00:00And it is sad that Caribbean Airlines, prior to now, was weaponized by the cabinet against a government in Tobago that they hated.
00:11And I'm grateful to the members of parliament for Tobago East and West, who have been able in quick time to negotiate the start, because this is just a start.
00:22Of course, Caribbean Airlines will have to expand this as we go along. But I want to thank them for their efforts so early on in the game.
00:31Mr. Augustine said under former Tobago West MP, Chamfer Kajul-Lewis, the failed promises continued.
00:39It was in 2023 when the former member of parliament, Chamfer Kajul-Lewis, promised that in months we will see some action from Caribbean Airlines with late night flights.
00:49We are in 2025, and we literally got it in some months after changing our members of parliament.
00:58Mr. Augustine said even a proposal to have direct flights from Toronto to Tobago was shut down without explanation.
01:07And after having some agreement with Caribbean Airlines and looking over the draft contracts and agreeing on the terms of the contract,
01:17Caribbean Airlines just refused to execute it without even giving us a reason why they refused to execute the contract.
01:28And that's what we have had to treat with as an island.
01:32Augustine said Tobago could have assisted in preventing the present forex shortage.
01:37And as a country, we have to recognize that there's an urgent need to diversify our economy.
01:45And Tobago provides for the country a natural competitive advantage in tourism that we just have not been tapping into.
01:53And had we tapped into that as a country, we will not be in this problem with forex shortages.
01:59We will not have rabbs with St. Vincent about being able to pay $4 million U.S. dollars to farmers in St. Vincent.
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