Good afternoon everyone, thanks for coming to the Sustainable Buildings Panel. This is our first panel and as you probably know, we're trying to run through these presentations. We wish we had a lot more time, but speakers have about seven minutes each. And I am with the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, Ellen Vaughn, and I just want to say sustainable buildings are about how we put all these important pieces together. The pieces themselves are extremely important, but then how we put them together is important. There's no magic bullet, right? So we are delighted to have our speakers talk about their particular products and the first panel really is kind of about some of the systems and technologies, and then next we'll look at design and building envelope. So the first speaker is Greg Merritt. Greg is Vice President of Marketing and Public Affairs at Cree Lighting, and Greg will talk about better lighting and energy efficiency. Thanks, Ellen. So Cree, if you're not aware, is the headquarter in Durham, North Carolina, where the largest U.S.-based developer and supplier of LEDs and LED lighting products. We have about 4,000 employees in the U.S., mostly in North Carolina and Wisconsin, and we develop LED chips, packaged LEDs, LED products, LED bulbs.  However, we are a global company. We also have operations in Asia and Europe, and we sell into about 75 countries around the world. We've also added about 1,500 employees in the U.S. since 2010. Thanks to many of you, hopefully. LED lighting. LED lighting is 40 to 80 percent more efficient than the traditional technologies that it replaces. It also lasts much longer without containing any hazardous materials such as mercury. Widespread adoption of LED lighting in this country can take about 10 percent of the electricity usage off the grid. That's a big number, by the way. However, at this point in the industry, the key is not necessarily the technology. The key is adoption. The most efficient LED lighting product that's not used is not saving any energy. So the challenge that we collectively face is to get more people to use more LED lighting. If we look at technologies in our society that have completely replaced the technologies that went before them, there's one simple reason why that's happened. It's because the new technology was better. When I say better, that doesn't necessarily mean by one measurement of technical performance, it means better in the eyes of the people that use it. Digital photography, digital music, streaming video, right? It's better. Purists may argue digital music's not better, but for those of us that use it, it is, right? Mostly because we can share it. But better is not in the eyes of the user, not the supplier, not even of the regulator. Therefore, as we look at energy efficient policy, especially related to lighting, or I would argue any other technology, we have to focus on the quality that customers experience in addition to just the energy savings. Otherwise, we'll end up with disappointed customers, and disappointed customers will not adopt the technology. Exhibit one would be the CFL. We already see manufacturers compromising the quality of the experience in the pursuit of a lower price. It's a bad idea. It will lead to disappointed customers, which means less adoption. Less adoption means less savings. It's very clear. There are some states and some organizations that have already recognized this. Those of you that work in California may have seen the recent Title 24 adoption. Significant focus on the quality of the lighting, quality of the dimming, et cetera. We strongly support that position. Energy Star is a very important standard and board blank. It's very important for us in terms of LED lighting adoption. We need to make sure we don't weaken that. Adoptions with drive savings to get to 100% adoption, the lighting needs to be better. Thank you. Thank you, Greg. Now we're going to go to the other side of the table, and I'm pleased to introduce Alex. I just did it, didn't I? We were just talking about this. Alex Rexrote, and Alex is Executive Director, Heat and Frost Insulators, Labor Management Cooperative Trust. He's going to talk about a very common sense strategy for saving energy. Hi, everybody. First of all, my name is Alex Rexrote. I've been in the mechanical insulation industry for about 55 years now. I was 18 years old when I first started. So I've been around this industry for a long time. I've watched the changes take place. The Labor Management Trust was created to market mechanical insulation. I have a question for everybody. How many of you know what mechanical insulation is? Show of hands. One person. Two. I'm sorry. Two. Mechanical insulation is a series of materials that are placed over mechanical services to either reduce heat loss or heat gain. The purpose of that is to save energy. So if you're not losing as much energy through your system or you're not using as much, your carbon footprint reduces automatically. It's just a function of those materials. Now, paybacks for fiberglass and steam piping can be on a low-pressure steam system six to eight months. On a heating hot water system, a 180-degree hot water system can be 18 to 24 months. Paybacks. And domestic water, which is 120 degrees, paybacks are 26 to 30 months. And everybody says, well, if it's so good, why aren't we doing it? Well, the fact is that the system functions with or without mechanical insulation. So what happens is that a hospital or a university or a building like this will go in and they'll maintain a piece of their system. They'll take off the old insulation. They will leave it off when they fix it, and it will run for the next five to seven years or 10 years or however long without insulation on it. It'll cost more money, the system will continue to function. The average hospital has, believe it or not, and this was a survey we did through the National Insulation Association, the average hospital has 13 miles of insulated pipe. The average hospital. So you take something like the University of Chicago Medical Center, where there are five buildings, or you take something like a little local community hospital. The point is that there are miles and miles of insulated piping. Department of Energy suggests that between 10 and 30% of the mechanical insulation that should be in place functioning is missing or damaged to the point that it's not functioning now. 10 to 30%. You take the low number, 13 miles of insulated pipe in a hospital, 10% of it is missing or damaged to the point it's not functioning. So that's over a mile of piping that should be insulated to save energy is not functioning. And so our argument is very simple. All we want to do is educate people about the need to perform mechanical insulation work in the United States and Canada. I represent 1,200 contractors and roughly 24,000 to 26,000 workers in the US and Canada. These folks are performing this work and we could do more if we just paid attention to the needs and if people paid attention and that's all our objective is. The other big objective of mine is, and I've been to the White House twice to discuss this issue. And that is that an energy policy in the United States has to be inclusive. It has to include solar and it has to include wind and it has to include fossil, whether we like it or not, we need that at least today for the energy we need. And if we're going to have to have fossil, let's use mechanical insulation properly to reduce that consumption and reduce that carbon footprint from those facilities. And that literally is our story and that's why we're doing that. Thank you. Thank you, Al. Yes, first, use less, right? That's the number one. And now we'll turn to Shayna Longo and Shayna is with La Grande, North America. La Grande has not only done some extraordinary initiatives in-house to reduce their own energy use and carbon footprint, they also are helping hospitals and other building owners do the same thing with a variety of products. So Shayna? Far away. Okay. Thanks, Ellen. So I'm going to give you a little bit of a summary about how La Grande prioritizes sustainable buildings. But first, you probably are not really familiar with who we are. You might know some of our brands such as Wattstopper, Pass and Seymour, Wiremold. We are a global company and here in North America we're roughly 1.2 billion. We make the products that provide the pathways and services to bring you your power light data and AV within your buildings. We also are one of our core competencies is in control and sensing. So we have major manufacturing facilities within the U.S. about 50% of our manufacturing is still here in the U.S. in states such as Connecticut, North Carolina, New Jersey and California. And we view our commitment to energy efficiency and sustainability as playing a really key role in allowing us to maintain competitive within the U.S. So as Ellen mentioned, I'm going to touch on a few things that we've done in-house and then talk about one of our customers who we've helped. We are a better building, better plant challenge member. The DOE relationship has been phenomenal. It's very supportive. The technical support that we've received through this program is absolutely invaluable. And one thing that was really important was in our most recent energy marathon, we conducted an internal competition between multiple sites and if you stop by our booth I actually have a toolkit that instructs you of how to do this in your own facilities where the sites competed against one another to reduce their energy intensity. And the winner was congratulated personally by the Department of Energy. The winner ended up being a small site in El Paso, Texas, one of our smallest. They achieved a 60% reduction in energy usage in 26.2 days. And we just found that absolutely phenomenal. I mean, if you could do it in 26.2 days, why couldn't you do it for the rest of the year? Overall, the company was able to achieve a 15% reduction just in those 26.2 days. And overall, we've, in our better, really better plant challenge, we've actually beat that challenge number, which is a 25% reduction in 10 years. We beat it in three and we achieved a 32% reduction to date. And we've recommitted. We decided that wasn't good enough, so we're going to try and do more. And so the energy marathon is one way that we're trying to engage our own occupants to reduce our energy. So we know that our customers are also really interested in this and we do provide them the solutions such as lighting controls and plug load controls that help them manage their own energy efficiency. But we also understand that it's beyond that. There's other performance needs that they have in their building such as hospitals. So one example is the recently renovated Parkland Hospital, which you're probably very familiar with the name. There was a 2.1 million square footage renovation that's set to open in late summer of this year. And we worked with them early on to develop mock-ups, so they didn't have to spend any money up front. They could build out a room and figure out where the problems might be, where there was opportunity for energy efficiency. And we found this to be a really cost-effective way to get involved early on and really be part of an integrated design process within a building. One thing that we found really interesting, when it came to the nurses, we had developed technology for their patient rooms to control their lighting and they have a variety of patients of writing stages of health. And we had originally proposed use of iPads to control the lighting within the rooms. We tested this with some local nurses, and they just found it too cumbersome. They were like, we can't use the iPads. It's too complicated. We're caring for this person's life, and we need to just be able to walk into a room, hit a switch intuitively, and the light that we need is going to turn on. So we actually worked with them to customly engrave a panel, and I have a picture of this back of the booth if you want to stop by, that showed different lighting options that the nurses could use within those rooms. So long story short, we know our customers that want it. We're doing it internally. We're really trying to encourage the high-performance building movement, and there's really four key policy aspects I want to touch on that are impacting and driving success in this movement. So the first is support for DOE programs. I encourage other manufacturers, if you're in the room, to engage with the DOE. They are a great technical resource, and those programs should be continued to be funded. The second, you know, tax reform is a kind of a buzz around Capitol Hill recently, and we are big supporters of 179D, the commercial