According to Cabrera, between 1985 and 1993, 6,698 workers were retrenched in the public and private sectors. He said that in 1992, the Minister of Labour reported to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that 10,000 retrenchments were reported between 1986 and 1990.

He added that rising unemployment benefitted no one and that large scale dismissals lead to an increase in the numbers of people who participate in the “informal economy,” saying there were increasing numbers of vendors as well as people who go into criminal activity.

He said that from September 2016 to now, about 4,000 workers had been retrenched. However, he said he was sure that the figure was higher because that number was based on reports to the ministry by employers and they are not required to report when they retrench fewer than five workers.

He said trickles of workers are being retrenched every day. “Every Monday morning some new employer is saying they are restructuring and once they say that they are restructuring, we know what coming down after.” Cabrera gave the figures at a news conference at the union’s Barataria headquarters at which he accused a little known UK oil services company ASCO based at New Street in Port of spain of committing several industrial relations offences when it retrenched an entire bargaining unit of 16 people without giving formal notice to the Ministry of Labour and without consulting with the union.

Cabrera said in January, the union was granted approval as the recognised majority union for a bargaining unit comprising monthly- rated workers at the company. He said the union received its recognition certificate on January 11, 2016. The company later said it lost its contract with bp and retrenched all workers in the bargaining unit.

He said the workers told the union that they had been told that if they behaved themselves and did not join the union, the company would place them in jobs with another company which had got the bp contract.

He said something was strange about that because while the bargaining unit for which the union had been recognised had been retrenched, another bargaining unit was continuing to work and the company was continuing its operations. He said that last November the union submitted proposals to the company for negotiations for an industrial agreement and the company submitted its counter-proposals in March this year. Cabrera said that in April the union had to report to the Ministry of Labour that there was a trade dispute between the parties. According to Cabrera, after several concilliation meetings at the Ministry of Labour, the ministry prepared an agreement for both parties to sign but on the day that they were supposed to sign the agreement the company representative attended the meeting and said it was not prepared to sign the agreement and would not continue the negotiations with the union.

Cabrera said this was gross disrespect and unethical. He said the union is now awaiting a statement from the Ministry of Labour certifying that an unresolved dispute exists and a referral to take the matter to the Industrial Court.

A spokesmn for ASCO said “No comment”, to the union’s charges.

His nude body was later found with a towel nearby.

According to police, at about 1 am, neighbours heard gunshots and contacted police.

Two men were seen fleeing the scene. Police arrived and found Pascall’s body.

Pascall was a plumber at TCL and completed the 5 pm – 12 am shift before he went home and was killed. His mother Marilyn Gonzales-Pascall, 57, said she was awakened by a telephone call from a neighbour informing her that her son was shot dead. Gonzales-Pascall lives a short distance from her son.

“I did not hear any gunshots as I was sound asleep. The neighbours told me they heard gunshots and my son screaming.

They killed him in cold blood,” the emotional woman said. Gonzales-Pascall said she last time she spoke to her son was at about 5 pm on Wednesday, when he left for work.

“I just can’t believe this is happening. Crime is out of control in this country, I never thought crime would be in front my doorsteps.

I am hurting as a mother,” she said. “My son was loved by everyone in the village and everywhere he went. He was the type of person who was always making jokes. I don’t know why anyone would want to do this to him,” she said.

Pascall was the third of four siblings. He had a passion for cricket and played in several clubs across the country. No motive for the killing has been established, no arrest made and investigations are continuing.

Consultations involving wide-ranging stakeholders drawn from the public and private sectors, civil society, Caricom institutions, and academia, will also be held in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States sub-region.

Two days of discussions will be held in each country starting in Barbados from August 3 and 4. The discussions will be held in Guyana on August 7 and 8; Jamaica on August 14 and 15; St Lucia on August 17 and 18 and in TT on August 21 and 22.

Under review are the Draft Caribbean Community Environment and Natural Resources Policy Framework, and First Environmental and Natural Resources Action Plan of the Caribbean Community Environment and Natural Resources Policy Framework (July 2017-June 2022).

The draft policy proposes a structure for environmental and natural resources management in Caricom, balancing the need to exploit the land, air, water and oceans for economic development while maintaining healthy environments in member states. The action plan is the first step to implement the policy.

