Vendors in the new Constitution River Terminal say they are not all responsible for a lack of cleanliness in the popular bus stand.

While some say fellow vendors are partly to blame for the mess, they are also charging that authorities have failed to address a number of important issues.

They were responding to concerns raised by  Transport Authority chairman Ian Estwick about the well-being of commuters after a Ministry of Health report condemned the terminal's conditions as “deplorable and in need of an immediate remedy".

Vendors told Barbados TODAY they want running water, adequate bathrooms and garbage disposal facilities.

One business accused authorities of being swift to cast judgement while failing to properly engage them.

“For a while, people were asking for a well for waste water and stuff to go in. [Estwick] said that there was going to be a meeting since October, but nobody came. Sometimes things happen in here and nobody gets notified,” she said.

“So to say that people are unsanitary boils down to a lack of communication. If you don’t communicate with the people who are within the community in here, nothing can happen, because then it’s just a one-sided thing. If you’re not hearing the vendors’ plight and listening to what their grievances are, nothing can happen,” said the woman, who feared that vendors could face punitive measures from authorities coming out of the unfolding situation.

She said much of the confusion arose after construction began on the new bus terminal, which displaced some vendors. Another major challenge cited was a lack of running water and electricity.

While she has running water piped into her stall, others, who also sell food, do not.

One such vendor, Desta Baptiste told Barbados TODAY that efforts to have running water supplied to her stall have been unsuccessful, forcing her to bring gallons of water from home to service her daily needs, in a bid to uphold a high standard of cleanliness and adhere to health regulations.

[caption id="attachment_285720" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Desta Baptiste[/caption]

“A lot of people come and tell me, ‘your stall looks good, although other stalls are not clean’…. They feel comfortable, they want something to eat and they like how the place looks.”

Baptiste acknowledged that some of her fellow vendors need to clean up their act.

“Some people’s shops are too untidy for food,” she said, “and the garbage and stuff, they need to clean it up before they start business.”

Way of Life ‘ital’ shop owner, Paul Bobb, a vendor in the terminal since 2007 said not everyone should be slapped with the same label of ‘unsanitary’. He also called on authorities to address drainage.

[caption id="attachment_285722" align="aligncenter" width="383"] Paul Bobb[/caption]

“It is really bad. We don’t really have any drainage system. We want to know if Government could set a portion to deal with that, because it is health that we’re dealing with,” he said.

Pamela Waldron, another longstanding vendor, agreed with authorities that critical changes were needed to improve the conditions.

[caption id="attachment_285721" align="aligncenter" width="291"] Pamela Waldron[/caption]

“I have been selling in this van stand for 12 years. I am a permit holder,” she said. "I have a grease trap, which I was told by the health inspector was needed. I paid a thousand dollars for the grease trap,” she said, while claiming that she was suffering due to the unpleasant practices of others.

Other vendors expressed concern that Government’s refusal to renew their permits for the past few years has left them at risk of being arbitrarily removed from their  spots, when situations like the current one unfold.

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Minister of Youth and Community Empowerment Adrian Forde’s one wish for Christmas is that Barbadians put down their weapons.

“As Minister of Youth and Community Empowerment, my wish is for the young people of this country to put all the weapons of destruction in a bag, a box - I don’t care what container they put all these weapons in - and put them away, bury them. That is my one Christmas wish,” he said.

The Minister’s passionate plea for young people to choose peace came hours after the police released the names of two shooting victims involved in two separate incidents in Christ Church last evening.

Brandon Allamby, 19, was shot in Evelyn Terrace, Golf Club Road, and 52-year-old Colin Wooding was wounded in Silver Hill Drive, police said.

On Tuesday, Jaquan Stoute, 21, of Marl Hole, St Michael was reportedly stabbed while at Briar Hall in the same parish.

Minister Forde said he wanted nothing more than to see the nation’s young people follow a more wholesome path, stressing there was no benefit in doing wrong.

“There is another path and that path is the path of success, of productivity of realizing your dream by doing the right things. And I often say that when you stop doing the wrong things the young people of this country will have a Usain Bolt moment as it relates to the right things.”

Most of the 27 murders so far this year have come as a result of gun violence, and Forde, MP for Christ Church West Central, said he hopes the young people will give the nation the gift of peace this Christmas season.

Last month, acting Police Commissioner Erwin Boyce noted a decrease in crime involving guns while delivering an update on crime in the island.

He said then: “We are registering 166 firearms-enabled crime as compared with 245 for the same period last year.

Boyce also said that the force had been able to recover 69 firearms this year alone compared to the 73 taken up in 2017.

Just last week, the police supervised the destruction of dozens of firearms in the force’s possession.

Today, Minister Forde pleaded: “I hope the young people will give me this gift for not only me but for all of Barbados. In return we are going to give them the tools of empowerment,” Forde said, adding that it is a painful situation with which the country must grapple.

“I am making a special appeal to young people because it hurts my heart when I see the level of crime and violence in this country. It is not a happy Christmas time for us in Barbados if we recognize that almost daily there is an incident where a young person’s life is being threatened,” Forde said in his message to the youth.

“At this special Yuletide time we are hearing about shooting incidents and I am making a special appeal to young people on behalf of Barbados to put down the weapons of destruction and take up the tools of empowerment,” he said.

“I am begging you, there is an alternative and we will do everything in our power to ensure that young people in this country become positive young people and that they can do like Kofi Annan said ‘punch above our weight’,” Forde stressed.

“We need the right things to put out the wrong things in this country… The right things could outrun the wrong things,” he said.

