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Monday, July 14, 2025

IDA leader: Tobago not being told truth about economic state

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15 days ago
20250629
Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-Angus

Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-Angus

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

In­no­v­a­tive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Al­liance (IDA) leader, Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-An­gus, says while the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly is paint­ing a pret­ty pic­ture with its $3.7 bil­lion bud­get, the re­al num­bers tell a much dark­er sto­ry about the is­land’s econ­o­my and the fu­ture of its peo­ple.

The as­sem­bly made the bud­get re­quest to Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment on Mon­day dur­ing its bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion. It’s ask­ing for 5.9 per cent of the na­tion­al bud­get.

But, speak­ing at a me­dia con­fer­ence in Scar­bor­ough on Fri­day, Tsoiafatt-An­gus said, “This bud­get, like the young peo­ple say, might look good on Tik­Tok—but try pay­ing for WiFi with it. It ain’t go­ing to work.”

Tsoiafatt-An­gus likened the pre­sen­ta­tion to a doc­tor telling a sick pa­tient they’re fine, de­spite clear signs of trou­ble.

“You don’t want fan­cy words—you want the truth. You want the risks, the plan, and the path­way to heal­ing. That’s what To­ba­go needs from a bud­get.”

She said To­ba­go is not get­ting an hon­est di­ag­no­sis of its eco­nom­ic con­di­tion. In­stead, she’s claim­ing that GDP per capi­ta has dropped by 13 per cent since 2021 un­der the cur­rent To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) ad­min­is­tra­tion. Over the past decade, she said To­ba­go has seen a 36 per cent de­cline—more than the na­tion­al av­er­age.

“This is not just about sta­tis­tics—it’s about peo­ple tak­ing home less mon­ey while the cost of liv­ing goes up.”

The IDA leader al­so raised alarm over ed­u­ca­tion, say­ing 68 per cent of the is­land’s work­force is un­der­e­d­u­cat­ed, with more stu­dents falling in­to the 1-4 sub­ject pass range.

“This is un­der the watch of two for­mer teach­ers—the Chief Sec­re­tary and Sec­re­tary of Ed­u­ca­tion,” she not­ed.

While the THA says it cre­at­ed 4,000 jobs, Tsoiafatt-An­gus ques­tioned their qual­i­ty.

“Are these re­al jobs or just ten-days gigs to get us to the next elec­tion? Re­al work brings sta­bil­i­ty.”

She de­scribed the bud­get as a mix of “smoke and mir­rors” and “vibes,” say­ing it failed to show a clear plan for the fu­ture.

She said To­ba­go needs a bud­get that pri­ori­tis­es ed­u­ca­tion re­form, in­vest­ment in peo­ple, ex­port de­vel­op­ment, and per­ma­nent job cre­ation—not a list of 21 vague goals with no re­al strat­e­gy.

“To­ba­go de­serves bet­ter than to­kenism. We need a bold plan—not an elec­tion pam­phlet,” she said.

Tsoiafatt-An­gus said if To­ba­go is to walk side by side with Trinidad, it must start be­hav­ing like a re­spon­si­ble adult, plan­ning prop­er­ly and show­ing how it will con­tribute to the na­tion­al econ­o­my.


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