As debate over Dominica’s 2026-2027 national budget unfolds, Opposition Leader and Salisbury constituency Member of Parliament Jesma Paul-Victor has laid out two urgent priorities for the island nation: addressing long-standing failures in basic local public services, and laying the foundational workforce capacity to support inclusive long-term economic growth.
In her constituency intervention, Paul-Victor first spotlighted the persistent garbage collection crisis that has upended daily life for Salisbury residents. She explained that consistent, reliable waste collection across the area remains out of reach, rooted not in resident noncompliance, but in a critical shortage of operational equipment. With too few collection trucks assigned to serve local communities, scheduled pickups are repeatedly delayed, leaving waste bags piled along public roadsides for days or even weeks at a time.
These uncollected waste piles create immediate risks for local residents, Paul-Victor warned. Stray animals frequently tear open garbage bags to forage, scattering debris across roads and open green spaces. Over time, accumulated waste draws disease-carrying insects and rodent populations, raising serious public health and environmental hazards that drag down local quality of life. Even amid these systemic challenges, Paul-Victor was quick to praise frontline sanitation workers, who have continued to fulfill their duties with limited resources to work with. She called on the national government and relevant municipal authorities to conduct a full, transparent assessment of Salisbury’s waste management needs and allocate additional funding and equipment to expand collection capacity. Strengthening waste infrastructure, she argued, is not a discretionary expense—it is a core investment that delivers cleaner neighborhoods, healthier families, and stronger environmental protection for all residents.
Beyond immediate local service needs, Paul-Victor used her budget response to push for transformative investment in Dominica’s youth workforce. She emphasized that the island’s education system must evolve to match the demands of a fast-shifting global economy, with investment that extends far beyond traditional classroom instruction and standard academic programs.
Paul-Victor identified eight high-priority areas for targeted workforce development: technical vocational training, digital literacy, artificial intelligence expertise, cybersecurity, renewable energy technology, construction trades, hospitality management, health sciences, and entrepreneurial skills. Mastery of these competencies, she argued, will decide whether young Dominicans get to be active participants in the nation’s ongoing economic transformation, or are left on the sidelines as passive observers.
She also stressed that investment in skills must go hand in hand with efforts to create sufficient high-quality local employment. Major national infrastructure projects currently underway in Dominica—including the new international airport, coastal marina development, and expanding geothermal energy sector—should be leveraged as platforms to generate thousands of sustainable private-sector jobs for local workers, Paul-Victor argued. Ultimately, she said, cross-border migration should remain a free choice for young Dominicans, not an economic necessity forced on them by a lack of viable career opportunities at home.