Carib Scope

标签： Trinidad and Tobago

特立尼达和多巴哥

  • Pay grieving mothers

    Pay grieving mothers

    A months-long legal battle over public transparency has reached a turning point, as top legal advocate Anand Ramlogan is pushing Trinidad and Tobago’s North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) to put an end to court proceedings and negotiate fair settlements with the families of seven newborns who died in a bacterial outbreak at Port of Spain General Hospital in April 2024.

    Ramlogan made his appeal fresh off a landmark High Court decision this past Thursday, which ruled in favor of his client Shanya Raymond-Adams and ordered the NWRHA to release its internal investigative report into the preventable infant deaths. In a formal public statement, the senior counsel accused the public health authority of misappropriating taxpayer dollars to fend off the grieving families’ legal claims, rather than offering clear answers about what caused the outbreak and just compensation for their devastating loss.

    “No amount of financial settlement can bring back the seven infants that these families lost, or heal the profound grief that their mothers have carried every day since,” Ramlogan said in his statement. “That said, fair settlement offers would provide meaningful support to these families and spare them the additional pain and stress of dragging this process through the courts for months or years to come.”

    Ramlogan led the successful legal challenge against the NWRHA on behalf of Raymond-Adams, who was one of the mothers denied access to the internal authority’s internal probe findings after the outbreak. He condemned the authority’s months-long refusal to release the report as a blatant injustice, noting that grieving parents had been forced to sue the very public institution that was trusted to care for their infants just to learn how their children died.

    He pointedly criticized the NWRHA for its treatment of the families, highlighting that more than two years after the outbreak, the affected mothers have not received any compensation while the authority has drained public funds on legal fees to delay the case. Ramlogan is also calling for formal accountability for the officials who made the decision to withhold the report, arguing that covering up findings from an investigation into preventable infant deaths can never be justified under any circumstances.

    The case lays bare a stark contradiction between the NWRHA’s public commitments to transparency and its behind-the-scenes efforts to block disclosure, Ramlogan emphasized. Then-NWRHA chief executive officer Anthony Blake publicly promised just weeks after the 2024 outbreak that the full investigation findings would be released to the public. But just months later, Blake submitted a sworn court affidavit opposing Raymond-Adams’ request for the documents, backing the authority’s claim that the report was protected from disclosure under legal professional privilege.

    In his ruling, Justice Robin Mohammed rejected that argument, finding that the NWRHA failed to produce sufficient documentation to prove the report qualified for privilege protection. Ramlogan called the authority’s broken promise of transparency blatant hypocrisy, noting that the grieving mothers reasonably trusted the NWRHA’s public commitment to openness as they navigated the loss of their children.

    The court ruling, Ramlogan said, raises urgent new questions about why the NWRHA chose to wage a prolonged and expensive court battle instead of honoring its original promise to release the findings. He is now urging the authority to move quickly to comply with the court’s disclosure order, redacting only necessary confidential personal information before making the full report public.

    “These families, and the entire country, have a right to know what the investigation uncovered: what led to these babies’ deaths, where systemic failures occurred, and what changes have already been implemented to stop this tragedy from happening again,” Ramlogan said. “These mothers have carried their grief and fought for answers for years. They have waited long enough, and the truth about these deaths can no longer be hidden.”

  • Help promised for teachers

    Help promised for teachers

    In a key address during Saturday’s national budget debate, Trinidad and Tobago’s Education Minister Dr. Michael Dowlath has announced two major policy commitments for the nation’s education sector, addressing long-running teacher advocacy and persistent concerns over school safety.

    First, Dowlath confirmed plans to fully restore the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), a critical work-based support service that provides confidential, short-term psychological, emotional and social assistance to educators across the country. The Minister outlined the fiscal context of the programme’s recent disruption, explaining that when the current administration took office, it inherited an outstanding EAP debt of $1,996,312 accrued in 2023. Over the past year, the ministry has cleared that entire liability, but service providers notified the government in December 2025 that they would suspend operations without new funding commitments. To resolve the impasse, Dowlath confirmed that the 2026 fiscal budget has already allocated funds to reactivate the programme, and the ministry will move forward with facilitating continued service delivery in the current fiscal year.

    The move comes after months of pressure from the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA), which has repeatedly raised alarms over service disruptions that forced teachers to pay out of pocket for EAP support starting in January 2025. The association had characterized the disruption as a violation of its collective bargaining agreement with the government and had made repeated calls for the programme’s immediate restoration. In a January statement, the Education Ministry already clarified that EAP funding was secured in the 2026 budget and that no teacher would be required to pay for access to the service.

    Alongside the EAP commitment, Dowlath pushed back against opposition criticism of the government’s School-Oriented Policing Initiative, a program launched in September 2025 at 51 public schools across the country to curb rising school violence. Opposition lawmakers have argued that deploying police officers to campuses amounts to criminalizing students, but Dowlath rejected that claim, framing the initiative as a targeted effort to restore safety and order to campuses grappling with persistent violent incidents.

