KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday says that his new administration will emphasize completing the US$78 million hospital under construction in Arnos Vale, on the outskirts of the capital, rather than a new parliament building that the former government had proposed.
Friday, who led his Unity Labour Party (ULP) to a convincing victory in the November 27 general election, told a radio programme here that the national assembly will continue to meet at its current temporary site “for the foreseeable future”.
Friday maintained his criticism of the decision by the Ralph Gonsalves government to borrow US$20 million to construct the new parliament building, saying “I said this when I was in opposition, that for me, given … the financial situation in the country, I didn’t think that the parliament building, as desirable as it is, [would] have been my number one priority, especially when the whole notion of that came up during the COVID crisis”.
In June 2020, the ULP administration pushed ahead with a US$20 million loan for the construction of new parliament and courthouse buildings, even as the then-NDP opposition withdrew its support, saying that doing so during the COVID-19 pandemic was wrong.
“And that’s where I said the phrase, … ‘put the money where the pain is’, because people are suffering, and you’re talking about building a parliament building,” Friday told radio listeners.
The parliament used to meet at a 200-year-old building in Kingstown that also served as a courthouse. However, the last sitting was held there on June 1, 2023, as the two-storey building, located across from the historic Market Square, needed extensive repairs.
The High Court continued to sit in the mouldy, woodlice-infested building through July 2024.
Prime Minister Friday, who is also the Minister of Finance, said his priority now is not building a new parliament building.
I want to be able to … get the hospital completed, so that the people can have basic, proper health care.”
In October 2024, the government broke ground for the hospital with the Taiwanese firm Overseas Engineering and Construction Company, giving it 32 months to complete the project.
Friday said his government would also be exploring a proposed national health insurance and that he has already held discussions with the chief executive officer of the National Insurance Services (NIS), insisting that St. Vincent and the Grenadines must have a national health insurance system.
“I believe we have to do it because the notion that somehow you can’t afford a national health insurance scheme or prom or programme is like saying somebody gets sick, ‘Well, you’re on your own. You die,” Friday said, noting that people get sick whether or not there is a health insurance service.
“So, the question we’re asking ourselves is, how do we manage that? What’s the best way to do it? And for me, and it’s not rocket science,” he said, noting that other countries have also confronted that question.
“They say it’s better to do it as a broad base, where the younger help the ones who are more vulnerable now. It might happen. It might not. At some point, you’re going to need the help.”
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