Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The Di­vi­sion of Tourism, Cul­ture, An­tiq­ui­ties and Trans­porta­tion is deny­ing claims by Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion chair­man Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters that the com­mis­sion was ex­clud­ed from the plan­ning and ex­e­cu­tion stages for its Oc­to­ber Car­ni­val.

In a re­lease yes­ter­day, the di­vi­sion said Pe­ters’ com­ments on Sun­day dur­ing the Pa­rade of the Bands to the me­dia were mis­lead­ing, as it made ap­proach­es to the NCC but did not re­ceive the sup­port it ex­pect­ed.

Dur­ing the Pa­rade of the Bands ac­tiv­i­ties on Sun­day in Scar­bor­ough, Pe­ters said he was un­hap­py with cer­tain as­pects of the 2023 To­ba­go Car­ni­val.

“I think the or­gan­i­sa­tion last year was bet­ter than this year to be hon­est. There were a lot of short­com­ings be­cause Car­ni­val is not some­thing that starts on Car­ni­val,” Pe­ters said.

He said, “I’m just look­ing on but still we have to help be­cause re­gard­less of what, this is Trinidad and To­ba­go. We can­not al­low one part of my coun­try to look bad with some­thing that we of­fer the world and is renowned for, which is Car­ni­val. We are a Car­ni­val coun­try, so we need to make it bet­ter, we need to work out what­ev­er. I am sure next year will be bet­ter.”

Call­ing for more col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween the NCC and THA on the 2024 event, he said, “We are the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion of Trinidad and To­ba­go, our in­put to To­ba­go’s Car­ni­val is very minute re­al­ly and I think that is one of the prob­lems be­cause the ex­per­tise for Car­ni­val re­al­ly re­sides in Trinidad be­cause that is it.”

How­ev­er, in the re­lease, the di­vi­sion said plan­ning for the Oc­to­ber Car­ni­val be­gan in May and it in­vit­ed the NCC to be a part of the ac­tiv­i­ties.

It said there was a meet­ing in Ju­ly be­tween the Sec­re­tary of the Di­vi­sion, Tashia Bur­ris, and the To­ba­go rep­re­sen­ta­tive on the board of the NCC. Fol­low­ing the ini­tial meet­ing, a sub­se­quent gath­er­ing took place in ear­ly Au­gust to fur­ther dis­cuss ar­eas of col­lab­o­ra­tion.

It said Pe­ters and NCC CEO Nigel Williams, as well as and com­mis­sion­ers Jacqui Springer-Dil­lon and Davlin Thomas, were present in the meet­ing in Au­gust. Pe­ters, it added, com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing train­ing in lo­gis­tics, road man­age­ment, and pro­cure­ment. He al­so pledged as­sis­tance in se­cur­ing the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the 2023 Na­tion­al Kings and Queens cham­pi­ons for a spe­cial dis­play dur­ing the Pa­rade of the Bands.

The di­vi­sion said it sub­mit­ted a pro­pos­al in Sep­tem­ber but said there was no for­mal ac­knowl­edge­ment or re­sponse to the pro­pos­al. The di­vi­sion said it made ef­forts to fol­low up on the pro­pos­al but re­ceived no pos­i­tive re­sponse. The re­lease added that Bur­ris even had a phone con­ver­sa­tion with Pe­ters, but it did not yield any fruit­ful re­sults.

As a re­sult, it said there was no for­mal agree­ment for col­lab­o­ra­tion or part­ner­ship be­tween the THA and the NCC for the plan­ning and ex­e­cu­tion of the To­ba­go Car­ni­val.

In light of this, the di­vi­sion said it took it up­on it­self to es­tab­lish a re­la­tion­ship with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val Band’s As­so­ci­a­tion, who pro­vid­ed as­sis­tance in en­sur­ing the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the Na­tion­al Kings and Queens at the Pa­rade of the Bands.

The di­vi­sion not­ed that de­spite the lack of col­lab­o­ra­tion, of­fi­cial in­vi­ta­tions were ex­tend­ed to the NCC to at­tend the cul­mi­nat­ing week of ac­tiv­i­ties for the 2023 To­ba­go Oc­to­ber Car­ni­val. How­ev­er, the di­vi­sion said the NCC de­clined these in­vi­ta­tions.