Forde’s comments came this evening at the Youth Mainstreaming Program - Digital Media Film Showcase held at the Ministry of Youth and Community Empowerment’s Sky Mall offices.

The minister said a programme like the digital media programme is one of the avenues that can help young people to shun violence.

“This digital media program is only one of the programs that we will use to make sure that the young people here use the vehicle to chart their own destiny,” he said.
      The Youth Mainstreaming Programme is one of four programming channels in the Division of Youth.

Launched in June 2008, the programme seeks among other things, to empower Barbadian young men and women to realize their fullest potential while promoting the building of social capital.

The post Down guns! appeared first on Barbados Today.

Welfare services will be under immense pressure come 2019 when the full impact of Government’s public sector job cuts is expected to set in, Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Cynthia Forde has warned.

Forde told Barbados TODAY that social services such as the Welfare Department are still grappling with displacement from the 2013 retrenchment exercise under the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration, which saw 3000 employees from statutory entities being sent home.

The Member of Parliament for St Thomas explained that because Barbadians are a proud people, many of the laid-off workers from the International Monetary Fund-backed Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme, will only tap into the welfare services as a last resort.

“It is going to be overwhelmed as all of the persons who have been retrenched are not going to the agency yet because we still have persons in Barbados who believe that a little with content is great gain. Therefore they are trying to eek out from what they have been given in their severance packages,” Forde said.

“Many people in Barbados do not like handouts and therefore they are trying to make do with what they have but I believe when that runs out, which may be soon, the Welfare Department may be needed to give assistance.”

Forde contended that with some of the workers in 2013 still not able to find work coupled with workers being retrenched this year coming to the social services, the impact could prove overwhelming.

“There would have been an increase on the social services since 2013 and a number of those persons were never able to get back a job. So the Welfare Department has been working assiduously to look after the needs of those who were in before such as the disabled and elderly but also those persons that continue to be impacted,” said Forde, who noted that all departments under her ministry currently have their hands full.

“The Poverty Alleviation Bureau will make recommendations to the Welfare Department and we have a project called Strengthening of Human and Social Development and they, too, have been helping with poor people. They look after one family per constituency for the last five years and they too have been going the extra mile,” she said.

During her Mini-Budget back in June, Prime Minister Mia Mottley allocated $5 million dollars to the Welfare Department in anticipation of the displacement to come from the austerity measures.

This morning Minister Forde praised her boss for her foresight, noting that her ministry was prepared to ensure that those resources are stretched as far as possible.

“The Prime Minister made sure that there is a cushion for the many people that may come in. We still have to wait and see because as the Prime Minister said yesterday Barbados is seeing a little silver lining. So we will continue to work as best we can and we will ensure that nobody is left behind,” she stressed.

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Bruised over a debt battle with a construction firm leading to the yanking of community water tanks, the Barbados Water Authority (BWA)  says it’s capable and has all the equipment needed to run the reservoir project.

BWA chairman, Leodeane Worrell, has made it clear that tanks recently donated by corporate Barbados will be set up and properly maintained in-house. The announcement comes as a private-public-partnership between BWA and Innotech soured, when the equipment rental company allegedly removed the tanks leased to the state-owned water company over mounting debt.

Speaking to Barbados TODAY this morning following the replacement of one such community tank at Horse Hill, St Joseph, Worrell contended that there was no need for the contract with Innotech as the BWA never lacked the expertise nor the manpower to do the job. Worrell claimed that BWA staff had to sanitize the tanks while the contract with Innotech was still in place.

“The staff and workers of the Barbados Water Authority were equipped and are equipped to do this exact job. For some reason the previous board determined that it had to be contracted out at a ridiculous rate, the net result of which is that we would have spent $28,000 per tank over five years and in the end we still did own the tank. There were times when the tanks were not being sanitized by the contractor and the BWA did it,” said Worrell.

[caption id="attachment_285731" align="aligncenter" width="600"] From left, BWA General Manager Keithroy Halliday, board member Andrew Dixon and Chairman Leodeane Worrell speaking to reporters this morning.[/caption]

Following the donation of more than 100 tanks, the BWA mounted 18 concrete slabs over the last weekend alone. The team has also installed six of the tanks with plans to restore all of the community tanks in water-scarce communities by the start of next year.

Worrell contends that this level of work output is testimony to the BWA’s capabilities of handling the project. “These workers could have always done the work and they proved that over the weekend. They built 18 concrete stands, they put up the plumbing and they put up the tanks. We have the skill set in house,” she said.

In the meantime BWA General Manager Keithroy Halliday revealed that the days of water scarce communities depending solely on the tanks would soon come to an end.

Halliday that the water company was on the cusp of bringing two temporary pumping stations on stream, which will result in these communities having fewer outages.

“The BWA will not only ensure that the tanks are maintained but we can ensure that we augment the water supply. So for instances we are fabricating a container booster that will be installed at Bushy Park and that will allow for additional supply of water into St John and St Joseph. In addition, Ionics [private water treatment plant] is going up to 150 per cent expansion and that in conjunction with an additional booster at Trents will be able to bring water up to Lancaster,” said Halliday, who revealed that the additional solutions will come on stream by the end of January 2019.

colvillemounsey@barbadostoday.bb

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Unfair pricing by some freighting companies could be blamed for the relatively high prices seen on some items on supermarket shelves, Commerce Minister Dwight Sutherland has suggested.

Sutherland has promised that there is to be no letting up by his ministry until there was an ease in consumer prices, especially on basic food items.

