Tracy: 'Autonomy' bills give Tobago direct law-making power

PNM Tobago Council political leader Tracy Davidson-Celestine said the Tobago "autonomy" bills, which will be debated in Parliament on Monday and Tuesday, gives the island direct access to the President for proclamation of laws.

Davidson-Celestine said the bills – the Tobago Island Administration Bill and Tobago Self-Government Bill – allow Tobago to make its own laws. They require a three-fifths majority for passage.

The Island Administration Bill proposes a 25-member assembly – 15 assemblymen and ten councillors.

Currently, the THA has 16 members, comprising 12 assemblymen and four councillors.

In a television interview on Friday, Davidson-Celestine said the legislation proposes a Tobago Legislature, which includes the President.

She regarded this as significant.

“So, we have direct access to the President in terms of when those laws are made. We can now have them proclaimed directly by the President without having to go through Cabinet or Parliament,” she said.

Davidson-Celestine noted under the existing THA Act 40 of 1996, the assembly does not have law-making powers.

“This island bill that we are talking about now, elevates the Tobago House of Assembly to a Tobago Legislature, meaning that you now have the power and the authority to make laws, which is very absent in the Tobago House of Assembly Act 40 of 1996.”

Davidson-Celestine said within the legislation, there are about 24 areas of exclusive law-making power for Tobagonians.

“This is something that we have argued for, perhaps 40 years or more and now we have the opportunity in this arrangement, in this Tobago Island Bill. And it is something that we should not take for granted.”

She said she has been a member of the THA since 2005 “and up to this point we have not been able to make one law.”

Davidson-Celestine added: “All we can do, whenever we meet in the House, as members of the assembly, is to talk about respective policies that we will want to implement within the respective divisions.”

She claimed the Progressive Democratic Patriots has often criticised the PNM for only focusing on policies during debates in the House.

“That is because we really have no law-making power. And so, in that context, we are now more progressively moving to where Tobago should be.”Davidson-Celestine said the bills also guarantee equality of status between the two islands and increased financial independence for Tobago.