Referring to the PNM National Women's League as the party's backbone, the Prime Minister called for its support of local government reform.

He said it ensures that when the country goes to the polls to hold local government elections, people can see change for the better.

Dr Rowley was speaking at the league's annual general meeting and conference on Sunday at Achievors Banquet Hall, Duncan Village in San Fernando.

He said local government reform is not just about having local elections and electing the same set of "half-dead councillors" who operate in the same old system every three years.

"The fundamental change that is going to take place is the implementation of property tax where every local government body will collect tax from the residences, use it and get the additional monies from the central government."

"You will have control of a revenue stream. That is local government reform. As you take that on, the central government will pass greater responsibilities to local government."

He told the gathering the Government had passed very complicated legislation to bring about the reform.

He charged that many municipal corporations pay millions of dollars to contractors "from ohie-ohoe" to collect the garbage.

Yet, some garbage is not being collected because there is no connection between the people and the garbage collectors.

Rowley accused PNM's political opponents of not wanting any part of the reform because they did "absolutely nothing" when they were in office and do not support anything that brings about beneficial change.

"But we are in competition with them. We are in service of the people across the country who will benefit from these changes. They didn't want us to solve the Petrotrin problem," Rowley said.

"They want us to kick the can down the road. But we knew that it was not beneficial to the people of TT to let Petrotrin bankrupt the country."

Rowley said the Opposition had invited people to use white rum and sunlight for the coronavirus at the height of the pandemic. Had people taken heed, many people would have died.

He added, "When we decided to restructure Petrotrin, many people saw that as a political opportunity."

The Government, he said, saw it as taking a difficult decision to improve the national position.

"We had to pay US $850 million in August 2018. After, we borrowed $13 billion for the pandemic. Where was that money going to come from? If we did not do it, that would have brought the economic collapse and downgrade."

He said Petrotrin's restructuring to create Heritage Petroleum allowed Heritage to pay the US $850 million without recourse.

Health was the number one priority, and preserving the economy was the second.

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