    “Protecting children from violence is not criminalizing children,” Dowlath told parliament. “When parents send their children to school they expect them to be safe. When teachers enter their classrooms, they expect to work without fear of violence or intimidation. What about the children who are bullied, assaulted, and threatened? Don’t they have rights, too?”

    The minister emphasized that the government’s zero-tolerance policy is directed at harmful behavior, not students themselves. “Zero tolerance for violence does not mean zero compassion for children. We recognise that children make mistakes. We recognise that some need counselling, guidance, rehabilitation and a second chance and that is why our approach considers appropriate disciplinary measures,” he explained, adding the government would not apologize for prioritizing student safety or abandon vulnerable learners who need protection.

    Launched at the start of the 2025/2026 school year, the School-Oriented Policing Initiative aims to reduce violent incidents, de-escalate conflict and foster long-term behavioral change among students. In September, Deputy Commissioner of Police Junior Benjamin, who leads the program, told local outlet *Express* that the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) had no immediate plans to expand the unit due to limited resources. Benjamin noted that TTPS will continue collaborating with the Education Ministry to deploy existing officers to the campuses where they are most needed.

    Dowlath also highlighted the $8.033 billion total allocation to the nation’s broader education and training sector in the 2026 budget, noting that the ministry’s core responsibility is to ensure this public investment delivers tangible, meaningful improvements for educators and learners across the country.

  • Dragon deal ‘not in English’

    Dragon deal ‘not in English’

    During a Saturday budget debate addressing Trinidad and Tobago’s energy sector priorities, Energy Minister Dr. Roodal Moonilal has publicly raised critical procedural gaps in the Dragon cross-border natural gas project, a major joint initiative with Venezuela, revealing that the only executed copy of the project’s core fiscal metering agreement held by the government is written in Spanish.

    Moonilal told parliamentarians that a months-long search within the Ministry of Energy’s official archives has failed to uncover a fully executed English-language version of the binding agreement, which was submitted to the Trinidad and Tobago Cabinet for approval back in January 2024. According to the minister, the Spanish-language document on file bears the signature of both a Venezuelan energy official and his predecessor, former Energy Minister Stuart Richard Young. He noted that while an unexecuted English translation may exist in former minister Young’s personal document holdings, no official signed copy has been transferred to or stored at the ministry.

    The fiscal metering agreement is widely recognized as one of the most technically critical components of the cross-border gas project, as it sets binding rules for measuring total gas output, defines technical standards for monitoring equipment, mandates regular calibration protocols, and establishes legal access rights for independent inspectors to verify production readings. Moonilal emphasized that without a fully executed, clearly understandable version of the agreement in Trinidad and Tobago’s official working language, the country faces unnecessary financial risk on a project valued at hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. “Metering is non-negotiable for a fair energy partnership,” he explained. “You cannot enter into a major gas deal where there is ambiguity over how much product is being extracted, as that leaves room for unaccounted losses that directly impact national revenue.”

    Moonilal questioned why the previous administration failed to complete the translation, verification, and official signing process for an English-language version of the agreement before presenting it to Cabinet for approval. Despite the identified procedural weaknesses inherited from the prior government, the minister reaffirmed the current administration’s full commitment to advancing the Dragon gas project. The government is continuing coordinated work with project partners Shell, the state-owned National Gas Company (NGC), and Venezuelan energy authorities to move the project toward its final investment decision (FID), with a target of first commercial gas production in the fourth quarter of 2027 or early 2028. Moonilal confirmed that moving forward, all official agreements for the project will be fully executed in English, saying, “I will guarantee that when I sign any binding agreement for this project, my Cabinet colleagues and the Prime Minister will be able to read it, fully understand its terms, and know exactly what commitments we are making on behalf of the nation.”

    In addition to updating legislators on the Dragon project, Moonilal also provided new details on the government’s plan to restart operations at the idled Guaracara Refinery, noting that the global refining market landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years, sparking widespread international interest in the facility. The minister reported that interested parties from major energy markets across India, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and North America have submitted proposals to take over and reopen the refinery, and the government has now entered the final phase of selecting a preferred bidder or consortium.

    “Our core priority is securing the best possible outcome for the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” Moonilal said. “We have met with all interested stakeholders, and we are running a transparent, inclusive process that gives every qualified bidder fair consideration.”

    The minister outlined that limited refinery operations could resume as soon as three to six months after a bidder is selected, though full restart and expansion will require completion of all administrative and legal requirements. He noted that Trinidad and Tobago already has the skilled domestic workforce needed to operate the facility, and the main missing component is sufficient external investment capital. Reflecting on past failed partnerships that left the government owing $95 million from the previous NiQuan Energy operation, Moonilal emphasized that the current administration will not put taxpayer funds at unnecessary risk, noting that the government is moving deliberately to avoid repeating past mistakes that led to dangerous and costly outcomes, including the fatal 2023 explosion at the former NiQuan petrochemical facility in Marabella. “We are proceeding cautiously because cutting corners on this process would put lives and public funds at risk,” he said. “Once all legal and administrative checks are complete, we will reopen the refinery to deliver long-term economic benefits to the country.”

