Q&A on Hurricane Melissa Recovery | Sitting of the House of Representatives
Q&A on Hurricane Melissa Recovery
at the
Sitting of the House of Representatives
On
November 25, 2025
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Opposition Leader Mark Golding:
Thank you, Prime Minister. Is it that the payments that we receive for Melissa relief and for the emergency drain cleaning just before and the housing allocation, is that kind of in lieu of the road patching resources that we would normally expect at this time to fix up roads? Many of us do that in January after the Christmas rush because it’s quite difficult to administer so many programmes at the same time in December but I’m wondering about that because there has been a lot of rain so the roads are in need of patching in the constituencies so what is going to happen there?
In terms of the National Cleanup Programme, the role the MPs will be what exactly in that? Because you’ve said that you’re going to employ a hundred to 200 per constituency in the areas where the cleanup is being done which are the most badly affected areas and the SDC is going to handle the engagement and training, you said, of those workers so do the Members of Parliament have any role in that at all? And if so, what is that role? Those are my questions.
Dr. the Most Honourable Andrew Holness:
Thank you, Leader of Opposition. Let me start with the role of the MPs. I want it to be clearly understood, Mr Speaker, that the MPs are integral and critical to the relief and recovery process, and there is no attempt in any way to marginalize or to obviate the office of the member of parliament and in every programme that we have designed, the office of the Member of Parliament is integrated and connected and contacted, and I want that to be established for the records.
We must, however, appreciate, Mr Speaker, that unwittingly or maybe by design, we are every day changing the role of the member of Parliament. The Member of Parliament is becoming less of a legislator and more of a standing office for social work, contracting, construction management. Madam Speaker, this collective body has to be very careful as to how it expands its role beyond its constitutional jurisdiction and I’m always very sensitive to it in as much as I am a Member of Parliament and I say to all, especially the new Members of Parliament, I do understand how you feel when you get out into the field and your constituents say I need help.
And if you were to say to them that my role is to go to Parliament and talk, or my role is to go to Parliament or to write a letter, they’re not going to understand that. They’re not going to see the value of that. What they want to see is for you to be present with them in the rain, in the storm as you were when you were seeking their vote. It is the nature of politics. It’s not just Jamaica, it’s everywhere but as leaders we have to be careful how we succumb to certain pressures that change the nature of our government including how it lessens accountability and transparency. I’m very sensitive to that so it’s not my intention to use the disaster response to change the nature of the office and function of the Member of Parliament.
I will say this in response, Leader of the Opposition. When we made allocation of $10 million to MPs, there were certain arguments being put; $10 million, this can’t do anything and we agree. $10 million is absolutely insignificant to the overall picture but note what MPs have said. “We need more money for transporting the $10 million worth of goods”, not to take it out of the $10 million, but we put money on top of that for transportation. Then some Members of Parliament have said, we need funds to actually go and inspect the damage so that we can send back the picture. Then some Members of Parliament have said, we need staff to manage all of this.
In other words, I appreciate and I’m not saying that I don’t understand the demands. I too am a Member of Parliament, but the office was never designed in the first place to do this and so either we are going to unwittingly allow it to happen or if it is the collective mind that it be, so then we will have to sit down and properly provision the office of the Member of Parliament to become a department of the government that delivers service in the constituencies. It is a reality. I’m not meaning to open this as a debate, but I’m just pointing out that these are things that as the people who lead the country, we have to sometimes look above what the public is saying and what everybody else is saying and see what our collective action is doing. Are we leading or are we being led?
It’s a debate to be had, Leader of the Opposition. In this cleanup programme, as in any other, we expect that the Member of Parliament will play a critical role in
- recommending the persons who will be employed, absolutely important, so you will be working along with your SDC officers.
- that you will be playing a role in identifying equipment that can be used in the cleanup. The NSWMA will be the coordinating body for the trucks and the tractors and the excavators and the power saws and all of those things. The NSWMA may not know all the equipment that exists within your constituency or in your community so you will coordinate with them. But just to be clear, MPs are not to get involved in any contracting or procurement matters. I think I have to say this and say it publicly and say it repeatedly. It is not your role.
MPs can play a pivotal role in mobilizing the community. Now, when any programme is announced with resources as MPs, we know that the first thing that people see or ask is the money and how much you’re going to get but this is a national cleanup programme where though there is a component of pay, there is also a component of service. It is in all our interest to remove the debris from the communities. Let’s be clear, there will be persons in communities who are not able themselves to remove the debris; old persons infirmed persons, and therefore as you organize the labour force, as Members of Parliament you will have great knowledge of your communities as to where the help will be needed so you can help to guide how the various work teams are directed, where they should go and how they should be deployed. The Members of Parliament have a critical role to play but I’m going to urge you to stay within the bounds of what you are constitutionally required to do.
