The fol­low­ing is the pre­sen­ta­tion of the 2026 Sup­ple­men­tary Ap­pro­pri­a­tion and Mid-Year Re­view by The Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo, MP House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives

June 15, 2026

Mr Speak­er, just over one year ago, the cit­i­zens of this na­tion placed their trust in the UNC when they cast their vote and placed us in Gov­ern­ment.

Mr Speak­er, they were tired.

Tired of no op­por­tu­ni­ties.

Tired of eco­nom­ic de­cline and stag­na­tion.

Tired of read­ing head­lines of blood and mur­der.

Tired of be­ing promised bet­ter, while their lives got worse.

Mr Speak­er, this Gov­ern­ment came in­to of­fice aware that the task be­fore us would not be easy.

We did not in­her­it a sys­tem that re­quired mi­nor ad­just­ments or rou­tine main­te­nance. We in­her­it­ed com­pro­mised in­sti­tu­tions on the verge of col­lapse, a bat­tered econ­o­my that had been al­lowed to stag­nate, un­der re­sourced po­lice, fire and prison ser­vice, and the re­sul­tant worse crime tsuna­mi in our coun­try’s his­to­ry. We found hos­pi­tals, schools, pub­lic build­ings, bridges, roads, drainage de­te­ri­o­rat­ed to the point of col­lapse.

The Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board had been al­lowed to col­lapse so bad­ly that in the im­me­di­ate fu­ture, cit­i­zens would not have been able to get wid­ows ben­e­fit, ma­ter­ni­ty grants, sick­ness or in­jury ben­e­fits, fu­ner­al grants or even re­tire­ment pen­sions.

We found a weary pop­u­la­tion whose con­fi­dence in pub­lic ad­min­is­tra­tion had di­min­ished to the point of ex­tinc­tion.

These con­di­tions did not arise by ac­ci­dent, nor did they de­vel­op overnight. These crises are the cu­mu­la­tive con­se­quence of a decade of gra­tu­itous waste, shame­ful mis­man­age­ment, scan­dalous cor­rup­tion, and wan­ton com­pla­cen­cy of the PNM.

Mr Speak­er, un­der their most re­cent decade-long tenure, the PNM crip­pled the BIR and Cus­toms, the coun­try’s rev­enue streams com­pro­mised by de­lib­er­ate short staffing, an­ti­quat­ed equip­ment and out­dat­ed IT in­fra­struc­ture.

These are the very rev­enue col­lect­ing agen­cies that were sup­posed to fund the de­vel­op­ment of this coun­try, made dys­func­tion­al by PNM pol­i­cy. It is my view and the ev­i­dence that will be pre­sent­ed in this de­bate will show, that this was de­lib­er­ate to fa­cil­i­tate bor­row­ing, from fa­mil­iar and fa­mil­ial con­nec­tions. We found ev­i­dence of mis­con­duct in pub­lic of­fice by se­nior of­fi­cials.

The coun­try was warned by the Pro­cure­ment Reg­u­la­tor that $5 bil­lion in con­tracts were il­le­gal­ly giv­en out by PNM Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials in just one year, with no way of check­ing to even see if any work was ever done.

In typ­i­cal PNM style, they of­fered the pop­u­la­tion tem­po­rary labour­ing jobs in URP and CEPEP, keep­ing them de­pen­dent in­clud­ing their own sup­port­ers, while the PNM big­wigs filled their pock­ets dur­ing the PNM Decade of cor­rup­tion.

You will hear more about that to­day. Mr Speak­er, that is not pru­dent man­age­ment.

That is not coun­try-first lead­er­ship. That is a sys­tem where the fu­ture of cit­i­zens was sac­ri­ficed for per­son­al fi­nan­cial gain of a few.

Mr Speak­er, back then, op­por­tu­ni­ties for di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion were squan­dered, dif­fi­cult but nec­es­sary re­forms were avoid­ed, and long-term na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment was re­peat­ed­ly sac­ri­ficed for short-term po­lit­i­cal ex­pe­di­en­cy.

While oth­er na­tions po­si­tioned them­selves for the fu­ture, T&T, un­der the PNM, was too of­ten trapped by in­er­tia and a lack of vi­sion.

The tragedy is not mere­ly that progress was slowed; it is that our na­tion was de­nied op­por­tu­ni­ties that could have trans­formed lives, ex­pand­ed pros­per­i­ty, and strength­ened our com­pet­i­tive­ness.

When a foun­da­tion has been ne­glect­ed for decades, it can­not be re­paired with a fresh coat of paint.

It must be re­built.

That is the re­al­i­ty we in­her­it­ed, and that is the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty this Gov­ern­ment ac­cept­ed.

But let us be clear: ac­knowl­edg­ing the fail­ures of the past is not about en­gag­ing in blame for its own sake. It is about telling the truth.

A na­tion can­not solve its prob­lems if it re­fus­es to con­front their caus­es.

Un­der­stand­ing the depth of the dam­age left be­hind is es­sen­tial to ap­pre­ci­at­ing the scale of the trans­for­ma­tion now un­der­way.

I am there­fore proud to say that in just one year, we have be­gun re­vers­ing years of de­cline. We have tak­en de­ci­sive steps to re­store con­fi­dence, re­vive eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty, strength­en gov­er­nance, and cre­ate path­ways to sus­tain­able em­ploy­ment and op­por­tu­ni­ty.

We are lay­ing the foun­da­tions for an econ­o­my built on pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, in­no­va­tion and re­silience - not de­pen­den­cy, stag­na­tion and drift. The peo­ple of T&T did not vote for the man­age­ment of de­cline. They vot­ed for re­new­al.

They vot­ed for com­pe­tent lead­er­ship.

And they vot­ed for a gov­ern­ment pre­pared to do the dif­fi­cult work of re­build­ing a na­tion that had been held back for far too long.

And in this ef­fort, we are guid­ed by the steady, ex­pe­ri­enced, and coura­geous lead­er­ship of our Prime Min­is­ter, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

We are not gov­ern­ing for any­one else’s ben­e­fit ex­cept the peo­ple of T&T.

We chose not to leave our cit­i­zens ex­posed.

Un­like the ma­jor­i­ty of coun­tries in the world in­clud­ing gas rich Guyana, we did not raise the price of gas on the peo­ple when world prices sky­rock­et­ed.

We did not ask fam­i­lies to car­ry more pain at the pump.

In the Bud­get, we re­duced the price of Su­per Gaso­line by one dol­lar, and we have kept that re­lief in place.

That is the dif­fer­ence, Mr Speak­er. The de­f­i­n­i­tion of PNM is that promis­es nev­er ma­te­ri­alise be­cause for the PNM, the peo­ple nev­er mat­ter.

We promised re­lief, and we de­liv­ered re­lief.

We promised to pro­tect the peo­ple, and even when the world be­came more un­cer­tain, we did not aban­don them.

