We turn now to First Minister's questions. Question number one, Ruth Davidson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. A month before last year's Scottish elections, the Deputy First Minister promised that basic rate taxpayers would not see their tax bills rise. It was, he said, the right reassurance to give to people who are already finding it challenging to meet and meet. We will give them that reassurance for the remainder of the parliamentary term. Will he stick to that promise? Yes or no? As Ruth Davidson will know, the Scottish Government is engaged in a dialogue and discussion with the public in Scotland, which is the right thing to do at this moment to consider the steps that we should take on taxation. That debate has been led by the France Secretary. The options have been set out, a range of options including an assessment of the plans of various political parties. The question is that the Government is engaged in discussing with members of the public. It is about the correct stance to take on taxation, to make sure that we can fund effectively the public services of Scotland to meet the needs of people in our country and to invest in developing the Scottish economy, given the significant economic challenges that we face arising out of Brexit. Those are the issues that the Government will discuss as part of the consultation with members of the public. That is the right approach to take forward to announce the conclusions of that in the budget in December. Ruth Davidson. Oh, that was a bit lagluster. It sounds to me like the Deputy First Minister is not prepared to stick to that promise, but let's give him another chance. Again, before the election in 2016, he made another promise. He was asked about what he'd say to local government staff who were worried about their jobs and he replied, I say to those individuals that the Scottish National Party would protect their incomes, not punish them with a tax rise. Before the election, the Deputy First Minister said that a tax rise would be a punishment and now, apparently, it's a virtue. Can the Deputy First Minister explain why the SNP said one thing to people about taxes when they needed their votes and another once they had them? Deputy First Minister. I don't think that Ruth Davidson follows closely what the Government says on those questions. Because what the Government says on those questions is that we will act to protect at all times the interests of low-income individuals within our society. That has been what has run through this Government's promise. So when the United Kingdom Government slashed council tax benefit, this Scottish Government came to the rescue, that former finance secretary came to the rescue of low-income families within Scotland. When the bedroom tax was applied by the Conservative Government, this former finance secretary came to the rescue of low-income households in Scotland. So I'm absolutely determined to make sure we stand shoulder to shoulder with low-income households in Scotland and take the right decisions to protect their incomes. Ruth Davidson. Presiding Officer, the truth is the SNP wheeled out Mr Swinney, honest John before the election to tell people that their taxes wouldn't go up and as soon as they got back in those promises turned to dust. But just to be completely fair, let's give the Deputy First Minister one more opportunity. Just a few weeks before the election he said this. I want to say to teachers and public service workers the length of bread to the country.   One thing before an election, the exact opposite after. Does this sound to the Deputy First Minister like honest Government? Deputy First Minister. The Scottish Government is engaged in a substantive debate with members of the public about the real choices that are faced when you are in Government. When you are trying to address the fact that public expenditure has been slashed by the United Kingdom Government and austerity continues to roll forward year by year although the Chancellor has an opportunity next week to bring that to a halt. We are involved in that discussion because we have to take the real hard decisions in Government. Ruth Davidson comes to this Parliament. Yes, she is raising the issue of tax today but she does not talk about her proposals which would reduce taxation for some of the richest people in our society and also would remove £140 million from public expenditure within Scotland. I will give Parliament an illustration of what £140 million looks like. It looks like going to every single school in the country that is in receipt of pupil equity funding and saying that because of the Tory tax cuts we are taking that money away from you and we are giving it to the richest in our society. This Government is determined to use public expenditure to close the equity gap in Scottish education to deliver the best future for young people in our country and we are determined to resist the Tory's attempt to take it away from them. Ruth Davidson We are all shouting today but they were shouting something completely different just a year ago.  All change. Presiding Officer we on these benches we are just saddened that the Deputy First Minister has lost his way. Lost his way because there was once a time when he and Alex Salmond used to preach the merits of competitive taxation. Now Mr Swinney takes his directions from Derek Mackay and Mr Salmond takes his from Mr Putin. How they might say have fallen but that's the SNP for you broken promises, higher taxes and Putin's pals. Isn't it time they apologise to the people they misled? Deputy First Minister The only sad thing today is the miserable contribution of Ruth Davidson to First Minister's question time. That is what is sad. We can week out we have this miserable contribution to the debate about the future of Scotland. This Government takes the serious decisions about the future of our country and will leave Ruth Davidson weeping in the opposition benches. I declare an interest as a member of the GMB trade union. The announcement earlier this week that Burn Island fabricators known as BiFab is possibly going into administration is deeply worrying news for communities in Fife, the Isle of Lewis and of course for the wider Scottish economy. Some of them are here today and such is their commitment that they've been working without pay to keep things going and I hope the Deputy First Minister will join with me to speak to Parliament. There are over a thousand skilled jobs at stake. This business is a key strategic player in Scotland's renewable energy sector and has built up a solid reputation thanks to its workforce for carrying out this type of work. We understand that BiFab are experiencing financial problems due to disputed contracts with Seaway heavy lifting. This is a Dutch company that has received significant public funding from the UK Government for SSEs' Beatrice offshore wind farm development. What discussions has the Scottish Government had with BiFab, Seaway, SSE and the UK Government to keep the work and jobs in Scotland? Deputy First Minister. Presiding Officer, I welcome the issue that Jackie Baillie has raised and I want to say first of all that the issue of BiFab is yes very important to the three communities that Jackie Baillie referenced but it's important to the whole country that it's important to our whole proposition on manufacturing and renewables and I can't to overstate the importance of the contribution the company makes. I deeply admire the workforce for their skill, their capability and their capacity but also for their tenacity in working through some very difficult and unnerving circumstances that all of the workforce are facing just now. I want to take this opportunity to reassure Parliament that the workforce and the communities that the Scottish Government is doing absolutely everything we can to try to bring this matter to a resolution. Fundamentally, this is a private contractual dispute amongst players within the consortium that are involved and the Scottish Government has been talking to every party involved when this became clear last Thursday evening to us for the first time. The Government has had an extensive bi-fab over many years. Mr Ewing, Mr Brown, Mr Whalehouse over many years have met the company so we know it well. On Thursday evening, this particular circumstance became clear to us. Keith Brown and Paul Whalehouse were immersed in discussions with the trade unions, with bi-fab, with SSE, with SHL and with the United Kingdom Government. Yesterday, the First Minister spoke from Bonn, where she's attended to the leadership of SSE and also SHL. The First Minister is returning early from her trip in Bonn to be available this afternoon to convene face-to-face discussions at St Andrew's House if those are required. There is a further discussion taking place very shortly during First Minister's question time which will give us some further information about progress that has been made. I want to reassure Jackie Baillie that the Scottish Government is doing absolutely everything we can in discussions and by driving this process to ensure that we protect bi-fab, we protect the employment of everybody involved in the three sites and that we protect the enormous investment that's been made in building the skills to develop manufacturing and renewable energy capacity within Scotland. Jackie Baillie. I very much thank John Swinney both for the tune and content of his response and I hope it does reassure the thousands of workers whose jobs are at stake. The Scottish Government's energy strategy prioritises renewables. This is an industry where more work is expected and bi-fab should be at the forefront of delivering that infrastructure. That's one of the key reasons that the Scottish Government has interest in bi-fab through Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. Can the Deputy First Minister tell Parliament what is the total value of the disputed contracts which led to those problems and has an impact assessment on the value of bi-fab to the wider community both in Fife and in the Isle of Lewis? The total value of the Butricks project is the best part of £1 billion. It is a colossal investment in the renewable energy sector. Not all of that activity, of course, is taking place at bi-fab but there are issues within the contractual arrangements that are in dispute between the different parties. The Government is actively involved in trying to resolve those disputed sums to try to reach a conclusion because that will create the pathway for future stability and activity at bi-fab. The Scottish Government through our agencies in the Highlands, HIE at Arnish and through Scottish Enterprise at both Burned Island and Methil have been heavily involved in supporting bi-fab in developing its capacity and the Government and our agencies are very prepared to continue to take forward discussions in that respect. On the question of the economic analysis the Government obviously is involved with bi-fab because we recognise the economic significance of the organisation to the renewable sector and Jackie Baillie very fairly makes reference to the fact that there are significant opportunities in the renewable energy sector to which bi-fab would be a fantastic contributor in that process and for that reason amongst any others the Government is determined to make sure that we secure the future of bi-fab. Jackie Baillie I welcome very much the return of the First Minister from Germany where she has been talking about climate change particularly as one of Scotland's biggest sources of renewable jobs is facing administration. Those benches will support the Government in any way that we can to secure the jobs that are at risk at bi-fab and to keep the work in Scotland. It is essential that all options are