  • PLAY ONE FOR BIRDIE

    PLAY ONE FOR BIRDIE

    Trinidad and Tobago’s iconic national steelband competition, Panorama, will center its 2027 iteration on celebrating the life and enduring legacy of Slinger Francisco — the iconic calypsonian universally known by his stage name, The Mighty Sparrow. The announcement of this tribute was made by Pan Trinbago president Beverley Ramsey-Moore on the day of the 2027 festival’s official launch, hosted at the Desperadoes panyard located on George Street, Port of Spain. During the launch event, Ramsey-Moore laid out a full slate of adjusted programming and celebratory plans for the upcoming season, anchored by the fitting tribute to one of the nation’s most beloved cultural figures.

    “We promise and we pledge to dedicate Panorama 2027 to the Mighty Sparrow, Slinger Francisco,” Ramsey-Moore affirmed to attendees at the launch.

    A key change to the 2027 competition schedule sees the single-pan category kicking off immediately after the launch event, with its grand final scheduled to take place on November 21 at San Fernando’s Skinner Park. To add a fresh, engaging layer to this segment of the competition, the single-pan finals will be structured as a unique “pan-and-powder” event, deviating from the traditional competition format. Following the conclusion of the single-pan category, the small conventional band division will hold its rounds, with finals planned before the end of the calendar year. This staggered schedule is designed to accommodate a condensed overall Panorama season, before the competition progresses to the medium and large conventional band categories that will run alongside the crowd-favorite traditional Savannah Party.

    As part of the Sparrow tribute, multiple participating steelbands across all categories will perform reimagined selections from the legend’s decades-spanning, extensive musical catalog. This initiative is designed to shine a bright spotlight on Sparrow’s irreplaceable contributions to Trinidad and Tobago’s rich cultural and musical heritage. Additionally, the iconic North Stand at Queen’s Park Savannah will be reimagined as the “all-saltfish sweet stand” for the 2027 festival, as organizers prepare to welcome back the large, energetic crowds of supporters that have long been a defining feature of Panorama celebrations.

    The tribute comes just months after The Mighty Sparrow’s passing in late September. The 91-year-old legend died at a New York hospital following a short illness, and his remains were repatriated to his home country of Trinidad and Tobago on October 6. Just last week, he was honored with a Carnival-style public procession and a state-supported funeral at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, drawing thousands of mourners and fans to pay their respects.

    Ramsey-Moore explained that the choice to dedicate the 2027 season to Sparrow also recognizes the deep, historic symbiosis between steelpan music and calypso that dates back to the genre’s earliest days. In the early 20th century, before the rise of modern radio DJs and mass digital music distribution, steelbands served as the primary vehicle for spreading calypso music across local communities and were central to the annual competition for the coveted Road March title, awarded to the most popular calypso played on Carnival streets.

    “In the early days, the steelbands were the drivers of the calypso music. There were no big deejays or anything around. So, you depended on the bands to carry the music, to road march,” she explained.

    Beyond the tribute to the legendary performer, Pan Trinbago has outlined its broader priorities for the 2027 season, including a continued focus on nurturing young musical talent and upholding the intangible cultural values that form the foundation of Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival celebrations. Ramsey-Moore pointed to the strong turnout of young participants at the official launch as clear evidence of the organization’s ongoing commitment to passing the steelpan tradition to the next generation.

    In a call to players, arrangers, lifelong steelpan fans and the broader community, Ramsey-Moore urged widespread participation and support across the 2027 season. She emphasized the unifying power of the instrument and the festival, noting: “When you talk about steelpan, steelpan is Trinidad and Tobago. Especially Panorama time. It brings all of our people together. There is no race, there is no religion. It is just a group of people coming together to have fun.”

    She framed Panorama as one of the most critical pillars of Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival, second only to the traditional masquerade celebrations held on Carnival Monday and Tuesday, and highlighted that the steelpan season extends its cultural impact far beyond the core Carnival holiday period. While the first category kicks off in November, the significance of the festival and its tribute to Sparrow will resonate across the nation’s cultural landscape for months to come. “We are saying come out as usual, bring your energy and match the rhythm of the beat of the steelpan,” Ramsey-Moore invited the public.

  • The child pornography investigation no one can find

    The child pornography investigation no one can find

    For years, underground online chat groups operating across platforms like Telegram and Discord have operated as open marketplaces for the sexual exploitation of children and non-consenting adults in Trinidad and Tobago. Within these networks, members trade and barter horrific collections of child sexual abuse material, rape imagery, and non-consensual explicit content, with entry to some groups selling for as little as a $250 phone card. Anonymous administrators enforce internal rules, and some members even joke that they will never face legal consequences for their actions.

    This open criminal activity has been known to law enforcement for years: victims have come forward to file reports, local advocacy groups have infiltrated the rings and handed over comprehensive evidence to police, and senior Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) officials have repeatedly pledged to launch and advance investigations into the networks dating back to 2022. But a months-long freedom of information investigation by the *Express* has revealed a staggering lack of progress, transparency, and accountability, leaving hundreds of victims without justice and the online exploitation industry largely unpunished.

