KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Parliament early Wednesday morning approved the Revenue and Expenditure for the next national budget estimated at EC$1.6 billion (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) even as Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves accused the opposition of having undergone a metamorphosis in their political propaganda.
The figure represents an 11.8 percent increase over the approved budget for 2023. It comprises recurrent expenditure, including amortization and sinking fund contributions, of EC$1,04 million and capital expenditure of EC$ 570.5 million.
The government says the fiscal package will be financed by current revenue of EC$810.8 million and capital receipts of EC$ 805.6 million.
Gonsalves said he would await the budget debate in January to respond to some of what he described as the “falsehoods’ from the opposition benches during the 12-hour sitting.
“I am under no illusions that I even have the attention of everybody in this Honourable House at this moment, much less the listening public. So, I will keep the majority of my powder dry for the later discussions we will have on the budget,” he said during the early hours of Wednesday as he rose to conclude the debate.
“I want to point out to you, Madam Speaker, Honourable Members, an interesting transition that’s taking place in the propaganda. I’m getting whiplash. I need help to follow the various propaganda games being played. Not even a few months ago, the propaganda m.”
But he said the ruling Unity Labour Party responded positively, and “we started to talk about all the big things” in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“That was our response, “Gonsalves said, adding during the debate, legislators witnessed a “fascinating metamorphosis” from nothing going to happen to many things taking place,” recalling the statement by Opposition Leader Dr. Godwin Friday that “it’s just projected; it’s just projected; don’t study all the projects because the projects are different from the people.”
The Finance Minister said another opposition member, St. Clair Leacock, said the government is only suitable for “a whole set of bricks and mortar.”
In this contribution to the debate, Leacock said that while he was not saying it as a pejorative, “the government functions as a brick and mortar machinery.
“They love a lot of hardware. Airport showpiece; seaport — showpiece, National Library – showpiece,” he said, adding that this is evidenced by the government’s photos in the budget cover.
“And I’m not saying that the government does not train,” Leacock said, adding that he was not trying to score cheap points.
“I feel that we need to get a better fix, a better blend between an estimate and ultimately a budget that is people-centered; people focused, where at the end of the day, the result is not now we have another deep-water pier or an airport — vital as they are and we’re not downplaying them.
“But the average man, the working man, the genteel poor, as the prime minister described them, the people who experienced extreme poverty, get a new hope and vision…”
Regarding the number of larger trucks on the road, Leacock said that while construction is an essential contributor to gross domestic product (GDP) and the nation’s economic well-being, it has two elements that must be managed.
The Finance Minister noted that Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, in his contribution to the debate, had pointed to some of the people-centered initiatives of the government, including programs such as Offering National Support for Internship Training and Employment, Promoting Youth Micro Enterprises, TVET training, digital transformation, land distribution housing distribution and scholarships.
“But I heard in the metamorphosis, from nutting go on to plenty things going on, but they’re not people things.
“I heard the Honourable Member for Central Kingstown (Leacock) beating this word over and over ‘people-centred. What we need is a people-centered government. We need people-centered policies; we need people-centered initiatives.’
“And I thought for a minute that he was over on this side of the House talking because we have been talking about people-centered policies, like a mantra for years,” Gonsalves said.
The Finance Minister said that during the debate, he looked at the budget speeches for the last 10 years, and each made repeated references to “people-centered.”
“When I became Minister of Finance (in 2017), I took the phrase from the Honourable Prime Minister and repeated it repeatedly. It is a talisman of the ministry,” Gonsalves said, adding that he used the phrase 14 times in his 2020 budget address and seven times in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
“But today, I was shocked to hear him discovering this phrase. ‘We must have so much ah project. Oh my god. Ao many ah projects let us be more people-cantered.’
“But our projects are people-centered. That is the problem. That is the problem they’re struggling with,” Gonsalves told Parliament.
“When we build the project called the hospital, the hospital is bricks and mortar and is a project. But it is designed to improve the health care of the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Building houses in Orange Hill and Sandy Bay are bricks-and-mortar projects, and we must brag about them. But each one of those houses is home to people, and they are people-centered projects.
“I don’t want to waste all my powder tonight when nobody’s watching. But I embrace this evolution of a government in waiting for the NDP; I welcome the evolution from austerity to people-centered. Because in the history of politics and development, austerity has never been people-centered. Austerity is about balancing the books on the backs of the people.”
Gonsalves told Parliament that the “evolution” of the opposition “from austerity to people-centered is a remarkable transition.
“But just as some politicians start to dress like De Comrade (PM Gonsalves) and try dance like De Comrade and try go party like De Comrade, now I realize they are trying to take the words of De Comrade and pretend that they are the ones who invented, in the context of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the concept of a people-centred social democratic government designed to advance the interests and the well-being of the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“There’s only one people-centered government in this House, and it is the Unity Labour Party,” Gonsalves told legislators.
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