Last Updated on November 25, 2022, 5:33 AM AST by Anthony Morris
The Premier of Nevi and Leader of the Concerned Citizens Movement, Mark Brantley, addressed the island’s people on November 24, 2022. The Premier has served in his position from the year 2017.
The address on November 24, 2022, is Mark Brantley’s Final address in the capacity of a Prime Minister for the tenure of 2017-22. In this address, Mark Brantley revealed that after consulting with Prime Minister Dr Terrance Drew, he advised the Governor-General, Sir S. Tapley Seaton, to dissolve the Nevis National Assembly. The dissolution will be done on Friday, November 25, 2022.
At the conclusion of his address, Premier Mark Brantley announced that Nevis Island Assembly should be dissolved as of Friday, November 25, 2022. Nomination Day shall be Monday, December 5, 2022. Election Day shall be a week later on Monday, December 12, 2022.
Meanwhile, In his Address, Premier Mark Brantley recounted the accomplishments of the Concerned Citizens Movement-led administration in the last tenure (2017-22). He mentioned that On December 18, 2017, the people went out in large numbers and elected the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) to serve the island of Nevis.”
Meanwhile, Premier Mark Brantley stated that “We were and are grateful for the chance to serve our people. Especially, I am grateful that you saw the qualities of a servant leader in me that would serve in your best interest.”
He spoke about the Covid-19 Pandemic, which left the island under lockdown and curfews for an extended period. He also reminded Nevis that (his) CCM administration was the first in the island’s history to deal with such a crisis.
Further, Premier Mark Brantley also recounted the various accomplishments of the CCM-led Administration of Nevis.
In health, The government invested in new ambulances and additional diagnostic equipment, including a new state-of-the-art 128-slice Philips CT Scan machine.
(We) hired and trained additional nurses, hired various doctors, introduced our first ever Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist clinics for free, and purchased new garbage trucks and various other equipment for Solid Waste [Management].
(The government also) introduced a plastic recycling programme and opened the island’s first-ever mental health facility at Prospect. The Premier further announced that the government is embarking on the largest-ever construction project in the history of healthcare in Nevis, our new hospital at Alexandra, which will complete next year.
Regarding Education, Premier Mark Brantley recounted that The CCM government has put in place a maintenance team that has ensured regular maintenance and ongoing upgrades to all of our schools. During Covid, our hardworking team undertook considerable work to retrofit our schools and make them safer for our students and teachers. We introduced a blended approach which saw students getting both online and in-person sessions.
We provided tablets to students who needed them and internet access for free to homes that had none. Working with the Windsong Foundation, we have secured six new school buses over the past few years, which has allowed us to expand our bus service to our students.
This partnership has also seen the delivery of 250 tablets for our students, laptops for teachers and music equipment for our NCDF [Nevis Cultural Development Foundation].
In our ongoing thrust for more outstanding technical training, we have constructed the TVET centre in Gingerland and shall soon build a better centre in Charlestown.
These TVET centres will allow our people to get technical training and certification in several areas of Nevis.
The Premier went on to recount the various accomplishments of the CCM administration in the course of their tenure, the fields of
Agriculture
The CCM government emphasized food security and offered free feed to livestock farmers, free fish pot wire to fishers, free seeds, seedlings, fertilizer, fencing, land preparation, shade houses and water to crop farmers, among various other things.
Water
The government created 3,030,000 imperial gallons of water storage, installed a treatment plant at Hamilton, added 216,000 imperial gallons of water per day to the water supply, upgraded the water distribution mains and reduced water outages and disruptions to a minimum.
Electricity
The government purchased two brand-new Wärtsilä engines for the power plant at Prospect, allowing stabilization of the power grid and reducing electricity outages to a bare minimum. The government took steps to provide significant relief to our people.
He also talked about development in other sectors like Housing, Economy, social security, small and micro business sector, tourism, public infrastructure, sport, among other things.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
