Forgotten La Brea

Along the way, there are tiny board houses bent and warped like old men, oftentimes with modern concrete structures in the same yard. These are testament to the power of geology and time. Decades ago, residents were warned to put nothing up besides wooden structures on the shifting earth that plagues this part of the country. Later generations would defy caution and, as prosperity flowed through the area, brick and mortar became standard.

But prosperity ebbs as well.

“I doing all the interviews for the past two weeks. I will tell you all about TOFCO and what going on in La Brea,” the man promised. Whether he works there or used to is unclear, he is vague on that point. “You have to pay me for the interview though.”

Historically producers of much of the country’s wealth, communities like La Brea in the island’s southwest, do not seem to be reaping permanent benefits from the position.

Even though the area is industrial, La Brea lacks its own fire station. Appliances must come from Point Fortin.

Gerald Debiset, area local government councilor, says a lack of water, poor road infrastructure and chronic low levels of employment are problems too.

A 2016 report found that the area’s rate of poverty is 6 per cent higher than the national average. Its unemployment rate is 7.2 per cent versus the 3.4 per of the rest of the country.

Projects like Angelin make a difference in this place. The loss of the construction of the platform is not just a topic of national debate. It has divided a community.

Our interview subject spares us a few words before, free of charge, before he goes.

“Is not just people in La Brea cause that to go,” he told us, “They know why they take the platform.”

A mile and a half away, TOFCO, the company that was supposed to be constructing the platform sits on the coast. Huge cranes sprout from its yard, almost skeletal looking. With the exception of a few cars moving into and out of the compound, it is quiet.

The suspended dust cloud from incomplete road work gives the whole scene a yellowish, forlorn aspect.

It is a popular view in the community, particularly among the young and usually male. Listening, one gets the sense that residents think the community is being conspired against. It is not the only view though.

An elderly gentleman set up with fruit and craft right outside the Pitch Lake says: “(Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union President General Ancel) Roget chain up them fellas and them. He had no right to say what he said and now look what happen. You think this hurting Roget? These people have to understand that half a bread, is better than no bread at all.”

His statement is all the more surprising because he purports to be a senior union man who has a full-time job working offshore. The stall is just a side hustle.

Unlike jobs, opinions here abound on why BP decided to move construction of the Angelin platform to another country and depending on which residents you speak to blame keeps shifting.

Some people blame TOFCO for provoking protests by its lack of concern for workers’ health, even though the company itself has a good safety record.

“I leave out the TOFCO work some years ago,” said one youth, “The company not coming clean. I was a welder there and they used to have us welding metal alloys. All kinds of dangerous fumes and skin rash.”

This fellow admitted he was not certified to weld and was only able to secure a job at TOFCO after several years of trying through a contact.

“I am grateful, because I learned a lot when I was there” he said, “But right now, I am only working part time at another place and I have to wait until they call me out.”

Nicole Olivierre, La Brea’s Member of Parliament and former Energy Minister, said there are some serious shortfalls in the community’s education system, starting at the primary level.

“The schools are not performing as well as they could or have done in the past. When you have these challenges at the primary school level, the opportunities that these students have are diminished. This entrenches the cycle of poverty,” she said.

Additionally, students were not going on to tertiary level education, which left them at a disadvantage in getting jobs once the lower level skilled construction projects were complete.

Olivierre identified steps being taken to enhance the level of technical skill found within the community, including the establishment of an NESC campus. But she said the area’s young people needed to do more to acquire qualifications in fields such as chemistry and electrical engineering.

Clarifying her earlier statements assigning a portion of the blame for the situation to residents, the MP said, ““It cannot be that the residents’ actions were the only one that factored into the Angelin decision. But it certainly would have been one of many factors.”

She went on to explain that BP’s timeline for the project made it impossible to keep it in La Brea, but noted however that, “generally speaking, when you have a climate of tension and hostility, it is a negative that will be applied when an investor is analyzing where they can place their investment.”

“One of the things that makes Trinidad and Tobago such an attractive investment destination is not only its highly-educated workforce, but its stable democracy, whether this is at the national level or the localised political climate.”

Beyond education, some alternative perspectives on the La Brea situation emerged from the neighbouring local government district.

Chanarbaye Ramadharsingh, the councilor for Rousillac/ Otaheite explained that often, people had a stereotype about La Brea residents and were unlikely to hire them because of it. She would not elaborate on this stereotype or “concept” as she called it.

Checks throughout La Brea and Rousillac though, would reveal that several contractors would not hire La Brea residents after many of them failed mandatory drug testing at worksites.

Ramadharsingh explained that her district was not as badly affected by the loss of the Angelin project because people had more opportunities to be self-sufficient.

“You will find that we are more agricultural over here and we will grow a lot of our food. We also will start businesses where we could hire our children.”

Land ownership in Rousillac/ Otaheite was more restricted, discouraging unrestricted migration into the community. Ramadharsingh thought that the open state and Petrotrin lands in La Brea brought people into the area, swelling the numbers looking for work. She said many of the people living there now, did not have deep roots in the community.

On top of all of this, companies in the area have cut down the number of local sub-contractors, choosing instead to bring their own hires into the community. Local contractors in turn have decreased the amount of local labour they would normally hire.

This is the result of a combination of reasons presented thus far, including reducing work stoppage time due to protests, the lack of qualifications within in the community to do work beyond low level construction, or general unsuitability for the work, as well as the country’s economic hard times.

Given the loss of the Angelin, we asked Olivierre if she was afraid of the community losing the Mitsubishi’s Caribbean Gas Chemical Limited (CGCL) $6.3 billion project.

The La Brea MP said that project had already had its fair amount of challenges, but that Mitsubishi had shown a level of commitment to its investment that made it unlikely that it would leave La Brea and TT.

She said the company has made a commendable effort to involve local contractors, though La Brea residents believe more could be done.

As the Mitsubishi project continued, Olivierre exhorted La Brea residents to see themselves as partners in their community’s future development.

The CGML plant is expected to produce methanol and will come on stream in 2019.