explored and I am encouraged by the Deputy First Minister's words and I am sure that workers in Burnt Island, Arnish and Meethel will welcome that too. But what those workers need is a cast iron commitment a commitment that will allow them to continue to work and prepare for future renewable work. Will the Deputy First Minister give them that commitment to providing financial support up front if required so that the company can remain operational until the jobs are secured and the work remains in Scotland? Deputy First Minister My ministerial colleagues Keith Brown and Paul Wheelhouse have been keeping members of Parliament in touch on this issue. Keith Brown responded to a topical question from my colleague the local member David Torrance earlier on this week and later on today a briefing on members of the Scottish Parliament to advise colleagues of the progress that has been made in these discussions and that should be available later on today. On the question of financial involvement and financial assistance, the Government will of course stand ready to engage in any discussions on that question. Quite clearly there are rules within which the Government has got to operate in the deploying of public expenditure but our fundamental focus just now is on resolving the contractual issues that have led us to this situation. Our energies are concentrated in that. That is why the First Minister is coming back early from Bond. It is why she has been involved in dialogue. It is why Keith Brown and Paul Wheelhouse have been involved in these discussions directly to try to resolve those questions. Of course, the Government will remain open to discussions about financial support should that be required. I want to close on one final point and it is this. We are in the situation that we are in just now with the opportunity of a slightly longer time window to try to resolve this in the way at first thought that we had because of the commitment and the dignity of the workforce of BiFab. That is why we are where we are and I thank every one of them who will be having a very uncertain time since this news broke on Thursday for demonstrating that tenacity is seen around the world as an illustration of the commitment of workers in this country to manufacturing and we are very proud of all of them. As a number of constituency supplementaries I imagine the first on the same subject from David Torrance. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Far to my question to Cabinet Secretary on Tuesday, can the Deputy First Minister guarantee that it will keep Parliament and the local MSPs updated on any discussions with BiFab in the future? Does he have to the members of the workforce who have gathered outside Parliament today? Deputy First Minister. To Mr Torrance, the Government will keep members of Parliament informed in the course of today. We will issue a briefing from relevant ministers later on this afternoon and of course issues will be communicated more widely if we have some further progress. We are seeing some progress in those discussions with the relevant parties but they are not at a conclusion at this stage. We have some way to go before we can get to a conclusion that provides the workers with the assurance that they are quite understandably and quite rightly searching for. Finally, to Mr Torrance, we value the contribution and the expertise of the workers at BiFab. It is a key strength in our renewable energy sector and the Scottish Government is determined to do all that we can to protect their long-term future. Tavish Scott. The Deputy First Minister will appreciate that Shetland's chronic pain service has been provided by two consultant anaesthetists. One left Shetland last week and the other will leave by Christmas. That will affect not just chronic pain sufferers and patients but also potentially women waiting to deliver babies because of the need for anaesthetists with the necessary maternity skills. What will he now do to ensure that there is continuity of care and particularly the requisite skills in the maternity service? Deputy First Minister. Mr Scott raises a significant issue. Obviously, he raises an issue that is directly related to the continuity of important services that we would all want to see delivered in Shetland and in an accessible way to members of the public. Obviously, we will have discussions with NHS Shetland about those questions and also the health secretary would be happy to discuss the issue directly with Mr Scott to make sure that we can take all the necessary steps to ensure that there is a continuity of service for members of the public who clearly depend on that service in our remote island communities. Richard Lochhead. Today I am meeting ofcom to discuss the impact of parcel delivery charges on customers in Moray and the wider region. As Deputy First Minister, I can imagine that there is a growing issue in the forefront of people's minds in the run-up to the festive period as more and more people buy online. Is the Deputy First Minister aware that it is now cheaper, according to many of my constituents, to buy online from overseas companies than have things delivered from elsewhere in the UK? There seems to be no rhyme or reason for the wild variation in delivery charges and even some Ellen-based companies, as we learnt this week, are charging more to deliver to Elgin than Essex. Will the Deputy First Minister join me to shop around and name and shame those retailers that are fleecing northern and rural customers? Will he discuss with his colleagues what more can be done to tackle this issue that is costing rural Scotland millions of pounds in these ridiculous surcharges? How can we put more pressure on the UK Government who, after all, have responsibility for regulating such issues? The Deputy First Minister. Richard Lochhead raises a very important issue and I understand the significance of it for his constituents in Murrayshire, but it will apply across a much wider geography in rural Scotland. I welcome the conversation that he is having with Ofcom. That is mirrored by conversations that the Scottish Government is having and I reassure him that the Scottish Government will do all that we can to influence the discussion and the debate around these questions with the United Kingdom Government and also with Ofcom. I certainly associate myself with his call to consumers to set out their concerns about these issues because consumer opinion on these questions is very strong and can be of enormous significance in changing the minds of individual companies who are not responding in a sympathetic and positive way to the issues that Mr Lochhead is raising, which should not be having to be raised because individuals in the country should be able to have access to these delivery services without being punished for the location in which they live. Patrick Harvie. It's already been acknowledged that the Deputy First Minister is answering questions today because the First Minister has been at the climate change conference in Germany and Greens have been pushing for Scotland to follow the lead of countries like Sweden and set a target for net zero emissions. We believe that that can be achieved by 2040. Any later than that would be a slower rate of improvement than Scotland has been achieving so far. I welcome the statement that's apparently been made by the First Minister that the Government would come to an early decision or when Scotland would aim to have net zero emissions. That implies it's a matter of when not if. Is this now Government policy a goal of net zero emissions and will a target date be made explicit in the new climate change bill? Deputy First Minister. The first thing I want to say is to set out to Parliament the reaction that the First Minister has had to the commitments that have already been given by Scotland and the performance that we have already delivered on climate change. The First Minister and I have spoken a number of times over the course of the period in which she has been in bond and she has been struck. As was the Environment Secretary, Roseanna Cunningham who was there earlier on in the week by the tremendous level of international respect for the leadership that Scotland has deployed not just this Government but this Parliament which unanimously approved the climate change bill back in the first term of this Government for the leadership that we have taken and for the inspiration that that has deployed to other countries. Quite clearly, the Government wishes to maintain that position of leadership on the issue of climate change. Mr Harvey is absolutely correct that the First Minister said yesterday that we would be coming to an early decision on when we will aim to reach net zero emissions. That is the issue that we are considering and how we take that forward will be set out to Parliament in due course and will obviously have a bearing on the commitments that are made in relation to the climate change bill that will be before Parliament shortly. Mr Harvey. It will certainly be for all political parties to commit to ensure that a realistic date and an ambitious date for that target of net zero emissions is set into legislation. Of course, if we are going to reach those ambitious targets and make that progress, it is very clear that one of the areas that is inevitable is that it cannot be done without much more offshore wind and energy. I welcome the comments that have been made by the Deputy First Minister and others about BiFab, a company that has been at the forefront of our transition away from fossil fuels and toward a renewable economy. The commitment shown by the workers that the Deputy First Minister has recognised needs to be repaid by us all, by this Government, by the Westminster Government and by the other companies involved. They deserve no less than that and it is important if we are going to retain the jobs that this transition to a renewable future offers for Scotland that we show that commitment. After all, if the Scottish Government can bail out an airport, surely we can show a level of commitment and investment to the renewable energy industries that are critically important for our future. How can the workforce at BiFab have confidence that the Government's transition plan will involve urgent support for their jobs and the many others that can be generated and an industrial strategy that commits wholeheartedly to fossil fuel decommissioning and our renewable industries instead? I hope that I have made clear to Parliament in my answers to Jackie Baillie and to David Torrance of the Government to ensure that there is a secure future for the three BiFab sites across the country. In so doing, that is us fulfilling the practical manifestation of our commitments on renewable energy. If this Government has been criticised by many people for being so determined to pursue a renewable energy route, others have challenged us in this Parliament. I am looking at some of them over here to take a different approach on energy policy, but we have been absolutely trenchant in our commitment to renewable energy development. I make no apology for it. It is something of which I am one of the many things. I am enormously proud about my association with this Government for the last 10 years that we have managed to deliver. Patrick Harvie fairly says that it is not all within our gift because there is obviously an interaction with UK energy policy and the wider debate in that respect. We pursue that activity with the UK Government. I was pleased when I met the convention of the Highlands and Islands just recently at the news that had emerged from the UK Government about some better opportunities for us to activate renewable energy in our island communities, in the western isles, in Orton and in Shetland. We are