THE Prime Minister says Government may need to revisit the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) Act, saying people use it to obstruct development, rather than help it.
The misuse of the act, he said, has robbed Trinidad and Tobago of projects including Sandals Resorts and an aluminium smelter plant.
Dr Rowley made the comment at a post-Cabinet press conference at Whitehall on June 13.
Reiterating his stance that Tobago needs to become a “major tourist destination,” he said his government is in full support of the proposed construction of a $500-million Marriott-brand hotel and property development at Rocky Point. He said the island needed a “significant increase in the number of high-quality hotel rooms” there.
“This is not a political statement. I’m speaking as a Tobagonian.”
He added that modern planes are much larger and faster than in the past. It is because of that, he is also anticipating the extended ANR Robinson Airport, set to be complete by early 2025. He said many other Caricom countries mainly relied on tourism and had the same or less resources.
He said even though some Tobagonians were opposed to the new airport, “The Central Government is of the view that it is part of the development of TT, and notwithstanding the objections of local politicians, we are going to build it.”
However, going back to Tobago’s need for more hotel rooms, he said the question remained: “Who is going to build (them)?...
“The Government built the Hilton, the Government built the Hyatt, the Government built the Magdalena...Even if we want to build another hotel now, we don’t have the money.”
It is because of this the Government looked to the private sector.
He recalled his disappointment that seeking to do same with 2018 Sandals Resort in Tobago never materialised, as owing to what he described as misinformation in the public domain, the company pulled out of the deal in 2019.
He said the Sandals brand were “friends of TT” and was invited to Tobago and asked if there was an ideal space to build on. The Buccoo Estate was chosen.
Rowley said public misinformation spread that No Man’s Land had been chosen, and no matter how much the Government tried to clarify this, people believed it.
He said a “handful of faceless, nameless people” spent weeks “attacking the environmental side of things.
“Everybody in this country knows we use the EMA not to help us in our development, but to obstruct our development.
“We lost the aluminium smelter through the use of the EMA. We lost Sandals through the use of that....
“Even before we got to a point of negotiating anything with the Sandals people, we had people objecting to terms that had not even been established then.”
He said the brand was already established in the Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbados and Grenada, so it would not have been difficult to organise terms. There are seven branches in Jamaica, three in St Lucia, two in Barbados and the Bahamas, and one each in Antigua, St Vincent, Grenada and Curacao,
“Because we in Caricom talk about harmonisation of fi
