The Tribune

PROMISES, promises. Promises have been put on the table by the administration of Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis – now let’s see if the government keeps them.

Yesterday, Mr Davis said the government had finalised its national policy on labour relations. You may remember before the election a whole hullabaloo with the PLP having struck a deal with umbrella unions the National Congress of Trade Unions Bahamas and Trade Union Congress, only to find out later that many of the member unions hadn’t even seen what was signed up to.

Well, yesterday, more promises included a review of the Minimum Wage Act and an increase in the national minimum wage.

Previously, Labour Minister Keith Bell promised that a “workable” wage would be “coming very soon” and Mr Davis said that the new deal would include “enactment of legislation to establish a liveable wage”.

It probably hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that our economy is far from soaring right now. As much as there are encouraging signs with the resurgence of tourism, we still face the lingering costs of both the pandemic and Hurricane Dorian. The deficit is high, the debt is higher. In short, these promises will cost money – and there’s not a lot of that about.

As a significant employer itself, many of these increased costs will fall directly onto government’s own shoulders. Budgets will have to accommodate more money in workers’ pockets for those liveable wages.

So let’s see where we are 12 months from now. A promise is easy to make, but can also be easy to break.

The government believes its measures are affordable, it would seem, so let’s see how they make the dollars stretch.

There are other things to come in this policy that we will be eager to see as well – a national child labour policy that we hope will ensure the protection of children, action on “rehabilitation and employment for disabled persons” that we hope will give opportunities to those too often denied.

Over to you, Mr Davis. We eagerly await the outcome.

All change

Speaking of seeing how things turn out 12 months later, emails show that former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis was apparently extremely keen for Bahamian entrepreneur Toby Smith to be given “all the assistance necessary” to ensure the success of his $2m Paradise Island Lighthouse and Beach Club project.

The email, sent on January 22, 2019, read: “Kindly ensure Toby receives all the assistance necessary… He must be assisted to ensure success.”

A year later, Mr Smith was seemingly snubbed in favour of Royal Caribbean. Mr Smith was first in the queue, but Royal Caribbean got the Crown Land lease grant.

Mr Smith is in the middle of a court action over the matter – but how soon things can change in a year.