Be­cause when a gov­ern­ment cares about peo­ple, it does not gov­ern by ex­pos­ing them. It gov­erns by pro­tect­ing them, by stand­ing with them and by mak­ing sure that progress reach­es their lives, not just the pages of a re­port.

THE GLOB­AL ECO­NOM­IC EN­VI­RON­MENT

Whether we like it or not, ex­ter­nal forces shape our eco­nom­ic prospects, in­flu­ence our in­vest­ment cli­mate, af­fect the cost of liv­ing, and di­rect­ly af­fect the liveli­hoods, op­por­tu­ni­ties, and fu­ture prospects of every cit­i­zen of T&T.

But Mr Speak­er, Gov­ern­ments are not judged by whether storms come. Storms will al­ways come.

The re­al test is how a gov­ern­ment re­sponds when they do. Does it leave its’ cit­i­zens ex­posed to the full force of the wind and rain, or does it stand as a shield be­tween the peo­ple and the storm, pro­tect­ing them from the worst of its ef­fects?

That is the dif­fer­ence be­tween ob­serv­ing a cri­sis and lead­ing through one.

That is the du­ty of Gov­ern­ment.

And that is what this Gov­ern­ment has done.

T&T’S SPE­CIF­IC EX­PO­SURE

Mr Speak­er, we must al­so un­der­stand the mo­ment we are in. There is op­por­tu­ni­ty in this glob­al en­vi­ron­ment, but there is al­so risk.

High­er en­er­gy prices may bring more rev­enue and more for­eign ex­change, but they can al­so bring high­er fu­el im­port costs, high­er trans­port costs, high­er pro­duc­tion costs and pres­sure on food prices.

So, we can­not gov­ern this coun­try by cel­e­brat­ing every rise in en­er­gy prices as though it solves every­thing. T&T has lived that mis­take be­fore.

That is why the Petrotrin de­ci­sion re­mains one of the most dam­ag­ing de­ci­sions tak­en by those on the oth­er side.

They closed a strate­gic na­tion­al as­set, weak­ened our en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty and left this coun­try more de­pen­dent on im­port­ed re­fined fu­el, at a time when the world is be­com­ing more un­cer­tain.

That is the lega­cy of the PNM. They were will­ing to shut down an en­tire in­dus­try to pro­tect the in­ter­ests of fel­low mem­bers of what a PNM Leader de­scribed as the PNM mafia, like the Cosa Nos­tra.

That is the dan­ger of gov­ern­ing for the head­line and not for the fu­ture. When prices were high, they claimed suc­cess.

When prices were low, they blamed the world.

But through it all, they failed to build the re­silience this coun­try need­ed.

They failed to di­ver­si­fy.

They failed to mod­ernise.

They failed to strength­en the in­sti­tu­tions that pro­tect the econ­o­my.

This Gov­ern­ment un­der­stands that de­vel­op­ment must be holis­tic.

We can­not speak about en­er­gy with­out speak­ing about for­eign ex­change.

We can­not speak about for­eign ex­change with­out speak­ing about busi­ness.

We can­not speak about busi­ness with­out speak­ing about jobs.

We can­not speak about jobs with­out speak­ing about fam­i­lies.

And we can­not speak about fam­i­lies with­out speak­ing about the cost of liv­ing, safe­ty, ed­u­ca­tion, health­care and the fu­ture we are build­ing for their chil­dren.

That is the ap­proach of this Gov­ern­ment.

We will claim the op­por­tu­ni­ties be­fore us, but we will not be reck­less with the risks.

We will sup­port the en­er­gy sec­tor, but we will not make en­er­gy the on­ly plan. We will pro­tect cit­i­zens to­day, and we will al­so build the econ­o­my for to­mor­row.

Be­cause de­vel­op­ment is not just one an­nounce­ment or one sec­tor.

Mr Speak­er, de­vel­op­ment is the whole coun­try mov­ing to­geth­er.

To achieve that, we must al­so safe­guard the fi­nan­cial buffers that pro­tect our coun­try when ex­ter­nal shocks arise. That is why this Gov­ern­ment has man­aged the Her­itage and Sta­bil­i­sa­tion Fund re­spon­si­bly, and not as a re­source to be de­plet­ed for short-term po­lit­i­cal spend, but as a strate­gic na­tion­al safe­guard that strength­ens re­silience, pre­serves sta­bil­i­ty, and pro­tects fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

As at June 4, 2026, the Fund stood at US$6.60 bil­lion, com­pared to US$5.98 bil­lion as at April 30, 2025, an in­crease of ap­prox­i­mate­ly US$620 mil­lion.

Mr Speak­er, this is dis­ci­pline.

This is eco­nom­ic man­age­ment. This is a gov­ern­ment pro­tect­ing the peo­ple to­day while al­so pro­tect­ing the coun­try’s fu­ture.

They with­drew from the fu­ture. We are re­build­ing it.

THE MID-YEAR FIS­CAL OUT­TURN: A CHANG­ING FIS­CAL OUT­LOOK FO­CUSED ON PEO­PLE

Mr Speak­er, as we come to this House to amend the Ap­pro­pri­a­tion Act 2026, we do so with a clear un­der­stand­ing that when re­sources are lim­it­ed, every dol­lar must be used care­ful­ly and every dol­lar must serve the peo­ple.

We un­der­stand that re­spon­si­ble gov­ern­ment is not on­ly about care­ful bud­get­ing; it is al­so about re­spon­sive and ef­fec­tive stew­ard­ship.

Through­out the fis­cal year, cir­cum­stances evolve, pri­or­i­ties emerge, and the pace of im­ple­men­ta­tion can cre­ate le­git­i­mate re­quire­ments for ad­just­ments to pre­vi­ous­ly ap­proved al­lo­ca­tions.

That is why our Par­lia­men­tary sys­tem pro­vides for sup­ple­men­tary ap­pro­pri­a­tions, to en­sure that when ad­di­tion­al re­sources are re­quired to ad­vance ap­proved pro­grammes, strength­en pub­lic ser­vices, or meet oblig­a­tions to cit­i­zens, the Gov­ern­ment can re­turn to

Par­lia­ment and seek its ap­proval.

This re­port, there­fore, re­flects a Gov­ern­ment that re­spects both fis­cal re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and Par­lia­men­tary over­sight.

Mr Speak­er, this sup­ple­men­ta­tion is not the kind to which the coun­try be­came ac­cus­tomed over the last decade un­der the PNM, where bil­lions were ap­proved, yet cit­i­zens were left won­der­ing where the mon­ey gone and why their dai­ly lives re­mained un­changed.

This sup­ple­men­ta­tion is le­git­i­mate.

It is tied to pro­grammes be­ing im­ple­ment­ed, projects be­ing ad­vanced, and ser­vices be­ing de­liv­ered. The peo­ple can see the work.