    Nearly six months ago, the *Express* submitted a formal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the TTPS seeking clarity on the status of investigations into these criminal rings. The outlet asked for confirmation of whether probes remained open, what division the investigation was assigned to, and how many suspects had been interviewed, arrested, or charged in connection with the networks. After a 160-day delay—130 days past the 30-day response window legally required for FOIA requests—the TTPS legal department issued a final response last week: the Special Victims Department (SVD), the unit tasked with overseeing these cases, holds no records matching the request. The denial does not explicitly confirm or deny that an investigation exists, and the TTPS declined to say whether other divisions were queried for the records.

    The FOIA request also yielded alarming statistics about child pornography prosecutions across the country between 2020 and 2026. In total, TTPS received more than 142 child pornography reports across both islands over the seven-year period. Of those, more than 80%—114 reports—came from Trinidad, where the majority of the country’s population lives. Shockingly, the TTPS data confirms not a single charge has been filed in Trinidad over the entire seven-year period, and no cases have been referred to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). By comparison, Tobago, which received just 28 total reports (less than 20% of the national total), secured 17 charges over the same period and referred an equal number of cases to the DPP. The TTPS has offered no explanation for the stark disparity.

    Multiple attempts by the *Express* to contact SVD Superintendent Roger Reyes and the TTPS Corporate Communications Unit for comment on the missing records and the charge gap have gone unanswered. Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander, who pledged in August that the government would take a “strong-arm approach” to cracking down on child sexual exploitation online and announced new technology to identify offenders, also declined to provide an update when contacted by the outlet.

    The lack of records and prosecutions comes after years of public pledges and court acknowledgements of ongoing investigations. In 2022, former SVD and Child Protection Unit head Claire Guy-Alleyne publicly confirmed that an investigation into the Telegram exploitation groups had been launched. In 2024, TTPS Corporate Communications Officer Joanne Archie told local media that two units would launch an immediate probe into the rings, later confirming to the *Express* that the investigation remained ongoing.

    A 2025 Court of Appeal ruling in a constitutional case brought by victims and advocacy group the Humanitarian Foundation for Positive Social Change (HFPSC) also confirmed that police had acknowledged active investigative steps dating back to 2022. The case centered on an anonymous victim who discovered explicit images of herself as a child circulating on pornography sites and in the underground chat groups in 2020. She provided police with a comprehensive evidence package, including a flash drive with 42 group URLs and thousands of records of circulating abuse material—only for an officer to lose the flash drive. The court ruled that the victim’s report had “fallen into a black hole” between 2020 and 2022, finding that police had failed to uphold her constitutional right to protection and investigation. The ruling also noted that police had confirmed to the court that by 2022, they had verified the victim’s evidence, held internal meetings, sought legal advice, built perpetrator profiles, and assigned undercover officers to infiltrate the chat groups, who were awaiting covert communication tools to proceed.

    For victims, the TTPS’s FOIA denial that no investigation records exist has amplified years of frustration and uncertainty. The anonymous claimant from the constitutional case, who was awarded damages for the police’s initial failure to investigate, told the *Express* she is still fighting for basic answers.

    “Despite successfully pursuing constitutional proceedings against the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service for its failure to investigate my report expeditiously, and being awarded damages for the delay, I am now informed, through a Freedom of Information request, that records concerning the investigation do not exist within the Special Victims Department’s database,” she said. “How can the Police Service maintain in court proceedings on affidavit evidence that an investigation was ongoing at the time of the Court’s determination, yet subsequently state in writing that no records exist?”

    HFPSC called the TTPS response a major failure of transparency and accountability that undermines public trust in the justice system. “Particularly where reports concern the online sexual exploitation of women and children. A successful constitutional claim should not leave a citizen still fighting for basic answers,” the group said in a statement. “If even a judgement of the High Court and Court of Appeal cannot secure accountability, what confidence can ordinary citizens have in the administration of justice?”

  • Sexual abuse, racial discrimination at children’s homes

    Sexual abuse, racial discrimination at children’s homes

    During parliamentary debate on the 2026-2027 national budget, a senior former Trinidad and Tobago government minister has blown the whistle on grave allegations of sexual abuse, racial discrimination and systemic failure plaguing the country’s network of state-supported residential children’s homes. Camille Robinson-Regis, Member of Parliament for Trincity/Maloney and a former housing minister and attorney general, leveled serious accusations that top officials, including current Social Development Minister Vandana Mohit, have long been aware of the harmful practices taking place at these facilities but have failed to intervene to protect vulnerable children in state care.

    At the core of Robinson-Regis’ critique is the severe funding crisis facing the Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (CATT), the government body mandated to safeguard children from abuse, neglect and harm. She told parliament that CATT’s annual state subvention has been cut from $14.7 million in the previous budget to just $8.1 million, a $6.6 million reduction that has gutted the agency’s ability to carry out its core duties. This underfunding, she argues, has left caseworkers overloaded with unmanageable caseloads, forced staff to operate out of offices plagued by dangerous mould and structural leaks, and left critical child protection initiatives stalled.

