Senator Hislop: Take Tobago autonomy 'step by step'

GOVERNMENT senator Laurence Hislop has said the best path towards greater autonomy in Tobago is a "step-by-step" approach.

Hislop was speaking in an interview with Tobago Updates on November 4.

The PNM is hosting a public meeting on Tobago autonomy at Calder Hall Multi-Purpose Facility on November 10.

Extolling the merits of the Tobago Self-Government Bill and Tobago Island Government Bill, currently before Parliament, Hislop said the bills would allow Tobago to make significant strides in its development.

"And you would hear the criticism that the bills aren't perfect and we ain't getting all that we want, and these sorts of things – but the point is what is before us now in Parliament is far superior to what we have currently."

He said the ability to make laws should be a deal-breaker for Tobagonians.

"We cannot make laws for what happens in Tobago.

"The bills that are before Parliament give us that authority. We now truly have a legislature, because the President now becomes part of the THA, so when bills are debated in the House of Assembly, it goes directly to the President...

"Just the ability to create laws speaks to greater autonomy in the THA. Those are the things that we should be happy about."

He said the current procedure is quite cumbersome, with an assembly bill having to go to Cabinet first, then to Parliament, and then, if passed, to the President.

He said the bills also provide an economic boost to Tobago, changing the minimum 4.03 per cent of the national budget, recommended by the Dispute Resolution Commission in 2000.

"Then you would now have a guaranteed 6.8 per cent minimum of the budget, which is one of the things we've been clamouring for."

He said if the bills were passed, Tobago would have received $4 billion in the last national budget. On September 30 Finance Minister Colm Imbert allocated $2.599 to Tobago for fiscal 2024/2025.

Hislop said the island would have its own public service commission; a division of legal affairs in Tobago, which would give a secretary similar status to an attorney general; and the finance secretary would become corporation sole of the Tobago island government.

"Those are significant advancements for the island."

He said there have been many voices and varying opinions about what greater autonomy looks like.

The bills, he said, are currently in the committee stage in Parliament, where amendments can still be made.

He recalled Chief Secretary Farley Augustine's comments on January 10 that only "slight changes" to the billswere needed .

"If we are at that position, all we are asking is for a united voice among the entities in Tobago, to send a clear signal to Parliament, and more so the opposition, that...(we) want you to pass those bills.

"If you could get 75 per cent over zero, what would you take?

"I would take the 75 per cent. I would take better than where we are."

He said the THA Act of 1996 was a step forward after the THA was established in 1980, and the autonomy bills provide "an opportunity to move Tobago further along in its growth path and governance path...

"Do we want a situation where we say, 'We not taking this, we going to stay with Act 40 of 1996,' without recognising that we can get more, and another group of people could say ten years down the road, 'We want more,' and that conversation can start again?"