Business View Caribbean July 2023

10 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 10, ISSUE 7 Minister’s comments could mean that he will reassign some ministries, as he had done in the lead-up to previous general elections. Gonsalves Thursday outlined the legislative agenda when the new Parliament meets saying the government would table a bill to grant a compassionate pension to Stephanie Browne, a former opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) legislator who did not serve for the requisite nine years in order to become pensionable. “She should have been getting a compassionate pension but everybody seemed to have thought that she had done nine years and getting a pension until she wrote me about it,” Gonsalves said. He said a similar bill will be brought in the name of Offord Morris, a former Labour Party MP, and noted that rather than receiving EC$1,500 (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) monthly as a pension, the two former lawmakers would get EC$2,000. He said some people might question the decision to grant the pensions. “… you want people who serve you to walk ’bout the place begging bread? Is that dignified? Is that worthy of our civilisation?” the prime minister said. Lawmakers will also debate a bill to extend Vincentian citizenship to second-generation Vincentians born overseas. Gonsalves said the bill will be sent to a select committee of Parliament. Currently, the Constitution and Citizenship laws grant automatic Vincentian citizenship to children of people born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, regardless of where in the world the child is born. “You know, at the moment you’re allowed, as a first generation Vincentian, you’re born overseas, to get citizenship. Well, we want to do it for second generation,” said Gonsalves, who has ministerial responsibility for citizenship matters and national security. “I want those who are second generation to get a chance also at citizenship.” He said lawmakers will also consider bills to amend the Finance Administration Act and the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) Acts. Gonsalves said the amendments to the NEMO Act will address “some technical questions dealing with damage assessments”. Also on the Order Paper are two “developmental bills addressing two …fixed interest loans, US$16 million dollars in all”. Gonsalves said the loans from the Saudi Fund will attract two interest rates. The temporary Parliament building was constructed at a cost of EC$5.5 million under an EC$20 million loan from Taiwan that Parliament approved at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The opposition had objected to its inclusion in a supplementary budget approved in April 2020 in response to the pandemic, saying that the building was not a priority and that the government should “put the money where the pain is”. The opposition boycotted Thursday’s opening ceremony.