PMO

Transcript of an Address to the Nation
By the Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, QC, MP
On April 29, 2020

My fellow Barbadians, residents and well-wishers,

Ever so often, on this journey of life, we are brought to a sudden halt when the wind is taken out of our sails – often not of our making or desire – and somehow when we are left adrift, it is then that we begin to realize that those things we valued so highly when we were sailing comfortably, are not so valuable; and those things that we took for granted, were too quickly underappreciated.

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Today, I speak to you on the cusp of two significant holidays in our nation’s calendar- National Heroes’ Day and Labour Day. Nowhere have these two holidays borne more significance, in my mind, than they do this year, where a list of 10 officially recognized heroes had to be updated to collectively include thousands more yesterday.

To date, as the lives of each and everyone one of us have become dependent on the conscientiousness and sense of responsibility of those unsung heroes who continue to work, during this trying time, to ensure that Barbadians have some measure of comfort and normalcy, we are reminded that heroes are born and idols are made.

As we continue to salute our medical professionals who leave their families daily to ensure that the rest of us remain safe, we must not ignore the value of the support services of the cleaner, of the hospital porter and orderly, of the supermarket and gas station worker, of our policemen and soldiers, bank tellers and branch managers, water and electricity and telephone workers, all of whom and many, many more to continue to perform their duties with dignity and respect.

They stand alongside, proudly so, our nurses and doctors on the front line- necessary, vital, indispensable- and so we are forced to recognise what we already knew; there is no frontline without the backline. This evening, yet again, I salute you. I salute you all…..each and every worker who has helped us thus far, in this still evolving challenge.

When this is over, we will redouble our effort to build that better society, when all are valued for nothing less or more, than their humanity. That remains our steadfast mission.

My brothers and sisters, I know the questions that many of you would like me to answer right of – are we lifting the curfew? Are we reopening restaurants? What about the rum? Can we get a sea bath? When can we go back to work?

Believe you me. I got you! And I will answer all these and more before I end this address. But I want you first to walk with me a little as we speak about the journey we are on, where we are going and the headwinds and the tailwinds.

Fellow Barbadians, this is one of those occasions when I would have preferred an opportunity to speak with each of you, individually — one by one. But even though I cannot, rest assured that my team and I have been listening. We have heard your concerns and realities of all Barbadians and placed them into the center of everything we are doing. We know you are worried about the safety of your loved ones. You are worried too about your livelihood, and that you need more information about what is to happen, when will it happen, and generally, what you ought to be doing at this point.

The truth is, I want to thank you, because so many of you have simply cooperated with us.

But sadly however, certainty is not in the gift of anyone in this new reality in any part of the world. What I can say to you, is that your Government is ready to do whatever it takes to keep you safe. And you would have seen that, in the way we pitched our tent high, in terms of facilities that we have gone out and built, in terms of our workforce and making sure that they are at the centre, and holding stock levels of essential supplies, well above our current needs, in spite of our fiscal difficulties.

We have a well-considered plan: But any plan we pursue, must be done within the context and reality of this pandemic that we are facing. COVID-19 is not to be taken lightly. As of 6 pm this evening, a staggering 3,207,164 persons have tested positive for the Coronavirus across the entire world, and regrettably some 227,368 deaths recorded worldwide as of 6 p.m. — one hour ago.

Among these are too many Barbadians from across the Diaspora and yet again we extend our sympathy to them — our hugs, our kisses, our prayers, our love. And today, regrettably, we lost our very latest victim here at home; a 78-year-old female who had a history of diabetes and hypertension and was on the ventilator for 33 days. Our prayers remain with her family and all of the other families who have lost loved ones or who have had to pray as their family members fought valiantly against this virulent virus.

The sad occasions of this death today coincides with the news of yet another day zero positive results. And we are testing. Over the last 2 weeks we have had 7 positive cases as compared to 73 in the 5 weeks before that. We have tested more than 1,200 persons, I don’t have the exact number with me, but believe you me, we are testing. Apart from the unfortunate NAB cluster, it means that in spite of our heightened daily testing at last the trajectory of cases is declining. However, you and I both know that one swallow does not a summer make. The danger lies in those who may not be showing initial symptoms. We have therefore to remain ever vigilant.

Why? Because, my friends, this disease is nobody’s friend.

It does not discriminate as we would have seen with Prince Charles and British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and several others contracting it. We’ve also had celebrities known to us who not only contracted it, but regrettably have died. All the experts have pointed out that without the procurement of a vaccine or at least an effective treatment – which regrettably, could be as many as 12 to 18 months away — to fight this deadly virus, we will have to adjust to a new normal, and it is within this framework that we have set out a plan for Barbados; a plan that will simply require all hands to be on deck.

The plan we will present to you today results from our experts listening to all at home and abroad, without arrogance and without pride getting in the way. When I speak of “WE,” I refer to myself as Chairman, Acting Prime Minister, Santia Bradshaw, those members of Cabinet representing health, economics and critical productive sectors, and other vital areas of government administration; senior public officers including the Chief medical Officer and all those public health doctors, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, those from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture — all across the public sector we have taken a whole of Government approach, and with the Social Partnership, a whole of society approach.

I also speak of our key economic advisors who have navigated us so superbly through our first 20 months of tight-rope walking. And I feel it, because as I said to you in Parliament on March 20, we’ve gone straight back to the start line. So I know that Ministers Ryan Straughn and Marsha Caddle, Dr. Clyde Mascoll, Dr. Kevin Greenidge, and Professor Avinash Persaud, PS Headley and Director of Finance Carrington, all in the Budget Analyst and Debt Management Sections, I know how all of them feel. They have worked beyond the call of duty to take our country to this point.

Similarly, the Social Partnership with whom we are interacting every few days – the Head of the Private Sector and the Chamber of Commerce, the BHTA and the Bankers Association – and representatives of all of the UNIONS (Senators Toni Moore and Caswell Franklyn, Edwin O’Neale and Akanni McDowell and Delcia Burke, BAMP and the other representative agencies and CTUSAB. They have been working.

We have now been privileged to be joined for this national rebirth by a Jobs and Investment Advisory Council comprising experienced persons and those with creativity, Entrepreneurs and CEOs, from the Principal of UWI Cave Hill to ministers of the cloth, former Ministers of Finance. We have a full team of locals and Barbadians internationally, who have already had an initial meeting with myself as chair of the council and expect to receive reports from the various sub committees to our 5 questions as to how we can justly rebuild and transform our nation. I wish to also thank the scores of Barbadians who have been reaching out to the Government of Barbados and myself selflessly, tirelessly. They have stepped forward to serve and to share. They are not in it for the recognition, but we know who they are, and we are immensely grateful, for this is our nation.

So, as you can see, this is one of the most experienced and accomplished national advisory bodies, as well as a Government that is committed to working as we move forward. The Social Partnership is part of our model, and I remind you, that they have come together to tackle the greatest threat to our social and economic stability and wellbeing, certainly for the past 70 to 80 years since World War 2. As daunting as the task might appear, this team, empanelled to take on the assignment will do its duty by the people of this nation. And what is the assignment? We have embarked upon a plan to wrestle the impact and effects of COVID-19 to the ground. We want to contain it.

Over the past few weeks, we have thought of, analyzed, and carefully planned for many scenarios. We have done our modeling. Trust me when I tell you, we have approached this matter from many perspectives, risks and threats.