They can feel the im­pact. They can mea­sure the re­sults.

Mr Speak­er, we are here be­cause the coun­try is mov­ing for­ward. We are here be­cause the ma­chin­ery of Gov­ern­ment has ac­cel­er­at­ed, projects are be­ing ex­e­cut­ed, and the na­tion’s de­vel­op­ment agen­da is gain­ing mo­men­tum.

Schools are be­ing re­paired.

In­fra­struc­ture is be­ing up­grad­ed.

In­sti­tu­tions are be­ing re­stored.

Pub­lic ser­vants are be­ing paid. Oblig­a­tions are be­ing ho­n­oured. We are sup­ple­ment­ing be­cause we are de­liv­er­ing.

Promise made, promise kept.

And Mr Speak­er, when the Op­po­si­tion calls this a “fake bud­get,” they re­veal the lens through which they view gov­er­nance. They as­sume that bud­gets are mere­ly doc­u­ments to be an­nounced and for­got­ten be­cause that is what the coun­try be­came ac­cus­tomed to un­der their ad­min­is­tra­tion.

They can­not com­pre­hend a gov­ern­ment that treats a bud­get as a plan to be im­ple­ment­ed and a promise to be ful­filled.

So, my ad­vice to them is to sit up and pay at­ten­tion: this is how to man­age the fi­nances of this na­tion re­spon­si­bly and trans­par­ent­ly.

From 2016 to 2024, the for­mer, for­mer Min­is­ter of Fi­nance came to this House year af­ter year for sup­ple­men­ta­tion and vari­a­tion, with to­tal in­creas­es to Heads amount­ing to ap­prox­i­mate­ly $20.7 bil­lion, in­clud­ing $17.7 bil­lion in fur­ther is­sues from the

Con­sol­i­dat­ed Fund.

When he did it, it’s nor­mal. To­day the mem­ber for Diego Mar­tin NE will come here to try to fool the pop­u­la­tion that the Gov­ern­ment is do­ing some­thing ab­nor­mal.

I call that out for what it is. Ab­solute hypocrisy.

But the coun­try knows him.

The fi­nan­cial crises that this coun­try has been placed in, must be bolt­ed to his chest. He and the PNM are re­spon­si­ble.

But through you Mr Speak­er, let me tell the pop­u­la­tion, that we, this Gov­ern­ment led by this Prime Min­is­ter, we are fix­ing it.

The Fis­cal Record: Then and Now

Mr Speak­er, this Gov­ern­ment’s fis­cal stew­ard­ship is best un­der­stood in di­rect com­par­i­son with what we in­her­it­ed: When we as­sumed of­fice, the over­all fis­cal deficit stood at TT$10.07 bil­lion or 5.8 per­cent of GDP. To­day, that deficit has been re­duced to TT$7.01 bil­lion, or 4.0 per­cent of GDP.

That is a re­duc­tion of near­ly two per­cent­age points of GDP in a sin­gle year.

In­ter­est pay­ments, which stood at TT$7.13 bil­lion un­der the PNM, have been brought down to TT$6.91 bil­lion, free­ing up re­sources for the peo­ple of T&T, rather than for cred­i­tors.

But the fig­ure I want this House and our Na­tion to fo­cus on, Mr Speak­er, is the pri­ma­ry bal­ance. The pri­ma­ry bal­ance is the dif­fer­ence be­tween Gov­ern­ment’s rev­enue and its non-in­ter­est ex­pen­di­ture. Sim­ply put, it tells us whether the Gov­ern­ment is liv­ing

with­in its means to­day.

It com­pares what we earn with what we spend on run­ning the coun­try, such as salaries, health­care, ed­u­ca­tion, and pub­lic ser­vices, but it does not in­clude in­ter­est pay­ments on past debt.

So, Mr Speak­er, if the Gov­ern­ment is spend­ing more than it earns, even be­fore pay­ing in­ter­est on debt, then we are adding to the prob­lem.

But if we are able to cov­er our spend­ing from our own rev­enue, it means we are be­gin­ning to bring the coun­try’s fi­nances un­der con­trol.

This is why the pri­ma­ry bal­ance mat­ters.

It is the clear­est mea­sure of fis­cal dis­ci­pline and the key con­di­tion for restor­ing sta­bil­i­ty in our pub­lic fi­nances.

Un­der the PNM, the pri­ma­ry deficit stood at TT$2.93 bil­lion last year. To­day, it stands at ap­prox­i­mate­ly TT$101 mil­lion, near bal­ance.

In just one year, Mr Speak­er, this Gov­ern­ment has re­duced the pri­ma­ry deficit by more than TT$2.8 bil­lion, bring­ing T&T to the thresh­old of pri­ma­ry bal­ance fol­low­ing con­sec­u­tive years of pri­ma­ry deficits.

Mr Speak­er, this is more than an ac­count­ing im­prove­ment. It is the foun­da­tion of a stronger and more re­silient econ­o­my.

Rev­enue Per­for­mance

Mr Speak­er, while glob­al en­er­gy prices have pro­vid­ed some sup­port to the econ­o­my, this Ad­min­is­tra­tion has avoid­ed cre­at­ing the false im­pres­sion that tem­po­rary in­creas­es in en­er­gy prices can re­solve long-stand­ing struc­tur­al chal­lenges overnight.

We recog­nised ear­ly that sus­tain­able re­cov­ery can­not de­pend sole­ly on the en­er­gy sec­tor.

Ac­cord­ing­ly, in the 2026 Bud­get we in­tro­duced a se­ries of tar­get­ed rev­enue re­forms and mod­erni­sa­tion ini­tia­tives de­signed to strength­en rev­enue col­lec­tion, and im­prove fis­cal sus­tain­abil­i­ty.

Mr Speak­er, sev­er­al of these mea­sures are al­ready de­liv­er­ing re­sults.

These in­clude the Com­mer­cial Bank As­set Levy, the Elec­tric­i­ty Sur­charge, and the Land­lord Reg­is­tra­tion Fee and Busi­ness Sur­charge, which to­geth­er have gen­er­at­ed ap­prox­i­mate­ly $224 mil­lion since im­ple­men­ta­tion in Jan­u­ary 2026.

At the same time, broad­er re­form ini­tia­tives are un­der­way.

These in­clude mod­ernising the In­land Rev­enue and Cus­toms and Ex­cise Di­vi­sions and their ICT sys­tems; es­tab­lish­ing the Re­al Es­tate In­vest­ment Trust, a Trust that will de­moc­ra­tise and mon­e­tise high-val­ue state prop­er­ties, which will al­low cit­i­zens to earn div­i­dends from pub­lic re­al es­tate; and prepar­ing for the launch of the NIF Bond 3 in Sep­tem­ber 2026, yet an­oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ty for our cit­i­zens to in­vest and build per­son­al wealth.