    Beyond funding shortfalls, Robinson-Regis highlighted a complete breakdown in communication and strategic direction between CATT and the Ministry of Social Development. She noted the current CATT board, which was appointed by the previous People’s National Movement (PNM) administration and will remain in office until October 2026, has been frozen out by the ruling United National Congress (UNC) government. The agency has received no formal guidance from the line minister as required under the Children’s Act, Robinson-Regis said, creating a crippling “lack of synergy” that leaves CATT board members unable to make critical decisions without ministerial approval. This power vacuum, she argued, has put children directly at risk.

    The most explosive allegations center on explicit claims of racial discrimination and sexual abuse covered up by senior officials. Robinson-Regis told parliament that Minister Mohit was personally present at a meeting held at one residential children’s home, where the facility’s manager made openly racist remarks about Afro-Trinidadian children in the home’s care. According to accounts shared with Robinson-Regis, the manager complained that “too many [N-word] children” were being placed at the facility, which the manager claimed was reserved for a different group of children. Shockingly, Robinson-Regis said Mohit did not challenge or condemn the racist comments at the time. She added that the facility’s operators are personal friends of the minister, and its staff is majority Afro-Trinidadian.

    Robinson-Regis also confirmed that credible allegations of sexual abuse at multiple state-supported residential homes have been raised to the minister, and formal recommendations to relocate at-risk children to safer facilities have been ignored. She went on to reveal that some vulnerable children have been improperly relocated from closed residential children’s homes into state-run senior citizen facilities—a practice she described as unacceptable and harmful to vulnerable youth.

    The former minister further noted that the current UNC administration has failed to follow through on the 43 child welfare policy recommendations outlined in the landmark Judith Jones report. Under the previous PNM government, 80% of these recommendations—which covered key reforms including appropriate caregiver-to-child ratios, critical incident reporting protocols, delegated financial authority for child protection bodies, dedicated recreational spaces for children and families, and a formal whistleblower and child justice system—were already implemented. Robinson-Regis said the current administration has abandoned these ongoing reforms, cut allocated funding, and allowed progress to stall. This lack of follow-through, she added, has even led international funding partners including UNICEF to reduce their financial support for Trinidad and Tobago’s child welfare programs.

    Framing the crisis as a moral failure of the current administration, Robinson-Regis called on Minister Mohit to immediately take action to protect the nation’s most vulnerable children. “It is children we are speaking about,” she emphasized, noting that as a mother, the allegations are deeply painful. “This should never be happening to the children of T&T, especially vulnerable children,” she said, describing the current state of state-supported child care as a “sad state of affairs” that cannot be allowed to continue. She added that the current administration “failed to understand the true cost of child protection,” warning that severe consequences for vulnerable children are already unavoidable ahead of the April 2025 general election.

  • LAY-OFF LETTERS RECALLED FOR 124 SWRHA WORKERS

    LAY-OFF LETTERS RECALLED FOR 124 SWRHA WORKERS

    A major employment dispute in Trinidad and Tobago’s public healthcare system has taken a sudden turn, after the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW) announced that the South-West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) has withdrawn termination letters issued to 124 daily-rated maintenance employees.

    The affected workers, who are all represented by the NUGFW, received the formal notices from SWRHA’s Human Resource Department dated October 15. The letters, which were later shared with the *Sunday Express*, outlined that the workers’ temporary casual appointments, which had been extended multiple times since their hiring in April 2024, would end on October 16. The correspondence closed with a standard note of appreciation for the workers’ service, ending with SWRHA’s institutional motto of “Care, Compassion, Competence.”

    Crucially, union leadership confirms they were never consulted prior to the termination notices being distributed. The workers are deployed across key regional healthcare facilities, including the San Fernando General Hospital, Point Fortin Hospital, and multiple smaller clinics and care centers across the south-west region.

    Within 24 hours of the notices being issued, NUGFW took swift action to address the threat to workers’ livelihoods. In an official statement released yesterday, the union ordered all affected staff to continue reporting for their scheduled shifts as usual, noting that the termination orders had been revoked.

    NUGFW President General Christopher Streete emphasized the gravity of the situation in his address, calling for urgent, structured dialogue between all involved parties to reach a permanent resolution. “This is a serious situation that calls for an immediate, systematic and sensible approach towards resolving the issue, which calls for the gathering of the facts first, and there is an urgent need for dialogue among all the stakeholders,” Streete stated.

    Streete stressed that the union’s top priority is protecting the employment security of its members, whose livelihoods and family stability hang in the balance. “NUGFW expects this matter to receive the urgent attention it deserves. The livelihoods of workers and their families are at stake, and we are determined to ensure that their concerns are firmly represented at the highest level. Our responsibility is to stand with our members, defend their interests and pursue meaningful answers where their employment security is threatened,” he added.

    To ease uncertainty among affected staff, Streete urged workers to remain calm and continue fulfilling their duties, assuring them that the union is actively advancing their concerns and will provide regular updates as negotiations progress. He reaffirmed the NUGFW’s longstanding commitment to upholding the rights, dignity and job security of all its members, noting that he personally would lead talks with SWRHA leadership to resolve the conflict.

