Prime Minister Holness Speaking at Post Cabinet Press Briefing
Address
By
The Most Honourable Andrew Holness ON, PC, MP, DLP
Prime Minister of Jamaica
At
Post Cabinet Press Briefing
0n
November 6, 2024
_______________________________________
I think you could describe my interventions as a wrap in media terms. I will be traversing several subject areas and trying to put everything into context. Let me begin with the recent rains that we have had as a result of the tropical storm.
Minister Morgan would have given you an update as to the damage that took place. We are not yet in a position to give definitive figures as to the damage assessment and what it will cost. Our figures are preliminary, but we expect them to be in the wide region of between half a billion to a billion dollars but as I said, by the end of today, we will have more refined figures to share with the public.
I would like to point out that we have a multi-layered disaster risk response mechanism which we didn’t have five years or so ago. In other words, this is a new development in our government, which all Jamaicans should be proud of. One of the features of the old Jamaica is that whenever disasters struck particularly external unexpected ones like the ones that we are experiencing now, weather-based climate-based risk disasters, we would have to borrow. It would have a significant fiscal impact and I’m saying this to the public so that it gets into our consciousness so that we appreciate that Jamaica has changed, and changed in positive ways.
Now, whenever there is an unexpected shock for the government, meaning something we did not budget for, the implication is not just that we will have to borrow to finance the implication is that you will have to pay more taxes to eventually finance the borrowing. And one of the reasons why we have been able to say that for the life of our administration, you have had no net new taxes, it’s precisely because we have transformed the way in which we manage your affairs.
We have created fiscal buffers which we have used to support our response to disasters and we have developed the National Natural Disaster Risk Financing Mechanism and what that is, is we have made budgetary allocations to create buffers which we have put into a contingency fund. That fund is approximately about five billion Jamaican dollars, and we use that to respond to disasters as they occur so it is likely that we will be able to fund the damage from this most recent unexpected shock from what we have budgeted. In other words, Jamaica is at the stage where instead of borrowing to finance, what we do is we now set aside from the budget to be able to finance these things. It’s a big change in how Jamaica is operating.
Now, it’s multi layered because what I’ve just outlined is just one element of the response, and we do have insurance in the CCRIF, (Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility), so if there are weather events that meet a certain threshold then we can draw down on that insurance. I am not certain whether or not this weather event would meet the threshold, but all weather events that are of significance will be checked.
And then Jamaica did something quite novel and innovative. We issued a catastrophe bond. We’re the first to do it in this region, the first small country to do i and if the weather event is of a particular significance, then we have resources that we would get from that as well. So, we will be able to respond to these disasters but for many Jamaicans, the question is why does it take so long? And what about the conditions of our roads?
I’m here this morning to give some context to the government’s response to natural disasters and specifically the conditions of our roads. Now, bear in mind that the majority of our roads are under extreme stress for several reasons. First, many of our roads, in fact, most of our roads have passed their engineered useful life. They were built in the ‘50s and ’60s and ’70s, and the kind of maintenance that is required to extend the useful engineering life of these roads, we were not able to finance it over the last 50 or so years so we have roads that are passed their useful life. If you consider in any community in Jamaica, the road that passed your gate, for example, when was that road built in your community and you would say decades ago. And how many times in those decades was your road substantially rehabilitated? What we’re facing is an accumulation of disinvestment in our roads which have reached a crisis point.
The second factor that we should bear in mind is that many of the roads that were constructed were not necessarily constructed to the engineering standards that would carry the level of traffic and the load. In the last 10 years, I don’t have the exact figure, I stand to be corrected, but the last figures I looked at suggested that the number of cars have significantly, probably doubled in Jamaica under this administration so the wearing surface of roads are under significant stress.
The third factor that we should consider is climate change. Weather-related events are impacting our infrastructure in significant ways and consider it from two points of view. First, it is the rain events. Many of our roads were not built in the first place with drainage, with the proper camber, and the layers of asphalt sometimes would not have been at the thickness to withstand the wear. The other point to note is that aside from increasing rain, there is also increased runoff. We have more houses, more paved areas, and that in itself generates more water which wears the surface of the road.
