Patterson Thompson, the Barbados-based Leeward Island Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA) boss, has issued an appeal to LIAT’s prior Chairman of the former shareholding governments and Prime Minister of SVG, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves. The trade unionist was being interviewed on Hot 97’s AMMayhem morning show when he, a self-proclaimed optimist, shared his exhortation. A move, he said, which was prompted by St. John’s offer to settle half of the millions owed, to the pilots and other staff members, as severance liability. “Basically we’re in a situation where we’ve been struggling for a year without pay and Prime Minister Gaston Browne has…
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Divorce is becoming a very common way to a end a marriage in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). As a legal practitioner, I have represented husbands and wives (even when one party is abroad) in going through the three stages of the divorce process in the High Court of SVG: (1)Decree Nisi (2) Ancillary Proceedings dealing with children and settling property; and the final stage (3) the Decree Absolute. There are (5) reasons for divorce in SVG: living apart for 2 years requiring consent of the spouse, living apart for 5 years which does not require the consent of…
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. March 26, 2021 – Caribbean Airlines is keeping abreast of innovations and services to facilitate a safe travel environment for its customers. Now, persons traveling with the airline have the added convenience of booking and paying for COVID-19 tests via the airline’s website, up to (7) seven days in advance but no less than (48) forty-eight hours prior to their flight departure date. In partnership with Ink Aviation, the airline can facilitate COVID-19 test bookings for its customers, using a new integrated Passenger Covid-19 Test Booking Portal. The portal makes booking appointments and paying for…
(Excerpts of Dr. Friday’s presentation on the debate of the Finance Bill 2021) The Finance Bill 2021, while it is a single revenue measure comes out of the Budget address that we debated recently. It does have very significant effect and consequences. We know what the intention of the Bill is. The Honourable Minister said that it was to provide funding for our participation in a number of regional institutions; some of long standing and are performing useful functions in our region. However, the good intention on one hand is not the only way in which to measure the effect…
Two important things our country needs to be optimally productive and achieve prosperity for all, are a healthy population and an educated population. Countries around the world that are prosperous and have strong economies, such as Singapore, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, have very good health systems and educational facilities. However, in SVG, the health and educational facilities are not that good, as they have been underfunded for many years by the ULP. In the Budget Estimates 2021, the allocation for health was only $28,843,610 and for education it was only $33,741,410. Based upon a population of 108,000 in SVG,…
Introduction This Sunday, March 28, 2021 would mark 20 years since the people of this country elected the Unity Labour Party (ULP) to govern the affairs of state. On this day in 2001, Vincentians voted solidly to elect the Ralph Gonsalves ULP, rejecting any further stagnation of this country under a hopeless and stale New Democratic Party (NDP) that had clearly ran out of ideas and lost its way. The truth is, this victory was a few years in coming, as back in 1998, the overwhelming majority of Vincentians had voted for the ULP, however, the party was unable to…
After paying close to $3 million to over 2,000 workers adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Insurance Service (NIS) has ceased payments under its temporary benefit programme which was established last year. Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves told parliament last week that since the coronavirus came here March of 2020, the government has introduced a variety of innovative interventions designed to strengthen social protections for the vulnerable and assist affected persons in their management of Covid related economic challenges. He said government has offered an extended program of income support to Vincentians in the formal sector who have…
by Jomo ‘Sanga’ Thomas As the world economy crashed around us, a group of people, the very rich, known as the billionaire club, profited handsomely from the pandemic. The Billionaire’s Club, which has a worldwide membership of about 2,200, saw its wealth grow by over $2.2 trillion in the last 12 months. They have a combined wealth of $12 trillion. As the world muses at the first anniversary of the coronavirus plague, the International Labour Organisation reports that 93 percent of the world’s workers reside in countries with some form of workplace closure measures. More than 200 million persons lost…
The St Vincent Electricity Services (Vinlec) and the Central Water and Sewage Authority (CWSA) have both agreed to renew their moratoria on bill payments and disconnection of service as the Covid-19 pandemic continue to cause hardships. Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves made the announcement last week in his ministerial statement during the sitting of parliament. Reading from a letter from Vinlec dated March 4 th , 2021, and addressed to Prime Minister Gonsalves, the finance minister said the board of directors at a special board meeting decided to offer a 10% discount to all residential, commercial and Industrial customers for…
“Obviously Madam speaker, it is difficult to ask students to engage in online school if they can’t get online. And there were two phases to the challenge faced in online school; one was devices and one was that of access.” Minister of Finance Camilo Gonsalves, who also has responsibility for technology, made the comment in this ministerial statement to the parliament last week. His comment came even as the discussions on E-learning and problems faced continued across the country – some of those problems being lack of internet access, lack of devices or adequate access to devices and participation by…