Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says Gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to ad­dress­ing the con­cerns of maxi taxi op­er­a­tors and will con­tin­ue en­gag­ing in di­a­logue with stake­hold­ers in the sec­tor.

The Prime Min­is­ter was re­spond­ing in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day to a ques­tion from Diego Mar­tin North/East MP Colm Im­bert on what Gov­ern­ment is do­ing to al­le­vi­ate the con­cerns of maxi taxi dri­vers fol­low­ing the re­cent dis­rup­tion to trans­port ser­vices.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­ject­ed claims of a na­tion­wide shut­down.

“The vast ma­jor­i­ty of maxi taxi op­er­a­tors are de­cent, hard­work­ing in­di­vid­u­als who en­sure our loved ones are trans­port­ed safe­ly to schools, homes and work­places. Giv­en the es­sen­tial ser­vice they pro­vide, my Gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to ad­dress­ing their con­cerns—con­cerns the PNM ig­nored for ten years,” she said.

She added that the Min­is­ter of Trans­port will con­tin­ue to work close­ly with stake­hold­ers.

“The Min­is­ter of Trans­port, as he has done over the past year, will con­tin­ue to con­sult and en­gage all stake­hold­ers in­volved in our na­tion­al trans­porta­tion ser­vices, in the na­tion­al in­ter­est,” she said.

The Prime Min­is­ter re­it­er­at­ed that Gov­ern­ment re­mains open to hear­ing con­cerns and tak­ing ac­tion where nec­es­sary.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so re­spond­ed to a ques­tion from Chief Whip Mar­vin Gon­za­les on mea­sures to strength­en sup­port and pro­tec­tion ser­vices for chil­dren fol­low­ing re­cent crim­i­nal in­ci­dents. She said Gov­ern­ment is ful­ly com­mit­ted to pro­tect­ing chil­dren, adopt­ing a “whole-of-gov­ern­ment” ap­proach that strength­ens col­lab­o­ra­tion among the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), and the Min­istries of Ed­u­ca­tion, Health and So­cial De­vel­op­ment.
This, she said, is aimed at en­sur­ing vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren are iden­ti­fied ear­li­er and pro­tect­ed more ef­fec­tive­ly.

Ef­forts are un­der way to strength­en child pro­tec­tion sys­tems, im­prove case man­age­ment, and en­hance in­for­ma­tion-shar­ing among agen­cies so that warn­ing signs do not “fall through the cracks.”

She added that work is al­so on­go­ing to in­crease front­line ca­pac­i­ty with­in agen­cies re­spon­si­ble for child wel­fare and fam­i­ly sup­port.