Following a tour of the Shopsmart big-box store on Cheapside, St Michael on Wednesday, Sutherland disclosed that some retailers were privileged to a lower shipping cost than others.

But he said he would be meeting with retailers and shipping and freighting companies in an effort to bring costs down.

“I now have to meet with a few of the supermarket owners come January,” he said.

“It is not to bully them. It is to see how best we can work with them as a Government and as key stakeholders in the retail sector so that we can do things that can benefit the consumers. It is providing options and making sure that the competition is fair, not to bully the freighters and shippers. Hopefully we don’t hear the reason we can’t lower prices after January is as a result of the shipping cost. That is my role and we will make sure it happens,” said Sutherland.

Pointing out that his ministry would continue to monitor food prices in order to ensure consumers were not being overcharged, Sutherland said his ministry would also make sure that the products offered to the consumers are properly labeled and they are of high standard.

Sutherland, who has been touring a number of retail stores over the past few months as part of an outreach programme, said freight charges remain one of the retail industry’s bugbears.

Earlier this month, Sutherland noted that despite the removal of the National Social Responsibility Levy (NRSL) which was not applied to the basket of goods, some basic food items were high, and supermarket owners have attributed this to their import costs.

“The CEO of Shopsmart enlightened us this morning with the news that there are some challenges as it relates to shipping.... I will want to use word ‘unfair’ competition as it relates to shipping prices, whereby some retailers in the country are benefiting from low shipping prices than others. This would lead to a disparity that we don’t want to see in the country,” said Sutherland.

“We want to maintain fair pricing and fair competition in this country, and anything that we see that is impacting that negatively, we have to address,” said Sutherland, who said his permanent secretary, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs officials and personnel of the Barbados National Standards Institution will meet some of the shipping lines to ask them to be fair. 

“Don’t offer lower rates to just two or three persons and the others are disadvantaged with high shipping costs, because what that does is increase the cost of goods,” he said.

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Police are investigating the death of Frederick Mulligan, 22 , of Buttsbury Court, Polo Ridge, Holders Hill, St James.

Around 7:25 last evening police responded to a report of an unresponsive male slumped over in an SUV at Reservoir Road, St Michael.

On arrival, police discovered Mulligan’s body. The body, however bore no marks of violence.

Foul play is not suspected.

The post Police probe death of young St James male appeared first on Barbados Today.

Police confiscated guns and other weapons as well as illegal drugs at a fete at Cheapside Road, St Michael last Sunday.
Two people were also held to assist lawmen with investigations.
The event was held at the premises of A&A Wholesale, where over 300 patrons were in attendance.

When police arrived at around 2:45 a.m. , patrons broke down the temporary fencing and ran off in different directions.
Lawmen subsequently searched 73 of the patrons, but nothing illegal was found on them.
A further search of the venue  and its immediate environs uncovered a nine-millimetre Smith and Wesson firearm with 14 rounds of ammunition; .45 colt with eight rounds of ammunition;  20 pairs of scissors; a bolt cutter and a small quantity of cannabis.

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Police are investigating an apparent suicide in St George.

According to lawmen, they discovered Roy Liverpool, 68, of Campaign Castle with a rope around his neck, hanging from a tree in a nearby gully.

(more details as they come to hand.)

The post Police probe unnatural death appeared first on Barbados Today.

Joseph Liverpool's worst fears became reality when around 3:15 on Thursday evening, his brother Roy Liverpool, 68, was found hanging from a tree in a gully, mere metres behind his home at Campaign Castle, St George.

The elderly man had been missing for nearly a week following a short bout of illness before vanishing. He was later discovered lifeless by one of his neighbors.

[caption id="attachment_285790" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Personell from Two-Sons Funeral Home removed the body of Roy Liverpool. Inset Joseph Liverpool[/caption]

"I was just about to attend a funeral at 3:30. When I step inside my car, my next door neighbor called me and tell me he saw my brother in a tree and he looks funny," brother Joseph recalled.

"I didn't even take off my clothes, I still had them on and after he led me to the gully where my brother was, I realized he had on a shirt that looks familiar, so I knew it had to be him,” he said.

Although his brother Roy had been missing since Saturday it still came as a shock, "to see him in that condition".

"When I get up Saturday morning, around 6:30 I look in his bedroom and I couldn't see him, but I say he probably gone and do something for somebody. I said since he is a handy man, in our neighbourhood, I figured he went to do something for one of the neighbours.”

But after minutes turned to hours, and hours turned to days, there was still no word from Roy. Saturday morning turned out to be the last time he would be seen alive.

His younger brother, with whom he lived since the late 1970’s, said Roy had been suffering with a mild cold and was warned about standing in the rain. Days later, his condition started to deteriorate, "because he started to cry for his tummy and a headache and I see him started to lose size and he wasn't eating properly", said Joseph.

It was later revealed that Roy visited the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he spent three days, after which he came home with medication for high blood pressure. Nevertheless, the stomach pain persisted, prompting Joseph to purchase painkillers for his ailing brother. Sadly, he would never receive them.

"I bring up some the same Friday night when I should have seen him the Saturday morning, but when I got up the Saturday morning, he was not there. I still have the Panadol for him in my bag and he just disappeared like that,” said Joseph Liverpool in disbelief.

In addition, it appears Roy’s condition may have been worse than he had been letting on.

"Apparently when he went to the hospital, he had some documents which I gave the police. And when I gave the officer, the officer told me 'he was supposed to get an ultrasound' and he never told me about anything like that."

