Stop suffering Tobagonians

Minority Assemblyman Farley Augustine wants the sea bridge crisis resolved as soon as possible so that Tobagonians could stop suffering as they try to get on with their lives.

Augustine, speaking at the Minority Council’s weekly press conference at James Park on Tuesday, also called for a safe and competent vessel for the sea bridge.

“We are literally fed up of how long this process is taking, how much back and forth is going on, who wants to sue who, who is pressing who, who is arguing with who. This is a call for us to just get it right quickly.

“We are quite frankly fed up of how we are being treated, we are fed up of how long this is taking, and governance should never be this inadequate, this inefficient. This is sign that the government has failed and failed us all,” he said.

Comparing the sea bridge to bus transport between Port of Spain to San Fernando, the New York and the London tube, Augustine contended that inter-island transport between Tobago and Trinidad was public transportation.

“The reality is that no major city, no major jurisdiction anywhere in the world would allow major transportation to go down for such a long time. It really shouldn’t be this difficult to get a vessel to sail between the both territories… we should have got this done already and what this shows is that governance has failed. It is an epic failure in terms of governance, how we go about procuring services and procuring goods for the state, how we go about managing state entities,” he said.

Augustine noted issues with the Galleons Passage which arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on July 16 but was yet to be placed on the sea bridge.

“When we thought we could have been making a collective sigh of relief over the Galleons Passage been here, we still have some way to go because NIDCO (National Infrastructure Development Company) is now saying that they have some fixes to do,” he noted.

Augustine also expressed scepticism as to benefits for Tobagonians coming out of a meeting on Monday between Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan and Tobago stakeholders including Tobago Chamber President Claude Benoit and Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles.

“Who were the stakeholders that he spoke to… did he speak with the average Tobagonians? Did he speak with the market vendors? Did he speak with those who go down to Trinidad just to pick up school supplies? Did he speak with the parents who need to travel, did he speak with those who have medical appointments?

“Who are the stakeholders? Is it that in this island called Tobago, our stakeholders are reserved to one class of our society, one section of our society?

“And if the stakeholders said that they are comfortable, I am certain that the stakeholders that he spoke to are those in the business community who are more concerned about the transportation of their goods.

“We have folks in Tobago who have legitimate business in Trinidad, who must sail to even deal with land matters so for them, their ideal thing is that ‘I must get to Trinidad early in the morning’ and be able to get back again the very same day,” he said.

Sinanan told reporters after meeting, that “a year ago, I told the people of Tobago that we would fix this problem once and for all, I am happy that we have turned that corner. Very soon, we will have at least three vessels operating on the sea bridge, all will be brand new vessels. We are doing exactly what we promised, it is taking a little time because as you are aware, vessels are not something that you just go and buy off the shelves.

“We actually building vessels to suit the purpose and this whole sea bridge fiasco will be behind us once and for all with the people of Tobago getting all the benefits that they deserve,” he said.

Charles told reporters he was satisfied with the outcome of the meeting.

“There seems to be a new spirit of cooperation and there is a commitment that we’ll continue to meet as regularly as possible and that we would seek to ensure that at the end of the day, whatever come out is to the benefit to the people of Tobago and to the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.