BYisrael: Tobago must be able to pay its way

The Tobago House of Assembly (THA) 2018/2019 budget does not reflect growth for expansion. And if Tobago wants political autonomy, it must first be able to prove it can achieve economic autonomy.

So argued Minority Councillor Faith BYisrael, in her contribution to the budget debate on Thursday at the Assembly Chamber in Scarborough.

BYisrael, noting a decline in the tourism sector for the last 10 years, a slowdown in construction, and reduced Government spending, said it was impossible to believe GDP in Tobago declined by just 1.6 per cent, as stated by Finance Secretary Joel Jack in his budget statement last Monday.

BYisrael said the budget lacks proper explanation of Tobago’s current economic situation and what strategies were needed to lessen the heavy dependence on central government for funding.

“We cannot simply say that we contribute more so we want more, that will not work. We have to come with hard facts and we cannot go cap in hand begging, we have to do the hard work. “When we get the autonomy we are asking for, how are we going to pay for what we need to do in Tobago?

“…Even if we collect every piece of tax from every business operating in Tobago, we will only collect about $500 million. Last year we spent $1.2 billion, so if we collect $500 million, it will only be 23 percent of all of the money we need to ensure we do Tobago business,” she said.

Describing developmental projects in the 2018/2019 THA budget as small scale projects which will bring little or no real improvement to the economy of Tobago,” she added:

“These projects will not take us out of that dependency state … These are things we have been doing, and if they didn’t work two to ten years ago…they will not work this time. We are just doing the same thing over with no real investments.”

BYisrael also questioned the benefits of the proposed Sandals project to the Tobago’s economy given its operations in other Caribbean countries.

“We have been looking at the data and in almost all of the countries where Sandals sit, their economy is not improving… In Barbados, which welcomes some of the higher end tourists, they just reported they are the third most indebted country in the western hemisphere… Jamaica, the home of Sandals… it is reported that the debt of Jamaica is 115 percent of their GDP. “We need to know what Sandals will do for Tobago differently and why do you think Sandals is going to be from heaven for Tobago,” she said.