The Tobago Chamber of Industry & Commerce rejects the Government’s proposed plan to extend the state of emergency (SoE) by three months.
The House order paper said debate on the extension is expected to begin in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. It requires a simple majority for passage.
The chamber’s president Diane Hadad said the organisation does not see the need to extend the SoE.
“The fact is that we don’t know that the lockdown is serving any purpose now other than stifling people and frustrating people who have been locked in for a very long time,” she told Newsday.
“I don’t know that you are opening up the economy but you still want to keep us in a state of emergency for three months. It does not serve any meaningful purpose based on what we see in front of us, and we think we need to come out of that mould that we are in in order to get life going.”
Questioning the Government’s rationale for the extension, Hadad said, “There are vaccines in the country for those who wish to participate, a very large supply, and then a choice. Then there is the opening up of the different sectors, getting back to life. And the only thing that this state of emergency will continue to do now that you are opening up other places is create more traffic, create more frustration in a place where there has been a total locking of the mind and body for 18 months now.”
She added the SoE needs to be “released at this time.”
The Tobago Chamber, meanwhile, did not criticise or endorse the plan to extend the SoE but said the Government should set a timeline of January 1, 2022 to implement mandatory vaccinations.
“If we are not able to achieve the percentage of voluntary vaccinations to get to herd immunity by January 1, 2022, the Government must indicate that by January 1, 2022, it will be implementing mandatory vaccinations,” chamber president Martin George said in a Whatsapp video.
“The Government needs to be bold, strong and firm and take this step. So, in other words, you give the population these four months voluntarily vaccinated and during that time the Government needs to ramp up its advertising and marketing campaign to try to encourage citizens to get vaccinated voluntarily.
“If we don’t, we are definitely going to be facing another spike, another lockdown, and we know the catastrophic consequences of those situations.”
George also urged the Government to implement further measures to assist the vulnerable in the country.
“Concomitant with any proposal to extend the state of emergency for another three months, we call upon the Government to ramp up and escalate its socio-economic outreach programmes to ensure that the most vulnerable in society get the benefit of financial relief, rent assistance, salary grants, food vouchers, food hampers and care packages, and that they are given out in an efficient, effective manner without putting them to jump through hoops or overcome hurdles or cross barriers.”
He added, “We