Now the other question was the road patching. Mr Speaker, we will not be able to do the road patching as we have done in the previous mitigation programme because of one, the resource constraint and number two, we would not want the NWA’s resources to be tied up in treating with the procurement and contracting in other areas where the need is not as great as the 16 constituencies and some other targeted areas so we have taken the decision to focus the efforts right now on getting those 16 areas back up and running. It doesn’t mean that there will not be an allocation, it just means that you won’t have the allocation now while this programme is going on because the NWA will play a critical role in this national cleanup as well because remember now, most of the debris would be along the NWA corridors and the parish council corridors, and we will need the NWA to help us with management and supervision of the various work teams and to help us in the reporting of the removal of the debris because at some point in time there will be accountability, there will be monitoring and evaluation.
You might hear that we move 20,000 truckloads of debris and then for some reason you can’t account for four or 5,000. We don’t want that. We want to be able to account for everything so we’re going to ask the NWA to help us with just managing the accounting for the removal of the waste, tracking, and helping us to understand. In particular areas, for example, there might be light poles, some debris might block gullies, it might block culverts so we want the NWA to be there to assist the work teams in proper guidance and direction to make sure that everything is done according to what proper Civil Works codes should be.
I believe you had a third question, Leader of the Opposition? That was it. Good.
Member from St Catherine North Central, Natalie Neita Garvey:
Prime Minister, I am still over these years questioning how it is determined that the hilly terrain of North Central St Catherine and East Central St Andrews could possibly get the same funding for bushing when this amount by NWA rates and standard, we’d only do about three of my main thoroughfares. So, I’m not picking on you, but my colleagues as well, why would I get up in North Central St Catherine where the vegetation is so overgrown, I don’t know how I could be compared to East Kingston and Port Royal.
I’m not picking on you. I am batting for rural constituencies at this time. The bush a close in pon the cars. The people have nowhere to walk. Down in St Andrew, is it Northeast where Chuck is? Yes, Northeast, I think maybe you would probably beautify the curb walls, but we have bush. The vegetation that cars can’t pass without scraping up the side of the vehicles and with people not having anywhere to walk. There is no routine maintenance going on so let’s not fool ourselves. The bushing only takes place once per year, and when that happens, it is at a place where it is not manageable. We have to be using equipment to first clear the sides of the road before we can even send men out there to attempt to de-bush. Prime Minister, I’m appealing to you. Rural constituencies must be treated differently at this time to be able to take care of overgrown vegetation.
My second question relates to the movement of funding. I think we have always been able to, based on what our needs are, that we might be able to do some juggling where possible. Please just elaborate.
Dr. the Most Honourable Andrew Holness:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. And thank you for those statements and the question. Because we had cut the programme to dovetail it into the National Cleanup Programme, we didn’t make the usual parametric provisions where you could make certain changes, but as the programme is defined now, I will inform my permanent secretary that I have no objections if a member of parliament were to decide to shift from bulky waste into bushing or from bushing into bulky waste but there can be no compromise on the $2 million for cleaning drains and waterways because if you note, it is more for vector control. You can use this for vector control if you would like, but the threat now is mostly for standing water where you are having rats and other vectors, mosquitoes, so we would not allow you not to use that $2 million for that purpose, but you can move between bushing and bulky waste removal.
On the matter of the rural constituency, it is a constant point being made in these debates and more and more as it is made, I’m inclined to consider it. Not as an additional allocation, but as we have, for example, which we debated last week or week before with the bauxite levy fund for constituency development. Constituencies, they get a special allocation from that so there may be ways to craft programmes that are specific to rural constituencies for which you would qualify as one rather than to make a general allocation.
Member from St Ann Southeastern, Kenneth Russell:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Thank you, Prime Minister. Just to echo, Southeast St Ann is the largest geographically, the largest constituency in the country, and so the issue of ensuring that we’re able to service and deal with the issues with roads, bushing, et cetera, is critical and I want to echo what the Members said and thank you for your commitment to considering it.
