PM: Govt consulting THA on jet ski regulations

Gail Alexan­der and

Stephon Nicholas

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says Gov­ern­ment is in con­sul­ta­tion with the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly on mea­sures to reg­u­late the use of jet skis and oth­er plea­sure craft fol­low­ing the death of sev­en-year-old An­gel­i­ca Jo­gie at Pi­geon Point Her­itage Park in To­ba­go last week.

She was re­spond­ing to a ques­tion in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day from Diego Mar­tin North/East MP Colm Im­bert, who asked what im­me­di­ate and ur­gent ac­tion the Gov­ern­ment is tak­ing to pre­vent sim­i­lar in­ci­dents in lo­cal wa­ters.

The Jo­gie fam­i­ly, their Oropouche East com­mu­ni­ty and oth­ers in Trinidad and To­ba­go have called for the reg­u­la­tion of jet ski op­er­a­tions.

Prime Min­is­ter, ex­press­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s con­do­lences to Jo­gie’s loved ones, said, “The Gov­ern­ment is in con­stant com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the THA re­gard­ing mea­sures to ad­dress these mat­ters, and more will be said in the fu­ture—so we’re in con­sul­ta­tion … with these kinds of mat­ters.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar claimed there was a bill in 2020 that “would have helped to ad­dress mat­ters such as these, but those on the oth­er side sat on that bill for ten years or more, un­til last year, and nev­er act­ed on that bill.”

Prime Min­is­ter, how­ev­er, gave no de­tails of the THA com­mu­ni­ca­tion and con­sul­ta­tion, when it would be con­clud­ed and if it in­volved any or all parts of the 2020 bill.

Prime Min­is­ter al­so did not in­di­cate if her Gov­ern­ment would speak with the Jo­gie fam­i­ly, or if rep­re­sen­ta­tives would at­tend An­gel­i­ca’s fu­ner­al, which is at 9 am to­day.

The fu­ner­al is from the fam­i­ly’s home at Ceme­tery Street, Mon­key­town, fol­lowed by cre­ma­tion.

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal vis­it­ed the Jo­gie fam­i­ly’s home on Mon­day, speak­ing with An­gel­i­ca’s grand­moth­er and oth­er rel­a­tives.

Mean­while, PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil leader An­cil Den­nis has blamed the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress for the stalling of the Ma­rine Park Bill, which was passed by the THA in No­vem­ber 2020.

The for­mer chief sec­re­tary said the then-op­po­si­tion re­fused to sup­port the To­ba­go au­ton­o­my bill in De­cem­ber 2024.

The bill, which re­quired a spe­cial ma­jor­i­ty to pass, failed as 21 gov­ern­ment mem­bers vot­ed in favour of it while 16 op­po­si­tion mem­bers vot­ed against.

Den­nis said the Ma­rine Park Bill would have giv­en the THA the nec­es­sary teeth to man­age the ma­rine park prop­er­ly.

The bill im­pos­es a $2,500 fine for unau­tho­rised ac­cess to the park or 12 months’ im­pris­on­ment.

It al­so cov­ers per­mit­ted noise lev­els, unau­tho­rised use of jet skis, re­quire­ment for in­sur­ance of ves­sels and bans the sale and dis­tri­b­u­tion of al­co­hol. The penal­ties for in­frac­tions in­clude fines up to $20,000 and/or two years’ im­pris­on­ment.

He said the THA, un­der his tenure as chief sec­re­tary, did its part to en­sure the ma­rine park was safe for the pub­lic.

In the wake of re­newed con­cerns over jet ski safe­ty, Ja­maica Tourism En­hance­ment Fund ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor Dr Carey Wal­lace says de­ci­sive ac­tion—even un­pop­u­lar—may be nec­es­sary to pro­tect lives.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Wal­lace weighed in on the is­sue, not­ing that Ja­maica was forced to make dif­fi­cult de­ci­sions re­gard­ing jet ski use.

He re­called that in 2014, Amer­i­can tourist Tomas Tor­res Castil­lo was struck and killed by a jet ski while bathing near his ho­tel in Ne­gril.

A year ear­li­er, sev­en-year-old Ja­maican girl Tanoya Hy­man lost her life af­ter an In­di­an tourist lost con­trol of a jet ski and slammed in­to her while she was play­ing in the sand. The op­er­a­tor was charged with manslaugh­ter but found not guilty.

Wal­lace said these in­ci­dents were part of a pat­tern that ul­ti­mate­ly led to the gov­ern­ment ban­ning all com­mer­cial jet ski op­er­a­tions around 2017.

“You would have had an out­cry from the pub­lic as well as an out­cry from tourism stake­hold­ers ... We had no choice but to ban jet skis. We banned the im­por­ta­tion of jet skis and stopped giv­ing li­cences to any op­er­a­tor in wa­ter­sports, and we would im­pose fines and seize the crafts if they were caught (op­er­at­ing il­le­gal­ly). That trans­lat­ed in­to sig­nif­i­cant re­duc­tions to the point where we haven’t had a case since then.”

He said the ac­ci­dents not on­ly af­fect­ed the coun­try’s tourism rep­u­ta­tion but al­so had fi­nan­cial con­se­quences.

Wal­lace not­ed that, like Pi­geon Point and Store Bay, Ja­maica has des­ig­nat­ed swim­ming zones, but en­force­ment re­mained a chal­lenge due to lim­it­ed re­sources and cul­tur­al at­ti­tudes to­ward com­pli­ance.

He ac­knowl­edged the de­ci­sion was dif­fi­cult, giv­en that tourism ac­counts for over 30 per cent of Ja­maica’s GDP, and said some op­er­a­tors re­main op­posed. How­ev­er, he said there are no re­grets.

Asked whether the ban af­fect­ed tourist ar­rivals, Wal­lace said there was no ev­i­dence of neg­a­tive fall­out.

He ad­vised Trinidad and To­ba­go stake­hold­ers to make a da­ta-dri­ven de­ci­sion, bal­anc­ing pub­lic safe­ty and liveli­hoods.

“You have to make it a da­ta-dri­ven de­ci­sion in­stead of an emo­tion­al one. You have to look at your num­bers, your pros and cons, for your gov­ern­ment to make a de­ci­sion ac­cord­ing­ly.”