Prime Minister Outlines Infrastructure Developments to Jamaicans in Canada

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, continues to speak of the significant infrastructure developments that abound for the parish of St. Thomas, particularly through the Morant Bay Urban Centre.

This time, Mr. Holness took the message to members of the Jamaican Diaspora in Canada where he gave some insights as to why the centre is being constructed to replace the current township, during a Town Hall in Ottawa, on Thursday (October 19).

Pointing out that “the issue of building out new townships is not a simple issue of just building infrastructure,” the Prime Minister said the process will not be overnight, but that it has begun as Jamaica is in “a new phase of its development.”

“What is different is that we have the economy to support these developments. We have started to build out an entirely new town in St. Thomas… and we decided to do it that way, so that we did not have to further inconvenience people in the old town of Morant Bay,” Mr. Holness said.

“So, we found 25 acres of land which were not being used – the old Good Year Factory – it’s laid there for almost 30 years unutilised, and we have decided to build a brand new town. This is going to be the first purpose-built township in Jamaica for a long time and it is under construction,” the Prime Minister added.

He pointed out that the second major development taking place in Jamaica is the Bernard Lodge Development in St. Catherine.

“We have now done an entire master plan and we have gotten developers to come in and they have now started construction of a new housing estate; 15,000 houses are slated for that development, in addition to an urban centre and that is underway,” the Prime Minister said.

Looking ahead, Mr. Holness informed that the parish of Portland and the town of Port Antonio are under the radar and that “fantastic development plans” have been put in place which will begin next year.

“Then we are going to move to the town of Lucea. Spanish Town is [also] on our radar, but it will require a plan of a different scale,” he indicated.

“We’re going to be building a country of which you can be proud. So when you hear other people talking about their country as a place where people are going to invest, Jamaica is heading in that direction,” the Prime Minister said.