The other consideration, which I would like to ask if you would make Prime Minister, is some flexibility. You said there will be funds coming regarding patching, and so I wonder if you would consider now allowing some of us to be able to access those patching resources earlier than others. And I say this because the roads in my constituency are downright dangerous, and they’ve been made more so by the waters from the hurricane. But in addition, we have some breakaways, which might be a separate issue, but certainly road related, breakaways from slippages that need urgent attention.
Two parts to the question. The first is flexibility with the patching resources. Those of us who in consultation with the NWA can access and use those resources effectively in the short term, if we can have that flexibility. And secondly, the plans for dealing with the breakaways from the hurricane in constituencies like mine.
Dr. the Most Honourable Andrew Holness:
I see that the road patching and road maintenance are matters of concern, particularly for the MPs that are not within the 16. Let me assure the entire parliament. The NWA presented to the Cabinet a budget for recovery of roads for $35 billion. We were not able to allocate $35 billion all at once. We settled on an allocation of $5 billion. That’s what we could see our way to fiscally and in that $5 billion would be allocations for patching of roads, minor and major repairs.
We could see our way fiscally and Members allow me to just engage you for a few minutes. Please bear in mind that revenues have fallen, expenditures by virtue of what we need for relief and recovery, you would’ve heard the Minister of Energy explain the demands on the government, even things that we did not budget for, we have to now put them in place so it’s a delicate balancing act to ensure that we don’t end up in a financial crisis as we are responding. Every demand that is made, we put it through the lens of what is fiscally possible.
Now, what is fiscally possible is also determined by how efficiently you spend the resources allocated. We can make allocations that are not efficiently used, so we have to look at what is the spending capacity of the entities that we are giving the resources to. When it comes to road patching, for example, if we were to say we are going to fix all the roads in all the constituencies, and then in addition to that, spend more resources on the 16. Do you know what the biggest problem was?
The Member, my sister from St Andrew Southwest, who stood up in Parliament last year and complained that you have allocated $40 million, but I can’t get anything done. Why couldn’t you get that $40 million spent? Because it had to go through procurement and then contracting and all kind of long process tying up the NWA staff. Note, we haven’t made a budget to increase the staff of the NWA. We haven’t taken on more people. It’s the same staff so even if we’re making allocations, we also have to think about how the allocations are going to be spent so these are just some of the considerations.
What we have done is to look at the entirety of the roads that need to be repaired, give priority to those that are in the worst damaged areas, which I think we all agree that that’s the sacrifice we have to make. But at the same time, as soon as we have gotten those roads underway, then we can look at the others. We’re going to treat all the roads in Jamaica under the emergency procurement because they were all affected but the emphasis because of the resources that we have, will be on the roads that are in the most affected areas and then we will come back and deal with the other roads.
We have allocated $1.5 billion for patching. Note that last year when we were impacted by the heavy rains after Beryl, we allocated $2 billion for patching island wide. Note as well that out of that five we have already spent because we have cleared almost all the roads. There are only 15 roads that are still blocked and of that 15, some are blocked because as you mentioned, landslides and slippages and waterlogs, which we just wouldn’t be able to address those. We have already spent in clearing that. As I’ve speak today, all the roads you can drive on, there might still be some bush on the side of the road, but that’s what the National Cleanup Programme is designed to do, and that’s why we will work in coordination with the NWA and the JPS and NWC to make sure that we’re not interfering with the Civil Works and the road furniture and the critical works that are along those roads and that’s the coordination of the National Cleanup Programme. I put the MPs at ease. You will have your roads attended to, but from a procurement and contracting perspective, you want to get those 16 constituencies off very quickly and then we’ll be able to address the others shortly. I would say that by late January, early February, we can start to patch, which would ordinarily be about when you would be able to spend that $10 million anyway.
The overall coordination of the National Cleanup Programme is the NSWMA. The bulky waste is NSWMA. The cleanup and the management of the drain cleaning and so forth, vector control; that’s NWA working with your Ministry of Health. So, remember now, if you need to do vector control, contact your local Ministry of Health personnel to assist you either with baiting for rats or treating water or any of those activities that you would normally do in terms of ensuring that any standing water is not an environmental threat.
Member from St Andrew Southwestern, Dr Angela Brown-Burke:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I have three quick questions. The first one is really very simple one. Prime Minister, you mentioned an allocation to councillors, which seemed a little bit miniscule. I suspect that they will be hearing more about a programme for the councillors. Just to make sure that as a former councillor, I’m not here and not paying attention to that.
