Okay. Hi, everybody. Welcome. And my name is Ilana Koperman. I'm calling in from Israel and I work for Mobileye. And this talk will be about some work which we have been doing with the Linux Foundation for enabling the usage of Linux and safety applications. And just to set the context, I do not come from the safety assessment or safety standards community. I work as a system architect. So I have many years of experience in embedded Linux systems. And what I do is to try to help to design solutions for the safety and security issues. What I'm going to speak about here is what I call bridging the gap because the project ELISA is all about trying to help to allow, enable the usage of Linux and safety applications, something which has been a major problem in the past. And to see how we can all work together to make that happen. So to go into more detail, okay, a little bit of background. Again, I don't know who I'm speaking to. But deploying Linux and safety critical systems has been a major challenge to date. So those who are experienced in using Linux, they obviously are familiar with the benefits. Linux provides many features, subsystems which enable to, to develop complex software. It has strong security capabilities. And one of the really important aspects of Linux is that it gives us the necessary software interfaces to virtually any underlying hardware with which we need to work with and an amazing community with which we can cooperate and work together to provide real solutions. So for those reasons, people who develop safety critical applications have been looking to Linux to use it in safety critical systems. The problem is, though, that Linux, in order to be used in safety critical systems, it has to pass very stringent assessment processes which are defined by safety standards of different types. I'm not going to go into those details for those who are not familiar. But the process is a very strict and binding process which basically gives the liability to the people who produce those software applications to ensure that they have done the most possible to prevent any harm to human life or any loss due to the usage of that software. And that's where things start getting tricky because Linux, obviously, hasn't grown and hasn't been developed in a way that matches the strict documentation testing and assessment requirements for the safety standards. And that is where we have a major problem and where we are trying to bridge that gap and to bring the two sides together close enough so that we are able to actually deploy Linux in such systems. This graphic, and I think we should sort of keep it in the back of our minds. The work of Eliza, the group that we established for enabling Linux in safety critical applications, is really all about minding the gap. And it's really tricky in this sense. We deal on the one hand with people who come from the world of safety assessment, which has very strict standards, very strict compliance rules, because at the end of the day we're dealing with legal implications and potential risks to lives for these type of applications. And on the other hand, we have the open-minded community consensus, which we see in the Linux development. And the two communities need to work together, and that's what we're trying to do in this group, to bring Linux down into the world of safety critical systems in a reliable and effective way. So when we started, and this is sort of like, I don't know, the quality of maybe startup mode, trying to figure out how can we do this. So there's a lot of pressure from industry, and that's where myself and other people are coming from. There's a lot of pressure to use Linux in safety critical systems, and particularly where I come from, which is the automotive domain, but in many other areas as well. Linux is a strong choice for the reasons which we mentioned before. We had to get together in order to set up the foundation, which is what we have been trying to do now. And what happens, we are trying to define the necessary level of functional safety, which will basically give us the ability to manage the risk in our product development. As I explained before, when we deploy an application in a safety critical application, we have to be sure that we can evaluate and manage that risk, and to ensure that we are well, we have that well mapped, and we define relevant mitigations for any anticipated risk. But on the other hand, when we are using Linux as the foundation, we have to really, really understand the implications of what Linux on the one hand is providing the power, and the potential misuses or problems which can come up because of the different features, the configurations, the different ways in which we interface with drivers, hardware, and other elements of the Linux system. So we need to be able to really understand where we are coming from, what Linux can provide for us to enhance the safety of the system which we are trying to produce. And we also need industry collaboration because if we are dealing with theory, then we are not really getting anywhere. So we have to deal with practical, real-life examples which have a real business need, and to see how we can actually use Linux as the operating system in such systems. So a summary of what the Alliance Admissions Statement is all about. We want to define and maintain a common set of elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into specific Linux-based safety critical systems which will eventually be amenable to safety certification. So if you see the Mission Statement here, the real goal is to define different software elements, different processes, tools, anything that will help us so that when we use those in an appropriate way in a specific context, the resulting system will be more amenable to safety certification. I'll go into a little detail later what we are not trying to do. Just one point I want to make clear right now. We cannot provide and no one can do that. A one-size-fits-all Linux kernel which is perfectly secure for any application. Okay, anybody who is familiar with Linux will understand that that doesn't make sense even to try to go down that path. What we do want to provide is a supportive infrastructure, technical supportive infrastructure which will enable people who do want to develop Linux-based systems for safety critical applications. If they use those guidelines, those tools, actual internal patches, whatever it may be, if they use them in the correct way, they will then be able to bring their product to be certified for use in a safety critical context. And we are working together with the Linux Foundation and with the different standards bodies to make sure that all of those elements each on its own bring us a bit closer to that goal. But obviously that still leaves the choice, the integration, the implementation up to the individual user. And we cannot know project or working group can possibly provide a single Linux kernel which will be certified for use in any or all safety critical applications. Okay, so what are our goals? I mean I think more or less it's what I'm talking about. Before we want to provide those basic building blocks, we want to be able to, one of the things which we have been working on is what we call our reference process for safety assessment. We found that for many reasons to take Linux and to get that certified following the documents of the safety standards was not possible for many reasons. A, because different safety critical applications have to abide by different standards. And B, because the language that's used there is not so well understood by people who come from the Linux background. And also because not all of those documents are accessible to everybody who comes from the Linux community. So the idea was to work together with the safety standards communities and to do that in two stages that on the one hand to define a reference process as an intermediary step and then to have that reference process assessed and mapped onto one of the relevant safety standards. So that the people who are working within Linux when they want to define how they abide by the standards they can work with that reference process and then leave it to the safety experts to map what they are using and how they are doing it onto the original standards themselves. Which is a process which hopefully will enable everyone to focus on what they are best at doing. What we also want to do is to help support business entities in order to that they should be able to take the outputs of our projects, different tools, guidelines, processes, whatever we define and use them, package them, implement them, deploy them in their safety critical products. And this is all about communication bridging the gap between all kinds of different communities all together working so that at the end of the day whatever our work products that we produce will be acceptable by all. Okay, how do we measure success? I mean it's a bit early on the project but these are the standards which we define for ourselves and as I said before we're still a bit of a startup mode but we do have some preliminary results. So the first thing what we want to do is to have actual tangible deliverables. Okay, we want to focus on certain, we are doing that already and I'll go into detail soon into some of the work groups which are set up and working. But we want to identify which kernel features are most relevant for safety assessment, which tools we want to develop to be able to help us to that goal. And we are keeping track of work that's being done on different use cases so that those will be established as examples for future work as well. Okay, what I mentioned before defining that reference process which is an ongoing project, we want that it should be usable, maintainable, easy to maintain that product that is developed and is proven to be safety critical, we can maintain that over its lifetime. It has to be accepted and this is a very important point by everybody involved because I mean we can say that we love Linux and that we appreciate its features and how it works but we need that it should be accepted by the safety community as well. Okay and at the other end of the spectrum we have to get the hardware support from the underlying hardware to make sure that whatever we define actually is feasible and can be implemented on any relevant platform. Okay, so there are many goals here which all work together and as I said before I don't think we'll end up with a complete perfect one size fits all solution or anything near that but we do want to help so that business entities can come much closer to that goal than is possible today. Okay, what are the limits? Okay, we certainly will not engineer your system for you to be safe and we cannot ensure that you will do it properly and we won't create a single out-of-tree Linux kernel which you just have to plug in for your safety critical applications and obviously you have your own responsibilities legal obligations and liabilities to implement things appropriately but we certainly want to provide a path forward and do that in some way that Linux works by collaboration. Okay, if there's any questions? Okay, now currently we have three work groups with a fourth one which was just born last week and this is where I'm opening this to the public. If anybody wants to they can contact me afterwards see how they can get involved see where they can contribute see what they can gain from this collaboration and that's what I'm really looking for here so that we can have a more representative set of contributors so that we can actually work better and get better results. Okay, the work groups here are not listed in chronological order but whatever one work group which we have is called the kernel development process work group. This work group was really started because of based on one of the bullets which had I think on the second slide. In the past it was this concept of Linux as a non-secure a non-safe non-software product which was developed by people who didn't follow any process who couldn't make any clear statements about the quality or the or the or even the requirements architecture test coverage anything like that nothing could be well documented and proven about Linux. So I think anybody who works with Linux realizes that there's a lot of power in