Firstly, it must be generally understood, that exiting lockdown before a vaccine or herd immunity, is problematic, mainly because it appears that a large percentage of persons, maybe as high as 50% with COVID-19 could be asymptomatic – they could have and carry the disease and we wouldn’t know.

Contact tracing can help, but the only real way of identifying asymptomatic carriers is through mass testing and those tests are still not as accurate as we would like. Simply exiting lockdown in the presence of asymptomatic people and before a vaccine or herd immunity, could send us back into lockdown, again and again. And we have already heard them speak about different waves.

Similarly, not exiting lockdown is also a problem. No amount of drama in the economic statistics – no amount of citing a doubling of unemployment in 8 weeks, a 20% contraction of the economy and counting — none of that describes the stark reality, that a vast majority of our population now do not have the savings to manage comfortably without income for even a short period of time. We are not Norway. We do not have a sovereign wealth fund built up that can help us get through this period. It would be hard to conjure up circumstances more likely to tear apart the social fabric of this society that has been worked on so hard by generations of people. It is hard, and my friends, when you think of those who may be unemployed or short of food and whose everyday freedoms are now constrained, we really have to pause.

There is an essential psychological and time dimension too. The spirit of “Dunkirk” for those of you who remember that famous moment in World War 2, or the spirit of those in Golden Square in Bridgetown on the night of July 26, 1937 — these spirits could be evoked at the beginning of the first lockdown; but not after repeated, prolonged lockdowns and depressing uncertainty as to when or if this will change. Dunkirk occurred right at the beginning of the war, not in the middle of destruction and despair. And indeed, Golden Square heralded the beginning of our political and labour movements as we now know them.

There is also, a troubling contrast. Many of those people who are most vulnerable to falling off the social, economic, and psychological edge because they are now incapable of providing for themselves and their loved ones, are often those least likely to have complications from catching COVID-19: the young and healthy. On the other hand, many of those we need to protect- the elderly and sick- are often those least affected financially by a lockdown because they were not working full time or may already be receiving their pension cheques, and therefore the absence of work does not affect them. Further, forcing our people to remain in small spaces, near their grandparents, or those who psychologically need outlets, may create new risks. What am I saying? Lockdown, regrettably, is a blunt instrument.

To lockdown or “open up” is a false distinction. More useful divisions are between people who are predominantly safe and those who are largely vulnerable, and activities that are mainly safe and those activities that may be too risky to undertake.

We need to exit lockdown after a period long enough to see those with symptoms, treat and isolate them, and carry out contact tracing. But we can only exit lockdown successfully by ensuring that safe people are going back to work, but doing only safe things, in new and safe ways, and vulnerable people isolated from them, in safe places doing only very safe things.

I have told you before that we may well come to a position where 60 per cent of our workers are working for the rest of the workforce because we want to keep safe people doing safe things, and those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19 separated from those who may have to work and to carry on.

Within these two guardrails, a significant amount of economic activity can return, saving jobs, saving livelihoods, and the revenues necessary to provide the essential services that our society needs.

This exit plan requires three things:

First, we need to identify those safe people and those who are vulnerable. We can do so by identifying the safest population segments. I mentioned the young and healthy population segment above, but I emphasize healthy, given how some of our young people have hypertension and diabetes, two critical co-morbidities of COVID-19. And let me just say on this first one, that as we identify them, we want to work with you in communities to identify where these people who are most vulnerable live and if we have to separate through living arrangements, then families need to come together and talk to each other to see how those who are least vulnerable to COVID can live separately from those who are most vulnerable. And if that can’t happen within a family then we need to look within the community, and if it does not happen within the family or community, then the Government will work with you to start to identify options for living so that those people can work again.

Second, we need to lay down the criteria of a safe activity, in particular, physical distancing, personal protective equipment protocols, good hygiene practices, and managing or eliminating all points of human contact. It may be possible to make much of what we do safe using these protocols and technology, but we would need to monitor and enforce it too. And by that I mean not only management but every person — worker or client, customer or onlooker, has a role to play to reinforce the safe measures that we must continue to take. And I say so, know that every so I often I may try to touch my face and I must break myself of that habit.

Third, we need to ensure safe people are doing safe things in a safe way beyond work, including when they return home or how they get to work. The way we manage travel on buses and returning home is absolutely critical. There will be many homes where such segmentation is not easily possible. As I said earlier, displacing those most vulnerable from their home, or the elderly or sick is much more complicated, and that’s why I want families and the community to start to have the conversation and if that can’t be resolved then we will have to pull in others to help us through this period of emergency. Private accommodation and transport services currently lying idle in the tourism sector or elsewhere may have to be pressed into action. But we are small enough to go into every community and every workplace and have the conversations because this is unlikely to leave us in a hurry.

This plan is about three main things. First and foremost, it is about public health and keeping people safe post-lockdown. Secondly, it is about exiting full lockdown, and starting to bring back activity so that we can go onwards and upwards, and stopping the spread of severe risks to society and security from not doing so. Finally, it is about breathing hope and killing despair in our land. It is a plan that engages all of society and makes a subtle shift from command and control to a sense that we are doing something positive about our lives, our communities, and the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

Permit me now to share with you some of the new protocols we will require for all activities outside the home.

Protocols for safe people doing safe things and vulnerable people at home and protected

1. Vulnerable people have first to be determined.

Anyone who:

• Has a high temperature or a new persistent cough, anyone who has lost the sense of smell and taste, we have learnt,

• Anyone who is a vulnerable person (by your age — we have already asked persons over 70 to remain at home. I know is it difficult, underlying health condition, clinical condition or are pregnant, we are asking you not to take chances. We will get through this and we want to be here to see you when we get through, my friend)

• Similarly, are you living with someone in self-isolation or a vulnerable person? If so, you should not come to work, for now.

2. We are asking all persons going into the public to move around to start to use masks, whether disposable or cloth. I know that many of you have started. We have not made it mandatory, but we are considering doing so and until such time we are asking all of you to wear the masks. Our concern about making it mandatory is that we have adequate supplies on island so that we do not make criminals of people who are not wearing it, and I am waiting on that information.

I know that some people already have the disposable masks – surgical and in particular, the N95. Let us agree that as far as possible these should be left for our health care workers and frontline workers. Indeed, Barbadians I know will buy and they will make masks. That’s why I am so proud of what was done at the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute with the project for the face shields using the 3D printers that the Government invested in sometime back. It shows what we can do.

3. Travel to workplace has to be something now that we consider. Where possible, workers should travel to their workplace alone using their own transport or getting transport from others.

Employers need to consider: Parking arrangements for additional cars and bicycles, providing hand cleaning facilities at entrances and exits.

Many who will travel on public transport will now know that buses will be limited to 60% capacity now to provide sufficient space and only one person at a time can sit on a row of chairs.

3. Workplace Access Points:

No non-essential visitors should be allowed.

All persons entering the worksite are, with their consent, to have their temperature taken before proceeding onto the site. Temperatures on sites should be tested twice daily by a dedicated nurse assigned to carry out this duty for large workplaces like construction sites, supermarkets and manufacturing plants or call centres.

Employers should introduce staggered start and finish times, where possible, to reduce congestion and contact as far as possible.

All workers — we know this already — must wash or clean their hands before entering or leaving the workplace, and I would like to believe even during the time they are at work.

Employers must allow plenty of space (preferably at least six feet although the WHO regulations say three feet) between people waiting to enter the site.

