Despite the efforts of the DLP administration to negotiate fuel supply to the country, the opposition continues to blow hot over the recently overcome fuel crisis in Dominica. Former president of the National Youth Council of Dominica (NYCD), Paul Baron; president of the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP), Johnson Boston; and DFP political leader Bernard Hurtault continue to criticize the Skerrit-led government for the fuel shortage.
Hurtault said it is worrisome that the DLP government turned the other cheek when Rubis Oil warned of its cessation of business operations in Dominica. Hurtault said PM Roosevelt Skerrit did nothing to come to an agreeable compromise with Rubis, and that he also turned the other cheek when former Ross University School of Medicine withdrew from the country.
He contended that the government ought to have established alternative fuel and energy sources to meet the growing needs of the populace before Rubis exited the country.
DFP President Johnson Boston said it was improper for the government to have involved itself with the energy sector in the first place. He said Dominica did not have the problem of fuel shortage when several independent players were in the field, but since the DLP administration began to control Petro Caribe and made the latter the major fuel supplier to the country, the Island had begun to experience incessant energy problems.
Baron said the struggling economy is traceable to fuel scarcity, and that the economy will remain damaged and prostrated unless energy becomes available for all at all times. He urged the government to renegotiate a mutually-beneficial agreement with Rubis so that fuel supply can resume fully in the country.
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