Two political parties – the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and the United Progressive Party (UPP) – have accused the Mia Mottley administration of side-lining small business operators by buying houses from China for those residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Elsa last month.
The DLP’s spokesman on entrepreneurship and small business, Ryan Walters, described the move as an embarrassment to contractors.
Importing 150 houses from Beijing was akin to putting a nail in the coffin of the micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) sector in Barbados, he suggested.
Walters said: “The Barbados Labour Party administration has given its latest blow to the micro and small businesses sector in the country.
“Small contractors, artisans and tradesmen are crying out for work, but the Government is going to spend millions of dollars on the importation of 150 houses from China. This is an embarrassment to the hard-working tradesmen and artisans who now find themselves unemployed because of the state of the economy.”
On Tuesday, Minister of Housing Dr William Duguid announced that Government would buy 150 light gauge steel “emergency” houses to replaces those damaged by Hurricane Elsa. He said it would require some $50 million to complete the rebuilds and repairs and to buy houses from China, and pointed out that estimates put the damage by the hurricane and the freak storm that occurred two weeks earlier in the region of $74 million.
Following assessment of some 1,980 houses in several parishes, it was revealed that a total of 466 houses have to be rebuilt.
Walters argued that given the state of the economy and the dampened construction sector, it was nothing short of “ridiculous” for the Government to not realise the need to provide the economic activity needed locally by outsourcing the building of the homes to local firms.
“Construction has dampened simply because new mortgages have slowed since people are grappling with the financial fallout of COVID-19,” he said. “Hotel and tourism build-out has also almost come to a halt and government projects are few and far between. Yet, instead of grasping the opportunity to provide employment for many who are at home and find it rather difficult to support their families and themselves, the Government has embarked on one of the most ridiculous initiatives from the Ministry of Housing. Why is the Government finding it so difficult to mobilise small contractors, artisans and tradesmen across the constituencies in Barbados?”
Walters said the DLP was therefore calling on the Mottley administration to rethink the initiative “and get on the ground and mobilise our skilled people so that they can continue to participate in developing Barbados while earning a living for themselves”.
UPP chairman Wayne Griffith also described the move to get the houses from China as a bad decision, pointing out that Government was simply taking away jobs from local contractors.
He said: “At a time when over 20,000 citizens are officially unemployed, the decision to reconstruct homes damaged by Hurricane Elsa presents an opportunity to engage local contractors, artisans and labourers in a national effort. Such mobilisation would stimulate the construction sector and, of course, result in job opportunities across the board.
“The magnitude of this project seems to be beyond the capacity of the Ministry of Housing and other agencies. We are confident that within the private sector there is exceptional talent and skill to be utilised.”
Urging Government to reconsider its decision, and predicting that the Ministry of Housing will require additional funds, Griffith said seeing the Government divert valuable foreign exchange rather than invest it locally “is unfortunate and goes against national pride and industry”.
“The United Progressive Party prefers all citizens to be involved in our rebuilding process and an amicable partnership with the people can bring a desired outcome,” he added.
Minister Duguid did not reveal to Parliament how much the repair or rebuild of the damaged houses would cost if done locally, but in June he said estimates were that it could cost around $1.2 million.
In defending the decision to look to China for the houses, he told Parliament that getting the required number of houses built in Barbados would simply take too long, adding that only three of the intended six workshops earmarked for building locally were erected and fully functioning.
He said: “Even with the best will in the world, those workshops can essentially produce only 18 to 20 of those houses in a week. It doesn’t mean we can get the houses erected, it means that even with the best will in the world, those workshops can only produce 18 houses a week.
“So, if we were to do 500 of those houses, that is like 25-26 weeks, just in cuts. So all things being equal, six, seven months down the road and we still would not have been able to meet the requirements for the response; and that is just the rebuilds, it has nothing to do with the repairs.”
The Housing Minister has not committed to a timeline for when Chinese houses should arrive on island and be erected.
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)
