La Brea MP under pressure

Nicole Olivierre
Nicole Olivierre

MP for La Brea Nicole Olivierre found herself on the defensive at the Conversation with the PM at Palo Seco on Thursday night as constituents used the forum to express disappointment with her representation.

Rondell Glasgow of Vessigny waded into the MP, accusing her of not “having our (constituents') backs.” He said it was the first time he was seeing her in the flesh, having previously seen her only on Facebook.

Glasgow defended constituents who were accused of being lazy and having a bad attitude. Glasgow referred to a 2016 incident in which the La Brea-based Trinidad Offshore Fabricators Company Ltd (TOFCO) had lost part of the construction of bpTT's $2.1 billion Juniper Platform due to work disruptions. The construction was then outsourced to a Texas company after 97 days of industrial tensions between TOFCO and residents in La Brea.

At the time, residents had engaged in protest action clamouring for employment on the project. Olivierre, however, had refused to get involved in the impasse and referred the matter to Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Ptimus. Constituents at the time questioned Olivierre's ties to TOFCO , referring to newspaper articles which claimed she sourced funds from La Brea companies for a beauty pageant held under her patronage.

Glasgow said the reason TOFCO made a lot of money building jackets for oil companies was because of its hard work ethics and those of its workers. He denied statements he said she had made about a small group disrupting the services at the Mitsubishi plant on the industrial estate for higher wages. Glasgow said the issue was about improved safety and that he had been injured on the job.

Dissenting voices in the audience shouted, “He is not the only one,” and, “She love she party more than she love you.”

Olivierre said Glasgow’s statements were unfortunate, maintaining that the issue was higher wages. She said public forums were held in the constituency where she was present and had spoken, and invited him to meet with her on her constituency days to address his concerns.

Michelle Alexander, another constituent, said she lived in a “forgotten village” near the Palo Seco Velodrome. She said in 2019 she was living without electricity, although her application had been on Olivierre’s desk since she came into office in 2015, and she had done all that was required to get a connection but was still in the dark.

Alexander said she lived approximately 200 feet from the nearest electricity pole. She said TTEC had told her she needed five poles, which would cost her $250,000, before she could get a connection. In response to questions from Olivierre about the land she had been occupying for the past ten years, Alexander admitted she was living on state land.

“So because I am a squatter means I cannot have electricity? Can anyone tell me where are we going in 2019 without electricity? I am screaming, I am no longer begging for help.”

Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte, who shared the stage with Olivierre, Point Fortin MP Edmund Dillon and Energy Minister Franklin Khan, intervened by sending one of the officers from his ministry to get her information with the promise to help.

Le Hunte also came to Olivierre’s aid in the case of community activist Theophilus Henry. Henry, a retiree, said the area was one of the most disrespected communities and problems he encountered when he was age 15 still existed and might now be worse.

One of Henry’s main grouses was the water supply which he said had been absent for the past three weeks.

“We don’t get water at all, yet you get a message from WASA saying your supply would be disrupted.”

The comment brought a smile to Le Hunte’s face and agreement that, "The supply of water to the people of the area is
not
what I consider acceptable.”

He called on residents to be patient and pledged to provide relief as WASA tried to get production back up to three million gallons a day by the end of March. He said it had dropped to 1.5 million gallons a day.

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