building tax deduction, and not only have we taken advantage of this within our own facilities as we've improved our energy efficiency, but we've worked with customers who also do it on the lighting side as well. So continued renewal of that credit or the deduction is really important. Thirdly, when it comes to code, we are advocates, along with a lot of people or a lot of companies in our industry, for the three-year code adoption cycle. Technology is always changing, and we know that buildings need to keep up, so the code needs to be adopted consistently throughout the states, and the federal government can play a role in encouraging adoption of those codes. And the last point I'll make is a little bit more of a local and state policy. It's benchmarking and disclosure ordinances. So there are currently 16 cities across the U.S. that have adopted some version of a commercial benchmarking and disclosure ordinance. New York is one, Chicago, Boston. And what this is, it's really a sunshine clause. It is requiring buildings, commercial buildings, of a certain size to disclose their energy bills. And as the old saying goes, you really can't manage what you don't measure. So it's forcing companies to take a closer look at the energy that they're actually using. So anything that I touched on, I'd be happy to talk more at the booth, and we have published a lot of white papers and other information about this. So feel free to stop by and say hi. Thank you. Shannon, thank you so much. You covered a lot of ground with all those issues, and I'm so glad that you mentioned a lot of these things like codes and standards, and also, yeah, I would encourage people to go to your booth because I think you don't make the systems, you make the systems better, you make the products that make the building systems work. So you also talked about other performance goals, and it's so energy efficiency is one, if you make buildings too energy efficient without proper ventilation, we have problems with sick building syndrome. We have lots of things that are important with buildings, and Barry Stevens with Zender America is going to talk about his company's technology that is used often in passive house design, which are extremely energy efficient buildings, and then he paired with a system that ensures very good indoor air quality at the same time. Barry? Thank you. Yeah, I'm with Zender. It's one of those very old European companies that's based in Switzerland. We have factories in Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. We also do have factories in Buffalo, New York, and Haverhill, Massachusetts. So we are manufacturing products here as well. And my part of the company is heat recovery ventilation. How many here know what heat recovery ventilation is? Thank you. So one of the things that is happening with energy efficient homes, everybody mostly knows about the basics are you add insulation and you seal them airtight. And if that's all you do, you end up with a box that sealed airtight and doesn't have air changes and ventilation. And this is an unintended consequence that is starting to become a real issue. And one of the things we talked about is codes and standards not keeping up with technology and with the advance of rushing headlong into making things energy efficient in homes and buildings. And as a result of that, you can have those unintended consequences of what we get with health issues. We've been trying to work with spray foam manufacturers because they go in and they spray foam a home, air seal it up tight. And some of you may have heard that the spray foam industry is under the gun because people are blaming the spray foam or the chemicals for indoor air quality issues. In a lot of cases, that's not the problem. The problem is you sealed the house up tight and you haven't provided ventilation. So what our company does and what you've got in Passive House Catrine and I'll be talking in the next round with Passive House Institute U.S. but one of the prescriptive points in a Passive House is whole house balanced ventilation. And it's a really critical element to moving forward on energy efficiency both for the heat recovery ventilation side is recovering energy of the exhaust air that you're blowing out and heating in the wintertime, for example, the air coming in so that the air is fairly close to the same temperature as the air that's going out by the time they pass through a heat exchanger. But the key is to provide that fresh air throughout the house in a known method rather than what's now which is kind of a hit or miss. For example, using just exhaust bath fans to depressurize a house. You're getting rid of moisture out of the bathroom, you hope, but you don't know where your makeup air is coming from. So, for example, a bedroom, you have no idea how much air you're getting in the bedroom. It may be coming through the front door or through the basement or through a crawl space and that's generally not where you want to pull your fresh air from. Crawl spaces don't generally have fresh air in them. So, these are all critical issues as we go forward. We've been working across the whole country and in Canada as well. I could talk about a lot of really exciting stuff that's going on with everything from habitat for humanity homes that are employing this type of technology to high-end homes, schools, offices, small commercial projects. But it's improving the indoor air quality and health of the occupants tremendously. And when we're talking about energy efficiency and building energy efficient buildings, one of the things that's kind of an unacknowledged benefit is increased comfort and health of the occupants. You know, we're seeing anecdotal evidence of schools where we put dedicated systems into each classroom with a CO2 sensor. And it's triggered by occupancy of the kids coming in the school. So, when the classroom is empty, the ventilation doesn't run or it runs on a very low level. And as the classroom fills up, it increases the ventilation to provide fresh air. And anecdotally, the kids, especially in afternoons, the teachers are reporting that the kids are more attentive. And we've seen it's too short of time to totally measure, but we are seeing improved performance in school. In a couple of schools where they're monitoring that in California. So, this type of thing is really kind of the untalked about aspect of energy efficient homes buildings is making sure that you don't have unintended consequences and that you have healthy, comfortable buildings as well as energy efficient buildings. Mary, thank you so much. And another benefit is the cost of energy. So, energy efficiency can be a real driver to enable you to do these other things to make sure that you provide for these other benefits. So, thank you so much. And I think we actually are, could we possibly be running ahead of schedule now? We can have questions. So, please feel free to ask questions of this wonderful panel. I have a question, but I do have a comment with regard to what you were saying. Rush Hospital in Chicago did virtually the same thing you were talking about doing. I'm sorry. And they did basically the same thing when they were designing that new hospital. They laid out that entire facility floor by floor in tennis courts and brought in the nurses and the doctors who were going to use the facility and found out exactly where they wanted all these little items that we wouldn't normally think about. Where do they want the calls? Where do they want the oxygen? Where do they want all these things? And I was just fascinated by that whole operation and hearing you talk about it brought all that back to me. It really is outstanding. Yeah, I think that the way of building now is really going towards that integrated process.  Yes, sir. I don't have a question either. I have a comment. I think it's been very reassuring to hear so many people with positive ideas about important ideas and experience about more efficient use of energy. And one of the things, though, as a social scientist, I tend to look for some other sources of information apart from the physical scientists and the engineers as important as they are. And those are behavior. For example, my wife and I in retirement moved to Washington about 25 years ago, about 20 years ago. And it's a wonderful place. We like it very much. And we didn't want to have a car and we haven't had a car. We do a lot of walking. We use public transport. And as a demographer by area specialization, I do a lot of counting and a lot of walking. And I have to count the cars that have, you know, what proportion of the cars that I see at different times of the day in Washington have more than one person in them. In other words, a passenger in addition to the driver. And, you know, it's very rare that you get more than 10%. That's a lot of introduction of material to climate change. It's not very healthful. It's very expensive. It takes up a lot of room and things of that sort. Another is that people knowing I live in Washington often say, well, how can you stand those terrible summers, the heat of the summer? And, you know, I have to be honest with them. They say, you know, it's not the heat of the summer. It's the cold indoors in the summer. And for a while I was carrying a little thermometer around with me. And I'm not kidding. In the middle of August, in the Shakespeare theater, when women at least would be likely, if they didn't know, would be likely to wear lightweight clothing and so on, I recorded temperatures of 55 degrees Fahrenheit. When I come to a thing like this, I always put on a tie and a coat because I know I'm going to be cold otherwise. Now, I think we could save a lot of money just thinking in terms of human behavior rather than only, as important as it is, only in terms of efficient use of energy. We might not use nearly as much energy as we're using. Try that for a while. Thank you for that because someone just, I just was in this discussion the other day with someone about that very issue. And I think they've said 25% this behavior, 25% of the, some of the energy, any efficiency can be attributed absolutely. The Google bought Nest thermostat, you may know. Paid a couple billion dollars for it. Are you familiar with the Nest thermostat? It's programmable and it records information and kind of tracks your... Well, Google also, what they bought was data. And they've been taking a lot of thermostats and taking and pooling that data. And recently, a gentleman that works for Google now used to be in the building science industry in a big way. He had a report at the ACI conference in New Orleans about that. And so when you're talking about over-cooling and so forth, they're breaking that down. And as we get into more data and collect more data on this, you can start to improve dramatically the energy used and wasted. People air conditioning their home when nobody's home and on and on. So as we get into more automated and data-driven controls, that will be a significant impact on wasted energy, I think. You alluded to just exactly that. This lighting, we have the technology, we have the lighting. We have all of these things available. Now we have to get people to use it. And that's exactly what I say. We've had mechanical insulation around the U.S. market for over 100 years. And now we have to get people to start recognizing the need to use this technology to save the energy. And that's the key to all of this, is getting people to change the way we do things. You are right on, sir. One of his essays, George Orwell, writing in the 1930s, I think, was that long ago, spoke of the tyranny of the machine. The tyranny of the machine is if there's a machine around, you have to use it, no matter what it's doing. You have to do that thing that it can do, and you have to use it to do that thing. And I think we are living in an age when a great deal of the capitalist system rests on getting people to become tyrannized by the machine. Well, you have the last word, sir, on that. That's good, yes. We don't want to let technology get too far ahead of us. So public education and good policies that many of you are working on are needed to really encourage more sustainable building. Please help me welcome and thank, sorry, thank our panel today. Thank you so much. And I hope you'll stay around for the next panel that is coming up. And really what we're looking at are design issues and envelope issues that all come together with technologies and equipment in a whole building approach. And that's what really can help us save energy and meet some of these other important goals for acoustical quality, indoor air quality, safety and health. So thank you, and we'll have our next panel in just a minute.


