RHON­DOR DOWLAT

Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) chair­man Win­ston ‘Gyp­sy’ Pe­ters says he feels some­what dis­heart­ened that the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly has failed to re­sume talks on the up­com­ing To­ba­go Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions in Oc­to­ber.

Pe­ters said on Mon­day that he re­mains in the dark over what is hap­pen­ing in To­ba­go for the in­au­gur­al event.

In a re­lease is­sued on May 31, the NCC had said its of­fi­cials met with Chief Sec­re­tary and Sec­re­tary of the Di­vi­sion of Fi­nance, Trade and In­dus­try Far­ley Au­gus­tine, Di­vi­sion of Tourism, Cul­ture, An­tiq­ui­ties and Trans­porta­tion Sec­re­tary Tashia Bur­ris and As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary of the Di­vi­sion Megan Mor­ri­son to dis­cuss the THA’s ob­jec­tives and to of­fer sup­port, if nec­es­sary, in host­ing the Car­ni­val, which is sched­uled for Oc­to­ber 28 to 30.

While Pe­ters yes­ter­day said that meet­ing was pro­duc­tive, he said he has not heard any­thing from THA of­fi­cials since then.

“They have put their com­mit­tee to­geth­er with­out any in­put from us or any­body from the NCC to do any­thing, but it is dis­con­cert­ing. I mean, at the end of the day, I am the per­son who fought hard to make sure To­ba­go Car­ni­val was as it is and now, this seg­re­gat­ing... yeah, it’s a bit so (dis­heart­en­ing) but I have a job to do and I have to treat it as a pro­fes­sion­al,” Pe­ters said.

While Pe­ters ac­knowl­edged the THA can run its own af­fairs, he said the NCC rep­re­sents the en­tire na­tion.

“We do have a Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment and I don’t know what the re­mit of the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment is in all of these things, but the last I checked we were the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion of Trinidad and To­ba­go. But, as of now, I don’t know what is hap­pen­ing in To­ba­go and I guess To­ba­go has the au­ton­o­my to run their own af­fairs.”

He added that there was nev­er any re­quest for fund­ing from the THA dur­ing the first and on­ly meet­ing. But Pe­ters said he and the NCC re­main open to as­sist­ing To­ba­go in stag­ing its Car­ni­val.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, how­ev­er, Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Ran­dall Mitchell said the THA was well with­in its right to or­gan­ise the event on its own.

“Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts fall as ar­eas of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the As­sem­bly un­der the 5th Sched­ule to the Act. So those pol­i­cy and plan­ning de­ci­sions are en­tire­ly with­in their re­mit and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty,” Mitchell said.

Ef­forts to con­tact both Au­gus­tine and Bur­ris were un­suc­cess­ful yes­ter­day as they did not an­swer calls or re­turn mes­sages.

Last week, news emerged that a ten-mem­ber con­tin­gent from To­ba­go was in Grena­da to pro­mote the is­land’s Car­ni­val, along­side or­gan­is­ing a char­ter from Grena­da to To­ba­go via the fast fer­ry for vis­i­tors to ex­pe­ri­ence To­ba­go’s Car­ni­val.

How­ev­er, THA Mi­nor­i­ty Leader Kelvon Mor­ris pub­licly raised queries and slammed the THA over the trip to Grena­da’s Car­ni­val, which he said cost ap­prox­i­mate­ly $291,094.

Mor­ris ques­tioned why it was nec­es­sary to send 10 peo­ple to Grena­da and why the pub­lic was not in­formed be­fore the trip.