The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell has told “outsiders” to stay out of the fight over Freeport’s future, calling it “none of their business” in an apparent rebuke of US Ambassador Herschel Walker.

Mr Walker accused the government of telling investors the rules can change after they invest.

Mr Mitchell, who is also chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party, made the comments in his weekly voice note released on Sunday night.

“Some people who are not vested in the city, outsiders to the debate, have entered a debate that is none of their business and of course, the wider point needs to be made that there are no foreign affairs implications in this debate,” he said. “Neither is there any question of expropriation. Folks should stop crying wolf.”

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis unveiled the government’s plan to end the Grand Bahama Port Authority’s governing role under the 1955 Hawksbill Creek Agreement in Freeport last Wednesday night. He declared that “the present way of governing Freeport will come to an end” and that whether change happens is no longer up for negotiation.

In an article published last week, Mr Walker said he had read the announcement “with real concern”. He said the plan essentially told investors that in The Bahamas, “the rules can change after you have already made the investment”.

Mr Walker agreed that Grand Bahama needed better results, but warned that investors are drawn to jurisdictions where the rules remain “steady”. He said the announcement raised more questions than answers for investors. These include whether their tax and duty treatment, licences and contracts would be honoured, who would set fees, how they could appeal, and what the timeline was.

He also pointed to American investment in Grand Bahama’s recovery, including what he described as a $120m redevelopment of the Grand Lucayan resort, Carnival’s Celebration Key cruise port and the Western Atlantic University School of Medicine.

It is the second time in a month that Mr Walker has openly taken on the Davis administration. Last month, he dismissed as “fake news” the government’s complaint that undercover US drug agents had operated in The Bahamas without permission.

The Hawksbill Creek Agreement runs until 2054. It gave the privately owned Port Authority control over who may do business, who may build and how land is planned in the Port Area, in exchange for tax exemptions. The Port Authority is owned by the Hayward and St George families. It said last week that its rights and those of its licensees “must be respected” and could only be changed by agreement.

The Davis administration believes the arrangement is colonial and has outlived its time. Mr Mitchell said the oligarchy that controlled the country when the agreement was signed was not a representative government.

“In a sense,” he said, “the arrangement today would be fine if the current owners of the Grand Bahama Port Authority were able to carry out the promises that they made, implicit and explicit, in 1955. But the evidence suggests that they cannot.”

Mr Mitchell said Freeport had been underperforming for years and the government had been carrying the city for decades. He said the government had been forced to take the Port Authority to arbitration to recover fees for its spending in the city. He accused the owners of failing to heed that message and instead doubling down, despite Freeport’s ailing economy. Both sides claimed victory after an arbitration ruling in March.

He accused the owners of being “obdurate and recalcitrant”. He also criticised them for selling off assets including the harbour, airport, power company, a hotel and Port Lucaya.

Of Port Lucaya, he said: “In the case of Port Lucaya, they are involved in torturous litigation even today that prevents the investors in that asset to move forward with its development, so that Port Lucaya is a wasteland and a dump, and a shadow of its former self.”

He said that on his recent visit to Grand Bahama, the roads were clearly in terrible shape, and the budget the owners were promoting to fix them was inadequate.

“In fact, if you ride around the city, they haven’t even collected the debris which was left from Hurricane Dorian in 2019,” Mr Mitchell said.

He said public reaction to Mr Davis’ announcement had been largely positive and urged Grand Bahamians to back the reforms. He called on Free National Movement leader Michael Pintard to do the same, describing him as “mealy mouthed” and the “gaslighter-in-chief”.

Details of the government’s Green Paper on Grand Bahama’s future are available at www.gbframework.com. Public consultation runs from November 1 to April 30, 2027.

Mr Mitchell called the consultation “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Bahamians to carve out the future of our country, defend, and further define our sovereignty and develop our country”. He said no such consultation took place when the current framework was set up.