BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Barbados government Monday welcomed the signing of a new compact with the social partnership covering nearly 50 essential items even as it appealed to Barbadians to continue cutting off extravagant spending.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley speaking at the signing ceremony, said that the agreement covers 47 essential items that almost every Barbadian household will have to use.
“There are those who may want to continue to have a range of cheeses or a range of different choices, we get that, but now is the time for us to deal with necessity as opposed to what we would like or what we want.
“Therefore, the government is happy that we have been able to work constructively with the private sector and with the labor movement to be able to say to this country, brethren and sistren, the seas still rough, it may not be as rough as last year, but it is still rough, and when the seas rough you don’t swim freestyle…but you may have to get a dog paddle and come in”.
Mottley said that even as the government and the social partners were trying to do their best institutionally, they were asking “Barbadians and Barbadian households to step up to the plate and to make sure that some things that may be beyond our control like food prices…that we are in a position to moderate because the hard thing is for when the sea is rough is to keep your head above water and to allow life to continue”.
She said while there may be a time when things will get back, there is a need to recognize in the meantime, “we are heading in the right direction, but we have not yet reached the safe harbor.
“Things are looking better, the clouds are not as heavy as they were before, but we have not yet reached there, and if you try to let go of your hand and you are trying to do everything as you are coming to shore…a riptide can still take you away, and people can sometimes drown in six inches of water”.
Mottley said she was asking the country to “bear some more, bear with us…we are better than we were last year and certainly 2020 and 2021”.
She said that the international financial environment is changing for the better, pleading for the population to “continue as a nation to do the things that we can do more and better.”
She urged Barbadians to get involved in backyard gardening to lessen the impact of high food costs while encouraging the private sector to recognize “that in the same way, the government has seen the prices of other things come down that where there is a decline in prices let us ensure that we pass it on.
“I ask the labor movement to recognize too that we will continue to try to work with you, but…(remember) sometimes the chasing of prices in an inflationary environment is an impossible task, and therefore we do know just as we were able to bear some heavy weight and pain with the pandemic in 2020, we are still bearing some weight, but the weight now is liftable….”
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