Will
smelters create real change?
By Andy Johnson
Trinidad Express
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
01 21 07
WITHOUT
a mixed approach to development, the now shelved
project for an aluminum smelter in Chatham would
not have made a significant impact on the transformation
of that community, a social researcher has concluded.
Dr Roy McCree, a sociologist, drew
this conclusion in a paper he delivered at the symposium
on the development of a smelter industry in Trinidad
and Tobago. He is currently a Fellow at the Sir
Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies
at the UWI, St Augustine. He is from Point Fortin.
The symposium was held at the Paria Suite Hotel
in La Romaine on December 6, in the wake of the
storm of protest which raged across the country
on the issue.
As an introduction to his discourse
on the issue, Mc Cree said the symposium should
have been held much earlier than it was, "long
before any protests emerged and assumed an organised
character. And it should have taken place in the
context of the present dominant global discourse
surrounding good governance, transparency and the
partnership approach to public policy and social
development."
He then backgrounded his presentation
by providing an historical background in his study
of the differences in the communities between Point
Fortin and Chatham, saying that across the country
there was general a great deal of ignorance of the
nature of these communities, not the least of them
being that many people were unaware of just where
they are located.
One of the outstanding features
of this difference, he said, was that while La Brea,
Point Fortin and Cap-de-Ville had a longer history
and experience with heavy industry through oil production,
Chatham always had been located "outside of
this process," and was characterised by agriculture,
farming and fishing activity. And combined with
significant demographic differences, McCree said
these contributed to the difference in reaction
to the construction of smelters in La Brea and in
Chatham.
Going back over the period of industrial
and economic decline in the Point Fortin/La Brea
district during the period 1980-1995, McCree said
these were characterised by among other things the
closure of the Point Fortin refinery, the closure
of the Dunlop Tyre company, closure of the sole
bank at La Brea, the rise and brief reign of Gun
Hill and criminal elements in Point Fortin and the
depreciation and destruction of sporting facilities
in the area.
Significant among the highlights
of his research, McCree noted that unemployment
in the Point Fortin district was appreciably higher
than the national average, a factor which was not
altered to any acceptable degree with the coming
on stream of the Atlantic LNG plant in Point Fortin
in the mid to late 1990's.
This development came after a long
period of decline, during which he said it emerged
that a process of the "development of underdevelopment"
had taken place in La Brea and Point Fortin.
"In spite of being the home
of an oil industry and a Pitch Lake, McCree said,
this area produced some "major contradictions,"
including high levels of unemployment, high levels
of poverty and some of the worst roads in the country.
Coming later, he said, the establishment
of the Atlantic LNG plants "have generally
failed to alleviate some of the fundamental developmental
contradictions" which characterised life in
La Brea and Point Fortin. Dealing strictly with
the issue of job creation, he said the LNG development
"can hardly be considered to be transformative,
suggesting later in the study that a similar scenario
could emerged from the development of a smelter
industry.
On the other hand, he said LNG development
produced five major gains. These include the return
of investor confidence in the community, boosting
retail and fast food restaurant activity, establishment
of a technology centre offering skills training,
elimination of the criminal activity in Gun Hill
and what he called "the return to some semblance
of hope, peace and social stability" to the
area.
What is most likely to make a real
difference for people in the southwestern peninsula,
McCree said, was an approach to development which
integrated the following: mineral extraction, agriculture/farming/fishing,
manufacturing, small business and popular culture,
involving such activities as resembling the Sugar
and Energy Festival in Caroni and the Pt Fortin
Borough Day celebrations.
As support for his promotion of
this "mixed model" approach to development,
McCree said his research revealed that in spite
of continuous decline in agricultural activity over
the last decade, areas in Central Trinidad recorded
the lowest unemployment rates in the country.
In 2004, he said, the Borough of
Chaguanas recorded an unemployment rate of 3.1 per
cent, compared with the national average of 8.3
per cent. In Caroni the figure was 7.3 per cent.
Also significantly, he found, although the number
of workers engaged in sugar production fell precipitously
from 5,100 to 300 with the closure of Caroni Limited
in 2004, the actual rate of unemployment in Caroni
declined by one per cent, from 7.3 per cent to 7.2
per cent in 2005.
By contrast, he said, with the closure
of the refinery and the tyre factory in Pt Fortin,
unemployment shot up past 30 per cent in that community.
and even in the absence of hard data, he said, a
similar situation would have resulted in the collapse
of the Pitch Lake in La Brea.
If, therefore, an aluminum industry
does not embrace this "mixed model" approach
its development potential would be severely limited,
McCree said.
On the other hand, he felt there
was potential for some positive developments. He
listed seven major areas: Consolidating or expanding
the existing provision of vocational education in
the area; Averting the closure of the Chatham youth
Camp, which has been an important source of skills
training; Strengthening the call for upgrading the
lone hospital in the region to cater for industrial
accidents in particular and the general well being
of the community; Strengthening the need for the
creation of a better road network in the region
and the long promised highway to Port of Spain;
Creating opportunities for small business to develop;
Increased source of funding for sport and cultural
development and Community revival or revitalisation.
During his Christmas address to
the nation, Prime Minister Patrick announced his
decision to shift the smelter proposed for Chatham
to a site to be developed off Otaheite in south
Oropouche. He provided no rationale for this turn-around,
after having declared earlier that the discussions
at the symposium produced no evidence that would
cause the Government to change its mind or alter
its plans.
McCree
has written and presented other papers on this subject
of the impact of industrialisation in southwestern
Trinidad. Among the topics of his research have
been studies on "The Impact of Atlantic LNG
on the Quality of Life in Point Fortin," "The
Potential Impact of Industrial Expansion,"
and "The Potential Socio-economic Impact of
Highway Expansion in southwestern Trinidad, with
particular reference on La Brea."
Trinidad
Express
Wednesday,
January 17th 2007
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©2006 Trinidad Express. All Rights Reserved.