The policy framework, a Caricom Secretariat release said, has its genesis in a 2008 decision of ministers of environment at the 25th Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) — Environment. The secretariat was mandated to mobilise resources to proceed with the development of the policy framework. The secretariat has since conducted assessments of the environmental governance structure of member states, examined the environmental dimensions of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, and held a number of regional consultations.

These served as the basis for the design of the draft policy and action plan.

This current round of discussion, the release said, is important to advance the process towards presenting the policy framework to the Caricom ministers of environment.

Successful implementation will be based on regional ownership of the policy and “a collective regional response will also be required to promote the prudent, rational management and conservation of the region’s environmental, and natural resources, the policy envisions,” the release said.

Many people may not agree with it, but something drastic has to be done to get the weapons out of the hands of the criminals.

Young men walk the streets and our neighbourhood fully armed and waiting for the next victim, this cannot continue happening in our country; citizens need to be safe in their neighbourhoods and on the streets.

Every measure should be taken to protect the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, this situation is going on too long. I once went to a certain area to visit a sick person, I was told by someone in the area that all the men I saw sitting by the roadside had guns on them, this is crazy.

Something must be done to curb this lawlessness. If it be “Stop and Frisk”, bring it on: If a person could run down another person in broad day light and shoot them in cold blood and walk away like nothing happened, we are in serious trouble, and this is happening throughout our country every day.

There are criminals that are sitting on the block with their piece on them waiting for something to happen. This is the time to act and as the saying goes, desperate times need desperate measures so, bring on the stop and frisk Mr Acting Commissioner of Police. Who vex Loss! Modici a Martin via email

The policy is intended to assist with the diversification of the economy.

McLean made the disclosure in response to comments on ECLAC’s Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean delivered to diplomats and representatives of business organisations invited to a presentation yesterday.The report was delivered by ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, Alicia Barcena, speaking from ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile.

Speaking with journalists following the presentation of the Economic Survey of the Caribbean, Dillon Alleyne, deputy director, ECLAC subregional headquarters for the Caribbean, projected growth of 0.3 per cent in this country’s gross domestic product for this year compared to a decline of 2.3 per cent in 2016.

Asked to explain, he said there had been an “inching up” of hydrocarbon prices which were expected to remain steady.

These were not “stellar” hikes but represented some increase and, in addition, there was exploration under way which meant investment in those areas, he added.

Alleyne said ECLAC did not anticipate any increase in Government investment because the deficits were already high but the expected growth would still come from the energy sector because of the new oil fields which were expected to come on stream very soon.

Acknowledging that 0.3 per cent was still a low growth rate, Alleyne said the domestic and international environment were not very good for TT.

He added that there was some “compression” on consumption because a lot of people were losing their jobs and this would affect expenditure.

He said there was no expectation that oil prices would rise significantly in the short term because there were considerable inventories and shale oil would continue to constrain any increase in energy prices.

Alleyne said that in small economies like TT and the Caribbean there was need for a better relationship between the public and private sectors though, in this country in particular, there was heavy involvement by the Government in the labour market and this might be the cause of some distortion.

“So there needs to be a better rationalisation of certain kinds of programmes which may provide incentive to people to work outside of the public sector,” he said.

Asked about a point made by Barcena in her presentation that there was “silent deregulation” taking place in the US which the media was not paying any attention to because of its fascination with the Trump family, Alleyne agreed, saying if it continued it would have a “multiplicity of impacts” not only on the Caribbean but wider afield.

He said it might encourage a lot more risk-taking in terms of financial engagement and financial transactions which he recalled were some of the big problems in the last global financial crisis. He said environmental regulation had declined and a lot of financial “edicts” had been implemented, adding that a lot of these were silent but they were quite significant.

Imbert said when the People’s National Movement (PNM) assumed office three years ago, “When we put government directors into CLF towards the end of 2015, we found that there were no audited accounts.” He said his predecessor Larry Howai was the subject of a court order in 2015 where a freedom of information request had been made for the provision of certain documents by the ministry. Imbert said these documents included the audited CLF accounts but, “they (PP) could not produce them because they didn’t exist.” Saying the PNM found this situation to be unacceptable, Imbert disclosed that draft audited accounts up to 2016 are being prepared.