Employers must regularly clean common contact surfaces such as trollies in supermarkets, counters etc

4. Hand Washing

I almost feel as if someone is speaking to us as if we were back in primary school, but forgive me. It is so powerful that if you understand how the virus looks you will begin to understand how soap and water kills the outside lining of the virus and protects us in that way. And that is why we say wash your hands or use hand sanitizer with at least 70 per cent alcohol. Employers must provide additional hand-washing facilities to what they usually have, and on the larger site this is something particularly important we will insist on because of the significant numbers of personnel on-site.

Employers must ensure soap and fresh water is readily available and kept topped up at all times.

5. Canteens and Eating Arrangements

The workforce for now should be required to stay on-site once they have entered it and not use a lot of local shops.

Break times should be staggered to reduce congestion and contact at all times.

The workforce should be asked, as far as possible, to bring pre-prepared meals and refillable drinking bottles from home. Now remember, this is not going to be forever, so when we ask you to do these things, especially as we open back up, I beg you, please do them.

Workers should sit six feet apart from each other while eating and avoid all contact.

Payments should be taken, as far as possible, by contactless methods wherever possible. In other words, put the money in a container and pass the container forward to the person.

6. Avoiding Close Working

Non-essential physical work that requires close contact between workers should not be carried out.

Work requiring human contact should not be carried out at this stage, except of course in the health sector.

All workers should wear the disposable face mask issued once made available. The close contact will also come with respect to those in law enforcement because they are simply carrying out their duty to ensure that people are safe in this country.

Employers should also seek, where possible, to increase ventilation in enclosed spaces and they should regularly clean the inside of work vehicles and between use by different operators.

Only necessary meeting participants should attend in-door meetings, once again.

Rubbish collection and storage points should be increased and emptied regularly throughout and at the end of each day.

Beyond these protocols, we must phase our approach to limit bunching and congestion and potential sources of risk.

Below is a list of activities that will be distributed electronically and by the media, but I will go through them for the avoidance of doubt. We believe it will be safe to start in Phase 1 to manage congestion and density. This list will be posted and we will review it every two weeks, but if necessary we will take action in between in the event of a public emergency or the public interest. The criteria for which sector can start is threefold:

First, those activities that can be carried out without public gathering, second those activities that are not carried out in close proximity to others in enclosed spaces, and three, those activities that are an integral part of the supply chain for any essential service or product or any sector that is already open.

If we are in Phase 1 today, the following sectors will be open in Phase 2 on Monday May 4. I will repeat myself for the avoidance of doubt: We will be moving to phase 2 on Monday May 4 and everything that was allowed to function in Phase 1 will continue and you can check the documents that outlined these over the past eight weeks or so.

Similarly now, we want to add:

Anything that can be carried out fully at home, fine. Anything on-line, fine.

But we want to add now:

• Construction and mining;
• Landscaping, gardening and pool services;
• Food and beverages, manufacturing and retailing — not the actual restaurant, but the manufacturing and selling of food and beverages;
• Supermarkets;
• Finance and insurance companies;
• Legal, accounting and other professional services to support businesses, particularly those business I identified just now that are already open;
• Tradesmen (like joiners and upholsterers and welding workshops);
• Automotive stores and workshops that are necessary to support the maintenance of a safe public and private transport system;
• Electronic stores, other than for mobile and ICT matters;
• Retailers of baby products, because mothers are still having babies;
• Building supplies;
• Beauty supply stores (I know that a lot of people are getting very fretful and they may have to do some stuff on their own before we reach the next level where those people we are accustomed going to we can start returning to in a safe way. Ad we are working hard on it);
• Health and medical services;
• Office equipment and supplies;
• Pet services and supplies (because equally pets are living and animals need access or medicine or whatever else is needed to keep them safe);
• Safety equipment;
• Security products and services;
• Marine products distributors;
• Education suppliers;
• Dry cleaning and laundry services;
• Distribution and printing supplies;
• Delivery companies.

As to what many of you have been asking for, we will allow the sale of alcohol, come Monday May 4, but no consumption is to occur in public, and believe me, my friends, we will monitor this closely. I am by no means a prude, but we have to look out at this stage for the vulnerable and their public interest.

We would like, in a very limited way, to reopen the beaches from May 4, and therefore we will start only between 6 am to 9 am every morning and particularly for those elderly people who may have joint problems and cannot therefore exercise on the road or run or walk, but who need the sea in order to be able to allow their bodies to get that kind of movement that is necessary to avoid the main. May I say we will be monitoring closely to see if we can safely widen this window, but at this stage it is only from 6 in the morning till nine in the morning. We are encouraging people to go to the sea, to exercise, go in the water, but do not congregate on the beaches, if not we will have to take additional action.

To help, I will now share with you a list we do not yet consider a safe or essential activity but we will work with them to settle clear protocols for safe work for you and your customers. What am I referring to in Phase 3 potentially? These are activities we will review general in two-week modules, but we reserve the right to bring forward any, if necessary, in the public interest. I refer now specifically to those that we will consider for Phase 3, potentially after May 18:

• Bookstores
• Home furnishing
• Houseware stores
• Clothing stores
• Flower shops
• Restaurant equipment/wholesale
• Schools generally
• Sports equipment
• Souvenirs and gift shops
• Arcades and betting shops
• Barber and beauty stores
• Personal care and wellness suppliers
• Sport suppliers
• Entertainment
• Restaurants

We will look forward to see how best we can deal with them, particularly with whether we can bring forward elements of drive-thrus and also delivery for restaurants. We will address that separately when I am satisfied we have the appropriate protocols to be able to reopen and it may well be that in that last category we may get there before May 18, but we must have the requisite protocols to protect our people

Let me now address the Public Service.

Earlier today, Santia, the Minister of Education spoke to the country and indicated that classes in the third term for all public schools will officially start electronically on the Monday 4th May, 2020. For the avoidance of doubt, no child is to go physically to the school plant for classes.

She announced it will be electronic, that they will use the G-Suite Tech-drive project, which will provide much needed assistance to several students who require devices in order to participate in the remote learning platform G-Suite for Education, which the ministry will be using. This is not a perfect situation and we did not plan for this at this point.

But I am extremely pleased that this initiative has already garnered significant support from the private sector as well as individuals across our nation, who have come forward to help us in the effort of ensuring that more of our students receive the platform, tablets or the various instruments that will allow them to participate in electronic learning. With the best will in the world, and even with the money available, there would still be a supply and logistics issue with most places having been closed across the world. We have therefore to see that we give first and foremost to those children with the greatest need across the educational system.

With respect to the rest of the public service, we can very cautiously reopen many areas of the public service on a phased basis, both to provide additional services to the public and to support the private sector effort.

I wish to stress that this initiative to ease restrictions is being guided by the best advice from health professionals regarding infections on the island and other relevant data.

