Colin Jordan reports on the work of the Ministry of Labour and Social Partnership Relations

Unofficial transcript of remarks by the Honourable Colin Jordan, Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations, during the presentation of the Estimates for the Ministry on Tuesday, February 25th, 2020

Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations, the Honourable Colin Jordan: "Thank you, Madam Chair. I would first want to introduce the team that sits with me. To my right is Permanent Secretary Dr. Karen Best. To my left is the Chief Labour Officer Mrs. Claudette Hope-Greenidge. Behind the Permanent Secretary is the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ms. Marva Howell. Next to her is our senior accountant, Mr. Julian Ifle. Next to him, the Director of the Barbados Employment and Career Counseling Services, Mrs. Yvette Walcott-Dennis. The Registrar of the Employment Rights Tribunal, Mr. Winston Chase. Mrs. Walcott-Dennis is behind him and next to her is the program manager for the Human Resource Strategy Unit, Mr. Lynch. The Head of the Occupational Safety and Health Section, Mrs. Alison Elcock. Behind her, Mr Ricardo Norville, who is the Director of the Manpower Research and Physical Unit. The executive officer is next to him, Mr Felix Newton and the officer, Mrs Rhonda Farley, the coordinator of the HIV-AIDS and the Anti Discrimination and Discrimination Unit is sitting next to him. 

Madam Chair. The Ministry of Labour and Social Partnership Relations is a Ministry that people often associate primarily with disputes and dispute resolution. Our approach this morning is, given that we are sitting in the well of the Parliament and given that we are in the process of speaking to our Estimates, our approach is to indicate to the public, why should the taxpayers dollars of the working people of this country in the amount as indicated by the Clerk, seven million plus, why should that money be spent on a Ministry of Labour and Social Partnership Relations? And I think it is important for the country to hear how that money is spent. What does this Ministry do? 

We are associated with and play a very important role in the maintenance of good industrial relations in this country. We do it by advising. We do it by conciliating. We do it by educating workers and employers about their rights. We do it by attempting to resolve and in many cases resolving disputes as they arise and before they become larger disputes. We also facilitate the work of the Employment Rights Tribunal, which is the adjudicating body that manages and oversees the Employment Rights Act. That is the Labour Department. And many Barbadians are aware of that because Barbadians call to ask advice - I've just been laid off, just being terminated. 

The Ministry also oversees legislation, all the labour-related legislation. And so whether it is safety and health at work or prevention of discrimination, the Employment Rights Act, Holiday with Pay; these are a number of pieces of legislation that we oversee and the Ministry is, as we speak, working on, well in the final stages, we have submitted already to Chief Parliamentary Counsel the Regulations, Draft Regulations for the Safety and Health at Work Act. We have about to present to the Parliament of this country a piece of legislation, a Bill to prevent discrimination in employment. We are reviewing the Employment Rights Act. We have drafted a Cabinet Paper on paternity leave. We are doing the research to prepare a Cabinet Paper on minimum wage. And these are just some of the work that this ministry is undertaking. 

The Ministry also provides the strategy that would inform where the education and training priorities ought to be. And so the HRD Strategy Unit is the unit working with the Manpower Research Unit to identify those areas in the future where we will need as a country the skills and the expertise to develop the country and to go into those new areas. 

The HRD Strategy Unit does that by preparing its strategy document. It is also responsible for the First Jobs Programme, which I will come back to if I have, but I will have time either now or in the question segment. The Barbados Employment and Career Counseling Service is that arm of the Ministry set up to assist people in becoming ready for work, transitioning, counselling and guidance. That unit is responsible for that aspect of labour management. It is also importantly responsible for external work programmes. And as a Ministry we take very seriously our responsibility to find opportunities for our people to fulfil their dreams and aspirations. And so we have a programme in Canada and we are working really hard exploring possibilities in the United States. We have just been able to launch an opportunity in the United Kingdom for workers of Barbados who are anxious to grasp these opportunities and move, move on with their lives and support their lives, support themselves, support their families, but importantly also to support their country. 

The Manpower Research Unit I spoke to briefly earlier as it relates to providing the information that will say to us as a country and say to our education and training institutions, for example, we will need people in this area of technology or that area of technology; the blue economy; the green economy; oil and gas. That unit is the unit that provides the statistical information, provides the - we often say that good decisions, good management decisions are based on good information. The Manpower Research and Statistical Unit is that very small unit, but with a pretty large responsibility for providing us with the information that will say to us and to say to our educational institutions, these are the areas that we need to move forward in over the next five years, over the next 10 years, as the case may be. 

