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More than 1000 Jamaicans are to be recruited for jobs in Canada by the end of 2008, under the Overseas Employment Programme. Minister of Labour and Social Security, Derrick Kellier, told JIS News that emanating from discussions with the Canadian Federal Minister of Labour, business leaders and other officials, during an official visit to Canada in June, the need was...

Director of the Rent Services Unit, Cecile Croll, is advising persons, who are having problems with their landlords or tenants, to visit the Rent Services Unit, before taking their cases to court. Ms. Croll, who was speaking at a recent JIS Think Tank, explained that the unit has the responsibility to handle all matters relating to rent with the exception...

A total of 321 secondary and tertiary level students from inner-city communities across the island will be gainfully employed this summer through the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) and the National Youth Service's Summer Employment Programme. Social Development Officer at JSIF, Mareeca Brown, told JIS News today (July 12) that the programme, which is the first between JSIF and the...

Executive Director of the Education Transformation Team in the Ministry of Education and Youth, Dr. Frank Weeple, has said that his team will facilitate literacy training for parents as a central part of the reform process. Dr. Weeple, who was addressing the National Parent Teachers' Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ) first annual conference held recently at the University of Technology Auditorium...

Nurses Week will be observed from July 15 to 21 under the theme, 'Positive Practice Environments: Quality Workplaces Equal Quality Patient Care'. This focus originated with the International Council of Nurses, of which, the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) has been a member since 1953. This international body mandates a different focus annually for the special week. General Secretary of...

Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, on (June 11) officially commissioned into service the Seven Rivers Irrigation System, which will serve hundreds of farmers in South St. James. The project is the second of three flagship projects to be delivered under the government's National Irrigation Development Programme (NIDP) through some US$12 million in funding from the Inter American Development Bank (IDB). Under...

The Ministry of Agriculture and Lands will be training coconut growers and officers from the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) in the detection of the red palm mite, which was discovered in the Morant Bay area of St. Thomas in April. In addition, coconut nurseries in the parishes of St. Elizabeth, St. Thomas, St. Mary and Portland will be checked...

Once upon a time, change was the bane of man. Everyone was content within his limited realm of faulty knowledge - simply because there was no one there to challenge his fallacy. This was the perfect world of zero competition - but I am sure you that agree this existence must have been dull, if it ever existed. Change was...

The Child Care and Protection Children's Home Regulations and the Child Care and Protection Advisory Council Regulations were approved on (July 10) in the House of Representatives. Minister of Health, Horace Dalley said that the Regulations, which are complementary to the Child Care and Protection Act 2004, will govern the establishment and control of children's homes in Jamaica. "The Regulations...

The House of Representatives on (July 10) approved a government guarantee for loans to the National Water Commission (NWC), from the Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica Limited, in the amounts of US$5.15 million and $1.28 million Euros, to assist in the financing of the Northeastern Parish Water Supply Project. "The NWC has been implementing this project since 2004 and it...

The House of Representatives on (July 10) approved amendments to three election bills, recommended by the Electoral Commission of Jamaica, which among other things, address the imposition of sanctions against persons who deliberately display their ballots. The bills are the Representation of the People Act, the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation Act and the Parish Council Act. Leader of Government...

Sixteen of 83 persons, who have completed payments under phase one of the Seaview Gardens, Duhaney Park and Cooreville Gardens housing development projects in Kingston, were today (July 11) presented with their titles by the Minister of Housing, Transport, Water and Works, Robert Pickersgill. In his remarks at the handing over ceremony held at the Seaview Gardens Primary School, Mr....