Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Michelle Ben­jamin has pledged sup­port for the steel­pan fra­ter­ni­ty af­ter the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny (NGC) with­drew spon­sor­ship from three Steel­bands.

The af­fect­ed bands are Cou­va Joy­lan­ders Steel Or­ches­tra, La Brea Nightin­gales Steel Or­ches­tra, and Steel X Plo­sion Steel Or­ches­tra in To­ba­go.

Ben­jamin said the steel­pan, as the na­tion­al in­stru­ment, holds a cen­tral place in the coun­try’s cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty and its fund­ing and sup­port re­main a high pri­or­i­ty, es­pe­cial­ly with Car­ni­val 2026 ap­proach­ing.

She said she has been in talks with Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of NGC to ex­plore a way for­ward.

“These dis­cus­sions are on­go­ing, and while fur­ther con­sul­ta­tion is re­quired, the as­sur­ance is un­der­scored that the Min­istry is com­mit­ted to safe­guard­ing the in­ter­ests of the Steel­pan fra­ter­ni­ty,” Ben­jamin said.

She added that pro­tect­ing and em­pow­er­ing youth, who now rep­re­sent the ma­jor­i­ty of Steel­band play­ers, is a cen­tral pri­or­i­ty of the gov­ern­ment.

“Pro­tect­ing and em­pow­er­ing our youth re­mains a cen­tral pri­or­i­ty of this Gov­ern­ment. As such, the Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment will do every­thing with­in its re­mit to safe­guard their de­vel­op­ment and en­sure that their in­volve­ment in the Steel­pan move­ment con­tin­ues to re­ceive mean­ing­ful sup­port,” she said.

The state­ment fol­lowed strong crit­i­cism from for­mer Prime Min­is­ter and En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, who called the de­ci­sion “un­jus­ti­fi­able and un­for­giv­able.”

In a post on so­cial me­dia, Young said the Steel­bands were “im­por­tant pil­lars in their re­spec­tive com­mu­ni­ties—they pro­vide safe spaces for our cit­i­zens to learn about team build­ing, dis­ci­pline, cul­ture, shar­ing, hard work, and achiev­ing suc­cess.”

He said they al­so “of­fer op­por­tu­ni­ties for mem­bers to dis­cuss per­son­al is­sues safe­ly and fos­ter an at­mos­phere of pos­i­tive nur­tur­ing and growth.”

Young linked the is­sue to wider gov­ern­ment ac­tions, crit­i­cis­ing the ter­mi­na­tion of em­ploy­ment for thou­sands of cit­i­zens, which he de­scribed as “heart­less,” and urged both NGC and the gov­ern­ment to re­verse the de­ci­sion.

NGC con­firmed the with­draw­al in let­ters to the bands. In cor­re­spon­dence to La Brea Nightin­gales dat­ed Sep­tem­ber 3, act­ing pres­i­dent Ed­mund Solomon wrote: “Whilst we val­ue the busi­ness re­la­tion­ship be­tween NGC and La Brea Nightin­gales, NGC is present­ly re-eval­u­at­ing its ex­ist­ing con­tracts and has de­ter­mined that it is no longer vi­able for NGC to con­tin­ue un­der the present Agree­ment.” The con­tract end­ed on Sep­tem­ber 11.

Ram­sey-Moore has al­so voiced con­cern about NGC’s de­ci­sion, say­ing she is “ex­treme­ly wor­ried” and warn­ing that it sends a trou­bling sig­nal to oth­er state-owned com­pa­nies.