beginning to make some progress on having a framework in place that enables us to support wider renewable energy development. Mr Harvie assures that renewables will be at the heart of the Government's energy policy. He should also take heart from the fact that in the programme for government we made it absolutely crystal clear that transforming our approach on energy generation would be a central part of our industrial strategy, particularly in relation to the decarbonisation of transport over the course of the next 20 years and within that period. The Government is determined to take forward that agenda. I hope that that reassures Mr Harvie of the continuity of policy that the Government is determined to take forward. Does the Deputy First Minister believe that the presenter of a talk show legitimising RT Russia today would be a fit and proper person to own Scotland's oldest national newspaper? Deputy First Minister Obviously one of the things that I don't control is the ownership of newspapers in our country. Not yet anyway but no doubt Mr Rennie is suspicious that I might at some stage find myself in that position. I think that what's important here is that Alexander's made a choice about the platform for his television programme to be taken forward. The First Minister set out her perspective on this question and I understand, although I've not seen it myself, that on the programme that has been broadcast today Mr Salmond had guests from both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party on his programme so I suspect that reflects the plurality of choice that will be on his programme. Willie Rennie I'm disappointed that the Deputy First Minister is seeking to make such a light topic of this matter. Newspaper regulation is devolved so it's reasonable to ask whether Alex Salmond would be a fit and proper person to own the Scotsman when he is being paid by President Putin's propaganda channel. We should remember that this is the TV channel on my Western democracy and ignore human rights abuses at home. The historian ambassador told this very Parliament this morning that Russia today is Kremlin-backed propaganda so it should turn our stomach to know that a former First Minister of this country is giving it credibility and legitimacy by launching this show this very day. Scotland's reputation abroad has been damaged. Countries, small countries, particularly along the Russian border will be deeply concerned by this decision. Alex Salmond does not speak for Scotland on this. So what is this Government doing to actively distance himself from Alex Salmond? Deputy First Minister? I thought that Willie Rennie might have checked up before he asked the question that he asked of me today because on 23 September 2015 none other than Vince Cable appeared on Russia today. So I think it's important that the First Minister has set out that if she had been asked about what channel was appropriate for this programme to be broadcast on, she would not have chosen Russia today. But this is an issue that Alex Salmond, who is not currently an elected politician, is free to take forward as he wishes. But I think what is also fair for me to say in all of this is that the whole debate has been struck by a stinking reek of hypocrisy from every other political party on this question. And that's perhaps the best way I can close my answer to this question. We have some additional supplementaries. The first is from John Finnie. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Deputy First Minister, two days ago, ScotRail issued this document. It's a launch of a voluntary lever scheme and it's available to a range of positions within the organisation. I'm advised that this is the third time since 2015 that they've sought to leave an organisation that relies heavily on agency staff. I'm also told that 256 vacancies in the cumulative worth of their salaries is £3 million per annum. Will you get the Scottish Government to intervene to ensure that these 256 posts are filled and ensure that it's public servers rather than profit that drives Scotland's railways? Deputy First Minister. The first thing I'd say to Mr Finnie is that there are clear contractual obligations within the Ibellio contract that have to be fulfilled. I think that what's been clear from events in the course of the last few months when this issue has been raised and been a significant topic of discussion, that the Transport Minister has assiduously pressed ScotRail Ibellio to make sure that those contractual obligations are fulfilled and that the services to which the organisation we're committed are delivered within Scotland. What's important is that monitoring and presence is sustained by the Transport Minister and I give Mr Finnie the assurance that that will be the case. Obviously, within the contract there is a commitment and an obligation that there should be no compulsory redundancies within that contract. That is a stipulation of the contract but clearly ScotRail Ibellio will make judgments about the recruitment and deploying of their staff but that must be done within the context of fulfilling the contractual obligations signed up to by the organisation and I assure Mr Finnie and Parliament that the Government will make sure that is the case in all circumstances. Daniel Johnson The Deputy First Minister has seen the tragic story earlier this week of Libby Toledo, the 17-year-old young woman who took her own life following a life of struggle with severe mental health issues. Her mother made the point of her frustrations regarding the lack of residential secure psychiatric care for children in Scotland. The Scottish Government has now agreed in principle to create nine such secure beds but will the Deputy First Minister take this opportunity to clarify when we will have these? Will the Deputy First Minister also agree with me that this seems to follow the weary pattern of missed opportunities? Libby having been identified as having ADHD and Autistic Spectrum Disorder but that neither of these were followed up by diagnosis or specific follow-up or support? The first thing that I want to say is that I understand unreservedly the deep sorrow that is associated with the death of Libby Toledo and the deep anguish that will cause to her family given the struggles that quite clearly this young woman has had in her life. It's not... Mr Johnson will understand that I can't go into an awful lot of detail about the case but I do want to assure Parliament that there has been interaction with services over a sustained period of time but that's of absolutely no comfort whatsoever to the family of Libby Toledo in the trauma that they are now having to come to Thamesmouth. The Government is committed to the creation of secure inpatient units though the work is under way to take that forward. It will be housed by NHS Ayrshire and Arran. The unit is at a relatively advanced stage in the planning process and we are working to complete that as quickly as is possible. I give Mr Johnson the assurance that we recognise the significance of this issue, the necessity of these facilities to be created and the very active work that is under way to make sure that happens as quickly as possible. Graham Simpson It's widely accepted that there's a skills shortage in the building industry and that the industry is sitting on a demographic time bomb so I was concerned to hear that the construction industry training board is seeking a new operator of the national construction college site in Chinun and will withdraw from the site once a new buyer is found. Can the Deputy First Minister say what steps the Scottish Government will take to ensure a seamless transition and how it plans to step up training in the sector? Graham Simpson The Government clearly recognises the importance of having the appropriate and adequate skills available to us in the construction sector. We will need that to make sure that the programme that is presided over by the community secretary in relation to house building over the course of this period is forward in addition to our wider infrastructure ambitions in this respect. The work that we take forward in relation to the development of apprenticeships and the expansion of apprenticeships to 30,000 over the course of this parliamentary term is an important foundation of that commitment as is our commitment to the developing Scotland's young workforce agenda which is about making sure that we develop the skills that are required. In relation to the specific point about the CITB facility, we engage with the construction industry training board to ensure a seamless transition because it is in nobody's interest for there to be any disruption in this respect. Allow me to inject into the fact that this week we saw our unemployment rate in Scotland at 4 per cent. The equal lowest in the United Kingdom equal with Northern Ireland and lower than the unemployment rate in the rest of the United Kingdom. We have a very strong position of employment in Scotland. We have a very large proportion and overwhelming proportion of our population are in employment. We still have vacancies in various aspects of the public sector, in the private sector and we want to encourage the filling of those vacancies. I simply posed the question to Parliament how on earth do we think that that's going to be helped by turning off the tap of free movement of labour that is the lunacy that the Conservative Party is associating us with? Question 5, Bruce Crawford. To ask the Deputy First Minister what representations the Scottish Government is making to the UK Government ahead of the autumn budget. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance wrote to the chancellor on 10 November ahead of the forthcoming budget. The letter called on the chancellor to recognise the serious challenges Scotland is facing as a result of Brexit and to bring forward sustainable measures to boost the economy. It also called on him to ease the pressure on the public sector and those who work in it. The cabinet secretary also urged the UK Government to reverse plans to impose a further £3.5 billion worth of cuts on Scotland and to pause the roll-out of universal credit. In the meeting that the Prime Minister had this week with the First Minister, the First Minister reiterated the Scottish Government's long-standing opposition to the UK Government's austerity agenda. Bruce Crawford. I thank the Deputy First Minister for his answer and I welcome the representations made to the chancellor ahead of the UK budget next week, but turning specifically to the payment of VAT by our police and fire services. I may be naive, First Minister, but I am hopeful that four years of consistent SNP campaigning on this issue will pay off. At last, the chancellor will give Scotland's police and fire services the same exemption from VAT as every other territorial force in Scotland. Does the First Minister agree with me that, in all fairness, the treasures should also pay back the £140 million already paid? Does she also agree with me about the noises off to his left to show that they are more concerned in standing up for their masters in London than defending public services in Scotland? Deputy First Minister. I think that Mr Crawford makes a very strong point to Parliament today. I agree with Mr Crawford that the treasures should hand back the £140 million already paid. We welcome the Prime Minister's commitment, which was given yesterday, to look at the issue of VAT paid by Scotland's emergency services. Police Scotland remains the only territorial police service in the United Kingdom unable to reclaim VAT that pays on goods and services with the same inequality applying to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. We have consistently pressed the UK Government over this disparity, and