Mr Speak­er, progress al­so con­tin­ues on the Trans­fer Pric­ing Regime, which will strength­en tax com­pli­ance, en­hance for­eign cur­ren­cy rev­enues, and sup­port the sta­bil­i­sa­tion of our for­eign ex­change po­si­tion.

Mr Speak­er, while some mea­sures are al­ready gen­er­at­ing rev­enue, oth­ers are still in the im­ple­men­ta­tion phase and will take time to de­liv­er their full im­pact.

These ini­tia­tives re­quire care­ful im­ple­men­ta­tion, strong in­sti­tu­tion­al co­or­di­na­tion and leg­isla­tive sup­port and their full fis­cal and eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits are ex­pect­ed to be­come in­creas­ing­ly ev­i­dent dur­ing Fis­cal 2027 and on­wards.

Rev­enue

Mr Speak­er, for the pe­ri­od Oc­to­ber 1, 2025, to April 30, 2026, rev­enue stood at ap­prox­i­mate­ly $30.1 bil­lion against a pro­jec­tion of $28.0 bil­lion.

Ex­pen­di­ture stood at ap­prox­i­mate­ly $31.8 bil­lion against a pro­jec­tion of $34.5 bil­lion, re­sult­ing in an over­all fis­cal deficit of ap­prox­i­mate­ly $1.7 bil­lion.

Oil prices moved from ap­prox­i­mate­ly US$62.09 per bar­rel in Quar­ter I to US$77.64 per bar­rel in Quar­ter II, against a bud­get­ed as­sump­tion of US$73.25, while nat­ur­al gas av­er­aged ap­prox­i­mate­ly US$4.20 per MMB­tu, broad­ly in

line with pro­jec­tions.

Ac­cord­ing­ly, Mr Speak­er, this Gov­ern­ment seeks an ad­di­tion­al $2,927,371,851 in sup­ple­men­tary fund­ing.

We come to this House be­cause progress is tak­ing place, in­sti­tu­tions are func­tion­ing, and cit­i­zens are ben­e­fit­ing from our pro­grammes and poli­cies.

Ex­pen­di­ture Per­for­mance

Mr Speak­er, ex­pen­di­ture dur­ing the fis­cal pe­ri­od to April 30th, 2026, was sig­nif­i­cant­ly in­flu­enced by long­stand­ing li­a­bil­i­ties, debt oblig­a­tions and struc­tur­al weak­ness­es left be­hind by those on the oth­er side.

These in­clude out­stand­ing VAT Bond oblig­a­tions, de­layed VAT re­fund pay­ments owed to busi­ness­es, long­stand­ing sub­sidy li­a­bil­i­ties and per­sis­tent fi­nan­cial and op­er­a­tional chal­lenges with­in State En­ter­pris­es.

At the same time, in­creased ex­pen­di­ture re­flects de­lib­er­ate pol­i­cy de­ci­sions tak­en by this Gov­ern­ment to pro­tect cit­i­zens and sta­bilise the econ­o­my.

If a gov­ern­ment does not pro­tect the vul­ner­a­ble, then it has failed.

Ac­cord­ing­ly, be­tween May 1st, 2025, and May 31st, 2026, this Ad­min­is­tra­tion main­tained un­in­ter­rupt­ed so­cial sup­port to the el­der­ly and vul­ner­a­ble, in the amount of $6.04 bil­lion.

We are al­so strength­en­ing pol­i­cy de­liv­ery in these so­cial pro­grammes.

Ef­fec­tive June 1st, 2026, we ex­pand­ed el­i­gi­bil­i­ty for so­cial as­sis­tance pro­gramme, en­sur­ing more fam­i­lies can ac­cess sup­port.

What this means, is that many house­holds pre­vi­ous­ly con­sid­ered in­el­i­gi­ble, may now qual­i­fy for as­sis­tance.

Mr Speak­er, we did what the pre­vi­ous Gov­ern­ment said was im­pos­si­ble: we brought sta­bil­i­ty and re­spect back to in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions.

We set­tled and ho­n­oured long-out­stand­ing pub­lic sec­tor labour ne­go­ti­a­tions with the Pub­lic Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion by agree­ing to a 10 per­cent salary in­crease for pub­lic ser­vants as promised, and we de­liv­ered.

And to ease the im­me­di­ate cost of liv­ing, tens of thou­sands of pub­lic sec­tor work­ers re­ceived an im­me­di­ate $20,000, $14,000 and $10,000 cash ad­vance on their retroac­tive back­pay.

To date, we have paid ap­prox­i­mate­ly $224.8 mil­lion across sev­er­al sec­tors.

To shield cit­i­zens from sig­nif­i­cant in­creas­es in in­ter­na­tion­al en­er­gy prices and main­tain fu­el price sta­bil­i­ty, ap­prox­i­mate­ly $395 mil­lion was ex­pend­ed on fu­el sub­si­dies dur­ing the pe­ri­od Oc­to­ber 1st, 2025 to May

30th, 2026.

Mr Speak­er, this is not a sup­ple­men­ta­tion to ac­count for miss­ing re­sults; it is a sup­ple­men­ta­tion to sup­port vis­i­ble progress.

The peo­ple of T&T know the dif­fer­ence be­cause they can see it, feel it, and ben­e­fit from it.

It is with­in this con­text that I now turn to the pro­vi­sion of sup­ple­men­tary fund­ing.

PRO­VI­SION OF SUP­PLE­MEN­TARY FUNDS

Mr Speak­er, to­day we seek this Par­lia­ment’s ap­proval for sup­ple­men­tary fund­ing in the sum of $2,927,371,851.00 or $2.9 bil­lion dis­ag­gre­gat­ed as:

Re­cur­rent Ex­pen­di­ture - $2,834,625,648

De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme - $92,746,203

These funds are nec­es­sary to ad­dress ur­gent and crit­i­cal re­cur­rent and cap­i­tal ex­pen­di­ture to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2026.

It is in­struc­tive to note that, un­til we present a full Ap­pro­pri­a­tion Bill at the end of this fi­nan­cial year, sup­ple­men­ta­tion is pro­vid­ed un­der the ex­ist­ing heads of ex­pen­di­ture and ap­pro­pri­ate ad­min­is­tra­tive arrange­ments

are put in place to en­sure that all Gov­ern­ment op­er­a­tions pro­ceed seam­less­ly.

The in­crease in the ex­pen­di­ture pro­posed is as fol­lows:

Re­cur­rent Ex­pen­di­ture

Head 01: Pres­i­dent - $1.0 mil­lion to sup­ple­ment pay­ment for work­ers.

Head 03: Ju­di­cia­ry- $39.15 mil­lion to pay ser­vice providers, con­tract em­ploy­ment, out­stand­ing con­tract gra­tu­ities as well as to ser­vice a loan tak­en out by the PNM .