Linux there's a lot of power in the Linux development process but it just works in a very different way than the pretty much waterfall type of of execution flow that we see in or that is expected by from the safety standards. So basically what we are trying to do is to assess the kernel development process this is this is a project which took about six months and a lot of work was done here and together with the safety community to prove what actually I called you know the bringing out the good in Linux demonstrating that there are many aspects and we'll see in the next slide or whatever soon we'll see some examples we analyzed based on the common Linux safety standards and our reference process we divided the kernel development process into different categories and we're able to assess what is currently done to develop Linux even if it works differently than how the the safety assessor is expected to demonstrate that it we do have that quality which is built in we have the power of the peer review we have up the power of the mailing list how people communicate together how the release process how things work in Linux development to demonstrate that there is actually method a strong methodology in the way Linux is developed at the same time however obviously we found that there were some major gaps which were exposed and we'll go into that soon but one of the important things which we're working on now are trying to fill in those gaps so that we bring Linux closer to acceptance for usage in safety critical applications and we are working on different areas to fill in those gaps we have identified five areas which are currently in high focus and with time we hope to cover more a second group is is the kernel development process is really dealing with the nuts and bolts of of Linux as a software component the different features the another work group which we have is called the architecture process work group which takes things takes things up on a higher level and it looks at the architecture of Linux again as a software product and it divides it up into what they call chunks for lack of a better term it's not really components it's not features it's different areas for example memory management or schedule those are two areas which are very focused for safety analysis and what they're basically trying to do there is do this meta analysis of safety and to help people to understand how they can take those different areas and implement let's say for example memory management in a specific use case in a specific on specific hardware platform based on features which exist already in Linux and features which may need to be added okay so that's the focus of the architecture process work group which basically takes similar to the work which we're doing in the kernel development process work group but takes that up more on an architecture level we take into account interactions with other software and hardware components within a specific use case the focus here was on various use cases but because of the the current set of contributors I mean we're pretty much a lot of us are coming from the automotive domain so that and we ended up splitting this into a separate automotive work group which will focus on features and safety features and enhancements and what can be done specifically to meet the requirements for software products in the automotive domain and that's that's the new group the automotive work group which was just created last week and that work group will do similar work but focused primarily on the automotive domain and we have representatives there from AGL people are familiar with that and other major car manufacturers etc working together to try to define relevant solutions because there's a lot of pressure to be able to use Linux in automotive applications and the third group working group which is actually was the first one the third group which is actually the first one is the what's the name has been changed to the medical devices work group and I guess this is in the spirit of the times it originally started off this was the first work group it was really sort of as a as a brainstorming type of first use case there was a system called the open APS artificial pancreas system which is with open source to use to monitor glucose for diabetics and whatever but and I'll have some slides on that afterwards because of the pressure to produce increase the production of ventilators due to the corona crisis ongoing so there's pressure to develop open source ventilator systems but obviously ventilators are very safe to critical systems which are you know life threatening if there's some malfunction which is not properly managed so so it's expanded rather than focusing only on the open APS it's also expanding into other areas of medical devices okay there are two questions I'll answer my contact information I'll share it I guess at the end I don't think it's on my slides but I I thought that in the system for the conference so Nelia maybe can help me with that or I don't know maybe I'll put it in the chat and also definitely we are open to any use cases these are currently the use cases there's another question about industrial real-time use cases there is interest we just don't have people who are are there to to pick it up and take it and to lead the effort but definitely those are of interest they're important and we need more contributors okay so definitely they are related and the groups all should and will be working together with the same common goals but each one focusing on obviously different safety standards and different specific risks and and focal points okay so going back to what I said about the kernel development process work group I think I'll go quickly over this because I think I more or less gave the background in my speaking our work has been divided into two phases first we define this working reference process it took quite a while because like I said you know about bridging the gap we're dealing with two very very different kinds of communities and at times the communication can be a bit noisy let's call it but all in good spirits and the point really is that we want to develop this reference process to make it easier to communicate okay because people who are kernel developers or develop software or software architects or whoever it may be who develop drivers that are not really familiar with the bits and bytes of safety standards so a little bit hard for them to to deal with the legal terminology and the reference process was very helpful to again to bridge that gap I want to emphasize again that they're not in place of safety standards it leaves the work of of having that reference process assessed and accepted um as a second stage but that we've been working with the different standards communities to to to help ease that process as well okay because it's done in in a in a method method methodical way which which helped for the communication on both sides okay but as doing the in doing the assessment we found that there are certain gaps and for each of those gaps we can say okay well for example in the automotive domain from which i'm coming um those gaps are not relevant and we we don't have to deal with them or we can provide mitigation mitigations which are relevant um and which are specific to the use case and we and the other the final option might be to um to work within the community to promote change to get support to add features which are relevant both in that particular specific use case and in the more general domain and basically what we're aiming for is really to promote linux as a viable candidate for use and safety critical applications um you can hear different points of view and certainly when we started this work the attitude was no way linux and safety critical applications are totally far into each other there's no way that we can get that of linux to be approved but slowly we are trying to bring the gap bridge that gap and bring the two sides closer to each other okay um all right that's a bit of delay wow okay i have color markings on this and i see them on the bottom but now i see they don't show up so i'll tell you what color coded don't see it interesting okay anyway um this was the list of areas which we analyzed based on the reference process and um some of these areas for example change configuration management that's well managed by um by the linux development process so there wasn't anything really major to discuss um relating to gaps where we did have um we we did identify more major gaps which we need to deal with are and again if you'll get a copy of this slide you'll see they're color coded in yellow but okay i'll just have to tell you where they are requirements definition um obviously linux kernel developers don't have any formal process for defining requirements um static analysis there's some ongoing work but it's not a requirement we don't get full coverage there isn't a single tool but there's a lot of great ongoing work which can be expanded kernel testing similarly there's um linux has come a long way and there is a lot more available tools which can be used and which are being used and which are being enhanced all the time to ensure the quality of the the code that's being developed for obvious reasons i mean the the um the the maintainers have their own responsibilities for the quality of the code and they want to be sure that um there's no regressions when they or minimize the risk of regression when they release code because of the volume of users and the volume of the different applications and um so there's a lot of work that's ongoing there um the fourth area on which we're focused right now is the the build process how we configure um um how we configure the the kernel to be used in a safety critical application what type of criteria do we use to um to decide which features will go in and which won't and um et cetera okay we'll we'll have the next slide we'll go into some more details and the final area is the how we introduce new features and patches um both as safety mechanisms to deal with safety issues and in general if we want to introduce new features how we get them um assessed approved and released to to um meet the functional clients which we might have in a particular use case and to do that in a way which is acceptable by the safety standards so those are the five focal areas on which we are um working right now in this group okay so the first area was defining some kind of umbrella criteria similar to what we see in security what we would call bug classes so in a similar way to define um what are the criteria for a safe uh Linux release safe it's written with double quotes because it's it's not going to be really a safe Linux but it's basically criteria for assessing the safety level or the safety quality let's call it of of our kernel image which we're using in a particular application okay so for example I gave a list here of of different kernel configurations which we are currently assessing for use in safety application that focused on memory protection this is an ongoing work so this is not a finalist which is going to be deployed but basically to try to assess each of these um kernel configurations to understand to be able to define in terminology which is relevant for safety assessment what the expected value added value for any particular kernel configuration may be and perhaps um warnings caveats when it's less relevant more relevant for example if there's a performance impact or if there are certain um functional requirements which contradict are contrary contrary contrary to the use of any specific configuration okay the last line what talks um is about freedom from interference which is a common term used in the automotive safety domain we want to ensure that if you have a software component which we have tested and proven um in a standalone way that it it um satisfies certain requirements provide certain results give certain level of quality we want to be sure that we have um that is it won't be impacted in any way and I won't go into details of that but it won't be impacted by any other software or harder component which will interfere um with how we expect it to work and again here are some examples and again each of these has to be assessed and we have to provide guidelines when it's relevant and when