11/04/2026
Thank you, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, for ensuring that the Penal Fire Station is finally equipped to serve the people it was built to protect.
The station may have been opened in 2020, 8 years after in started under your PP administration, but opening a building is one thing; making it fully functional is another. What matters to the people of Penal and surrounding communities, including Lallbeharry Trace, is not ceremony, but readiness.
Mrs. Persad-Bissessar deserves credit for helping to bring the station to the point where it can properly serve the geographical area for which it was intended. That is what leadership should mean: not simply opening facilities, but ensuring they are equipped to deliver the service the public expects and deserves.
The question, then, is why this was not done from the start by those who had responsibility at the time. That question is especially relevant to Mr. Stuart Young, then Minister of National Security, whose own experience at the opening became one of the most memorable moments of the event. If that incident proved anything, it is that a fire station must be more than officially declared open; it must be properly outfitted and operational.
At a deeper level, this is not only about Penal. Every community in Trinidad must benefit fairly from national resources. Essential services, emergency response and public protection cannot be concentrated in some areas while others are left to wait. The people of South and Rural Trinidad are entitled to the same standard of readiness and protection as citizens anywhere else in the country.
In the end, citizens do not benefit from plaques, speeches or photo opportunities. They benefit from functioning services, proper equipment and real protection.
That is why thanks are due to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar — for focusing on substance, service and fairness, and for helping to ensure that all of Trinidad benefits from the resources of the State. Thank you .