This Ministry, Madam Chair, is also responsible for the Social Partnership, the relations among the partners, government, workers and their representatives, businesses and their representatives. The Secretariat, the seat of that relationship coordination sits within this Ministry as well. And I think much of Barbados knows but I think it is still important to remind us that this social partnership has been a vital cog in the wheel of rescuing and rebuilding the country at this juncture in our history. And so keeping the partnership together, offering guidance, facilitating the partnership, because partnership partnership is a word but if partnership is to mean something, then there has to be that focus and that functioning of the different parts and located in this Ministry is that functioning of pulling the partners together and facilitating their involvement in the project of nation-building. 

The Ministry of Limited Social Partnership Relations is also responsible for social justice and this is a matter that cannot be overemphasized. Every country, if it is to reach its full potential, must be able to look after everybody in the country. It must be able to facilitate their inclusion. It must be able to give voice to those whose voices are not heard. It is if the society is not to descend into chaos, it is to be that function that attempts to maintain a certain harmony, harmony not based on force, but a harmony that is based on an understanding that all of us are a part of the society and all of us have a role to play in the development of that society. So that as a society develops and as it seeks to develop on its economy, we have to include everybody. And we have to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to play their role, play their part in the building of the society and the building of the economic infrastructure that the society superstructure is based on. 

The Social Justice Committee has included, establish early in 2019, it includes and involves and brings together representation from all aspects, all groupings in our society. So that the traditional social partners are included; that is to say, government, workers and their representatives, business and their representatives, but civil society is also fully included in the Social Justice Committee. That committee that is set up to monitor, to foster and to encourage social justice in the country. That committee includes representation from faith-based organizations, representation from the cooperative movement, representation from organisations representing people living with disabilities, from organisations representing the LBGT community, from organisations representing those parent-teachers associations, a wide cross-section, women, men, young people - all are represented in some way on the Social Justice Committee. And that committee is the committee that brings together those organisations, those people, those who represent segments of our population that may be considered vulnerable, as well as those that may not be considered vulnerable, but to ensure that at the table where there is need to input on policy and policy direction, that there is a body of people representing a wide range of interests, a wide range of segments of the population that have the opportunity to have their voices heard. 

Now, that brings me finally as my 10 minutes wraps up to the third sector. This Ministry is also responsible for third sector relations and we have come to office, madam Chair, recognizing that even in the best of times, a government cannot provide for every aspect of a country's development. We just do not have all the resources - even in the best of times and we did not come to government to serve at the best of times. And so we recognize that third sector is important, that it must be facilitated, not hindered, not hamstrung, but facilitated. And so this the Ministry has the responsibility of facilitating the development of the third sector - civil society. 

And just by way of explanation, we talk a lot about the public sector. Most people know what the public sector is, government and government-related agencies. The private sector, businesses, commercial entities. The third sector - civil society, non-government, non-purely commercial. That segment of the population that speaks, for example, to organizations who want that faith-based organizations, those who help in many areas in the health care sector - cancer organizations - all those other organizations, civil society organizations, whether they be known as NGOs, CBOs as in community-based organizations, they all are part of the third sector; charities as well. 

And our Ministry has a responsibility for facilitating their development and as we speak, we are preparing, well have prepared a Draft Cabinet Paper for NGO legislation, which has gone out for comment from partner Ministries and that legislation will help to bring some regularity to the sector. It will help to build a sector that is robust, that is seen internationally as one that can be invested in. It would also bring some clarity to the fiscal framework within which those organizations will function, bring that level of certainty so that they know what they can do, how government will partner with them, and how they will be enabled to do the best job that they can given the zeal and the passion that populates that segment of our country, the third sector. Thank you very much Madam Chair."

Santia Bradshaw outlines plans for Education in 2020-2021 Budget Estimates

Unofficial transcript of remarks by the Honourable Santia Bradshaw, Minister of Education in the Government of Barbados, as she outlined the plans for Education in the 2020-2021 Budget Estimates debate on Monday, February 24, 2020.

"I begin this morning, ma'am, in a different place than where I was a year ago when I spoke in this debate in a place, ma'am, where I continued to be well pleased with this administration, given that just the whole purpose of us being able to meet within this Estimates debate in this format where not only ministers are asked to account for their conduct and their oversight of their ministries, but also that the opportunity has been afforded to civil servants as well to join them in discussions about the respective ministries. I think that that initiative which started last year, which continues this year, is one certainly that must have the commendation of all as we came to office, promising that we would ensure that there was greater accountability and transparency certainly in the issues of relating to governance.