The Sands Expo today at CES featured new products from a variety of categories. Ranging from education and wearables to smart homes and appliances, CES has it all. Take a look.   And the full gallery of sounds. So conch conch, meow meow, one for daddy, one for mommy. So it keeps the baby's attention. And the baby feels concentrated and not distracted anymore. It wants to go and watch Shivi or anything. Hatch Baby unveiled a new diaper changing pad that measures weight and notifies parents through their app when a diaper needs changing. Now changing gears, focusing on hydration, this water bottle makes sure users fulfill their daily H2O needs. The bottle also tells water temperature and detects when the water is old and needs to be refilled. And Whirlpool and Tide partnered to help users save money at the dry cleaners. It doesn't remove stains, but it seems and freshens clothes to their store-bought quality in 10 minutes.


back to another episode of Start It Up. Today's business idea is for the fitness enthusiasts, especially those who love practicing yoga to keep their health game on point. So in today's video we'll tell you how you can become a yoga instructor or even start your own yoga studio. So why become a yoga instructor? Yoga is one of the most sought after fitness practices for a variety of reasons. The first reason being that yoga combines physical, mental and spiritual help. Yoga practice does not have any side effects and the chances of you getting an injury are very less. Also, there is no need to add protein powders or drastically change your diet unlike joining a gym. You do not gain excessive weight either if you can't keep up with the practice due to your busy schedule. And with mega celebrities like Jennifer Aniston and Gurnik Paltrow talking about the benefits of yoga, its importance has reached the masses and hence opened up huge business opportunities. So this is how you can become a yoga instructor. Just like teaching a school curriculum would need a degree, becoming a yoga instructor also means proper certification. More than 100 years old Kevalaya Dham Yoga Institute and Research Center in Lonavala Maharashtra is a renowned institution you can get a degree from. The Yoga Institute in Mumbai is another option that provides monthly and yearly courses for you to choose from. Alternatively, you can choose to study from schools that are certified by internationally recognized non-profit organization Yoga Alliance. Once you have become a certified instructor, you can either choose to freelance as a personal trainer, start your own studio or do both. Most freshers offer both the options as it helps in paying the bills. For freelancing, a beginner personal trainer can charge anywhere between 800 to 1000 rupees per session. As your experience and reputation grows over the years, you could start charging upwards of 1800 rupees per session. While deciding the price point, we recommend that you consider your travelling costs and equipment charges if you're providing any for customer acquisition. A good strategy would be to target customers who live within 5 km of your residential area. So instead of freelancing if you choose to open your own studio, then this is how your investments will look like. As one time investment, you will have to shell out 70 to 80 thousand rupees on furnishing and equipment, say for yoga mats. You will have to buy a good quality laptop to store all your data that will cost you upwards of rupees 20,000 and a POS terminal to handle payments will be another 7,000 rupees. You can save on the POS terminal by opting for app-based payments like through mobile wallets or DPI. Next is the location of the studio which is a very important factor. It should be in a quiet area but not too secluded because remember that people have to travel more than thrice a week. So as a budding business, you may not want to rent an expensive studio. The rent of a 400 square feet space in a market surrounded by residential colonies will be between 25 to 30 thousand rupees whereas if you open your studio in a suburb, it'll cost you much lesser at around 9,000 rupees per month. That's not all. Add another 10 to 12,000 of electricity and management costs to the rent. In place of renting a studio full-time, another option is to conduct early workshops in different locations in your initial days. This will not only help you save costs but also increase your customers. So for this, our delay of a fully set up studio will be around 1,000 to 1,500 rupees per session. Hiring a few instructors might be a good idea in your initial days as you would be managing multiple things. At least two to three an instructor could be paid on hourly basis which can cost you between 3 to 400 rupees per hour. The wage typically goes up with experience and customer base. Once your business has established, it would be feasible to hire full-time instructors. To talk of marketing, word of mouth is the best way to grow the fitness business if you want to be frugal in the initial years. However, we recommend taking the social media route for marketing as nowadays it is the most effective way to market your business. Marketing on Facebook and Instagram can cost you upwards of rupees 10,000 per month. So that's about costs. Now let's look at potential earning from running a yoga business. In 8 to 10 months after starting, you should be able to run 4 to 5 batches every day with 10 students in each batch. You can easily charge 250 to 300 rupees per head per session or 2,000 to 2,500 rupees per month for 12 sessions. So back of the envelope calculation shows that you can easily earn up to rupees one lakh per month after removing all the management costs that will be borne by you. So that's about yoga studio business. Stay tuned and log on to www.entrepreneur.com for more business ideas.


Purdue gave me the confidence and the tools to take the giant leap and and the risk of starting a new company and be confident of its success. Thanks to Purdue I feel ready to face anything that is thrown my way. I believe that I've started etching the first markings of those footprints by my work in policy analysis and building my company plain English and hopefully leave positive footprints in the area of policymaking as well as aviation safety. I majored in aeronautics and astronautics. As an undergraduate student my goal was to learn as much as possible about planes and space. After my graduate work turned into a desire to solve problems and be able to impact and inform you know why we design airplanes to do you know certain things. The two embodiments of that desire have been to work as a policy analyst for the Department of Defense and then the other one has been building and leading a plain English. Right now it's it's very difficult to get realistic experience on how to communicate on the radio. It's typically done by reading manuals or listening to other pilots doing it. Our goal was to develop a tool where pilots can actually gain this important skill outside of the cockpit. Learn about aviation phraseology and the radio procedures in the hopes of becoming skillful in one of the more important aspects of aviation which is communication. Lafayette Ground 560 Papa Uniform at Purdue Aviation ready to taxi with information x-ray. Take a look at the feedback. I got almost all of it. Got a 90% Cross runway 23. And our goal is to make Purdue one of our users and put this tool in the hands of Purdue students. That was Muhara Manay. Look for more stories at Purdue.edu slash footprints.