we would urge them to finally bring this unfair situation to an end and do the right thing for Scotland's frontline emergency services. Racial Hamilton Presiding Officer, may I declare an interest as a small business owner? To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government will take in light of reports that one in 10 shops are lying empty and fewer people are visiting high streets. Deputy First Minister. We have moved forward a number of measures, principally through Scotland's town centre first principle, and also the town centre action plan to tackle key issues such as empty shops and to improve the vibrancy of our town centres. This year we have reduced the rates bills poundage by 3.7 per cent and funded total rates relief of around £660 million including the small business bonus scheme which will lift 100,000 properties out of rates altogether. We also plan to increase the incentive to enable patient of empty properties through an expansion of our fresh starts rates relief from April of next year and have introduced powers for councils to further reduce rates in their areas. Rachel Hamilton I thank the Deputy First Minister for that answer but the SNP's large business supplement is double the UK rate and despite its name it doesn't only punish large businesses, many struggling high street stalls who already have to cope with reduced footfall are being hit by this additional rate when they are family run local businesses. Will the Deputy First Minister accept as he did once in 2012 that the poundage rate should be and I quote, no higher than that set in England to help attract and retain businesses? Deputy First Minister As I said in my original answer the Government has taken a sustained range of measures particularly through the small business bonus scheme to relieve many businesses in exactly the situation that Rachel Hamilton raises on our high streets from the burden of business rates and as I go around the country I've met many small businesses who are deeply appreciative of the fact that that commitment has been in place so the Government has over the years given consistent support to our small business community in our town centres and we will continue to do so as we take forward our commitments to boost the Scottish economy. To ask the Deputy First Minister in light of it being alcohol awareness week whether he will provide an update on what action the Scottish Government is taking to reduce alcohol harm. The Government's efforts to reduce alcohol harm will be significantly enhanced by yesterday's judgment from the Supreme Court which confirmed unanimously the legality of our minimum unit pricing policy in Scotland. We will implement minimum unit pricing as soon as it's practical and the health secretary will make a statement to Parliament on Tuesday in those respects to tackle the high strength low-cost alcohol that is causing so much damage to our communities. We also have about 40 other measures in our alcohol framework the framework has had an impact and we will be updating that framework shortly to take further measures to assist in their respect. Monica Lennon. I thank the Deputy First Minister for his answer and I join him in welcoming the Supreme Court's decision to approve the implementation of the minimum unit pricing. Alcohol harm costs Scotland £3.6 billion each year and is ripping lives apart. Minimum unit pricing will help to reduce alcohol harm over the longer term. It is the right thing to do and I congratulate the Government for pursuing it. Minimum unit pricing on its own is not a panacea. Changing Scotland's relationship with alcohol and reducing harm will require a radical culture change. Will the Scottish Government consider initiating a national information campaign about the consumption of alcohol to proactively increase awareness of the chief medical officer's updated guidelines on weekly alcohol intake? First of all, I wholeheartedly welcome the comments that Monica Lennon has made in relation to the Supreme Court judgment. I talked of my pride about the record of this Government in my response to Patrick Harvie. I am enormously proud of the tenacity of my ministerial colleagues who have led in this process. There is nothing to do with me, First Minister, Kenny MacAskill, Alex Neil, Shona Robison, two lords advocate, our health and justice officials and many stakeholders who have absolutely led this. We appreciate the support of Parliament in getting us to the position but there has been an enormous challenge to our agenda. I am so delighted that this Government and this Parliament held its nerve and won the day at the Supreme Court this week. Monica Lennon has a very close and very personal contribution to make to the debate on alcohol and she talked about costs and she knows better than all of us that costs are not just about monetary costs of the impact of alcohol in people's lives. We will certainly give consideration to the suggestions that she makes in relation to a national information campaign. As I indicated in my original answer, the alcohol framework will be updated. Aileen Campbell will be leading on that process within the Government and she will be delighted to discuss the suggestions that Monica Lennon makes in this respect. I accept the point that Monica Lennon has made that minimum unit price will not be the panacea. There has to be a culture change in our society but if we look back at the culture change that is taking place in the country in relation to the ban or the culture change that is taking since we entrenched equality between individuals within our society and the change that that has led to in our society, Scotland is a better country for being bold in these respects and I'm very proud of what this Parliament has legislated for. Thank you very much. That concludes First Minister's questions and we turn now to members' business. We'll just take a few moments for members to change their seats.


Welcome back. So we have just gone over these examples of the Interactive jobs. So hopefully in the breakout sessions, you were able to experiment with some of these But now, Seema, would you like to Talk about what will come tomorrow? Yes. So tomorrow we'll go, yeah. Tomorrow we have plenty of stuff ahead of us. So all of these next steps are basically variations of the same Same same motif. And the motif is a non interactive users. And this is the thing basically why clusters and supercomputers are used in the way they're used, because like if you think about it, You are human. You have human reactions, human capabilities, human processing capabilities. If you need to be managing everything In a terminal window somewhere doing something like taking remote connections and managing different computers, you have a limited capability of doing that or you will have to do it yourself.  But in a modern world, that's of course not being done. There's automatic ways of doing it and the humans are the ones overseeing the whole process. So the stuff is done in the background non interactively. And you will just oversee the jobs, what kind of tasks you want the computers to do. And this is the idea tomorrow. So we'll be doing the serial jobs. So the serial jobs are basically like you do something non mean non interactively on some node and you will read the results afterwards. We will be using these array jobs to launch a huge bunch of serial jobs. So when we want to learn same kinds of jobs, but with different parameters, for example, different seed numbers, something like that, we might want to use the array jobs to launch multiple jobs. Then we will do GP computing if you want to do these non interactive jobs with GPUs on them so that you can access the powerful accelerators that fragile has. And then we'll do parallel computing where you can launch either these huge MPI jobs that basically utilize multiple computers at the same time, or the serial jobs that utilize multiple processes at the same time. There's a bit of a distinction there, but we'll get to it more tomorrow. But for example, let's consider just a quick like big heads up. Let's continue consider our Python job, the memory hook program. We could instead of writing this s run script like this. We could write this kind of a script. So I'll go back to the work directory and copy this copy this name of the program. We could write this memory hook script that does what we previously did interactively non interactively. So we write this s script. And then we start with that. We tell it it's running through bash. And we enter some basic the same slurm options like we tell it how long it will take. So here one hour and how much memory it will need. And there's a lot of other things we could add to if we needed. And now we do whatever is needed. For example, Python, and then this. And then the amount of memory. And now we can save this. And then we can run it with as batch. So as batch says, run this asynchronously and then give me the results when it's done. So if we do slurm Q. We can see. Okay, so it sees that it is still pending. Understate there. And now we see it's gone from the slurm list. So it's done. So we can less it. And we oh, here we see an output file. So instead of printing the results to the screen, it prints it to a file. And then you can look at this file later and see what has gone on. And that's basically the general idea here. Yeah, it's basically like codifying the requirements and whatever we're doing to get the code running. So of course, like in this case, we are just running one command. So why would we need all of this machinery? But if we combine this information to the previous steps that we described so that we could load some software, we might need to set some certain modules before we launch the job. We might need to go to a certain storage directory, maybe do some pre processing in the storage directory. So we need to specify the work directory where we're going. We also need to specify some requirements and let's say the requirements are something that we don't want to always remember what we typed in the command line. We can codify that all of those into the one script so that the whole process of setting up the job, running the job and getting the results is done non interactively. And in a way that's already documented basically. You have already documented what software you're using, where are you running the software, what software you're running, what kind of requirements does the software have. Everything is encapsulated into this one script and you can share it with your co-worker and you don't have to give them like, okay, I think I used this module, I think I run it here. I think it requires 16 gigabytes but you might want to try it out. No, you don't have to do any of that, you can just write it into your script and you can share the script and the co-worker can see that okay, these are the parameters that the other person used. I will use the same parameters and it's a much easier way of working and you don't have to think about keeping a shell open or anything like that. You can put the job into the queue and go drink coffee and read a paper or something like that. Yeah, so that is what we will do tomorrow. So we hope that today has been interesting. Please remember to give us feedback about good or bad things, open the HackMD link which you can see are under the stream and scroll to the bottom and write something there, especially please give us feedback if you don't like something about this course. This is a rather experimental way we've been doing things with Twitch and Zoom and all of that and we don't just want to hear good things, we want to hear the bad things so we can improve them. So with that being said, I guess we will disconnect now and see you tomorrow. Yeah, thank you everyone.