Since the Ministry of Education in the last year that I've been minister, we have had a number of changes in terms of its hierarchy. The permanent secretary is new to the Ministry of Education and we have had the departure of the then chief education officer. There have been changes across the system as well, which in our attempt to ensure that we prepare the educational system for the transformation that is upon us, that we have to ensure that we move with the times as we're asking others to do the same as well.

Education has always been and continues to be one of the major priorities for this administration. And at present we are spending around eleven percent of our total expenditure on education, which equates to around 5 percent of GDP. We were so serious on coming to office, ma'am, that we took the opportunity to restore tuition fees to students who had been deprived of this privilege under the last administration when tuition fees were withdrawn from students who were pursuing studies at the University of the West Indies (2014 2015 academic year).

I am pleased to announce to you that we have been able to launch the component of the giveback back policy, which has seen all of our students across tertiary institutions: Erdiston, BCC and the University of the West Indies participating in registering for the various programs and starting to register with the various volunteer entities to ensure that while we pay as a government for their education, that they are equally appreciative of the fact that government is prepared to make an investment in their education. I am pleased to also say that students have started to register and we hope that a full rollout will take place in time for the next academic term.

Equally important to this administration, while we sought to repair some of the damage that took place over the course of the last decade was also a focus on reforming and transforming the educational system.

We recognize, ma'am, that the system that we have inherited is by no means perfect. And there are some that will say that the system has served them well, but there are others whom we have come to recognize have felt disengaged in the educational system. There are some for whom they see the whole educational system through a different lens and I believe that all of the members of this administration are certainly focused on ensuring that we tap into the true potential of all citizens and that no child in particular is left behind.

The fact that our system was born out of the bowels of an enslaved society and a colonial society where access to education really was in the hands of a privileged few and that in the early stages of the colonial period, that there were certain schools that were constructed for the purpose of education, and that only a certain handful of persons, particularly males, had the opportunity to attend has been a trend that obviously continued even well after post emancipation period and certainly has led us to hold on to a legacy of slavery, which I believe all of us no agree needs to be dismantled.

Back then there were limited places and persons fought to be able to get into those schools, and it was a competitive environment. We then saw with the course of time the number of places being increased and we have still retained what is known for many as the common entrance exam; the 11+.

This administration and certainly the prime minister has repeatedly indicated to the country that the abolition of the 11+ examination will happen under this administration and I have been given responsibility for ensuring ma'am that that process not only starts, but that we see the process through to completion.

We have recognized that at many of our institutions, students feel as though in many cases when they hit 10/11 that their future has already been predetermined and we are seeing a significant follow where students when they go into secondary school are exiting school without their relevant qualifications.

It is an area, ma'am, that I don't think that any of us can continue to ignore. There is a famous quote that is almost a case of chickens coming home to roost. And I think a lot of what we are seeing across our society in terms of the fallout of crime and the number of socio economic issues confronting this society all make their way back to a very frustrated student population, which emerges into an adult population unable to have the requisite skills to be employed and to also be employers themselves.

With that in mind, we recognize that technology and the emerging technologies will drive the transformation of education in this country. Barbados has been traditionally known for being a leader in education. We may have had much criticism over the course of the last decade in relation to where we stood in that respect but I do feel that our feet are firmly planted in making that transformation and making the hard decisions that are necessary to bring about that transformation.

At the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute ma'am, at present students are engaged in things like drone technology and maintenance, hybrid and electric-powered vehicles, fibre optics, computer numerical control, smart agriculture, garment technology and things like 3D printing.

We have recognized that if we are to seize the opportunities in the global community, that we have to ensure that our citizens certainly and our students are equipped with the tools to be able to not just give back to Barbados and the region, but certainly to be able to go anywhere in the world, to be able to work. And it is with that in mind ma'am that I am very proud to announce this morning that this administration being so committed to emerging technologies and wanting to place Barbados ahead of the game yet again has decided to invest in robotics. And not just what I came to office and found the odd summer camp taking place across the country, or I mean, even I last year was able to grant permission to a number of persons to use our schools to be able to do robotic camps, not in a small scale ma'am, but to be able to take this to an entirely different level where we are prepared to invest this year, the sum of 5.651 million in not only robotics equipment, but ensuring that robotics is placed across all of our secondary schools. We introduced the pilot in the nursery schools and also in some of the primary schools. We will also be capturing the attention of students at the special schools and the intention is to also rule out robotics clubs across all of the secondary institutions as well.