these should be used and how they should be appropriately used but we want to give this as a set of tools that if somebody wants to um use these for the kernel configurations in a safe way that they will be able to to put them together and some of the configurations are more relevant for testing or approving that um there are no um memory memory violations etc and and and and those can be used as well in the safety context okay these are again these areas are ongoing work static analysis um where we focus on on different areas of um uh also again based on the the first bullet about the criteria um we've been focusing on on Cochinel there's some typos I apologize in this version which I corrected but when I post my final slides I'll correct them Cochinel it's misspelled here okay but anyway we've been analyzing different semantic patches how they're how they can be used and which and to define a sweet uh a set of semantic patches which are relevant um for safety analysis in particular and again covariate which is already aligned with various safety standards what is already covered what needs to be covered and how we use that effectively um to ensure the quality of of the kernel the Linux kernel and then there's kernel profiling a lot of ongoing work right now on ebps and how they can how it can be deployed to help with kernel profiling including the the definition of the capability of the bps capability and perhaps alignment with how that um can be um can work together not only for security um context but also for safety again these are ongoing projects and again people who are interested who want to join who want to contribute these are the kinds of things which we're working on long-term goals these are the next steps and long-term by us it's not you know whatever it's probably those projects are now where we worked on the reference process and the assessment for about six months this is the coming the current six months perhaps to the end of 2020 and towards the end of 2020 we're going to start working on these additional areas some of which are already started and again depending on the people who contribute um we want to be able to to do some analysis of developers mailing with to generate requirements from the mailing list and with appropriate tagging this is feasible and we need to work on some kind of proof of concept and start um expanding this work and the the goal obviously is once we have requirements we can generate requirements based test templates and this will come a long way of establishing the quality of um the linux kernel without forcing kernel developers um to I don't know what I like to call to wear a suit and a tie when it doesn't match their lifestyle and we can because the mailing list do have all this information in one way or another to have some um established play by using the appropriate tags and and appropriate crawlers um data mining tools um to put together to to generate those requirements document them and to generate from that test templates based on those requirements and similarly to to generate the architecture documentation which is needed as evidence of the the quality of the kernel I think this is probably even easier because the the linux kernel already has a very well established um software architecture okay testing there's a lot a lot of ongoing work this is not related only to safety there's a great deal of interest in expanding this and um different frameworks which exist and lots of great ideas and here I'm looking here I just noticed my time is almost running up this is the most fun part the kind of stuff which which I deal with mostly on a day-to-day basis defining different safety enhancements to the kernel source and getting the different contributors to upload those to the to the kernel and to have them available as templates as reference code reference implementations with appropriate guidelines for use by all people who want to um develop safety critical applications okay so there's a lot of work here and um and again I'll I'll send out one way or another I'll send out my my um contact information and people who are interested um certainly will be great um to see people joining signing up joining and contributing okay the safety architecture work group um I talked about before it deals with documenting the the linux the what we call the chunks defining the safety requirements on those chunks how we expect them to use and and those and and those requirements are basically derived from the specific use cases which the contributors bring with them and afterwards based on that we define we want we are aiming to propose architectural changes to make linux more robust and more amenable for use and safety critical application okay and from this the architecture group we formed the automotive work group okay here we have a specific use case I won't have time to go into it but it's a very typical automotive use case where we have tail tails tail tails are basically some kind of indication of malfunction for example in a car okay and the problem with it is we're trusting the the graphics rendering to display something which is really I mean if somebody's brakes are gone and and the graphics um display fails to to indicate that we have a real problem here because the the software underlying software and the hardware can be great and detects the problem that's with the the brakes but if the display somehow messes things up and doesn't actually give that indication to the driver we have a really serious um risk to that driver so the tail tail display is an important safety critical element and that's why it was used as a use case it's a pretty simple use case but it it has very complex implications and the solution is proposed is to have a display and a backup monitor which basically keeps tabs of what's happening if the display succeeded and it has a watchdog running in the background to make sure that that display is updated with the critical information um in in within the time limit which is necessary so that the driver can react okay so this is the type of architecture use case which is being analyzed and the different elements that are involved here for Linux are being analyzed to see where we can introduce enhancements so that the the entire flow can be accepted based on Linux features the watchdog whatever it may be the graphics rendering and accepted for use in safety critical application okay and the final work group are the medical devices okay this I spoke about before there's one area which I didn't mention and that's the the safety analysis based on scpa I won't go into that that's the whole I'm not that familiar with it I'm not we're I'm not involved in this work group but it's it's an interesting theoretical application of a way of analyzing the system and based on the scpa and um defining modeling the the safety of the system it's also being used now for of open source evaluation of open source ventilators and have been speed up the process of approval for those ventilators which are in critical need all over the world now okay and the the first model which they are working on you can see it it's pretty streamlined um um see what it looks like it's a pretty basic type of model of a of a ventilator produced by a team in France the the source code is available the documentation everything is open source they've they've been using scpa to analyze it and to help to speed up the the approval process but the fact that there are people who are well versed in Linux who are involved is also helpful to bridge that gap and to to accept the the different components that are involved here and choose to smooth the the analysis process okay um okay I'm not going to really have time I I um I think my time is is up in a few minutes so I'll just very quickly say we have very very um high hopes um to provide tangible deliverables and there are things specific things which are we are working on right now as I mentioned before a little bit I where I went into details and um obviously we do want more contributors people who who who believe in this who believe in in in the power which Linux can bring to safety critical applications who want to contribute especially on the technical side we're all for it I think there's a strong market need and different business entities who do want to take advantage and who can contribute their small share but that if we have a community we all together can make the assessment process and the acceptance of such applications so much easier and that's what we're aiming for okay um we have here a couple of slides which I won't have time to go into you can go look at them afterwards on your own time about different focuses anyone who can contribute it in any of these specific areas um and these are the the members okay I work for a company which is part of Intel and but we have representatives from all kinds of both automotive manufacturers as I said before that's currently a major focus because that's where our members are coming from but if there are people who can come to um from other areas as well we're all open for that and um we need that kind of synergy to to move ahead okay and the slides have links um to the different lives of materials and I will add my um contact information on the last slide here and um I guess Melia I'll send to whoever from the Linux Foundation or whoever it will be you can update the slide they'll send a slightly updated version of these slides also with correcting some titles and the contact information for all okay um questions let me see if there's anything uh they don't advertise them so so okay so I will add that to the slide that's fine and um there was a question here about common criteria certification in tips 140 to um to date we haven't worked with those standards I'm not so familiar with them because I come from the automotive domain and what we've been doing but again the the standards which feed our process are based on the use cases so that if we are coming from the automotive domain we're driven by ISO 26262 and if we're coming from other domains then that's what will drive the assessment process and as I said before we have a more generic reference process with which we work and because our certain basics for safe software which are common to all standards and then we have the second stage of taking that reference process and mapping it on to the details of any specific safety standard okay so if people are interested in getting involved in new areas the new use cases that's more than welcome I think there's a lot of the foundation will be in common but obviously we do need that specific work to translate it into the specific use cases for each specific domain okay so I hope I answered um that question um one more question was about sanitizers on the target I don't have too much time to answer that but if I understand that's dealing with your referring to static analysis I think um and here if you want to follow up afterwards you can contact me I can tell you more about how the work is ongoing what we have done what we will be doing but there's a lot of interesting work to um there okay um so I think I guess we're done and now yeah yeah you can share my contact information okay thanks but I'll share it as well thank you