This video was brought to you by my patrons. Thank you so much for your support Hey, last Friday, I released a game the Fermi Parallax which is based on the Fermi paradox the Fermi paradox basically states that if there are It is mathematically impossible that we are alone in the universe But even though it's impossible. Why did we never met with with each other? Why did we never met with other? civilizations and one of the explanations for this paradox involves a lot of filters evens on the universe that prevent this but some scientists Try to explain this by saying that there is a higher level civilization in civilization with a high intelligence that is preventing this from happening it is preventing us from meeting with other civilizations and in the game the way that these civilizations are represented is by the player's enemies and especially By the games boss, which is the paradox So in this video, we'll see how did I manage to make this boss and this boss battle? Actually, we'll just talk about the boss pattern, which is The way that the boss behaves a window windows the the boss will shoot when will the boss use the super attack When will the boss just slap when it will die and stuff like this and for that We use the building animation tree because it has a building state machine Finite state machine in which we can manage everything that we need to make this boss pattern. So without further those Let's get started So I have the the boss seen open here and Something that you need beforehand is the animations that will define the boss behavior And something interesting that you must think about is that these animations will kind of represent the boss states We won't need to represent and encapsulate these states in the script You can basically encapsulate all the behaviors through the animations because you can set properties you can call methods so you can consider that each animation is a state by itself and Basically what you are going to be doing is transition between each of these states So now with that state you can see that I have a lot of animations here Deriving the setup, which is the animation that will basically reset everything to its default arriving die idle and left hand attack the left hand laser the super attack, which is this mouth attack But with that with all these resources done and this will depend on your way to design your boss Basically what we are going to do is to add an animation tree the animation tree Request that we set up an animation player, which by default we are going to use the the current animation player here This is what controls everything in this box. So I will set up this one animation player and We also have to set up the tree root. This is what will We'll control which kind of animation tree you're trying to set up You can set up a blank tree. You can set up a blank space and but for our purpose We are going to set up a animation node state machine. This is what we want Now that we have this blank canvas we must set up every transition and every state that we want to the The character in this case the boss to to be in so let's start with the setup as I say This will reset everything to its defaults which is what I want by in the beginning of the the game and To ensure that this will be auto-played just as in the animation player as you can see This is an autoplay animation here We can use the we can to go this option to go autoplay this animation on start So this is the first thing that will played when this animation tree starts to to play Then I wanted to play the Arrival animation and here comes the the interesting part. We have two states right now So we need to transition to transit to the next one. How do we do that? By holding shift and dragging from one state or from one animation to another we create a transition and If you click on the transition you can see in the specter that we have some properties and the way you can transit automatically to the next animation is by Toggling the the auto-advanced property. This will make sure that it will transit to the to the next animation Automatically, but we can set up the switch mode as well in my case for my boss I just use the at-end switch mode This will make so that when this animation finish it will automatically Transit to the next one in this case the arrival the rise then in my case after The boss arrives, which is this animation where the boss grabs the screen and comes from the from deep from the deep space all The way to to the screen After that, I want the boss to center the position on the screen. So move to center Same thing when this finishes it will automatically transit to the move to center So I'll set this at the end auto-advanced and After this after the character after the boss moves to to the center of the screen I wanted to start the idle and mission and same thing I will transit from the move to center to the idle Automatically at the end Now after some attacks I want the after some idling after some time idling I want the boss to start attacking but here comes the interesting part since we have the left hand attack and the right hand attack Which one should the the boss do which one should the boss perform after it? It triggers the idle Now we have to make some logic We have to add some logic layer on top of this of this state machine, right? So before we actually dive into the The logic the scripting part. Let me explain something to you We'll start by just Transiting to the left hand attack, which is this left slap So I will add a new transition here shift and Drag it to the left hand attack and you can see that we have this advanced condition The advanced condition is a string that you can set up and once you set this condition to true It will automatically it will basically trick trick this auto advance to be on This is exactly how they explain this turn on auto advance when this because it when this condition is set So what we are going to do is to give it a name. So let's say left slap and I will do the same thing for the the right hand attack the advanced condition will be right slap and Well after the character finished the the left hand attack it will automatically transition back to the idle So immediate will set this to at end auto advance and here I also want this to happen on At end but here is when the immediate can be useful So let's say your character may have performed the idle animation three times and you want it to immediate trigger an attack This is not my case, but you can leave the switch mode at immediate But I will switch it to at end Then at the end when the left slap is true, it will perform the left hand attack so let's start by This is something that I think that I will make a contribution to the good at repository because I Think that this is something that is missing in the animation tree I will start by adding a script to it. It can be a bidding script and Basically, the only thing that this will do is to give a better interface to other other classes to interact with the animation tree because what happens is that We don't have a nice an easy way to set the value of a condition So the the way that we are going to do is the following We will get a transition. We'll get the the condition name which should be a string and the value So this is the complex part because in order to set the the value of this condition if we go to the animation tree and we Go to Parameters conditions. We have the left slap here available to set on and off the right slap as well But in order to access these conditions, we had to go through this path This note path so parameters slash conditions slash left slap So to prevent other classes to knowing all this path We are just going to encapsulate the access to these conditions to this method So we are going to just call the set and Copy this parameters slash conditions Slap slash And then we are going to add the conditioning condition name and past the value So let me just verify this is correct parameters Conditions I missed a and here Conditions and the conditioning. So this is the interface that we are going to use to set the conditions, right? Now we can actually give the logic So for the logic, I am going to attach a script to the boss and it won't be a bidding script Something that we are going to to set up here is what will trigger the the left slap for instance What will trigger the the attack of the the boss for my boss? I use something that I call to show it. So for instance, I have an attack to show So now let's let's design the the actual boss behavior, right? So I think that I will add some comments here Okay, so for the design of these boss, I want these behavior here Every two idle animations the boss will attack it will perform a slap by default It will perform the laser animations every seven damage taken and a special attack a special attack Every seven damage taken and the health is below 30% It will die if the health depletes, right? So let's start by setting up the tree showed for the idol for the attack, right? So we'll have an attack tree shows Which by default will be One right so after one animation it will perform the second one and then it will slap or attack and we'll also need a Verbal to store which is the current value how many idle animations the character already performed. So Var I don't count By default, it's zero We need something to to iterate on this idle count. So let's create a method to increase idle Count which will Basically just increase this I don't count Plus one I don't write Plus one and it will verify if the idol count Is greater than the tree showed so attack tree showed if so, it will reset the idle to zero and And I will leave this commented, but it will call them a attack method So we might already have this right. So let me create the that tech method And we are just going to pass right now, but just so we have a breakpoint here statement So I forgot that if statement And this so how we will how will we increase this how we will call this method here so we can Increase the the counting of the idol in the idle animation At the end, I will take rid of that at the end. I will tell it to call a method on the boss that is called Increase idle count So every time the idol finishes, we will have the idol count increase it, right? Yeah You may ask yourself why we are not using the animation finished and checking if the if the animation that just finished Is the idol is because since the idol is a loop animation the animation finish Signal is not called This is I think that this is a bug but some people say it's an expected behavior So the best way is to just add this at the end to add a method call at the end So if we test this, let's see. Oh Something that you must activate is set the