Consider as well that the time has gotten hotter and that in itself has an impact on the material that is used so if you put all of these things together, it is quite understandable why all Jamaicans are frustrated with the road situation. I want to say to the country that the government is aware of it. The government is not insensitive to it but to put Jamaicans in the frame of mind to understand that the response is not patch the road. Yes, we must respond by patching the road, it gives temporary relief but if you really want to see a transformational change in Jamaica’s road circumstances in the same way that we have transformed our financial circumstances, it takes an enterprise-level plan to do it, meaning that it is a multifaceted response that is needed.
What has the government been doing to create this kind of multifaceted response to roads? The first thing is that we have to collect the data on our roads. We operated under the understanding that we had somewhere in the region of about 20,000 kilometres of roadways in Jamaica and the NWA would have assessed that. My recollection of this is that about half of the roadways would be in need of repair.
Recently, I directed the NWA and the Ministry of Local Government to do a national audit of our roadways and so far it is looking like we have 27,000 kilometres of roads and we are not completed yet, it might be a little bit more. So, the notion that we were labouring under in terms of roadways that we have, we have far more roads in terms of length. And by the way, this audit, it is not just merely looking at the GIS mapping. They actually went out, drove the roads, assessed some of the circumstances, measured the length of the roadway. In addition to that, we have now started to look at how are we going to administer the roads. Right now, the laws regarding how we administer the roads require that they be gazetted according to which entity uses them and whether or not they are local or main roads. The government is examining how we administer the ledger of roads that we have.
Another point to note is that for the public driving on a road as far as they’re concerned, every road is the responsibility of the government. Now, the government can’t work like that. Government has to be responsible for the roads it knows of and there is a process, and I’m using simple language, but there is a process by which the government comes into ownership or knowledge of a road. Not every road that is built is the government’s responsibility and I think that needs to get into the public consciousness in the conversation about roads.
There are some roads that are private roads. They’re built in subdivisions, in gated communities and so forth. Then there are roads that were built in housing schemes that should be handed over to the government that people are driving on, the regular public is using the roads so technically it’s the government’s road, but it’s just not officially on the government’s books as their roads. Or the NWA might not have it as their road. The Parish Council may not have it as their roads and these roads were aptly described in Parliament in a debate as orphan roads. In other words, no entity owns them and there are many communities that are plagued by the frustration of not being able to get any entity to respond to their roads.
How we administer the roads is under consideration now. Many years ago, there was the contemplation of a one-road authority. There is no position on that right now but just to alert the public that in terms of our long-term strategic intervention on roads, we will have to look at how roads are accounted for and how they are administered in order that we can properly budget for them. The other issue with the roads in terms of how we account for them and how they are administered is the standards that we set for the roads. In other words, we can’t just take over every new road that is built in every development. They must be built to specified standards and there are standards in place but we will be giving directives to the NWA regarding a review of these standards.
We have effectively changed some of the standards of our road construction. For example, every main road that we are now building, we don’t consider it just asphalting and put on the blacktop, no. We consider it utility corridors so we put in provisions for new water mains. We put in provisions for broadband internet. We make provisions for cameras and other sensors that might be needed. We look at the intersection, how that road relates to other roads and the ease of traffic for the intersection. And of course, the ease of movement by pedestrians so sidewalks, and provisions for disabled persons, safety rails, and other road furniture; all of that is a part of the standard that we are putting in, particularly for main roads, but for other roads, we will have to look at standards as well, and the NWA will be tasked to come up with those standards.
I think from what I’ve said, you start to see the complexity of the issue of responding to the road crisis now, which crisis is an appropriate word to describe it. Now, once we have started to get the data on the road to properly categorize, solve the administrative issues relating to how to administer resources to these roads, then we have to pay close attention to the level of skill and enterprise of the persons who will actually do the work to build the roads, our contractors. Our contractors are critical stakeholders in our response to the construction and maintenance of our roads. Jamaica has a good cater of contractors, but I think that in the next phase of Jamaica’s intervention in our roads, we’re going to need to work up front with our contractors to build capacity. I think the conversation has been not very helpful. There have been accusations and innuendos about contractors and their capabilities, that’s not helpful. What is helpful, is if we take a proactive approach with our contractors and seek to assist them in building out their capabilities and their capacities because this is in the national interest.
