FROM LEFT: David McGregor, Vice President, Asset Management – Emera Caribbean, and Stephen Lashley, Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth signing the Memorandum of Understanding.

Emera to invest in local communities

 

Parent company of the Barbados Light & Power, EMERA Inc., the Barbados National Sports Council and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth are teaming up to improve communities around Barbados.
 
Emera is set to invest around $387 000 in projects to develop and upgrade two facilities in Barbados.
 
This was disclosed at a press conference at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth’s Sky Mall headquarters in Haggatt Hall, where a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between EMERA Inc. and the Ministry.
 
David McGregor, Vice President, Asset Management – Emera Caribbean said that they have “come together to ensure the communities have an opportunity to learn something new”.
The two communities set to benefit from this partnership are Silver Hill and North Stars.
 
According to the Minister of Sport Stephen Lashley, the upgrade and development of the Silver Hill court will get a boost from Emera of around $125 000; while the North Stars facility will receive over $260 000.
 
Minister of Housing, Lands and Rural Development and Member of Parliament for St. Lucy, Denis Kellman, said that they “could not have chosen a better location than North Stars, one of a few clubs in Barbados that would have started a project on lands belonging to the Government and treated it as though it was their land”.
 
He said that North Stars has demonstrated that once communities are given the right assistance, they can help the Ministry of Sports and any other ministry with their budget.
 
“I am happy to see that North Stars, without taking everything away from the government, was able to add by constructing a building on the land.”
 
Lashley said that they were not only consolidating a partnership arrangement, but making a giant step in assisting the government of Barbados in maintenance and development.
 
With plans for developing Centres of Excellence for Knowledge sharing as well, Lashley added that along with the development of the facilities, there was the “mammoth tasks of maintaining our facility… and built in the partnership is the continued maintenance”.
 
He also mentioned that in the near future, the National Sports Council will be going public with the initiative to get Barbadians and corporate citizens and individuals to pledge support for the redevelopment of the National Stadium. (CG)
 
 

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