Joseph said he believed the stomach pain was his brother’s major issue as it was causing him severe pain, preventing him from eating and causing him constipation.

Roy left behind a daughter, now in her 40s and living in St Vincent. He had connected with her earlier this year and was trying to keep in touch, but his efforts eventually became futile.

"He couldn’t get her many times. It seems like either her phone was lost or she just wasn't responding. But many times he called her and she wasn't responding.”

Joseph described his brother as “a cool guy,” who would drink sometimes "and get ignorant sometimes”.

“But normally, if he's on his normal pace, he would be quiet, he is a cool guy and you could get along with him. But as soon as he drinks he would get foolish," he said. But Joseph said his drinking habits did not get in the way of the love shared between the two of them.

“Definitely I will miss him. Because I know him, I don't pay him any mind.... I can't say he was bad to me; he was very nice to me. He was a good handyman, who would work around the house and for neighbors, and cook, clean and wash around the house.”

“I am going to work tomorrow, because I won’t be able to stay and dwell on the sudden loss,” he said sadly.

kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb

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The umbrella body for trade unions in Barbados warned today that the labour movement is currently under threat due to Government's ongoing retrenchment programme.

Outspoken president of the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) Edwin O’Neal cautioned that the threat is compounded by utterances from some sections of the business sector that workers make adjustments immediately because of the economic crisis, while capital suggests they be given more time.

“It is clear that the labour movement is under threat and it is about steeling your resolve and rising to those challenges. You can't lay down and play dead. Some would want you to think so. We got to take on these challenges,” O’Neal told Barbados TODAY.

The former police officer explained that whenever workers are being sent home, it results in a reduction in membership of the trade union movement.

“There are other instances that led us to believe that [the movement is under threat]. Barbados is a social welfare state; it has developed its human capital on the basis of he who can best afford must pay. When you start hearing talk now about leveling a playing field and everybody got to make a contribution . . . everybody’s got to make a contribution according to their abilities,” the CTUSAB leader said.

He suggested that the labour market was now being 'right-sized.'

“So what happens? Labour getting cut and labour getting sent home. You now had an adjustment downward to corporation tax . . . and what is the response? Don't expect to see benefits immediately; it gine tek time to kick in. Now that is an inequitable situation. Isn't it? Labour has to start making adjustments immediately, but capital says you got to give me time,” O’Neal pointed out.

Switching his focus on specific priorities for 2019, the CTUSAB president said his organization must continue addressing retrenchments, growth of the economy that hopefully translates into jobs, the stability of growth in the economy and a general improvement in Barbados.

Oneal told Barbados TODAY how they intended to achieve that.

“We will build a stronger and tighter Congress; continue to give assistance, both technical and moral to the affiliates and look forward to the New Year, despite the gloom, with some optimism,” he stated.

Asked how CTUSAB planned to build a stronger organization with evidence of disenchantment among some trade unions, O’Neal said: “What can one do about disenchantment, except continue working towards building your credibility? Credibility in part is built by consistency and the appropriate responses to the appropriate challenges,” he said.

When pressed, O’Neal preferred to stay clear of agreeing that there was a need to mend fences with some other affiliate unions such as the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) and the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU).

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Recent retrenchments at the Rural Development Commission (RDC) have hampered the state-owned agency’s ability to recoup some $2.4 million in arrears but acting Director Gregory Hinds says there will be no letting up in the efforts to recover the outstanding monies which date as far back as 2003.

“With the current economic climate, we have had some issues with delinquency. Unfortunately, we lost the business development team due to the last in, first out process. They would have been working hard to recover some of those loans and asking customers to come in, not for refinancing but, to make some payments towards the loans which were outstanding. That process was going smoothly,” he said.

However, the retrenchment of 22 RDC staff including three from the business development team meant that the work had to be re-allocated among the remaining staff in order to continue the collections drive.

Hinds gave the update on the RDC’s efforts to collect on loans at a seminar on Farm Management for Poultry and Pig Enterprises held at the Commission’s Bridge Street Mall, St Michael Headquarters on Wednesday.

“We lost three officers and it has slowed the process in terms of our loan recoveries and we are working now to reschedule how we manage that operation. What we would have done was to allow loan customers to make payments through the Republic Bank,” he said, adding that one of the reasons persons may have neglected their payments to the RDC is because of poor business planning.

“I think it goes deeper than collections; it goes deeper with some people who would have borrowed and some never made any payments because either the business was going down or they lacked proper planning. That is the reason this morning for the training session to educate farmers about how they can plan to manage their businesses,” Hinds said.

The acting director said there has been a pique in interest from persons seeking assistance from the livestock development fund for the Christmas season and he attributes this to the increase in sales of pork and chicken which have stimulated the interest of those looking for a business opportunity.

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The Barbados Pharmaceutical Society (BPS) is calling on government not to leave it out of plans to introduce medical marijuana to the country.

Stating that he supports medical marijuana, BPS president Derek Catlyn however suggested today that Government should first decriminalize the drug.

“We know that medical marijuana is coming on stream cause we keep seeing it in the media. So I hope that everything would be in place in terms of pharmacists being more involved when it comes to that and not just from a doctor's perspective,” Catlyn told Barbados TODAY.

He complained that the Pharmaceutical Society had no information whatsoever about use of the drug or whether Government will start with its own pharmacies as providers.

“We don't really have any information. I don't know if private pharmacies will be involved as well, or first [if] the Government is going to be targeting, in terms of the public sector, like polyclinics and so on, and later on the private sector. But if they feel pharmacists will need sensitizing and educating regarding it, I don't see it as being a problem,” Catlyn said.

