Economic impact of Bret’s shutdown

He said other key sectors had little choice but to close their operations but the country was very fortunate that the businesses which closed were not more widespread and the bad weather did not last longer.

He said there was also damage in Tobago, noting that one would have to estimate the cost of replacing infrastructure which was damaged in the storm.

Meanwhile, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition of Service Industries Angela Lee Loy is questioning the need for the closure of the country’s entire commercial banking system after the storm.

She said some employees living in areas seriously affected could have been allowed to remain at home while others in areas not so seriously affected could have turned out to keep operations going.

She said commercial business needed to continue and with the extent of automation of the banking system, this should have been possible.

According to Lee Loy, the chief executive officer of Aegis Business Systems, an outsourcing company, the banks needed to give some responsibility to their employees to decide whether or not to report for work “rather than simply close business down and stifle economic transactions from going through.” While she said a lot of companies had closed for the day, she said there was still a lot of business taking place and in her own company she had people reporting to work from Central Trinidad and San Fernando but she had sent them back home after hearing that the Caroni River had overflowed its banks and water levels in other rivers were rising.

However, Joycelyn Francois, chief executive officer of the Employers Consultative Association said the most important thing for employers was to ensure the safety of their staff.

She said she had seen photos of some of the flooded areas and the ECA did not want workers putting themselves in danger to get to work.

Francois said she had spoken to the human resources director at Massy Stores who said most Massy Stores locations would open, though with a skeleton staff, to facilitate shoppers especially as many people would not have been able to get to the stores since the previous day was a public holiday.

She said the Airports Authority also indicated that they had a system in place which would have allowed airport operations to proceed in some fashion.

She said she had also contacted the National Petroleum company which had reported a 70 per cent turnout of workers and speculated that the 30 per cent which had stayed away would have been experiencing challenges in terms of getting to work.

The stayaway also affected the National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) which closed its Heritage Library and public libraries shortly after midday yesterday.

Some malls in Port of Spain which did open were closed by early afternoon because of lack of patronage, although some services like racing pools were still able to attract their usual clientele.