Mr. Speaker, Having been advised by the Police Service Commission of the selection of Mr. Fitzroy George Quallo as the 29th Commissioner of Police, I wish to express the Ministry’s full support with respect to his selection. I also wish to acknowledge the sterling contribution of Ms Novelette Grant who acted as Commissioner of Police following the resignation of Dr....

Mr Speaker, we all sat in this Honourable House and listened in disbelief as a former Cabinet Minister, the Member for South East St Ann, made several erroneous statements and hurtful allegations — against not only me, but against professionals who work for and work with the Government. The Member said that $440M was allocated to the Ministry of Culture,...

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to again rise in this esteemed house to speak to the direction and developments in inarguably our nation’s foremost sector in driving job creation and prosperity – tourism. It is an even greater honour and also quite timely to have the opportunity to open the Sectoral Debate this year as this new administration, ably...

Fellow Jamaicans; In my Budget Presentation on March 21, 2017; I committed to making an apology for what has come to be commonly referred to as the Coral Gardens incident; one which occurred at a time in our history when our society was more reflective of the colonial era. Violence flared up at Coral Gardens leading to the death of...

You may recall that the most recent land revaluation exercise was completed in September 2013 and reflected the values of properties as at July 1, 2013. The last one prior to this was completed in 2002. Although the revaluation exercise was completed in September 2013, property taxes continued to be calculated on the old 2002 Valuation Roll. This Government took the...

I wish to once again thank the staff of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service and other agencies for their assistance in the course of preparations for this Debate. I also wish to thank the Prime Minister, Opposition Leader, and the Opposition Spokesman on Finance for their contributions. Mr. Speaker, there will be more opportunities to do so...

Mr. Speaker, on rising I give all praise and Honour to the Almighty Father for bringing us here together and for sparing us, individually, as a Parliament and as a Nation, so that we can all gather here once again to recommit through public service to building a better Jamaica. Mr. Speaker, let us not forget that we are here...