“As soon as the audited accounts are available, they will be made public,” Imbert promised.

The minister said the same order commanded Howai, and now him, to produce copies of a presentation made in 2010/2011 by then finance minister Winston Dookeran to Independent senators on CLF. However, Imbert said, “No such record of any such presentation exists in the Ministry of Finance.” Under these circumstances, Imbert said the new PNM administration had no choice but to continue with the appeal against its PP predecessor.

Imbert questioned shareholders’ reluctance to sign extensions to the CLF shareholders agreement when the PNM returned to office. He observed there was no hesitation by shareholders to sign 15 extensions when the PP was in office. Imbert said the issue of drafting a document did not arise because the document in question was identical to the last 15 extensions that shareholders signed. He said the 16th and 17th extensions to the agreement were eventually signed. Noting the procrastination by shareholders to sign the extension, Imbert said Government asked them to provide a concrete proposal by October 31, 2016, as to how they would repay the $23 billion of taxpayers’ money used to bail out CLF.

Imbert said the shareholders sent him a letter on October 26, 2016, asking to get back CLF and for Government to ask the Central Bank to release Clico “back into their hands.” He said the shareholders promised to pay back the $23 billion if this was done. Imbert said Government found this proposal “totally unacceptable” because there was no guarantee that the monies would be repaid. He added that Government has “no influence over the Central Bank.

Imbert said it was shortly after that development shareholders produced the Project Rebirth report done by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC). He explained this was the former rejected proposal presented to Government in a different way. Imbert said it was instructive that PWC said, “This draft report should not be relied upon by anyone for any purpose whatsoever.” Reiterating that the PNM has protected taxpayers’ interest in the CLF issue, Imbert said amendments to the Insurance Act will seek to protect policyholders and other people from any future repeat of the CLF fiasco. He was optimistic that Parliament will approve these amendments later this year.

Garbage-clogged waterways won’t stop pumps from de-watering flood zones. So that’s another reason to use pumps to counter flooding problems.

The fact is the seemingly innocent act of paving the ground is singularly the greatest ally of flooding. Paving the ground seals it off from absorbing water.

This is where pumps can rescue society from its self-wounding. Coating sponge with waterproof material and paving earth with water resistant material will result in sponge and earth being unable to absorb water.

Blaming flooding on largely dumping and clogged waterways has its place but, there’s more to flooding than just blocking waterways. Flooding is due also to failing to supplement waterways with mechanical assistance for example, using water pumps. There are supplementary pumping devices designed to separate garbage from water, capturing the debris before it adds to the flooding.

Also, people can refrain from being lazy and remove debris from waterways once spotted.

When it rains the whole country braces for the effects of acts of nature as if living in the dark ages, instead of using countless available technologies to make nature yield. For too long, TT has been an anti-flood prevention country. TT , aside from keeping waterways clear of debris and garbage, complementing pumps with land paving can prevent mass flooding.

Pumps can de-water flooded cities, towns and open plains.

B Joseph via email

At the service, held at the El Socorro SDA Church, Pastor Ray Walker said we live in a sinful world and people need to improve their relationship with the Almighty. Walker said the circumstances surrounding La Rosa’s passing were indeed tragic and urged her relatives to engage in deeper introspection on their own mortality and use her passing to strengthen their faith.

“We also have another mystery when often times we see what is happening in our lives and in our society, we wonder why these things happen. People no longer have respect for one another, taking lives as though its just some water being thrown down a drain. All of this is because of sin,” Walker told mourners.

He called on couples to keep God and faith as part of their family life citing the circumstances.

“I often say no pastor or priest can keep a marriage. Only Jesus can keep a marriage. The family that prays together, stays together.” La Rosa’s mother Charmaine, in reading the eulogy, recalled her daughter’s childhood years growing up in San Juan “Anica was a humble, marvellous and outspoken young lady. She would always greet her family with a hug and a kiss. To her friends she was a sweetbread. Anica had five handsome sons.

She loved them with all her heart. I know she will continue to live in their hearts. I am happy and proud to have been your mother, I am thankful for the time spent with you,” La Rosa said.

La Rosa died almost immediate after setting fire to herself and Samuel during a heated argument at Samuel’s home in Arouca. Samuel who was warded for several days, died at hospital and was laid to rest. Following the funeral service yesterday, La Rosa was interred at the Tunapuna public cemetery.