The BPS head argued that the Government should be more proactive in providing all the relevant information to the industry and not just releasing it in the Press.

“I believe all the necessary stakeholders got to be involved and let us see what is really happening,” he added.

Catlyn is of the view that some people have interpreted the marijuana issue the wrong way by mixing up its medicinal use and recreational purpose.

“They’ve got to understand that . . . the way how I interpret it . . . you could be treating it like how you have narcotic medication [where] anybody can just come into the pharmacy and get it just like that. It has to be in a restricted area; you doing checks and balances when it comes to it; you got to ensure that patients aren't abusing it,” the spokesman for pharmacists said.

But the health care professional noted that while recreational marijuana may come into force later, “I think first they can look at decriminalization instead of wasting taxpayers' money sending up somebody for having a personal amount of marijuana on themselves.”

He suggested that once all the mechanisms are in place, he does not see a problem with its introduction.

In June this year, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Indar Weir revealed that the Government intended to develop an industry here from the growing of ganja and other plants.

“I must share with you my Government’s intention to make provision for the production of marijuana and other plans for medical purposes,” Weir said in his feature address at the annual accountability seminar organized by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture and held in the Ministry of Agriculture conference room at Graeme Hall, Christ Church.

“Indeed, more and more countries are passing laws providing for the use of marijuana as a medicine to treat a range of medical complaints, including headaches, muscle spasm, nausea from cancer chemotherapy, poor appetite and nerve pain,” he said.

Weir said the authorities would monitor the drug to discourage rampant misuse, as it remained illegal in some countries.

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The country’s largest public sector union is satisfied that Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s promise to send home public workers with money in their pockets has been kept - at least for those who are union members.

Acting General Secretary of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), Delicia Burke said although the union has taken issue with certain aspects of the retrenchment exercise, she is happy that “most” public servants from government departments, represented by the NUPW, have been paid.

While she could not give numbers of NUPW members laid off, she indicated that in many cases, workers have been given enough money to carry them through the Yuletide season.

She told Barbados TODAY that scores of workers have gone home with at least back-pay, notice-pay and vacation-pay.

“Most of them would have gone home with some money, I guess there would be concerns about the future, but the good thing, if you could say good, is that the majority of them would have gone home with some money,” she said.

“Even though the money isn’t going to last forever, they would have some money now.”

In October, when the administration’s “economic recovery and transformation” plan, dubbed BERT, was in its early stages, Mottley promised “that the day workers receive their notice, they would be handed with a cheque, at least for severance payments and payment in lieu of notice.

“None of us would feel good having to go home without knowing where money is coming from and who is going to help us tomorrow or to come back next week or next month and be begging for money,” she said.

While laid-off workers from some government departments and statutory corporations like the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation have accused Prime Minister Mottley of breaking that promise, Burke said Government had in some cases gone the extra mile to meet the needs of its former employees.

“Our workers who were laid off, were given an ‘ex gratia’ payment, so even those who weren’t entitled to severance pay, they were given a payment which was computed around the same lines as severance pay, so it really isn’t true to say that they went home without their severance pay. Some who have gone over ten years who were not entitled to certain payments were given gratuities up front,” said Burke.

As for the workers who remained, the acting General Secretary highlighted Customs officers at the Barbados Revenue Authority as an example of overworked civil servants in under-staffed departments.

“We are concerned with the numbers at Customs, it is putting a lot of stress on those workers and only today, one of our members from statistics would have told us they are going through the same thing. They have lost quite a few members of staff and they are expected to give a greater output with less hands and it is causing a lot of stress on behalf of the remaining staff. So we will have to take up that cause on their behalf,” she said.

“We are also really concerned about sanitation and we are concerned about certain things relating to how the layoffs were done.”

Earlier this week, General Secretary of the NUPW Roslyn Smith before going on leave, revealed the union would be seeking the Prime Minister’s direct intervention in a number of matters which are affecting workers.

With Burke now acting in the position, the union will continue to advance the cause, she said.

The post ‘Satisfied’ appeared first on Barbados Today.

A construction boss is hinting construction labour may have to be imported as there may not be enough skilled workers to meet the demand as major construction projects kick off next year.

Project Manager of the JADA Group Vincent Jones said that construction companies may have to look outside of Barbados to fill the gap of skilled workers and tradesmen needed to work on large projects.

[caption id="attachment_285804" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Vincent Jones[/caption]

He cited the building of the Sandals luxury hotel resort in another four months, a large housing project in St George which will be started in another six months by Sagicor, as well as the ongoing work on Sam Lord’s Castle as some of the major projects that will need skilled workers.

Jones was delivering the 14th Samuel Jackman Prescod Memorial Lecture at the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology (SJPI) on the topic, Building Construction for Sustainable Development: Implications for Barbados.

He said the projects would have a positive economic impact and could even allow for recently laid-off public workers to find jobs “in the coming months or years”.

“Of course, the tricky aspect of this is to balance your level and intensity of development in terms of construction to try and prolong such activity over an extended period of time, which permits longer term employment opportunities and possibly reduce the need to import large numbers of skilled labour,” he told the audience.

The JADA project manager, himself a SJPI alumnus, charged that Barbados had become a victim of its own educational success and had created a human resource dilemma “of our own making”. He explained that whereas in the past, Barbados was said to have a good complement of tradespeople, this had shifted to the point where there were more Barbadians with degrees and white collar jobs than those who worked with their hands.

