Ancil Dennis urges THA to support 'autonomy' bills

GOVERNMENT senator-designate Ancil Dennis is urging the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) to support the Tobago "autonomy" bills when they return to the Parliament for debate.

The bills – the Tobago Self-Government Bill and the Tobago Island Administration Bill – are currently before a Joint Select Committee of the Parliament.

On September 26, Dennis was chosen by the Prime Minister to replace Laurel Lezama-Lee Sing, who resigned as a senator in the wake of am interim court order given against her.

He said the bills are expected to be brought back to the Parliament “very soon.”

“I will be in the Parliament on this occasion,” Dennis said on the Tobago Updates morning show on October 11.

“I was there the last time it was debated but I was not there as a law-maker. This time I have the opportunity to serve in the Senate as one of the lawmakers that will hopefully vote for this bill.

“I am calling on the Chief Secretary (Farley Augustine). I am calling on the THA. I am calling on the TPP (Tobago People’s Party). I am calling on the PDP (Progressive Democratic Patriots) for us to come together and make this final clarion call on our Parliament and parliamentarians to support the bills as they currently are.”

He continued, “Even if the bills require slight changes, as they chief secretary may suggest, then the parliamentarians are free to debate that and go back and forth and come up with the best possible clauses to treat with the specific situation and pass the damn bill. That is what needs to happen.”

Dennis, who is also the PNM Tobago Council political leader, said the pieces of legislation will guarantee that the island gets 6.8 per cent of the national budget.

He dismissed talk that the THA was expecting to get at least 5.8 per cent of the budget.

Dennis said historically, “No government, whether it be UNC or the People’s National Movement, no government has given the Tobago House of Assembly more than 4.37 per cent. So it is foolish to expect this Minister of Finance to give you 5.8 per cent just like that.”

He said the budget is essentially a plan for the entire country.

“Every ministry submits requests for funding just like the THA and all of them will have wishes and aspirations beyond what is available. Every ministry does that.

“If the THA thinks that they are the only organisation that does not get their full allocation, check out the ministries in Trinidad.”

Dennis said allocations to ministries can also be cut during the fiscal year owing to shifts in priorities.

“They may want to take some from Ministry of Sports and give it to National Security. That does not happen with the THA.”

Dennis said in order to change Tobago’s circumstances where funding is concerned, the law has to be changed.

“This law that is before the Parliament, these bills propose 6.8 per cent of the national budget. And if it is passed, no government, UNC, PNM or whoever, can go below that.

“In addition to that, the law proposes that Tobago will have the ability to make laws for the first time. Currently, we cannot make laws.”

He said the THA has tried to make laws in the past.

“The process for making laws in the THA is that you bring a bill, you debate the bill, you pass the bill in the THA and it goes to the Cabinet, not even Parliament, and then Cabinet gets to decide if it goes to the Parliament. And if it gets there, you fate is really in the hands of the 41 MPs and the 30 senators in the Parliament to pass your law.”

Dennis said the "autonomy" bills propose that Tobago has its own Legislature.

“So if we debate and pass a bill into law in Tobago, it’s really a formality because the President doesn’t necessarily have the opportunity to refuse to give assent to a piece of legislation coming from the Legislature. It removes the national Parliament totally from the equation.”

He said if Augustine had sided with the PNM to support the legislation in 2021, “The UNC would not have had a choice because a powerful signal would have come from Tobago that this is what we want. We want it now and we have to get it now.”