The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard criticised Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis’ national address as full of “tremendous promises”, but lacking specifics on how the government will address serious issues such as crime and financing big commitments.

His party held a press conference discussing facets of Mr Davis’ address, in particular his comments on national issues such as crime and minimum wage.

Mr Pintard said Mr Davis did not mention what his government’s new crime fighting plans are.

In response to criticisms, Mr Davis told reporters: “I don’t expect them to say anything else. I thought my address was full, complete, explanatory, and pointed the way forward. Acknowledging that we still have a lot of challenges, that we have done a lot, but there’s still a lot to do. I don’t expect them to praise me for what has happened or embrace what I intend to do forward. Go forward.”

Mr Pintard said the prime minister failed to indicate where the country is going to get the resources in order to execute a number of the things that he mentioned.

The opposition challenged Mr Davis to lay out his fiscal and economic plan.

However, the prime minister asserted that they “clearly didn’t listen” to his speech.

“I would have spoken to the fact of how we have re-established our revenue enhancement unit and that we’re going after all those funds, all the arrears that we have that totals near a billion dollars. That we have been making good progress and collecting taxes that are due to The Bahamas, that’s where it’s gonna come from.”

He said the country’s emerging blue carbon market also will be a new revenue stream.

The prime minister announced an increase in the country’s minimum wage from $210 to $260 per week. Additionally, as Bahamians continue to grapple with the high cost of living compounded by inflation, Mr Davis revealed that 38 new items will be subject to price controls.

Mr Pintard said there was absolutely no difficulty with increasing the amount of funds made available to the most vulnerable in the community, but pointed out some concerns. He said the government has not had a discussion with small businesses to see if the wage increase will impact them and cause them to reduce staff or hours worked.

“We don’t want that consequence, but it is important that Bahamians have a livable wage but what is also true is when the prime minister talks about the items, in terms of price control, the level of inflation in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas it’s going to eat that $50 very, very quickly. It’s going to put additional pressure on the Bahamian people, the prime minister if he was really serious would have taken VAT off the bread basket items and on medications.”

Meanwhile, Mr Pintard highlighted that the minister of national security is disconnected from the commissioner of police in terms of their view of the state of crime in the country. On Monday, Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe said the crime issue was a crisis while Commissioner Clayton Fernander had a different view.

He said it is unacceptable that such a small country has 107 murders for the year and there is no outrage by this government.

He also criticised the decision to send police officers to the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“We are also sympathetic and recognise that, on occasion, there may be a need for some of our experts to also assist those in other countries, including the Turks and Caicos. What we do want, however, is for the government to explain that we are not compromised in any way in our own crime fighting initiatives, when we take the initiative to go ahead and help another country,” the FNM leader said.

FNM deputy leader Shanendon Cartwright said Mr Davis’ address had no specifics for the crime fight.

“Last night, we heard no specifics, as it relates to how we are going to make the Bahamian people feel at ease that the government has an answer. They were short on specifics, as the leader will have mentioned, we will have made some 14 recommended recommendations to the government, we can see the crime is multifaceted in terms of the issues.

“So there should be a sense of urgency from the government to come up with a multifaceted solution to deal with it. But it involves the government leading, bringing all of the stakeholders together, the civic, religious organisations, everybody, because this does affect everybody.”

Mr Pintard also questioned the situation at the National Insurance Board, saying: “The minister with responsibility for NIB clearly indicated that there may be a need for a rate increase, given the treacherous position that NIB is in at the moment. We noted that the Prime Minister did not address this critical safety net issue that we thought should have been front and centre in his discussion on addressing the needs of the most vulnerable Bahamians. particularly those who are approaching retirement.”