Opposition Leader Emmalin Pierre on Thursday, described the 2025 Budget or Estimates of Revenue and Estimates presented by Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall earlier this week as one that is disconnected from the people and telling a story of financial mismanagement.
Emmalin Pierre
‘Mr Speaker, the 2026 Budget, despite its glossy summaries, which are captured in carefully rehearsed talking points, it tells a deeply troubling story. A story of financial mismanagement, underperformance, misplaced priorities, selfishness, collapsing grant inflows, weakened fiscal discipline, and, most obviously, a serious disconnection of the Government from the daily realities and what is really happening on the ground,’ Pierre said in her rebuttal.
Claiming that the EC$1.9 Billion (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) 2026 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure is no better than the 2025 Budget, the Opposition Leader said that Grenadians are still waiting for that ‘wow’ factor from a budget delivered just weeks before Christmas and just before the dawn of a new year.
‘I find this 2026 Budget to be such a profound disappointment because it does not address in any serious way the reality facing Grenadians at this time,’ said Pierre as she told the House that Grenadians are crying out not for a budget speech loaded with political rhetoric or glossy themes but ‘for a Budget that sees them, a budget that hears them, a budget that responds to them with urgency, empathy, and compassion.’
‘This budget provides no hope,’ she said while focusing on cost-of-living issues.
‘The cost of living has become unbearable, and every trip to the supermarket feels like a painful exercise in survival. Electricity bills have skyrocketed, squeezing already-stretched incomes. Many are choosing between keeping the lights on and buying medication,’ said Pierre as called on the government to provide the necessary assistance to people who were affected by Hurricane Beryl in July 2024.
Expressing her opinion on the economic context of the budget, Pierre said that 2026 is projected to be worse than 2025 with a predicted deficit of EC$309.8 million or negative 7.3% of GDP, EC$30.4 million more than 2025 in deficit.
‘This means that for two consecutive years, this Government has run an overall deficit, averaging approximately 300 million dollars per year, after inheriting reserves of over 500 million dollars in 2022,’ she said. ‘Mr Speaker, that is not a misfortune, not bad luck, that is a clear case of mismanagement,’ she added.
The Opposition Leader told the House that while it’s concerning that the government plans to borrow $450 million to address the rising deficit,’ what is even more alarming is the disconnect between this expenditure and the actual needs of the people, as well as a seemingly intentional effort to mislead the public with a new classification of expenses,’ she said while explaining the new initiative in the 2026 budget.
‘The 2026 budget outlines three expenditure categories: recurrent, capital, and initiative expenditures, with allocations of $1.7 billion, $370.4 million, and $206.7 million, respectively,’ she said while explaining the new initiative category.
‘Mr Speaker, the introduction of the new expenditure category labelled ‘initiatives’ creates the impression that the government is launching a portfolio of new projects and programs totalling EC$206.7 million. This suggests an investment outlay of EC$577.1 million. Mr Speaker, this is far from the truth and represents an unfortunate attempt to mislead the public,’ Pierre claims.
Pierre was the first to contribute to the 2026 budget debate.
All members of Parliament in the Lower House are scheduled to contribute to the debate and then the debate will move to the Upper House in order to be implemented on January 1.