~ Solar panels, LED lights, pension increase ~
HOPE ESTATE--Prime Minister William Marlin on Thursday said the new Government will immediately work on permanently reducing electricity bills for the country’s seniors as a way to offer them relief.
Increasing the pension, he said, has Government’s attention. Government is also looking into helping the elderly with the placing of solar panels on the homes of seniors residing in the senior homes as another way to lower their electricity expenses.
The Prime Minister was at the time speaking at the St. Maarten Senior Citizens Recreational Centre’s annual Thanksgiving luncheon at the Centre in Hope Estate. “One of the projects that we will be working on immediately is to reduce the electricity bills of seniors and not by six weeks or six months, but permanently,” Marlin said, adding that any relief irrespective of how small it is would assist seniors because they already have so little to survive on.
Regarding the solar panels, he said, once the effects of the panels of those living in senior homes is seen, this can be replicated wherever seniors are residing, alone for example, to help lower their electricity even more. Another pilot project, he said, would be to install LED lights in the homes of seniors. Marlin said although the LED bulbs are expensive, the savings that will be accrued would be “incredible. This is one way in which we would like to help bring down the cost of living immediately.”
Marlin said while he could not “make solid promise now,” increasing the pension also has the attention of government. “It can’t be that we talk about increasing minimum wage and cost of living that is going up [and forget the seniors – Ed.]. Those who are working, are fighting for increase in wages and those who are no longer working also need to get an increase because you [seniors – Ed.] cannot go out and work even if you want to. So we have to ensure that for as long as you continue to live, is one that is worth living.”
Marlin said “for too long” governments have come and gone and speak about seniors and how important they are. “We live amongst the seniors and know what their hardships are. It is unfortunate that we have too many seniors struggling to make ends meet after they have worked so hard to build this country…. And we can’t speak about a good country if that country is not taking care of its valued possession – its seniors. We need to take care of the babies because they will grow into the men and women of tomorrow, but we also have to take care of seniors who have been the men and women of yesterday.”
St. Maarten Senior Citizen Recreational Foundation Office Manager Marva Henson said about 50 seniors attended the luncheon. In addition to the seniors in attendance, representatives of a number of businesses and organisations such as St. Maarten Cable TV, NAGICO Insurances, St. Dominic High School, Lions Club, Rotary Club, Henderson Insurances and utilities company GEBE were also present.
