FRED MITCHELL TELLS THE PORT PUT UP OR SHUT UP
Rupert Hayward represents a trust that owns part of the shares in the Grand Bahama Port Authority. He has been trying to get the government to agree that they could sell some of their shares to a new entity but the Government has said no. He went public after months of stalling and delay. The Chairman of the PLP responded following Mr. Hayward’s intervention in the press last week. Here is what The Nassau Guardian reported Mr. Mitchell’s reply as:
The Nassau Guardian 9 June 2023
By Candia Dames
“The prime minister in his budget statement made a statement about matters in Grand Bahama and he said that it is time for decisive action,” said Mitchell during debate on the 2023/2024 budget.
“For the second time in my experience in this term, an investor has decided [to] somehow throw down the gauntlet in public, which requires them to take issue with the government publicly over a matter involving their investment even though each investor, as far as I know, understands that the prime minister has an open door policy, and given the level of investment, it’s possible for you to simply pick up the phone and say x, y or z; but be that as it may, free country, so you approach whatever you want with your investment, so on and so forth.”
Mitchell first pointed to Atlantis President and Managing Director Audrey Oswell, who publicly expressed concerns in March after the government approved Royal Caribbean International’s beach club project for Paradise Island.
The other investor he pointed to was Hayward, the grandson of former GBPA co-chair, the late Sir Jack Hayward.
Among other statements, Hayward was quoted in Tribune Business on Tuesday saying, “We think the Hayward family, given its 70 years of experience, have a unique role in protecting Grand Bahama and have a track record of bringing significant investment to the island. The government needs to be involved but, should government have a majority stake? No.”
According to the newspaper, Hayward warned that “fighting between key stakeholders will only be to the detriment of the people of Grand Bahama” and said he hopes the prime minister will “actively support” his proposal to reverse Freeport’s economic decline.
Hayward was also quoted as saying, “We continue to offer partnership and collaboration with this government, and any government, as long as they intend to do right by Grand Bahama.”
Mitchell assured that Freeport and Grand Bahama remain priorities for the Davis administration and it intends always to do right by Bahamians who live there.
“First of all, there was an announcement from the Grand Bahama Port Authority which made various statements about the state of investment and then one of the owners is now in the newspaper this morning saying what he will and will not do with regard to the Grand Bahama Port Authority,” Mitchell said.
“Now, you remember or recall from history, 1969, the then-prime minister of the country was Lynden Pindling, and there was a social problem of social and racial discrimination in Grand Bahama and the exclusion of Bahamians from the mainstream of the economy in Grand Bahama, and he went out there at the opening of BORCO in 1969 and he said that if the social order did not bend, it would have to break.
“That caused a rift in his own party and shortly after that there was a split in the Progressive Liberal Party, but the result of the speech was the full Bahamianization of the city of Freeport and the benefits of being Bahamian and being in Freeport grew exponentially for Bahamians following that address.”
Mitchell noted that the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, signed in 1955 and enshrined in the statute law of The Bahamas, outlines the GBPA’s obligations, including infrastructure developments, maintenance of Freeport, and the promotion of investment in the city.
“And for some time now, people have watched with alarm as the storms have come through, but it just seemed as if assets were being dumped and there just didn’t seem to be any new investment coming into the city and there’s a lot of pressure on the ground in Grand Bahama itself for the government to do something to act,” he said.
“In fact, I read the response of the leader of the opposition to the prime minister’s statement, as quoted in the Tribune anyway, and he said that he, too, was concerned about the Grand Bahama Port Authority and its performance, but he did not agree that the government should own the Grand Bahama Port Authority, if I’m quoting him correctly.
“So, there is this difference of opinion on what to do, but both sides agree, I would say, that something needs to be done because you have the city which is built for 250,000 people sitting there with all of this infrastructure and potential for development, and if you go to North Eleuthera, you can’t get a parking space on New Year’s, but Grand Bahama, 10 times larger than North Eleuthera, the airport is empty and you ask yourself how a shareholder can expect for there to be change when the airport gets ruined by the storm, the investors decide not to do anything to fix it; they offload it on the government for $1, so that’s gone; then the hotel, that’s offloaded on the government, so that’s gone.”
Mitchell continued, “… So, when I saw the statement this morning in the newspaper, I’m saying to myself, why would you want to join issue with this in the public? Why would you do so when the evidence is there to see on the ground what is actually happening in Grand Bahama?”
Mitchell also said the roads in Freeport are deteriorating but suggested the GBPA is making a measly investment to upgrade them.
“I thought it was laughable for them to call a press conference when I’m advised by the Ministry of Works that it will cost $1 million a mile to pave a road in The Bahamas and they are boasting about spending the princely sum of $600,000 in Grand Bahama to fix the roads. Are you kidding me?”
He said the government spent $6 million to repair roads in East Grand Bahama and the GBPA is “boasting” about spending $600,000 in Freeport.
Echoing statements made by the prime minister from his seat, Mitchell said into the record, “Service charges are collected which support this enterprise, so the minister for Grand Bahama did a special program 2021, the government’s resources put $9 million in helping clean Freeport. Whose responsibility was it to clean up Freeport after the storm? The government or the Grand Bahama Port Authority?”
Mitchell added, “It seems clear as day if you go now, because I just did a walk in the Bahamia area, there is still hurricane debris piled up on the side of the roads in Freeport and now you want to get into a public row about whether we should move forward on this or not?
“All we are saying, it is a minimalist argument. We’re simply saying you have an agreement. It’s called the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. All we’re saying is if that’s the agreement, follow the agreement, nothing more, nothing less.”
After suggesting the government needs to focus on Freeport for political reasons, Mitchell added, “The serious point is that they’re Bahamians in Grand Bahama and the government has to act to assist; and so what I wanted to say in case there is any doubt, as the person who is seconding this motion, that the Cabinet of The Bahamas is 1,000 percent behind the prime minister of The Bahamas on this issue, and I hope Mr. Hayward takes note, I hope so, because it’s more than just investments and all the rest of it.
“Grand Bahama, Freeport, is a public good. It’s not a play thing. It’s not for cocktail money. Real people live there. Real development takes place. People’s lives are being affected.
“People have put their stakes down in that city. It’s a Bahamian city and we are going to support it and help to ensure that it succeeds.”