He observed that subjects such as Industrial Arts in secondary schools were “now deemed as low grade or low brow” and were looked upon by some as subject areas “where the academically inclined were sent as if [it was] some kind of sentence”. Jones added that working with one’s hands had, over the years, become a “bad word”.

“We have a very high literacy rate, and a large percentile average of our citizens, who might be considered to be the common folk, are holders of varying levels of degrees; certainly, a great achievement for a nation of only 166 square miles and a little over 280,000 persons. However, what have we lost in the process?

“May the Lord forgive our ignorance as a nation, not to realize that academic and trade education should complement each other and not fight each other for space in society.

“The sad reality, my friends, is when these projects I alluded to earlier start, we as a nation will be woefully under-equipped and under-manned as it pertains to skilled tradesmen, and we will have to import thousands of persons from the region and possibly the world to successfully complete some of the projects in the timelines allotted.”

He praised Government institutions such as the SJPI and other skills training centres that maintain and improve the skills level of tradespeople.

The construction boss said he hoped to see “some of the IMF and international funding” Government has received being pumped into his alma mater as well as the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Council.

This, he said, would allow them to offer young Barbadians and retrenched workers attractive opportunities for the future.

Jones suggested that Barbados needed “a more balanced and equitable” education system, so that people who wanted to obtain a skill from early could do so.

He further added that the earning capacity of skilled tradespeople was sometimes better than that of employees in traditional jobs.

“Do you know that a good tiler can earn as much as $2,000 in one five-day work week? Or that a good mason can earn as much as $1,200 in a five-day work week? Why then would we want to push a young person who might be naturally gifted with their hands into a clerical job that will pay $400 per week that they will find unfulfilling?

“I think that we must re-assess our approaches to education and make the necessary adjustments required to look toward the Barbados of the next 50 years.” Jones stated.

The post Wanted: More skilled tradespeople appeared first on Barbados Today.

It has been a hard year for the local fishing community and it doesn’t seem as though the fortunes will change over the last few days of December.

This island’s fisherfolk said that for a majority of 2018 the sector was burdened by the piles of sargassum seaweed that lined the island’s southern and eastern shores. They say its putrid smell deterred the locals and tourists but the murky moss prevented fish from venturing further inland. The adverse effects continue to be felt as flying fish are few and far between and the prices of fish in the markets have also increased due to their rarity.

Over at the popular Berinda Cox Fish Market in Oistins Christ Church, the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season was missing as well as the cheer. Fish hawkers told Barbados TODAY that it was a sluggish season and they were longing for a mad rush this weekend.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY Oistins fish vendor Wilma Hutchinson who has nearly a decade of experience at the market described sales as “ very, very slow”. She blamed the sargassum seaweed for the seasonal shift as flying fish and amberjacks were scarce. Hutchinson recalled how in previous years the market would be abuzz with activity and customers fighting to get fish for the holidays.

[caption id="attachment_285819" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Wilma Hutchinson[/caption]

“Once before around this time we used to have to shut off the gate to keep people from entering to get flying fish because the flying fish used to come plentiful .. but you aren’t getting none,” said the Oistins vendor.

Hutchinson revealed that her fingers were crossed that sales would improve over the next four days.

“You have to hope for the best and pray your costumers come out for Christmas. That is all you can do. As long as d flying fish come it would improve but as long as you don’t have any flying fish the market will be slow,” she pointed out.

Vendor Cathy Doughty also agreed with Hutchinson that the presence of the decaying sargassum significantly hampered business and changed the eco-system.

[caption id="attachment_285822" align="aligncenter" width="404"] Cathy Doughty[/caption]

“The sargassum messed with the fish, then [the fishermen] were killing the dolphin too small and it messed with the crop and now [the fishermen] are catching the flying fish and it is too small. It would take some time to leave the fish alone and let them grow . . . .

The amber fish filled a void. When they came in they were cheaper, people were buying them and happy with them but now the sargassum is gone, the amber fish is gone,” Doughty pointed out.

The Berinda Cox fish vendor shared that she never imagined during her 25-year career that the prices of fish would sky rocket with flying fish being sold at $30 a pack, dolphin at $11 a pound and marlin at $9 a pound. Although she remained hopeful that Christmas sales would improve in the coming days, Doughty contended consumers could only shop when they had money and presently the spending power was low.

“The customers are not coming in because probably some of them don’t have any money or some of them are waiting until they get pay,” she said.

Neil Carrington was more practical in suggesting “what will be, will be”. The fish vendor told Barbados TODAY business wasn’t bad but it could be better. He reasoned that vendors would have to wait until the new year to see if there will be an improvements.

[caption id="attachment_285821" align="aligncenter" width="396"] Neil Carrington[/caption]

“Plenty boats will be out in January and we would have plenty more fish coming in. Let us hope when the year turn and January come we get back more flying fish again,” Carrington said.

When asked if there should be investment in a breeding programme due to the dearth of fish, Carrington expressed that it was best to leave it to mother nature.

“They tried the fish breeding programme in Barbados already and it didn’t work because it cost too much money to keep the fish living. If you feed them too much they will die and if you feed them too little they still are going to die,” he stated.
katrinaking@barbadostoday.bb

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The Barbados Economic Society (BES) has put its seal of approval on the Prime Minister’s economic report card.

But BES president Shane Lowe has warned Barbadians not to expect any major economic growth next year.

Delivering a ministerial statement in Parliament on Tuesday, Mottley outlined a list of accomplishments of her six-month-old administration, while boasting that foreign reserves had reached their highest level in four years which made the dollar safe from devaluation.

