00:00The minister is adamant that the seabridge never ceased operating,
00:04stressing that vessels were always assigned to move food and other essential supplies between Trinidad and Tobago.
00:12Speaking with TV6 via telephone this morning, she explained that steps are being taken to rectify the situation.
00:21If somebody should know what happens, what is happening to be on the impact of any kind of anxiety with respect to the seabridge and so on,
00:29I'm at Subagodian. I know. I'm from Charlottesville.
00:33I have always acted, or the ministry has always acted in good faith, together with the Port Authority of Canada and Tobago.
00:38In good faith, with whatever is happening, we don't fold our hands.
00:42We get involved and actively look to resolve every single situation and problem.
00:49She further notes that a barge has already been deployed to ease cargo flow as much as possible.
00:55However, former president of the Truckers Association, Horace Amid, says the temporary barge solution is creating new problems.
01:05He argues that the barge is damaging trucks.
01:07The barge is only taking 30 trucks.
01:12And to take that 30 trucks, there is a cost.
01:16If you have a vehicle for $700,000, $800,000, and you run that on the barge with all that sea spray and that sea blast,
01:26the life of your truck will go down for the cab by at least five years.
01:33Meanwhile, businesswoman Diane Haddad painted a far bleaker picture, stating that services have been down since January 12th,
01:48and that in her view, there's no other accurate description of the situation except that the sea bridge has collapsed.
01:56So we had no service from the 12th of January all the way, as we speak now, we are almost a month.
02:05A barge holds about 30 vehicles at best, and the barge has taken three days to make one trip.
02:14So the Caboostar took, let us say, close to 100 trucks a night.
02:19So imagine three days for 30 trucks as against 100 trucks a night, which in most instances, it came full every night.
02:28And then we had no ferry.
02:30How could a minister or anybody in their right senses, right, come out and say we don't have a collapse of the sea bridge?
02:38That assessment is echoed by Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association President, Reginald McLean,
02:44who also describes the sea bridge as effectively collapsed.
02:48McLean tells the Morning Edition that the ongoing disruption is devastating the tourism sector,
02:55arguing that without a reliable sea and air bridge, visitors from Trinidad and overseas simply cannot access Tobago.
03:03It's a major problem. It's not a critical problem at this point,
03:08but you're basically shutting down almost the construction industry
03:14because right now everything is catering to food and drugs.
03:19And when I say drugs, I mean the legal ones.
03:22So that is where the minister and their team needs to start understanding the perennial problem of Tobago.
03:30However, the minister says she has been very open and upfront about the situation
03:36and is confused about the motives of some.
03:39So I'm beginning to become very suspicious of the motives of the hoteliers.
03:44I'm sorry I have to go there because I don't understand it because the APT James,
03:49the APT James has a capacity of 900 passengers.
03:53It was doing two trips a day.
03:55That is 1,800 passengers.
03:57Right, it takes up 150 vehicles, so that is 300 a day.
04:00I'm 100 cars, 42 vans, 8 trucks.
04:03Additionally, Minister John told TV6 that on February 9th, today,
04:09the APT James left Tobago at 6.17 a.m. with 372 passengers,
04:16economy, 336, premium, 36, 137 vehicles, 72 cars, 61 vans and 4 trucks.
04:26She says the APT James has the capacity for 900 passengers and 150 vehicles.
04:34Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
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