Prime Minister, you spoke about Government having discussions with the SDC and so on and giving instructions for the inclusion of the Members of Parliament and their role. The question, Prime Minister, is whether or not those recommendations are going to be inviting and clear and whether or not that similar approach cannot be used for the distribution of relief as it relates wider than just this in this post Melissa recovery and all of what we are doing because it isn’t happening now.
Prime Minister, it’s just very simply, I would imagine that Government has been having discussions with external sources about debris management based on what you have said is the volume of debris that Melissa has left with us. Are you ready to update us or are we to expect any more detailed update further on?
Dr. the Most Honourable Andrew Holness:
As it relates to the allocation for councillors, the revenue impact has also negatively affected local government revenues right across the island so what we have done here is in consideration of the fall out generally for local government. I will leave that burden on the minister of local government when he comes to speak to see what other allocations, he can make from his already dwindling resources but if it can be topped up, I’m certain that the minister will do that.
As it relates to the instructions, we will make the effort to put them in writing so that the officers are aware that the Members of Parliament have been prescribed specific roles in supporting the National Cleanup Programme.
And then your third question is about debris management so, yes, we are actually in touch with other entities, and you would know that we have brought in. I asked the UN Secretary General for support in the management of disaster, the logistics of management and he kindly sent a team in addition to sending a Jamaican. You might know him, Ronald Jackson, who is an international expert in this and so this is part of the conversation going on about how to manage this debris. What we have done here is from our side, meaning from the executive side, is the financial allocation and how can we multiply the allocation.
Meaning that instead of just paying trucks to remove the garbage, how can we get the people who are removing the garbage understanding about debris, introduce recycling and separation, and these other things. Whatever expenditure we’re doing, yes, it’s about relief, relief from having the garbage but it is also about making the community stronger, that yes, you see this garbage, but plastics can be recycled, metals can be reused and we want to get that kind of notion into the community, but we also want to take advantage of this period to rebuild community spirit to get people to come out and clean their own communities. That’s the idea behind the expenditure, so it’s not merely an expenditure, it’s about multiplying the value of what we get from the expenditure.
Member from Portland Eastern, Isat Buchanan:
Prime Minister, I crave indulgence because I don’t want to sound repetitive. I had a conversation with the Minister of Works in terms of preserving roads at this time. So, if we don’t have exceptions to the rules in everything that you’d outline, we may find ourselves in a situation where we’re spending more to preserve roads that we just previously spent a lot of money to repave and construct. For instance, I can think of one road in Bellevue, that’s in Fellowship, Portland. The top of it was done, millions of dollars spent on the bottom of it, in the middle of it there was no works done so what you have is the road actually deteriorating the unimproved area going into the area that was improved and between the road and the drain. The conversation that I spoke about is the practicality of you would have to spend money to even dump the spaces so that it doesn’t actually disintegrate further and start to destroy the new road. So, my question then is, will there be an exception to the rules where it is identified? Because I know you outlined, the role of the MP but if we are on the ground and we’re seeing particular things to preserve the status quo while we await the parishes that are affected, we may find ourselves with a higher bill.
The next part of it is, certainly the parishes that are situated similar to mine that I would’ve heard my friends speak about, the drain cleaning exercise is also one of road preservation. When the de-bushing part of it and you have gutters that are like drains on those expensive roads. if the de-bushing and the drain cleaning isn’t working in tandem, what you’re gonna have is that the road itself is then destroyed and so there are situations where notwithstanding what’s happening with NWA, and I heard it’s practical, but the preservation is going to be almost as if we were going to find ourselves with a new problem and a more expensive bill. And so, there was a complaint because in my constituency I’ve had to take the decision to simply get marl and shingle that I’m now learning that there’s a different quality and NWA is telling me, you need to stop because the quality of the marl is not good. I’m just bringing that out to say that the practical solution, which rightly the minister would’ve advised me is, if you can stop the gap, you’re gonna have to do that, but how long can I afford to do that in a private capacity while we wait, and so I just need you to consider that.
Dr. the Most Honourable Andrew Holness:
Just listening to the Member of Parliament, I can see his passion and the genuine desire of wanting to help and just reflecting that when I became a Member of Parliament, I may have taken the same posture, but I’m sure that you’re seeing your colleagues over there as I read their faces would be saying “he will learn”. But Member, when we sit here and make the rules, we are not intent on breaking them but when exceptional circumstances are brought to our attention, we will have to address them.