Against this background, effective Monday May 4 the following will pertain:

i. Those government offices which have been functioning over the curfew period will continue to do so with their regular staff numbers. These include the General Post Office, National Insurance Department and Customs and Excise Department and Immigration Departments.

ii. Other government entities which provide functions deemed critical at this time will re-commence operations with regular staffing complements to provide full services. Some staff will continue to work from the office and others from home in a flexible arrangement. I consider it important to get the seeds of economic activity growing again, and therefore departments such as those responsible for projects in the Ministry of Transport Works and Maintenance; in the Lands Surveys Department in the Ministry of Housing and Rural Development are supportive of the kinds of targeted construction activities we need at this time. Similarly, other entities like the Urban Development Commission, that are involved in the construction of the Cheapside Market as well as the facilities for the BARVEN vendors on the Spring Garden Highway will have to work. The Bridgetown Port will be operating from tomorrow, in order to be able to facilitate the opening of those businesses on Monday that we spoke about. For that to happen we need to ensure that the backlog in containers in the port starts to be cleared. And similarly, the Attorney General has already recognized that a number of persons in those businesses that will open on Monday will need to move in order to get themselves ready to engage the public.

iii. The wider public service will reopen with minimal staff on Monday May 4 and will provide only basic services initially. These entities will increase their staffing complements and services provided, in the coming weeks, as the situation allows. That is because we don’t want to have to many people moving back into work and congesting the roads at the same time. So we are taking a phased approach. Those offices which will operate with partial staffing initially to facilitate include units such as the Town and Country Planning Department and the Urban Development Commission; Units in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment including the Public Investment Unit that is helping us deal with a lot of matters now; and the Rural Development Commission in the Ministry of Housing, Lands and Rural Development.

I want to stress, my friends, that when these new measures come on stream, in all instances across all arms of government, the requirement of physical distancing must be observed. Only those engagements which do not put the public nor the officers in danger should be allowed.

As we go forward, there will necessarily be a need to work through issues in this new environment such as the provision of personal protective equipment for staff, and adjustments to some physical spaces. It will be important for persons to follow the guidelines; observe physical distancing and wear masks as advised as we indicated earlier.

Members of the public should also expect that the speed of service delivery in some partially staffed offices will not be the same as obtained when those offices were operating with full staffing complements. I ask you to remember this, and to be patient as we try to meet the needs of the country’s public sector, while still ramping back up some level of services to the benefit of you, the public.

I also encourage, wherever possible, those of you who may communicate with government offices by telephone or electronically, do it wherever possible. Where it is necessary to physically interact with government agencies, then clearly, I’m asking you in these first few weeks to try as far as possible to follow the lettering system now in place for shopping and conducting bank transactions. Note I said, as far as possible. We are adults and we need to trust each other. Remember always that if it gets out of hand the Government will take whatever action is needed to protect the health of the people of this country. From all reports, that system is working reasonably well. The first few days I know people were nervous, but over the last two weeks (ten days or whatever it was) I have seen generally that people have found their feet and I expect hat similarly with Government agencies we will find our feet as we deal with this phased reopening.

There are a number of approaches which will be used to ensure that best working practice in this new environment is achieved. First, those officers who can work from home will have the opportunity to do so. Over the past five weeks or so, many officers have been working remotely and in the coming weeks we will be seeking to acquire the technology for more of you to provide that option as far as possible to many others. Secondly, a system of staff rotation and flexi- time will be implemented across the public sector. The Ministry of the Public Service has already been discussing this with its union partners. Permanent Secretaries have already been requested to provide operational plans to give effect to those approaches. This process will therefore be managed by them in consultation with the Head of the Public Service and officers will be informed by their Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Department. So if you are in doubt over the next few days about how you will work in your ministry, then you need to your superior, head of department of permanent secretary for them to advise you on how it will be done. We have been doing it in a number of ministries over the past five weeks. I keep telling you the doctors told me I’m supposed to be on sick leave, but you know the efficiency of the environment within which the Government has been operating as very often, almost daily they have reach out to me electronically, and officers have done so from their homes safely and they have gotten on with the business of the country.

There will be adjustments and refinements; let me tell you that straight off. There will be adjustments and refinements as we go forward. I have told you over and over that we are now omniscient, therefore we will listen and we will respond. We will continue to discuss with these and any other sectors the protocols that would allow them to open at a sooner date than we are planning to, if possible. We will look every two weeks to see where we are and where we can move forward. In front of Phase two come Phases three and Phase four. You may ask: What is Phase 4? Well Phase 4 my friends will be when we can return to as close to normal after an effective treatment or vaccine has been procured and we can get back to the kind of life we are accustomed to, but we are not yet there.

I am also in conversation with members of the private sector to establish a hotline for some of you working within the private sector, as tradesmen, as small businesses, as larger businesses, but who may be unsure if you are allowed or when they will be allowed to work and under what conditions. This hotline will liaise with the relevant health and government officials to provide the answers and approvals to the companies and individuals in a seamless way, and I look forward to that information being distributed to you over the course of the next few days.

We will keep you informed in a frank, honest, and continued way, with regular conversations and giving you notice, wherever possible.

What they need to know 3: Livelihoods

If we move to phases where safe people are doing safe things in safe ways, there will be a return of a degree of economic activity, employment — jobs, and income.

But it will take a while before all activity returns. Tourism will not be quick to return, although at the CARICOM level we are seeking to see what kinds of protocols that will have to inform us because we are not going to take foolish chances with our people. Financial institutions will also be cautious. The economic consequences, my friends, you are seeing every day in not just Barbados or the Caribbean, are severe.

We estimate that over the next twelve months — and we have had to revise upward the numbers that we spoke about three or four weeks ago in Parliament — we will lose at least $450 million in tax revenues as a result of the economy being fully, partially shut, or only slowly opening. There will be less income tax collected, corporation tax, Value Added Tax, excise tax, duties, fuel — and air transport levies, well they shut down for now.

We have spent or committed over $75 million in health-related expenditures over the last few weeks on different items, whether it is on the new isolation, quarantine, and treatment centers, new planned equipment. Some of it was, fair enough, needed by the QEH for many years, and along with that for the polyclinics, constituted a good $40 million outside of the sum of money we have committed, with the remaining going toward the COVID-19 epidemic. This is a time when we need to press forward. The Government has recognized that we will also have to spend significant sums of money, and I will share that with you shortly, on the National Insurance Scheme, which is being overwhelmed the number of unemployment and severance payment applications.

Without doing anything, the difference in public revenue and expenditures could worsen by a cumulative $700 million.

While this is challenging enough to deal with, what has kept us on course, has been the certain knowledge that if COVID were to have struck in May 2018, when the country’s reserves were barely above $400m, the country was running then a massive deficit after a decade of even larger deficits, we would be in a very different position than we are today to meet the crisis. It wouldn’t just be the hotels that were shutting but Government. There would have been no money and no credit to buy ventilators, tests, and personal protection equipment, to fix up Harrison Point, to do a number of the things that we’ve been doing.

It is the hard work done over the past just under two years, from debt restructuring to regrettably the higher land taxes for some and bus fares for all that has enabled us to focus firmly on public health first. Just before COVID-19 struck, our reserves had reached $1.55 billion, the highest level recorded at that time on a like-for-like basis for a while. Today, as a result of low–interest borrowing from our partners, the Inter-American Development Bank being the most recent one, our reserves today are just over $1.7bn. It is more than enough reserve cover, and the Governor of the Central Bank will speak to you tomorrow and he will carry you through where we are with respect to the condition of our economy and how we can endure what we are going through.

Ironically, we are also in the middle of an IMF mission this week and we are moving along in a manner that is satisfactory to us and to them. Our economy is sticking to the course, provided us with the reserves, room, credit, and enough standing now to now, regionally and internationally, for us to launch the most comprehensive, integrated program that the country has ever seen, largely because we have never had thus kind of crisis facing us. We focus the program on supporting those who have lost their jobs in this shutdown, and to keep those as far as possible who have jobs, into the jobs.

Our economic plan has five parts.

The parts are different, and so it is not straight forward to add them up into one number, but the effect of them is to fill the hole in spending in this economy to the tune of $2bn over two years. This is the biggest package of spending initiatives ever rolled out over two-year period on a supplemental basis beyond what we would otherwise have as our core activities.

