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  • 1 year ago
Budget 2024 / 2025 is being referred to by some as an "election budget," where there is an expectation that there'll be measures to woo the voting population.
However, Leader of the Patriotic Front Mickela Panday does not believe that there will be any significant changes to better assist vulnerable people in the country.
Alicia Boucher has the details.

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Transcript
00:00The budgets over the past nine years have failed to address core issues plaguing the country.
00:05That's the view of patriotic front leader Michaela Pandey.
00:09Such as rising poverty, inadequate health care and growing inequality.
00:15We anticipate they will neglect the needs of everyday citizens while offering little or no real solutions
00:23for economic diversification or even job creation.
00:27Pandey believes that many sectors including agriculture, manufacturing and tourism
00:33are not experiencing the growth needed to propel the country towards meaningful diversification.
00:39And of course crime isn't helping that and we see Tobago being affected as well.
00:44So the reality is the only thing growing in this economy is crime.
00:48While people can't afford food and housing and the like,
00:53they've completely lost touch with the everyday struggles of people.
00:59She says the $3 increase in minimum wage in the 2023-2024 budget
01:04has failed to alleviate these problems with a rising cost of living.
01:09While she's all for people taking up odds and ends in terms of jobs to survive,
01:14Pandey tells us these should be stepping stones for improvement,
01:18for people to do better and she doesn't believe the system promotes that growth.
01:22For one, she points to what she calls a lot of red tape in setting up small businesses
01:27and she highlights possible avenues for job creation.
01:31We have a whole new world of technology happening right now
01:37where you can provide jobs for young people by modernising what you do.
01:43We have some great ideas and we're going to be responding to it
01:47but of course we'd like to hear what they're going to say first but you have to create jobs.
01:51The tourism sector is something very important as well.
01:54We always think about, yeah, okay, Tobago and sea.
01:58We could be having medical tourism in Trinidad.
02:01We could be having sports tourism in Trinidad.
02:03We have more stadia than any other, any other Caribbean island.
02:08As for addressing the issue of food security…
02:11Stop giving and allocating the least amount of money to agriculture.
02:16Look at the needs of farmers.
02:18Bring them to the table, find out what they suffer from.
02:22When they suffer through no fault of their own losses because of flooding, etc,
02:28there are years that it takes before they get their compensation, before they do that.
02:35In order, when you have a loss, you have to be able to buy back your products
02:40and then all the different expenses that go into starting again.
02:46Panday says the Patriotic Front will be putting forward its proposals
02:50before the September 30th budget, focusing in part on creating jobs for the youth.
02:56Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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