million from the Karakom development fund for the onlending to the small businesses in the sector and again village tourism you know whatever name you want to call it the minister wants to call it community tourism right now that's his prerogative Mr. Speaker but the reality is village tourism is about creating an enabling environment in our villages to give small businesses and in particular our young people an opportunity to succeed they are significantly disadvantaged when they're having to vent on the ground when the stalls that they have look visible and the reality is we must invest in creating a new environment of excellence and going to work where those facilities in place makes a big difference make available strategic lands to locals including beachfront property for investment what we were going to do in Sandy Beach was about subdividing and putting facilities across from Sandy Beach okay no sir not the one I gave the DSH but you see Mr. Speaker this is what I'm talking about when we speak about the politics of old so the reality is that to demean or to take away from the value of what is being said the message is getting lost but it's okay Mr. Speaker the people of St. Lucia have spoken we've learned our lesson we're going to be much more articulate in terms of describing so the reality is that we were subdividing over 80 acres of land to create opportunities for St. Lucia's to be able to purchase land and to get incentives and to create an environment for them for the local class and again it would be across the street from Sandy Beach so that the concrete road would have become a massive broad walk provide skills training provide more avenues for the local sale and export of their products establish a national platform a platform establish a national performing art center establish creative hubs that will house multiple orange economy business clusters we spoke about that Mr. Speaker of creating an opportunity where young people who are lawyers young people who are software designers young people who are into marketing where they're working in clusters and learn the idea that the sweat equity is their knowledge and all of a sudden they put together a plan Mr. Speaker in which you have your legal part already done because that becomes the contribution of the lawyer there the design of the software is being done the marketing is being done that is sweat equity so when you go to the bank to be able to bark whether it's to the micro bank or whether it's to the development bank of St. Lucia or whether it's to a normal commercial bank is to get them to understand the company and gets shares that's the form of equity and if that project is successful Mr. Speaker everyone benefits but the reality is and that's not something that we are going to change overnight the reality is is that it takes many small businesses to fail before one succeeds many in fact many people liken it to turtle laying eggs how many eggs is a turtle lay in order for a couple of turtles to survive and that has been the generality and that's why the foreclosure act and so many of the things that we are currently working on are so important to give people that second chance to understand that small businesses and let's not confuse because when we talk about a little vending stall or small business that clearly is a micro business but the reality is I'm speaking about businesses that start small that have the opportunity to take advantage of the global market and the unique thing is is that that business's headquarters will always be in Saint Lucia and so when we talk about creating that intellectual property power it's about creating that enabling environment Mr. Speaker provide training through the Cultural Development Foundation in core areas to include technology and intellectual property Mr. Speaker we didn't just select Carnival to become the largest event in Saint Lucia over jazz just because we wanted to be different we chose Carnival because Carnival is ours there are greater examples of solutions even before we put the stuff in place even before we put everything in place Mr. Speaker of solutions that were number one on the charts in songs overseas and the reality is that that's what we wanted to do was to empower our young people so instead of spending $14 million on a jazz festival Mr. Speaker I regret we didn't spend more on Carnival but we were growing Carnival and Carnival now creates costume designs creates our own music creates our own single brand so even like when we talk about Denry Segment Denry Segment is a unique type of music that's ours and that we need to support that platform in order to be able to help it promote it on an overseas basis create virtual platforms for the use by local artists recognizing as a major avenue for international sales we need to be able to create an app that anybody who's visited San Lucia can go and see the marketplace of the things they may not have seen whether it's our music whether it's our rum whether it's our coffee whether it's our cocoa whether it's our paintings establish a digital academy at Sir Arthur Lewis Community College and it's not sufficient to say that the young people by themselves are going to go on the internet and educate themselves there still has to be institutions in our country Mr. Speaker that helps our young people become better and awakens them to the competition that's out there and how good they're going to have to come to the table so again providing that kind of education at Sir Arthur Lewis College helps all of the younger people with high skills development and micro and graphic design programming, big data analytics mobile app development social media marketing, robotics artificial intelligence we introduce robotics into the schools Mr. Speaker at a very young age it's not about waiting for somebody to graduate to then figure out what is it they like some people at a very young age start to figure it out in order to do that we must expose them so Mr. Speaker a big part of instituting that and why we were building the sporting facilities around the country and I've said it is to take from the example of the aquatic center so here it is a 25 meter pool and small by comparisons on an international basis but look at what it's produced and the reality is the success of the aquatic center seven teams or seven what they call Mr. Speaker clubs now what makes those clubs work Mr. Speaker or the parents when you go to the aquatic center the parents are heavily engaged whether it's in becoming coaches whether it's becoming and helping organize the events and it's the competition seven clubs competing on a regular basis and then when you invite two international or three international clubs to come by you now have at least eight or nine teams that are participating and it's that constant competition that creates that level of excellence so what we wanted to do was to be able to zone St. Lucia out and create clusters of clubs in those zones and our clubs have to mature and go to a different level Mr. Speaker our clubs cannot be just about one discipline at a senior level or a junior level it has to be Mr. Speaker I believe multiple disciplines and I think that the member from Castries East was moving in that direction the reality is we want sports that are going to give young people an opportunity to get a scholarship so what are the sports that are women and men what are the sports that provide the greatest number of scholarships and very importantly the member from Castries East spoke about what are the sports that are going to create professional opportunities in my opinion when you look at those three criteria soccer, football is the number one sport now the fact is if you're going to do soccer which is what we chose you're also going to do track and field because again provides opportunities for men and women provides multiple scholarships division one, division two, division three professional leagues around the world basketball, tennis, swimming all those provide huge opportunities but the reality as a small state of 180,000 people we're not going to be able to promote excellence at every discipline and again understanding how the pieces followed the play the Grosley Academy which was an academy for the north and the eventuality was to build was what? taking students who at a very young age are showing opportunity to create an opportunity for them where they can continue their education but in an environment that supports the development of their skills and the coaches that are going to be there are the coaches who are now going to train all of the coaches in your communities so Mr. Speaker I say these things because I don't want anyone to be under the impression this is not to tout United Rookers Party that this one bill is miraculously going to solve the problem if I were to genuinely believe that members on the opposite side Mr. Speaker actually felt the pain not just say it not just display it but actually felt it why is it taking one year one year to bring this simple piece of legislation to the table what is it that you're doing in all the meanwhile Mr. Speaker I don't understand we said we want to create a national youth and sports authority again we have a situation Mr. Speaker that's been co-existing or been having for a long time we have this situation I don't know if the member from view for itself remembers the lottery in which monies from our lottery go into and we've been using the lottery monies primarily to support our sports programs but the administration of the lottery has never been amended to put skill sets to accommodate that so what we're proposing to do was to move the lottery into the gaming authority which again was also under staff and create a synergy and organize that the vast majority of the money that was earned in the lottery would now go to a youth and sports association why? Dedicated people focused on the development of youth and sports and then when we're executing programs we have people who understand the industry and are creating a template for the development of youth and sports in our country so here it is we're going to remind me can't remember whether we're borrowing this money from the Taiwanese or is this a grant the ten million dollars is a grant from the Taiwanese but five thousand dollar loans five million dollars is going to be a thousand loans now I went and looked at the numbers for the solution development bank solution development bank had 27 people employed and the cost of operations is three million dollars a year and they were processing a hundred loans a year through their development thing and they were able to increase that to a thousand loans when we now started processing the training for the cruise ship the cruise ship trainers that were going through them so in essence they lent them the money and the cruise ship was paying back the loan directly no sir what we did is was to try to develop the synergies for the bank in order that the bank created better economies of scale and it was a better police to be sustainable because there's no point in creating these institutions Mr. Speaker if they're not going to be financially viable if they're always going to be struggling and looking for money so I want to say I applaud the initiative but I'm hoping at a later date we actually are going to see the entire plan as to where we're going to go with the youth economy and I certainly would not want young people to believe that this is the panacea that's going to solve all the problems establish a framework to reactivate and strengthen the district youth and sports councils expand leadership training programs establish youth centers within existing community facilities facilitate greater participation of clubs in the after school programs and we really felt very strongly that the sporting activities and the training of arts should be done after school because some children actually commute to further longer distances and so by coming back to your community makes them much more accessible and there's that affinity to the club that we have organized youth engagement in sports and arts through establishment of new community clubs so again is to help support the development of these clubs in sporting disciplines as well as the development of the arts so why should a very good football player be deprived of being acting or taking dance classes so apprenticeship programs include the ICC sector make further financing available through the youth enterprise an equity fund at the San Lucia Development Bank expand the current regime of concessions available to artists in their individual capacity as a business enterprise UW government is in its focus to encourage young entrepreneurs will continue to provide access to funding through several arrangements that include grants, loans and concessionary terms from SLDB and other agencies we also amended