The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

AS HE moved a resolution yesterday for government land to be sold for $10 to the Central Bank for a new facility, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis made a case for a new Parliament building in the future.

The land, 3.056 acres in size and the site of the historic Royal Victoria Hotel and Gardens, runs from the southern side of Shirley Street, the northern side of East Hill Street, the eastern side of Parliament Street and includes the western side of East Street. The new facility will also include: a museum, an art gallery and a movie theatre.

The old General Post Office will be imploded and this cost will be the responsibility of Central Bank. The site is then to be used to build a new Supreme Court complex with green technology and all the “bells and whistles” necessary for cutting edge technology, Dr Minnis said.

Dr Minnis said this is to take precedence over a new Parliament, further revealing the old Senate and Parliament will eventually be converted into museums.

The projects, he said, are a part of the revitalisation of downtown Nassau.

The government is also planning to assist young people with investing money, Dr Minnis said, telling Parliament he hoped to give Bahamians the chance to become self-made millionaires. He said he was proud to have been poor as a child and even prouder to now be a millionaire.

Dr Minnis said: “There are many who complain about having their monies in the bank and receiving .5 percent (interest). Government rents (are) in excess about $40m to $50m in facilities today.

“Would it not be an excellent idea to having individuals invest in such entity and government rent such facilities and such facilities are privately maintained and no longer have to worry about the complaints and distress that we experience today and those individuals would receive returns?

“Mr Speaker, that is the way forward and would assist us in constructing a new court complex that is so urgently needed on the old post office building (site) while we construct new complexes. It’s time that we revolutionise the government entities as we move forward and therefore the judiciary will be given its own budget so that the judiciary can make its own decisions and can be completely independent of the government.

“In time we must consider a new parliamentary complex, however, a Supreme Court judiciary complex is of urgent need. The current Senate and House of Assembly buildings should become museums chronicling our developments as a parliamentary democracy. The chambers of both houses should be preserved,” Dr Minnis said.

“Mr Speaker, I think the public needs to know some of the conditions which their legislators sit while debating here in this Parliament. There is one particular area where individuals of this Parliament can eat and that can accommodate only six in terms of seating yet we have 39 members, which means that parliamentarians today as we speak stand up to eat their meals, hot or cold, no tray to hold it. If the room is filled, others will wait outside to allow some parliamentarians to complete after which they will commence. That’s the condition that we are subjected to today.

“There are absolutely no research facilities. We have to do that ourselves. But most important I think the public also needs to know, and nobody likes to talk about it, but our restroom facility has facility for one. So we must drink water very conservatively because it’s only one (restroom each for men and women), which means that if the bathroom facility is being utilised – 39 members must wait, plus the public. I must inform the Bahamian populace that the bathroom facilities that all of us must utilise is also utilised by the public. Even members of the press must use such facility.

“Mr Speaker, so that must be corrected.”

To house other agencies, Dr Minnis said that the government will construct a major new office complex on the site of the old City Market on Market Street.

The resolution for the land transfer was agreed upon in yesterday’s sitting. The House of Assembly resumes today.