By Robert A. Emmanuel
Senate Minority Leader Shawn Nicholas claimed that the government’s budgetary allocations for 2023 does not reflect the realties of the ordinary person as she laid out her position in Upper House of Parliament yesterday.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Gaston Browne presented his administration’s $1.8 billion budget which followed debate in the House of Representatives.
However, Senator Nicholas claimed that in the first post-pandemic budget the government had showed little concern for small business owners, who struggled under the immediate effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“There were vendors in St John’s who were given reprieve during Covid and they were happy for that some who used to pay $750 were asked to pay $400, but before they could catch themselves, the rent went back up,” she said in a passionate speech.
She also called on the government to review the social programmes meant to support persons below the poverty line, as she said it has not taken inflation into consideration over the years.
Nicholas also noted public sector workers needed support by the government, especially their health and occupational safety.
“We are great at building … and constructing buildings but we need to make sure that we maintain … our people should feel comfortable going to work, knowing that they are working in a healthy environment.
“Let us not fool ourselves; if persons are not working in a safe and clean environment, productivity levels will fall, and while government demand its pound of flesh from its public sector workers…let them feel safe, rewarded and compensated for the effort,” she stated.
Senator Nicholas also spoke of the needs of the workers at Clarevue Psychiatric Hospital and the Fiennes Institute who frequently protested and called on the government for more support.
“A lot of the brains resides in the public sector and for that they are not being compensated, so I want to make a plea that in all of our negotiations that you give serious attention to the public sector in this country because they demand better,” she said.
She argued that the government needed to review its expenditure as she claimed there has been “too much wastage”.