    Streete confirmed he is scheduled to meet directly with SWRHA’s Chief Executive Officer this coming Friday to negotiate a resolution that prioritizes the needs and rights of the affected workers. When reached for comment by the *Sunday Express* yesterday, SWRHA acknowledged receipt of the request for public comment but had not issued a formal response by the time of publication.

  • Imbert: T&T poised to crash within months

    Imbert: T&T poised to crash within months

    During heated parliamentary budget debate this week, a senior opposition figure in Trinidad and Tobago has issued a stark warning that the national economy is on the brink of total collapse within the next 30 days, launching a blistering attack on the ruling administration’s newly proposed 2026-2027 national budget.

    Colm Imbert, opposition member of parliament and former finance minister, announced his outright rejection of the budget tabled last week by current Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo. Echoing the opposition leadership’s official stance, Imbert reiterated that the country has already slipped into a full recession, and dismissed all fiscal projections laid out in the government’s budget as deceptive, invented, and baseless.

    Imbert accused the current finance minister of deliberately turning a blind eye to the acute economic hardship facing ordinary citizens across the country. “People are suffering, going hungry, they have no disposable income in their pockets. Businesses are folding left and right, and the economy is already in recession. That is the ground truth this finance minister refuses to acknowledge,” Imbert argued. He explained his refusal to back the budget by noting it offers no forward-looking policy solutions, nor any meaningful incentives to stimulate struggling business sectors. “If the country hasn’t crashed completely already, it will do so within the next few months,” he warned.

    The former finance minister also dismissed the government’s official projected budget deficit as completely fabricated, a claim he says he has repeated since the administration tabled its 2026 budget one year ago. “We told them these numbers were nonsense, imaginary, even before the unexpected energy price shifts. If oil prices had held at the levels forecast by all international agencies, the actual deficit would have hit between $12 billion and $15 billion. Even after receiving an unanticipated $3 billion windfall from the energy sector, the government still could not balance its books. We will all soon see the real consequences of this failure,” Imbert stated.

    Drawing directly on official economic data published by the Ministry of Finance itself, Imbert laid out a widespread pattern of contraction across nearly every major sector of the 2026 national economy. The government’s own figures show real gross domestic product (GDP) has shrunk by 2.2%, with drops recorded across core industries: energy output is down 6.6%, non-energy GDP is down 7%, trade and repair services have contracted 4.3%, public administration has fallen 3.4%, construction has dropped 2.7%, electricity and gas output is down 6.6%, accommodation and food services have declined 5.1%, and the petrochemical sector has plummeted 19.8% — the sharpest downturn of any major industry.

    This contraction extends beyond core industrial sectors to consumer-facing and small business activity. Imbert noted domestic cement sales have dropped by a dramatic 44%, retail sales of construction and hardware goods are down 12%, and new motor vehicle sales have fallen 14.5%. The once-growing tourism sector has also reversed course, with total visitor arrivals dropping 9.3%, 32.4% of that decline concentrated in Tobago. Employment rates for both youth and women have also fallen, Imbert added, while growth in commercial lending to domestic businesses has all but stalled.

    Pointing to recent factory closures and production cuts from major players including Nutrien and Proman, Imbert argued the country has already seen a total collapse of economic momentum and employment. He cited 18 months of data from the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago to back his claim that business investment has ground to a halt: annual growth in business lending fell from 11.4% in April 2025 to just 0.6% in July 2026. Adjusted for inflation, that means domestic businesses have not taken on any meaningful new debt for more than a year. “Why would businesses in Trinidad and Tobago refuse to borrow money to expand? The answer is simple: they have no confidence in this UNC administration. No new borrowing in 18 months is clear proof of that,” Imbert said.

    Over that 18-month period, Imbert added, both the country’s fiscal position and external balance have steadily weakened. The economy has shrunk, natural gas output has declined, national debt has continued to climb, and recent increases to foreign reserves have been funded almost entirely through new borrowing and withdrawals from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund, not from new foreign exchange generated by the country’s productive sectors. “Since April 2025, the trajectory has been clear: the fiscal position gets weaker, and government revenue keeps falling,” he said.

    To cap his critique, Imbert accused the ruling United National Congress (UNC) administration of open hypocrisy on tax policy, noting the government has imposed at least 70 new taxes and fee increases on domestic businesses over the past 12 months. He recalled that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar stated explicitly back in 2020 that “you cannot tax a nation into prosperity”, and pointed to the UNC’s 2025 election manifesto, which promised to cut corporate tax rates to stimulate private sector growth, boost competitiveness, encourage business reinvestment, and drive overall economic expansion.

    “After reviewing all government documentation from May 2025 through September 2026, what we found is the exact opposite of what the UNC promised,” Imbert said. Instead of cutting taxes to support the private sector, the administration has rolled out 70 new or increased taxes and charges. These include a new asset levy on commercial banks, a general business surcharge, new landlord registration fees, an electricity surcharge, a tax on single-use plastics, new levies on electric vehicles, increased national insurance contribution rates, a higher minimum age for full national insurance pensions, higher excise duties on alcohol, tobacco and imported goods, and increased processing fees for shipping containers and customs declarations. “These actions directly contradict the prime minister’s own words that you cannot tax a nation into prosperity,” Imbert concluded.