the fiscal incentives act number 30 of 2019 to provide the fiscal incentives enterprise across all service sectors to all of our economy will benefit from this regime and fiscal incentives so Mr. Speaker the development of our young people is also important that we develop a sustainable economy we got to grow our economy the member from library again with his statistics showed that in the early 80s up until the mid 90s we were growing an average of 6% and unfortunately in the last 20 years according to his calculation we've only been averaging 1.5% the GDP of this country is too small so I would say to you Mr. Speaker and I would certainly like to express to my colleagues on the other side let's be careful when we want to demonize tourism and say oh we're over dependent on tourism the reality is is that we still have a lot of opportunity to grow I do support the concept Mr. Speaker that we should not just be doing tourism but it's not to say we're going to stop doing tourism and we're now going to start emphasizing something else the measurement that we were using was output per acre because ultimately the end of the day Mr. Speaker the one resource that we have that we cannot create any more of is land land is very valuable it's not to say that people are not valuable people are very valuable but the reality is if we reach full employment in this country you can bring more people from the OECS here you can bring more people from Caracom to San Lucia if in fact you can create that number of jobs and just to put in perspective and I know that some people get offended by when we say this but Singapore is exactly the same physical size as San Lucia and there are 6 million people who live in Singapore 4 million on a permanent basis and 2 that commute on a daily basis Singapore's GDP is $365 billion ours is 2.2 and if you compare it closer to home Aruba is producing almost $45 million of output per acre San Lucia is 9 Barbados is 35 the Bahamas is $150 million output so the potential is here and we are marred down in petty politics and I have no difficulty in having any conversation about any policy and then we can disagree but ultimately the end of the day the focus has to be about growing our economy and able to be able to afford the service so when I hear a person say oh we are going to do an investigation because $800 million was borrowed really? if that's the criteria then we should be going back a couple more years and see how much money was borrowed that's a nonsensical statement that's misleading and that's deliberately attempting to do that the reality is excuse me but it's in the book I don't have to tell you but you can go and look at the social economic review go and look at the social economic review the question is what was it oh you are now the speaker again you are now the speaker so Mr. Speaker I believe that in pursuing our greatness as a country is tied into creating the opportunities for our young people to be great and not all of them are going to be the business person so I heard the member from CASWI's EU's modeling as an example the reality is if there's an opportunity for modeling a modeling agency would have opened up here and a solution would have done it and that's what we want to be able to do is to develop entrepreneurs that are going to create now these portals of opportunity and success and it's to teach those skills at a school level of creative thinking so we keep saying it oh our education system is flawed we're not succeeding and yes we're doing well academically but we're not becoming entrepreneurs and so if we're going to become an entrepreneur hub Mr. Speaker there's a lot more that we're going to have to do than having a youth economy that really is a micro bank in name and I support it I think it's going to play a very meaningful role I don't want to demean it in any way but I just want to say Mr. Speaker if a government is coming to the table one year afterwards and this is their flagship piece of legislation for the first year then I really feel sorry for all of us because I think we're going to be let down and I know that you guys are better than that I know that you can do better and I want to see this government succeed I want to see you do better in what we were doing in sports I want to see you do better in what we were doing in building the roads I want to see you do better in fixing up the schools I want to see you do better in creating business opportunities for this country I don't need and I don't think the rest of solution needs to hear you come here and lament about what you think our feelings were and I want to see you do better for this country that's the greatest gift you can give thank you Mr. Speaker the member of Cassury South thank you very much Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker I rise to lend support to the bill as presented by the member of Cassury East Mr. Speaker today is a very special day and it's special not just because it celebrates one year since we won the general elections it is also special because I have spent many years in defense of the young people of St. Lucia I am an offspring of the youth and student movement in St. Lucia and I recall as far back as 1985 when as part of the National Youth Council we were displeased with the developmental trajectory in St. Lucia and we prepared a draft white paper on youth development for St. Lucia and maybe the member from Cassury North would remember some of those exchanges he was part of the youth movement then and although we had different shades we always had that deep commitment to improving the conditions of young people in St. Lucia and he will tell you we would tease him often that he really did not belong where he was because we always fought his heart and together if this is Louis George very close friend I know of the former prime minister member from the youth of South who also showed a deep sensitivity to some of the issues that we were fighting for and 1985 was International Year of the Youth and as far back then we were thinking and dreaming of how we can change our paradigm to put young people at the center of national development and despite the works that were done before 1997 in 1997 we got an opportunity under the leadership of the member of youth of South to really bring into practice a lot of the ideas that youth movement had and he provided the fertile soil for us to do so much Mr. Speaker and we're seeing today what is a qualitative improvement on some of the ideas that were propagated as far back as 1997 and the member from youth of South will tell you and maybe you can remember Mr. Speaker because in an earlier life you shared space with us in a lot of those discussions and I can always remember the member from youth of South when he said we want to start the short term employment program and he said as part of the 10 million dollar loan which is not as much of he can remember those things it's not as active as it used to be before so maybe he can remember but he said we needed to look at the OAS youth skills training program which was promoted heavily by the member for country's north and he said to us that this was not good enough for the young people of St. Lucia we need to improve it and he said form a national skills development program in those days we started to speak about computer aided learning and he said to move it from what it was and introduce the use of computers to train our young people 1997 and then he told us don't stop there because when we train them they need to get somewhere to get the financing so they can become part of the economy training is not enough and he said form the James Belgrave small business what is called our bell fund I had never known of James Belgrave until that lecture that's 1997 under the St. Lucia Labour Party and we come in full circle 25 years later under the leadership of Philip J. Pierre to institute what we call a youth economy and I've heard a lot from the members opposite about what a youth economy is I don't pretend to be an economist a lot of people pretend to be an economist I have a brother who is an economist he specializes in econometrics and I keep telling him I'm a better economist than him he is an economist I keep telling him that I don't pretend I studied economics at university too but I don't pretend but I think we need to reflect on what we refer to when we speak of a youth economy and I want to share a few thoughts on it but before that Mr. Speaker you will forgive me if I respond to some of what we just heard from the leader of the opposition we cannot let some of what he said pass Mr. Speaker it is remarkable what the aftermath can do to someone it was a real bloodbath Mr. Speaker because you wondered for a while whether this is the first time he is presenting himself to the people of St. Lucia and the first time he is presenting his ideas he is regurgitating his manifesto which was just rejected by the people of St. Lucia now the reason why the manifesto was and the reason why he was rejected and he must always remember Mr. Speaker he is the greatest failure as the UWP leader he even lost half of Miku too John Compton seats he must never forget that he has never been and let me tell you Mr. Speaker I believe my party is a great party we carry the social conscience of the dispossessed, the vulnerable and it motivates every single one of us every single one of us and the member from New Ford South on Sunday said the mystery of service that is what propels the mystery of service from us that commitment to that cause but the UWP has a glorious history as well and he failed that history he has condemned that party he mutilated it so said somebody who knows very much the DNA of the UWP and he was rejected one year ago not so much because UWP had not done good work in the past not because the manifesto did not have good ideas they were rejected because of him because of him because he says a lot means nothing and cannot deliver at all he says a lot of things he says things and he says things and he says things but the electorate have come to terms with him do not believe him do not believe him so today he is soft spoken today and he is trying to be sipsman's life trying to be and he drops his voice and I have to be straining to even hear what he is saying because he doesn't want people to see the aggressive side but he is what he is because this is the same individual who is today speaking about young people and the vulnerable and all the things they can do but he called them mendicants he called them jackasses and barking dogs remember what he said about single mothers remember what he said about our patrimony the same country today is talking about making great what did he say about our patrimony what did he say about colonialism but today in the aftermath the blood bath he is trying to resuscitate himself and he is coming soft spoken Mr. Speaker and Mr. Speaker he is going on and on on and on and on ideas after ideas and skewing it out you never believe this is somebody who has been in politics and then he says to us if this is your flagship how did you take one year to present it Mr. Speaker you would never believe he had been Prime Minister for five years what happened to all the ideas you presented could you not have done it in five years could you not have done it in five years but then you are chastising us for now presenting the youth economy after one year and you remember during his term when he realised he was just talking and travelling talking and travelling he said I need two terms I need two terms I can't do it in one term Philip JP has never asked for two terms never but after one year Philip JP has presented a flagship initiative he didn't say give me another term for me to come with it tell me one flagship programme that the member from Mikusov presented during his time not one Mr. Speaker let me tell you how he cannot escape who he is and the member from Trosello the sooner you accept that reality the better it will be for you and I saw you clapping and he is disappointing because he speaks about the glorious idea that he has for Sunday Beach and how it is going to be cut up and solutions would own pieces of Sunday Beach but we have copies of the DSH agreement supplementary agreement granting DSH rights to Sunday Beach did he forget that did he forget it or does he think we are so stupid we cannot even come to terms with the contradictions in what he is saying tell me you signed a supplementary agreement giving the beach to DSH of course there were people who decided they would not support it because remember they were going to join Maria Island to Sunday Beach and build skyscrapers there were people who had tried seeing the public reaction to divert it away from this and did their own little investment Lucia business down there something that will probably come to to be decided you know at a later date