Democratic Labour Party candidates for the next general election have declared the country is swiftly approaching an economic breaking point that if not quickly addressed can deepen hardship as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the island.
The City’s Kemar Stuart, Oldwin Skeete for St Andrew and Marc Laurent for Christ Church South made the comments at a digital meeting of the party’s St. Andrew constituency branch on Sunday.
Stuart said the pandemic has affected the average Barbadian in every aspect of life from personal finances to their mental wellbeing. For him, it’s a situation that is long overdue for being addressed seriously.
He said: “As hunger abounds in this country, as the care packages are gone, as the unemployment funds run out [and] savings in the banks are gone, desperation and mental disturbance are seeping into the Barbadian mind.
“The economy for the working population continues to be decimated by curfews, lockdowns, and extensive restrictions for locals, because the six to nine curfew has completely closed the night economy in Barbados.
“I believe that policy will have to be revisited soon, because at night we know there is a high level of transactions which will occur in the system.”
Stuart called on Government to take a stronger stance on how it intends to move the country out of a state of limbo with a concrete plan.
“The Government will need to put its foot down in understanding the new realities that we face,” he said. “They are ducking the questions – anytime serious questions come, anytime firm decisions need to be made in this country, Mia Mottley and the Barbados Labour Party is talking all around the problem.
“The continued confusion in this country, surrounding jobs and securing work in Barbados is very serious.”
Candidate for St Andrew, Oldwin Skeete, emphasized that the Government’s silence on the economic woes is troubling. Although COVID is still placing a heavy strain on the island’s healthcare system, Skeete said he is really worried for Barbadians centred on their job security and whether breadwinners will be able to meet their monthly financial responsibilities.
“Too often we get press conferences that only demoralize the people of Barbados, but they don’t get any upliftment, they don’t get any relief in hearing what is going to happen within the near, and medium-term to help the people of Barbados,” the rural parish’s DLP caretaker representative said.
“What is happening with the ministries and the sectors that you can actually do something about, to uplift the nation and the economy?”
With UNCTAD15 being brought to a close last Thursday, Skeete said Barbadians deserved to know what agreements between other nations were signed over the course of the conference, in particular for agriculture which has seen surprising growth over the last several months.
“I am waiting to see the trade agreements that have been signed and how impactful that they will be for Barbados. We need markets that when we create the atmosphere for new and excited farmers to get into the sector, that they have lucrative markets [that] are unique for the product offerings that we have.
“At the end of the day, we are in 2021, we have been going through the pandemic from since March 2020. For onlookers, it does not seem COVID is going to go away within the next year to 2 years… the big players in the tourism industry and the airlines are [preparing] themselves for a rebound in 2023 and 2024, we cannot wait until [then] for tourism to get back to pre-pandemic levels. We have to start doing something in other sectors to bring the people of Barbados out of the mire that they are in.” (SB)
