The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

The Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce’s (GBCC) president yesterday questioned a recent survey that placed unemployment on the island at around 50 percent, saying the figures were “very high”.

Gregory LaRoda, responding to the statistics released by Bahamas Shelter Cluster (BSC), which co-ordinated shelter activity in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, told Tribune Business that the findings seemed “kind of reckless” as he queried how many homes had been surveyed across the island.

He said: “I saw the report. The numbers obviously are very high. But I feel that it was kind of reckless from a reporting standpoint. I don’t know the true source of that information, meaning that the Department of Statistics, to my knowledge, since Dorian has not done a survey on the entire island of Grand Bahama as it relates to the unemployment levels.

“The Department of Statistics is the one that is responsible for releasing that information. They also mentioned social services. But I know social services numbers that the report would be based on only include the homes they have assessed so far.

“They have only assessed a little over 3,000 homes so far. So let’s say social services did say that the unemployment level so far was 50 percent. That’s only 50 percent of the homes they have assessed, but that’s not 50 percent of the island. You may find a totally different picture.”

The report, entitled Post-Hurricane Social Trends in Grand Bahama, found that in Freeport some 47 percent of people surveyed were unemployed as of November 5. In East End, the jobless rate was pegged at 48 percent, while West End had the highest unemployment level at 60 percent.

While not disputing that Grand Bahama’s unemployment numbers “may” be as high as the survey suggests, Mr LaRoda added: “At this time I don’t think they have a legitimate source from the government that would have been saying that through them. I can’t say for sure because I have not seen a survey, but I don’t feel it is that high. I feel it may just be a snapshot.”

Drawing parallels with the business survey undertaken by the Grand Bahama Chamber immediately after Dorian’s passage, Mr LaRoda said: “We reported that of the businesses we surveyed, 13 percent of them said they were not going to reopen.

“Someone shouldn’t take that to say that 13 percent of the businesses on Grand Bahama are not reopening, because the ones who responded to our survey didn’t even represent 50 percent of the businesses in Grand Bahama. That’s how the numbers may have been blown out of proportion, so we still need to really verify those numbers. But what I would say is that there is no doubt that when the real numbers are available, the numbers are going to be very high.”

Meanwhile, Mr Laroda said the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) will not give a “blanket” 100 percent discount on license fees to every licensee. He explained: “In reality, not every business needs that. Especially the major businesses; they don’t need a discount.

“But what the GBPA is saying is ‘look, if you feel that if you are in hardship come in and see us; you can come to talk to us’. What the GBPA is telling us is that they are open to saying we will work with you, we will give you a discount, whatever that is or make arrangements on however you will pay, but they are willing to work with businesses.”

Noting that the GBPA’s post-Dorian efforts appear to have picked up, Mr LaRoda said: “I attribute this increase in activity from the GBPA to a result of their image taking a beating from persons in the community because of their silence immediately after Dorian about what they were doing, and if they were doing anything.

“So what I have now is a commitment from them, and from those on the government side, to have more dialogue. Because, again, my concern was that everyone was doing something. A lot of people are trying to do some things to help, and doing some good things, but if no one is sitting down and say let’s get the stakeholders together and talk about what’s going to have the biggest impact, and how we are going to get Grand Bahama forward, then we are not going to get there.”