No matter how well we budget and how well we account for and administer the roads, the person who is actually laying the asphalt, we must ensure that they have the technical skills, the know-how, and of course, road projects require sometimes substantial balance sheets to be able to execute so the government needs to examine ways in which we can support our contractors to develop the skills. Many of them have, but some of them are trying but we need to support them so we are gonna be examining that and assist in the promotion and development of the contracting community because oftentimes we simply just don’t have enough contractors to do the level of work that is required which is going to be the case particularly as the SPARK Programme rolls out.
Let’s move to the other element which is procurement, and that takes some time. One project that comes to mind, Minister, Troy Bridge took two years and the people in the community cut off were very frustrated. Once the law is in place, there is very little we can do to manoeuvre around it. We must comply with the law but as lawmakers who sit in parliament, and that happens for a reason, meaning that the lawmakers can’t be disconnected from the frustration of the people and the frustration is Government needs to move faster.
We must take a second look at the procurement process. It’s hard for me to say to someone who is dropping in a pothole every single day that they are going to work that, yes, your road is in procurement. And I’m not just talking about the procurement phase, it’s from the investment phase right through to the contracting which includes the procurement to the actual work being done. And that entire administrative bureaucracy that has been put in place needs a second look given the urgency and crisis that we have with our roads. So, I wanted to just bring the public up to date in what the government is doing behind the scenes to have a comprehensive response to the road situation in Jamaica.
We are going to fix your roads and when it is done, it will be transformational. And like everything else that we have done, it’s not a patch response. It is building systems in place that will become institutions that will endure that will solve the problem over the short, medium, and long term so that we put that behind us. In the same way we have solved the fiscal issues, we’re going to take the same strategic instrumental approach to dealing with our roads and you would have seen that with the announcement of the SPARK Programme which I must give commendations to Minister Clarke. Former Minister Clarke and myself conceived the programme and found the funding for it. I also must give commendations to the NWA, E.G. Hunter and others in particular who constructed the programme in such a way that it could move very quickly.
Minister Morgan is piloting that programme now. We have passed the public investment assessment phase. We have almost completed the procurement phase. That is still ongoing but we’re close to completing so hopefully the start date which we were giving in November, I’m still being hopeful that we could get it in November, but the project is well on its way. You’re not seeing the actual asphalt hitting the road, but believe me when I tell you the asphalt put on the road is maybe 20 per cent of the entire project from conception to the public investment assessment to procurement to contracting procurement and then implementation. So, we’re close to starting that.
Now, as I wrap up on roads, 40 billion dollars, it’s the largest allocation ever for roads and these are roads that the public has an input in determining what is the priority. Twenty billion dollars of that will go to local roads and it is distributed equitably per constituency and the constituents would have attended the consultations, they would have raised their issues and we did that because there is a culture of blocking the road in the belief that somehow that is going to spur the government into action.
Two things; one, we know about the condition of the road because we are assessing the road. And secondly, if the government were to respond to every roadblock, it would be chaotic so as a nation we need to understand that it is not a negligent government that is uncaring and not paying attention. Rather, it is a huge problem and it is not your community alone, and the government is putting in place a strategic well-thought-out response that will ensure that your road will not just be patched but a full rehabilitation that will last you significantly, maybe even a lifetime and that needs to be understood.
20 billion dollars will go to main roads, and that will be at the direction of the NWA and those roads, the criteria would be high traffic, strategic connectivity and enhancing our productivity. Clearly, we’re going to look at roads that enhance productivity, connectivity, and strategic value. And 5 billion dollars we have committed to ensure that we lay the water mains along these roads so that we don’t have to go back and dig up the road again. There are some roads that there are no water mains there, but if we’re going to do it, may as well we put in those water mains. There are some roads where the water mains are old, they’re calcified, broken, or too small; we will replace them.
With that, I say to Jamaicans that I’m not asking for your patience, I’m asking for your understanding and giving you the assurance that we will fix your roads. Already we have allocated an additional 3 billion dollars for patching. Minister Morgan may have given you an update on that. Note that we cannot patch if it is raining. From a technical perspective with the asphalt, but even from an economical perspective, you patch today and it rains tomorrow and all of that is gone again, wasted.