All right, well, let's call this meeting's order. So the first thing is to review and approve the agenda. I think we had one. Right. I just wanted to add that we had a very short discussion about our summer. Great. Any other changes? So we don't actually consider the agenda approved. So general business and appearances. So this is a time for any member of the public to address the council on a topic that is otherwise not on our agenda. And if you would keep your comments relative in brief, that would be helpful. So if you come to say your name and where to go. Back again, Marie smart notes. We'll see you up on Scribner Street next month on that affair. Two things I just wanted to ask if there was any more conversation about the crosswalk on River Street. And then the second thing I wanted to let people know that I have contacted Colin O'Neill over at the rightsville reservoir where they have the disc golf course. We've nailed down a date where we're going to have a tournament there in the third week of October. I've contacted hotels to find out if that's a slow weekend for them so that we can fill those. I've contacted a marketing company in Montreal and I've contacted a marketing company in Boston. Our goal is to have this start out here and I'll pay your live is on board and I've got a meeting with them next week. If you don't know already, Vermont has the highest ratio of disc golf courses in the nation. If we want young people to come here and see this nation, this country, this state, we've got to get young people here. Colin is also building one in Norwich University and he's got two more, one for Berry City and one for Berry Town. 31 years of marketing and sales. I picture in five years that we have a four day tournament similar to a professional, but we don't want professionals here. They don't spend money. You've got to pay them to come. We want young people and we want novices and it's best held in the fall after the leaves are down so that they can see the course. And then I'm also going to be talking to the local bars and breweries because I picture having a different brewery sponsor each hole and see if we can have them a tasting site. And then when you expect to have fans, I have a five year goal that we're going to be bringing about 30,000 people into this city for this in five years. And I hope they're all under the age of 30. But over 21 for that. But then the other thing is I want food trucks there and eventually camping and maybe we can have it in all four of those locations. And central Vermont will be known as a drawing card for young people. And suddenly they see, wow, wouldn't it be great to be able to live here? Maybe it'd be great to invest here. So I have a reason to come back every year for this. I'm passionate about this. We need to get young people here. And both my sons are 28 and they're down flatlanders and they said to be the first ones to sign up.  So I've already got eight people caught. So just on your first point about the question about the crosswalk. So just so you know how I'm thinking about that, there have been a number of requests that we've gotten for speed bumps in different places and other crosswalks in other places, even other than that. And so one of the things that the Office of Transportation Infrastructure Committee is taking on right now is if we want to add traffic, traffic calming or those kinds of changes, what's the process to go through. And so my hope is that we can get a process from them in the near future and then run all these kinds of requests through that process. And so we haven't forgotten, there just may be a process to it. And then the second thing about the disc golf tournament as a fellow lover of disc sports, I'm very psyched to participate in your next course. And I did speak to our manager about the pilot program. So I was really pleased to give that information. Thank you. And we did look at you didn't for your specific request to be. Sorry. Anyone else. Okay. Moving on to the consent agenda. We have a motion. So moved. Second. And no one wants to go on anything. Awesome. Okay, any further discussion? I'll try to say aye. I opposed. The tax increment financing. Hearing. So we should. Yeah, we're going to open the hearing. I guess we'll start with. If you have any things you want to add or kick us off here with. And then afterwards, if there are other further comments from the public, then. We'll start with that. As someone once said. Sorry, I didn't have time to write a short letter. I wrote a long one instead, I think, but lucky for you, I have made this presentation very concise at the urging of your management. So. So I'm just going to dive right in. You know me, Stephanie, Haley with Whitenberg real estate investment advisors, we've been counseling the city since last July on the. By ability of a tax increment financing district and then preparing the application that will go to the state. Just a quick refresher because it never hurts to hear what Tiff is one more time and also because the public is listening. And this is a public hearing for the purposes of education, continual education and tax increment financing is a funding mechanism intended to catalyze private sector development. And to do that it is the city's investment into the public infrastructure that is acting as a barrier to that private development. And the way that the city pays for the infrastructure is not through the use of taxes on the base, but rather using the new taxes that are generated by the new development projects that come about as a result of you taking away the barriers. So it is this cyclical cycle that happens with cyclical cycle. All right. All right, we're starting strong. It is a nice cyclical tool that ends up using a portion of this state education fund taxes that would not have otherwise occurred if the city did not make the investments into the infrastructure. So but for the city making the investments that the public can use and that will catalyze the private development, these things would not otherwise occur. With that in mind, what we did as a team was to work with city management, some of the city council, local stakeholders, property owners, and Montpelier Development Corporation and Montpelier Alive to pull together a list of all of the infrastructure barriers that were really posing a problem for private developers who wanted to make their projects happen but have been stalled for years. We all know that the cost of development in downtowns is really high and the additional infrastructure barriers based on aging infrastructure or problems that have pre-existed maybe even that property owner's ownership can add to that cost and make it unfeasible. It does not pencil out. So as we worked together as a group, we came up with this boundary for the TIF district in the orange. That is our proposed TIF district. It connects the east and the west sides of the downtown core to incorporate the housing parcels out at Saban's Pasture and Vermont College of Fine Arts and also the downtown core. The green line that you can see there is the designated downtown so the TIF district is almost entirely within that and the purple line is actually collinear on the northeast corner there. Hard to see but that purple line is the growth center boundary and we are entirely within the growth center which was an important distinction when we were trying to bring this application to the state and as you know the process is to get this approved and bring this through the city council but also then it needs state approval from the Vermont Economic Progress Council from VEPC. So this is our district and within that district we have identified eight different infrastructure projects that would catalyze nine, we have nine technically within different phases, private development projects. So starting from east and moving west there are two housing projects that have long been talked about along Berry Street at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and Saban's Pasture. They are in desperate need of the infrastructure along the Berry Street corridor but both the utility work and road transportation improvements including the roundabout or the intersection I should say of Berry Street and Main Street. The granite sheds which are number four on this list are on this map are along Berry Street underdeveloped underutilized parcels that could be redeveloped into commercial and or housing projects but they also have brownfield issues. So with some assistance from the state assistance through TIF those could be mitigated and those parcels could be developed into more robust and higher value parcel private development parcels. Moving downtown there's the pit which would then if there was infrastructure assistance with the sewer and water lines there as well as the intersection traffic signal the Vermont Mutual Site might get redeveloped and the state and Governor Davis lot would also could also see some more further development if there was improvements to the infrastructure. And then finally at the core of the downtown is the Capital Plaza project. Capital Plaza project is has been worked on concurrently alongside this TIF district development since the TIF was reauthorized by the state and that project has been developed with a partnership in mind with the city to help with the parking problem. The parking shortage and the cost of structured parking being quite a burden on the cost of the project. There's also price church housing at this site that also needs affordable housing and needs parking and there are other uses in the area that public parking would help to incentivize other development. So a parking garage that would serve lots of uses downtown is one of the possible options. Again I use the word possible and could because this is simply a menu of options that doesn't commit the city to anything at this stage but gives you the option to use this if the tool is approved. Bullet point numbers. We are projecting if everything was done in this district which we don't expect would happen over the course of 10 years a lot of things can change and evolve but if it did happen $7.8 million of infrastructure investment just using TIF but that also leverages additional funds through state match and federal match with some of the projects through that infrastructure investment we could see a $66.5 million increase of the grand list and incremental new property value over the course of the next 10 years that's the investment period that you have to do the infrastructure and then the incremental taxes gained over the next 20 years will be used to pay down the debt service for that $7.8 million infrastructure. That's the high points.  We have to put together the TIF district plan because it is a comprehensive document that really explains more than I was able to do in the last five minutes but puts together all of the background data for how we came to these assumptions. They really are assumptions in our model that it's not perfect and we know that those are likely to change. As these projects become more granular and crystallized, the city council will have in front of them a development agreement before any project goes forward where you would look at the numbers in more detail. But we put together those projections. We've also then packaged this up into the TIF district plan for you to approve. All of that gets wrapped in another blanket that gets sent to the state for the application. That application includes more data so that the state can get more familiar with your specific community. Why do you need this? I should mention that the TIF districts exist across the state. They are authorized to be used in St. Alvinsbury, Burlington, Hartford, Bennington. So, Montpelier is not unique in using this tool, but there are a limited number of spots authorized by the state for this particular use of this tool. And this would be used in conjunction with lots of other tools to make these private infrastructure, private development projects catalyzed through public infrastructure. We plan on applying to the state within the next week, in which case pending decision on this TIF district plan tonight, and hopefully be heard by the Vermont Economic Progress Council Board this summer, so that if the city council chose to go forward with a bond vote, you'd be prepared to do so with TIF in your pocket for the November vote. That was what we were working toward. We're on track for that timing. But again, right now, this is just an authorization of the tool. How long? Seven minutes, something? Okay. Good. Any questions? I just want to, I received a lot of questions about this, and I had an opportunity to ask my questions, but I'm just going to ask them so everyone who's here and everyone who's watching can hear. So just to be clear though, so if we approve TIF right now, we are not wed to any of these potential projects. So we're not wedded to a parking garage or the housing projects that are proposed in there at all. Those are all separate things that would need to come before the city council for it. Absolutely. Okay. You guys will always ask lots of good questions along the way. Yeah. This is good. And you improved the maps. Right. I got the mapping, the mapping line. Thanks to Glenn. Yeah. This is good. And I documented all this process in our package to the state. So they know, and they've got video and minutes and they get to see that the municipality has been brought along throughout this entire process, but knowing that you get to have further conversations at further meetings. Further questions? So I will just say that the piece we need tonight is a resolution that there is statutory requirement for specific action to be taken, which is why the resolution is so specifically worded. We are also asking that the, I get a little bit technical here, the original taxable value that is the existing tax base within that district that you saw that let those lines, every parcel has been identified in a table called table five H that gets certified today by the mayor and by the assessor to say, this is our baseline. Going forward, everything is built off of that baseline. So between that and the resolution, that's all we need to make. So this is also time for the public to ask questions. So if you would like to. We have no idea at this point that this vote just authorizes a district tool to potentially be used. If, if there were a public private bond vote, obviously we would know the numbers and release them, but at this point we're not even close to guessing. So we don't know that there's going to be a bond. The, the goal was in order, if the city chooses to work with capital plausible parking garage, which we publicly owned would have to be, if we use 10, they want to get started by fall. So we would need to be on board. So that one of the reasons for the timing of this application was to allow that opportunity if we chose to do it, but there's been no.  