The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamian Contractors Association's (BCA) president yesterday said he had wanted the industry's re-opening delayed another week, and said: "We're keeping health before wealth."

Michael Pratt told Tribune Business he had sought an extra week to allow time for contractors to be educated on the necessary COVID-19 health and safety measures they must implement, with the BCA set to launch an online two-hour occupational health and safety course this Thursday on the topic.

However, the prime minister yesterday confirmed that The Bahamas will today move to "Phase 1B" or stage two of the government's economy re-opening strategy which involves the construction industry restarting on both New Providence and Grand Bahama.

The sector had already re-opened on the Family Islands, and will now be able to work nationwide between the hours of 7am and 5pm between Monday and Friday. "Construction will now be permitted on New Providence and Grand Bahama with industry protocols that cover transportation, the use of personal protective equipment, physical distancing, cleaning and disinfecting protective measures and other measures," Dr Hubert Minnis added.

But, while hailing the Government's decision to re-open the industry, Mr Pratt said the BCA had been hoping that the training initiative to be overseen by a Bahamian, Dr Kevin Storr, would have acted as a "prerequisite" to the sector's re-start.

"We have to be careful how we open this industry," the BCA president told Tribune Business. "Our intention was to open a week later, but tomorrow construction starts. We were hoping it would be open a week from today. If contractors want to work they need to prepare themselves.

"We're excited it's opening. We believe construction's the third pillar of the economy and our society. Anything now to bring relief to those smaller contractors and give them an opportunity to go out and make money will be good.

"The only thing we stress is that we focus on health first. We're keeping health before wealth. Our workers are very important in terms of Dorian recovery. We're already struggling there with skills shortages and don't want our workers precariously exposed without proper controls. We cannot afford to lose any of our crews. They're valuable right now."

Restarting the construction industry offers the potential to get 19,500 workers, or between 5-10 percent of the Bahamian labour force, back to work while also soaking up much of the semi-skilled and unskilled labour in The Bahamas. It also has strong links to foreign direct investment (FDI) and the possibility to bring in some, albeit modest, foreign exchange inflows to partially compensate for the tourism shutdown.

As an industry where much activity takes place outdoors, construction is also thought less susceptible to spreading COVID-19. However, Mr Pratt warned that any detected infections could be "massive" for both contractor/developer as they would lead to the construction site being shut down for two weeks with all workers quarantined.

Suggesting the associated costs could be catastrophic for an industry that typically operates on thin margins, the BCA chief said contractors and their workers will have to abide by protocols that involve wearing masks and enforcing social distancing at all times.

Mobile toilets will need to be disinfected up to twice daily, while temperature screening and registration of all workers entering a construction site will be mandatory. Mr Pratt added that workers would need to bring their own food and water, rather than share it, while health inspectors will need access to all work locations to ensure that protocols are being properly enforces.

He said implementation of the protocols themselves will be an additional expense for Bahamian contractors already grappling with the pressure of extra costs incurred in demobilising, and now remobilising, a construction contract.

"I can guarantee you there are a number of cases where the contractor cannot pick up the cost, come out the other side and survive," Mr Pratt told this newspaper. "It's a new normal and we have to adjust."

He added that the COVID-19 health and safety measures by themselves represented an additional cost that will have to be factored into construction contracts going forward, describing them as akin to a "change order".

"A lot of times contractors are working on percentages that are marginal, not high, and they cannot absorb these things," Mr Pratt said. "It's almost like a VAT, a tax. This is a new cost to the contractor, and has to be a line item attached. A lot of contracts may have to be addressed in terms of a change order."