animation tree active, right? So let's do that and test this Okay, I don't one two Yeah, we are calling the attack method. So this is already working, right? So this is already working It's left by default. So the next thing that we are going to do is to create an array with two With two values, which is the the left the left slap and the right slap So we can randomize which one we are going to use for the the boss attack set Which I will also create a variable for that. So a constant Slap Slaps yes, no left slap and Right slap right slap And we are going to have a text set The variable that's called a text set This is which attack the character will use because at the end of the attack method We are going to use that to call to set the condition on the animation tree. So that's set By default, I think that I will set this to be the slaps by default So by default it will use this this attack set Now what you are going to do here I need a reference to the animation tree bar mission tree and Oh, yeah, we are going to On the ready function We need to call the randomized method just so we can sort out the the random factors so we don't always have a Random palette a random pattern. So by calling the randomized pattern The randomized method we prevent that from happening And right here what we are going to do is to have a attack Verbal attack Which by default is new And what we are going to do is to Go to the attack set The I think that we can call this in Online, right? So we are going to get the attack set a random integer That will be a random value Going to the the size of this attack set was this array that set That size So this is basically randomizing a value and modulating it by the random By the the size of this array and this is how we can get integer In random integer values So Next what we need to do is to actually call the Tracklist set the the condition on the animation tree. So a new tree that's set condition Attack True This is basically what we we need for for this to to Make what we want But there is one thing that we need to to do because if this is Set true and we don't make it go back to false. The character will keep slapping all the time Let's let me show you what what I Want to say by that. So one two slap And it went slap again And slap again so Oh, it is not calling the the right the right slap But we we want this to to be done only when the the idle count is greater than Than the attack tree should write So we want this to to be back to To false and this can be done in the animation itself. So Left hand attack at the end of this animation. I will add a property track on the Animation tree And on the left slap So it will set this to false So it won't go back indefinitely And we are going to do the same for the right hand attack Add a track property track animation tree Right slap And a third key I think that for the for the setup transition here We can set it immediate because we don't need it to to go all the way To the end to to play the arrive animation Yeah, like this to slap And it's not coming back probably because we don't yeah, we didn't set the transition here the end Also advanced So let's see One two slap one two slap Yeah, so let me just see if the left one is also working seems like the Only the the right one is in plate So I think that something that you can use to to debug this is to always make this window always on top And pause the the game going to the remote scene and see if these No, both of them are false So it's basically just yeah the left one just played. So it's just a a bad design a bad Random random factor now With that we have everything we need to set up the the boss pattern. So From now on, I will just basically finish all of these All of these conditions here And I will be right back with everything set so you can see the the whole script Something interesting that I want to show you is as you can see The way that it will trigger the laser attacks Is if the hurt count is greater than the laser to show And the hurt count increases when the character takes damage, right? So when the health changes So how will you how will we test this if we don't have a player hurting the enemy? Well, we can basically test the scene make this This window always on top and as I said Uh, we just have to go to the remote to the boss healthier decrease it by a bit Just so we can see if the laser yeah, so now we have the lasers working And this is how you can debug this the features This method this technique without actually having the the player on board So seems like we finished all the conditions So every two idle animations the boss will attack. This is what we have here It will idle once then twice and then it will start the attacking It will slap by default. So the attack set is set to slap We have all the attack sets here The super true showed which is a float it is basically just a percentage of the maximum health So it will first see if it can perform a laser to show which is meant to be after nine damage taken It increases the hurt count by one. So this is what Tells if it should perform a laser attack or not every time the the character got hurt it will increase this Actually, I think that this could be here. I don't know If it can't perform a laser attack and the max the the current health is equal or below Or lower than the maximum health multiplied by the super true shows This means uh when the character got its health below 30 percent It will start to use the super attack and after that we just set the attack to the current attack set and Pick randomly one of the the attacks inside of this array inside of this list In the case of the supers we just have the the mouse and Lastly If the health the the please which is when it reaches zero It would tell the animation tree to trigger the the death Transition which as you can see essentially Everything but the mouse attack which i'm setting right now Transits to the die to the die attack to the die state the death state So if we try to play this level three Hopefully this will work. So, uh Firstly, I have to set this on the level three to play the boss So we have the boss there. Okay, everything is working slap attack Slap attack one two three four five six seven Yeah, we have the The laser now. We don't have the feedback of the damage, but Yeah, we have the the lasers Let's manually decrease the the boss health with boss health. So I think that 10 will be enough And if I play this Oops Yeah, mouth attack Now let's kill this bastard And the death animation So that's it That's how you can set up a boss pattern or a boss behavior pattern using good Using essentially animations a little bit of code just enough to to make the transition to trigger the transitions And of course the animation tree with the the state machine With the state machine brute node So all of these is possible thanks to the patronage firstly And I will really really appreciate if you guys could like support me on either patreon or buy a crying The the game on each I put all the links in the description. This is what makes all of this stable. This is what Allow me to produce more of this content. So if you like this content Support me. So that's it. Thank you so much for watching. Keep developing and the next time


All right, it's Friday, 10 o'clock spot, I'm Jay Feidell, this is Think Tech, and the guy next to me is downtown Jamie Brown, commercial real estate, the king of commercial real estate. How downtown, Jamie Brown, how are you? Good morning, I'm doing great, thanks Jay. So it's not only that you have dedicated your life, your professional life to commercial real estate, your son is doing that too, talk about it. My son, Kimo, is a junior at USC, and he interned last year at Douglas Emmett Group, big owner in Hawaii, but he was in Santa Monica, and they own a lot of real estate in Southern California, and this summer he's going to be interning at East Hill Secured, which is kind of the apex predator in the commercial real estate world. So I've got him fooled too, he thinks it's a great profession. Well, the question is whether you're going to teach him or he's going to teach you. Hopefully the latter. So Jamie, let's talk about the market, you know, what provoked this show is you distributed your report about the office market downtown, and I'm really interested to hear you roll that out for our viewers. Okay, well, the exciting thing about the report is our office market has been stagnant for like 20 years, rents or base rents have been pretty static for 20 years, the rent you paid in 2000 is about the rent you're paying now. You're starting to scare me, Jamie. However, there's three things that are occurring in 2019 that could change all that. Okay, let's talk about them. So, but do you want to talk about the why or the, well, so the reason the market is stagnant is the vacancy slide. So if you look at the vacancies through the markets on Oahu, you'll notice the highest vacancies are the left to airport and the CBD, which stands for central business district and really focus on the central business district. It stands out. It's got the most inventory, the most vacancy, a lot of vacant space downtown. That's what central business district is. And in the world of commercial real estate, it responds to supply and demand. If you've got a lot of vacancy and not a lot of demand, guess what? Rent goes down. Rent goes down. Let's go back to that shot so we can understand and unpack that shot. Now these bars are by area. Am I right? That's right. So we're looking at different areas and the high one, like the one next to the left, the one next to the left, that's really high. What area is that? So that's the CBD, which stands for central business district or downtown. So it's 16.6%, which is really high. That's high. A rule of thumb in commercial real estate is 10% is kind of the tipping point between a landlord's market and a tenant's market. So all the ones that are above around 10% are tenants markets, where the tenants have the advantage and they get low rents and concessions and stuff like that. But when the vacancy kind of goes below 10%, it flips to a landlord's market. Okay. So there's two short ones there. One very short would be the fourth bar. What area is that? East Oahu. So if you want to go find space and this is office space in Kaimakee or Kahala or Hawaii Kai, there's virtually nothing available and you're going to pay high rents. Now the third from the right is not really all that low or that high, but it's noticeably lower than the average. Which area is that? That's King Street. So that's a very, that, most of these markets are very small little markets with the exception of the CBD, Kakaako and Kapilani and Waikiki. So that's King Street, not a lot of space there.  