vol. 31 - no. 116 wednesday - july 24th, 2019 75 cents

Shop at Standard ServiCeS where you

can get 20% off Houseware, linen,

lamps and draperies.and much, much more

Shirley & Church Street Phone: 322-4635

STANDARDSERVICES

SUPPLIES LTD.

DEAN & ASSOCIATES PROFESSIONALINSURANCE AGENTS & BROKERS

“Meeting Your Needs Efficiently and Professionally”

BUILDINGS (COMMERCIAL & RESIDENTIAL)LIFE - GROUP - MEDICAL -

ANNUITIES - LIABILITY - MARINE - HOMEOWNERS - AUTO

Tel: (242)-356-0986 Fax: (242)-356-0987Deal’s Plaza, Mackey Street

P.O. Box CB-13952 Nassau, Bahamas8:30am - 4:30pm

A L L T H E N E W S Y O U N E E D T O R E A D I N T H E M O R N I N G

VOL. 31 - NO. 116 75 CENTSWEDNESDAY - JULY 24TH, 2019

Wells Defends Post Office Deal

inister ofTransport andL o c a lGovernment

Renward Wells made avaliant attempt to defendthe controversial GeneralPost Office deal, whichincludes its relocation tothe Town Centre Mall anda lease agreement with St.Anne’s Member ofParliament BrentSymonette.When pressed on the

issue outside Cabinet yes-terday morning, Wellsgave a terse response toreporters.“Listen we’ve signed

the lease, what else is outthere to be known? Wetold you all how much we

BY BERTHONY MCDERMOTTJournal Staff Writer

g See page 3... 4 Minister of Transport and Local Government Renward Wells

M

$300 MILLION INVESTMENT FOR OCEAN CAY

The final stages of prepar-ing Ocean Cay for MSCCruises is underway andover $300 million has

been invested in theundertakings so far.MSC Cruises is the

number one operator inFreeport for transship-ment (MediterraneanShipping Company) since

1997. The company hasalso been a part of thecruise division since 2004and European Based, withsome 17 cruise ships in itsfleet.With some three

months before the firstguests arrive on the cayvia MSC Cruises, MSCCruises ExecutiveChairman Pierfrancesco

BY LICEC BASTIANJournal Staff Writer

g See page 3...

4 Pierfrancesco Vago, Executive Chairman, MSC Cruises addresses the media during a press conference to announce amajor eco-development planned for Ocean Cay. With just under four months to go until Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve wel-comes its first guests, a meeting was held in Nassau, between Bahamian government officials and a delegation of senior MSC

Cruises representatives.. (Photo: Ronnie Archer/Barefoot Marketing)

BCPOU Files TradeDispute Against BTC

B a h a m a sCommunications andPublic Officers Union(BCPOU) President DinoRolle filed a trade disputeagainst the BahamasTe lecommunica t ionsCompany (BTC) Limitedon Monday.The BCPOU filed a

trade dispute with the

BY DEANDRE WILLIAMSONJournal Staff Writer

4 BCPOU PresidentDino Rolle g See page 4...

FNM Attacks PLP’s10-Year Plan

The Free NationalMovement (FNM)attacked the ProgressiveLiberal Party’s (PLP) 10-year plan describing it as“incompetent”.In a statement issued

on Tuesday, the FNM

criticized the plan point-ing out that it begins withmassively increasingspending on party infra-structure, including newheadquarters in everyconstituency.“It appears new lead-

ership could be a very

BY EARYEL BOWLEG Journal Staff Writer

g See page 8...

Gov’t to Address PublicTransportation Issues

The deadline for the gov-ernment to address theissues concerning taxiand bus drivers wasextended to August,according to Minister ofTransport and LocalGovernment RenwardWells.Yesterday, Wells said a

cabinet subcommittee isalso scheduled to meetthis month to address the

concerns of public serv-ice drivers, which rangefrom a lifting the morato-rium on taxi plates to anincrease in the bus fare.“The prime minister in

his wisdom has puttogether a cabinet sub-committee of about sixcabinet ministers to dealwith the entire trans-portation business,” hesaid. “Not just taxi cab driv-

BY BERTHONY MCDERMOTTJournal Staff Writer

g See page 3...

