Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves used his address Sunday night to mark St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ 45th anniversary of Independence from Britain to announce a cost-of-living initiative intended to benefit 3,000 people for three months.
“For the three-month period December 2024 to February 2025, … a special cost-of-living allowance, I’m calling it COLA Special, not Coca-Cola, just COLA Special, of $175 monthly,” Gonsalves said during the parade, the first held at night since independence on Oct. 27, 1979.
“This will be rolled out to 3,000 means-tested particularly vulnerable households, and this will cost for the three months, $1.575 million or $525 monthly,” the prime minister said, adding that the programme will be executed by the Ministry of National Mobilisation.
Gonsalves said the government will evaluate this programme after the initial roll-out, with a view to a possible continuation further into 2025.
As has been the case for over a decade, Gonsalves used the speech to make a series of “announcements”, several of which were not new.
The independence address could be the second to last before general elections, which are constitutionally due by February 2026 but are widely expected before the end of 2025.
Political observers often use the speech to gauge when the general elections are likely to be called.
Gonsalves also announced that his government would be ramping up its surveillance of “those unscrupulous retailers.
“We have some good retailers, and we have some want to gouge us — as you say on the road, ‘dig out we eye’. We have some unscrupulous ones who are reportedly engaged in price gouging,” he said.
The prime minister said the government would use the Consumer Protection Act and the Price and Distribution of Goods Act “to the fullest to curtail price gouging, especially in the unusual circumstances, occasioned by Hurricane Beryl”.
Among the other truly new initiatives announced by the prime minister was the indefinite continuation of the policy that people who use less than 250 units per month will not pay any VAT on their bills.
The prime minister also said the duty-free concession on cement will be extended indefinitely.
“I am resolved to make cement in this country the most affordable in the entire OECS.”
He said the EC$600 income support monthly for unemployed, heads of households, owners of micro-enterprises, farmers, farm workers, fishers and their crew and the workers laid off in the tourism sector as a result of Hurricane Beryl will continue for a period in 2025.
Gonsalves also announced that 368 recipients of loans from the National Student Loan Company will receive one month’s relief in their repayment in December.
The 368 people have graduated from university and are current with their loan payments, the prime minister said.
“I want them to spend a little better Christmas in post-Beryl,” he said referring to the category 4 hurricane that devastated parts of the country, mostly the Southern Grenadines on July 1, before leaving a trail of destruction in other Caribbean countries.
“This will cost the government just over $200,000,” Gonsalves said, adding that the relief is additional to the reduction of the interest rate on student loans to 4.5% annually, as he announced last year and was implemented in Budget 2024.
In 2020, Gonsalves dismissed as “opportunistic” a policy announced by the opposition New Democratic Party that if elected to office it would have halved to 4.5% the interest students pay on loans from the state-owned company.
Gonsalves also announced that second-year students of the community college and all teachers at all primary and secondary schools owned or assisted by the government will receive brand-new laptops.
“We estimate that there will be about 2,500, maybe slightly more. You will get them courtesy of the government, in early 2025,” he said, adding that this is expected to cost more than EC$3 million.
He further said that all 320 new applicants for the one-year Support for Education and Training (SET) programme who qualified have been approved for employment from November.
Further, SET employees who are Community College graduates will receive $200 more monthly on their existing stipend while those who are university graduates will receive $300 more.
Gonsalves noted that the current SET employees — over 200 — have had their stints extended to December 2024.
In the area of sports, he said the government, in conjunction with the private sector, football clubs and the Football Federation, will spearhead the establishment of a semi-professional football league “to make sure that our young football players make some money while they are playing football”.
Police officers who provided security during the T20 World Cricket Cup in June will be paid around EC$500,000, the prime minister announced.
Gonsalves, who is also minister of national security, has said earlier this month that the police had submitted a bill of EC$780,000, and he had asked acting Commissioner of Police Enville Williams for “a realistic document”.
He said Sunday night that the government and the commissioner of police had reworked the numbers for the payment.
He also announced that allowances for particular categories of public employees, including aggrieved police officers and junior doctors, will be reviewed upwards for 2025.
“Some of these allowances have not been increased for a little while, and we have to put that right,” Gonsalves said, adding that the details will be provided in Budget 2025.
He further said his government will beef up the state institutions responsible for citizen security, including the law courts, the police force, the Coast Guard, the prisons and the National Commission on Crime Prevention, adding that he would provide details in Budget 2025.
Gonsalves also announced that the duty-free concessions on “Christmas barrels”, which came into effect following Hurricane Beryl, will run through Jan. 31, 2025.
“So those who are late will have an extra month,” he said.
He said the government will establish a national orchestra and a national choir this year.
The prime minister also noted that on Oct. 24, the government awarded 104 national scholarships, national exhibitions, special awards and bursaries for university education on the basis of the results of the 2024 CAPE and associate degree examinations.
Additionally, this year, 50 students were granted economically disadvantaged student loans by the state-owned National Student Loan Company to pursue university education.
The prime minister said the repair programme for houses damaged by the April 2021 eruption of La Soufriere volcano and Hurricane Beryl will continue unabated until all the houses are repaired.
“I don’t have all the money as yet. It’s a huge task, but we are getting there. I’m gathering it bit by bit, day by day, sweet Jesus, and together, we will solve this housing problem that Beryl has created for us,” he said.