with DSH did he forget that that he actually presented the drawings at Royalson with what he would have done to Sunday Beach his concept of Sunday Beach linked to Maria Island had nothing to do about locals in St Lucia did he forget that you know he speaks about carnival and how they decided to make carnival the biggest local festival let me tell you a lot has been said about carnival and you know what was said on Facebook and what not I can remember 1997 Damian Greaves, Minister of Culture and I remember he sang a song about it how he went to Prime Minister Anthony for advice because people called him Minister of Bacchanal and he advised Dr. Anthony gave him and even if I did not agree with Dr. Anthony's comment on Facebook but you have to say he is the first Prime Minister that put a significant investment into carnival you cannot run away from that and Dr. Anthony reminded me he is the one at first put a lot of money in community carnivals and that's true and then today he speaks about carnival and how the he probably did say that to his cabinet that they want to make carnival the biggest event but then I was also reminded that the reason why they put so much money in carnival was to make up for the fact that they had stopped jazz that's the point that's the point so imagine the member from cast it also wrote the same thing on his notepad he is putting money in carnival had nothing to do with his love for carnival nothing to do with his love for carnival it was to mask the fact that they had stopped jazz and the public was in sense about it now of course jazz is foreign music but the jazz festival had become an indigenous product solutions owned it and they claimed it it will be back in Martian next year it will be back in Martian next year so when he speaks about carnival and you know the effort they put into carnival what not I'm boasting about my involvement in carnival I know a few things about carnival I know a few things about carnival you understand he speaks about sports clubs my goodness look around this room including the member from Straszl Saltybus we know about youth groups we know about sports clubs in St. Lucia does anyone ever heard about Alan Shastney in any earlier life part of the youth movement the student movement of sports clubs in St. Lucia seriously seriously the member from cast is north and myself were part of a group in 1985 form in a youth group in St. Lucia I was not yet 18 I was probably a lot younger than 18 you know who was part of the Peace Corps no but we go back way back form in youth groups in St. Lucia way back the member from youth groups former prime minister was a cadet leader you want to remember the cadet corps all around his table last for the member from the command of the cadet corps you know the member from Babuunu will tell you about community organizations you know tell you about it and he speaks about sports clubs and his love for those things and his vision for those things but that is the same prime minister who defended the Loca B contract of 30 million dollars to put artificial tooth all over St. Lucia and let me tell you I'm not sure if it's true but I heard the member from said he not allowing that to be put and if he did is the best decision he has ever made since entering politics no I'm telling you he won't say anything now he won't say anything now because it's one of the worst decisions ever taken for sports development in St. Lucia one of the worst decisions ever taken and let me say something to the member from Miku South you know you're going to talk about he heard the member from Cadet East speak about sports and young people in sports you know they have two sports in St. Lucia that we are globally competitive in two now some people may disagree with me but I've spent many years in sports management local, regional, international I can tell you too the average 15-year-old batsman in St. Lucia can be among the best in the world the last two captains of the Westings and the 19 team were St. Lucia and us a 15-year-old in Sprinter in St. Lucia can be among the best in the world as we've seen recently with Julian Alfred the average 15-year-old swimmer in St. Lucia is not among the best in the world the average 15-year-old basketballer is not among the best in the world the average 15-year-old soccer player is not among the best in the world I'm not saying there cannot be a St. Lucia who can be among the best but I'm talking about our stock our gyms, our DNA our culture there are two sports we are world class and competitive with because right now young Akim Ogis young batsman I'm among the best in the world you understand so if you want to talk about you wanting to nurture a cricket so when he starts to talk and he spews all those theories and all those figures there's no substance behind it and he's not been able to deliver when he was Prime Minister which is why he was rejected well one of the reasons probably flying too much then he speaks about community tourism and I really did not want to go there I really did not and I see the member from Ansler shaking his head because I made a promise to myself and I spoke to the Prime Minister and I know he always says about setting the right tone in the country the right tone in the country and he speaks about community tourism and what it intended to be and what not the same Prime Minister allowed the use of millions of dollars under the village tourism for purposes other than village tourism other in Ansler countries almost a million dollars in the land under community of village tourism project money's went let me tell you but he comes and he masquerades about community tourism and village tourism and what it is supposed to be five years this idea for community tourism did not start with the last United Workers Party government under Dr. Anthony before that but you were heritage tourism so this is an improvement on it but you want to speak out of five years you could not even get it going but you want to talk about it as if it is your glorious idea let me tell you Mr. Speaker member from Miku South you know need to understand that the people made a decision in 2016 some of us may not have liked it but they made a decision they've corrected the course and this snake oil salesman performances must end at some point in time and maybe we'll wait for when the internal fight settle and see where he will be in the hierarchy of the party and I wish you well I wish you well but I will leave you to your own machinations and you will see what's coming to you and like I told you some of us on this side suffered long and hard and we are on this side now serving the people of Saint Lucia and putting them first but let's go on to the youth economy Mr. Speaker let's you tell me to speak to the bill so let's focus I want you Mr. Speaker to just bear with me and just focus on what an economy is and no economies so I will speak in very simplistic terms very simplistic terms an economy and as it relates to youth activities that are youth related to production consumption and the trade in goods and services so think about it activities that are related to production consumption in goods and services so if you think of a youth economy you're thinking about a series of activities in the country that involve production of goods and services consumption of goods and services and trade in goods and services and they centre around the characteristics of youth so if you think about it they are regional economies community economies you know international economies that we all the global economy we existed but there are some things that are unique to young people that can constitute an economic space and that means series of activities so you won't really expect in the youth economy people are involved in real estate you won't really expect that because that's not a youth characteristic but fashion would be because young people are heavily involved in fashion they can constitute a series of activities that will be part of a youth economy music you won't expect retirement needs to be part of that because young people are not retired so when you start thinking about young people and what they constitute you can start thinking of all the activities that they would be involved in that relate to production consumption and trade but importantly they are missing the points we're not talking in a very narrow sense we're not talking about youth as an economic asset in labor relations working or productive capacity having a job we're not talking about youth as an asset we're talking of youth not just as an object but as a subject so it's about young people being a series of activities not just giving them skills not just talking about youth enterprise not just talking about giving them a job so when you start thinking about youth economy you're talking about a series of activities that young people can engage in it's not just about giving a young person a job that's why all the agencies that's why all what existed before are necessary but not sufficient there's a difference between something being necessary and what is necessary and sufficient you have to they have to understand that those things are necessary but they're not sufficient and I have my favorite example I always give and I say to our young people think about it just think about it and the prime minister use modeling and fashion in February we have independence then we're going to have jazz we're going to have carnival we're going to have Creole Heritage Month so just imagine as part of that youth economy there is a deliberate and conscious effort by the agency to say look let us train designers so they can start understanding textiles they can start understanding cloth and clothing and cuts and they are trained on that they can design we train some stresses that are young people and tell us so when one design one can produce then the models can take it and the models can go on the runway and show off the clothing and the fashion for those upcoming festivals and then they can have entrepreneurs pop up shops in the Boulevard in view fort in Souffre selling the fashion so for four times a year our young models can look forward to runways and modeling shows we can have models in view fort and Souffre we can have seen stresses throughout the country let me tell you at the export runway which we attended recently some of you did not attend when they were presenting the designers from Forsage Arc from Kako from Derisso from all over Saint Lucia and the quality of their product was a sight to behold Saint Lucians so think in that youth economy construct you're training same stresses you're training designers you're training models you provide support for those who want to be entrepreneurs those series of activities production consumption and then expose Saint Lucia will take the best of it and export it to Trinidad and Jamaica and other parts of the world trading goods and services just think about it that's youth economy it's not just about a singular activity that's what has been existing we want to be qualitatively better than that that's what it is about so when one speaks about the youth economy remember always it is not just about training young people and say we give you all training we have boosts we have this we give you training or we create we have a micro bank the member from Mikusov spoke about a micro bank no we need more than that it is not a micro bank because you are seeing youth through an outdated category of thinking youth the youth economy is now in your head member from Mikusov you don't get it for us the youth economy agency is about creating the series of activities that young people can engage in and activities that are characteristic of young people you don't talk about the hobbies and the pastimes translating that into economic activity so for four times in the year we'll be having runways we'll be having I'm already looking for my my Creole heritage man's shoot I want one so somebody has to design it for me I want to know I can go in the boulevard and they'll be pop up things where I can go and buy my shoot I can probably have one for each major activity for the month that's creating the youth economy that involves a seamstress a designer a model who models it and an entrepreneur who sells it in town that is youth economy it's not just training it's not the replication of another training agency it's not that it's not that it is the series of activities that we will organize we speak about you know, mentorship we talk about training in financing in marketing it's the series of activities it's about creating for young people an economic space that is distinctively suited to them and reflective of them and their aspirations and their dreams that's what it is about it's not about another agency and anybody who thinks oh we have agencies giving loans why you all want another agency it's not an