Section A REGULAR_Section A Tues 7/23/2019 11:47 PM

A former sand-mining andaragonite site, Ocean Cay,abandoned in 2015 wasacquired by MSC Cruises,which are now working toconserve the natural ele-ments of the propertywhile turning it into amarine reserve. MSC Cruise began the

project in 2015 and tookon the challenge to trans-

form the industrial waste-land into a marine reserveand tourist destination, atthe same time investingsome $300 million. MSC Cruises

announced yesterday, thatthe company is committedto restoration and ongoingconservation of marineresources and made sig-nificant clean up efforts tothe island and surroundingocean bed, discarding upto 7,500 tons of scrap

metal that was transportedto a dedicated U.S. basedlicensed waste contractor. Matthew McKinnon, of

the MSC Foundation, anindependent entity,explained that the proper-ty at Ocean Cay has adegrading ecosystem andis in a declining state. "So, for instance the

conch is being exploitedat unsustainable levels.The coral has had as muchas 50 percent mortality in

recent years,” Mr.McKinnon said."In the context of glob-

al environmental changes,like climate change andthe warming of thewaters, at this stage thereefs are basically on theway out."So, what we're look-

ing to do with MSC and asMSC Foundation is to tryand find a way to makeuse of those amazingresources of the island and

pull both the expertise ofthose available in TheBahamas with expertsregionally, experts inter-nationally and try and finda way to save the coral, tosupport its resilience so itcan rebound and it cancope with changes that areto come." Having had a team of

10 marine biologists combthe area in April, Mr.McKinnon said steps havebeen taken to determining

how the area will be man-aged. "After we received the

facts and the outcome ofthe assessment, we gath-ered a team of all of theseexperts on Bimini, forabout a week, and westarted the process todesign a plan to reboundthe ecosystem of thearea,” Mr. McKinnonsaid. "We have plans to not

only support the conserva-tion, to study the restora-tion, but also we areexploring careers in aca-demic partnerships withthe University of TheBahamas and universitiesbased in America, wherewe can train students whowill participate in the con-servation progamme." Engaged by MSC

Cruises, with the approvalfrom the BESTCommission, Principle ofDesign Elements TanyaFerguson explained thatthe role of the company isthe environmental man-agement and said therehas been no negative pushback from environmental-ists. "I have a chain of staff

that is onsite 24 hoursdoing environmentalmonitoring,” Mrs.Ferguson said. "Although this is an

industrial site and at theend there will be a netpositive impact, whichmeans that instead of hav-ing a degraded impact youwill have actually a netpositive impact becauseyou would have improvedwhat you met there. Eventhough that's the case, indoing so there is still thechance that you can havean impact and so our roleis to ensure that during theconstruction phase theactivities associated withthe project does not add tothe impact."Because of the nature

of the site, there's been

A2 NationalNEWSThe Bahama Journal

Wednesday - July 24th, 2019

DNA Demands HigherPhysic ian WagesDemocratic NationalAlliance (DNA) LeaderArinthia Komolafe calledon the government toimprove the country’shealthcare system by pro-viding one year contractsfor junior doctors and abetter paid workforce.Komolafe made this

call during a press confer-ence on Tuesday whereshe discussed the govern-ment’s lack of initiativesto resolve issues such aspoor medical facilitiesand low wages. “We have this chal-

lenge in our healthcaresystem where we havebrain drain. We’re losingqualified professionals todeveloped countries likethe United States,Canada, and the UnitedKingdom because thebenefits here, the salaryhere, working conditionshere are not up to stan-dard for qualified health-care professions to workunder,” Mrs. Komolafesaid. DNA Deputy Leader

Buscheme Armbristerpointed out the problemof bed shortages at thePrincess MargaretHospital.