  • State-owned Hilton, Magdalena rack up $246m losses over 10 years

    State-owned Hilton, Magdalena rack up $246m losses over 10 years

    As the government of Trinidad and Tobago moves forward with plans to sell off two state-owned hospitality properties, newly obtained financial records reveal starkly divergent 10-year performance trajectories that have culminated in a combined $246.1 million in total cumulative losses. The data, obtained exclusively by the *Sunday Express*, shows the vast majority of losses stem from Tobago’s Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort, which has failed to turn a profit in every year between 2016 and 2025, while Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre in St Ann’s has posted profits in six of the 10 years surveyed, with its downturns concentrated almost entirely in the period following the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Financial records compiled from audited annual statements and recent unaudited management accounts show Hilton Trinidad’s total net losses over the decade amount to just $8.5 million, compared to Magdalena’s staggering $237.6 million in cumulative after-tax net losses. Importantly, the $246.1 million cumulative loss figure only accounts for annual deficits, not offsetting profits earned by Hilton during its profitable years.

    Unlike its struggling counterpart in Tobago, Hilton Trinidad has a proven track record of profitable operation. The hotel posted consistent gains from 2016 through 2019, before global travel shutdowns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic upended the international tourism and hospitality sector. The property recorded a $2.5 million net loss in 2020, followed by a smaller $700,000 deficit in 2021, with losses peaking at $3.7 million in 2022, the largest annual shortfall recorded by the hotel over the 10-year period.

    Hilton Trinidad rebounded to return to profitability in 2023 and maintained positive bottom lines in 2024, signaling a strong post-pandemic recovery, before slipping back into a $1.6 million net loss in 2025. While the financial breakdown does not disclose the exact total profit figures for Hilton’s six profitable years, it confirms that the hotel’s financial challenges were overwhelmingly tied to the global pandemic and its immediate aftermath, though the 2025 loss indicates ongoing industry headwinds. All of Hilton’s annual figures are sourced from fully audited annual financial statements.

    Following months of uncertainty surrounding the property’s future, the Trinidad and Tobago government implemented a new ownership and management structure for Hilton Trinidad in September of this year. Under the new framework, state-owned enterprise Evolving TecKnologies and Enterprise Development Company Ltd (e TecK) purchased all outstanding issued shares of Hilton International Trinidad Ltd, which was subsequently renamed HotelTT Asset Management Company Ltd, now operating as a fully owned subsidiary of e TecK.

    The agreement restructured the previous landlord-tenant arrangement into a formal hotel management contract, under which the Hilton brand will continue to handle daily operations while the state retains ownership of the hotel and all its underlying assets. The initial contract has a six-month term, with an option to extend for an additional six months. At the time of the restructuring, Minister of Land and Legal Affairs Saddam Hosein explained that the arrangement was designed to preserve the Hilton brand, maintain continuous operations, and protect employee jobs while the government evaluated long-term options for the property.

    That long-term path was clarified last week, when Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced at the sod-turning ceremony for a new Marriott hotel development in Tobago’s Rocky Point that the government would soon issue requests for proposals to fully divest both state-owned hotel properties. The Prime Minister argued that the state has no place in operating commercial hotel businesses, and that private sector investment would deliver a more sustainable operational model for both properties.

    The divestment announcement has reignited concerns among Hilton Trinidad workers represented by the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU). The union had previously raised alarms over job security, the future of hotel operations, uncertainty around planned capital renovations, and the status of previously allocated refurbishment funds, while calling for greater transparency around the property’s future. Those concerns had eased temporarily after the September management agreement guaranteed that employees would retain their roles with no immediate changes to salaries, benefits, reporting structures or working conditions.

    For the Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort, the financial outlook is far more troubled. The Tobago-based resort has recorded net losses in every single fiscal year from 2016 through 2025, accumulating the $237.6 million cumulative deficit with no profitable years to offset its operating and accounting costs.

    Losses were particularly severe in the early years of the surveyed period: the resort posted a $34.2 million net loss in 2016, followed by a $35.8 million deficit in 2017, with annual depreciation charges topping $25 million in both years based on the property’s original asset valuation. The resort’s worst annual performance came in 2018, when losses surged to $81.9 million. Roughly half of that 2018 deficit stemmed from a $41.9 million impairment loss, an accounting adjustment that reflects a downward revaluation of the resort’s asset value and does not represent an equivalent outlay of cash during the fiscal year. Even with this accounting adjustment, the 2018 loss remains the largest annual deficit recorded by the resort over the decade, accounting for approximately 34.5% of its total cumulative losses.

    Following the 2018 asset revaluation, annual depreciation charges were cut significantly, leading to a sharp drop in reported losses starting in 2019, when the resort recorded an $11.2 million deficit, a major improvement from the previous year. Losses fell further to $3.7 million in 2020 at the height of pandemic travel restrictions, but that downward trend did not hold. The resort posted a $21.5 million loss in 2021, followed by a reduced $9.3 million deficit in 2022. Financial conditions worsened again in 2023 with a $16 million net loss, before declining to $9.9 million in 2024 and rising once more to $14.1 million in 2025.

