Former Democratic Labour Party (DLP) leader Verla De Peiza opened the platform in Speightstown on Tuesday night with a sharp critique of the Barbados Labour Party’s campaign promises, warning supporters that while the manifesto “sounds good”, there was “a difference between a handout and a hand up”.
De Peiza pointed to the $300 cash payment issued by Government last year, telling the crowd that most Barbadians would have “rested down that money in a supermarket before it was warm in your pocket”.
“It was a handout. That does not help you past that one moment,” she said.
Turning to the proposed Child Wealth Fund, De Peiza questioned how it would be financed, cautioning that “pretty phrases got us where we are today”. She asked: “How are they paying for this? Will you be issuing bonds in order to pay for that Child Wealth Fund?”
Referencing the 2019 bond restructuring, she said if bonds were being considered again, the country needed to know “what safeguards they have in place”. She also raised concerns about governance, asking
who would manage the fund since it was to be privately run.
“We had another special fund put together in this country during Covid, and who has accounted to you
for that?”
On fuel prices, Depeiza said Barbadians had been “visited for years” by stagnant local prices, despite falling oil prices internationally.
“We can look across the water on a clear day and see that our neighbours, who get their oil where we get ours from, can sell their petrol products cheaper than we can,” she said.
DLP candidate for St Lucy, Ian Griffith, shifted focus to what he described as neglect of communities and small businesses, telling the gathering that “right here in Speightstown, you bringing a town alive at night when business places and store owners dying by day”.
Griffith was speaking in support of fellow DLP candidate for St Peter, Jason Phillips, but reserved his sharpest criticism for St Lucy representative Peter Phillips. He accused the MP of failing to investigate or oversee key projects, citing “a failed bridge project” at Pie Corner and empty houses at Coconut Hall.
“What he does is not leadership, it is downright neglect. Where is his voice in Parliament?
A representative must be a bridge, not a barrier . . . . I will be there when the cameras are gone,”
Griffith said.
Waving documents to the crowd, Griffith said a contract had been awarded in 2017 for a desalination plant at Harrison’s Point. He said the project was later abandoned when the Barbados Labour Party came to office in 2018.
Had it gone ahead, he argued, it would have solved “two critical issues” for northern residents, including eliminating outages and ensuring water that was “clear and devoid of odour and sediment”.
“It is a basic human right to have clean water,” he said, adding that a DLP government would implement a desalination plant and compensate residents affected by poor water quality.
Addressing crime, Griffith warned that the Government could not continue promoting tourism while failing to address public safety.
“If you do nothing with the crime situation, do you think tourists will continue to come when they get a whiff of what is happening?” he asked. (SD)