Devices will be provided for students as well as teachers and we have a very rigorous program designed to engage teachers in training and retraining because we do have some existing in the system presently who can teach the program but we want to be able to give as many options to our young people in the current climate to explore as much as possible the area of robotics and new technologies.

We spend significant sums on an annual basis on our scholarship and our exhibition winners. What is often interesting for me is that we have a number of persons who are successful in science subjects and I think rather than us continuing to export persons outside, we also have to look at how we create the climate for them, from now, to want to go overseas and come back to Barbados to give back to this little rock.

As a consequence, ma'am, the 2.2 of the 5.6 million which will be allocated to the robotics program, which will start in September, for which training will begin in the coming weeks, we have also look at sort, rather, to ensure that we spend equally on ensuring that there is Wi-Fi connectivity across our schools. In recent weeks, I know there was some concern about whether we were able to meet the demand across the schools because it is one thing to have technology and we've been very good as a country in terms of receiving assistance from other territories, but oftentimes we have not been equally good at making sure that that technology is put to good use.

And so we have had donations from the People's Republic of China in relation to desktop computers and laptops, but we have also found that in many cases, those devices on coming to office had not been fully deployed and one of the major reasons was because we had not done the cabling and the Wi-Fi connectivity across the various campuses of the school plans to ensure that teachers and students were able to connect on the devices.

We, however, take this very seriously. We've already started to ensure that the access points that were necessary across the school plants for the existing devices that those were deployed. We have installed a number of them across the plants and the success rate is improving daily. We have also in this Estimates, allocated a three hundred and seventy thousand five hundred and fifty dollars for cabling, which will first focus on our secondary schools and then on primary and nursery.

Let me add here, ma'am, that as we move towards a system under the CXC program where we are moving towards e-testing, it becomes more and more critical for us to improve the connectivity in our schools, as well as to ensure that students have the relevant devices to be able to practice on. A number of those pilot projects are on stream at the moment to be able to allow or fourth and fifth formers certainly who are preparing for the CXC exams, to have the necessary equipment in place.

So I believe this will go in a major way to being able to allow us to not only have our students conform to using these devices in a positive way, but certainly being able to put them ahead of the relevant technology as well. And in relation to our e-testing, we have a mandate to conform in terms of the introduction of devices by 2025. I am assured that as monies permit and finances permit, that the intention is that we will continue to see the further introduction of additional devices across the system. But this is a start, ma'am, and it is a welcome start for this Ministry of Education.

We have also looked at alliances with the People's Republic of China in relation to training our teachers in the flipped classroom management practices and we have a delegation that will go off later this year because, again, no system is going to be effective if we do not continue to train. And therefore, given all that we have spent on education over the years, it is not about just what is taught at Erdeston, but we have to continue to have the educational programs continuing to equip our teachers in the classroom to find different learning strategies and teaching strategies for our students.

There was an initiative that was started a few months ago called Profuturo Digital Mobile Classroom, and again, this is another feature that has been introduced into the classroom to allow students and teachers to basically focus on competencies and methods of learning through digital technology. We started the first set of training, which was done in change management. We will do another set in March again, and the devices will actually be in the hands of students in September of this year. We have started with 17 primary schools and 30 tablets will be deployed at each school for the Class 1 and Class 2. Let me just add that this program is free of cost to Barbados and it is intended to span a period of some five years.

This ministry again committed to ensuring that we prepare our. Thank you, ma'am. To prepare our young people for transformation has been investing in pilot projects relating to e-books. We've also been encouraging our teachers as well to utilize all of the available technologies through Open Imus, as well as the G Suite for Education, which allows greater connectivity between teachers and students.

Ma'am, I wanted to give you that perspective in terms of how we are using, within the ministry, technology to be able to ensure that all persons have equal access to education. Whether you are visually impaired, hearing impaired, we believe that technology placed in the hands of our student population will help to drive the process of the transformation. Our emphasis is equally on improving our plants to ensure that certainly technical and vocational skills are at the core of everything that we do. We recognize that persons are not only academic, but they're also involved in technical and vocational skills as well as the creative. So our move towards steam education, focusing on the science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics is a major pillar of this ministry moving forward.

