Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves on Sunday proposed a youth-focused programme that resembles the Youth Guarantee Pledge that the opposition New Democratic Party made two years ago.
In October 2023, Opposition Leader Godwin Friday signed the pledge with members of the youth arm of the New Democratic Party.
“… we in the New Democratic Party, we pledge to our young people that by the end of our first term in government, every young person in this country will have the opportunity of a job, or a training programme, or a place or an internship with an employer,” Friday had said.
However, on Sunday, Gonsalves, who is seeking a third term in office as MP for East St. George, said that the ULP has opened many gates for the nation’s youth since coming to office in 2001.
“And we have another gate that we’re going to fly in the next term,” he said at the ULP’s rally in Calliaqua.
“We’re going to start something called the Youth GATES – G-A-T-E-S — Guarantee of Apprenticeship Training, Employment or Scholarship in St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” he said.
“If you are a young person and you graduate from college, from university or from secondary school, this party will make sure that you have an opportunity, either to be an apprentice, to get training, to get a job, to get entrepreneurial support, or to get a scholarship to go to the next level,” he said.
“Any young person who say they nah ha’ nutt’n ah do, mean they don’t want to do nothing, because this government will give you the opportunity to go forward.”
He said the ULP had opened the floodgates to housing and education.
The MP said that the NDP is going around and talking about what they would do if they are elected to office.
“Don’t believe them. They have lied to you in every single election, and they’re lying to you again. Don’t listen to what they say they’re going to do. Listen to some of the things that they have neglected to mention,” he said.
He noted that the NDP has mentioned the four things they will focus on if elected to office, namely, agriculture, fisheries, tourism, and the new economy.
“… but they never mention housing one time in them four things because they don’t plan to build a single house or give alyo a single sheet of galvanise to make your houses stronger when the rain falls.”
Gonsalves was speaking one day after South Leeward MP, Nigel “Nature” Stephenson, pointed out that during its time in office, the NDP did not wait until general elections to distribute housing materials.
“The New Democratic Party has shown the example before, where we actually stocked all these warehouses on a quarterly basis, and there are people actually right here that can attest to the fact that you could have done to your representative and asked for lumber,” Stephenson said at an NDP campaign event in Layou.
“And they were given to you not just before an election but every single quarter so that you could have built your house and make it into what it is today,” Stephenson said.
The finance minister said the NDP never mentioned scholarships.
“They say what they’re going to do, but they don’t tell you that they’re going to sell out Taiwan, and every single student in Taiwan would have to pack up their suitcase and get on a plane and come home in January because no more support from Taiwan for their educational dreams.”
He said construction of the hospital in Arnos Vale will stop because the Taiwanese construction company OECC will be sent packing.
“They’re telling you what they’re going to do, but they ain’t tell you that they’re going to raise their own salary and leave alyo in the dark,” Gonsalves said.
“The NDP is dangerous to the progress of St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” he told the rally, adding that the party has not spoken about its plans “to elevate St. Vincent and the Grenadines to become a first-world nation.
“And they won’t say it, because in their heart of hearts, they don’t believe that St. Vincent and the Grenadines can become a first-world nation.”
Recently, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, the finance minister’s father, said that the ULP can take SVG to first-world status of a special kind within 15 years.
General elections are constitutionally due by February 2026, but are widely expected by November.
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