The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government “cannot compare” to the Grand Bahama Port Authority’s (GBPA) record in maintaining Freeport because much of the infrastructure it is responsible for on the island is in “disrepair”, a licensee argued yesterday.

David Wallace, president of Arawak Adventures and Commercial Tours, the Pirate’s Cove operator, told Tribune Business that Fred Mitchell, minister of foreign affairs and the public service, is selectively picking his facts to fit the Government’s anti-GBPA narrative while ignoring its own failings on Grand Bahama.

Speaking after Fred Mitchell, also the PLP’s chairman, last week cited the three-year delay in repairing the Casuarina Bridge as an example of the GBPA’s inability to fulfill its development and upkeep obligations, he added that the minister did not fully explain the circumstances or put the situation in context.

Mr Wallace, a former West End and Bimini MP, told this newspaper there are two bridges across the Grand Lucayan Waterway that connect Freeport to east Grand Bahama - the Casuarina Bridge and the Sir Jack Hayward Bridge. The latter, opened in 2016, provides an alternative two-way crossing while work continues on the Casuarina Bridge where traffic is “still able to cross on one half”.

He also asked where Mr Mitchell’s concern was when Grand Bahama residents, particularly those in West End, had to “endure for months” a makeshift, pot-holed government road that frequently flooded while the Fishing Hole Bridge was under construction. And the Pirate’s Cove chief, a GBPA licensee, also contrasted the three years spent on the Casuarina Bridge with the seven and counting that it has taken to construct the still-unfinished school at Holmes Rock.

Noting that Dr Michael Darville, then-minister for Grand Bahama, had “pointed to the excellent working relationship the Government had established with the GBPA at that time” when the Sir Jack Hayward Bridge was opened, Mr Wallace said yesterday: “My first question is: Where is that relationship today?”

Renewing the call of other GBPA licensees for the Government and Freeport’s quasi-governmental authority to resolve their differences, and the city’s future, via negotiation rather than public row, he added: “The second point I wish to raise is, if Mr Mitchell is so concerned about Grand Bahama, he should have been at the Fishing Hole Bridge that would have been closed off for months during its construction.

“Residents of west Grand Bahama had to travel on a makeshift, unpaved road put to the south of the bridge while they were doing it. This road had pot holes, was in disrepair and floods, and the residents of Grand Bahama had to endure it for months while the bridge was repaired. Where was Mr Mitchell then?”

Mr Wallace also questioned where the PLP chairman’s concern was regarding the Holmes Rock school, whose construction is now into its third administration having spanned both PLP and FNM governments. “If Mr Mitchell wants to talk about three years at Casuarina Bridge, ask him about seven years at Holmes Rock,” he added.

When it comes to the Casuarina Bridge, which sustained extensive damage during Hurricane Dorian, Lucaya Services Company (LUSCO) and Grand Bahama Development Company (DEVCO) in late 2020 hired All Bahamas Construction (ABC) to complete repair work at a cost of around $1.9m. However, changes in the scope of work raised the total price to $2.8m, an increase of $900,000.

“The reason why I am standing here is because the Grand Bahama Port Authority is saying they have the wherewithal to keep this city going,” Mr Mitchell said in a video widely circulated on social media. “And this lack of repair of the bridge shows you they simply are not able to demonstrate they have the financial wherewithal to keep this city going.

“And the Government has said enough of us subsidising the GBPA. We need to find someone who has the wherewithal, who is willing and able, to finance the needs and promotions of this city. If they can perform under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, fine, but if they can’t someone else needs to be asked to do the job.”

The GBPA has disputed the Government’s assertion that taxpayer are dollars are financing its developmental and maintenance responsibilities under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, and Mr Wallace yesterday said Freeport’s quasi-governmental authority has kept the city’s “miles and miles of roads” in a condition similar to that found in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton despite receiving not a cent from the vehicle licensing fees collected by the Public Treasury.

“The one road the Government is responsible for in Freeport is the Queen’s Highway,” he added, “and the Port Authority has to maintain that road. When you drive to West End or East End, or go to Eight Mile Rock, the two roads that the Government has to maintain are in a state of disrepair. I recently went to Eight Mile Rock, and they were pouring concrete - not asphalt - into the potholes on government roads. That is how they are maintaining them.

“The Government’s record in the areas it is responsible for, compared to the Port Authority’s record in maintaining the city of Freeport, it does not compare. The Government does not compare..... While Freeport has had its booms and busts, its glory days and its challenges, we are still today better off being run by the Grand Bahama Port Authority than the Bahamas government.

“The Government’s hands are full. They can go and put their funds and energy behind any other island, south, central or north, but Freeport and Grand Bahama I think are better served by the Port Authority without political interference from government. The Port is in business to do business.”

Mr Wallace hailed Freeport’s founder, Wallace Groves, as being among the “pioneers of the free trade industry” as the Hawksbill Creek Agreement model has been duplicated throughout the world since. “That today is still the model for Freeport,” he added, urging The Bahamas not to give up on, but instead enhance, Freeport’s founding treaty and see it through to its expiration in around 31 years’ time.

Pointing out that Grand Bahama was only the seventh most-populated Bahamian island, according to the 1936 census, until the Hawksbill Creek Agreement sparked Freeport’s development as the country’s second city, Mr Wallace said: “When you look at the infrastructure put in place in Freeport from 1955 it still has the ability to carry 250,000 people.

“It’s properly laid out; you have the manufacturing area, the light industrial area, the residential area with multi-family and single family, the resort and commercial areas. It’s a properly laid out city bar none. I call on the Prime Minister, the head of the Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, to do the right thing and sit down with the Port Authority and licensees and talk about the way forward. The GB Chamber should be included in that and local representatives (MPs).”