Alleged pull out of Royal Caribbean cruise lines
Monday June 25th, 2007

You can fool some people some of the time but you can’t fool all of the people all the time...

This statement is made in response to a recent public statement by the Minister of Tourism, Hon. Neko Grant, in which he claimed that Royal Caribbean cruise lines was pulling its vessels out of Nassau because, he says, the previous PLP. Administration “did nothing” in response to the cruise lines’ request for Nassau harbour to accommodate its mega vessels that were being built.

Let me begin by stating that either the honourable minister does not know the facts (because he either has not taken the initiative or the time to apprise himself of the facts) or, alternatively, he does know the facts and has decided to mislead the public for cheap political gain.

Either way, his assertion is completely false and very irresponsible. Further it is most unfortunate that this FNM government has decided to draw Royal Caribbean cruise lines into a domestic political row. Royal Caribbean has been a major player in the cruise industry in this country and it is wrong that the minister is using it to create political mischief or to generate misperceptions and innuendoes or to perpetuate dishonesty for partisan political reasons.

Very simply the government of The Bahamas has been planning and preparing for the dredging of the harbour for more than two years. to provide the historical background, you should know that in 2005 the minister of financial services initiated between Kerzner international and relevant government agencies to discuss the appropriate location for Kerzner to obtain dredged material for the proposed golf course on Athol island as part of their phase three development. At that time Kerzner had earmarked the Montagu basin as the desired site for dredging.

The government, however, determined that two objectives could be achieved at the same time if Kerzner were to dredge the Nassau harbour.

In this way, the harbour would be deepened as the port department had requested and Kerzner would have its fill.

In pursuance of this Kerzner agreed at its expense to conduct studies to determine
The current depths in the Nassau harbour, conduct an environmental impact assessment and prepare a financial analysis on the feasibility of the dredging project.

During 2006 the feasibility of this approach was negative when Kerzner reported that the cost of obtaining fill from dredging the harbour was some $4 million more than obtaining fill from the Montagu basin due to the complexity in moving fill from the Nassau harbour to Athol Island.

Also during 2006 meetings were held at various times with the ministry of works, the port department, the ministry of tourism and several of the cruise lines to discuss the future plans for the cruise lines in The Bahamas.

Based on these discussions and collaborations it was anticipated that having regard to the scheduled construction plans of the mega ships that the dredging of the Nassau harbour would have to be completed by mid-2009.

To this end and in accordance with considered projections, earlier this year, that is 2007, the ministry of works held meetings with George Cox and associates and Shal consultants who were responsible for the design of the last Nassau harbour dredging project carried out in the early 1990’s. These design plans were produced to the ministry of works in March of this year, i.e. march 2007.

Even since the most recent general elections I am made to understand that the meetings and the dialogue have continued between the ministry of works and the port department to discuss the way forward.

The ministry of works in its recent submissions to the ministry of finance for its
2007/2008 budget requested $8 million for the Nassau harbour dredging so that the design could be completed this year and the

Dredging commenced next year in anticipation of a 2009 completion date in accordance with anticipated vessel construction projections.

The FNM government   did not approve the funding.

Over the course of our five year term we did all that we possibly could to be responsive in addressing the myriad of concerns that we had been confronted with on taking office in 2002.

There were many such matters which had either been delayed, deferred or ignored by an FNM government and which in 2002 had taken on critical proportions threatening to negatively impact the economy of this country.  Among those was the condition of Prince George Dock which in 2002 can only be described as primitive with, among other things, giant tractor tyres lining the perimeter of the dock as buffers between mega ships and the docks. That FNM administration had truly done nothing to address the important issue of berthing at the harbour.

Unfortunately this trend continues in this new term where it appears the FNM has reduced the necessary appropriations for the completion of the placement of bollards from $1.8 million to $1.1 million. I believe they have also halted a contract which was signed with an engineering firm and the ministry of works several months ago for the installation of the bollards, a critical project.

It appears that the incompetence and lack of honest commitment to important infrastructural development which haunted their 1992 to 2002 term continues in 2007.

In closing and in summary, it is clear that Hon. Neko Grant’s assertion that nothing has been done is not true.

The record is there. Several government agencies have been involved. Even a cursory review of the facts will show that the issue of the dredging of the Nassau harbour so as to accommodate larger cruise vessels has been on the active drawing board for some two years. This administration has brought the project to a screeching halt by refusing

To accede to the request of the ministry of works for the allocation of monies for the dredging and then incredibly in the face of these facts the minister of tourism felt comfortable going on TV. making the assertions that he did. I note the minister of maritime affairs appears to have also jumped on the bandwagon in repeating untrue comments on this matter. I hope the nation is not witnessing politicians seeking to obtain cheap political gain at national expense.

The Bahamian people will be watching to see if the government will complete the installation of the bollards and continue the dredging project, both projects it met in place and which in both cases it has stopped. there has been much talk about balanced budgets and surpluses but a government must understand and must be committed to doing what is necessary to ensure this country maintains its competitive edge in this vital industry of tourism. We do not wish a repeat of the state of affairs discovered in 2002.  We will be closely watching.