I mean, obviously, well in advance of a warrant bond vote, and they would be vetted publicly and discussed here. We just, we're not there yet. We're not there yet with discussions. Sam working on Cherry Avenue. A couple of questions. One was there was an early slide that had a couple of different numbers on it, but they seem very different from each other. It looked like it was talking about bonding for about $8 million for the infrastructure. And then it talked about an increase of $66 million and new property value, but that's not value to the city. That's value to individual owners that couldn't be taxed on. My question is if the city bonds for millions of dollars, the comment I believe was that the incremental change increased taxes on the new development or increased value would that make the bond payments? But wouldn't that be extremely back loaded because you can't tax it until it's making money. It's already been built. So how are the bond payments made for the first 10 years or would have to process it? Sure, it's a great question. There's a table that has this kind of mapped out really specifically, but it has to do with cash flow. So you're right that the cash flow of that 66 million, that property value doesn't all hit in those first few years. So there are first few years, but ultimately the tax taxes paid on the 66.5 over 20 years pays off the debt service of the 7.8 million initially. There will be initial years of cash flow where there's not, you don't have a perfect match, but over time that's the whole point of a district is that the money continues to go into the pot over the course of 20 years to pay down that debt service. June, explain before that how you back loaded in your initial money so you can make the payments, which I think is Sam's point. Can you explain that to him because I can't localize it? Yeah, so there's 20 to 30 years of bond debt service payments based on that investment. And you start retaining cash flow, it depends on what bond you use, a 20 year or 30 year, and you start using that retained incremental tax revenue to pay down those debt service payments every year. But those debt service payments aren't 7.8 million every year, they're maybe 300,000 a year at certain times depending on what you've bonded for. So I don't know if you're getting at the initial gap, is that your main question or is it just about gross? Because in gross? The initial gap in how the debt is serviced before any of this. So the city would have to do cash flow management. I think that's the short answer. We either borrow from one of our other funds and we do it in a full transform. Is the tip a thing that makes that different than any other bond that we'll pay back? Because now you get to retain also a portion of the state incremental taxes. I think that's the key factor, is that anything finance to tip of that new revenue, 70% of the school tax also goes into tip fund, which wouldn't happen for normal grantless growth. And my second question was about the certification from the mayor as to the section of the grant list within the borders. Is the assumption that any increase in the risk value of those properties would be due to the tip as opposed to what happened anyway to the growth of those that haven't any way separated from growth, that it's going to be different? That's a really good question. So it isn't separated. If anything new from this point forward goes into the tip fund, and the point, the reason for that is the assumption that a lot of this catalyzed, this is a lot of infrastructure catalyzing a lot of different development. Maybe there's stuff that would have happened otherwise. But, you know, somebody was already planning on redeveloping their property in a year. But as you do this as a district, you do that in order to make sure you have enough money to pay your debt service over the course of the 20 years. And ultimately all of that money, if there's a surplus, goes back to where it was, both the general fund and the state. But that's used to pay down that debt service just within that portion too. It's not the whole city. It's a very small portion of the whole city. What percentage of the value of the grand list is within the board? I have that somewhere. It's really small. It's in terms of, do you mean in terms of grand list or in terms of acreage? Grand list, all right. I can find that number. It would be the original taxable baseline value. Is that right? It's going to be $9,276,900. That sounds right. Sounds good. The PDF doesn't match. That's 10%. That sounds about right. In terms of value. Acre twice is tiny. So if 70% of the taxes that would be paid on that new development goes to the city to pay off its debt, how does the state make up that 70% of the money that would normally be in the education fund? Do they have to raise the property tax on everybody who's doing taxes now? What you're getting at is a great question that is the heart of TIFF which is that these would not otherwise happen if it weren't for this investment. So the state education fund is not giving anything up because it wasn't going to happen anyway. That wouldn't happen to as desirable a manner. I would add that all the taxes that the state is collecting right now, they will continue to collect because this is the portion that we are using to pay down debt service for public infrastructure is just the improvement on the property. So they're not getting any less money. Arguably, they are going to get more money just over time. In the meantime. In the meantime. So it's basically the rate would be paid at the same value as it is right now and then anything above that we would retain the 70% and the state would get the remaining 30%. They're probably getting 30% of the new revenue. Okay. So the assumption is that taking this parking garage as an example. That would not go forward without to applying that same. Okay. Great question. Any other questions? And we will put these on the website as well. These are good FAQs. So I'll be on the website. All right. I guess with that, then we will close the public hearing and so at the end of the attachment to this item, there's a resolution that to pass motion about that. The agenda format is very blurry. If you go to it from the agenda, it's the very last few pages, but the spacing is kind of strange on everything. It's hard to It is the last two pages of the attachment online. It's below the page. Oh, if you go to the agenda and click on this item, it says download I again. It's like yes. Oh, tricky. Sorry that it's tricky. You got it. You got it. Okay. Do we have to read it out? Can we just pass the resolution? I don't know your rules. Yeah. Perhaps perhaps we should just because dotting I see as people haven't had a chance to see it. Do you mind? Okay. It says resolution and I think it's a critical tool for the city to have in its economic toolbox to provide revenues beyond normal municipal revenue sources for those infrastructure improvements that serve the proposed TIF district and are essential to enable and stimulate development or redevelopment within the district provide for employment opportunities improve and broaden the tax base and enhance the general economic vitality of the municipality, the region and the state see 24 VSA 1893 and whereas for the city of Montpelier to remain a healthy and economically vibrant regional center it must continue to make substantial public investments that encourage private investment and development in the Montpelier community and whereas a tax increment financing district will provide the city with the supplemental funds necessary to make public investments that enable beneficial plan development and redevelopment provide for employment opportunities improve and broaden the tax base and enhance the general economy of the city and whereas the city of Montpelier is responsible for developing and maintaining all public infrastructure and facilities necessary for the continued success and development of its downtown area and whereas Montpelier will be economically strengthened through continued improvements to public infrastructure and facilities and private investment in property development and redevelopment and whereas new real property development and redevelopment would not likely occur or would occur in a significantly different and less desirable manner without the use of tax increment financing and now therefore be it resolved that pursuant to 24 VSA section 1892 a the city of Montpelier city council hereby finds expressly that the creation of the city of Montpelier TIF district as shown on the map attached here to as exhibit A in which proposed public improvements as described in the city of Montpelier TIF district plan represent improvements which could not occur without the availability of TIF district financing as a tool and but for the availability of TIF district financing the city would not be able to make these improvements that serve the district and related costs which in keeping with the purpose of tax increment financing as described at 24 VSA section 1893 will stimulate development or redevelopment within the district provide for employment opportunities improve and broaden the tax base and or enhance the general economic vitality of the municipality the region and the state and be it further resolved that the city council establishes the city of Montpelier tax increment financing district with boundaries as shown on the map attached here to as exhibit A which map shall be recorded with the office of the city assessor along with this resolution and be it further resolved that the city council pursuant to 24 VSA 1892 hereby approves and adopts the city of Montpelier TIF district plan concurrent with the TIF district financing plan attached here to as exhibit B which plan shall be recorded with the office of the city assessor along with this resolution and be it further resolved that the city council authorizes the city manager or his designee to submit the full application for the city of Montpelier tax increment financing district to the state of Vermont economic progress council with this resolution representing the city's positive vote to establish the city of Montpelier TIF district as delineated on exhibit A and its pledge to reserve 100% of the incremental city property tax revenues received from properties within the Montpelier TIF district towards the retirement of the TIF debt incurred and be it further resolved that the city council pledges that a 100% of the incremental city property tax revenues received from properties within the city of Montpelier TIF district shall during the legal life of the district be allotted allocated solely towards the retirement of the debt incurred pursuant to the approved TIF district plan stated today in Montpelier. Well done. Thank you for indulging me.


