Minister Pamela Gordon-Carty
PHILIPSBURG–Minister of Public Health, Labour and Social Affairs VSA Pamela Gordon-Carty said that there is much to be done within the Ministry.
In Wednesday’s press briefing the minister said that she intends to continue her meetings with management within the ministry and stakeholders where she will conduct an overall assessment on the state of affairs. “Together we will all discuss and tackle key preliminary objectives of the ministry of VSA which include growing labour issues, such as unemployment, domestic and sexual abuse especially as it relates to minors, adequate care for babies, overall health care and the quality of care on the island,” Gordon-Carty said.
The minister said that the main objective of the ministry is to improve the living conditions of the registered citizens by creating employment opportunities. “It is my belief that the creation of job opportunities and placement further lead to more controlled collection procedures for an increase in the collection of social insurance premiums. These collections will in turn contribute to the coffers of our beloved St. Maarten and may further alleviate our country’s ongoing deficit.”
The minister said that it is also important to encourage citizens to live a healthy lifestyle which will contribute towards improving the overall living conditions, thereby decreasing sick leave in the job place and the added burden placed on our social values and remedies.
“How are we trying to implement this?” she asked. “We are trying to decrease unemployment among our locals, enhance employment opportunities, ensuring the collections of social insurance premium to contribute to the country’s bottom line, making sure that our vulnerable groups are well taken cared off specifically babies, children under age, seniors and disabled persons and the banning of smoking in public areas which will also contribute to a healthy environment.”
The Minister said that the consequences of all the above will be the improvement of overall living conditions resulting in a healthy community. “We will be looking into the deteriorated social values and remedies of the country St. Maarten; we will increase collection by working together with the ministry of justice and general affairs and finance,” she said.
“We [Ministry VSA –Ed.] are not going to reinvent the wheels, we are going to use existing laws, existing policies, existing advises that have been given in order to execute and have the wheel continue rolling. We will be ensuring that residents will be granted equal opportunities in the work force, more specially those who are skilled and qualified to fulfil these jobs in the community and by working with the ministry of justice, general affairs and finance on implementing and enforcing procedures for the collection of social insurance and premiums,” she said.
The minister concluded by saying that there are several areas of concerns that the ministry is looking into but, the ministry conducts further meetings with the different departments within the ministry to gather the right information before providing any additional information to the public.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/93025-minister-of-vsa-highlights-key-tasks-within-ministry
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