The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service has been vocal on his disapproval of the performance of the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA).
In his latest comments on the issue released in a video statement, the Hon. Fred Mitchell responded to the latest statement released by the GBPA. The statement was in response to comments made by Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis on the GBPA while wrapping up the 2023/24 budget debate in the House of Assembly. Mitchell said, “I’m really quite shocked that the Grand Bahama Port Authority has the temerity to issue this statement to challenge the Prime Minister in public over this. They know what the facts are with regard with their own situation. They simply do not have the money to carry the city where it needs to go. Right now for example if you want to get across the bridge out of Lucaya to get to east Grand Bahama, they can’t fix the bridge. They don’t have the money to do it.”
The minister deemed the proposition by the GBPA to provide $600,000 for road improvement laughable given that roads cost $1 million a mile to repair in the country.
Mitchell went further stating, “the question is not a tit for tat on who is responsible for what in the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. You can have a legalistic argument all you want. The point is overall the citizens of Grand Bahama and Freeport and The Bahamas know that right now the Grand Bahama Port Authority is failing in its duty to the city, its residents and to the country. The model is old, it needs to change, they do not have the capital to forward. So politically they are making a serious mistake by challenging the Prime Minister in this way. And we from the Progressive Liberal Party want the country to know that we support the movement to do something to change Freeport so that it can take off again and be once again the city that it was supposed to be, that its designed to be and that it should be. So enough of this with the Grand Bahama Port Authority.”
