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Friday, July 11, 2025

PM reshuffles, takes over Planning Ministry

by

Gail Alexander
2019 days ago
20191231

Elec­tion prep on!

The 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion year has start­ed with yet an­oth­er Cab­i­net reshuf­fle by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley who has changed the helms of a hand­ful of key “de­liv­ery” min­istries.

The Prime Min­is­ter’s Of­fice an­nounced the changes ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing as the Old Year rolled out, stat­ing that Row­ley had ad­vised Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes to make the changes ef­fec­tive to­day.

It’s wide­ly be­lieved—in and out of the rul­ing PNM—that the changes are geared to strength­en min­istries and pre­pare for up­com­ing elec­tions. The five-year term ends Sep­tem­ber 7.

Row­ley has tak­en on the ad­di­tion­al port­fo­lio of the Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment, shift­ing for­mer min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is to So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices. The for­mer min­is­ter for that min­istry, Cher­rie-Ann Crichlow-Cock­burn, was re­moved and ap­point­ed a min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment.

The Prime Min­is­ter has al­so giv­en front­line min­is­ters Ro­han Sinanan in Works and Trans­port and Kaz­im Ho­sein in Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Kaz­im, as­sis­tance with the ap­point­ment of Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­taries.

In that move, he has brought PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary, Sen­a­tor Fos­ter Cum­mings, in­to the min­is­te­r­i­al pic­ture by as­sign­ing him to as­sist Ho­sein in Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment.

The spe­cif­ic changes are:

• Re­vok­ing the as­sign­ment of Camille Robin­son-Reg­is as Min­is­ter of Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment and re­as­sign­ing her as Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices.

• Ap­point­ing Dr Kei­th Row­ley as Min­is­ter of Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment in ad­di­tion to his du­ties as Prime Min­is­ter.

• Re­mov­ing Cher­rie-Ann Crichlow-Cock­burn as Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices and re­as­sign­ing her as Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment.

• Re­vok­ing the as­sign­ment of Adri­an Leonce as Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties and re­as­sign­ing him as Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port.

• Ap­point­ing Sen­a­tor Fos­ter Cum­mings as Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment.

Prepar­ing for elec­tions

It is the lat­est reshuf­fle in the Row­ley cab­i­net which has ex­pe­ri­enced fre­quent changes—as did the past Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship ad­min­is­tra­tion—oc­cur­ring every year dur­ing the PNM’s term. This is al­so an­oth­er stint in the Plan­ning Min­istry for Row­ley who held that port­fo­lio as part of Patrick Man­ning’s PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion (2002-07).

It’s the lat­est sit­u­a­tion where Row­ley has tak­en on a min­is­te­r­i­al port­fo­lio. Oth­er in­stances in­clude act­ing in Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion this year, when ex-min­is­ter Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald was fired, and in Hous­ing in the April 2018 reshuf­fle.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Min­is­ter Don­na Cox said she didn’t know the rea­son for the lat­est changes but not­ed that such changes are with­in the Prime Min­is­ter’s sole purview. She was al­so un­cer­tain if Dr Row­ley was in Trinidad or To­ba­go for the New Year.

Top PNM of­fi­cials said the changes were sim­ply to pre­pare for gen­er­al elec­tions and en­sure that de­liv­ery of so­cial ser­vices and oth­er fa­cil­i­ties are “more ef­fec­tive for elec­tions.”

Gen­er­al elec­tions can be called at any time be­fore or af­ter the term ends in Sep­tem­ber. The fur­thest date is three months af­ter the term’s end in De­cem­ber 2020. They said the PNM’s elec­tion team is work­ing on a sched­ule of elec­tions “any­time af­ter March “, which is the dead­line for de­liv­ery of sev­er­al ma­jor projects, in­clud­ing the Curepe In­ter­change, hos­pi­tals in south and east Trinidad and oth­er promised items.

Leonce: All hands on deck

Camille Robin­son-Reg­is told the Guardian Me­dia: “I’m hap­py to serve wher­ev­er the Prime Min­is­ter wants me to. I look for­ward to work­ing in this new port­fo­lio which is very im­por­tant for di­rect­ly touch­ing peo­ple’s lives.

“I was hap­py to serve in Plan­ning where we made strides and had no­table achieve­ments. I don’t at all see this change as a de­mo­tion! This new min­istry is a lot of work, it’s peo­ple-fo­cused. I’m in a po­si­tion to touch lives di­rect­ly and I con­tin­ue to be grate­ful for the con­fi­dence the Prime Min­is­ter has re­posed in me.”

On Robin­son-Reg­is’ new post, PNM of­fi­cials not­ed the Arch­bish­op’s mes­sage to strength­en fam­i­lies. They said Plan­ning had worked with Fi­nance on the last few bud­gets and strate­gic plans and Row­ley’s in­put would in­clude im­ple­ment­ing plans for­mu­lat­ed un­der Robin­son-Reg­is’s lead­er­ship.

Laven­tille East MP Leonce, an en­gi­neer, said of his Works and Trans­port post­ing: “I’m ex­cit­ed to sup­port the Min­is­ter and see how much work we can get done for the Trinidad and To­ba­go peo­ple. Maybe it’s time for all hands on deck now. A lot of work is re­quired to be done. Right now I’m at Pub­lic Util­i­ties hand­ing over that re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and Thurs­day I’ll be at Works.”

Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port Sinanan said: “There’s noth­ing new about hav­ing a Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in Works. The UNC’s tenure saw nine Works Min­is­ters. We wel­come Mr Leonce. We’ve had a big pro­gramme in re­cent years and next year a lot is on the draw­ing board, on­go­ing and com­ing in­to play. I know we’ll have a good work­ing re­la­tion­ship as he and I have had that.”

Cum­mings said: “I’ve al­ways giv­en full sup­port to the Prime Min­is­ter wher­ev­er he wants me to serve. I look for­ward to the new task. Full­time pub­lic ser­vice comes with per­son­al sac­ri­fice but I’m pre­pared to do it.”

Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Ho­sein said he was hap­py for Cum­mings’ help, but added: “I’ll re­serve com­ment un­til I re­ceive the in­struc­tion and he’s sworn in.”

For Cum­ming’s first min­is­te­r­i­al post­ing, he’s ex­pect­ed to take the oath of of­fice to­mor­row or Fri­day. Crichlow-Cock­burn didn’t an­swer calls. Sources claimed she was con­cerned but “is a team play­er.”


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