Head 04: In­dus­tri­al Court - $685 mil­lion to pay salaries and ex­pens­es re­lat­ed the open­ing of the new Law Term.

Head 05: Par­lia­ment - $3.2 mil­lion to fund con­sum­ables, short term em­ploy­ment, and gra­tu­ities from 2021 to 2024 which the PNM failed to ho­n­our.

Head 07: Statu­to­ry Au­thor­i­ties Ser­vice Com­mis­sion – $285 mil­lion to fi­nance short term em­ploy­ment.

Head 15: To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly – $79 mil­lion to fi­nance in­creased salaries and al­lowances in ac­cor­dance with the SRC Re­port and for mem­bers of the Teach­ing Ser­vice.

Head 16: Cen­tral Ad­min­is­tra­tive Ser­vices, To­ba­go – $466 mil­lion to fund short-term em­ploy­ment and sub­scrip­tion fees re­lat­ed to the se­vere weath­er alert plat­form.

Head 17: Per­son­nel De­part­ment- $2.5 mil­lion to fi­nance in­creased salaries and al­lowances; short-term em­ploy­ment; gra­tu­ity pay­ments; rent and sub­scrip­tion fees.

Head 23: Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Min­istry of Le­gal Af­fairs – $75 mil­lion to fa­cil­i­tate the pay­ment of le­gal fees to lo­cal and for­eign at­tor­neys.

Head 26: Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion – $97.7 mil­lion for salaries and gra­tu­ities of con­tract of­fi­cers; pay­ments to PTSC for school maxi taxi school trans­port ser­vices, as well as for meals to stu­dents, school sup­plies, the book

grants as well as for debt ser­vic­ing.

Head 28: Min­istry of Health – $499.9 mil­lion to ad­dress op­er­a­tional ex­pens­es, out­stand­ing trade payables at the East­ern and South West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ties and for loan ser­vic­ing.

Head 30: Min­istry of Labour, Small and Mi­cro En­ter­prise De­vel­op­ment – an ad­di­tion­al $4.96 mil­lion for salaries for con­tract work­ers and for op­er­a­tional ex­pens­es at the Cipri­ani Col­lege of Labour and Co­op­er­a­tive Stud­ies.

Head 31: Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence – $43.6 mil­lion for pay­ment of salaries and op­er­a­tional ex­pens­es as­so­ci­at­ed with the pro­vi­sion of IT ser­vice de­liv­ery through­out the gov­ern­ment ser­vice, as well for ser­vic­ing of PNM loans for

the Gov­ern­ment Cam­pus Plaza Fit Out.

Head 34: Min­istry of Trans­port and Civ­il Avi­a­tion - $21.1 mil­lion to fund the re­cruit­ment of tech­ni­cal staff to sup­port the Chief Traf­fic En­gi­neer, pay­ment of out­stand­ing bills un­der the Traf­fic En­force­ment Cen­tre Unit and in­ter­est pay­ment on a PNM fixed bond Mo­tor Ve­hi­cle Loan.

Head 37: In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion – the ad­di­tion­al $1.25 mil­lion is to pay for con­tract of­fi­cers

Head 39: Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties – $513.6 mil­lion is to fund street light­ing and light­ing of parks and grounds, re­funds to T&TEC for the Re­bate Pro­gramme, to in­crease the al­lo­ca­tion to TTPOST, con­tract gra­tu­ities, op­er­a­tional ex­pens­es for ad­min­is­tra­tive staff at­tached to CEPEP and op­er­a­tional cost and debt ser­vic­ing at WASA.

Head 40: Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries – $454 mil­lion to set­tle sub­sidy li­a­bil­i­ties owed to the Na­tion­al Pe­tro­le­um Mar­ket­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (NPMC) and the Unit­ed In­de­pen­dent Pe­tro­le­um Mar­ket­ing Com­pa­ny (UNIPET).

Head 42: Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment –$179.2 mil­lion to fund em­ploy­ment at the Lo­cal Eco­nom­ic De­vel­op­ment Unit, pay con­tract gra­tu­ities, op­er­a­tional ex­pen­di­ture of the Rur­al De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny of T&T, loan

ser­vic­ing of PNM term loans, and salaries, al­lowances, re­tire­ment ben­e­fits to work­ers, and ma­te­ri­als and sup­plies at 14 Cor­po­ra­tions.

Head 61: Min­istry of Hous­ing – $197.3 mil­lion to HDC for PNM loan pay­ments.

Head 64: T&T Po­lice Ser­vice – $64.2 mil­lion to pur­chase uni­forms, rent for prop­er­ties, rental of ve­hi­cles, meals for of­fi­cers work­ing dur­ing Car­ni­val and pris­on­ers at var­i­ous hold­ing units, re­pairs and main­te­nance of build­ings, gra­tu­ity pay­ments and IT sub­scrip­tions and soft­ware main­te­nance.

Head 65: Min­istry of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs - $20.76 mil­lion to set­tle out­stand­ing ar­rears left by the PNM to CARI­COM , and to meet the cost of the Gov­ern­ment’s con­tri­bu­tion to the UN Peace­keep­ing Op­er­a­tions.

Head 67: Min­istry of Plan­ning, Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and De­vel­op­ment - $1.6 mil­lion to fi­nance in­creased salaries as a re­sult of the CPOs re­vised re­mu­ner­a­tion arrange­ments.

Head 69: Min­istry of Works and In­fra­struc­ture- $362.9 mil­lion to fi­nance projects of the Drainage Di­vi­sion, prin­ci­pal and in­ter­est pay­ments, the To­ba­go Fer­ries, sta­tion-keep­ing in­fra­struc­ture to main­tain a fixed po­si­tion and nec­es­sary dredg­ing for the se­mi-sub­mersible barge.

Head 72: Min­istry of Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion and Skills Train­ing- $19.8 mil­lion to pay ar­rears of salaries owed to aca­d­e­m­ic and se­nior ad­min­is­tra­tive staff of the Uni­ver­si­ty Cen­tre and Glob­al Cam­pus, UWI and to sup­ple­ment al­lo­ca­tion for con­tract of­fi­cers at­tached to COSTAAT based on the CPO re­vised re­mu­ner­a­tion arrange­ments.

Head 78: Min­istry of the Peo­ple, So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices– $68.4 mil­lion to fi­nance re­vised salaries al­lowances of month­ly paid of­fi­cers of the St Mary’s Chil­dren’s Home and the St Jude’s Home for Girls and for out­stand­ing bills, in­creased

ad­min­is­tra­tive and op­er­a­tional costs of the Fos­ter Care and Adop­tion Units and the Na­tion­al Care and Em­pow­er­ment Cen­tre of the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty.

