353 Leave of Absence Friday, September 12, 2014 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Friday, September 12, 2014 The House met at 10.00 a.m. PRAYERS [MR. SPEAKER in the Chair] LEAVE OF ABSENCE Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members, I have received communication from hon. Patrick Manning, Member of Parliament for San Fernando East, requesting leave of absence from today’s sitting. The leave which the Member seeks is granted. REVISED STANDING ORDERS (STANDING FINANCE COMMITTEE) Mr. Speaker: Hon. Members, as you are aware, the revised Standing Orders changed certain aspects of the procedure for the second reading of the Appropriation Bill. The revised procedure improves the Legislature’s scrutiny of the annual budget and includes a change from private to public deliberations of the Standing Finance Committee, which shall now be chaired by the holder of the office of Speaker. The Appropriation Bill together with the estimates are automatically referred to the new Standing Finance Committee and, upon the conclusion of this debate, on the second reading of the Bill, the House shall resolve itself into the Standing Finance Committee in accordance with Standing Order 81(8). By the end of today, it is expected that the Leader of the Opposition will provide the order in which the Heads of Expenditure are to be considered in the Standing Finance Committee. A detailed Practice Note has been circulated to all Members and I invite all of you to become expertly familiar with the revised procedures for the Standing Finance Committee. 354 Appropriation Bill, 2014 Friday, September 12, 2014 APPROPRIATION (FINANCIAL YEAR 2015) BILL, 2014 [Second Day] Question proposed. Dr. Keith Rowley (Diego Martin West): [Desk thumping] Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. This will be the 24th occasion that I would have had the opportunity of participating in a budget debate in this honourable House. For the fifth time as Opposition Leader, I am privileged to be called upon to respond to the budget statement of the Minister of Finance and the Economy. This I consider not just as a duty, but also an honour as I act on behalf of all the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad and Tobago is not a basket case. In fact, for decades our favourable circumstances have placed us among the more fortunate in the region, and I dare say the world. That having been said, the people of Trinidad and Tobago have every right to harbour expectations of a better life, as we proceed to develop our nation from year to year and from administration to administration. Along the way, on this journey, there have been and always will be highs and lows, twists and turns, for that is life. But how we cope with the inevitable hurdles will largely depend on the quality and effectiveness of the leadership which is brought to bear on our circumstances, whatever they may be. It is against this background that whatever else we say today or do today, September 12, 2014, we cannot properly address this assignment without reviewing and assessing this Government and the national challenges as they existed or were perceived in 2010—that is, four budgets ago—as against where we are today. In short, we compare what we set out to do as against what we have accomplished. It is here that the budgeting process is located—that is, what we have earned, what we have spent and how well we have obtained value for money in fixing the nation’s problems, as we pay our way forward. This is an opportune time to remind you, Mr. Speaker, that we on this side, in a unique demonstration of cooperation for the national good, voted for the 2010 budget, as presented by this Government. Armed with this send-off, the Government proceeded to fail, to fail spectacularly and to fail regularly. That is why, knowing that they have failed, last weekend, on the eve of the Government’s fifth budget statement, the Prime Minister sought to preface this budget by 355 Appropriation Bill, 2014 Friday, September 12, 2014 repeating their election mantra, that “the Treasury empty”. The Prime Minister said the PNM left the country with a fiscal deficit of 6 per cent of GDP. Nothing is further from the truth. Here are the facts based in part on information from the Central Bank’s Annual Economic Survey and the Central Bank’s Economic Bulletin, July 2010, Central Bank Statistical Digest of December 2010, and I quote from these documents. At the end of the fiscal period 2008/2009, there was an overall deficit balance of $6.6 billion, which was about 5 per cent of GDP. At the end of May 2010, just when the People’s Partnership Government took office, the deficit had dwindled to $77 million, $77.9 million to be accurate, and not 6 per cent of GDP as stated by the Prime