She also reported that the debt-to-Gross Domestic Product ratio had fallen and that Barbados was “punching once again above its weight division”.

Lowe told Barbados TODAY the report “appears to reflect some success in the plethora of initiatives embarked upon since May”.

“The new Government’s first six months in office have been characterized by tough decisions, many of which the country has seen the initial benefits of, some whose benefits will materialize over some time, and others whose potentially negative effects must be appropriately mitigated,” he said.

By the end of 2018, Barbados should register its first year of positive foreign exchange reserve growth since 2012 and, while not likely to affect the cost of Government’s borrowing in the near-term, this year saw the first ratings upgrade by Standard and Poor’s after being temporarily rated in ‘selective default’ during the domestic debt restructuring.

“Further, 2019 will likely not bring substantial tax relief for Barbadians and current baseline projections suggest that the ongoing fiscal consolidation will likely keep economic growth subdued over the coming 12 months,” he said.

“Reforms of the state-owned enterprises and our tax framework should also continue and will likely change the ways we live and do business going forward. However, if the many cited capital projects get off the ground and support the expected uplift in economic activity from the arrival of Ross University in January, 2019 should bring better prospects for the country than those experienced in the last two years,” he added.

In her statement, Mottley did acknowledge that the next 12 months would not be rosy. But she said that by December 2019 “fewer persons in this country will have reasons to complain”.

Lowe acknowledged that the new Government had followed through on many of its targets, which it had set, adding that the speed of implementation was welcomed.

“The quick resolution of the domestic debt restructuring and the IMF’s approval of the BERT programme in much shorter-than-average time are both testament to that and perhaps the most notable achievements thus far,” he said.

But, the economist said, there are still some areas for improvement.

While welcoming the Government’s progress in procuring additional trucks to assist in garbage collection “it cannot come a day sooner as many communities continue to experience fortnightly collections at best”, Lowe said.

He also sees room for improvement in Government’s financial oversight by way of increasing the frequency and timeliness of data releases from the Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Barbados and Barbados Statistical Service.

At the same time, he acknowledged that the upgrades to Government’s financial reporting and information systems have gone some way in ensuring that the Government remain on track with its BERT programme, and may provide the framework for more timely access to data for the general public to provide their own oversight to the Government’s progress.

“Finally, negotiations with external creditors remain incomplete. Timely completion and an amicable deal which satisfies at least some of each party’s objectives should aid in putting the credit rating on foreign currency debt on an upward trajectory,” he said.

Lowe told Barbados TODAY that the single most significant highlight during the first six months of the current administration was the debt restructuring, which has been the subject of much debate.

He warned that it would require “steadfast adherence” to the targets set under the BERT programme to ensure that both domestic and foreign investor confidence continues to rebound in line with upgrades to the country’s credit ratings.

“While external debt restructuring and funding from the multilateral community have provided a boost to foreign reserves levels, improving our capacity to earn and save foreign exchange will reduce our dependence on foreign capital for reserve accumulation going forward,” he concluded.

The post On right track appeared first on Barbados Today.

The six-month progress report on the new administration’s economic rescue mission has raised more questions than answers, the leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Lynette Eastmond, has charged.

Eastmond, a former minister of international business in the Owen Arthur administration, contends that while Prime Minister Mottley touts the success of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme, there is still no mention of a growth plan.

In her ministerial statement to Parliament on Tuesday, Mottley boasted that foreign reserves had reached their highest level in four years, the dollar was no longer in danger of devaluation, debt-to-GDP ratio had fallen to 123 per cent and the country had received its first credit rating upgrade in 15 years.

“The plan has halted and reversed the six-year slide in our reserves, which have jumped from just $400 million to over $1 billion. Indeed today our Gross International Reserves stood at $1.044 billion – the first time since 2014,” Mottley said.

“Our dollar has been brought to safety… and in a few months we executed one of the largest exchanges of government debt as a percent of national income in world history. We will now save approximately $500 million of interest per year,” she added.

But Eastmond argues that most of these achievements were based on borrowed money and did not represent generated growth.

“While the international reserves appear to have improved, Barbadians must be mindful that this is based on borrowing and the Barbados Government’s decision to default on its loan payments. We however know that those who borrow must eventually pay back. So while we are being provided with fiscal space, the question is fiscal space to do what?” the leader of the two year-old political party questioned.

She told Barbados TODAY that her party was concerned that after six months in office, the Barbados Labour Party administration is yet to reveal a sound growth strategy and therefore “fiscal and tax policy decisions are being made which are out of step with the sectors most ready for growth”.

“One of these sectors is the creative economy and the [decision to introduce value added tax on online purchases] will hurt that sector the most but it will also hurt small businesses generally. There is no pride to be taken in the fact that other countries have not implemented this method of taxation. Other countries have not done so because at this juncture they foresee that the cost is greater than the benefit,” Eastmond said.

She also criticized Government’s recent decision to lower corporation tax from 30 per cent to a sliding scale of one to five per cent, noting that any benefits from this tax break were too much at the discretion of the private sector.

“There is no doubt that there must be some fall out in the loss of corporation tax upon convergence and that there is a potential loss in personal tax because of the lack of symmetry between the personal and the corporate tax rates . . . . The strategy however seems to be that of hoping that the private sector which will benefit from the reduced taxes will “do the right thing,” she said.

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After six months of Government’s implementation of a homegrown economic rescue plan it is still too early to tell if the measures will work, says economist Jeremy Stephen.