The provisions made to Members of Parliament and let me say this and I have to be the one to say it, because you’re going to face your constituents who will tell you the Prime Minister allocate $5 million to you to your constituency, fix all the roads. The funds that are allocated to Members of Parliament are not meant to replace the functioning ministries, departments, and agencies who have the budgets to actually deliver the service. The allocations that are given to Members of Parliament are there for them to be able to respond to urgent, critical welfare and health, and other critical social needs and some infrastructure needs but the Member of Parliament is not the executive director of the NWA, or the managing director of the NWA, is not the supervisor of Works. I have to say that and say it clearly.
Now, I know some of us want to pretend as if we are because that is the way you win votes, but it is setting you up because you will not be able to fulfil the demands. I need to just say it in your protection, Member from East Portland, and for all MPs.
You have said you have brought it to the attention of the minister. I just had a word with the minister; there is a process. These things, if you bring them to the attention of your NWA parish manager or I suspect that road is a parish council road, that you bring it to the superintendent of works in the parish council, those matters would then funnel up into the larger budget, and then the decisions are made as to how the larger budget is allocated to what is a priority.
Member from St Thomas Eastern, Rosemarie Shaw:
Prime Minister, I heard you mentioned some special areas outside of the badly affected areas. I want to crave your indulgence this evening. There are two areas in Eastern St Thomas, Bath where the river, contrary to what persons is saying that persons build their houses on the riverbanks, the road is the Copper Lane area where the river undermine the road and it’s in a very very dangerous way. The last hurricane, motor vehicles were washed away, houses have been undermined, and persons are traumatized because they have nowhere to live. They have to be here, there, and everywhere, living with family members. Some of them, the convenience is not proper, so I am asking for special consideration for the Bath, Copper area where the river washed away vehicles and undermine the structure.
Also, there is a breakaway in Rowlandsfield; very, very dangerous, Prime Minister. It happened from Beryl, and it has worsened since Hurricane Melissa so those two areas I’m asking for special consideration.
Dr. the Most Honourable Andrew Holness:
You mentioned, Member, special communities. We’re going to be driven by the ODPEM data as to the areas that were affected. I suspect that Bath and the area that you have mentioned would be considered in the cleanup effort, but it seems to me that you’re suggesting that it is more than just the cleanup that you need. I take note of that, and I will through ODPEM and Ministry of Labour and Social Security ensure that the proper assessment is done, a report is given, and we see how best we can respond.
Questions were raised about breakaways, and I didn’t answer them. Now, just to be clear with the breakaways, the NWA is in the process of assessing the breakaways. I have seen that there are members of communities who are saying that they’re taking matters into their own hands and trying to create pathways on unstable soil. I can only use this platform to advise members. I am the first one to encourage and support community initiative, but trying to construct a pathway on a landslide or a breakaway is very dangerous.
The NWA, as I’ve said, they have done assessments and there are two issues that we have to consider, which the public should understand. Once there is a breakaway, the alternative is to either bring the road inland, which would mean in some instances or most instances going through private property. We would have to acquire that, that takes some time, or if we decide that it is feasible to restore the breakaway, which is usually a very expensive undertaking for civil engineering so it is not something that I can tell you that it will be corrected overnight.
If there are obviously no alternatives, there’s no alternate route, then we will have to move there very quickly to provide access, but if there is an alternate route I would encourage person to use the alternate route rather than to risk going through the breakaway or the land slippage.
Member from West Central St James, Marlene Malahoo Forte:
Prime Minister, are you aware that Members of Parliament have experienced great difficulty in sourcing equipment in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane and are still experiencing that difficulty and so it may impact that role of identifying equipment for the cleanup work, firstly?
Secondly, can we get an indication of what equipment has come in through international aid in the disaster response process?
And thirdly, whether any mulching machine or other equipment that can assist with the biodegradable vegetation has come in or can be sourced to expedite the cleanup?
Dr. the Most Honourable Andrew Holness:
I’m aware of the shortage of equipment so if there is a general shortage, I’m certain that MPs are going to find it difficult. There is the notion that we have a lot of trucks and as we pull from the regular trade, it is going to impact construction, agriculture, transportation so we have to manage that very carefully.
What we have done, we have made an allocation of $200 million to acquire equipment locally so far. I don’t want to say too much about what we have started to procure, but we have started to look at tipper trucks which we can get out of the local supplier here, brand new and wood chipping machines. We have started to look for those. There are not many in the local trade because you need the industrial heavy-duty types. We have asked our partners to supply excavators, D9 bulldozers, compactors, water trucks, and we have sourced water trucks here locally as well. So yes, we are trying to source what we can here locally, and we have asked our international partners to also supply.