Dominica: 2018-2019 budget approved

The parliament in Dominica has approved the $978,101,625 draft estimates for the 2018-2019 financial year presented by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.

The near $1 billion dollar budget was the largest in the history of Dominica.

In winding down the debate on the matter, Skerrit – who is also the island’s minister of finance – said the budget was needed to take the island forward after the devastation of Hurricane Maria last September. But he warned the journey ahead is going to be long and tough.

“This is not a sprint, it is going to be a long journey,” he said. “But we have articulated a plan, we have articulated a strategy.”

He said there are tangible things for Dominicans to see what the government has done since Maria.

“Madam Speaker, as I said in my statement, independent people, people who have no political interest in Dominica come to this country and they speak about the extraordinary progress we have made, as a small country utilising, in large measure, our own resources,” he stated.

“So it is not an easy road.”

Parliament also authorised Skerrit to borrow and guarantee – by means of a fluctuating overdraft the sum – an aggregate $36.5-million from the First Caribbean International Bank, the National Bank of Dominica, Royal Bank of Canada and/or any approved financial institution to meet central government’s current overdraft requirements and to guarantee overdrafts to statutory or public corporations for a further period of one year commencing on July 1, 2018.

The sitting of the was adjourned.

The full response from the opposition United Workers Party, presented by leader Lennox Linton, is available here.