The University of the West Indies lecturer and former president of the Barbados Economics Society says he is concerned that while the Mia Mottley administration has made a good start to tackling economic woes, it may be trying to fix too many critical things at the same time.

“For the first six months the Government made rapid reforms but it is my feeling that it is too early to tell if is definitively bad or good. It is my view that they [Government] could have done a bit better if they had focused on fewer things that were critical as opposed to trying to be everything to everybody,” Stephen told Barbados TODAY in an interview Thursday morning.

Stephen warned Barbadians against thinking that the worst had past under the International Monetary Fund-approved economic prescription.

“There is no way that we are out of the woods yet. There are two things that still must happen no matter how we wish to dress it up. The IMF bailout has topped reserves but the problem in Barbados has always been productivity and foreign direct investment as well as growth and export potential. If we continue thinking that the IMF bailout is a formula for sustainable success then we won’t go anywhere,” he said.

He noted that over the years, successive governments, via the Central Bank, have drawn down on SDRs [special drawing rights with the IMF] in order to replenish reserves.

“Essentially you could have always borrowed from the IMF based on the amount of shares you have or you can sell those shares on the open market or cash them in at the IMF. So for a long time we have either been drawing or borrowing small loans from the IMF. I remember the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) under former Prime Minister Owen Arthur did it twice and so too did the Democratic Labour Party and they were all linked to the reserves,” he said suggesting that history has shown that loans to bolster foreign reserves did not in themselves solve balance-of-payment issues.

But the outspoken economist noted that a number of actions taken by Government in the last six months should give Barbadians some measure of hope that things could turn around should all of the stars align with regards to debt restructuring.

Stephen pointed out that progress in 2019 would also depend on the private sector changing the way it does business from being locally-driven to export orientation, following the Prime Minister’s recent decision to lower corporation tax from 30 per cent to a sliding scale of one to five per cent.

“Government has ensured that external creditors have to come to fairer terms considering the impact it would have on the foreign reserves,” Stephen told Barbados TODAY. “We still don’t know where this debacle will go but they don’t make up a large portion of the debt. My biggest worry is how the commercial banks will respond, even though at the moment they seem to be playing ball.

“In addition, we must watch how the private sector utilizes these new favourable tax cuts. They need to move towards being more export driven while Government must ramp up efforts to attract foreign direct investment.”

The post ‘We’re not out of the woods yet’ – Stephen appeared first on Barbados Today.

Police are currently on the scene of a shooting incident at Marhill Street, The City.

(more details as they come to hand.)

The post Police investigate shooting at Marhill Street, The City appeared first on Barbados Today.

Democratic Labour Party President Verla Depeiza has accused Government of neglecting myriad social ill, like ‘spiralling out of control’ crime, while being preoccupied with economic challenges.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY, DePeiza said the seven-month-old government is only now coming to grips with the realities of tackling crime.

“There hasn’t been anything done. We have had a lot of movement in relation to the economy. I am not in favour of all of it but we have had a lot of movement in relation to the economy, but nothing in relation to any social issue at all, including gun violence. It is as though only the economy matters,” she said, while indicating that many of country’s problems, particularly those relating to crime need to be tackled at a societal level.

“It has to start with that social investigation. We have to get to the root cause of the violence. Until we do that, it will not matter who is in power, [or] who is running the country. If we don’t find the answers to those questions… then we will be spinning top in mud.  There is nothing that we can do outside of investigating and tackling the social component and that really should be the focus,” she said.

Earlier this week, Minister of Youth and Community Empowerment Adrian Forde delivered an impassioned plea for young people to put down their weapons.

“My wish is for the young people of this country to put all the weapons of destruction in a bag, a box – I don’t care what container they put all these weapons in – and put them away, bury them. That is my one Christmas wish,” he said.

But with three of this year’s 27 murders occurring this month, along with numerous shootings and stabbings, Depeiza suggested that Forde was out of his depth in his efforts to tackle violence. Instead, she said there was a “subculture in Barbados that has to be addressed”.

“I think it has to be frontally addressed, and it is more than teaching young boys foreign languages off the blocks. What’s the point in learning a foreign language, but you have no opportunity to travel or to actually use the skills in some meaningful way? It is not about platitude. We need as a country to get our heads around what is causing all the violence, and only when we come to grips with that, will we be able to find solutions to it. I don’t think it is an insurmountable problem, but it has to be dealt with seriously,” she said.

DePeiza accused Attorney General Dale Marshall and Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson of failing to make any definitive steps to tackle the country’s problems.

“We have two persons wearing the same hat right now and a conversation from either of the two of them would be good right now… we have an attorney general and a minister of home affairs. One person used to wear the same hat before. We have not been told what the division of duties really is between the two of them. So either or both of them could speak and it would help.

“I think that the reality of politics and the reality of government has hit home. When in opposition, there was a lot of talk coming from the Barbados Labour Party about the past administration not getting crime under control. There was also a lot of talk [of] methods that could be used for gun control, but now that they’re there, I think they’re finding that it is not that simple.”

While Government has taken certain steps to address Barbadians more directly and improve its public relations, said Depeiza, she believes government can do a better job of connecting with the society’s most vulnerable elements.

“I have been very careful not to come out and do too much criticizing, because it is a little bit more than having the right legislation in place. I heard the Commissioner of Police calling for no bail for people accused of gun crime, but it is more than that. We have to get an understanding first of what takes people to that point.

“Address those issues, because it has that hard social component, not just underlying, but running all through it. And if we don’t get to grips with that, no matter what we put on the books, it will not work,” she stressed.

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