If Government wants to talk, the Joint Consultative Council (which represents major stakeholders in the construction sector) will talk. There is no choice. But the question is what level of confidence and goodwill the construction sector can place in Government’s utterances.

This was the response of JCC President Winston Riley yesterday to Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s apparent olive branch. Manning said at a public meeting on Monday that Government wanted to work with the local construction sector.

Riley said the Prime Minister’s idea to come up with an arrangement between Government and the sector was not new since it was done before (about one year before the last general election). ’A lot was promised, but nothing happened. In fact things got worse,’ Riley said.

He said there might be several reasons for Manning’s statement. ’Election is one factor. (In addition) the downturn in the economy forces people to change their minds,’ he said, adding that if Government continued on its current path, there could be social unrest. He said the third factor was the fact that there was no real development in infrastructure within the past few years. ’We see it in the flooding and in the transportation system,’ he said. He added that the development of capacity at the level of trained and skilled personnel had not occurred.

’We are in a mess. And it is not a question of when the sun shines, you have one view and when it is night time, you have another view. It is a question of getting the construction sector in a development mode,’ Riley stated.