Minister. At the end of September 2010, which was the end of the fiscal year, the overall balance from the Government’s fiscal operations was a surplus of $188 million and not 6 per cent of GDP in deficit. Mr. Speaker, in the face of record high oil prices at over $100 per barrel and sustained gas prices well above the budgeted levels, this Government has operated a significant budget deficit in every year of its existence. With that embarrassing fact as its legacy, the Government is now looking for PNM company by attempting to mislead the population so as not to be held accountable for its own fiscal irresponsibility. We will have none of it. The truth must be told to our children, notwithstanding the best efforts of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance and the Economy. Contrary to what they are now trying to peddle to the population, except for 2009, the year of the global collapse which led to a recession, which affected us here, the previous PNM Government had been consistently running budget surpluses as follows: 2004, $1.5 billion in surplus; 2005, $5 billion; 2006, $7.713 billion; 2007, $2.298 billion surplus; 2008, $12.13 billion in surplus; 2009, as I mentioned before, the year of the collapse and the recession, we went into deficit of $6.86 billion. 356 Appropriation Bill, 2014 Friday, September 12, 2014 [DR. ROWLEY] And that by May of the following year, we had reduced it and by September, we were into a minus, a very small surplus of $188 million. These are the figures to be found in the Central Bank Annual Economic Survey. Compare that, Mr. Speaker, with data from the Ministry of Finance and the Economy’s own review of the economy generated by this Government for its own stewardship. 2011, deficit, $2.8 billion; 2012, $3.5 billion; 2013, $5.18 billion; 2014, $4.87 billion. The Prime Minister’s statement on this matter and the numerous instances of the Minister of Finance and the Economy not coming clean on this budget confirms that we cannot trust anything this Government tells us. [Desk thumping] What they do not attempt to hide by omission, they misrepresent by naked untruths. In order to have us at their mercy on these matters, they have virtually shut down the CSO, so that for the first time in my memory, there is no independent Central Statistical Office data on which to base our references and reviews. We are confined to the Ministry of Finance and the Economy and the Central Bank for statistical information about the economics and the performance of the Government. The CSO does not even have useable office space, with its staff demoralized, drifting in the street, with and without placards, and the Government is quite happy to have that and the Government does not care. Mr. Speaker, 2006 to 2008 were the peak years of this country’s earnings and development, just prior to the 2009 global collapse. That occurrence found our country engaged in a series of progressive development initiatives, all of which were roundly condemned by this UNC Government coalition. Today, after years of condemnation and scorn, not only heaped upon individuals involved in the projects, but on the very ideas themselves, this shameless Government, after humiliating and firing people, shutting down here, there and everywhere, delaying, bad-mouthing everything, now in 2015, the budget, they have embraced and are now presenting as new concepts and programmes, the very things that they have stalled, delayed and condemned. 357 Appropriation Bill, 2014 Friday, September 12, 2014 They now thump their desks for the Diego Martin Highway, which they stopped in 2010 and restarted only after the Member of Parliament for Diego Martin North/East was thrown out of Parliament for agitating for the restart. Carenage Fish Market is now to be their major accomplishment after four years of spiteful neglect as a construction project. After four years, they abandoned the partially constructed Bagatelle Community Centre, and the Diego Martin Sports Complex does not even warrant a mention. Today, we are told that the abandoned multimillion-dollar Tarouba Stadium cannot be used for cricket because the soil eh good and Calder Hart built it. In this budget of shame, they say, we have no shame. All that has happened at the end of their tenure is that we as a people have had our development derailed and valuable time has been lost in the process. [Desk thumping] In our developmental history, 2010—2015, this period would long be known as the missing years. 10.15 a.m. After promising to bring new ideas and solutions to our problems, and producing nothing but stumbling, bumbling disasters as alternatives, this Government which deliberately refused to build on the foundations, now turns to some well-known elements of Vision 2020 for salvation.