DEPUTY Prime Minister Peter Turnquest.
By KHRISNA RUSSELL
Deputy Chief Reporter
krussell@tribunemedia.net
FINANCE Minister Peter Turnquest suggested yesterday that matters related to Bahamas Power and Light's generation reliability will take precedence when other issues including those of incensed unions are considered.
The deputy prime minister told reporters yesterday that any discussions taking place with labour unions are "moot" while officials try to fix issues with the power provider.
He was asked to respond to unions' criticism of government that despite long standing labour issues, there is now a commitment to seek additional financial support for BPL.
His previous declaration that no financial resources would be spared to fix BPL infuriated unions and could prove to be the impetus for more union unrest in the coming weeks.
"I don't want to get to far into that kind of comment," Mr Turnquest said yesterday on the sidelines of a Financial Intelligence Unit forum at Poinciana House.
"I think everybody would understand that if we did not have reliable, clean, consistent power, the discussions we (are) having with the union is moot because that is the foundation.
"If we don't have the basic infrastructure in place, how can we talk about productivity? How can we talk about contribution? How can we talk about generating the tax dollars that are needed in order to satisfy some of these union demands?
"So this is not a either or, this is a matter of trying to address all of the challenges that are before us. Making as sensible or as practical decision as we can to ensure that we do not cripple our system and that we provide the resources where they are most needed is priority to ensure that the overall economy and the overall way of life is one that benefits all Bahamians."
He said this does not mean that Bahamians are not deserving of compensation or benefits. However given limiting circumstances Mr Turnquest said the government must be careful with how it handles financial resources.
The East Grand Bahama MP had been asked to comment on a list of demands by the Bahamas Doctors Union.
Earlier this week, The Tribune obtained a document, which detailed the demands of doctors sent to the government. These included a choice of either real property tax exemptions, Crown land for the construction of an office, duty-free exemptions on car imports or the construction of a paid parking lot at Princess Margaret Hospital with the proceeds to be split between the government and the Bahamas Doctors Union. The union also has other requests it wants the government to meet, including back holiday pay and the elimination of one year contracts.
"You know there is only so much revenue that we generate," Mr Turnquest said. "That goes to pay all of the cost to provide service to the Bahamian people and so while we all certainly deserve whatever compensation or benefits that we believe we should have and in a first world where we should have and deserve, the unfortunate factor is that we have limiting circumstances.
"Certainly we do not want to go back to a situation where we are borrowing head over heels uncontrollably with uncontrollable spending to the extent that we put ourselves back in a precarious financial position that we've worked so hard to try to overcome, so you know we have an obligation to the Bahamian people to protect the gains that we have made to continue to be wise and prudent in our commitments and in our fiscal projections and so we are going to continue to do that.
"Again the negotiations continue in good faith and we certainly hope that will be the case moving forward with both parties."
While government has made a commitment to give BPL additional funding, Mr Turnquest said Cabinet remained concerned about the utility provider.
Mr Turnquest said although businesses have continued to complain about the negative impact BPL has had on their operations, fortunately tourism and the financial services sector continues to drive the economy.
This comes as BPL has continued load shedding and will most likely miss its target to repair two key generating assets.
The company is bringing in an outside specialist to repair the equipment, but said last night his arrival had been delayed.
BPL said it ran into new issues with both of its down units at the Blue Hills Power Station, which represents 44 megawatts of unavailable power.
Original targets of August 31 and September 6 for both units to be back on stream will be reassessed once the incoming expert has been able to examine the units.
Comments
BahamasForBahamians 5 years, 2 months ago
This aint it chief.
Is the DPM suggesting the government can only tend to one issue at a time ?
Why do we have 15+ Cabinet Ministers then ?
This is tantamount to an admission of failure.
moncurcool 5 years, 2 months ago
No. The DPM is suggesting that you pick your most important one thing, so that when you do that, it makes all the other things easier. Makes sense. Read the book The One Thing by Gary Keller. If we learn to fix the one important thing, it will fix all the other things. When you are all over the place, nothing gets done.
Chucky 5 years, 2 months ago
Are you serious?
It would irrational to suppose fixing power generation and distribution would have any effect on grievances in an unrelated union dispute.
In fact that would be idiotic to assume there is any relationship.
Clearly bec/BPL/all government current an previous have been stupid, and you can’t fix stupid.
moncurcool 5 years, 2 months ago
So you pay the unions and then have unreliably power supply? Then where does government get their money from when businesses close due to unreliable supply of power?
. If you can not see the connection then you need to open your eyes. For once we have a sensible minister who knows how to run a business doing sensible thinking.
Topdude 5 years, 2 months ago
All things being equal, the Honorable Minister is correct, however there is a need for the social partners in the Bahamas to sit together and forge a partnership for mutual gain for the betterment of all Bahamians as they travel down the road to prosperity together. When the Government, the Private Sector and Trade Union leaders sit down together and arrive at this Common Vision, all the parties will be able to appreciate the Blocks and Constraints that currently impact on the attainment of this Common Vision and the Strategic Directions which need to be addressed to remove these Blocks and Constraints. The parties will then with be able to come up with a Division of Responsibilities, Measures of Success and Consequences of Failure.
