Minister of Public Utilities and MP for Lopinot/Bon Air West Marvin Gonzales has said the pandemic has made his duties challenging.

In an interview with Newsday, Gonzales reflected on his tenure as MP over the past year after being elected to government on August 10, 2020.

“You can’t effectively represent constituents when you have to operate under tight restrictions,” said Gonzales, adding the inability to have community meetings and other activities prevented him from engaging with his constituents in the way he would have wanted.

“A community is not only about putting down infrastructure, but also about pursing programmes where community can express themselves. My constituency is very rich in culture and talented people,” he said, citing the Lopinot historical site, the Super Nova pan group from Surrey Village, and TT cricketer Lendl Simmons who is (from Tacarigua) and has a cricket ground is named after him.

“The community is just waiting for life to go back to some kind of normalcy.” He said one of the key things his constituents are faced with now is unemployment. “A lot of people who come to my constituency office, that is their main challenge.”

He said while the government aims to jump start the economy by pushing initiatives such as its ongoing vaccination drive, unemployment will continue to be an issue for many residents.

“Going into 2022, my focus will be to work with my constituents to give them access to a number of initiatives, especially in the agriculture sector where we plan to pursue a number of projects.”

He said another project on his agenda for 2022 is to work with the Ministry of Youth Development and National Service to convert the Five Rivers Junior Secondary School into a major youth training facility.

He said in 2021, his office was able to provide several areas with access to water and electricity. “Very soon we will be working on the Lopinot road which is in deplorable state.”

He said he has already discussed with Minister of Tourism Randall Mitchell about restoring the Lopinot Historical Site, which has been out of operation for nearly 10 years. He said the site, before the pandemic, has attracted over 100,000 visitors.

“I have already written to and had discussions with Mitchell to bring to cabinet a vote to bring the site back.”

He said there are also a number of community centres currently under construction. “I think in 2022 those sites will be opened and commissioned. These are the things that have been on the cards for quite some time (which) I look forward to bringing to completion during my tenure.”

In November 2020, one of Gonzales’ first acts as MP was a sod-turning on the site of the old Surrey Village community centre where a new state-of-the-art centre will be built. During the ceremony, Minister of Sport and Community Development Shamfa Cudjoe said the new centre will cost $11 million.

She also said at the time that 13 community centres were in the works for that fiscal year. Gonzales said he has found creative ways to keep in touch with his co

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