Parliament approves $136m hurricane relief budget

Parliament approved with bipartisan support at 2:52 a.m. Friday EC$136.4 million in supplementary estimates in response to Hurricane Beryl, which left six people dead and hundreds of millions of dollars in damage when it made landfall in the Grenadines on July 1.

The fiscal package is in addition to the EC$1.6 billion budget lawmakers approved in January.

Presenting the supplementary estimates, Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves noted that it had come two and a half weeks after the natural disaster and exceeded the EC$117 million Parliament approved after the April 2021 explosive eruption of La Soufriere volcano.

He said the major initiatives include an EC$23 million subvention to BRAGSA to clean up debris and EC$6 million for road cleaning, similar to what is done at Christmas.

These two sums account for 21% of the supplementary budget.

The finance minister has allocated EC$40 million or 29% of the budget for construction, including the purchase of building materials, the construction of homes, the purchasing of land and construction aggregate.

This includes EC$10 million to build houses, EC$12.5 million for building materials, $1.9 million for aggregate, and EC$2 million to buy land.

Gonsalves said this allocation would not be enough, adding that the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency has estimated that EC$335 million is needed for housing.

He said another major portion of the supplementary budget is EC$12 million in income support to fishers and farmers.

The minister said that based on initial analyses, there were significant impacts on the agricultural sector in the north of St. Vincent including on banana, plantain and tree crop farmers.

“And then in the south of the island of St. Vincent and then in the Southern Grenadines as well, there is tremendous impact to fishers,” he said.

Gonsalves said that as with the volcano and COVID-19, the government anticipates that it will have to give income support for “multiple months”.

He said international organisations and the World Bank are also discussing offering income support.

The government has allocated a further EC$8 million of income support to other people who are impacted, primarily those in the hospitality sector.

He noted that 5.6% of the nation’s hotel rooms are in Union Island and one-third are in the Grenadines.

The minister said most of the money will be concentrated in the Grenadines but noted that

Young Island Resort off the south coast of St. Vincent “is destroyed” and closed.

“And those workers as well will need some support, as well as other localised hospitality entities in other places and in St Vincent and the Grenadines.”

The fiscal package also includes production support of EC$5.5 million for farmers and EC$2 million for fishers. This will help fishers to replace lost implements, including outboard engines.

Gonsalves noted that the budget approved in January included EC$27 million of production support to farmers and fishers.

Gonsalves said almost 10% of the budget or EC$13.5 million will go to the reconstruction of public buildings including schools, clinics and police stations.

A further EC$12 million will go primarily to feed people, with EC$10 allocated to the Ministry of Economic Planning and EC$2 million to the Ministry of National Mobilisation.

He said the larger portion was allocated to the Ministry of Economic Planning to purchase things quickly because it has more procurement capacity.

“… but that money will be directed either to the shelters or to the homes of people where displaced persons are living.”

The minister said just over 1,000 people are in government-run shelters but the Ministry of National Mobilisation estimates that five times that number are living with relatives and friends across the country.

The Ministry of Agriculture will get EC$2 million to deal with food boxes.

“The Love Box is something that we’re known for and the Honourable Minister of Agriculture has resources to do that,” Gonsalves said.

“When you add those up, the clean-up, the construction, the income support, the production support, the public buildings and the food, you’re at 80% of the budget.

“And I don’t think anybody would disagree that each of those aspects of this supplementary budget are absolutely necessary in light of the position that we’re in right now.”

The budget also includes EC$2.5 million to retrofit and expand the former Teachers’ College also the former Richmond Gabriel University to house the population of the three schools from Union Island.

As part of that plan to have students from Union Island continue their education in St. Vincent, the government has allocated EC$3 million to the Ministry of Tourism, to pay for accommodation in guest houses in St. Vincent for students and their parents as well as teachers from Union Island.

He said the Minister of Social Development has been given a “top up” of EC$2.5 million “because in times like this, you get an influx of people who need additional social development, different social development interventions.

“You can imagine, for example, those 450 students from Union Island Secondary School and Stephanie Brown and Mary Hutchinson, their uniforms are blown away. They don’t have uniforms or books, and the government is going to have to help them,” Gonsalves said.

“And it’s not just those children. There are people who have lost things that that the Ministry of Social Development exists to help people for and in times of these, these disasters, the strain, the number of people calling on the Ministry of Social Development will increase.”

The government has allocated EC$3.5 million for jetties and wharves.

“And the intention there is not to construct brand new jetties and wharves because $3.5 million can’t really do that,” Gonsalves said.

An allocation of EC$1.4 million to the Ministry of Urban Development for the rental of assets to pay for continued free ferry shuttle service to and from the Grenadines

The budget also includes “top-ups” to the Youth Employment Service, Supportive Education and Training and Offering National Support for Internship Training and Employment. programmes.

However, the budget contains a Promoting Youth Micro Enterprises (PRYME) top-up exclusively for residents of the Grenadines.

“Not to say that the PRYME only exists this year for the Grenadines, but the top-up that’s in this supplementary is focused on people in the Grenadines.”

He said the government had also allocated EC$2 million to improve possibly its Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) protection.

Also, the Social Development Fund in the office of the Prime Minister will get an additional EC$1 million.

Gonsalves said the supplementary budget is financed from multiple sources, including the  Contingency Fund, from which the government will withdraw EC$50 million.

The country received EC$5 million from CCRIF.

Gonsalves said there were several bilateral and multilateral donors who have given or lent money.

The countries that have given money, include Taiwan, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, the Cayman Islands, Anguilla and Dominica.

Multilateral grants have come from the Caribbean Development Bank, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, the European Union, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and the Organisation of Caribbean States.

Also, a wealthy resident of Canouan has contributed US$5 million to the Canouan development account to fund reconstruction. The CK Greaves group has put EC$500,000 in an account at East Caribbean Metals for roofing material, representing the largest local contribution.

“In fact, the donation by CK Greaves & Co. surpasses many of the donations we’ve received so far from actual countries and organisations and I want to single them out for applause and gratitude for their contributions,” Gonsalves said.

The country has received an EC$5 million disaster loan from the Caribbean Development Bank and has repurposed money from the World Bank and EC$5 million in local loans, the finance minister told Parliament.