December 10th 2024 may well go down in history as the day Tobago became relegated to the bleachers - in a manner of speaking. The conversation put to Cabinet was an attempt to give the Tobago House of Assembly added clout to manage its affairs, in the manner best suited to local tastes.
The Autonomy Bill1 was mooted at the end of day, since the changes asked for by its authors would have required substantial changes to the Constitution. Naturally too, the Opposition refused to provide votes that would seemingly make the ruling Peoples National Movement look good in the eyes of the Tobago public.
Why does this matter? While we at Environment Tobago might not be qualified to comment on what passes for [sic]‘correct government’, this autonomy story bodes ill for fine-tuning our laws to deal with the ever escalating conflict between the population and the environment.
Currently this same government has an option to ratify the Escazù Agreement and it simply will not be bothered. Why?
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In December 2024, the House of Representatives passed the Tobago Island Government Bill 2021 by a vote of 20-10 but failed to pass the amendment to the constitution; Bill 2020 (dubbed Tobago Self-Government). The latter required a three-fifths majority for passage. ↩︎