Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

A five-hour meet­ing be­tween Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine has drawn crit­i­cism from Mi­nor­i­ty Leader Kelvon Mor­ris who claimed the ses­sion re­flect­ed close align­ment be­tween Au­gus­tine and the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC). Mor­ris said both par­ties “were joined at the hip.”

The meet­ing, which took place on Tues­day, in­clud­ed Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness Bar­ry Padarath and Leader of As­sem­bly Busi­ness Zor­isha Hack­ett. Top­ics dis­cussed in­clud­ed To­ba­go’s au­ton­o­my and right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion, the ex­pan­sion of the THA’s leg­isla­tive and reg­u­la­to­ry au­thor­i­ty, na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and bor­der con­trol, un­re­solved land ti­tle is­sues, Town and Coun­try Plan­ning con­cerns, and tourism de­vel­op­ment.