agency giving loans it's an agency that is bringing everything together all the necessary components and making it a sufficient output that's what it is about and I want the member from Miku South to stop I was about to use a word but you might put me out if I use it you know he needs to stop that nonsense Mr. Speaker elevate the discourse there are people in St. Lucia who can see through you go on those days you know so I am excited about this youth economy I am excited about it I have been excited about it for years I've been dreaming about it for years this is a qualitative improvement on ideas that started long before and the member from Cassius North will tell you some of those things we've spoken about as youth leaders but we now see in the crystallization of those dreams and aspirations a government stepping in we've not invested in our young people sufficiently in this country we've not done it we've not done it people see and the member from Miku South once said it in this very chamber he looked at students from Sa'afa and he said to them basically how much government is spending on Sa'afa you know almost suggesting you know you're spending so much money on y'all and what not I had to say to him in my thing when we spend on youth we are investing in a better future when we spend on youth we are investing in a better future and that's how we must see our young people and I said it this morning we failed our young people in St. Lucia when I was a youth we were failing youth my generation is failing youth because we are not making youth a priority in this country this youth economy project is about starting to correct those feelings of the past and the present it's about making young people a priority in this country putting them at the center of national development that's what it is about and I want to see it succeed and I know the prime minister I was a little unhappy I must tell you but when I saw the allocation near Simmons for youth economy I looked at what creative industries is getting I was like p.m. what's going on you know you could have taken a little less and think and I know there's you know you know what the member of the cast he said to me you know he said to me you know we can always you know we can always do creative industries under the youth economy and I said you know I kept quiet because he gave me a good explanation but I know in other words you see but it showed you his commitment to the youth economy idea his commitment to it that he wanted to see it started and he was going to put in the resources to get it started and I'm happy he did this is an investment in our young people this morning we passed a bill firearms amendments where we will be very severe in our treatment of persons with firearms today today is the other side of the coin we are putting a significant amount of money to make the future better for the young people that's what it is about that's what it is about the possibilities the possibilities will be limitless and I heard the member from microsoft say a lot of things a lot a lot of things and like I said he will face his own destiny he has I think it will get a lot worse for him so Mr. Speaker and whilst he is sinking to the bottom of the ocean the young people will be rising to touch those stars that are above us the aspirations the inspiration of the stars above us will always lift up our spirits and despite all that we have gone through our people will prosper our young people will be so happy when this project finally gets its full implementation and I know we will have a better solution I know it and when you complimented the creative industries you complimented so many other initiatives Mr. Speaker our dream is to make that St. Lucia a better place for all where we can say to our young people take on the world and you can take on the world of confidence because you have been prepared in St. Lucia for taking on that world I had my own dreams as a young man sitting on the bridge I wanted to work in London and New York and Paris things you have seen on television I had my dreams to have a lot of young people just like me where I came from have those dreams and aspirations too and the Labour Party will help deliver the dreams and aspirations to them and in each of our constituencies we have young people that dream of taking on the world and between the youth economy the creative industries export St. Lucia we will transport our young people from the playing fields to the highest levels they can reach wherever in the world they will roam wherever they roam St. Lucia will always be their island home and the St. Lucia Labour Party is taking all the necessary steps to deliver that and this bill today Mr Speaker is along that journey and I am glad to be part of it and to support it thank you very much Minister of Finance Thank you Mr Speaker Mr Speaker I have not have much to say Mr Speaker after the presentations by my colleagues I want to thank them I want to thank the explanations given by the members Mr Speaker the presentations this afternoon it shows a depth and a degree of consistency and the different styles Mr Speaker from members of the side you heard the member for castries of East Mr Speaker with his twist of people's empowerment equity seen about the under the less privileged Mr Speaker then you heard the member for Viewford North with his creativity his love for the arts his eloquence Mr Speaker and putting it almost like a poem as it did in the church on Sunday Mr Speaker then you heard the member for Labry Mr Speaker with his a mixture of his knowledge of science his knowledge of flying and putting it all together Mr Speaker and making us understand what this building is about but before you heard the member from Miku Miku North with targeted simplicity reaching out from his own experience and explaining how the people could have helped him and will help others who do not have the opportunity to do what he did in his life Mr Speaker and this member for Miku North he must always compliment him because he never felt sorry for himself and this is something we say to young people all the time never feel sorry for yourself don't be a victim the guy is on the block boss man I said stop being a victim stop feeling sorry for yourself rise up and this is what he did Mr Speaker and then the member for Kashi Soft Mr Speaker who putting the intellectual understanding rooted in experience and rooted in experience from the youth movement rooted in the intellectual understanding of what you are doing today so this is the combination of men and women and then you heard Anti-Ember the member for Souffle and Mr Speaker I say Anti-Ember because I remember a joke I was sitting on that side of the house the member for Vivo South and I we have sat on both sides he sat there already and I sat where you are next to him and he sat here and I sat here you sit on both sides of the house you understand why it is and then there was a gentleman who sat down there with Mr Speaker and they gave him a text to read and for 46 minutes and 30 seconds he said the most obscene and vile things about me vile and I said to him you see you you are not coming back here and he said who Anti-Ember so that is why I am laughing at Anti-Ember but you heard yes so you heard the member for Souffle and you heard she is a trained person and you heard her so this youth economy this youth economy I want to make the point that what the members are speaking of are programs are programs but this is legislation it is law it is embedded in the law of the country and this is different we are not talking about programs we are talking about law we are putting in the law of the country a space for the young people of this country an economic space which we call the youth economy it is a law it is different from everything else you are doing it is a law and it is the first time that we are legislating telling young people you can go in the strategy books and there is a law that relates to your development and Mr Speaker we went to an exhibition on Sunday some Sundays ago and you can see the talent the number of booths that were there they spent all kinds of talent they are anticipating because they are saying to themselves and the member for Ansari Khan who again his style was very gentle and mild and that is the style that they underestimate and I can assure you all those who underestimate him in Ansari Khan they will be surprised at the next election but because they underestimated him again there was one that is not too tall all kind of all kind of as potions on the guy's character all kind of things you know these guys they really insult us you know I mean this was hurtful one day they call him little boy, shut up boy you know you don't want to be sometimes you must disclose these things because you see how life turns around and I remember telling them all the time four years is not 40 years and they laughed at me so what I am saying to you Mr Speaker is that you saw the youth in castries north with their exhibition sure enough what they can produce Mr Speaker the youth economy is a different concept Mr Speaker I want to say two things that's not the first time I am hearing from all of my members over there that to be this time about Ojo Labs and NAPS let me tell you the story of NAPS Mr Speaker do you know we allow the NAPS program to continue we kept the manager we kept him until and this must be said the manager we kept him until his contract expired the rest of the people in that program Mr Speaker there was one of them Mr Speaker who every night she said the vilest things about me on social media the vilest things about me and she kept we never touched her we left her there until her contract expired Mr Speaker but what the member is they left a bill for us for Ojo Labs of nearly half a million dollars which we settled which we are settling so we kept the staff and we paid the bills and it comes back to what he spoke about when he spoke about Monroe College and the initiative for international hospitality training he left $429,000 to Monroe for what he is speaking about so he settled all these things and refused to pay them and left us with the bill Mr Speaker Monroe College $429,000 then so Mr Speaker so he comes and he speaks about this thing glibly Mr Speaker very glibly so he comes started them and left us left it in debt and left it in debt Mr Speaker and left us to pay which we are paying which we are paying Mr Speaker among many of the debts Mr Speaker then he speaks about the don't talk about it and he won no international he won no international airport cost overruns cost overruns on the foundation cost overruns on the foundation $767,000 according to the plan and you put in $3,000 and nine plies cost overruns of over $40,000,000 in the foundation of a project on the foundation so when you hear when you hear these things Mr Speaker when you hear these discussions these are facts Mr Speaker based on these facts yes going up in the airport and just changing the site just telling them put this building there $3,000 piles from a plan of $767,000 $43 million of cost overruns that's the burden on the taxpayers that's the burden on the foundation elevated and elevated Mr Speaker then Mr Speaker we speak about different different organizing Mr Speaker we we Mr Speaker and you have Mr Speaker we have to discuss these things Mr Speaker then he speaks about the solution development bank Mr Speaker I stood there there and I said to them if you are bringing back the solution development bank is your is your policy we the member from before itself spoke first at the ring he made the point that he doesn't think that the development bank should come back on the capital I said to them if it's your policy do your bank as your policy because I accept when the people make a decision he passed his bill he also want to say refuse to capitalize it refuse the solution development bank we are selling by night but yes and you can say you didn't capitalize right they did not they did not he did not capitalize Mr Speaker now to capitalize the solution development bank yes Mr Speaker then he comes over output per acre if you are not thinking output per acre brilliant thing smaller than solution output per area signal poor smaller than solution output per area and you said and you sing what is he talking about Mr Speaker is a very flat country very flat Barbados is extremely flat St. Lucia the topography is different so the output per acre in this country must be more because they have more development space very simple in Barbados and Antigua Antigua has 265 beaches Lucia we have limited beach space because a lot of our country is hilly so we have to make use of the hills but don't talk about but output per acre is not a proper statistic but even though they have one is that right output per acre how a rubber is a flat country a rubber is a very flat country