So I mean, wouldn't the market correct for this? In other words, if I looked at this chart and I saw that a given area was, you know, high low vacancy, low vacancy.  An entrepreneur wants to take advantage of the disparity in those numbers who just showed us, I'd go and build something right away, wouldn't I? And why don't they do that in order to equalize these numbers? That's a great question. And it comes down to cost of construction. So right now our rents in Honolulu have been since the 90s too low relative to the cost of construction. So it's not economically feasible to build a new multi-tenant office building. You have seen some owner users build stuff, but they have a long-term horizon and they think a little differently. But it's cost of construction. What effect does the condo minimization of a given rental office building have on all of this? In other words, what was the one up at the head of Alakaya Street? 1,100 Alakaya? 1,100, it turned into a condo. What does that mean? Come off the market? Do we not care about vacancy and occupancy in a building like that? Because it's owned by somebody. Is that part of the data? It's not part of our survey data. We just surveyed the multi-tenant office buildings. But that particular building does have a little bit of an effect on the downtown office market, because you might have someone who otherwise might run at Pacific Guardian Center or Pioneer Plaza will go buy their office condo at 1,100 Alakaya. But it's a very small effect. Yeah, OK. This is interesting. Do you make these compilations yourself? How do you get the numbers? We do a quarterly survey. We've been doing it since 1999. And I have an assistant who pulls the data and then I spend my own time going through it, because it's really hard to get the data correct. Typically, tenants will get double counted. So what happens if a tenant rents is going to move from, say, Bishop Place to Pacific Guardian Center, Pacific Guardian Center, once the space is leased, they remove it from their listing of vacancies. And so it looks like Pacific Guardian Center is leased up, and they haven't left Bishop Place yet. So you have to go through and kind of say, oh, no, who's moved in order to adjust the numbers to be accurate. So it's a moving target. Yes. You have to be watching this on a fairly frequent basis to get the gestalt feeling about it. That's right. And you need that in your practice. If I'm a client and I come in either a landlord or a tenant, this kind of information is very interesting to me to appreciate the rent, whether it's fair, to appreciate where the locations are that I should consider. Especially because this release information, unlike property sale information, is not public. True. It's not like you can go into the multiple listing service and get this from a public book or have a friendly residential broker tell you about it. Now, this is among a very small group of people, the commercial brokers, all you guys like, walk on water. I know how that works. We've got you fooled, too. OK, let's go to prices now. Let's go to rents. You had another chart on that. OK, yeah, the rent slide. So if you look at the rent slide, you notice the left two bars are some of the lowest total rents in Honolulu or on the island of Oahu. And those happen to correspond to the two bars on the vacancy slide that had the highest vacancy. So this chart is also by area. There's a geographical chart just as well. Same, yeah, same geographic areas. The bars are the same bars. Is it a perfect correlation or is it a little looser than that? It's looser. And what gets lost in these charts is the massive impact of the CBD or downtown. I mean, downtown has half of all the space, the office space, on the island. Let me talk about 2, 3 million square feet. The total's about 11 million square feet. 11 million? Yeah. I haven't been watching. There you go. And downtown's five and a half of that. OK, oh, OK, five and a half of that. Yeah, so five and a half of the 11. And then you throw a Capilani, Cacaco, and Waikiki, and you get to 80% of all of our office inventory is like right here. So that chart shows the correlation, however loose it might be. But what about the drift you mentioned? It changes. It's dynamic. It's always dynamic. Markets are always dynamic. So what is the dynamic? Is it going up? Is it going down? Is it still flat? You mentioned that it has been relatively flat. And with three, I need to know about this, with three factors, three events, three phenomenon, phenomena that we need to consider to examine the dynamic of the numbers of vacancy. And for that matter, right? Yeah. To summarize the office market, occupancy or vacancy, which are the same different sides of the same coin in our market for the last 20 years have stayed roughly static. You do graphs, it's just a flat graph. And because there's been no supply of new inventory, in fact, there's actually been a removal of inventory. So Waikiki is a really great example of what could happen. Do you remember the Waikiki Trade Center? Sure. Which is now the Hyatt Centric. So that had almost 200,000 square feet of office space in a Waikiki market, which was like a little over a million square feet of total. And when you looked at it, at one point, the vacancy in Waikiki hit 20% or 21%. And virtually all of that vacancy was in Waikiki Trade Center. And rents were around $3 a foot. That's incredible pressure on the landlord, isn't it? That's way over that 16% you talked about earlier. Way over. Yeah, yeah. And so rents were about $3 a foot. So they took that building and that inventory out of the market. And rents jumped to over $4 a foot as vacancy dropped from 20% to under 10%. They took it out of the market by doing what? Converted it from office space to a hotel. OK, no offices, all hotel rooms. That's right. Which actually was a, may I say, I hate to use this term, but a higher and better use, don't you think, in Waikiki? Absolutely. Get more than $4. Yes, you're getting premium rents down there because there's no space.  So this is really interesting. So a landlord, aside from this problem we mentioned about the cost of construction and all that, a landlord has to be akamai about changing the use without rebuilding. I'm sure there was a lot of remodeling going on to make it into hotels, but there wasn't have to rebuild the whole building. And therefore, it's a lot cheaper than starting from the ground up. And so a landlord can do these things, I suppose, not that this would happen, I suppose you could go the other way too. You could take a perfectly good hotel and make it into office, although no one would ever do that. Right. I mean, there's more demand for hotel rooms than there is for office space. Wait till the next flood, yeah. Or rising sea levels. There you go. OK, so anyway, so that's one factor you mentioned. There were two other factors. Well, so the converse, so that's the elephant. So the exciting thing about the market right now is we've had really nothing to talk about for the last 20 years, because everything has been static. And rent downtown has been what? Between what, a dollar and a dollar, $25, $50? Well, not a base rent. So the base rents are two pieces. There's the base rent that the landlord collects, plus what they call the operating expense or camp. Yeah, but just talk about rent now for a moment. So the base rents have stayed static around a buck and a quarter to maybe a buck, $50, maybe a dollar to $1.50 in that range for 20 years. Yeah, that really is interesting. And because you look back, you're saying it wasn't that much different five or 10 or 15 years ago, and still in that zone, it's almost a comforting thing for a tenant to be able to predict that it's going to stay in that zone. But you're here to tell us it's not going to stay in that zone. But the tenant has paid more, because guess what? Why? The cam or operating expenses have gone up because our friend, real property tax, our friends down at the city council have not raised residential rates, but they've raised commercial rates. And then electricity for air conditioning, fuel prices have gone up, labor for janitorial, for security. So the tenants are paying more in total rent because the cam has gone up. But the landlords are collecting the same thing they've been collecting, except for parking, which has gone up. Yeah, they make more on parking. Another profit center. But it's really interesting that these expenses grow up, and sometimes, I'm sure you've seen this, they come down. But for example, fuel, you know, in the calculation of operating expense in the year following the year, the subject year, you could actually have a reduction in the cost of energy. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen once in a while. And then, you know, what that tells you is, oh, my God, it could be operating expenses could be flexible enough to come down, but it's not true. It's a deception. Because in fact, most of them go up. That's right. And the tenant, even though the landlord doesn't have a benefit of this, the tenant winds up paying more. Paying more, yeah. Insurance, so we get a disaster with big insurance payouts. The insurance is going to go up, and that's going to get, that's in your cam, too. Yeah. Uh-oh. So what is operating expense now in the downtown area on the average, roughly what? Roughly about an interesting thing as you walk into a building today, you're going to pay, or they're going to ask you to pay a $1.50 in base rent and a $1.50 in cam. Yeah, so you. So for an even $3 or thereabouts. Before we go to the break, can we talk about those other two factors you mentioned? Sure. So the other two factors, other than the, we had the conversion, which we'll talk about after the break, because that's a big one. The other two factors is the, oh, HPU, Hawaii Pacific University, is moving about 100,000 square feet of its occupancy to Waterfront Plaza and a little bit to Pioneer Plaza. And so that's going to have a big impact. And then the other one is American Savings Banks campus across from Mahala Park. And in fact, they're moving a bunch of people out of rented space to that space. So does that affect their space in Bishop Square? Actually not. They're having HECO use that space. So they actually don't have a lot of space in Bishop Square, even though they've named the building after them. Anyway, so we have changes going on with these three factors. And when we get back for this break, let's talk about how those changes are going to affect things, up or down, landlord or tenant, how exciting. It's like looking into the crystal ball with downtown Jamie Brown. We'll be right back. Aloha and mabuhay. My name is Amy Ortega Anderson, inviting you to join us every Tuesday here on Pinoy Power Hawaii. With Think Tech Hawaii, we come to your home at 12 noon every Tuesday. We invite you to listen, watch for our mission of empowerment. We aim to enrich, enlighten, educate, entertain, and we hope to empower. Again, maraming, salamat po, mabuhay, and aloha. Aloha, this is Winston Welch. I am your host of Out and About, where every other week, Mondays at 3, we explore a variety of topics in our city, state, nation, and world, and events, organizations, the people that fuel them. It's a really interesting show. We welcome you to tune in, and we welcome your suggestions for shows. You got a lot of them out there, and we have an awesome studio here where we can get your ideas out as well. So I look forward to you tuning in every other week where we've got some great guests and great topics. You're going to learn a lot. You're going to come away inspired like I do. So I'll see you every other week here at 3 o'clock on Monday afternoon. Aloha. Yeah, business in Hawaii. Downtown Jamie Brown, wow, so exciting. You know, there was this government building on Richard Street across the bandstand, and it was involved in some asbestos for like 20 years. And now it's coming back. Is it going to be affecting? The Princess Kamamalu building, about 70,000 feet. And as I said before, there's really been nothing built since 1st Hawaiian Center in 96.  