Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Mi­nor­i­ty Leader Kelvon Mor­ris is call­ing for clear an­swers from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine as the Prime Min­is­ter makes her first of­fi­cial vis­it to To­ba­go with sev­er­al Cab­i­net mem­bers.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, Mor­ris ac­cused the lead­ers of us­ing the vis­it for “po­lit­i­cal the­atre” while ig­nor­ing the is­land’s press­ing is­sues.

“On Tues­day, the Prime Min­is­ter will come to talk au­ton­o­my. On Thurs­day, I will come to talk ac­count­abil­i­ty,” he said.

Mor­ris claimed that since 2021, more than $4 bil­lion in fund­ing that could have re­paired roads, built homes, and sup­port­ed small busi­ness­es has been lost due to “po­lit­i­cal games­man­ship.” He de­scribed re­newed dis­cus­sions on au­ton­o­my as “ir­re­spon­si­ble and disin­gen­u­ous,” ar­gu­ing that To­bag­o­ni­ans need de­liv­ery, not dis­trac­tions.

He al­so urged Per­sad-Bisses­sar to clar­i­fy her stance on so­cial em­ploy­ment pro­grammes.

“If CEPEP is mod­ern-day slav­ery in Trinidad, what makes it any dif­fer­ent in To­ba­go?” he asked.

Mor­ris stressed that res­i­dents de­serve prac­ti­cal an­swers on stalled projects, debt pay­ments, and busi­ness re­lief.

“Our peo­ple are tired of promis­es. We want trans­paren­cy, time­lines, and ac­count­abil­i­ty from both the THA and Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment.”

He plans to move a pri­vate mo­tion in the As­sem­bly lat­er this week reaf­firm­ing a “To­ba­go First” ap­proach—pri­ori­tis­ing lo­cal con­trac­tors, em­pow­er­ing youth, and restor­ing fis­cal dis­ci­pline.

Mean­while, Cur­tis Williams, pres­i­dent of the To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce, said the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty hopes the Prime Min­is­ter ad­dress­es long-stand­ing con­cerns.

“We would like the Prime Min­is­ter to ad­dress a cou­ple of things—the Land­hold­ing Act, the au­ton­o­my bill, and rep­re­sen­ta­tion for To­ba­go on state boards. That’s very im­por­tant for us,” he said.

Williams al­so called for Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment sup­port to im­prove tourism in­fra­struc­ture, ex­pand the port, and boost air­lift.

“We need the Port Au­thor­i­ty to come in. There are as­pects of tourism that need cen­tral in­put,” he said. He added that the Prime Min­is­ter should meet di­rect­ly with busi­ness own­ers.

“Meet­ing with the politi­cians is good, but meet­ing with the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty is very im­por­tant so she un­der­stands what’s hap­pen­ing on the ground,” he said.

He fur­ther high­light­ed the need for stronger se­cu­ri­ty on the is­land. “We are iso­lat­ed from Trinidad. If some­thing hap­pens, by the time as­sis­tance comes, it’s too late,” he warned.

Williams wel­comed the THA’s re­cent de­ci­sion to move $300 mil­lion from re­cur­rent to de­vel­op­ment spend­ing, rais­ing next year’s de­vel­op­ment bud­get to over half a bil­lion dol­lars, but em­pha­sised that lo­cal con­trac­tors must ben­e­fit.

“It looks good, it sounds good, but it’s up to the To­ba­go busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty to take ad­van­tage of the spend. Put the projects in­to bite-sized pieces so small­er con­trac­tors can ben­e­fit,” he said.

Ac­cord­ing to the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, Per­sad-Bisses­sar is ac­com­pa­nied by At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo, Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath, and Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sad­dam Ho­sein, among oth­ers. Her sched­ule in­cludes a cour­tesy call on Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine, an ad­dress to a spe­cial sit­ting of the THA Leg­is­la­ture, and a re­cep­tion at her of­fi­cial res­i­dence in Blenheim.

The OPM said the vis­it is in­tend­ed to strength­en in­ter-is­land co­op­er­a­tion and ad­vance To­ba­go’s de­vel­op­ment pri­or­i­ties.