SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

The chair­man of the T&T Bev­er­age Al­co­hol Al­liance (TTBAA) says the sec­tor was ex­treme­ly dis­ap­point­ed with the de­ci­sion by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley to con­tin­ue re­stric­tions on dine-in ser­vices at bars and restau­rants.

Speak­ing on CNC3’s the Morn­ing Brew, Dr Patrick An­toine said since the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic caused lock­downs in T&T, over 300 bars have closed. He said that num­ber was ex­pect­ed to in­crease over the next two weeks and over 100,000 em­ploy­ees of the sec­tor are be­ing af­fect­ed. 

An­toine said the TTBAA has been train­ing bar op­er­a­tors and their staff with the best prac­tices for op­er­at­ing dur­ing the pan­dem­ic.

He sug­gest­ed that T&T should adopt the sys­tem prac­tised in Bar­ba­dos, where com­pli­ance of­fi­cers are tasked with en­sur­ing bars and restau­rants ad­here to the pub­lic health guide­lines.

“It’s re­al­ly im­por­tant be­cause you don’t want to con­tin­ue pun­ish­ing re­al­ly sol­id en­ti­ties that have done the right thing and con­tin­ue to lan­guish be­cause they are not be­ing giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ben­e­fit from the very heavy in­vest­ments they have made,” An­toine said.

“The PM’s con­cerns are not with­out mer­it but we be­lieve that those are things that can be han­dled through train­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, where bar own­ers un­der­stand that there is a re­al and present dan­ger that they may be closed or where if they are com­plained about, the li­cense may be pulled or they may be fined, we be­lieve that a num­ber of op­er­a­tors will en­sure that their op­er­a­tions are com­pli­ant.”

He said the TTBAA has in­vest­ed in a hot­line for re­port­ing er­rant bar op­er­a­tors but it was suf­fer­ing be­cause there was not enough col­lab­o­ra­tion with the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

“We have a hot­line in place but it suf­fers from a deficit of not be­ing linked in a rea­son­able time­frame with the re­sources the TTPS has in place and we be­lieve that just ex­tend­ing it so that when there is a com­plaint, we can re­fer that com­plaint to the TTPS will make a tremen­dous dif­fer­ence.”

An­toine said most bar own­ers were will­ing to ad­here to guide­lines and the TTBAA wants to start a pub­lic cam­paign to ed­u­cate pa­trons on the con­se­quences of not com­ply­ing.

“This week is time for us to step up and try to con­sol­i­date what we’ve learned, put in­to prac­tice, by reach­ing out to the po­lice, the Min­istry of Health and reach­ing out to the pa­trons, it’s a so­ci­etal prob­lem and we are do­ing more and more to de­vel­op ed­u­ca­tion and aware­ness that we can share with the pub­lic, so that some­day when the bars are opened, we can re­mind them that we are in a pan­dem­ic and that suc­cess in re­main­ing open de­pends on them.”

An­toine said in ad­di­tion to con­tin­u­ing their lob­by­ing with the Min­is­ter of Health and Prime Min­is­ter, the TTBAA will be meet­ing with the TTPS this week to dis­cuss how best they could learn from the mis­takes of the past and move for­ward.