Some of these measures were announced a month ago, and I repeat them in summary here for you to see how the entire package of actions fits together and relates to each other.

The first part as you might well record is the acceleration of $1.7 billion of public, or public/ private or private capital works programs across infrastructure, renewable energy, digitalization, affordable housing, refurbishment of buildings and fixing roads in this country. Many will focus on what they are familiar with, the construction of hotels, but there is much emphasis here on the new sectors of renewable energy, improving the environment, health and educational services, digitalization products — particularly Governments records and allowing us to create a digital platform as much as possible — support to entrepreneurs and the provision of houses, particularly for low and middle income Barbadians.

The second part is a massive drive towards greater food self-sufficiency, and you all know that the FEED programme is seeking to add 750 additional acres, and they have started already, along with the traditional farmers in the island, who are being encouraged to expand production as well.

The third part is a series of new measures amounting to $210 million to support households affected by the shutdown. Part of this you know already and part of it is new.

The fourth part which is partly new is a series of measures that will inject $410 million into businesses in one way and a $200 million fund on condition that they hold on to as much staff as possible and indeed, the fund to which I have referred will be the establishment of a Barbados Tourism Fund for assisting with working capital and where possible blended financing for upgrading and modernizing our tourism product.

Part 1: Public and Private Sector Programme

I have already spoken to you about it and that is the public and private capital works programme of $1.7bn over the next 2 years.

This sum, also this year, includes an additional $90 million in Central Government’s capital expenditure program over what we spent last year. To put it simply, we will now be spending $274 million in our capital works programme on the refurbishment of buildings, on road construction, market refurbishment, a massive environmental clean-up and sanitization programme, digitization and the others I have spoken to you generally about when I spoke on March 20.

This does not include an expanded capital works programme to be undertaken by the BWA, which we are now working with them to raise $50 million to start that process that will see a number of critical water projects undertaken and completed in order to eliminate the unfortunate position in which a number of Barbadians are still not getting water.

I should remind us all that we already spent in COVID expenditure, specifically over the last few months and that would have been brought to book in the last financial year. This amounted to $44.4 million, which includes from the refurbishing the Harrison’s Point to the purchase of critical medical equipment and supplies and other supplementary goods needed to manage and contain the spread of the virus. And indeed, we would also have included the restocking of medication on an early basis, given the disruption of the supply chain that we saw globally and we felt that we needed to protect our access to critical medication, not just for COVID, but across the board.

The Government is also working with financial institutions on a massive public-private home-building program called “Homes For All.” We are also working with private investors on a range of renewable energy investments, including the $360 million Green Energy Park supplying 30 megawatts of renewable power that we hope will be launched and be the subject of discussion and negotiations with the ministry and Barbados Light & Power and the Sanitation Services Authority. We are aligning our regulation to ensure our 2030 target for being fossil fuel free will spur an investment boom in renewables from as early as the next 9 months.

And finally we anticipate about $800m still in investment from the private sector, and I’m hoping that that number will even increase. Even though the average construction period is likely to last longer than the pandemic, bankers in some instances are getting a little anxious on some projects and so I am only speaking to the ones that we are certain. In recent weeks where that anxiety has cropped up, my team has been working hard internationally and with private investors to support the early resumption, or start back up those projects. The projects of which I speak that constitute the $800 million of construction over the next 24 months are as follows — and some will resume as early as the next week or two:

1) Sam Lord’s Castle, as I told you before has resumed and that is a $400m project.

2) 75 apartments project at the Crane, which were being built and should complete by the end of year,

3) The $25m in improvements to the Apes Hill Golf Course that had also started before the lock down.

The projects that we are working on to start, we hope, by the end of June of this year include:

1) The $60m expansion of Sandals at Dover that they would like to see finished by the end of the year, in time for the next winter season;

2) The $200m Sagicor Retirement Villages project, which has already garnered a number of purchases and commitments and therefore can proceed.

3) The Hyatt Ziva Project, a $400m development. And may I say at this stage that we need to start the demolition of the two remaining buildings, the MG Tucker Building and the Liquidation Centre as soon as possible, and preferably before we are fully operational. I am being advised that that may be as early as this weekend or next week.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but only the very immediate ones. I use this opportunity to remind us of the establishment of the jobs and investment advisory Council again, and I have asked the GIS to issue a press release tomorrow so you can see all the members and the various up committees that have been established to report back to government within 2 to 4 weeks, depending on the area of concentration. We know we have to build back and we know we have to build back better, and I look forward therefore to their responses, and particularly to the five questions that will use to enhance governments development program as we go forward. Believe you me, my friends, Barbados needs to diversity its economy as far as possible.

Part two: Food Security

Against that background we come to food security. We have been talking about it for too long. We have started to bring into cultivation 750 acres of land for short crop cultivation under Govt’s FEED Programme. This will not only boost employment but it will also support our longer-term goals to enhance food security and improve linkages between the tourism and agricultural sectors. But it will also importantly increase our reserves at a critical time is we can reduce food imports. Interestingly enough, the discussions are taking place in the US now as to what may happen to their food chain given the president’s discussion to give the Executive Order with respect to production and supply of meat.

We recognize that one of the biggest threats to agricultural livelihoods has been and continues to be praedial larceny. And it is particularly criminal at this time when we know that food is so valuable to so many households. My Government committed to putting an end to it as far as is possible and we have to work with you in the communities to make sure that people’s hard work does not come to naught because of stealing. I spoke to the Attorney General and he has agreed to issue instructions to the Royal Barbados Police Force to establish a dedicated Praedial Larceny Unit in the RBPF for strict enforcement, but we will also let technology work for us by allowing farmers to use drones so that they may use geo-fencing to protect crops and livestock.

Part Three: A $210m flow of funds to support vulnerable households.

1. The National Insurance System is the first line of defense for most households. Those who are laid off by their employer get unemployment benefits for 6 months. Those on short weeks gets 60 per cent for the days they are not working. I announced these measures along with others on March 20 in Parliament.

In the last five weeks, however, our NIS has received up to this week, 29,076 new claims for unemployment benefits. It is a staggering number. More are still likely. My team has worked hard to remove the red tape that would otherwise have delayed payment to this group of Barbadians and many have already received their first cheque last week and others are continuing to do so. Indeed, as of Monday, the NIS has paid 10 989 persons the large sum of $11,191, 277.10 for unemployment benefits and that will carry them for the four-week period.

The NIS will continue to dispatch the benefits claims as far as possible, as quickly as possible. You will ask yourself: Does the NIS have more than sufficient assets to cover this? Yes we do! We have sufficient assets to meet this demand. But many of these assets are not liquid, or they are not in the right division. For example, our Severance Payment Fund is a healthy $140 million, while our Unemployment Benefit Fund is down to $19 million, which as you can see from the first few payments will cause it to be exhausted any minute now. The Government therefore will support the NIS whether through existing funds being held at the Central Bank from loans that we have received under policy-based lending, or by purchasing the bonds that the NIS holds to the tune of $250 million. The economic team will settle which method it prefers in the next few days. But in essence, if we go that way, we will prepay the NIS early bobs that it holds and finance potentially, the issuance of a Pandemic Solidarity Bond to allow the NIS to move forward without in any way affecting the deficit, but at the same time meeting the needs of those almost 30,000 Barbadians that are claiming unemployment benefits. We are satisfied that some of them will go back out to work in the next few weeks as we reopen Barbados, some of them are likely to be there for the long haul.

