$2M national flag? It's worth it!

Last month Sports Minister Gary Hunt unfurled a huge Trinidad and Tobago national flag at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port-of-Spain. He didn't say what it cost and it seems nobody cared to ask at the time.

But now reports are emerging that the cost was TT$2 million. And on Thursday at the weekly post-cabinet news conference reporters wanted to know if that is the true cost and whether such expenditure is justifiable.

Hunt apparently didn't know the cost, but he assured reporters that whatever the cost it is worth it, noting that if it did cost the reported $2 million it would be “nothing out of the ordinary.”

The flag, he explained, is intended to be seen from far and wide as a symbol of “its noble message" and to cultivate a "deep sense of national pride.”

So why did the 130-foot flag cost that much?

"It takes a considerable amount of engineering to plant a structure that high and of that weight,” he explained.

“There is a lot of work that had to be done on the foundation level. I am not exactly sure if that figure ($2 million) is exactly correct but if it that is the cost it is what the flag does for the citizenry of Trinidad and Tobago as we pass there. There is no price on national pride,” the minister said.

Hunt expressed pride in the project, which he said is "a symbol of our country for all to see.”

But he still could not give the price, so reporters asked him if, based on the rationale, it would also be justifiable if the cost was higher.

What about $10 million?

“You are taking the question to another realm,” was his response. “What I said is if it costs that amount ($2 million), the Government of T&T is happy and proud to create a symbol of national pride, which our flag should imbue in all citizens,” the Trinidad Guardian reported him as saying.

Reporters left St Ann's without knowing the cost, and the minister didn't promise to check with his officials and provide the answer to the million dollar question.