We’re coming up to the Christmas season which coincides with our routine maintenance regime so there will be a further allocation to constituencies for patching. There will be some funds in the system to be able to respond at the local level to some of the concerns that exist. I want, again, to say to the Jamaican people, the government understands the issue. We agree it is at a crisis proportion. We did not create this problem. This problem is 50 years in the making. It’s compounded and just to be clear, it is a problem of lack of the financial resources over the last 50 years to make the investments in the road.
So, when we complain about what is not being done, what is not being done is not the lack of the things we have. What was not being done was to create the economy that gives the wherewithal, the resources to provide you with the things we have. Our conversation is one-sided, lopsided, and very narrow. We complain that we don’t have buses, we don’t have roads, we don’t have water, complain about the economy. It is the economy that you didn’t have, that you didn’t hold the governments then to account that created these problems and until our political discourse improves, then these problems will continue because we keep letting off governments easily for not fixing the economic problems while giving you promises about the ills that it creates.
It’s about creating the economy and what this administration is trying to do is to say to the higgler in the market, the teacher in the classroom, the small businessman, the housewife; let us build a productive economy. When we increase productivity in the economy, we have more resources and that’s what we’ve been doing. We have been increasing the productivity in the economy and we have seen that productivity increase in small ways by increasing employment. So once more people are employed, more production is taking place but we are at the point where we are almost at full employment, so where is the productivity going to come from?
It is going to come from the increase in productivity of labour, but even more so, the increase in productivity from businesses, how businesses administer their affairs and that now we’re talking about innovation, administration, the creation of new products, the introduction of technology, the creation of new industries; that is where the big productivity gains are going to come from. And when we get those big productivity gains, we’re going to take that and support the fixing of your roads, your water supply; every Jamaican must make that connection.
Now, let’s talk about another pain point in society. Minister Chang would have spoken to you in his presentation regarding the crime situation in Jamaica. Today, I just want to add to what Minister Chang has said. We called in the high command to Cabinet on Monday and we discussed a policy issue. Remember, we don’t give operational directives to the police but it is the duty of the government to give general policy directions and to express concerns that we have in terms of emerging issues. Of course, we gave commendations to the force regarding the reduction in homicides and shootings, and the general reduction in crime but we remain concerned that even though there is a downward trajectory, that the public is still of the view that crime is high. Again, it is a conflicting perception, but we don’t argue with the perception. What we try to do is to give information and place things into context.
We can understand if Jamaica is coming from 30/ 40 years of high murders and high crime and we’re already at a very high level, that even though reduction is taking place, it is not yet at the threshold where the average person believes that the crime and violence situation has improved so we accept and we understand that. But again, to place this into context, if you look at victimization surveys, you would see that the average person in Jamaica would not be an outlier as it relates to victimization. Meaning that our victimization rates are not exceptionally over and above victimization rates for the region meaning, what people experience in terms of murders.
There might be areas where it is concentrated, and so in those communities the victimization rate is high but for the rest of the country, it’s not an outlying situation. But Jamaica is an outlier as it relates to the murder rate, murders per hundred thousand, and it is an outlier as it relates to guns used in murders. Jamaica is an outlier, also, as it relates to gangs, meaning organized armed violence. Jamaica’s gangs are not youths on the corner who are organizing to protect their community from whatever outside threats. Jamaica’s gangs are armed organized entities, meaning that they act with intelligence, they specifically go to recruit youngsters, and they use violence for economic means so there is an objective that they are about. These are persons who are trying to make money off using crime and particularly violence.
You have gangs that are involved in crime, but there’s no violence. Jamaica’s gangs, they organize for crime and they use violence and another feature is that they use weapons; armed violence. I think every community should reject the notion that somehow the don is a Robin Hood and he’s there to help you or support you or he’s there favourably protecting you. That’s nonsense. They are criminals who are organizing the youngsters in your community to commit crimes to make money for themselves and that is where we are an outlier. More than 60%, 70% of our homicides are related to this kind of activity which is why we are focused on reducing, degrading, and eliminating gangs. We were at one point as many as over 300 gangs, and now we are down to 170.