    Figures for 2024 and 2025 are drawn from unaudited management accounts, as statutory annual audits for those years have not yet been completed, while all data from 2016 through 2023 comes from fully audited financial statements.

    The financial records make clear that Magdalena’s ongoing financial struggles are not a product of the COVID-19 pandemic alone. The resort had already accumulated hundreds of millions in losses before the pandemic began, and has continued to post annual deficits even as global tourism activity rebounded in recent years. The published figures also include non-cash accounting charges such as depreciation and impairment, which must be separated from the resort’s actual cash operating performance when evaluating its ongoing viability.

  • Govt seeks global buyers for Hilton, Magdalena

    Govt seeks global buyers for Hilton, Magdalena

    Trinidad and Tobago is taking bold steps to unlock the tourism and economic potential of two of its most high-value hospitality assets, with the government set to issue a global call for private investors to acquire the iconic Hilton Trinidad and the Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort.

    Land and Legal Affairs Minister Saddam Hosein, who oversees the state enterprise e TecK responsible for managing the properties, has expressed strong confidence that the hotels’ prime locations, inherent tourism appeal, and underexploited commercial value will draw robust interest from both local and international investment groups. After years of persistent financial losses that have drained public funds, the government is moving decisively to transfer full ownership of the properties to private hands, a shift that will bring in fresh capital, upgraded operational leadership, and a clear path to long-term profitability.

    Hosein emphasized that state management of commercial hotels is fundamentally misaligned with responsible public resource stewardship, pointing to the consistent heavy losses that taxpayers have been forced to cover, particularly at the Tobago-based Magdalena resort. For Hilton Trinidad, located on a scenic hillside overlooking Port of Spain in the heart of the capital, Hosein noted that the property remains one of the nation’s most valuable tourism assets. However, he blamed mismanagement by the previous People’s National Movement (PNM) administration for the property’s gradual decline over recent years, recalling that the former government announced a $400 million Property Improvement Plan for the Hilton but never secured the required financing to move the project forward.

    “The prime minister has made clear that the state should not be in the business of running hotels,” Hosein shared in a telephone interview with the *Sunday Express*. “We firmly believe that placing these assets in the hands of private investors will lead to far more productive management of these critical state resources.”

    Preparatory work for the sales process is already underway, with formal Expressions of Interest (EOIs) set to be launched in the near future. The government is casting a wide global net to find qualified buyers, opening the competitive bidding process to investors from all major international markets, as well as local entities. Discussions are already planned with Hilton, the current operator of the Port of Spain property, to align on next steps for the asset once the sale is finalized. To boost global outreach, Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers will leverage Trinidad and Tobago’s global network of embassies and diplomatic missions to spread awareness of the investment opportunity to prospective buyers across key international tourism and real estate markets.

    Turning to the Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort, Hosein highlighted that this iconic Tobago property carries massive untapped potential, even with a long history of financial struggles. Located in a central position on the island, the resort boasts direct beach access and is home to one of the most highly regarded golf courses in the entire Caribbean – natural advantages that make it an extremely attractive acquisition for investors looking to establish or expand their presence in the competitive Caribbean tourism market. Hosein noted that the resort’s existing high-quality infrastructure and natural assets create a ready-made foundation for private investors to turn the property into a profitable, world-class destination.

    He pointed out that the previous PNM administration repeatedly attempted to divest the Magdalena resort but failed to complete a sale, in large part because of a confusing, poorly structured EOI process that deterred serious investors. “The old EOI had three overlapping options: investors could act as an operator, buy the asset, or lease it,” Hosein explained. “That was unnecessarily confusing for prospective buyers, which is why no deal ever went through.” This time around, the current government has eliminated that uncertainty by designing a streamlined process with a single clear goal: the full divestment and sale of both properties to qualified private buyers. This straightforward approach, Hosein said, will make the opportunity far more appealing to serious, committed investors.

    When asked to disclose the estimated market valuation of the two hotels and the government’s target revenue from the sales, Hosein declined to release any specific figures, noting that valuation details are sensitive, confidential procurement information that will be integrated into the evaluation phase of the tender process. “I cannot reveal this information because it forms part of the evaluation criteria once we reach the tender and disposal stage,” he explained. “I do not want to compromise the integrity of the procurement process by releasing sensitive information prematurely.”

    Hosein stressed that the planned divestment is far more than a simple sale of state assets: it is a strategic move to unlock the commercial potential of two world-class properties while eliminating a long-standing drain on public finances. Private investment, he argued, will bring the fresh capital, industry expertise, and operational excellence needed to reposition both hotels as premier hospitality destinations in the Caribbean. In the long term, the move is expected to deliver broad benefits to Trinidad and Tobago, from reduced public spending and increased government revenue to expanded tourism development opportunities and stronger economic growth. Ultimately, the goal is to transform two valuable but underperforming state-owned assets into thriving, privately managed hotels that contribute far more meaningfully to the national economy, rather than continuing to burden taxpayers with persistent losses.