Over three years af­ter four divers lost their lives in what was dubbed the Paria Div­ing Tragedy, the Gov­ern­ment has an­nounced that the fam­i­lies of each div­er will re­ceive com­pen­sa­tion of $1 mil­lion, as will the lone sur­vivor Christo­pher Boodram.

Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young made the an­nounce­ment at yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net news brief­ing at White­hall, Port-of-Spain, but sought to un­der­score that it had noth­ing to do with this month’s Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

The news came as a sur­prise to the af­fect­ed fam­i­lies and Boodram, who were not no­ti­fied of Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion pri­or to it be­ing made pub­lic.