PM promises funding for bus terminus

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has promised that funding for a bus terminal in Scarborough will be a priority in allocations to the Tobago.

Rowley’s commitment came as he discovered that there was no central location for dispatching buses on the island, as resident

Joseph Johnson asked him at last Thursday’s ‘Conversations with the Prime Minister’ at the Scarborough Library, when a bus terminal will be built for use by commuters.

“The bus terminal which we don’t have… rain is falling, people are standing on the side of the road… Mr PM, this time is the rainy season and when the rain is falling, people are standing on the side of the road, there is no shelter,” said Johnson. Rowley, upon asking and being told by persons in the audience that the buses now operate from “Shaw Park at the garage,” responded that “No, no, you have a real problem there.”

He called on THA Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles to respond to Johnson’s query, to which Charles said:

“There are plans, as a matter of fact the PTSC would have just communicated that they are hoping in the next budget, funds would be allocated to the Ministry of Works.”

Charles was forced to stop as the PM responded by instructing him to “Go take your seat.” Charles chuckled and returned to his seat, as the audience also laughed as the PM continued:

“Ok, Mister Chief Secretary, I got the point… What we just got there is that the THA understands that it has to be done and they are looking for the central government help in the allocation to fund it. You have made the point and I would remember that when we are doing the allocations and we have couple people to remind me here. So, in the limited allocations, that sounds like a priority.”

In responding to another contributor, Raye Sloper, who called for a marina to be build for the island, Rowley said Government has invited proposals for a marina at Cove/Canoe Bay. He recalled previous attempts to have a marina in Tobago, within the Pigeon Point area and another when Tobago Plantations was being, which he said was “still on the cards, but that project has pretty much matured now…”

“What we have done as this Government, as part of the efforts to push Tobago… we went out and invited proposals in the concept of Public Private Partnerships. Let me say this, a lot of what we want to do now, in this thrust of getting things done, requires a lot of money.

“When we had a lot of money, some of these ideas didn’t come to the fore or were not acted upon. We are trying to act on them now when we don’t have the money to fund them from the Government side, so we’re using the concept of the Public Private Partnership. We invited proposals, open, from the world to tell us… look at Tobago and we identified the Cove/Canoe Bay area. The deadline for submission was the 22nd of last month (July). We put a team in place and I have been advised that two proposals have come in; one local and one international,” he said.

Responding to concerns from a Moriah resident about getting help for his health problems and his contention that Tobago was not ready for Sandals given that health care was lacking for Tobagonians, Rowley, advising that Health Secretary Agatha Carrington could be of help, also said:

“We are in the process, still in the incipient stage of trying to bring Tobago into a wider health delivery pool because with the best will in the world, there is only so much that we can make available to a population of 65,000 people.”