PNM Tobago says autonomy bills an upgrade: 'Chalk and cheese'

PNM Tobago Council leader Tracy Davidson-Celestine has urged Tobago to support the laying of the autonomy bills – the Constitution Amendment (Tobago Self-Government) Bill 2021 and Tobago Island Government Bill 2021 – in Parliament.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Davidson-Celestine acknowledged concerns raised by Tobagonians concerning "financial certainty and an increase in allocation, greater share of marine resources, equality with Trinidad and the ability to make laws."

However, she noted the bills have improved those areas as she called on Tobagonians to look at what is being presented and what is written in the THA Act 1996.

"It's chalk and cheese," she said.

The Joint Select Committee, which reviewed the bills, proposed the Tobago Island Government Bill 2021 as a companion bill which proposes an allocation of 6.8 per cent of the national budget to Tobago.

The island currently receives a minimum of 4.03 per cent as mandated by the Dispute Resolution Commission.

The bill also proposes the island be governed by a premier instead of a chief secretary.

JSC member Shamfa Cudjoe said the new title is fitting to the more powerful position the bills make provisions for.

Cudjoe said recently the proposed legislation gives the government the ability to transfer to the Tobago Island Government “the power to sit on the table with the necessary authority as the government to speak on Tobago matters and to conduct business on Tobago matters.”

Davidson-Celestine said, "It is not enough to say outright that we don’t want it...Take a read, compare the current THA Act to the bills and you will see for yourselves. It expresses a position that we can all work with and build on."

Describing the bills as a "significant step for Tobago and a pathway for more changes for the future," Davidson-Celestine warned about the ramifications of rejecting the bill.

"Let’s us not allow a refusal of the bills at the level of Parliament. It will be a sad day for all of us as we will be reverting to a legal document of 25 years ago."

Hochoy: We must reject the bills

At a press conference on Monday, former chief secretary Hochoy Charles called on Tobagonians to reject the bills.

Charles recalled the June 4 meeting when political parties on the island met with the JSC on the revised bill. He said at that time, more time was requested for better perusal of the documents but he has received no feedback.

“But we know that the document with the two draft bills was laid in the Parliament on the 9th of this month and there is going to be debate and discussion on the report and on the two new bills without any further communication with Tobago.”

Charles is adamant that the revised documents are harsher that the bills initially brought by the JSC for public consultation.

“More regressive than the one that they brought here on the 30th day of April and the first day of May. So the document that is before Parliament instead of providing what the Attorney General said would have been done, went and removed items.

Last week, the Prime Minister, on a local morning programme, called on Tobagonians to support the bills.

Charles said, “I have listened to Dr Rowley, and he is very disingenuous. He has been saying certain things; what is he asking Tobagonians to accept? He is asking Tobagonians to accept that (bill) – and we are saying no.

"We have gone too far for the last 40-something years attempting to do something and they are now regressing, they are now carrying Tobago backwards.”

Charles said Tobagonians spent countless hours on consultations to formulate the original bills sent to Cabinet.

He recalled talks with former chief secretary Orville London in 2013, dubbed the Forum of Political Parties, discussing the importance of Tobago autonomy and a way forward to achieve it.

Questioned if he has since spoken with London on the revised bills, Charles said: “I don’t have to reach out to him to ask him any questions. We have gone through this thing for a long time, we have gone through the length and breadth of Tobago. If Mr London changed his mind, he is a man with no integrity, and I am not saying that he doesn’t have (integrity), because we have gone through this and we have spent time together with the forum working on these matters.”