The Deputy Prime Minister delivered those remarks while he was reporting on the extensive dialog that he and his Cabinet colleagues have been having with the Joint Unions Negotiating Team.
Hyde was the most senior member of the Government's consultation team, and during day 2 of the Budget Debate, he explained in detail why the Briceno Administration is following through with the very unpopular decision to implement these public wage cuts:
Hon. Cordel Hyde - Deputy Prime Minister
"It's been almost 15 years since I last spoke on the Government's side in a budget debate. And I've watched in horror as the UDP plundered this country for 13 long years. I never in my wildest thoughts expected that our first budget experience as a new administration would be this painful, this heartbreaking, this heart-wrenching."
"No government should have to consider taking 80 million dollars out of the salaries of the public officers and teachers in this country, not our beloved teachers and public officers, not out of the hands of the people who spend every day with the little people."
"One of my constituents, Madam Speaker, a career public officer, texted me yesterday at 4:44 a.m. She had no idea how she would survive with a 10% salary adjustment. After her own calculations, after the 10% pay cut and deductions for income tax, social security, and mortgage payments, she will be left with 50 dollars. And that's before she has even bought food, and there are people who depend on her every day. She says she's overwhelmed and just reaching out to share her feelings."
"I responded, but I thought my response was inadequate, my words insufficient. What could I say? I told her that there will be a facility at the DFC and the National Bank where she can refinance her mortgage at lower interest rates, and consequently, at lower monthly payments. And I pledged to do all I can to help in whatever way I can. But, I know nothing I say to her can console her, and nothing I say can console the many others like her. And then I felt the rage built up inside me against the UDP because we didn't have to be here."
"They could have planned for the future and secured our children and grandchildren, but instead, they thought only of themselves, and their own children and grandchildren."
"We cannot, in any way, continue to add to the harrowing unemployment rate of 29.6%, almost 5 percentage points higher than the US experienced in the Great Depression. I also know we cannot allow the Halloween figure called retrenchment to come to visit us, not now, not ever. And yet, that's where we are today, April 23rd, 2021. The experts say if we do nothing, there is hell to pay."
"I've never seen things this hard in our country before, never. I've seen more grown men cry in the last few months because they can't support their families than I've seen in all the 27 years I've been in politics. I'm asking the unions. I'm asking the teachers and the public officers to give us a chance. If we didn't believe this was necessary, we wouldn't be doing this. We gain nothing from doing this, other than your wrath and your contempt. We know this, but we're in a desperate situation as a country and as a people."
"It's better to do something now and find out a year from now that maybe we went too far, than for us to not do anything, and 6 months down the road, we rue the day we never took the 10%. We're not going to keep this any longer than needs be. We will review the numbers every 6 months, along with unions. We'll do it together. We'll review it together comprehensively, every 12, to determine whether [or not] we've met our targets, and can discontinue the adjustments."