Head 84: Min­istry of De­fence – $39.2 mil­lion to fi­nance fill­ing con­tract po­si­tions, up­grade of equip­ment at the Na­tion­al Coastal Sur­veil­lance Radar Cen­tre, host­ing the 2026 In­de­pen­dence Day Pa­rade, pur­chase of uni­forms for mem­bers of the De­fence Force and for the re­pairs and main­te­nance of 4 Air Guard he­li­copters.

Head 86: Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment- $43.3 mil­lion to in­crease pro­vi­sions for Gen­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion, Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Di­vi­sion and Best Vil­lage, as well to ser­vice li­a­bil­i­ties of the NCC.

De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme

Head 15: To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly - $15.0 mil­lion to pro­vide for the ex­pen­di­ture as­so­ci­at­ed with the re­con­struc­tion of the Scar­bor­ough Sec­ondary School.

Head 26: Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion - $30.0 mil­lion more is re­quired for the ac­qui­si­tion of lap­tops for Form One stu­dents for the 2026/2027 Aca­d­e­m­ic year.

Head 31: Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence - $25.0 mil­lion to fa­cil­i­tate the pay­ment of salaries and fees to CAF for es­tab­lish­ment of a Tier 4 Da­ta Cen­tre and to meet some costs as­so­ci­at­ed with the con­struc­tion and out­fit­ting of the Tier 4 Da­ta Cen­tre.

Head 42: Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment – $8.98 mil­lion is re­quired to sup­ple­ment the pro­vi­sion for the Drainage and Ir­ri­ga­tion Pro­gramme.

Head 65: Min­istry of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs – $13.75 mil­lion to cov­er the cost of pro­posed re­pairs to the res­i­dence of the Per­ma­nent Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Per­ma­nent Mis­sion to the Unit­ed Na­tions, New York.

PRO­JECT­ED FIS­CAL PER­FOR­MANCE

Mr Speak­er, the 2026 Bud­get was pred­i­cat­ed on an av­er­age oil price of US$73.25 per bar­rel and nat­ur­al gas price of US$4.25 per MMB­tu.

Our es­ti­ma­tion for oil and gas prices to the end of the Fis­cal Year is US$85.00 per bar­rel and US$4.50 per MMB­tu, re­spec­tive­ly.

With this and oth­er ad­just­ments we an­tic­i­pate an in­crease in to­tal rev­enue of $381.7 mil­lion, with a re­sul­tant over­all deficit of $7.0 bil­lion.

Mr Speak­er, the sup­ple­men­tary ex­pen­di­ture will be fi­nanced through a com­bi­na­tion of do­mes­tic and ex­ter­nal bor­row­ing, in­clud­ing en­gage­ment with mul­ti­lat­er­al de­vel­op­ment part­ners.

This mea­sured ap­proach will en­sure that we can con­tin­ue de­liv­er­ing on our com­mit­ments to the peo­ple of T&T while main­tain­ing fis­cal sta­bil­i­ty.

Im­por­tant­ly, rev­enue mea­sures in­tro­duced in Oc­to­ber 2025 are ex­pect­ed to yield their full im­pact dur­ing the lat­ter part of this fis­cal year and in fu­ture years.

These mea­sures, cou­pled with on­go­ing re­forms to strength­en rev­enue ad­min­is­tra­tion and im­prove com­pli­ance, will pro­vide ad­di­tion­al fis­cal space and help re­duce the deficit over time.

BUILD­ING CON­FI­DENCE IN T&T

Mr Speak­er, con­fi­dence is the most pow­er­ful cur­ren­cy in any econ­o­my.

When cit­i­zens have con­fi­dence, they in­vest in their fu­ture. When busi­ness­es have con­fi­dence, they ex­pand and cre­ate jobs.

When in­vestors have con­fi­dence, they bring cap­i­tal, tech­nol­o­gy and op­por­tu­ni­ty.

Mr Speak­er, con­fi­dence in T&T is be­ing re­built, both at home and abroad, as this Gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to take re­spon­si­ble de­ci­sions to sta­bilise the econ­o­my, strength­en in­sti­tu­tions and cre­ate a more at­trac­tive en­vi­ron­ment for in­vest­ment and growth.

Mr Speak­er, and in just one year of hard work and tire­less ef­forts from this UNC gov­ern­ment, the suc­cess of our ap­proach is al­ready ev­i­dent.

In Jan­u­ary of this year, in­ter­na­tion­al cap­i­tal mar­kets sig­nalled re­newed con­fi­dence in T&T through the Gov­ern­ment’s high­ly suc­cess­ful and heav­i­ly over­sub­scribed US$1 bil­lion in­ter­na­tion­al bond is­suance.

This strong re­sponse re­flects grow­ing con­fi­dence in the coun­try’s eco­nom­ic man­age­ment and fu­ture di­rec­tion.

In Feb­ru­ary 2026, the Coun­cil of the Eu­ro­pean Union con­firmed the re­moval of T&T from the EU’s list of non-co­op­er­a­tive ju­ris­dic­tions, a list this coun­try was placed on un­der the watch of the for­mer PNM Ad­min­is­tra­tion in 2017.

Mr Speak­er, this re­moval from the EU black­list strength­ens T&T’s in­ter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion, im­proves in­vestor con­fi­dence, re­duces rep­u­ta­tion­al risks, and en­hances our abil­i­ty to en­gage more ef­fec­tive­ly with in­ter­na­tion­al fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions

and glob­al mar­kets.

In March 2026, at the meet­ing of the Board of Di­rec­tors of the Latin Amer­i­can De­vel­op­ment Bank (CAF), the in­sti­tu­tion reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing T&T’s de­vel­op­ment agen­da.

Dis­cus­sions al­so in­clud­ed the es­tab­lish­ment of a CAF Re­gion­al Of­fice in Port of Spain by 2027, po­si­tion­ing T&T as an im­por­tant hub for re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion and de­vel­op­ment.

Mr Speak­er, in April 2026, the Gov­ern­ment of T&T signed an Agree­ment with the World Bank Group for the es­tab­lish­ment of a per­ma­nent World Bank Of­fice in Port of Spain.

These land­mark mile­stones re­flect grow­ing in­ter­na­tion­al con­fi­dence in T&T’s eco­nom­ic di­rec­tion and re­form agen­da.

It will deep­en col­lab­o­ra­tion in ar­eas such as, pri­vate sec­tor in­vest­ment, in­fra­struc­ture de­vel­op­ment, eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion and sus­tain­able growth.

That con­fi­dence is al­so be­gin­ning to trans­late in­to re­al in­vest­ment.

In May 2026, the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty grant­ed the Cer­tifi­cate of En­vi­ron­men­tal Clear­ance for the pro­posed Mar­riott-brand­ed ho­tel and re­sort project at Rocky Point, Mount Irvine, To­ba­go.

