Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke, speaking in Trelawny on Sunday night. (Photo: Horace Hines)
Spread the word!
Nigel tells Labourites to talk about accomplishments
WAKEFIELD, Trelawny — Even as he gets ready to leave his post as finance minister and take up a senior job at the International Monetary Fund, Dr Nigel Clarke is still making time to go on the hustings, rattling off what he sees as major accomplishments under the Jamaica Labour Party-led Administration.
On Sunday he was on the political platform in Trelawny Northern’s Wakefield Division, urging all Labourites to spread the message he was peddling. Political commentators and some supporters have repeatedly bashed the JLP for what has been described as a failure to toot its own horn. In the run-up to the next general election, constitutionally due by September 2025, there has been a noticeable push, from political stages, to sing the party’s praises and the job it has done in leading the country.
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For his part, Clarke cited an 88 per cent increase in the minimum wage — from $6,200 when the JLP came into power to $15,000 today.
“If you adjusted for the US dollar — so you say how much could $6,200 buy in 2016 and how much can $15,000 buy in terms of US dollars — it still represents an increase in US dollars of nearly 100 per cent, 88 per cent to be exact,” Clarke said.
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“That is unheralded! There’s no other eight-year period… in the last 30 years where minimum wage has been adjusted in real terms by such an amount,” he added.
He also referenced the recently launched Reverse Income Tax Credit programme.
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“For the first time, we introduced a reverse income tax rate of $20,000 to any Jamaican earning under $3 million who pays their NIS and their NHT. Over 250,000 have signed up for it already. This is a Government that has delivered as far as income is concerned. This is also a Government that is transforming the financing of education,” the finance minister argued.
“We have presided over an economy where people have more income in their pocket today than yesterday, and more than ever before,” added Clarke.
He credited the Government for its ability to manage and recover stronger from crises; the role it has played in developing infrastructure, creating jobs, and transforming the public sector — all without introducing new taxes.
“I am going on a long ‘business trip’ dem call it. But I want you to know that you can be proud of the record of performance of this Government. You must know it, you must write it.
WhatsApp your friend, tek up your phone and call them and tell them what the Labour Party has done for your country, has done for your nation. We stand tall, we stand proud, we want to be economically independent — and at the level of the individual. You have to know these things. Write them down so you can tell your neighbour and your friend,” Clarke cajoled.
He also reminded the horn-blowing, bell-ringing, green-clad party supporters of planned multimillion-dollar projects in the making such as the widening of the US$800-million north coast road from two lanes to four; revamping of tax offices across the country; the US$1-billion Harmony Cove development; and the establishment of the $11-billion Rio Bueno Water Scheme. The latter two are in Trelawny.
He used these projects as sweeteners as he urged them to remain loyal to Member of Parliament for Trelawny Northern Tova Hamilton.
“Stick with Tova, support her, walk with her. Stick with Tova, who has delivered for you in harsh circumstances. She went through COVID — COVID was three years — gone through [Hurricane] Beryl, gone through crisis after crisis and she is still standing tall,” he told cheering supporters.
During her time at the podium Hamilton announced projects on the way in the Wakefield Division, including the rehabilitation of the corridor between Bounty Hall and Wakefield under the $45-billion Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network (SPARK) Programme.
This will be the third phase of rehabilitation on the once pothole-riddled Falmouth to Deeside Road network. The Martha Brae to Bounty Hall main road and the Wakefield to Deeside thoroughfare have already been repaired.