2. The second point I would like to make is that self-employed people who make contributions to the NIS are not entitled to unemployment benefits under the law as it stands now. While there are genuine practical challenges to providing unemployment benefits to a self-employed person, there is also a real need. There are too many who are now suffering. We care for all. We will NOW launch a new one-time Business Cessation Benefit for the self-employed of $1,500 per month for April and May only. So that those persons who have paid NIS as self-employed persons, and there are just under 2,800 persons who have, will be entitled to draw $1,500 for April and $1,500 at the end of the month of May. This will cost the NIS the sum of $8.5 million and will be paid out from the money that we will be paying to improve the scheme’s liquidity over the course of the next few weeks.
3. Let me remind you that I had already announced a Household Survival Program of $20 million, to be split between $10 million for Welfare to accommodate increased rates for benefits — and we increased the benefits by 40 per cent as of April 1 — and then another $10 million to be managed for those households who do not receive NIS benefits, but who are in bad need of support. This will also be supplemented by the Adopt Our Families Programme, and that, my friends, has already received just under $900,000. And may I continue to ask those who can afford to, to reach out and support this fund. If as a result of COVID-19, a household is left with no one employed, we are using this mechanism to provide a minimum income. It is not as much as we would like, but I believe that $600 will go a long way to being able to ensure that food can be bought and put on people’s tables and basic utilities paid. As we go forward this hardship cannot continue and we can only do our best to fight it and that is why the Household Mitigation Unit will continue to provide the continued implementation of these sums. The persons they were looking at last week were just under 3,368 persons, some of whom came off the list because they too would be receiving unemployment benefits.

The fourth part of the programme is a $215m Jobs, Investment, and Business Survival program plus the establishment $200m Barbados Tourism Fund Facility, which is a loan facility that we are now designing and executing.

I now come specifically to those measures.

The private sector is the largest investor and employer in the country by a multiple of six. In the same way that we needed to take pre-emptive measures to make sure the our national health system was not overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases, we have to take pre-emptive measures to make sure our national social security system is not overwhelmed. We achieve this through several steps to support cash flows on condition that firms hold on to as much staff as possible.

Against that background I have given instructions:

1. For $131 million, which remain to be paid to Barbadians as personal income tax and Valued Added Tax refunds. $50 million is owed to Bajans and those working here in Personal income Tax Refunds, and $80 million is owed in VAT. In this environment, cash is king – for Government, for businesses and for indeed households. This liquidity will be sorely needed today and therefore will help firms meet their payroll and pay critical suppliers, where possible. I will tell you that we also have another $89 million in Corporation Tax Refunds to make and we shall make those payments later in the year as our cash flow allows.

May I remind us that this injection of $131 million comes on the heels of the $205 million of cash payments of tax arrears last year and $301 million issued in bonds to Barbadians and others for Res Life customers for commitments that they had under CLICO and those were just the CLICO commitments, the BAICO commitments. These cash flows have been instrumental in keeping the economy supported up to now.

2. I had already announced previously in Parliament that those employers who are retaining at least three-quarters of their staff complement will be able to defer the employer’s contributions for NIS for the next three months in the first instance, with another three months if necessary. Understand the impact of that — because it means that the NIS’ income is being thwarted at the same time that it is being required to pay out large sums of money.
3. In addition to those two, however, I now announce that we will establish a new $40 million VAT Loan Fund for those companies who are registered with and pay VAT and who can show that their cashflow has been severely disrupted by the pandemic and the measures taken to contain the outbreak. That’s most of you who are registered and who pay VAT in this country. This loan fund will offer you a twelve-month, interest-free loans to help buttress your cash flow such that you can get through this difficulty. Who is entitled? Persons who are genuinely registered with VAT or companies or individuals whose turn-over exceed $200 000 per year. The amount that you may be may borrowed from this fund half of the amount you would have paid in your last VAT filing before the onset of the pandemic. This Fund will be capitalized by taking the money out of the Catastrophe Fund that has accumulated over the last 15 years and this will require legislative amendments, which we will take urgently. We will seek to re-purposing it to avoid insolvency and bankruptcy in too many of our local companies and as a result further unemployment.

I want to reassure the people of Barbados about this. These funds are most needed now, and while the original intention of the Catastrophe Fund was for this money to assist us in a natural disaster catastrophe, we believe we are now facing our greatest catastrophe in the modern history in our country and our region, in our world, for that matter, since World War II.

In 2018 and 2019, when we were restructuring both our domestic and our external debt, we took the opportunity to include natural disaster clauses that allowed us to have a provision that should we be hit by a tropical storm or a hurricane of a certain barometric trigger, like Tropical Storm Kirk, we would be able to suspend going forward now the payment of both the principal and interest of our Government debt for two years such that we may meet the immediate needs of the cost of managing a natural disaster. In simple terms, should a tropical storm or hurricane greater than Tropical Storm Kirk for 2018 hit us, we would be able to get $1.7 billion in fiscal space, given the deferral of our debt payments that are provided for in this natural disaster clause. Against that background, my friends, what more would $50 million do for us when we will access and unlock literally $1.7 billion in our fiscal space. As a result, our Government believes that the greatest use of those funds in the Catastrophe Fund now would be to support Barbadian businesses and Barbadian jobs and therefore it makes no sense to retain $50 million in the Catastrophe Fund when it is needed to keep the heads of people and business above water.

Eligible firms must maintain at least 75% of their normal staff levels. There is a Special Project Unit being established in the BRA to help us better manage the payment of the $150 million refunds owed and also to manage the applications to the $40 million loan facility.

4. We will establish a $20 million Small Business Wage Fund administered by Fund Access for firms, too small to be eligible for VAT or VAT refunds. We are really talking here about micro and small businesses. This Fund will now contribute $500 per month per employee up to 5 employees, where the employer is registered at the SBA, the BRA, and the NIS and if you are not registered with them at this time you need to do so before May 18 in order to be eligible for this amount of money. In short, you will be able to get $2,500 per month for two months to assist with your payment of wages for five persons for each month. The firm must commit to holding on to at least 75% of your overall staff. So if you had ten and you are down to seven or eight, I don’t think anybody is going to kill you if you come in at 70 per cent. We need to be able to help you at that point and Fund Access has been told to have an open approach and to advertising and managing the details along with the Small Business Association of how your businesses will be able to access this fund over the course of the week or two.
5. We will also develop a $200m Barbados Tourism Facility to provide urgent working capital and investment loans to Barbadian hotels during the current period. Even as we work to diversify our economy to ensure that we have more global businesses operating from our country tourism, and there are a number of discussions we will have over the next few month as to how will restructure and repurpose this economy. But even as we do all of that tourism will still be a mainstay of our economy. All different types of tourism, from the traditional sun and sea to medical and educational tourism as we have seen in recent years. From new visitors to repeat visitor to those from the diaspora, who may be interested in more long stay tourism and therefore are better suited for a post COVID environment because of the protocols that will be required once travel reopens.

Many of our hotels equally are in urgent need of working capital. Their revenues have disappeared overnight. GONE. They need support. In addition, some believe that now is the time for our hotels to upgrade, expand, or modernize some of their facilities so that they can return more profitably when thing open back up that they were before. We also know that now is also a time when they cannot take on high-interest rates and short repayment periods. IT will simply force them into bankruptcy.

Accordingly, the Government is designing the Facility to offer attractive interest rates, and repayment period. It will also focus on lending for good development outcomes such as jobs retention, links with local agriculture, use renewable energy and the up-skilling of local staff they have employed in their hotels.