Minister for Economic Development, Housing, Urban Renewal, Transport and Civil Aviation. Dr. Justin Ram, Director of Economics, Caribbean Development Bank. Justin, I know you are joining us by a feed virtually. Can you hear us? Yes, good. And I also understand Ronald is also joining us also. Mr. Christopher Chu, Engagement Manager for the San Luzha Social and Economic Labs. Members of the PairManDo team. Senior Public Officers. Members of the Project Staring Committee and staff of the Economic Development Division. And other invited guests. Members of the media, good morning. Today I am extremely delighted to welcome you to this launch of the San Luzha Social and Economic Labs. Now some of you here may be wondering what is it that we are doing? Are we experimenting on economic and social issues? But I am sure by the end of this press conference you will have a clearer understanding of what the social and economic labs are. Before we actually go into this though, I would like to give you a sense of the journey of how we got to this stage. It all started when I and the Permanent Secretary of Finance attended a Caribbean Leadership and Transformation Forum which was hosted by the Caribbean Development Bank in September of 2017. At that conference a number of issues were raised and these included one, the issue of low implementation rates for projects and programs across the Caribbean and there were some startling statistics revealed. The OECS countries had the lowest implementation rate. Most of them hovering around 45 percent. So this was really an issue for those countries to address and the data we had really spanned a very long period of time. And it showed that many of the interventions that we had undertaken were not successful. At that conference we also heard from Dr. Idris Jalla from Permandu in terms of the work that Malaysia had undertaken. They were in the same similar situation as us and the work that they had done and how it had impacted very favorably on the implementation rates of projects and programs. We also heard from Sir Michael Barber of Delivery Associates in terms of the work that he had done while he worked in the Prime Minister's office in the United Kingdom. We also heard from the work that both Delivery Associates and Permandu had done across the world and the success stories that they gave us in terms of improving implementation rates of projects and programs. The piece of financing myself before this was a very good idea and a novel approach to integrating the planning and implementation of projects and programs in a more cohesive and structured way. I approached my minister and told him about this approach and that CDB had offered support to allow us to adopt this new methodology. And we had to submit a cabinet paper and I know the minister had some convincing to do to really get the cabinet to approve this approach in terms of how we would look at improving the implementation rates of our projects and programs. After the approval was given we had discussions with CDB and Dr Ram and his team and they were very supportive and we had a retreat, a cabinet retreat and also a workshop for senior officials in the public and private sector. At that retreat the cabinet defined the six key priority areas, force and lucha and the senior officials and the private sector defined some of the game changes. Of course cabinet also gave their ideas on what some of those game changes are. The retreat and the workshop were a resounding success and cabinet had no hesitation in approving the continuation to the next phase which is what we are launching today. And to give you some more on this and in terms of the journey and the approach I would like to ask Dr Justin Ram of the CDB who has been an enthusiastic supporter of this approach and really is really looking at the lucha as I wouldn't say the guinea pig but the early starter the pioneer in the Caribbean and to see how this can work for us so that it can be replicated across the Caribbean. So Justin if you are there I would invite you to say a few words. Great, okay good. Good morning P.S. Dalso. Good morning as well. Are you hearing me? Hi Justin, we are hearing you. Yes, we continue. Okay, I'm getting some feedback I'm wondering if it could be a little bit on your ear or is that well so today actually marks the launch of what we consider to be a pioneering time for the Caribbean and the Netherlands growing number of countries. Saint Lucia being the first country to go ahead and implement what we believe to be an outstanding methodology to improve implementation rates for public sector projects and policies. Now back in May of this year under the patronage of the Honourable Prime Minister Alan Chastonay and members of his cabinet we hosted a cabinet retreat with all of the cabinet ministers and with consultants from Pehmandu out of Malaysia under the guidance of their head Trade Idris Jala to go through with this Saint Lucia cabinet what are the likely priorities for Saint Lucia over the next five years or so. Now coming out of that as P.S. Dalso mentioned the cabinet identified six key areas three of them economic and those are tourism agriculture and infrastructure and on social issues healthcare education and crime. So coming out of that cabinet retreat we have a clear mandate as to what are the priorities for Saint Lucia over the medium term. The next phase of this process is how do you go about implementing projects and policies that would improve outcome in each of those six key areas and what we did last week through the careful guidance of P.S. Dalso and his team in Saint Lucia we have now approved financing to Saint Lucia to support this program. Now this program will involve and I know you're going to hear more about it soon but it now involves what's called laboratories whereby key officials from government from the private sector from civil society will be gathered together for a few weeks at a time to work on these priority areas to see how these can be implemented and to develop implementation plan. After those implementation plans are I guess finalized or in draft stage I should say those plans are taken to the population so the population can see what it is all of the stakeholders that were present in that room have come up with and so to get public buy-in so there might be some individuals who say no you have got this wrong or you've certainly have got this right it is to get population consensus on these implementation plans. Now after that is done of course the government will then publish details of the medium-term development strategy and the implementation plans that go along with that and then it's a task of now setting out how do you go about implementing this so that these plans are no longer like the plans that we tend to see in most of our joint member countries glossy documents but at the end of the day they are never implemented this approach that we are proposing here is meant to now eradicate that particular issue and it is now a focus on strategic implementation of these plans that means that we will also be facilitating the setting up of what's called a delivery unit within the center of government and that delivery unit will be employing key individuals who can work with government agencies who can work with the private sector who can work with the civil civil society organizations to ensure that these priority implementation plans are implemented on time and more importantly that a population is kept abreast of what is happening so a key component of this is greater accountability to the population from government about what they said that they were going to do. Now I know that PS Dalso and Minister Guy Joseph and the consultants would speak in more detail about this but just to let me say to you that we are the Caribbean Development Bank are very proud of the work that St Lucia is doing here. St Lucia is showing itself to be a pioneer and we are really hopeful that what comes out of this will be lessons that our Bahrain member countries and the rest of the Caribbean can learn from so once more I just want to simply say that St Lucia you are ahead of the game here you are doing what we certainly would like to see all of our other Bahrain member countries do and so we applaud you for being pioneers and for taking this novel approach which really has had significant impacts in other parts of the world where it has also been been implemented. So I thank you very much PS Dalso. Thank you Dr Ram for one outlining the methodology and the approach of the labs and the delivery units and I would also like to take the opportunity on behalf of the government St Lucia to really thank the Caribbean Development Bank who has really wholeheartedly supported us in this process and has made it a reality. So once again thanks again through the Caribbean Development Bank for their support. I would now like to invite the Honourable Minister to make some remarks on the approach. He is the lead minister and a champion. I know that he is very much supportive of this initiative and really is advocating for an approach that will increase the implementation of projects and programs across the Government of St Lucia. So Honourable Minister, my pleasure to invite you to the podium. Let me adopt the protocol already established and see a pleasant good morning to all. It's a pleasure to stand here to be identified with a programme of this nature. Workshops, seminars, things that we hear a lot about and I am happy to see the launch of this programme today. I'm happy because it took some convincing to get the Cabinet to come out for a full day to come to another workshop because when the question was put to everybody, another workshop, another seminar, but the launch of this special programme in St Lucia which is focused on two specific areas, the economic side and the social side of our development. The labs as we were introduced to it is one that is interesting and different. It is not what we have been used to doing in the past where you just come in and you have documents and somebody makes a presentation. Maybe I would like to take you through the challenge that we had and how exciting it became towards the end because after my colleague ministers, after we attended the Sunday session, though some of them did it reluctantly, by the end of the session everybody concluded that this was the best seminar and workshop that we had attended because of what we were able to accomplish. Because the selection of the areas was not a choice that I made as Minister for Economic Development or the Prime Minister made as the Prime Minister of the country, but it was a joint effort between everybody because of the method that was used. Everybody was put into different groups and these groups had to come up with the key areas and then you had to vote and nobody knew where the other person was voting because each person was given their own voting device to vote and that is how we came up with the list of areas that we believe would be game changers in St. Louis. We were very happy about the approach specifically because it focused in two key areas, the area of economic growth and development and the area of meeting the social needs of the country. I know of Litt, even what appears on the social side is now being can also fit under the economic side and I will highlight some of that as we go along. Our focus on the labs methodology would be in a couple of phases and I would allow the persons who are handling the labs to give you greater details of how it is going to work the timelines on what we expect to accomplish. But in the medium term we expect that by 2022 we would have realized what we are discussing here to a great measure. It is always good to set timelines because having a plan and not knowing when it is going to materialize is not