The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

PLP Leader Philip “Brave” Davis criticised Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest over the termination of internet service for months at the Sweeting’s Cay Primary School in his constituency of East Grand Bahama.

Mr Davis said the minister of finance is “unfit” for office.

Mr Davis travelled to East End on Friday when he, along with Senators Fred Mitchell and Michael Darville, took a ferry to nearby Sweeting’s Cay as part of his two-day visit to Grand Bahama.

“I was deep in Peter Turnquest’s East End seat yesterday, and I am telling you now he is unfit for service,” he told persons at a rally in Eight Mile Rock on Saturday.

The PLP leader stated that while at the primary school he learned that the school’s internet service had allegedly been terminated for lack of payment by the government.

“Internet service off for months now,” he said. “The government has failed to pay for the service. You think Peter Turnquest or Jeffery Lloyd concerned about the education of children? Now how do you do that to your constituents?”

Pointing out that some $1.7bn was borrowed in ten months, Mr Davis said children lack the basic services of the country when it comes to education.

Touching on the controversial subject of the Oban Energies deal in East Grand Bahama, Mr Davis said he wanted to know who is behind the company.

“There is a company called Clean Marine. I want to know whether the mystery man or woman is associated with Clean Marine and what Clean Marine’s role might be in this Oban deal,” he said.

“I will leave it there for now. But I am going to ask this - what are you hiding, prime minister?”

The FNM government signed a heads of agreement with Oban Energies for a proposed $5.5bn oil refinery and storage terminal to be developed on 600 acres of Crown Land in East Grand Bahama. But, the project has received much opposition from environmental groups which believe it would damage the natural pristine environment and beaches of East End.

Meanwhile, Mr Davis said the PLP was hard at work on Grand Bahama and had opened the Memories Hotel, and started major capital works projects to build the fire station, fixing Fishing Hole Road, and beginning construction of schools and clinics on the island during its last term in office.

He said the party was also working on increased airlift out of North America, and the implementation of the Grand Bahama Shipyard’s Employment Programme.

He said the shipyard programme was designed by the PLP to get Grand Bahamians back to work.

“Your PLP government, along with the port subsidised initiative, was focused on training some 200 Bahamians starting in 2016, and 600 Bahamians over the next four years. We aimed to deliver real job opportunities to you to put our people back to work,” he said.

Mr Davis claimed the FNM allowed the programme to collapse while alleging scores of foreign workers were coming to work at the GB Shipyard.

“This week some 500 foreign workers landed on Grand Bahama,” he alleged. “And where is the government? Don’t they want residents in communities of Eight Mile Rock to work?”

However, Minister of Labour Dion Foulkes pushed back at the assertion, saying he had no information on his desk in reference to this, while accusing Mr Davis of being irresponsible.

“I have absolutely no knowledge about that, I do not know where he got that from,” Mr Foulkes told The Tribune. “There has been no application before the Department of Labour for work permits (of that amount) for the shipyard.

“On average we get 10-15 applications a week, if there is a big job ... there may be more, but they are normally for limited periods for three to four weeks. It’s very irresponsible of him (Mr Davis), I don’t know who told him that – being the (leader of the) Official Opposition, he should check his facts,” Mr Foulkes said.

While in Grand Bahama, Mr Davis also claimed all the FNM has delivered in one year are witch hunts to hurt people, no real investment, victimisation and intimidation.

“They delivered mass unemployment, sending home scores of workers across the country. And while doing that on Grand Bahama in particular, foreigners are coming in to take your jobs in the shipyard,” he claimed.

Mr Davis called on PLPs to band together and to encourage their friends and neighbours to join the PLP party.

“We are retooling our vision, image, and message - VIM I call it. It is a programme we are working on to have a battle-ready political machine,” Mr Davis said.

The PLP leader also said the party has begun the process of reforming its constitution to make it relevant and modern.