Population crisis looming, warns Husbands

A looming population crisis is threatening to undermine Barbados’ economic stability and social fabric, St James South MP Sandra Husbands has warned.

She told Parliament that the nation’s demographic challenges could make it “difficult for us to create a viable society where people can create a decent living for their families”.

Speaking as the House of Assembly debated and passed a resolution on Barbados’ population policy, Husbands highlighted a range of interconnected issues, including an ageing population, skills shortages and the climate crisis.

With a population of just 270 000, Husbands cautioned that the tax burden on working-age Barbadians was becoming increasingly onerous, potentially jeopardising essential services and the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).

“If we do not very quickly start putting things in place to address our population crisis, we will have spoken about the fact that you will have insufficient contributions to your NIS, which will collapse,” she said.

Husbands painted a stark picture of Barbados’ demographic future, predicting that more than half of your people by 2050 will be over the age of 60. She argued that this shift, coupled with a preponderance of low-wage jobs, would stifle economic growth and development.

To counter these trends, the MP called for a concerted effort to upskill the workforce. “Higher skilled labour means you can attract a better quality of investor into the country. Skilled labour will give you better enterprises and will give you better economic outcomes,” she said.

The minister of state for education praised government initiatives aimed at transforming the education system, including the construction gateway programme and training in cutting-edge fields such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. She emphasised the importance of lifelong learning and remedial education in literacy and numeracy to “enhance the quality of the population”.

Addressing the needs of older Barbadians, Husbands advocated for the development of a “silver economy” with part-time work opportunities for seniors to supplement their incomes. She stressed the importance of providing affordable, high-quality goods and services tailored to the elderly.

“The elderly needs a set of services and goods provided to them in such a way that those goods and services are within their reach, within their means, and are delivered to the quality level that allows them to be able to comfortably live in their home,” she said. “One of the things that we have to spend some time thinking about is how we are going to create economic opportunities for seniors to be able to work again,”

The MP’s warnings come as Barbados seeks to build a “prosperous and sustainable” future in the face of multiple challenges, including the ongoing climate crisis and its potential impact on food and water security.