JANELLE BERNARD

Pro­duc­er

The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly is will­ing to sup­port the To­ba­go Is­land Gov­ern­ment Bill, which seeks to re­place the THA Act and pro­vide greater au­ton­o­my to the is­land.

How­ev­er, the THA's Deputy Chief Sec­re­tary says amend­ments must be made.

Dr Faith B.Yis­rael says the bills are de­cent but there are parts which should be tweaked.

She be­lieves if this is done, the THA will be hap­py to go for­ward.

“One where the pres­i­dent will pick the Chair, there will be two rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, and two rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” she not­ed.

“Right now, the way the Bill is writ­ten, that en­ti­ty is go­ing to be the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance and is go­ing to have three mem­bers from Gov­ern­ment and two mem­bers from the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly,” she said.

“That au­to­mat­i­cal­ly shows that it is not an im­par­tial com­mit­tee,” she as­serts.

Dr B.Yis­rael is ad­vo­cat­ing for the part of the Bill which guides re­source shar­ing to be im­par­tial.

She says there is still a per­cep­tion of in­equal­i­ty be­tween the two is­lands.

“We just want a line that says that the is­land of To­ba­go and the is­land of Trinidad are equal—that is all.  Eq­ui­ty of sta­tus.  That Trinidad and To­ba­go are equal,” stat­ed the THA Deputy Chief.  “Be­cause hon­est­ly, we some­times feel very much like we are not equals.  That is one thing that is re­al­ly im­por­tant.”

“An­oth­er one,” she says, “is the abil­i­ty to make laws for all the ar­eas that are al­ready un­der the ju­ris­dic­tion of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly.”

The To­ba­go Is­land Gov­ern­ment Bill seeks to main­tain the uni­tary state of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go, even as it pro­pos­es the re­peal of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly Act.