Having said all that, ma'am, I would want to just say that many of these things that we have ahead of us are threatened by a number of issues, which I will certainly get into later in this debate. But specifically to say that we have had a number of issues in education in the last few weeks, and I started this morning by speaking to the good things and the positive things that are happening in education, because oftentimes you can get bogged down in the negative things, the violence in schools, you can get bogged down into issues, socio economic issues that are plaguing us in the system. And sometimes we don't prepare for what happens when we find solutions to those problems. And I wanted to just start on a positive note to give hope to certainly the student population and to the teachers that this ministry, while we are addressing the issues of violence in schools and while we are addressing the issues of infrastructure in schools and in these Estimates, we have sought to address both of them, that we equally intend to be the driving force in education to help to transform the Barbadian economy with the adequate resources in our educational system."

Youth and Community Empowerment Minister Adrian Forde says that young people must have a tangible stake in the development of Barbados

Unofficial transcript of remarks by the Honourable Adrian Forde, Minister of Youth and Community Empowerment, during the presentation of the Estimates for the Ministry

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Thank you, madam chair. This ministry has been given the task, certainly not an odious one, to ensure that we provide a safe and productive space for our young people; young persons in this country who has been crying out in the wilderness, who have been disillusioned by a poor sense that has not involved them and we want to touch them in a special way. We want to give them that once in a lifetime opportunity to have a paradigm. 

And so we have decided to come up with programs that are fit for purpose. We want to open the door so that a bright future can walk in for young people and so madam chair, with the blessings of the prime minister of this country, you would have heard the Barbados Youth Advance Corps being espoused on August 15th - a new programme which would seek to incorporate and involve all those young people at the bottom of the spectrum. And certainly, those who would like to have a tangible stake in this country. 

This programme, of course, would involve those between the age of 16 and 20. And we recognize as a government and my tracer department has done studies to show that out of the four thousand or so young people, persons that leave school every year, at least twenty nine hundred remain unemployed and disengaged coupled with the other five or so thousand that are already in society. 

There is an old Maxim that says and speaks to the fact that the devil finds work for idle hands. In this ministry, we are going to ensure that the young people using, of course, their passion and imagination that they have not only a voice but a tangible space to develop their creative imagination. Of course, madam chair, almost everything great in this world has been created by our young people. And so we must give them the opportunity. We must scratch their minds with a new experience in such a way that they will never return to their old dimension. And that is the experience that we intend to share at the Youth Advance Corps where there have there they will have young persons, of course, in six week's residential component. 

This component will seek to teach those young person's basic life skills (resilience, character-building) - those core values that are sorely lacking in today's youth as it relates to the society that they come from. After that six weeks component, there is going to be a training module designed specifically to attract the needs of our young people. We are not going to tailor-make programs for our young people. We are going to use their creativity, their desires, their imagination. So I'm happy to say today after two... where we would have passed out around three hundred and fifty or sixty persons, I am happy today to say to your madam chair and the entire country that a lot of those young persons are all over Barbados, training in the not only constructive industry and the normal courses that we would know but of course, madam chair in the agriculture science. 

In the new sciences, the aquaponics and hydroponics, the aquaculture. Madam chair, these young persons have an interest in technology. They understand better than most of us in here the usage of technology and in this technological world, animation has become a big part of their conversation. And so this programme will offer courses in animation, virtual science, robotics of course, and there are some young people and I am happy to report today that are involved in coding. We have two young persons in this country working for Google as we know it and Amazon. These are the type of experiences that we must give our young people because, one of the things this country has as a resource, is our people. We may not have gold and bauxite like other countries, but certainly, we have to invest in what we have a make best of it. 

And it is our young people that need to be able to build out Barbados and give us the type of resilience we need as a country. And so I'm happy also to report to this country that we have young persons who have shown interest and have asked to be part of the biodiverse projects that will help inform us and mitigate against the threats of global warming. We have young persons who are interested in biodiversity and are keen to be involved in a sea turtle project, that are interested in, of course, the green monkey exercise, and definitely, I know my colleagues will laugh when I say this, but there are some who are interested in being part of the programme which would seek to protect the endangered species, what we know as Phil Adaptiveness or the leave toge gecko. 

And those are young persons who understand that it is the way how we treat to those things as like biodiversity and these projects that will pretty much determine our future and our near future as a country. And so, madam chair, I am happy to tell you that after the first phase of training, these young persons will certainly be involved in national projects because in the same way we are telling young persons that they will have to meet us halfway and we are going to invest in them, we are also saying to them that there's something called give back and you must be a part of building out Barbados. 

