Rehire Canadians to maintain ferries

With all the mayhem taking place at the port recently, it was revealed that the contract for the maintenance of the ferries with the original Canadian firm handling both the T&T Spirit and the T&T Express had been terminated and the contract given to a local firm about a year or two ago.

I think a strong case can be made to show that since the change over, the boats’ performances have deteriorated markedly, both in terms of the longer times taken to get to Tobago (no longer two and a half hours) and the downtime of the boats, which seem to be constantly in need of repair and are unavailable for sailing.

It’s pretty obvious that the Port Authority needs to quickly rehire the Canadians to ensure the boats once again perform in a satisfactory way, which will redound to the benefit of all stakeholders.

I don’t have access to all the facts but it makes no sense to say money was saved by going local if the local firm is incapable of handling the situation.

C RODRIGUEZ via email