We are here this morning in a rush job.

We woke up this morning to find that the country is going to borrow 300 million dollars in foreign currency.

We are told that this is a good thing.

One of our supporters wrote this morning on Facebook: “Papa was a rolling stone, wherever he left his hat was home and when he died all he left us was a loan.”

I can imagine Loftus Roker this morning as he plays dominoes at the Potters Cay dock wondering what in the heck we are doing mortgaging the future of this country away, and boasting that this shows the confidence which the international community has in us.

Down in Barbados where the situation is apparently worse than ours, the Prime Minister told Parliament yesterday that there will be no stimulus package.  He said that it would not be in the best interest of the country.

A class from COB recently asked me to comment on the development of public policy and the role that Members of Parliament have in it.

I told him none, save in our internal caucuses we are able to influence what our party’s position is on a matter.

So I want the country to know that this is Papa’s Brand new bag.

It is difficult to turn down a jobs programme, particularly when we are to be complicit in sharing out the jobs.  So no problem there.  I don’t believe it is enough and there should be more jobs but for the ten people that we are able to help as Opposition MPs, I know that it will be a welcome relief.

But I also know that as the government proposes to put some people on the temporary payroll, there are others who are about to be put out on the street.

I think particularly of the customs officers who are presently in my opinion being railroaded out of the public service with due process in form only.

One woman who is the bread winner for 13 people is to be put out on the streets.

This matter may have to go to court because of a refusal of the authorities refuse to act judicially and fairly.

I have raised this matter because the heads has an allocation for the public service: 1.4 million dollars for premiums for Medical Health Insurance; 2 million to the Ministry of Finance for salary for people on Permanent and Pensionable; another 1.6 million for the permanent and pensionable at the Public Hospitals Authority and .9 million for the Department of Public Health.

I hope that this means the following:

The Air Traffic Controllers whose monies were approved in this House in the fall of 2007 and have not yet been paid will be paid.

I hope that the prison officers will be promoted and paid that were denied their promotions.

I hope the retired prison officers will get their money.

I hope that the estate of the deceased prison officer will be paid the monies to which she is entitled and simply can’t get.

I hope that those who were to be put on the permanent and pensionable whose appointments have been on hold will be put on the permanent and pensionable.

I hope that there is an end to cherry picking and that the issues raised by the Bahamas Public Services Union are addressed.

So the question for us is not whether we support this specific issue, the question is where is the plan to get us out of this mess that we are in.

Who is out there beating the bushes to get more investment in tourism and in the financial services sector?

All we hear is contraction, dismissals, closures.  But this is what we voted for?

The answer cannot be charity alone or borrowing alone.

The answer is money, sacrifice, leadership and reform and a combination of things.

I continue to be concerned about the lack of investment in education to promote this country as a developed country by the year 2020.

I have spoken earlier this week about the courts and how they are in a mess.  I described it as a scandal. It continues to be so.

And I am not certain that we know what to do.

It is no good boasting about how much money you can borrow.

One thing I know is that banks are no one’s friend.  No matter how the cat jumps they make money.

The interest keeps adding up, the fees keep adding up, they lend you the money, but just as quickly they will cut your legs out from under you.  So it is no comfort to me to say that the banks are lending The Bahamas money.

What is needed is an increase in productivity for our country or we are headed into debtor’s prison.

It seems also clear to me that we are in a dire financial emergency.

Unemployment is at 10 per cent or more in our major trading market the United States.  The prediction is that it will take three years before the unemployment picture in the U.S. begins to moderate.

So it is clear that there can be no quick fix.

So again, we ask where is the leadership on this issue in the country?

In my constituency office, the requests for food, for beds, for help with mortgages, for temporary loans are overwhelming.

The mortgages issue concerns me greatly and I wonder if the banks are not to be forced by act of Parliament to moderate their policies during the time of this emergency.

What I have in mind is some sort of act which would allow the Minister of Finance to declare a financial emergency and during that period there are restrictions on interest charges, fees and foreclosures until the financial emergency has been deemed to be over.  This is draconian but is it the way to keep people in their homes.

Similarly, I am appalled at the guerilla tactics being applied by the government itself in squeezing people at this time.

In particular I come back to my fundamental disagreement on the issue of the collection of real property tax.  Not on the collection of property tax itself but a foolish law was passed by this Parliament earlier this year which takes out of the hands of the chief valuation officer and the officials of the Ministry of Finance a discretion to negotiate the tax payments.

And this is ominous because the ultimate sanction is to sell your home out from under you if you can’t pay the tax.  And this is happening at a time of financial emergency.  I do not see how Ministers sat and agreed with something so patently foolish.  In this regard, the government is just as bad as the banks.  Simply heartless.

So let me summarize:
The solution is not borrowing.
The solution is greater investment and productivity.
We have to move in the short term to prevent social upheaval and put money in circulation.

But the warning of the Prime Minister of Barbados is important that any borrowing means that there will be a stimulation in consumer spending and the money goes right back out of the country again.

We have an even more acute problem in that regard in that our revenue is directly related to consumer demand.

The more the consumer spends, the more imports, the more taxes.  It again tells us that we have to look at our tax structure to delink it so closely from imports or border taxes and duties.

We need the government to go out and beat the bushes for investment and development capital.

We need the government to do right by public servants and to resile from the demonizing of public servants and seeking to fire them without real due process.

We need leadership, reform and money and then we may be alright.