For­mer Prime Min­is­ter and En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has con­demned the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny’s (NGC) de­ci­sion to end spon­sor­ship of three Steel­bands, call­ing the move “un­jus­ti­fi­able and un­for­giv­able.” In a post on so­cial me­dia, Young said the af­fect­ed bands are “im­por­tant pil­lars in their re­spec­tive com­mu­ni­ties—they pro­vide safe spaces for our cit­i­zens to learn about team build­ing, dis­ci­pline, cul­ture, shar­ing, hard work, and achiev­ing suc­cess.”

He added that Steel­bands “of­fer op­por­tu­ni­ties for mem­bers to dis­cuss per­son­al is­sues safe­ly and fos­ter an at­mos­phere of pos­i­tive nur­tur­ing and growth.” He crit­i­cised the gov­ern­ment’s ter­mi­na­tion of em­ploy­ment for thou­sands of cit­i­zens, call­ing it “heart­less,” and said the steel pan move­ment “should be cher­ished, pro­mot­ed, and pro­tect­ed.” Young urged NGC and the gov­ern­ment to re­verse the de­ci­sion.

The com­ments come af­ter NGC ter­mi­nat­ed spon­sor­ship agree­ments with the La Brea Nightin­gales, Cou­va Joy­lan­ders, and Steel Ex­plo­sion from To­ba­go, cit­ing a re-eval­u­a­tion of con­tracts. In a let­ter to La Brea Nightin­gales dat­ed Sep­tem­ber 3, act­ing pres­i­dent Ed­mund Solomon said: “Whilst we val­ue the busi­ness re­la­tion­ship be­tween NGC and La Brea Nightin­gales, NGC is present­ly re-eval­u­at­ing its ex­ist­ing con­tracts and has de­ter­mined that it is no longer vi­able for NGC to con­tin­ue un­der the present Agree­ment.” The con­tract end­ed on Sep­tem­ber 11.

Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore has al­so voiced con­cern about NGC’s move, say­ing she is “ex­treme­ly wor­ried” and warn­ing that it sends a trou­bling sig­nal to oth­er state-owned com­pa­nies.