We’re making progress but we’re particularly concerned about a new… it’s not new, it’s always been there, but in light of the reduction in murders, we see this emerging threat. Some people have described it as a mass shooting. I want to be more careful with my language, but multiple fatality shooting incidents. Minister Chang would have given you an update on Cherry Tree Lane, on Wareika Hill now Pleasant View Heights, and some other shootings that have happened in Bowen Lane that’s adjoining my constituency and other areas. And the reason why we are concerned is that the efforts that we are making in reducing shootings and murders could easily be wiped out by just one incident and this is of grave concern to us.
What we have been doing is we have looked at the laws and we have been examining the possible responses that the security forces could have and the law does give some account for such actions under the Offenses Against a Person Act. A person who commits a murder and who is convicted of the same especially if the murder is committed under the circumstances where the act appears to be calculated to create a state of fear in the public or any section of the public that the maximum penalty or rather the maximum charge should be applied, meaning a sentence of death or life imprisonment. I believe that the police should start to look at these kinds of shootings and seek to prosecute along those lines.
Again, that would be a kind of direction that we have given to the police. In other words, we need to start treating these incidents as criminal terrorism and we probably need to craft legislation to specifically identify these kinds of shootings. We are saying that they are mass shootings, I don’t like the term. I would prefer to say multiple fatalities, multiple victims or multiple fatal victims incidents.
We are examining the legislation to see how we can craft specific laws around that or whether or not we actually have legislation that can be used together to create that impact because it is beyond me to see why someone would see a festive event going on as in Cherry Tree Lane or in Wareika Hills Pleasant View Heights and just open fire on a crowd. I mean, what other reason could there be aside from just the sheer inhumanity and savagery, other than to create fear in a community and the public? Terror is the word for it and therefore these persons are not ordinary criminals. They are your worst kind and should be pursued with extreme prejudice.
The police, I believe, have been doing a good job in pursuing these criminals, and I want them to know whoever is out there listening, planning that we will find you and you will either meet a judge or your maker. The choice is yours. Outside of that, the government will continue to incentivize the public to share information. In the Cherry Tree Lane incident, we had put up a reward of about twenty-five million Jamaican dollars so we’re going to increase that.
The permanent secretary is just hearing me say that now. We will look at the budget and see what we have but we must incentivize the sharing of information. And any time there is any shooting that is a multiple victim shooting, there will be a substantial reward for the public, for anyone who would give information leading to the capture, and arrest of anyone who is involved including persons who provide information, aid and abet in any way those persons who commit those crimes.
I know that the police have special formations in place to deal with this, but we have also given direction that they increase their intelligence assets around these crimes to ensure that the perpetrators are caught and brought to justice. I want to assure the Jamaican people particularly as we head into the festive season, that the police will be vigilant and we will increase the resources to ensure that we give general coverage and protection, but that these multiple victim incidents are addressed specifically.
And as I close on that point, I’ve seen the pleadings and complaints of persons in the entertainment industry. My constituency is one area that thrives on the street dances and the parties. I have invested in developing the hipstrip in my constituency so I well understand that round robins and parties are legitimate economic activities and the government supports legitimate economic activities and we want people to enjoy themselves. And these parties can be a good way of bringing communities together and if properly managed, it can become a real major industry for Jamaica so I don’t want our promoters to feel that somehow the government is against promotion. That’s not true but it is equally of concern when we note that many of these mass shootings, as they are called, the multiple victim incidents are occurring in proximity or at festive events, bars and parties and so forth.
The response has been to be preemptive and the local police commanders have exercised their authority in curtailing some of these events but we acknowledge that that can’t be the only response, that we really have to bring the community in and work with them to establish the security protocols and actions that they need to put in place to prevent some of these things from happening. One immediately comes to mind is your event space being recorded by surveillance cameras and that is something that could easily be put in as a start as a deterrent. When you’re having these parties, yes, you go and apply for a permit, but why not go and sit down with the local commander first and say give me a security assessment of the area, I’m planning something. How can I be of assistance to you in ensuring that the security environment is safe for everyone?
You want your party, your event to be safe for your patrons as well so I think that there has to be a kind of different approach. From a policy perspective, we are examining that and you will hear more about how we will give some directions, particularly coming up to the festive seasons to keep these events safe. We want the events to be held. They are legitimate activities. They bring income to the communities in which they are held. We want them, but we also want the safety of the people who attend these events.
Ladies and gentlemen, as I said, I was giving you an extensive wrap, but this was a wrap with a blanket.