This ma­jor in­vest­ment, val­ued at ap­prox­i­mate­ly TT$500 mil­lion sig­nals re­newed in­vestor in­ter­est in the tourism sec­tor and re­in­forces T&T’s po­si­tion as a des­ti­na­tion for op­por­tu­ni­ty, growth and long-term po­ten­tial.

Mr Speak­er, to top it off, ear­li­er this month, in June 2026, T&T se­cured a seat at the Unit­ed Na­tion Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil – an­oth­er mo­men­tous achieve­ment which fur­ther strength­ens T&T’s in­ter­na­tion­al pro­file and po­si­tions our coun­try to at­tract greater in­vest­ment and op­por­tu­ni­ty.

Mr Speak­er, this grow­ing in­ter­na­tion­al con­fi­dence re­ceived an­oth­er au­thor­i­ta­tive con­fir­ma­tion just three days ago.

On June 12th, 2026, Moody’s, the in­ter­na­tion­al rat­ing agency, el­e­vat­ed T&T’s out­look from Neg­a­tive to Sta­ble, while af­firm­ing the coun­try’s Ba2. This de­ci­sion fol­lows close­ly on the IMF’s own 2026 Ar­ti­cle IV as­sess­ment.

Moody’s ex­plic­it­ly at­trib­uted this im­prove­ment to the de­lib­er­ate, choic­es made by this Gov­ern­ment: proac­tive debt man­age­ment, strength­en­ing of the coun­try’s fi­nan­cial buffers.

The IMF com­mend­ed our coura­geous pen­sion re­form.

It wel­comed our re­moval from the EU’s list of non co­op­er­a­tive ju­ris­dic­tions.

Mr Speak­er, two of the world’s most re­spect­ed in­sti­tu­tions. Two in­de­pen­dent as­sess­ments.

Our clear con­clu­sion: af­ter just one year in of­fice, this Gov­ern­ment’s strat­e­gy is work­ing.

That sends a pow­er­ful mes­sage to our cit­i­zens, in­vestors and part­ners that T&T is firm­ly back on a path of sta­bil­i­ty and re­newed con­fi­dence.

Mr Speak­er, con­fi­dence is re­turn­ing be­cause this Gov­ern­ment, led by the Ho­n­ourable Mem­ber for Siparia, is de­liv­er­ing.

PROMIS­ES MADE, WORK UN­DER­WAY, RE­SULTS AL­READY VIS­I­BLE

As we con­tin­ue in­to the sec­ond half of Fis­cal 2026, al­low me to pro­vide, Mr Speak­er, a snap­shot to this Ho­n­ourable House on the progress made on key re­form ini­tia­tives, en­gage­ments with mul­ti­lat­er­al part­ners and the de­liv­ery of oth­er promis­es made in the 2026 Na­tion­al Bud­get State­ment.

Mr Speak­er, this Gov­ern­ment promised the peo­ple of T&T that we would mod­ernise the State, im­prove ef­fi­cien­cy and make life eas­i­er for cit­i­zens and busi­ness­es.

To­day, that work is not on­ly un­der­way, but the re­sults are al­ready vis­i­ble across the coun­try.

In­sti­tu­tion­al Strength­en­ing

In­stead of dis­man­tling and weak­en­ing our ma­jor rev­enue col­lec­tion agen­cies, we made the de­lib­er­ate de­ci­sion to strength­en and mod­ernise the In­land Rev­enue and the Cus­toms and Ex­cise Di­vi­sions.

With­out these mod­ern sys­tems, cit­i­zens and small busi­ness own­ers would con­tin­ue to face un­nec­es­sary bu­reau­cra­cy, mul­ti­ple man­u­al forms, re­peat­ed vis­its to gov­ern­ment of­fices and long wait­ing times. Mr Speak­er, we are chang­ing that.

Sig­nif­i­cant work is al­ready in progress to up­grade the ICT sys­tems of both Di­vi­sions to en­hance ef­fi­cien­cy, strength­en com­pli­ance and im­prove rev­enue col­lec­tion.

We have al­ready ex­pand­ed LINX pay­ment ser­vices across all cus­toms of­fices, and work is un­der­way to in­tro­duce cred­it card and on­line pay­ment sys­tems.

These are prac­ti­cal changes to make Gov­ern­ment ser­vices faster, sim­pler and more ac­ces­si­ble there­by im­prov­ing the ex­pe­ri­ence of or­di­nary cit­i­zens and busi­ness­es at pub­lic in­sti­tu­tions.

FOREX Al­lo­ca­tion at the EX­IM­BANK

Mr Speak­er, we have com­menced the re­view of the EX­IM Bank op­er­a­tions and poli­cies in con­junc­tion with tech­ni­cal sup­port from mul­ti­lat­er­al and lo­cal agen­cies. In the in­ter­im, the bank’s man­age­ment is be­ing strength­ened, its IT in­fra­struc­ture re­sus­ci­tat­ed, and its lend­ing and sell­ing cri­te­ria stream­lined to pro­vide greater sup­port to man­u­fac­tur­ers and im­porters of tru­ly es­sen­tial items.

En­er­gy Sec­tor De­vel­op­ment

This Ad­min­is­tra­tion has re­stored in­vestor con­fi­dence in T&T’s en­er­gy sec­tor. The Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny record­ed its high­est cor­po­rate prof­it in 11 years at $3.2 bil­lion, while TTNGL de­liv­ered $154.8 mil­lion in div­i­dends.

Mr Speak­er, the re-en­try of Exxon­Mo­bil, along­side its part­ner­ship with Oc­ci­den­tal Pe­tro­le­um (OXY) and strong in­ter­est from Chevron and the Na­tion­al Chi­na Off­shore Oil Cor­po­ra­tion, is ev­i­dence of con­fi­dence in Trinidad and

To­ba­go. We have stream­lined reg­u­la­to­ry ap­provals and ac­cel­er­at­ed the re­spon­si­ble is­suance of Cer­tifi­cates of En­vi­ron­men­tal Clear­ance.

As a re­sult, ma­jor in­vest­ments in off­shore drilling, seis­mic sur­veys, in­fra­struc­ture up­grades and well re­de­vel­op­ment projects are mov­ing for­ward at a faster pace.

Mr Speak­er, this is what hap­pens when a gov­ern­ment re­moves un­nec­es­sary de­lays while pre­serv­ing es­sen­tial safe­guards.

Dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion of the Pub­lic Sec­tor

Mr Speak­er, this Ad­min­is­tra­tion is al­so trans­form­ing the way cit­i­zens in­ter­act with the State. Cit­i­zens are al­ready ben­e­fit­ing from more ac­ces­si­ble dig­i­tal gov­ern­ment ser­vices.

