Ferry terminal in Toco will destroy Tobago economy

Speaking to a small but enthusiastic crowd of supporters at Riseland Hill, Bethel, to endorse Christlyn Moore, the party’s political leader and candidate for Bethel/Mt Irvine in the January 23 Tobago House of Assembly (THA) election, Richards urged Tobagonians to reject what he called the “mafia” project.

“If we play stupid and allow (Prime Minister) Dr (Keith) Rowley to use Tobago as a bargaining chip to justify that mafia infrastructural development in Trinidad, and allow them to move the fast ferry terminal from Port-of-Spain to Toco with this crazy idea that this will boost tourism development in Tobago, I want to give you notice tonight that that will destroy the economy of Tobago because there is nothing in Toco,” he said.

Richards argued there is no economic activity in Toco that will “serve as an impetus for the development of the Tobago economy.” Scoffing at the project, he added: “The only road that the PNM proposes to construct for the people of Tobago is the one from Valencia to Toco. And he is proposing to put the fast ferry terminal in Toco.

“So, when you leave Tobago to go to Trinidad, you must disembark in Toco. What are you going to Toco for? You going in the lighthouse to cook duck.” Richards, a crime economist and onetime member of the Tobago Organisation of the People, said crime and traffic congestion will compound the problem. During his address, Richards also attacked the PNM’s 16-year stewardship at the helm of the THA.

He alleged that the period, under outgoing Chief Secretary Orville London, was tainted by “corruption, mismanagement, victimisation, wastage and nepotism.”