Tobago's fisherfolk are not happy with the $50 million allocated to the Tobago House of Assembly for the oil spill recovery.
President of the All Tobago Fisherfolk Association, Curtis Douglas, says the allocation is not nearly enough.
He says it is an insult to the people of Tobago.
“It’s really laughable,” Douglas told Guardian Media. “It makes me believe that the ‘powers that be’ in Trinidad do not really care about Tobago, Tobago’s livelihood and the people of Tobago.”
According to Douglas, the original request was for $150 million. He says he is quite disturbed that not even half that amount was offered by Government help Tobago properly recover from the disastrous oil spill, especially since it was the fisherfolk who were the first responders when the oil spill occurred.
“They were the ones who laid the boom so that the boat would be able to dock to bring food from Trinidad,” he recounts.
The All Tobago Fisherfolk boss says the members of the fishing industry have suffered tremendous losses, and still are incurring losses.
“We would have sent to the THA Chief Secretary [a document showing] over $14 million in losses,” he notes. “Fishermen can’t pay their loans, or [take care of] their families or send their children to school.”
“Vendors can’t sell anymore. They have to be relocated,” he says. “As it stands now, there is a … perimeter where you cannot go, where the Ministry of Energy would have quarantined. You cannot go there or access that site. We cannot even go to catch bait even though the shores of the waters of Tobago were cleaned up.”
Meanwhile, THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine and the Tobago Business Chamber have said that at a time when Tobago needs funding the most, the island has been left short-changed.
However, Finance Minister Colm Imbert has stated that the THA’s request for $153 million to clean-up the oil spill lacked justification.
