The Tribune

The QC responsible for winning numerous legal battles on behalf of environmental activists yesterday said the Government and developers had repeatedly “failed to learn their lessons”, adding that the Bahamas wanted “investors, not invaders”.

Fred Smith QC, the Callenders & Co attorney and partner, said all the actions he had been involved with concerned “due process”, and the Government’s failure to follow its own statutory and legal permitting/approvals processes for investment projects.

Citing the Abaco Club’s proposed 44-slip marina for Little Harbour as one such project, Mr Smith said last week’s Town Meeting on the development was little more than “a last minute attempt to put a pacifier in local residents’ mouths.

He argued that the meeting did not satisfy the requirement for proper consultation, which previous court rulings have established as a legal right.

And, while emphasising that none of the organisations he had represented were opposed to sustainable development, Mr Smith implied that a Cabinet Minister had ‘missed the point’ over his concerns that the spate of Judicial Review-type actions was impeding job opportunities for Bahamians.

Responding directly to Khaalis Rolle, minister of state for investments, Mr Smith urged the Government to focus on developing the Bahamas as a ‘green economy’, something he suggested would create “opportunities galore” for local jobs - and far more than the current development model.

“The fight behind every Judicial Review we have launched is the failure to observe due process, natural justice and consultation, as the law requires,” Mr Smith told Tribune Business.

“The Judicial Reviews are all about process. We have yet to have a Judicial Review on the merits of environmental issues, and that will be the next stage after the FNM and PLP governments finally learn their lessons to respect the locals.

“That is the mantra of all these environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) currently: Respect the locals. The Family Islands are not colonies of Nassau. They deserve respect. The Family Islands want investors, not invaders,” he added.

“If the Government and investors learn that lesson, there will be no more Judicial Reviews on the failure of the consultation process. This is a very simple formula that even a child can understand.

“If Save the Bays, reEarth, Responsible Development for Abaco and Bimini Blue Coalition were vexatious and oppressive litigants, we wouldn’t continue to have the success we have had in these Judicial Reviews.”

Mr Smith’s latest Judicial Review is on behalf of Responsible Development for Abaco (RDA), which is challenging the Abaco Club’s Little Harbour proposal on the basis that both developer and the Government have failed to properly consult with local residents.

Central and local government subsequently organised last Monday’s town meeting in Cherokee Sound in what appeared to be a direct response to RDA’s challenge, so that south Abaco residents could be briefed on the project and ask questions of the developers.

Notes of the meeting, taken by RDA representatives, strongly suggest that the June 27 meeting was held in a bid to counter the Judicial Review, and show that true ‘public consultation’ had taken place.

Referring to a previous September 25 town meeting, “which the developer thought was the public consultation it was supposed to have”, the notes said the Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology (BEST) Commission and Department of Physical Planning “subsequently determined it to be a non-conforming meeting for their guidelines.

“That resulted in the meeting tonight in order to satisfy their criteria of what constituted an efficient public consultation. So the September 2015 meeting, while informative and interesting by all accounts..., was not considered an official public hearing.”

Quoting an Abaco Club executive, the RDA notes said “BEST at last established the proper procedures they wanted [the developer] to follow for the consultation portion of the process” - a development that occurred right at the time the Judicial Review was launched.

Mr Smith yesterday argued that the June 27 meeting still did not meet the public consultation requirements, branding it as a “knee-jerk reaction” to RDA and “childish last minute attempt to put a pacifier in local residents’ mouths.”

Mr Rolle, though, in an interview with Tribune Business on Tuesday, called on environmental activists to be “more balanced and responsible”, expressing concern that they were impeding legitimate developers promising to create much-needed jobs for young Bahamians who might otherwise turn to crime.

He argued that the Abaco Club project’s economic benefits seemed to outweigh any environmental impact, and that a majority of attendees at last week’s meeting seemed to be in favour of the development.

Mr Rolle also pointed out that the Abaco Club’s plans for a waste ‘pump out’ facility at its marina would improve the Little Harbour environment, which was suffering from “alarming” levels of human waste pollution that had turned swimming into a health hazard.

Mr Smith, though, said that if the developer could show its plans would help the environment, “then I and my clients say: More power to them’.”