We are shareholders in the Inter-American Development Bank, and we are working with its private-sector lending arm, IDB Invests, to establish a BDS $200 million Barbados Tourism Facility. We will also encourage the commercial banks, credit unions and institutional and individual investors to participate in this facility, by offering co-financing from the IDB, and a 10% guarantee from the Tourism Loan Guarantee Fund. We recognize that while the scale of the solution needs to match the size of the challenge, so must the speed of the solution.

Consequently, we are now working with ANSA Merchant Bank to work with the Government in the provision of bridging finance. The Government itself will seed this facility with $10 million toward the bridging as will ANSA until the full facility is ready. We will publish further details on the bridge financing in the very near future and on the full facility thereafter. I would not normally have mentioned this until we had fully completed the facility but I recognize that we are well on our way to settling this facility and it is important that those in the tourism sector know that we are seeking to work with them at this most vital of moments. This will not replace the need for them to have access to private capital whether it is debt from banks and other financial institutions or equity from other investors locally and regionally, and believe me we need to trust each other more and get more involved in equity for our hotels and direct tourism services like restaurants, etc. I do not believe we should have over leveraged firms that are struggling to survive when … I believe Eric Williams once said that half a loaf is better than no loaf at all. And the simple message is: Let us come together and use our capital together to build stronger businesses that can withstand this and other threats as we go forward.

In addition to these new funds, last month, I announced that we have been in discussions with the banks on providing support to businesses and individuals impacted by COVID-19. I announced then an agreement that we had with the banks in Barbados that they had affirmed their commitment to working with their customers through these difficult times. In particular, all Banks agreed to:

i. a 6-months payment moratorium on existing loans and mortgages for persons and businesses directly impacted by COVID-19.

ii. Temporary working-capital financing options for corporates and small businesses directly affected by COVID-19. We recognize that for many of the micro businesses we would now be talking about the credit unions.

The banks have reported that they have already given in many instances payment holidays to persons who need free cash flow during this difficult time. And similarly, that their credit card interest relief of up to 50% by some and payment waivers in other instances by others for 3 months, with interest not capitalized but added thereafter to the balance, again allowing for cash flow relief for some of our businesses and individuals. Also, working with their existing corporate and small business clients to offer in many instances overdrafts and other working capital support; and following the crisis, for those who are still unemployed after the 6 months, banks will seek to work with clients to restructure their loans to ensure as little disruption as possible for future cash flows of their clients; and finally they are also working with us on the national agenda for GDP growth by ensuring that they can work with those foreign and domestic investment entities that are interested in making investments in the country.

I have also asked the Governor of the Central Bank to meet with the Banks, and I am happy to report that he did so recently, given our concern on a disproportionate reliance on fees by our commercial banking sector. The revenue from fees at all of our banks grew from $78 million in 2008 to $126 million in 2018 while interest income for the same period of time has declined from $637 million to $525 million. This is not a sustainable model for growth, nor does it reflect an energy in the interest of being able to make fund available to provide the oxygen to fuel the growth in our economy.

The Governor has reported to me today, that the banks have agreed to in the first instance that there shall be:

a. No maintenance account fees for senior citizens holding accounts;(previously agreed)
b. No over the counter charges for person over 70;
c. No maintenance account fees for the youth accounts, and I have asked them to indicate what criteria constitutes youth so that the public can be aware.

The Governor has also indicated that achieving more concessions requires additional dialogue, but the issue now is timing, given the recent onset of COVID-19 pandemic which has negatively impacted employment. This could erode some household savings as clients withdraw balances to support their purchases to live, as we go forward. Reduced bank charges on deposit accounts would therefore be helpful generally, and I have asked him to continue that discussion therefore with the banks.

At the same time I must tell you that the banks are legitimately concerned that their non-performing loans and provisions will rise, with the risk of increased write-offs if this crisis is prolonged. The Central Bank therefore has indicated to me that it therefore proposes to require banks to ensure that all fees are easily accessible to all online, preferably through a clearly visible link on their home page. Customers, equally, they have indicated, must be notified by the banks of any changes in fees or any new charges via email and other social media platforms, and I am adding to that, snail mail, where necessary. Further, the Central Bank has agreed that it will publish every 6 months a comparison of fees bank by bank, to make sure customers are aware of their options. We need to work together to get out of this crisis, and this Government’s approach has been one that seeks to see us sharing the burden and therefore we will not deviate at this point.

We expect therefore that in addition to the funds which the government has created, businesses need to work with their banks and credit unions to take full advantage of these measures. The most important thing is to stay alive. To keep people’s heads above water. To tread water if you have to. For if you do so, when the country and world starts to open back, then you can resume the mission of transforming our nation and improving generally the lives of other people.

On the matter of utilities, I want to say before I end, that I have asked the Director of Finance and Economic Affairs to meet with the utility companies (water, light, telecoms and natural gas) to see how best they can work with their customers with respect to their bills for April and May given the disruption caused by the cessation of work and the imposition of the curfew. This is not easy but we need to make sure that we carry as many people as possible with us.

PART V – NON-FISCAL MEASURES

There are a number of things that we can do and must do that go beyond cash. I am referring to the things that do not necessarily cost immediate money but are essential for persons and businesses to make money or save money.

The first of course that affects every household is to continue to be vigilant for all forms of price gouging. I must tell you that I do not necessarily want to go back to the days of the state supply in basic supplies but if we have to go there in order to guarantee that every house in Barbados has access to food at affordable prices then this government will not blink. It is against this background that the ministry of commerce must now drill down even further and look into retail prices versus wholesale and imported prices to begin to understand where the problems of increased prices may be truly found as we are seeing by persons in this day and age bringing forward their receipts to be able to show the differences in prices over a short period of time.

Secondly we are asking all persons who have projects and financing but are simply awaiting approvals from Town and Country Plan for permission to please contact the Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office so that we may isolate these projects and have them fast tracked for you because as far as possible we know that construction constitute some of the safer activity that we can take to stimulate the economy in a post COVID-19 environment and we want to use this opportunity to rebuild and repurpose a lot of the properties that we have. It is consistent with our commitment to ensure that anything that can be carried out by persons who are least vulnerable to COVID and who have the appropriate protocols in their workplace to enhance safety can continue.

Thirdly, the committee which we started last year to be able to reform how we do business in this country, chaired by myself, will expedite its work and I expect a lot of progress over the next few months to ensure that we can reduce bureaucracy and to eliminate many of the unfortunate rules and obstacles that prevent people from doing business in a seamless way. This will mean new systems for national identification card, and we will continue with this because it will allow for a greater degree of activity to be conducted digitally for all of our citizens. If we had it now we would be in a far better position that we now are. It includes new automatic clearinghouse for financial transactions. The encouragement of the use of digital money. Essentially carrying Barbados to a new platform, a journey which we have started but COVID-19 is catapulting us into it at an even more rapid rate.

We are all on the frontline now! Don’t fool yourselves, we are all on the frontline now.

This is now the time when we need to be our brother’s’ keeper, and our sister’s keeper.

We may have to consider how best we can each carry some of the burden that is necessary to get our country and our families through safely.

I have heard all of the conversations over the course of the past few weeks taking place about the cuts in salaries in public and private sector that should be undertaken. I am moved by one simple point. If this does not move those of us now to help carry those who cannot carry themselves at this point, what more will take for us to help them. I am therefore requesting that we set up a subcommittee immediately of the Social Partnership to start the urgent conversation to determine how best those of us employed by the public service, and the private sector in some instances, may contribute through mechanisms such as cash and bonds and all other ways to help offset this tremendous costs that the government will have to bear to be the provider of last resort to all of our citizens and our businesses.

