Opposition Leader Godwin Friday is calling on the government to spend the EC$136.4 million that Parliament approved for the response and recovery following the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl on July 1, 2024.
“They have not delivered to the people with the money that we have voted for them — $136.4 million,” the opposition leader said on his weekly radio programme on NICE Radio on Monday.
Friday noted that Parliament approved the money in supplementary estimates following the category 1 cyclone, which damaged or destroyed almost all of the buildings in the Southern Grenadines.
“And yet, the people in the Southern Grenadines, particularly in Canouan, had a very bleak Christmas this year,” Friday said.
He noted that the storm also impacted other areas of the country, including the Northern Grenadines, which he represents in Parliament.
“… my constituency was hit too, in Bequia, but it pales in comparison. I’ve been to Union Island just recently and I see that so many homes are still without their roof. People are living in conditions that six months later they should not be in,” the opposition leader said.
He said he had seen the iWitness News video after our year-end visit to Union Island, where residents spoke about their situations.
“… you can’t contradict and say, ‘Oh, it’s Friday saying that, it’s Ollivierre saying that and so forth,” he said, referring to Southern Grenadines MP, Terrance Ollivierre, a member of his party.
“These are the people who feel it. And I’m telling you, they’re very, very dissatisfied and they’re very angry,” he said, adding that the people also have patience and pride and want to be able to get back on their feet.
He noted that Ollivierre mentioned in the video the importance of businesses reopening on Union Island.
“And the government has been sitting back and just watching Mr. [Ian] Wace and private entities basically do the work that they should be doing,” the opposition leader said.
“If a private entity can deliver the kinds of support to the community in Canouan and in Union Island, why is it that the government, with all its resources, can’t do so?”
Wace, a British businessman, has been paying for the reconstruction of house roofs in Canouan and Union Island.
“They’re sitting back and saying, ‘Alright, you spend’,” Friday said of the government’s attitude to private entities helping with the recovery.
“… ‘your money, you vote in Parliament, we go hold it for some other purpose.’ What is the purpose? To give out goodies like Santa Clause to say, election time coming,” the opposition leader said.
“The point of the matter is the people, six months on, they should be in their homes. They should have their roof.”
Friday thanked Wace and his organisation for their efforts.
“But there are no substitutes for what the government should do, and this government has failed miserably in its response to Hurricane Beryl.”
He said some residents of North Leeward and North Windward who were impacted by the volcanic eruption in April 2021 still have not received help from the government because they’re perceived to be supporters of the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP).
“And you hear from the people who were speaking on that video that Kenton Chance and iWitness News put out that there’s a lot of politics that is taking place in who gets assistance.”
Friday said this is the case in his constituency in that people whose roofs “didn’t have a scratch” have received roofing material from the money approved by Parliament to assist the storm victims.
“I mean, it’s unconscionable. And, Ralph and the ULP people, they going to talk about, ‘Oh, that’s just people making up things,” the opposition leader said, referring to Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and the ruling Unity Labour Party.
“Well, I’m glad now that you have the evidence from the people who are suffering in Union Island, who have said they have seen it with their own eyes, where things are happening that should not be, where people who need the assistance are not getting it, people who don’t need the assistance are getting it, and where the process of delivering the assistance that’s promised to the people is simply not up to scratch, and they’re simply falling behind. They are lagging,” Friday said.
“They are negligent, they are incompetent, all of those things. … how else can you explain that after so many months of suffering that the people are still so far behind?
“They’re not expecting miracles, but they want to know that somebody cares and has the urgency …” Friday said, adding that the recovery is not a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. undertaking.
“It is still an emergency situation in the Southern Grenadines, particularly in Union Island. So why is it that the government doesn’t have that sense of urgency? Why they’re treating it as it’s just another public works project or a project for housing?” the opposition leader said.