According to a media release, the website, www.protectedareastt.

org.tt, is intended to be “the main repository of information on forests and protected areas.” Initial information will be provided on six pilot sites, which are the Caroni Swamp, the Nariva Swamp, the Matura Forest and coastal zones, the Trinity Hills Wildlife Sanctuary, the Main Ridge Forest Reserve in Tobago and the North East Tobago Marine pilot protected area.

The website is a component under the Improving Forest and Protected Area Management in Trinidad and Tobago (IFPAMTT), which is a project being administered by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United States, on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The information provided will reportedly include notes on the location, boundaries, legal destination, socio-economic description, wildlife assets and management of the six sites. It is expected that the website will “increase visibility” and “provide access to current and regularly updated information on species diversity in Trinidad and Tobago.” Speaking at the launch yesterday, Senior Policy Officer at FAO Caribbean, Dr Terri Raney said, the launch of the website is a “local milestone in the development of an online platform to serve as a repository of information about our natural spaces.” She added that the IFPAMTT project has highlighted important information, through surveys undertaken with people who live near the six pilot sites and “it is the hope that the website will share the information that was accessed and contribute updates” on the country’s protected areas. “The launch of the website will enable sharing of information databases with an even wider audience than the stakeholders who are currently engaged,” she said.

In his brief address yesterday, Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries, Clarence Rambharat expressed his happiness over the news of the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) winning the injunction filed against them. Rambharat stated that even though the matter did not concern his ministry, he has pledged to “channel legal and other resources” to aid in CDA blocking particular operations from accessing Alcan Bay.

On the topic of hunting, Rambharat said he has written about the lack of data on hunting and its socio-economic impact indicators. He also said it is essential to “represent the views of people” in urban and rural communities.

“We must strike a balance between people earning a livelihood and sustainability in these communities,” he said.

He expressed that the technology will “make it easier” to do the protective work that needs to be done. “What really matters is our appetite for implementing and monitoring,” he said.

He added that the IFPAMTT project deals with “the generation of data” and “interaction with people who it is intended to support.” Technical Officer of the Project Coordination Unit, Celeste Chariandy, said plans are in the works to develop a “small team to learn to manage the site.”

Imbert also said contrary to claims made by CLF founder Lawrence Duprey, the true cost of legal fees in the CLF matter was $250 million and not $3.5 billion. In addressing these issues at the post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s, Imbert identified Peter Permell and Carlton Reis as two of the “mouthpieces” for the shareholders. He said information available to Government shows Permell has no shares in CLF and cashed in his Clico policy in May 2012. Imbert said a search of the Companies Registry shows that Reis was appointed a director of Dalco Capital Management Company Ltd in 2015.

He said Dalco was incorporated in 1998 with Duprey listed as the owner. Last Jaunary, Imbert said Duprey transferred his shares in Dalco to Reis.

“All that is fine. There is one little problem. That the shares were transferred at a value of $99,” Imbert said. He recalled that Reis publicly claimed CLF was worth $40 billion. With Dalco owning 26 percent of CLF, Imbert said this worked out to $10 billion.

“The stamp duty on a transfer of shares worth $10 billion, is $50 million,” he stated. However, Imbert observed, “The stamp duty on a transfer of shares worth $99 is 50 cents.” On this basis, Imbert said his ministry will be investigating this matter to find out why a company supposed valued at $40 billion by one of its owners, had its shares transferred for $99, “instead of at a rate of $10 billion, attracting stamp duty of $50 million.” He said that $50 million was taxpayers’ money which goes into the Consolidated Fund.

Turning to CLWB, Imbert said money flows out of that company will be investigated too.

He said Government’s research has discovered that CLF owns a mere 17 percent in Angostura.

Imbert said 45 percent of Angostura is owned by a company called Rum Pro. This company, Imbert continued, is owned 100 percent by Scotland incorporated CLWB. He said CLWB is owned by Clico (42 percent), CLF (38 percent) and Clico Investment Bank-CIB (20 percent). He reminded reporters that CIB is in liquidation with Government trying to recover monies from it.

In spite of all of this, Imbert said, “For some reason, all of the profits flowing from these companies have been finding their way into the bank accounts of CLF.”