta boufeza D.P.U.M.A.T. na fae plee and the people of Grosley know they've elected a hard-working individual in their best interests and I have a team around me a team of cabinet ministers that will ensure that all is done for the people of Grosley Mr Speaker I'm not complaining about the size and complaining about the population they voted in droves Mr Speaker it is my responsibility to be in front of the supermarkets to meet them it is my responsibility to be at the Grosley bus stop the Moshi bus stop at the Grosley bus stop to meet them it is my that was almost that was almost I stole that from the member for shoes for two friends it's my responsibility Mr Speaker to be at every meeting Mr Speaker it's my responsibility Mr Speaker it's my responsibility to be at Finros Mr Speaker it's my responsibility to balance all of this while answering my phone Mr Speaker but I say to the people of Grosley again I am not hiding I am buried under a work that was left for me to complete on their behalf Mr Speaker and I have not run away from them I have not neglected them I have not waited three years before coming back to them Mr Speaker I may not have reached every household I may not have reached every 30,000 of them or 15,000 households Mr Speaker in 18 to 12 to 20 months but that does not mean that I will stop I will continue to work on their behalf Mr Speaker as long as God continues to give me the strength I will continue to work for the people of Grosley I therefore support the estimates and expenditure for the financial year 2023-2024 I thank you


The Discovery Institute, on a blog deceptively called Evolution News and Views. In one of their recent posts called Engineering at its Best, Jonathan M. discusses the emergence of irreducibly complex systems within irreducibly complex systems in the chemotaxis of bacteria. What he's talking about are how bacteria move along chemical gradients to find food. Jonathan goes on to cite these signaling cascades as evidence of brilliant engineering, which he cites as positive indication of intelligent design. What we are now observing is the existence of irreducibly complex systems within irreducibly complex systems. How random mutations coupled with natural selection could have assembled such a finely set up system is a question to which I defy any Darwinist to give a sensible answer. The sad thing about such a challenge is the intellectual laziness it depends on. Evolution of signaling is its own field. Even the specific proteins that guide bacteria up chemical gradients have a body of literature that detail their evolutionary history. I found no fewer than 35 papers specifically giving evidence for their origin and emergence by natural processes. How did the bacterial chemotaxis system evolve? Specifically, the methyl accepting chemotaxis proteins cited by Jonathan. I'm going to try to make the science accessible as best I can for a very high level topic in molecular biology. The intelligent design creationists rely on the befuddlement of their target audience using scientific sounding terms to support their pseudoscience agenda. Are MCP pathways irreducibly complex? MCPs are methyl accepting chemotaxis proteins. That means they are analogous to switches embedded in the inner cell membrane that turn on when they sense a certain type of chemical like a sugar or fat molecule, food in other words. The on switch is the accepting of a methyl group, a single carbon molecule, usually a methyl ester. And that on or off state is transmitted through a series of different proteins until it has the desired effect which in this case is to alter the swimming behavior of the bacteria driving the flagellum in different ways. This pathway allows a bacteria able to move under its own power to find food. There's also a second activity and it allows the bacteria to avoid something, a repellent, by a behavior called tumbling. Let's imagine a human analog to a cell, a little robot capable of following a chemical trail. You wire the wheels to run forward when it senses table sugar and run backward when it senses vinegar. Simple enough, right? A single specialized process, a way to transmit the signal and it would be simple enough to design such a device. But that's not what we find in the MCP pathway. They're a series of interacting proteins, one class of which have the prefix key for chemotaxis. So the members are named key A, key B, key R, key W, and key Y for example. Here's where we run into the first problem with Jonathan's argument. Not all bacteria have this full pathway. In some bacteria, key A and key R are sufficient. In some, different partners match up or at different ratios. In some bacteria, key A can interact with itself instead of the protein it's paired with and others. In other words, this is not an irreducibly complex system because we find it fully functional, missing several components, and there is no single consensus about what is required. My second complaint is that the members of the pathway have some ambiguity and overlap of function. Each of the genes in the pathway contain conserved domains and probably arose by gene duplication and divergence through the evolution of bacteria and archaea. There are dozens of papers reconstructing this, testing it in evolutionary computer models, and the data matches very nicely with the predictions. My third objection is that removing a single component rarely disrupts the function of this pathway. For example, when scientists knocked out some of the key genes in E. coli, the standard lab bacteria, they can still sense some molecules but not others. This is not a fragile system. Multiple components of the pathway have to be knocked out of the genome of an organism adapted to use them in order to fully disrupt function. It's trivial to see that an organism can survive without any one of these components, so it can hardly be called irreducibly complex. Using our analogy of a chemical sensing robot, it would be like finding three sugar sensors welded together in one robot and a vinegar sensor with reverse polarity in another, and some robots have a sensor that doesn't really do much except pass the electrical signal along. Another has the sensor directly mounted on the wheels with no wiring. This is not what we expect from intelligent engineering. Once an optimal solution is designed, coming up with a variety of non-optimal approaches, apparently frozen in time or inherited from earlier designs, is unlikely. My fourth objection is the nested hierarchy of chemotaxis genes. With biological organisms, we have the added context of knowing how these organisms are related to each other, and the genes for chemotaxis show the same nested hierarchies so universally seen in comparative genomics. Together, this change over evolutionary time, this narrative of conserved functions and new capabilities spanning millions or billions of years of genetic variation, does not describe what we know of engineering with purpose. It only makes sense if the designer of these structures is an unintentional process that causes periodic divergence and extinction of individual structures and organisms. The appearance of design here is of lots of independent processes, unconnected to each other, where intelligent design creationism posits a single, unifying supernatural origin of biological structures, a supreme single engineer. Evolution proposes a landscape of little tinkerers. They take what their ancestors gave them, make small modifications here, add a new what's it there, remove a little bit over there. What we see in chemotaxis is a million crazed engineers working from different ancestral blueprints, co-opting structures, duplicating and deleting them, not a single blueprint of optimal design. If God, oops, the intelligent designer, wished to indicate her presence, all she needed to do was create one gene that every organism on earth possessed without variation, a supernatural barcode or RFID, that would be unexplainable, that would be a divine miracle. The actual picture is of a natural process, are millions of independent tinkerers, miraculous in its own way, in that through striving to survive, it explores all the possible ways that life can evolve. Thanks for watching.