And what do I mean specifically? If we were to isolate those who are earning $3000 a month and below, whose income is already precarious, how best can the rest of us who are earning more, agree to take a relatively small portion of our salaries in pandemic solidarity bonds to be repaid perhaps in a three- of four-year period, or sooner, in support of this extraordinary effort of helping to carry our brothers and sisters who have had their livelihoods ripped from them through no fault of their own. I am not going to go further on this point at this stage, but I want every Barbadian to sleep on this tonight and the next few nights. My brothers and sisters, we have to agree that we must work together to guarantee food on the table of every single Barbadian household. For once we can do that, and once we have life, we shall meet again to do the larger and greater things that give us even greater excitement, although I suspect that the last five weeks have taught us that the greatest gratitude and the greatest pleasure comes in the most simple things in life.

We will receive assistance from the IMF, CDB, IADB and CAF but that will not be enough even with the relaxation of the primary fiscal surplus targets that we have agreed in principal with the fund, and that have now to go to their board, to move from 6% to 1%, giving us an additional $550 million in fiscal space. But if you are going to lose $450 million in revenue, when you have to repurpose a lot of your expenditure to support health care and to be able to support the vulnerable, and to be able to support businesses that go under if they don’t get the support, then you can sea it is a rough road we are travelling, but it is one my friends, I know, that we can get through.

There were many who doubted we could get through when we started at the end of May 2018 and we got us to that point, but regrettably, having had the experience we now have to learn again and teach others we can go from start all over again.

So we look forward to the results of this consultation.

In short, the economic package I have just announced today is unprecedented. As unprecedented as the grievous ordeal we have faced and will continue to face for a while, it is what it is.

We are not alone in this fight, because of our investment in international relationships, because of our commitment to work through issues from first principles, and because we already had a commitment to work with our brothers and sisters in the regional and international communities in a way that is caring and reinforcing. The supplies that I told you we got from Cayman Islands and Dominica and we continue to get support from CARPHA, PAHO and WHO, who we thank now for agreeing to work with the Caribbean Community in helping us to unlock the supplies and logistics chains, we do not feel as though we are working in the wild, wild west, just simply to get from swabs to testing kits, to basic protective equipment to allow our frontline workers to work.

You would have heard me earlier today speaking to Christianne Amanpour on CNN International and making the call for global leadership initiative of not just heads of Government across the world, but world leaders across different sectors and different interests, from Pope Francis right back to leaders in the business community. After WWII, let me remind you, the world committed to new organisations to suit the needs of time. The United Nations was formed 75 years ago. Many of the other organisations we now call the Bretton Woods Institutions, the IMF and the World Bank, they too may have to look and see, as they are doing, about repurposing themselves. And I had an excellent conversation with the manager director of the IMF day before yesterday and with the president of the IADB to see how best we can change some of these rules, because as you heard me say today, to simply as me to look at per capita income to determine whether we can access loans or grants is not enough. That is like taking my blood pressure from two years ago and determining whether it can be used to determine whether you think I am going to have a stroke tonight or not. It is completely irrelevant. It is completely future. So we are asking the international community to recognize that we are on the front line with respect to the climate crisis. The hurricane season, my friends, starts in four weeks time. Get your act together!

11: With respect to high debt and low GDP, and in this regard Barbados is now better than most, because we have gone through the process of restructuring our debt, which has made us fitter to be able to meet this point in time and also to have the natural disaster clauses, which as I have explained to you, will help the country even more than we are being helped now in this pandemic.

And finally, that we need to face everything that this pandemic portends for us — from the cessation of business to the loss of life. That’s why today I called on that programme for moral leadership; moral leadership that will extend from the household to the community, from the country to the international community. Just as we know that we must take care of the most vulnerable in our households and in our community, just as we know that we must take care of the vulnerable in the community, we must do it in the country and we must do it internationally. And in the world with some limited assistance, across the world. In solidarity with each other, I am telling you that we can make this journey together. And that’s why I say that we do not accept that this region is both invisible and dispensable. Voices must rise, together if necessary, but our voices must rise to be able to demand of this world a level playing field and a level leadership that reminds of us the things that matter at the end of the day.

We are not asking for handouts, but a helping hand and a level playing field. And I say to you that these are not just words.

It seems me to be the settled view, after listening to everyone, from the health officials locally and internationally, that the challenges and risks posed by this virus may well be with us for many months to come. This is now a new reality with which we have to live. As we embark, as we must, on this new phase of rebuilding our economy and our country, I urge you also to be purposeful, not inflexible, as we seek to negotiate and successfully meet whatever challenge lies ahead. And the challenges are there.

I REPEAT – We are not out of the woods. The path we have chosen for the present has hazards, but it is the one most consistent with our character and our courage as a nation and a people. Our goal is not to return the economy or protect everyone — it is not one or the other, it is to do both. We will seek to protect everyone, but we will also seek to transform and rebuild our economy, to be fitter and stronger to face all that we have to face going forward as a nation. We do so by isolating the most vulnerable among us and changing the way we how behave. And those conversations must take place at the level of families and communities, at the level of the workplace and at the level of our country. At this time, re reimagine our development and where we must go, let us refurbish, let us use the time to rebuild where we can, or retool, even to retrain by going and seeing what we can do that we didn’t know before. Let us come back fitter and stronger. Let us commit as Bajans to be our brother’s and sister’s keeper such that we shall leave no one behind.

And where possible, let each of us do our part to help us move forward.

To those in our vulnerable groups, who may be tempted to move around because you are not yet incapacitated, I beg you do, I beg yuh, ensure that you can get help from wherever possible and whenever it is offered. Do not take foolish chances. We are not seeking to take away your independence but more so to keep you safe.

To the young people who want to socialize and meet up with your friends because you are bored at home, I urge you to bear with us for a little while longer as we continue to keep you and our fellow citizens safe. If you do the right thing and follow the directives and the protocols your friends will still be there to hang out and socialize once we get over this hurdle.

To our workers I implore you to protect yourselves as you have been instructed with the use of personal protective equipment at all times, and also not to take your safety for granted. It is critical. As a courtesy to you and your colleagues keep your safety ever most and I say to you that the new hours of the curfew will be from 8p.m. to 5 a.m., but within that context of 8 a.m. and 8 pm. I say to you that I expect you to go about your business efficiently and expeditiously and safely.

So as we navigate these tempestuous seas, we must stay on course if we are to reach safe ground and move onto Phase 3 — and eventually Phase 4. Any refusal to comply will cause us to run aground and set us back to where we started, a scenario that we can ill afford. We are only here tonight because we had a downward trajectory for the last two weeks. We had 72 cases for the first five weeks and we had seven cases in the last two weeks. At no time has it been more pertinent for us to look after one another and to be each other’s keeper.

Above all, we must treat each other with high levels of empathy and kindness. This, I swear, is a winnable fight, but its winnability is based on our commitment to change our behavior in a way we have never done before. It’s hard for me, and I know it’s hard for you, but just as I can do it, I know you can do it, and when we do it together we can say that we have succeeded as one.

Join with me and let us make that solemn commitment today remembering always that with God on our side we shall have no doubts nor fears. In the words we also know so well – upwards and onwards we shall go as we re-open our country – and greater will our nation grow in strength and unity.

Stay safe MY FRIENDS and above all else, God bless us all.