so a rubber must have more output per acre for billions because it is a flat country so what's the point but you know these things sound good these things sound nice and if you are not thinking you say well that man is a real serious fella that man have good ideas that man have good plans but you know that's one of our solutions listen carefully when politicians speak listen listen you understand output per acre then he speaks about always makes a point about Saint Lucia but like the same member who was on television saying that one thing the government should do is remove vat on electricity he said and I think some of them another one echoed the same thing but in a different way he said part of the measures the government should take to stem the problem is remove vat on electricity I will give you my whole salary if you show me one electricity bill it will not show you vat on it but these are the things and then I can play for you on my phone you know you on public media saying that the government should remove vat on electricity because you heard it said in Bahamina I mean even you come to that man you think it was deliberate deliberate because you know what happens when he says so you see they must take vat on electricity this is what the government is saying but he knows it's not true he knows it's not true he knows there is no electricity on vat non water then he comes and talks about we must remove import duty on food stop he knows very well that St. Lucia has the most items that are zero rated or a vat example he knows that because the IMF tells him that all the time but you know just to cast as potions and not to admit he says something else he says government must take some of the revenue that they make from what he says from this CIP to pay this and that he knows very well that fuel the fuel tax one of the most secure revenue streams for the government St. Lucia and he also knows that because of the cost of fuel the revenue stream fuel is sometimes zero or minimal but he also knows that we must meet all the expenses without that revenue stream and he has borrowed everything he could borrow under the covid relief program he knows that he knows that Mr. Speaker in one year he borrowed $329 million and when we came in July 17th July 26th we only had $19 million to spend and we did not borrow any money except going in the RSV so it's important and a friend of mine says to me I should not respond to these things but you know is that non-response that makes people believe these things because these things sound good and you say different accents it sounds very good Mr. Speaker but you know they say I stammering so I write when these things you say these things but I must put the holes in these things because people believe it today we gave pensioners the $500 not too much but at least we showed an indication we want to assist them in the plight a tangible way today the NIC decided that among other things they would give an increase in pensions to all the pensioners Mr. Speaker these are tangible things the government is doing to assist but the government cannot continue if something else doesn't happen right now 100% of our expenses are used to pay that you know Sam and salaries and wages Saint Lucia has and the ECB proved that yesterday they showed that Saint Lucia has the highest wages and salaries bill in the entire ECCU region over 40% is used to pay salaries and wages but still for that we still paid the civil servants the 1% increase in spite of that and we're going to pay them their back pay in December something that the glass government negotiated they could not do it but we are going to pay it Mr. Speaker so it's not easy you did not do it so it's not easy Mr. Speaker so what I'm saying to the member from Miku South is hold your horse take your time Miku North Miku North you presided over a party that lost Miku North the late Sir John must be telling in his grave he must be telling in his grave for you to preside over a party and lose Miku North and why is that he was comparing in Bagatell coming after me Mr. Speaker there you so Mr. Speaker the youth economy Mr. Speaker is a model piece of legislation the force of its kind which legislates a space for young people and it's just the beginning Mr. Speaker we're putting 10 million dollars now and again the member from Miku South said that's a joke isn't it? he said that if we serious this is a micro bank did not even read did not even read Mr. Speaker did not even read the law the legislation that's what you say there let it pass outside let me do something go to town and call your name and call my name you and I walk to town let's go now just say lie challenge talk about lie let's be the wrong in town let's go by that let's go by that we have a scene by that let's go there and just say lie Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker finally Mr. Speaker the youth economy agency Mr. Speaker will be positioned as the premier agency devoted to young entrepreneurs in Salmousia it will help create and develop strong youth businesses through financing and advisory services and capital with a focus on business the youth economy supports young entrepreneurs as indicated in the industries that they like and remember in modeling in sports and creative industries it will support young entrepreneurs at all stages of development while working in collaboration with business centers across Salmousia it's not being isolation it will work in collaboration with them Mr. Speaker it's committed to long term success of young entrepreneurs and the youth economy agency understands that a business is just more than dollars and cents it's about linkages it's about creating synergies that's what it's all about not only about dollars and cents Mr. Speaker and it complements and that's what many of us show is that it will complement the role played by private sector financial institutions so when in the youth economy we will do the training we will do the mentoring and if there is a certain situation we can move and get assistance at the private sector that's what it's all about it's about creating that synergies creating that atmosphere for young people so Mr. Speaker on our one year anniversary on our one year anniversary Mr. Speaker we are very proud with the support of the members of this side Mr. Speaker to have this bill in the House of Assembly as we speak we are preparing the building Mr. Speaker we are preparing the building for the youth economy office Mr. Speaker and it's a building that will have a lot of vibe it's a building that will be for young people a building that will make young people feel it will be a technologically advanced building for young people too because you know we need to make young people understand that they have value right we pass the fire arms act to punish those who violated law but this will have value Mr. Speaker so we are in the process of preparing the building of outfitting the building then we will go into the process of appointing the board to begin actual operations with Mr. Speaker and as you said your people from shows there that is not in our DNA we are not people who discriminate you know that and sometimes in previous life when the member before saw Prime Minister and he spoke about equity equity meant equity for everybody in the country so we not like you not like your party we do not do it and that is why you are soon going to get your allocation for your school education this year as you got last year which is more than you can say for us Mr. Speaker because in in our in my entire period one before self castries self library we did not get one cent from this government for any program in our constituency not one cent for any for any person in our constituency for their development but we are not like that so you will get your fair share of the youth economy but you know but these things have a way of coming back to haunt you because I am sure Mr. Speaker do you know last year 9 o'clock by this time there was celebration 9 o'clock 9 o'clock Mr. Speaker the town had been painted red at 9 o'clock and in some places blue at 9 o'clock 9 o'clock last year the town was in red Mr. Speaker 9 o'clock last year Mr. Speaker let's go by that let's go there let's go and let's say lie Mr. Speaker I thank you very much and again I want to thank my colleagues and the people of celebration Mr. Speaker the times are challenging but it's exciting and the youth the young people of solution know that the government has a plan for them to improve their lives and to create sustainable employment for them Honour members the question is that the youth economy bill be read a second time and now I put the question as many as of that opinion say aye as many as the country opinion say no I think the ayes have it the ayes have it an act to provide young people an economic space to turn hobbies into entrepreneurship and skills into businesses to establish the youth economy agency for the youth economy program to facilitate the development of a youth economy project and provide special incentives for related matters close to interpretation close to stands part of the bill aye part 1 closes 3045 youth economy agency part 1 closes 3 to 45 stands part of the bill part 2 closes 46 to 50 youth economy program part 2 closes 46 to 50 stands part of the bill aye part 3 closes 51 to 57 tax relief and exemptions part 3 closes 51 to 57 stands part of the bill part 5 part 4 closes 58 to 61 miscellaneous part 4 closes 58 to 61 stands part of the bill aye part 1 section 2 section 3 after activity there is trading and add one technology schedule 1 page 67 add one technology will carry idea of everything that's 14 technology add it to the activity schedule 1 as amended stands part of the bill aye schedule 2 section 54 3A is that okay schedule 2 stands part of the bill aye clause 1 short title clause 1 stands part of the bill aye I want to remember the question is that the committee rises and the bill be reported as many as of that opinion see aye as many as of our country opinion say no I think the ayes have it the ayes have it I beg to report that the youth economy went through committee with amendments to schedule 1 finance minister I move that the report of the committee be adopted and the bill be read at food time and passed the question is that the report of the committee be adopted and that the youth economy will be read at food time and passed I now put the question as many as that opinion as many as of our country opinion say no I think the ayes have it the ayes have it be it enacted by the queen's most excellent majesty by and with the advice and consent of the house of assembly and the senate of St Lucia and by the authority of the same as follows this act may be sorry I put it accidentally this act may be cited as the youth economy act 2022 leader of government business I move that this house stand adjourned until Tuesday, August 9 I remember the question is that this house do stand adjourned until Tuesday August 9 at 10 o'clock in the fall noon and I'll put the question as many as that opinion say aye as many as of our country opinion say no think the ayes have it the ayes have it sitting adjourned well this sitting the St Lucia house of assembly today Tuesday the 26th has now come to an end and has been adjourned to August the 9th Tuesday August the 9th today we saw the passage of four bills the recording of court proceedings the eastern caribbean securities regulatory commission agreement the fire arms amendment the youth economy agency and well that's what was passed today they have deferred the special prosecutors bill for the 9th of August also today we heard from the prime minister and minister of finance that the $500 payment one off payment to government pensioners and $1.5 million is now in the bank and is being paid out and the national insurance cooperation has agreed to pay 4.2% a payment increased to NIC pensioners of 4.2% which will cost the NIC $4 million and this will be retroactive as of July 1st 2022 the 1% salary increased to the public servants which will cost government $4.5 million yearly or will be paid so until August the 9th and before I go I would like to encourage you to go get a copy of the new fire arms licensing bill which like I said before was also passed today the fire arms amendment it is a very interesting bill and one that all fire arms license holders holders and others should read because of the crime situation in St. Lucia the government has taken some initiatives to arrest the problems that we are at the moment undergoing with fire arms on the island the increase in illegal fire arms on the island and you should get a copy of that legislation which was passed today in the house so from the St Lucia house of assembly until August the 9th I am Winston Springer saying goodbye have a pleasant nights rest and a good day tomorrow good night everyone