And the effect of that building was pulling occupancy out of some of the class B and C buildings. You know where Roots and Relics is? That building on Richard Street, 850 Richards. Tenants moved from there. They also moved from, I believe, the Malim building. So there was an impact. So it created vacancy in the CBD. Yeah, and what that takes us to the whole question of government. I mean, if you came clear back when the state of Hawaii was going to take huge amounts of office space downtown, is that still the case? How does the Kamamalu building affect that in terms of their appetite for taking office space in regular office buildings rather than in state buildings? You're right. Government, city, state, and federal keep growing in their footprint of office space. In years past, would rent private office space and reduce our vacancy. However, in this last cycle, they've created new space outside, which has absorbed that demand. So they've got the Princess Kamamalu building, and then NOAA, National Histographic and Atmospheric Administration, built a huge 150,000-foot building on Fort Island. And they moved out of a ton of space at Pacific Guardian Center, 1601 Kapi'olani in Hawaii, creating vacancy. The FBI built their building in Kalailoa, and they created a vacancy in the federal building, which then drew tenants out of private buildings. So the government occupancy definitely affects. And if they create space, it creates vacancy. Yeah, right. And it could be by surprise, and it could be relatively speaking, and it could be large amounts of space. Let's go back to what you said you were going to cover some more, and that's the conversion. OK, so the big, well, there's the three things. So the one negative thing that will hurt the market a little bit is American Savings Bank's new building across from Ala Park. That's 135,000 square feet, 600-something employees. They're going to move out of some space that they're renting in 677 Ala Moana, the former Go-Bomb building, the Chinatown, and a bunch of other places. So they'll have a little bit of a negative effect. They'll increase vacancy a little bit. And they have this little building next to Bank of Hawaiian that they're going to put on the market that they own, that little black building. And that's probably a good office condo conversion. So that'll hurt the market a little bit. However, that's probably offset by Hawaii Pacific University's move to fill up vacancy at Waterfront and Pioneer. But the really big one is Bishop Place, the 1132 Bishop Street, the former First Hawaiian Tower, 460,000 square feet that is slated to be converted to residential rentals downtown, nice rentals. So if you take out of maybe 800,000 feet of vacancy that's in the downtown area, and you take more than half of it off the market, that will take that 16.6 vacancy number. And it's going to put it, guess what? Below the magic, 10%. Tipping point. And the market will go from a tennis market to a landlord's market. Oh, that's so interesting. But a big question, sort of like in the stock market, they say the stock market builds in news about future events into current prices. Does that happen in the commercial real estate market? Does that happen here? In other words, if I hear there's going to be a conversion, 1132, and I know that's going to have a profound effect in dumping space or rather subtracting space off the office market, isn't that right? Then I should adjust myself at some point. Why not adjust myself right now? What do I wait? How does the market react? I think it's going to react. The owner of Bishop Places, Douglas Emmett Group, which also owns Bishop Square and Harbor Court, so they have a sort of a double positive effect if they convert, then that helps them fill up space at those office buildings. They haven't announced their decision on doing this conversion yet. I guess they're still working through some details. But the word's getting out on the market. You haven't seen landlords raise rates yet, but I think there's a lot of landlords out there that are just waiting and salivating over the opportunity to raise rents. Sure, they'll do as soon as they can. Yeah, so you haven't seen it yet, but if I was a tenant, I'd be looking at my office space situation now because it's about to happen. The lag time till reality, though, is going to be like three years anyway, right? Probably. They're talking about taking a number of floors at a time as tenants vacate. They're not going to vacate the whole building. Yeah, sure, why not? You can do that. One thing also is that you have 1080, 1088 and 1188 on the street, that was Bishop Street there, and they're both AC Ducey buildings. You heard it here, I think. Yeah, you heard it. It's just going to be an AC Ducey building or just residential. Just residential. And Douglas Summit, it's a publicly-traded REIT, well-funded, they're going to create a great rental project downtown. So for people who want to live downtown and rent a nice apartment downtown, this is going to be a great opportunity. Yeah, well, that raises a couple of points. Gee, I wish we had more time for this conversation. A couple of points. If I see, I want downtown. Chinatown has not realized its promise. Chinatown, because of that parking requirement, no developer goes in there and the space is not being converted and it's either junk or it's so expensive, nobody can touch it. So there's no great move into Chinatown. This could be a great opportunity for those people who would, as you said, like to live downtown. But because of that, it could be that what might otherwise be affordable, right? It's not affordable anymore. It's way expensive. There's a lot of market pressure by potential buyers. What's going to happen there? Well, I would think the cost to convert that building are going to be high and they're going to do a first-class job of it. So it's not going to be affordable rentals. But it's going to be rentals for executives and middle managers who want to be downtown and can afford it. So it's going to bring probably 500 more people downtown, 24-7, which is really good. But we do need more affordable rentals. I don't think Bishop Place is going to be it. But and people say, well, how are they going to fill it? I think there's a lot of demand. There's a lot of people who want to be downtown, but there's nowhere to rent. Absolutely agree. And it will help Chinatown, all the business in Chinatown. It will really be terrific to have the crowd. When HPU came in and they bought a Loha Tower and all these kids, students walking up and down at Fort Street Mall, it changed the character of Fort Street Mall. For the better. For the better. Oh, it's really very pleasant.  So if you have 500 new relatively middle class or above occupying this new converted building, 1132, that's going to have the same good effect on the quality of life in downtown. Absolutely. Think of the restaurants, shopping. We won't roll up the carpet at 5 o'clock and everyone go home. Yeah. Well, we only have a minute or two left, Jamie. And I wanted to get to the bottom line if I could. The bottom line in this context is why do I care? Why do I care about this? Is this going to affect my life in Maui? Is it going to affect my life in East Oahu, although you did refer to that in terms of the market? Is this something that has an effect statewide? Does it have an effect on our economy? Does it have an effect on bringing investment and business into the state from outside? Does it help young entrepreneurs? Why do I care? I think, well, I think it goes with all. If you look at what's going on in the economy, I just did a report. It's amazing the breadth and the width of construction going on. It's public. It's private. It's high-rise. It's single family. It's renovations. It's infrastructure. It's new builds. It's rentals. It's condos. And all of that means new investment in Hawaii, upgrading facilities. And the more new investment we have, I think that benefits all of us. Having empty vacant office space doesn't benefit really anybody. If we fill that office space with productive use, I think it benefits us all. Is there a critical mass magnetic kind of attraction? In other words, if I say that the downtown office market is going to go to a better level of maturation, if you will, of use of rents, of sophistication, does that gather other tenants? Does that affect investors from outside the state? Do you foresee a more robust market experience in Hawaii for office space? Oh, yes, absolutely. What'll happen is it'll push rents up, which tenants won't like. But that will allow owners to reinvest in buildings. Because right now, it's hard for them to reinvest in an office building because the rents are so low. But if you're collecting higher rents, you can then reinvest in your property. We might be able to build more boutique buildings, more mixed-use buildings. So I think it benefits us all. All both rise. Yeah. Well, I'm left with one impression downtown Jamie Brown. It is a moving target. There are things happening. It's kaleidoscopic in its own way, because so many factors play against so many other factors that you have to come back and tell us more as it goes on. Because this is not going to be static for another 20 years. Guarantee. Absolutely. Thank you, downtown Jamie Brown. Right. Commercial Real Estate. Aloha. Aloha.