Members of the THA Minority abstained from voting on their own Motion at last Thursday's plenary sitting of the House of Assembly.

The motion presented at the 34th Plenary sitting, called on the Assembly to 'intensify the repair, maintenance and upgrade of secondary and agricultural access roads throughout Tobago as a matter of urgency." The motion was based on what the minority described as the 'sporadic upgrading and improvement of some primary roads in Tobago.'

In presenting the motion, TOP Assemblyman for Belle Garden/Goodwood, Steve Jack claimed that Tobagonians can't plant peas or build houses because the THA was not paying attention to secondary roads and agricultural access roads in Tobago. He noted that in order for agriculture to succeed in Tobago, land, water and roads were the most important infrastructure needs. He also said agriculture should be a major component to Tobago's GDP.

In response, Deputy Chief Secretary and Secretary of Infrastructure and Public Utilities Hilton Sandy proposed a number of minor changes to its Preamble and went on to justify the Majority's position on these. However, the resolution that "this House request that the Executive Council intensify the repair, maintenance and upgrade of secondary and agricultural access roads throughout Tobago as a matter of urgency" remained untouched.

Following Sandy's contribution Minority Assemblyman Rolly Quaccoo (Canaan/Bon Accord), Oswald Jordan (Bacolet/Mt St George) and Councillor Yvette Parks-Caruth made their contributions. Minority Leader Ashworth Jack was absent when the vote was taken at the sitting. All four Minority Members present abstained from voting on the Motion presented by Steve Jack, even though the substantive Motion was untouched. It was the fifth occasion that the Minority had voted against or abstained from voting on Motions since May 2010.

Sandy charged that some of Jack's claims were false and misleading, while newly appointed Secretary of Agriculture, Marine Affairs, Marketing and the Environment Councillor Gary Melville noted that the Motion was not a contentious one and argued that agriculture had moved into the realms of science and technology.

When contacted by Tobago News, Assemblyman Steve Jack said the Minority refused to vote for the motion because the amendments made to the motion changed the perspective of the original motion. He said the minority was disappointed that several key words were omitted.

The motion voted upon omitted the words, 'sporadic,' 'some' and 'neglected' from the preamble. It was also proposed that the word 'continued' should be inserted before improvement in the section which read, "the improvement of these secondary and agricultural access roads'."

This, Jack argued was unacceptable. He emphasised that the present administration has made it a practice to change motions presented by the minority and expect a full vote.