Enill: Full support for local quarries

Published: 27 Sep 2009
Peter Balroop

Energy Minister Conrad Enill admits that the proposed 2010 budget initiative for the Government to access quarrying material from Dominica comes as news to him. His disclosure came when asked, last Wednesday, to explain why the Government was intent on making this move, as outlined in the September 7 budget presentation by Finance Minister Karen Tesheira.

She noted then, that the move was in light of Government having to import aggregate from as far as Canada, because domestic demand outstripped domestic supply. The Sunday Guardian’s request of Enill, whose portfolio includes quarrying operations, came in the context of the Quarry Association of T&T taking issue over the Minister’s announcement that the Government proposed to invest in quarrying facilities in Dominica to complement the T&T supply.

Nine days after the budget revelation, the association’s president, Ramdeo Dan Persad, was at great pains to explain to the national community that since the last quarter of 2008, “supplies of locally-produced aggregate have been adequate to meet our domestic demand, such that no aggregate has been imported during his period.” Persad, in a full-page Guardian advertisement, dated September 16, noted that most local processing plants were operating well below their respective capacities, because of the current decline in the construction industry. “It is to be noted our members have made significant capital investments, through our local banks, in modern processing plants and equipment, to facilitate increased local demand. “In addition, the Tobago House of Assembly purchased and installed a new state-of-the-art hard rock crushing and screening plant and associated forward linkage infrastructure for the production of aggregate and concrete from its rich local geological resource base of volcanic rocks, called diorite, similar to or of better quality than are to be found in Dominica,” the advertisement outlined. In an interview last weekend, PNM Diego Martin West MP, Dr Keith Rowley, a former holder of the Energy portfolio, also mentioned the House of Assembly’s $100 million quarrying initiative, and was shocked that the Government was thinking of investing in Dominica’s quarrying capability. And without going into detail, Rowley also mentioned that Sunway International of Malaysia was awarded an exclusive “take or pay” quarrying contract. Even if the Government did not take material, it still had to pay for it, and there was now a risk with the Dominica initiative of having to pay twice for quarrying material, in addition to shipping costs from Dominica, said Rowley. He added that the Government, in its quest for economic union with OECS countries like Dominica, did not appear to be thoroughly thinking through its moves. In Persad’s ad, however, he explained Sunway’s contract was to produce 2,500 metric tonnes of limestone from Scott’s Quarry, which had been considerably upgraded to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Having outlined how other quarry operations had come into play, leading to a healthy surplus capability, Persad recommended bringing the Dominica quarry initiative to a screeching halt. “Simply stated, setting up another entity in our already saturated production environment will result in mountainous stockpiles of unused production, and hence jeopardise only the capital and human investment in this sector,” according to Persad. He said the local quarries would be in an even better supply position when Eastern Division police, under Snr Supt Margaret Sampson-Browne, carried out plans to halt the spate of illegal quarrying in east Trinidad. Local quarries employ 20,000 workers directly and more than 100,000 indirectly, through the supply of equipment and spares and associated plant, and investment in the industry stood at around $3.5 billion, Persad stated. Enill: More sense to import from OECS Quizzed on the Government’s position on setting up quarrying in Dominica, Enill said it seemed the issue had not been fleshed out yet, and was a “policy matter being considered in relation to other issues.” Adding that the Finance Minister might have a clear picture of what the policy was, Enill mentioned, however, the Government fully intended to get its construction programme going full speed ahead again, and when that happened it was likely aggregate demand would again outstrip supply. Enill said for some time now the Government had been importing aggregate, and it had a duty to support local quarry operators if they could maintain supplies. However, if the Government had a choice of importing aggregate from Canada or Dominica, of course it would make sense to import from the OECS country and give it the support of T&T’s manufacturing sector. Source: http://guardian.co.tt/business/business/2009/09/27/enill-full-support-local-quarries