October 9, 1997 - When the House of Assembly met earlier this week, Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Kenny Anthony, seized the first opportunity presented to him, to explain to house members the reason for his delayed statement on the Supplementary Budget.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which the Prime Minister will be attending, will also ensure that he attends a British sponsored summit on Bananas. Prime Ministers of the Windward Islands will also capitalize on the opportunity to meet with their nationals residing in England, to encourage them, among other things, to purchase bananas originating out of the four island grouping. The rescheduled date for the statement on the Supplementary Budget is Tuesday November 4 1997.

There were, obviously other matters up for discussion and a number of papers were laid before the House. The Prime Minister then delivered a statement to the House as he sought permission to secure a loan totaling $11.9 million EC from the Caribbean Banking Corporation (CBC). Those monies will be used to initiate a short term employment programme in collaboration with the private sector.

To tackle the serious unemployment problem the prime minister revealed that an approach had been made to the Managerial Council of the ECCB. Dr. Anthony had also secured the backing of other Prime Ministers and Ministers of Finance in the region so as to allow for the ECCB to undertake and provide formal statistics on the unemployment situation in the region at large and St. Lucia in particular.

The unemployment programme is expected to benefit seventeen hundred persons in its first year of operation. Persons of all ages will be eligible to obtain meaningful employment after they have been interviewed by a management committee selected from the Ministries of Finance, Labour and particularly from the Private Sector. The objectives of the programme are manifold.

That the Chamber of Commerce will be embraced in helping to solve the economic problems of the nation was clearly spelt out by the Prime Minister. To that effect, in the next few weeks, the Honourable Attorney General will be presenting to the House, new legislation designed to provide development status to all local organizations including the Chamber.

The Prime Minister made it abundantly clear, that even though one is interviewed, there is no guarantee that he/she will be offered a job. It is expected, however, that many of the persons so employed will perhaps be retained by their employers.

The responses from members of the House to the Prime Minister's statement were, to say the least jubilant and exhilarating. Members were especially enthusiastic, given informal statistics which reveal that well over 20% of the labour force is plagued with unemployment. Minister after minister voiced their approval of the endeavor aimed at curtailing unemployment.

Whilst the motion pertaining to the short term employment was unanimously supported by the members of the house with glee and merriment, the subsequent motion although unavoidably supported, was with an opposite set of emotions which is encapsulated in this utterance.

Two bills of much importance were piloted by the Minister for Health, Hon Velon John and passed in the House. The first, humanitarian in nature, had to do with the granting of parole or a pardon to convicted criminals under certain terms and conditions. The second, contrary to its predecessor, dealt with increasing penalties for persons who commit assault, rape, incest and other criminal activities.