Prime Minister Dr Roosevelt Skerrit, along with Parliament colleagues, attended the consultation on the Good Hope Road project in Castle Bruce on Thursday, April 15, 2021.
PM Roosevelt Skerrit said that the Good Hope Road project is credited to the Parliamentary Representative, Octavia Alfred, during this challenging time. “This is really an extraordinary time, and we want to thank god for his many blessings.
When good things happen, we must thank god for it, and we cannot play partisan politics for everything happening in Dominica. When I hear some people saying bad things about this road project, I say, father lord, please forgive them; they don’t know what they are saying.”
PM said that we are hearing people in many countries are not being paid or getting laid off, and here we are talking about the 849,919 road project. “In any currency, this is a lot of money, especially during the period of coronavirus. Total $67 million would be spent in the Castle Bruce constituency. Additionally, we have another emergency shelter project worth $18 million for the constituency.”
Apart from this, the People of Castle Bruce were among the first beneficiaries of the housing initiative to build climate-resilient apartments and homes, as 126 received homes during the initial days.
“I give you the assurance that you will see very soon heightened activities that we are doing as housing is concerned in this (Castle Bruce) constituency. Because I know many of you are waiting for their house,” said PM. The road project would raise the safety of users.
While discussing the people who are criticising the government over various development and welfare projects, the prime minister asked people to beware of such people. He said that some people of our country do not want senior citizens to get the money, they do not want a house for each family in Dominica, yet they intend to lead us.
“You can only lead people if you first love them because the greatest gift of all is love, and to love people, you must understand how they live, you must be able to empathise with them, and you must put yourselves in their shoes.”
Emphasising on education, PM Roosevelt Skerrit said that many of our children could not attend secondary school because their parents could not afford to send their children to schools. “We introduced the transportation programme for every single child of Dominica to school and home at no cost to the parent.”
While referring to Octavia Alfred (Teacher Bonnie), PM Skerrit said that this lady has made a sacrifice of comfort to come and represent the people of Castle Bruce in the parliament and “you see the fruit of Labour. She is one of the representatives who goes to people and listens to them, and she is trying her best to do what she had to do representing you in the parliament.”
Denouncing the allegations of opposition over World Bank money, PM said that now the opposition targets the World Bank money after Citizenship by Investment (CBI). “They give the impression to the people of Dominica that all of the money we are getting is free money, and Skerrit must give it to everybody.
The reality is all of the money is the loan amount. For example, the Good Hope Road project construction cost has $127 million loan money.” He added that the funds Dominica government place in Aid Bank ($50 million) is also a loan from World Bank, through which the government is providing income support to hundreds of families and individuals in Dominica.