Gonsalves further said the government will restructure its sports department “to ensure optimal functioning in light of the huge expansion of top-quality sports facilities, the vastly improved performances of our sportsmen and women, and the increased roll-out of educational training and job opportunities for sportsmen and sportswomen”.
Nothing for those who are suffering from the vaccine mandate, they need bread, and butter also. Lord have mercy, nice electrons goodies. Please don’t remember your last meal my people, do the right thing.
Another election ploy, what is 3000 out of 110.000. The 3000 are probably ULP voters. ULP again taking advantage of people suffering and pain to win an election. They are making all kind of promises once more. From all types of sports to even paying the security monies which is owed to them. The usual ULP electorate of hands stretched out people who done accustomed to have nothing except round election time will be there for the handouts.
desperation calls for desperate measures. an wat about de rottening down roads, clinics, schools, police stations, MCH, and other buildings, yo fofeg dem? an wat about de medication fo de hospital ? yo tink people forget the wickedness yo do to the 500.workers becuz dem na tek an experimental jab ? did you tek if? de people believe other wise. go and come again.
If vincentians are foolish to be fooled by false promises again this time around then God help us. I find it rather interesting that most of these goodies are repackaged and with the sole intent to hoodwink the masses.
How else can ralph explain the 4.5% student loan interest. The PM chastised and berated the opposition NDP when they proposed this exact measure in 2020 calling it impossible and opportunistic. Now he coming now with the very idea and making it look as if it is him or his party initiative.
It is evident that Ralph has lived his usefulness and creativity. He is merely regurgitating old ideas and repackaging them as if he forgets or is losing his bearings. The people of SVG are fed up.
They are at a stage now that it doesn’t matter what Ralph and ULP do, it will not do much in terms of determining the upcoming elections. The people minds are already made up.
Enough! No More!
Keep them sweet using public monies. Once again we see the stupid and downtrodden being used to win election. What about the people who lost their jobs and benefits because of Ralph Gonsalves and ULP vaccine mandate. Don’t let them forget that. Don’t let them continue to abuse us.
It will cost the Government $200.000? Tell us which one of the ULP politicians is paying this money out of his or her personal finances? The snake oil salesman Ralph Gonsalves is coming for your taxes to prop up his election campaign. Telling lies to the catching hell population. Ralph Gonsalves deserves to be run out of this country. […]
there must be a money tree somewhere
I noticed that the NIS is directly implicated in these hand outs especially the student loans. now if the 2022 actuarial report suggests that the reserve funds are already compromised what are the implications for these new payouts and reductions in interest rates?
Mek. yo na tell we about the NIS ? that’s what the working people want to hear about. Do we truly have contribute
more to wait until we 65 yrs to get something? Eat ah food bin say, ah yo wicked because he ha fo wait 4 yrs for his pension so he make sure he don’t have to wait dat long to eat ah food. Wat ah set ah house slaves. Please, please tell us about the. NIS., NIS, NIS. NIS NIS. We waiting
So after listening to the prime minister Independence speech, I was left still waiting and wanting. As per usual it held nothing for the masses who are experiencing inflation’s rapid increase, as seen monthly in food prices, realistic fuel price reviews (gas, diesel and LPG), the repairs to the nation’s infrastructure, (e.g. Dorsetshire Hill road rehabilitation project where I noted in going to Dorsetshire Hill a board erected late last years, then I note red marking in the road recently and on my last journey up the red markings have worn out.), the state of Kingstown, which on a daily basis literally stinks, the drains, the garbage, etc. The settlement of national debt, instead more debt by COLA special, which would specially may us more broke, (This will be rolled out to 3,000 means-tested particularly vulnerable households, and this will cost for the three months, $1.575 million ). We have not heard of ways of raising gov’t income, by not taxing the nation, but encouraging investment, both domestic and foreign. The prime minister is gearing for elections and really has nothing to offer the masses but more rhetoric and no substance.
Sadly, the masses fall for it each time as we join together in singing our nation’s anthem, we are reminded of the deep irony that exists between the promises we sing and the reality many feel. We recite with pride, “Saint Vincent, land so beautiful, With joyful hearts we pledge to thee. Our loyalty and love and vow to keep you ever free.” But for some, these words feel hollow, overshadowed by political dynamics that paint a different picture of freedom.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, known for his declaration that “everything must come back to papa,” casts a figure some liken to “Papa Doc” in Haiti—evoking images of a leader whose presence permeates the lives of citizens and political landscape alike. This comparison is sharp, suggesting an atmosphere where loyalty to the administration is expected, and opposition is met with challenges that are more than ideological. Under this view, political dissidents feel the pressure, facing court cases that seem prolonged, with government-defeated rulings that remain unaddressed. To them, the reality behind “keeping our nation free” appears questionable.
For critics, the repeated phrase “This is my son in whom I am well pleased”—uttered with almost divine self-reference by Gonsalves—captures an air of invincibility, a reminder that dissent may not be welcomed. They see this stance as symptomatic of a larger, systemic grip on power that feels oppressive to many, particularly those not aligned with the government. This perception has fueled sentiments of disillusionment, especially when they feel their voices are overlooked or actively silenced.
As we mark this Independence Day, it is a call to reflect on the deeper meaning of freedom and unity. The beauty of Saint Vincent lies not only in its lands but in its people and their right to speak and thrive under fair governance. For those concerned, the day underscores a need for accountability and dialogue—a path forward where patriotism is not seen as aligned solely with government loyalty, but rather with the enduring well-being and autonomy of all Vincentians.