the best. The approach that we are taking also is not an approach of one particular government or administration but it is a country approach and that is why the lead persons would be the permanent established workers of the government of St. Lucia and that is why you are such an integral part of what is happening because we expect this to span across administrations across governments and that it becomes it becomes something that the whole country has buying into and that is why we know the permanent secretaries were engaged and also the private sector have been engaged in this process because the development of St. Lucia and our future depends on all of us not just the government not just the elected parliamentarians but everyone in general. We are also very happy that the Caribbean Development Bank give us support from the inception of this program and I must highlight Dr. Rank because from the CDB he was the champion for us in St. Lucia in seeing to it that this program materializes as we are having it today so from the inception of a grant and the support and making it possible to be there to make it happen and also in facilitating the process of us getting the loan and I must also thank PS for the hard work and the team within the Ministry of Economic Development because it is taxing when you have so many things to do and to pay attention to so many things at the same time. So the delivery units that have been set up and I know that some of them have been meeting with the team but I also want to highlight that this is an initiative being taken while Pemando is is the one of the well the lead agency we were dealing with but the labs is in association with delivery associates who have been very much who would be involved in that process in taking us through the next stage of the development of this project. Now this is not just a project as you heard from Dr. Rank for a report that will be placed on a shelf in a box on a computer somewhere. This is a program that is result oriented that they are going to be clear measurements so whether myself as the Minister if I have not met my obligations it will be highlighted and every line officer with responsibility we would be able to pinpoint the areas that we have failed if we fail and we should be able to pinpoint the areas that needs improvement because it is something that involves the whole cabinet because when we look at the areas and I will highlight the six key result areas that we are looking at I would do like PS and start on the social side which highlights health care education and crime we believe that with the discussions taking place in St. Lucia today that health care is top priority and see most recently from the World Bank it has been clearly indicated that health care and education are not just on the social side but has a direct impact on the economic output of any country and so it can fit either under the social side or under the economic side because if you have a healthy nation the level of productivity is greater if you have a well educated and equipped workforce your output is also greater so this would have a direct impact on the economic side of the equation so if we were to split it down the middle I believe these could fall and so would crime because crime could impact us very negatively based on our heavy dependence upon the tourism sector now looking at the economic side tourism being the lead driver of economic growth as identified then followed by agriculture and there is a direct correlation between tourism and agriculture the more the more tourists you get come into the country the better chances of our agricultural sector surviving because it means you have more people to feed you have more people to cater for so there can be greater production but it's not just agriculture for the tourism sector but it is agriculture that is focused on reducing the food import bill in St. Lucia and to make us more sustainable and more self dependent when it comes to what we can produce and how we can produce it so we look at these key areas and infrastructure there are limits to how much we can grow this economy if you do not have proper infrastructure and you would agree that it's a nightmare being on the roads these days because of the traffic volumes so how much we can grow as a country is directly related to our capacity with infrastructure so if we do not have sufficient road network if we cannot produce enough water then how can we grow this economy the way that we need to grow it and the reality that faces us is that as you heard from PS our level of implementation as a country for whatever reasons things take much longer than they should the lab will help us to identify some of the shortcomings and some of the things we need to do to make us more effective now this is not that that is why I said it is not a situation of a government but it is a country approach because our limitations at the ports so take for example we have entered the cruise season what happens during that time is that the cargo ships have to wait out there until the cruise ships have left because we are sharing one port for both cargo and cruise tourism that is a limitation in infrastructure to how much we can develop because it is costing us more to have the ships out there waiting most recently one of the ships had to leave and go to Barbados and discharge the cargo there and then get a smaller vessel to so you find all of these challenges so when we speak about a wholesome development a development that is necessary if we are going to grow sufficiently given where we are with the economy and I've said it before 4% growth will not cut it for us it's not even going to erase our deficit budget we need more than that how are we going to accomplish that as a country do we want it to get to a crisis situation where somebody else makes the decisions for us or are we going to make the decisions for ourselves today and be determined that we are going to make our country successful and that is what this team is going to help us to accomplish they cannot do it for us the fact of the matter is we will have to do it for ourselves they can give us a roadmap they can help us to know how to navigate and what we need to do but the responsibility falls squarely on us as a people and I know we have the capacity and the capability so with what delivery associates and Perman do would be doing for us would just be helping us it is how we receive it and what we decide to do with it that will count in the end so I would like to announce the call for the private sector possibly to ex to submit expressions of interest for projects in two key result areas in the economic sector namely tourism and agriculture we would request that these companies to submit the expressions of interest to undertake projects and investments in the following areas in tourism we can consider international hotel brands interested in investing in St Lucia the cruise operators looking to make St Lucia a home pot health and wellness tourism village tourism ecotourism all of these are areas that the private sector can play a lead role in assisting in growing the economy in the agricultural sector we have production of food as a means of import substitution and over the years we've spoken about by local but as a government we have failed to take the lead in doing so and I've said it we have enough furniture manufacturers in St Lucia I would like to sit behind a desk in my office that is made in St Lucia I would like to sit on a chair that is made in St Lucia because it is not just the food import bill that we need to reduce we need to reduce the overall import bill and see how much more we can produce locally and unless we are going to take the lead as government the procurement officers the various leaders in the ministries we are not going to get the rest of the country to buy in because we are not leading by example so it is something for us to consider moving forward what is going to be our approach towards supporting local so when we talk about production of food as a means of import substitution I want to extend it to other areas because of the positive impact these decisions would have on the economy overall I've said to the department what type of house should I build as minister of housing that is going to have the greatest impact on the local economy what materials we should we use to build a house and if we can identify these and even if it costs more then the government should offer a subsidy or the government should give concessions to offset the price so that you can use more of your local products in the construction sector that is how we build our economy so we have that then under the agricultural sector we have the food processing projects we have production of high value high yield crops that encourage crop diversification we have seen the vulnerability of our banana sector a storm that did not even qualify us to get the insurance payments devastated the banana sector I have to compliment our farmers because of their resilience because the day after the storm they were back on the fields replanting and chopping and doing what is necessary but we also we from the time as a child growing up I've been hearing about diversification and we are in 2018 and we are still speaking about diversification and we have not seen the impact that we need to see while there have been some level of diversification not to the extent that we should have had as of today and production of sample crops so these are areas that the private sector can engage with the government and see what can be done in helping us in these sectors of the economy and I am I am sure that the addresses that is to be given will be given and the the agencies to be contacted with submissions would be done but I want to assure the team that is present here with us today from Pemandu and from delivery associates that we are committed to this project I want to assure Dr. Ram and the CDB that the resources being put towards this will not go in vain we are determined to bring our level up in terms of implementation we are determined to turn around the economy of this country and to make ourselves more productive we are not the only ones other people they are doing it we can do it for ourselves as a country and so I encourage all the participants across ministries involved in this project not to treat it as just another set of workshops and seminars to go on your resume but to make it something that is going to bring us the desired results that we are looking for that we all can be proud of the work that we would have done for the future of this country I thank you thank you minister for sharing your thoughts on some of the critical economic and social issues affecting Saint Lucia especially within the key priority areas that have been identified as you indicated we don't want to see this as just another workshop and leadership will be critical to make this initiative a resounding success and I know as the lead minister and a champion at the policy level we can count on you to really help us navigate any roadblocks that we may get along our journey in making this new methodology and approach a success as you indicated Saint Lucia's economic growth rates over the last 10 15 years have been really suboptimal and we need to really accelerate the rate of economic growth if we are to achieve inclusive and sustainable development by 2020 and help to reduce poverty increase employment and the standard of living so this initiative we're really counting on it to be a resounding success and part of the approach as the minister highlighted is that we really want to encourage the private sector to participate in the initiative and to have a an economy that is led by the private sector and the government being the enabler too often we hear in