By putting our Bahamas first we will be able to to give workers, entrepreneurs and the Every citizen of this Commonwealth what is rightfully due to each. Doctors, Lawyers, Bakers, And Candlestick Makers.
What is happening in the country right now is creating a Significant barrier on our competitiveness. Our rankings in the Global Competitiveness Report has surely dropped by at least 19 places, our Attractiveness to Foreign Direct Investment has surely diminished and placed us just above Zimbabwe and our reputation as a nation serious about creating a climate for Doing Business continues to be thwarted as we cut off our noses to spite our faces. Foreign Investors will go elsewhere.
What do the Bahamians who are encouraging this industrial unrest want? To destabilize the Government led by the FNM? To get rid of the Honorable Prime Minister? To destroy our country’s reputation?
Please let the Government serve the term it was elected to serve. Then judge them at the ballot box.
Please Bahamians what we are doing as we travel down this road to destabilization via political and industrial unrest is a Lose-Lose road fraught with suffering for all. Please let us eschew the lose- lose Road and seek the High Road of Win-Win where all Bahamians share in the profits and productivity our nation is capable of creating.
Please Bahamas let us seek this road. We are all brothers and sisters.
Chucky 5 years, 2 months ago
Travel down the road to prosperity?
What are you smoking?
We’re lucky if the lights are on, and you can drive your kids there school without our cars breaking in half in a pothole. We’re lucky if we can feed our people. We can’t fix education, healthcare or corruption in ALL levels of government.
Prosperity for Bahamians is so far out to n left field you might as well remove that thought from your mind and start to concentrate and accept where we are. Talking fool is not going to help anyone.
Topdude 5 years, 2 months ago
Hi Chucky. So there is no solution? No hope and no future? Yes or no?
Chucky 5 years, 2 months ago
Solutions sure, but admit where we are and tackle the problems we can , and in some logical order.
Talking fool about achieving bliss when you can’t even reach up high enough to touch bottom is just ridiculous.
geostorm 5 years, 2 months ago
@topdude, we are seriously our own worst enemies. It's absurd that fellow Bahamians would wish to destroy this country for political gain. In the end we all lose when our country fails.
birdiestrachan 5 years, 2 months ago
They can find money for free university, rent of 9.000 per month. They do what they want to do they neglect their obligations and they think they are right.
Well Turnquest you go right ahead. and all will see how it goes.
birdiestrachan 5 years, 2 months ago
doc already had about six people come in now they are bringing in some one else. they will find the money to pay them.
Doc and Turnquest in my view do not really care about the tax payers. who do they think are fooled by them.? Not many for sure.
Schemer18 5 years, 2 months ago
LOL! "MOOT" He will remember that word spoken in 2022 LOL!
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 2 months ago
And to think Minnis was always touting how his government could walk and chew gum at the same time. Truth be told, dimwitted Minnis and equally incompetent Turnquest are rapidly becoming two of the most despised politicians our country has ever had. Neither of these buffoons has the core competencies and leadership skills required to govern a nation. The Bahamas is floundering at a crucial time and these two bozos are absolutely clueless as to what to do about it.
The dumbest thing these two clowns did was immediately saddle our country with the foreign currency equivalent of nearly US$1 billion (US$1,000,000,000) of very costly loan debt shortly after the FNM party won the general election in May 2017. In their haste to get their hands on money, they failed to insist key clauses be included in the loan agreements that would have allowed this debt to be re-financed (or the interest rates on it to be re-set) at the much lower interest rates in effect today for such sovereign borrowings. As a result, the Bahamas is annually having to pay millions and millions of dollars more in interest to the lenders that it would otherwise have had to pay.
Yes indeed, Minnis and Turnquest allowed our country to be taken to the cleaners by the international bankers who ran circles around them. Small wonder our country is always struggling financially even though twits like D'Aguilar try to make us believe we have an incredibly robust economy thanks to him alone. Now that's one real big joke, but the whole nightmarish situation is truly sad for the vast majority of struggling Bahamians.
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 2 months ago
The word "not" is missing after the word "otherwise" in the last sentence of the second paragraph in my post above.
Topdude 5 years, 2 months ago
It is quite evident that the PLPs have not yet gotten over their grief from losing access to power in this country. One would have thought that by now they would have completed all the stages in the cycle of grief, but when you read the drivel from Well_mudda_take_sic and the foolishness from the likes of Chucky, it is clear to see they are still in the stage of denial. They do not seem to be able to get over the FACT that they were overwhelmingly rejected by the majority of Bahamians. It is time for them to move on and enter the final stage of the grief cycle by accepting the FACT that they are no longer in power.
PLPites have to remember that the leader must aim high, see the big picture, judge widely, thus setting himself apart from the ordinary people who debate in narrow confines. Our leader and Deputy leader have a birds’ eyes Views of where we are going. The likes of Mudda and Chucky have frogs’ eyes perspectives and are unable to grasp the big picture from the bottom of the cesspit where they dwell and smell.
observer2 5 years, 2 months ago
"If we don't have the basic infrastructure in place, how can we talk about productivity?" Peter Turnquest.
This is the most sensible thing i have heard from this government of dummies.
They have finally that the country is dysfunctional and lacks reliable infrastructure including electrical power security, education, hurricane preparedness, medical care, proper governance, the ability to week out corruption etc. ect.
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