ST VINCENT | Gov’t to prioritise hospital over parliament building

KINGSTOWN (CMC):

Prime Minister Dr Godwin Friday says that his new administration will place emphasis on completing the US$78 million hospital under construction in Arnos Vale on the outskirts of the capital rather than a new parliament building that the former government had proposed to build.

Friday, who led his Unity Labour Party (ULP) to a convincing victory in the November 27 general election, told a radio programme that national assembly will continue to meet at its current temporary site “for the foreseeable future”.

Friday maintained his criticism of the decision by the Ralph Gonsalves government to borrow US$20 million to construct the new parliament building, saying “I said this when I was in opposition, that for me, given … the financial situation in the country, I didn’t think that the parliament building, as desirable as it is, [would] have been my number one priority, especially when the whole notion of that came up during the COVID crisis”.

In June 2020, the ULP administration pushed ahead with a US$20 million loan for the construction of a new parliament and courthouse buildings, even as the then NDP opposition withdrew its support, saying that doing so during the COVID-19 pandemic is wrong.

“And that’s where I said the phrase, … ‘put the money where the pain is’, because people are suffering, and you’re talking about building a parliament building,” Friday told radio listeners.

The parliament used to meet at a 200-year-old building in Kingstown that also served as a courthouse. However, the last sitting was held there on June 1, 2023, as the two-storey building, located across from the historic Market Square, needed extensive repairs.

The High Court continued to sit in the mouldy, woodlice-infested building through July 2024.

Prime Minister Friday, who is also the minister of finance, said his priority now is not building a new parliament building.

“I want to be able to … get the hospital completed, so that the people can have basic proper health care.”

In October 2024, the government broke ground for the hospital with a Taiwanese firm given 32 months to complete the project.