small island economies that the public sector is the engine of growth we need to change that paradigm and to really get and encourage and promote the private sector to be the lead sector in the economy to invest and to grow the economy so this is going to take a lot of commitment from all of us here and as the minister said it's not something that we can have hair man do and delivery associates they are helping us but we have to take ownership and really make this happen we're counting on new hair the focal points the members of the project steering committee to really make this this project a reality a success at this point also I really want to thank the economic development team who've really been committed to making this a success and in particular to highlight three individuals who have worked along with me Nadia Kerry and Skeeter I know we've had some eight o'clock meetings in the morning when it's eight o'clock in Malaysia and sometimes when I was out I was having meetings at like 10 o'clock in Bali or just because of the big time difference but we had to really stick to it to ensure that we could make this project a reality at this point I would like to call on Mr Christopher Chu the engagement manager for St Lucia social and economic labs to give you some more information on the labs and the process and the timelines please thank you and good morning to Honorable Minister, Minister Guy Joseph, Permanent Secretary Philip Delsu, Dr Justin Rahm from Caribbean Development Bank as well as members of the Government of St Lucia and members of the press good morning and on behalf of Permanent Associates and delivery associates we would like to thank the Government of St Lucia for your warm hospitality in receiving us and your high level of commitment in executing and successfully commencing the St Lucia social and economic labs my name is Chris Chu I'm the engagement manager representing Permanent Associates and we are a global management consulting firm which specializes in public sector transformation, business turnaround and strategic communications and our organization has worked with the highest levels of government and top executives all over the world to deliver on their national agenda and business objectives in a sustainable and inclusive manner here in St Lucia we're delighted to work together with delivery associates and the Government of St Lucia to implement this important reform agenda over the next 15 months this 15 month period will comprise of two phases phase one will be the development phase or what we have termed the lab methodology which I will explain in a short moment and phase two will comprise of the implementation phase which we'll commence next year so I would just like to explain a little bit around the lab methodology the lab methodology is a radical and dynamic methodology that has been deployed all over the world in countries in Asia Africa the Middle East Eastern Europe and today the Caribbean it is a methodology that focuses on refining and translating strategic intent into measurable targets with detailed implementation programs clear budget requirements and clear governance structures so here in St Lucia this lab will take place over the next seven weeks commencing this week in three stages stage one is what we would term the preparation stage or the pre-lab stage during this stage the project team will work with stakeholders to validate and analyze data conduct interviews conduct site visits and ultimately set the visions and goals for each of the six key results areas in addition as announced by Minister Joseph the Government of St Lucia is calling for submissions of expressions of interest for projects from the private sector under the tourism and agriculture key result areas therefore during this preparation stage the project team will assess and prioritize these projects through a rigorous filtering process and identify the project owners that will be invited into the next stage the next stage is what we term the focus group stage and this stage commences on the 20th of November over a period of two weeks the focus groups will involve intense discussions and workshops with all stakeholders involved in various programs initiatives and projects in each of the six key result areas during this phase project owners who have been identified will be invited to come and present their business ideas and their projects in this stage relevant government stakeholders will also be present to unblock and remove any obstacles that are hindering these project owners from a smooth and effective implementation the focus group stage will also assess the impact of each and every project for social sectors programs and initiatives identified will be assessed against the impact that they contribute towards delivering on social outcomes for economic sectors assessments will be made in terms of contribution to GDP growth job creation and investments the final stage of this process is what we would term the lab stage and during this stage stakeholders from all the key result areas will detail out implementation plans for the projects that have been already identified these implementation plans include budget requirements government structures any policy amendments that will need to be made and so on and so forth key performance indicators will also be developed for each project and initiative so that every project that is established will achieve the goals set out for the overall key result area also during this stage details for the establishment of a delivery unit will be finalized including the structure roles and responsibilities manpower requirements and other aspects finally this stage will culminate in a gallery walk session involving the prime minister the honorable members of the cabinet permanent secretaries and other key stakeholders with the objective of obtaining final endorsement or the recommendations and providing the mandate to move forward into implementation to wrap things up the post lab phase will commence next year and during this post lab phase the team will work closely with the government of St Lucia and other stakeholders to finalize the establishment of St Lucia's delivery unit in this stage of finalizing the governance structure for this delivery unit processes will include recruiting high caliber staff establishing data collection mechanisms performance dashboards and all other related monitoring routines following this stage the team will hand over all of these findings to the government of St Lucia for effective implementation without much further ado I'd like to pass the time back to PS Dalsu for any questions thank you thank you Chris for outlining the the lab methodology as you indicated you have a pre lab the labs and the post labs hopefully by the time we get to the post labs we'd have established the delivery unit and we can take it on and continue the process we do have a very tight time frame within which we are going to be implementing this program we would like to ensure that it's aligned with the budget process and it actually impacts and influences the budget for 2019-2020 another very important output of this process will be the development of the medium term development strategy for 2019-2022 as well as CDB has also indicated that they would want to use the outputs of this process to develop the country's strategy paper for St Lucia for that same period 2019-2022 so it is a very tight window and it's going to really count on us and all of the other agencies who we have met already to really make this a reality it's going to require commitment and dedication and to ensure that we put the required resources and ensure that we actually to ensure that we actually can conclude the process by I think the labs is December the 14th okay so at this point I'd like to ask if there are any questions I don't want to press there are not many of them around but CBS left so but we will indicate to the private sector what the email addresses would be to submit their proposals and we will also be informing the stakeholders very shortly of the dates for the respective meetings so thank you and I'd like to thank the minister for attending and also indicating his strong commitment to this process to the the pair mandu team led by Chris was I know been working very intensely for the first week that they've been here the members of the project steering committee the budget team I know that we've worked with you and the economic and finally the economic development team who I know you know it's been an a responsibility an additional responsibility but one that I believe will be well worth it and help to improve the overall process by which our department work program is actually being run thank you all


Okay, real talk for single Christians out there. You grew up in church and you were educated your whole life with this idea that marriage is the best and it was basically idolized and then when you got to be 18, all of your friends started getting married or having kids or whatever else and you're like, I'm left behind, what am I doing wrong? What is going on?  At least that's what I experienced. Maybe I'm alone. Am I doing something wrong? Is God punishing me right now? The truth is, if it is God's will for you to get married, this season of waiting does have a purpose. It does. God's working beneath the surface and maybe you don't recognize it right now. You don't understand what's going on. That is okay. The real question is, will you trust him in the uncertainty? Or will you compromise your convictions and settle for something that's not God's best? It may not be what we want, but it's what we need. After all, God would know. The conversation is not over. Follow for more.


Morning banged my elbow ouch Trying to be all dramatic didn't work. How's it going? We're in Nipagon, Ontario We're gonna get home to the Winnipeg area today In about eight hours or so if we're good We better get out there because home is not getting any closer Time to go This guy came in park right in front of me blocked everybody from being able to get around the pumps Travis is just backed up on the other side He wanted to run in get his Tim's and I know where to park so he just parked it right in the middle of the driveway Hopefully I can still get out. I think so won't bother me Right in the driveway. So far. I've only stopped. I stopped twice today. I got fuel just east of Thunder Bay at the Flying J and I stopped once at the Petro Pass and Ignis just For a quick break check the load and whatnot and now we're making a beeline For home after 6 p.m. Which is a pretty good time service next weekend got this next week planned out already Just south of Edmonton, then I've got a reload that's gonna take me back Busy as possible to show you today other than just the ride home the home stretch Not much topic focused on the last day before you get home Okay, got all my floor towels out a little bit of laundry and we get home I tried to rinse down all blue a little bit Today but uh, it's better than it was but As much as I can do with cold water, right?  It's hard this time of year All right that and that all needs to go home. Is it just me or does life just feel like it's always a rush? Always There's hardly ever time to just sit back and be like, you know what I got nothing to do today. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna sit Don't get me wrong. There are days like that And I'm not complaining because I like to I believe I have a good work ethic I love working working makes me happy gives me a sense of fulfillment Gives me something to do with my life where I feel productive, right makes me feel good but I just feel like I'm always in a rush You guys feel like that too So all blue you did good another week Really good Ah, let's go. Let's go try and sit for a little try