Ini­tia­tives such as:

• the on­line re­new­al of dri­ver’s per­mits;

• dig­i­tal air­port ar­rival and de­par­ture forms;

• the UTURN por­tal for on­line traf­fic fine pay­ments;

• the Deluxe Coach Dig­i­tal Tick­et­ing Pi­lot on the PTSC

bus ser­vice;

• Cit­i­zenAI for small busi­ness sup­port and

• Ver­i­fyTT; T&T’s first na­tion­al dig­i­tal cre­den­tial ver­i­fi­ca­tion plat­form, are mak­ing ser­vices more ac­ces­si­ble and ef­fi­cient.

Mr Speak­er, if we are se­ri­ous about build­ing a dig­i­tal econ­o­my, then we must al­so pre­pare our chil­dren for that fu­ture.

This is why we de­liv­ered 18,000 new lap­tops to Form One stu­dents across the coun­try, en­sur­ing that young peo­ple have the dig­i­tal tools need­ed to suc­ceed in a mod­ern world.

We re­main com­mit­ted to con­tin­u­ing this sup­port for fu­ture stu­dents.

Flood Mit­i­ga­tion

Mr Speak­er, we al­so promised to move be­yond cri­sis re­sponse and em­brace proac­tive risk man­age­ment, tak­ing pre-emp­tive ac­tion to re­duce the hu­man, so­cial, and eco­nom­ic costs of weath­er-re­lat­ed dis­as­ters.

Mr Speak­er, few is­sues res­onate more deeply with me than flood­ing.

My con­stituen­cy falls with­in a re­gion that has re­peat­ed­ly en­dured its ef­fects, I have seen first­hand the anx­i­ety, loss, and dis­rup­tion it caus­es.

That is why I am es­pe­cial­ly proud to an­nounce the fol­low­ing:

Sup­port­ed by the Na­tion­al Pro­gramme for the Up­keep of Pub­lic Spaces, this Gov­ern­ment im­ple­ment­ed a na­tion­wide flood mit­i­ga­tion pro­gramme aimed at clear­ing blocked drains and wa­ter­cours­es ahead of the rainy sea­son.

To date, 187 ma­jor de­silt­ing projects have al­ready been com­plet­ed, bring­ing im­me­di­ate re­lief to flood-prone com­mu­ni­ties across T&T.

These are vis­i­ble re­sults that cit­i­zens can al­ready see with­in their own com­mu­ni­ties.

Food Se­cu­ri­ty and Agri­cul­ture

Mr Speak­er, strength­en­ing food se­cu­ri­ty re­mains a pri­or­i­ty.

On May 9, 2026, the Prime Min­is­ter of­fi­cial­ly com­mis­sioned the Brechin Cas­tle Agro-Pro­cess­ing Fa­cil­i­ty, which will con­vert lo­cal agri­cul­tur­al pro­duce in­to high-val­ue, shelf-sta­ble prod­ucts, cre­at­ing new ex­port

op­por­tu­ni­ties for farm­ers and agro-proces­sors. In ad­di­tion, Mr Speak­er, we in­tro­duced a strate­gic crop pro­duc­tion pi­lot pro­gramme aimed at re­duc­ing food im­ports, and re­cent­ly cel­e­brat­ed the suc­cess­ful har­vest of 2 acres of black-eyed peas from the 6-acre

demon­stra­tion project, along­side corn and soy­bean plots. These ini­tia­tives are just the foun­da­tion for build­ing a stronger and more re­silient agri­cul­tur­al sec­tor.

They will re­duce im­port de­pen­dence, low­er food pro­duc­tion costs, sup­port our School Feed­ing Pro­gramme and im­prove long-term food se­cu­ri­ty for T&T.

Mr Speak­er, these are not emp­ty pub­lic re­la­tions an­nounce­ments.

These are not mere promis­es.

These are re­al in­vest­ments, re­al projects and re­al progress. This is what de­liv­ery looks like. And this Gov­ern­ment re­mains com­mit­ted to de­liv­er­ing re­sults for the peo­ple of T&T.

CON­CLU­SION

Mr Speak­er, on­ly a few days ago, dur­ing my con­tri­bu­tion in the oth­er place, I re­mind­ed Mem­bers that our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty ex­tends be­yond cor­rect­ing the fail­ures of the past.

We must al­so pre­pare T&T for the re­al­i­ties, chal­lenges, and op­por­tu­ni­ties of the fu­ture.

I re­it­er­ate that point to­day. The ur­gency of this task can­not be over­stat­ed. We are liv­ing through a pe­ri­od of pro­found glob­al trans­for­ma­tion.

Ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence, au­toma­tion, dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies, and rapid in­no­va­tion are re­shap­ing economies, in­dus­tries, and labour mar­kets at a pace un­prece­dent­ed in hu­man his­to­ry.

The na­tions that an­tic­i­pate and adapt to these changes will pros­per; those that fail to do so will in­evitably be left be­hind.

Mod­ernising laws, strength­en­ing in­sti­tu­tions, im­prov­ing pub­lic in­sti­tu­tions, and re­spon­si­ble fis­cal man­age­ment are nec­es­sary foun­da­tions. But last­ing progress re­quires some­thing deep­er. It re­quires a na­tion­al cul­ture that em­braces in­no­va­tion,

re­wards pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, val­ues per­son­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, takes pride in cit­i­zen­ship, and re­spects the rule of law.

It re­quires a part­ner­ship be­tween Gov­ern­ment and cit­i­zens, unit­ed by a shared com­mit­ment to ex­cel­lence and na­tion­al ad­vance­ment. And, Mr Speak­er, I say to Mem­bers op­po­site that they too have a role to play in this na­tion­al ef­fort - if they so

choose.

Af­ter decades of de­struc­tive poli­cies and poor de­ci­sions that con­tributed to the chal­lenges we now con­front, the PNM has an op­por­tu­ni­ty to atone for what they have done, and for what they have failed to do.

Not through vile rhetoric, po­lit­i­cal games­man­ship, or by in­cit­ing di­vi­sion - but rather by con­struc­tive en­gage­ment in the work of na­tion­al re­new­al.

Rather than ob­struct­ing progress at every turn, they can choose to sup­port the mea­sures nec­es­sary to pre­pare T&T for the pro­found changes that lie ahead.

They can choose to put coun­try be­fore par­ty, and fu­ture gen­er­a­tions be­fore par­ti­san in­ter­est.

Mr Speak­er, the fu­ture will not wait while we de­bate whether to change.

It is al­ready ar­riv­ing.

Our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is there­fore not sim­ply to re­spond to change, but to lead it - to en­sure that T&T is pre­pared, com­pet­i­tive, and po­si­tioned to seize the op­por­tu­ni­ties of a rapid­ly evolv­ing world.

That is the vi­sion guid­ing this Gov­ern­ment’s agen­da: not mere­ly to re­pair what was bro­ken, but to build a stronger, more dy­nam­ic, and more pros­per­ous na­tion for gen­er­a­tions to come.

With these few words, Mr Speak­er, I beg to move.