MONTEGO BAY, St James — Desmond McKenzie on Thursday countered critics’ claims of uneven distribution of resources by the Government and outlined a list of achievements by the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) as he announced that Jamaicans will vote in long-overdue local government elections on February 26.

Nomination day will be Thursday, February 8.

“I want the country to understand when we provide the resources, every councillor, regardless of your political persuasion, is treated in the same way. We don’t play politics in local government. We are helping to change the face of Jamaica, using local government as a vehicle of expression,” a pumped up McKenzie, the local government minister, told the sea of constituency chairpersons, members of parliament, councillors, councillor/candidates and party officers dressed in green JLP shirts at Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James.

“We gave councillors the responsibility of providing assistance for persons in their divisions right across the political spectrum — back-to-school, funeral grants, building grants. What a Government cares about local government!” McKenzie boasted.

He compared the assistance provided to the homeless population by his Administration to that of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), pointing to what became known as the Street People Scandal in 1999 that embarrassed the then Government.

“Right across Jamaica we have seen an increase in persons living on the streets, not just in our capital towns but right across Jamaica. What has been the response of the Government of Prime Minister Andrew Holness to the homeless population? We have built drop-in centres; we have built shelters right across Jamaica. We provide three meals on a daily basis for all the persons living on the streets of this country,” McKenzie said.

“But those who profess that they love the poor…the most outstanding achievement that they can talk about was in 1999, here in Montego Bay, when there was an international conference taking place; what they did? They get dumper trucks, scrape up over 30 of them and carry them and dump them inna mud lake in St Elizabeth,” he said.

“We move them and put them in a place of safety and treat them with love. That’s what a caring government is all about,” he added.

McKenzie also highlighted the Youth Summer Programme under which, he said, has benefited more than 50,000 young people, 300 of whom have gained permanent employment.

“Let me tell you, this programme has become the largest youth employment programme in the Caribbean,” he said.

The local government minister also argued that prior to 2016 investments in the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) under the PNP regime investments were abysmally low.

“While I will say that we have not accomplished all that we want in terms of garbage collection, the country must know [that] before 2016 little or no investment was made in the National Solid Waste Management Authority. They hardly had trucks. But they [PNP] stamped their class on fires. During their period we had more than 60 fires across landfills in Jamaica. They spent close to $750 million putting out fires. You know how many trucks that money could have bought in that period? And since we came into office we have put in the necessary systems to ensure that we minimise the effects of fires in the country. We not there yet, we expecting 50 more trucks to come,” he stated.

He also underscored the investments made in the Jamaica Fire Brigade under his stewardship since 2016, and again took a swipe at the Opposition.

“Prime Minister, I wonder if you know that during their period of stewardship they [PNP] spent $650 million on the Jamaica Fire Brigade islandwide. In our first two years in Government, Prime Minister, your Administration spent $1.4 billion. And since that time we have invested over $4 billion in the Jamaica Fire Brigade. Never in the history of that organisation, that is over 150 years old, that they have benefited from a caring and understanding Government,” McKenzie said.

He also said that more than $1 trillion has been generated by the municipal corporations islandwide over the last eight years through building approval processes.

“The local authorities, since 2016 — and I am not saying that all is where we want it to be in terms of the approval processes — but we have seen significant improvement over the last eight years, and because of the measures that we have put in, strengthening the capacity of the local authorities, that is why productivity, peace and prosperity are on the upward movement because the local authorities contributed, in terms of building approval process, $1.6 trillion to the Jamaican economy. Never before, and all these policies have been able for us to build a better country,” McKenzie declared.

“Under this Administration, led by the builder himself, prime minister and party leader Andrew Holness, local government has been treated as a priority of public policies. We have been receiving unprecedented support. That is why the Jamaica Labour Party councillors and administrators have presided over one of the greatest transformations ever seen in this country in the history of local government,” McKenzie said.