In the past year, Tobago businesses have suffered over $750 million in losses and the country has spent millions of dollars to fix the seabridge problem. But as of today the crisis continues and now, businesses are saying without a Government bailout or some sort of assistance there is no hope of recovery.
Business owners in Tobago yesterday told the T&T Guardian they now face the opposite problem to what they did in the period May to July last year. Back then they had problems getting goods to stock their shelves and some shelves were empty, but today they say their shelves are stocked “but the customers are just not there.”
Supermarket owners said “goods are now expiring on our hands.” In addition, they say it now makes no sense stocking freezers with meats and other cold products and warehouses are stocked with goods that are not being sold.
Business owners said the estimated $750 million in losses excludes businesses forced to close their doors or repossessed by the banks.
Scores of workers have also been sent home and with a growing unemployment and crime on the island, business owners say the time has come for Government “to step up to the plate.”
Several business owners said they are hoping Government will come up with a “viable bailout plan and get us back our credit rating because they have destroyed our credit rating.” They are advocating “compensation for losses suffered,” because they claim the banks are not extending any facilities to the business community and people continue to get foreclosure notices. They added that their credit rating is gone, they are “no longer bankable,” they are now experiencing a credit crunch and things continue to “look bleak because the economy has totally contracted.”
Even the conglomerates are affected.
ANSA McAL Group of Companies deputy chairman Andrew Sabga told the group’s annual stockbrokers meeting on Thursday, “The big problem is demand has significantly curbed because people are having problems getting to and from Tobago.”
Sabga said a “large portion of the consumption is tourists and non-Tobagonian arrivals.”
But despite the losses suffered by the Tobago business community, Tobago East Member of Parliament Ayanna Webster-Roy insisted in Parliament that all was well.
However, bed and breakfast owners say their businesses have declined and Hotel and Tourism Association president Chris James says Tobago had suffered massively and he expects the low occupancy levels which have plagued the island’s hotel sector to continue.
Newly-appointed Tobago Chamber chairman Claude Benoit said he was saddened by the situation, noting it had destroyed the confidence of people in Tobago.
“There is no credibility, people are not even thinking of coming to Tobago because they don’t know how they will get back and vice versa. The question is how long will it take to build back confidence in the system that they have destroyed? That is the main issue,” Benoit said.
Benoit said restoring confidence in the Tobago economy is “what will start to spur the economy for things to start happening. It is very serious and when you listen to others who say there are no problems in Tobago I don’t know.”
He said the Chamber had agreed to set up a team with the Tobago House of Assembly to help address the problems faced by the business community on the island. A report presented by economist Vanus James, he said, recommended that “we work with the THA and talk to the Minister of Finance to come up with the necessary funding to help the businesses.”
With banks no longer assisting businesses, he admitted there is an “urgency to the situation.”
As to the T&T Spirit not returning to the seabridge as promised yesterday, Benoit said he found it “alarming.”
“We are just hoping that those who are responsible just do their work and do it well so it could save the island going further down. Because can you imagine this now being Easter, this is one of the biggest holidays for the island and we don’t have a ferry to bring people here? It’s a very sad situation.”
Owner of Penny Savers Supermarkets Lloyd Warner said as a citizen, what has happened in the last year with the seabridge is an “insult for every Tobagonian, that’s an insult as far as I am concerned, treating people like this.”
He said the pain of what has happened is “so severe” that it needs to be dealt with immediately, “because I personally cannot look further than what is happening right now. Because that is the main thing.”
Warner said the seabridge was the “lifeline for Tobago, it is like someone telling you they will block off your nose and tell you to breathe, it is the main thing that is life.”
Responding to Webster-Roy’s position that no one in Tobago is suffering, Warner said, “Because we don’t protest by burning tyres and saying enough is enough, that says we are not suffering?” See Page A5