KINGSTON, Jamaica — Member of Parliament (MP) for St Mary Western, Robert Montague is proposing a $15 billion programme to be rolled out evenly across constituencies for the upliftment of the poor and vulnerable.

He said the programme dubbed Sports, Housing and Health, Agriculture, Rural Development and Employment (SHARE), would create opportunities for Jamaicans “and finally bring light and water to every nook and cranny of Jamaica”.

Montague unveiled his programme on Tuesday as he made his contribution to the 2024/25 State of the Constituency Debate in the House of Representatives.

“We have always asked the poor to sacrifice, to ‘band dem belly’, to hold strain, to cut back – let us now invest in the poor, let’s give them a chance – an opportunity to share the prosperity. They have waited long enough,” Montage said.

“By spreading this money over the year and across Jamaica, the effect on inflation of this investment will be negligible but its effect on revenues will be immense,” he added.

The Jamaica Labour Party representative broke down the programme as follows:

— Sports: $2m per constituency to be spent on community playing fields. One high school playing field must be included, to be funded from the CHASE Fund and the Sports Development Foundation (SDF).

— Health: $3m allocated to each constituency to help people with prescription drugs, eyeglasses, medical items and equipment, to be funded by the National Health Fund (NHF).

— Housing: A grant of $5m per constituency, to be funded by the uncollected National Housing Trust returns (refunds) and the Housing Fund.

— Agriculture: $4m to be granted for agricultural start-up enterprises or expansion of existing ones, that will see at least one new person being employed or new technology being transferred with emphasis on youth and women.

— Rural development: $2 billion to be shared equally for rural water and light. At least one solar powered water system must be done per rural constituency and a programme to provide electricity to rural communities. This should include the use of solar or wind technologies for hard-to-reach communities.

— Employment: Each MP to recommend 200 participants in a one-year programme of employment and training and paying them $20,000 per week.

“All 170 government agencies, ministries and departments must indicate how many trainees they can take and how much funds they can contribute to this approximately 15-billion-dollar investment programme,” Montage said.

He told the House that a Unit should be established in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation to manage the programme.

“Persons to be recommended should be from age 18 to 55 years old, to give older persons a chance to retool or to get a job and to create opportunities and experience for the young. We all have shared the hardships, made the sacrifices, now let us all share the prosperity,” Montague declared.

As to how the programme would be funded, he noted that the Bauxite Levy fund is owed over US$30 million.

“Half of that should be committed to this programme and half to a National Wealth Fund. There are written agreements and even if we are to go to court, this money must be collected; it belongs to the people,” said Montague.

He argued that “it is the people who suffer the ill effects of the bauxite industry, let’s invest some of that (the bauxite levy) on them”.

Additionally, he said there were some government entities with billions of reserve funds sitting on fixed deposits in banks and investment firms.

“It is poor people’s money being held in trust, don’t use it all, just some and invest it into the people. Other specific areas will be funded from the different entities mentioned before – SDF and the NHF,” Montague said.