The controversial aluminium smelter plant at La Brea is a must for Government, insists Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

And there will follow a series of other industrial plants on the controversial La Brea Union Industrial Estate, he said.

At a public meeting of the People’s National Movement (PNM) in Point Fortin Monday night, Manning and his Energy Minister, Conrad Enill said Government intended to build the smelter.

This despite opposition from environmental groups, residents, and a High Court order that has stalled construction of the Alutrint smelter.

The ruling has been appealed and the case is for hearing in September.

To get to Point Fortin, Manning and his political allies passed the industrial site where residents have continued a protest vigil.

They erected signs that read ’Manning, Smelter not welcome’.

Police officers kept watch. But at the meeting at Frisco Junction, Point Fortin, Manning told supporters, ’You are going to be home to the first aluminium smelter in Trinidad and Tobago. And those who are against it will tell you that it is not that they are opposed to the smelter, but to the whole concept of industrialisation on the whole.’

He said, ’As we industrialise it is not possible to industrialise without adversely affecting the environment, but the PNM says that is not so, because there are international standards established to determine the levels of emission of one kind or the next that are acceptable which will allow human beings to coexist.’

Emphasising the concern the Government has for the environment, Manning said, ’sustainable development is what we are all about and while we use the environment we must use it and ensure that we must not prejudice the environment for generations to come.’

He announced that in addition to the smelter plant other industrial plants would be located in the La Brea/Point Fortin area, ’And you all will live to see not only aluminium smelter in La Brea and Point Fortin but LNG expansion and more industrial plants located in this part of the country and that is the policy of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago,’ said Manning.

The same sentiments were expressed earlier by Enill who stated in the course of his address on the state of the energy industries, ’ We also intend to develop the aluminium smelter, not only to sell our natural gas, but to develop a plastic industry to export these products to markets in the world.’

He said in addition to the proposed plant ’government is also looking at alternative energy and this will be dealt with during the next term’.

Speaking specifically about the plant Enill said ’the decision we have made is to withstand the challenges of the world’. The public meeting was the fifth in a series designed to educate members of the party on the need for electoral reform.

See Pages 19 & 20.

-with reporting by

Trevor Watson