So the national projects could be, for instance, madam chair, the building out of the hospital, painting of schools, being part of the labour market force, being involved in district emergency management, coastal zone management, being part of the cleaning up exercise that is happening to this country, because we believe in changing the aesthetics of Barbados. 

We are saying that Barbados must be a clean place and there must be a cosmetic overhaul. But at the same time, we are also saying that the most active players in this conversation are our young people. So this is what the Barbados Youth Advance Corps is going to do for this country. It's going to help build out Barbados as we know it. And at the same time, it is going to give young persons the opportunity to live the Barbadian dream. And that's what we are saying as a government. 

Gone are the days where we are only interested in show, paparazzi, glitz and glitter and glamour. Gone are the days where showmanship is the order of the day. We are saying that young persons in this country must have a tangible stake in the development of Barbados. And so our programmes must be able to encourage our young people to put their hands to the plough and become part of society and building this country. 

In the same way, you will hear the Prime Minister say that many hands make light work. We are willing to work hand-in-glove with our young people. The antithesis of this, of course, is that no work make light hands too. So we must be able to engage our young people and find meaningful employment for them. And that is why I commend the member who went before me for the job start plus, because a lot of these young people will be able to filter into this programme. 

We are also saying as a government that we are going to give young people the opportunity using their passion, they're our reserve potential to be able to do everything that they want in Barbados as long as it's positive. And of course, madam chair, there are those who we call the most vulnerable who are crying out like a voice in the wilderness; who for over the last 10 years lost 10 years as I may say, have not been part of the building out of Barbados. 

We call those guys, the guys on the block. We believe as a government, the moral tests, the moral litmus test is how we treat to those at the bottom as well. You would have heard the prime minister and the entire cabinet and government. Spoke lucidly about what we have done as a government and if our first couple of weeks to come into office, we seen the worst decision ever made sense adult suffrage as it relates to education and tuition fees, but say maybe we will treat the doors at the top. We are seeing those at the bottom of the spectrum must be involve in this bar being an exercise in a barbarian dream and sword. This what we call the block by block. Guys, we have started a program called Building Blocks because we believe that these small blocks. That are built as a foundation is what will grow and develop this country and those same youngsters. They may not have the academic skills and qualifications like those at the top of the spectrum, but what they have is a creative imagination. 

And I'm happy to report to the country today, that we have start building in a literal way, four blocks around Barbados, one in the Back Ivy, one in Bonnets Brittons Hill, one in Silver Hill of course, then there is one in Parkinsons Field and I'm happy to say that not only is there a sense of ownership and excitement, amongst those youngsters, but of course there is a sense of community involvement and altruism where persons from all over the community come together to lay those blocks. 

We are going to build up those youngsters, not only in a literal way in terms of providing commercial spaces and allowing enterprise of course using the trust loans because they must understand that they have to walk not in front or behind, but at our side as a government in this journey. So we are saying that this exercise, this block-preneurship that we are doing, is going to create an atmosphere for commercial activity allowing these same youngsters that were once in deviant behaviour and delinquent behaviour to be involved in wholesome exercises. 

We are going to scratch their minds with a new experience so they will never walk and go back to their old dimensions. That is what we are going to do as a government. In the community department, of course, we have just put a sum of money for the repairs and building out of the community centres. There's a new programme, of course, in the community department and everybody in Barbados, those who are interested in the creative arts, would have transfixed their eyes of course, to our Baje to the World talent show because one of the things that we believe is that there is a pool of creative talent in Barbados. And so, Madam Chair, we have decided that this talent must not only be seen in the four corners of Barbados but must bless the entire world so that Barbados would be recognized for what it is in terms of having that talent. 

We are saying to Barbadians to bring their creative imagination, bring their creative talent. We are going to infuse it as a government and we are going to allow Barbados to be the shining light in the world, the country, the beacon, the mecca of the Western Hemisphere as we know it. But we understand fully that communities can only do it if there is a symbiosis of what happens at the bottom in terms of the youth and those who we consider the elderly. There must be mentorship programs. There must be active community groups. There must be Trojans in the community who are responsible for taking care of our nation's children. 

I am saying that I want to give this country the calm and rested assurance that these programmes that we have before you are going to change and transform the lives of the young people in this country and of course, regenerate a community interest, a sense of ...and activism like never seen before because we believe that Barbados at this point in time requires each and every single person to come on board on this fight and we believe that if we lose one madam chair, we lose one too many. 

So with those few words, I am asking members to comment and let us have meaningful discussion about the way forward for the ministry of Youth and certain Community Empowerment. I thank you.