“In ICU, they don’thave any trolley, or theyvery seldom have trolley,to carry people from theICU to the theaterbecause the trolleys arebeing used in A&E asbeds,” Mr. Armbristersaid.“When we look at the

wasteful spending thatthis government is doing,it is deplorable. We could,$400 for a bed, but we’rewasting $9,000 on thehouse for the governor.Total shame! Very lucra-tive contracts are going tospecial interest, but havepeople in trolleys in A&Efor sometimes days on

end. This cannot beaccepted in the 21st cen-tury Bahamas.” Both Armbrister and

Komolafe noted that theseare issues that have beencompounded over theyears and is a global phe-nomenon, but the partyleader insisted thatresponsibility must betaken to put the necessarystructure in place forBahamians. In the upcoming

months, the DNA willintroduce plans to splitthe Bahamas into zoneswhere different islandscan be able to focus andmanage their own affairs.

BY EARYEL BOWLEG Journal Staff Writer

4 DNA Leader Arinthia Komolafe

MSC Cruises toTransform Ocean Cay

BY LICEC BASTIANJournal Staff Writer

g See page 4...


A3The Bahama Journal

Wednesday - July 24th, 2019NationalNEWS

Wells Defends

$300 MILLION INVESTMENT FOR OCEAN CAY

were paying, $14 persquare foot, and its 56,000square feet,” Wells said.“The resolution gives

us the opportunity to getup to 75,000 square feet ofspace.” When asked again if

the government intends totable the lease he said,“That’s a discussion thathas to be taken at anotherlevel and then we will beable to get back to you.”

Wells maintained thatthe whole process hasbeen transparent and thatthe government made theright decision.“All of these things

that were being discussedin papers and amongstyou reporters were beingdiscussed as if all of asudden these issues werenew. Everything that wasspoken to in the press wasspoken to in the House ofAssembly,” he explained.“The resolution was

put forward, transparencywas given to theBahamian people, it wasdebated, reports werelaid, people had their say,there was a vote and wemoved.“Yet, still we have

come back in this era totry and adjudicate some-thing that was alreadyadjudicated in the highcourt of Parliament.“I want to say it again.

It was adjudicated in thehigh court of Parliament.

Nobody was duckingunder no rock or hidinganything.” The Progressive

Liberal Party has beencoming down heavy onthe government in recentweeks in light of then sit-ting Cabinet MinisterBrent Symonette being apart owner in the TownCentre Mall andSymonette’s subsequentdisclosure that he and theprime minister discussedthe post office’s possible

lease agreement prior to itheading to Cabinet forconsideration.Wells also maintained

that the post office deba-cle will not be a stum-bling block for theMinnis administration.“No one disagrees that

the post office is in theright place. The placewhere it is at is the rightplace,” he said.“As a matter of fact,

the opposition thoughtthat the centre where it is

was so right, they decid-ed they didn’t want to gothere for whatever reasonin the Town Centre Mall,so where they went?“Did they go to the

west end of the island orthe east end? No theywent right cross the roadin the IndependenceShopping Center.”According to the PLP,

the party is exploring thepossibility of a judicialreview into the matter.

Vago said yesterday thatthe company is committedto creating a paradise fortourists. According to Mr. Vago,

what started out as an $80million venture nowexceeds $300 million ininvestments. “I want to tell you what

an incredible story it hasbeen to turn this site thatwas contaminated, thatwas full of waste material,that we found all kinds ofthings inside, from oil,from residual, even resid-ual of old planes in thesand, we did an incrediblejob to actually restoreit,” Mr. Vago said. "Once we restored it,

once we reshaped it, oncewe started cleaning, westarted shaping exactlywhat the design of theisland was going to be. Sofrom an industrial to a par-adise, back to nature.”Since the 1970s, Ocean

Cay has been an industrialarea with aragonite har-vesting. With the full backing of

the government, MSCplans to employ more than100 Bahamians, accordingto Ocean Cay GeneralManager MichelleMcGregor. "We've been working

with the Department ofLabour, the NationalTraining Agency, inFreeport and in Nassau, toreally try to get as many

Bahamians as we can forthe different expertise wehave available and posi-tions we have available onsite,” Mrs. McGregorsaid. "We've been so lucky,

we've had hundreds ofapplicants and we'veprobably have chosen 200of them that we still needto now narrow downbecause I only have about140 positions. I was ableto find about 120Bahamians that we'll beable to place onsite." Ocean Cay Marine

Reserve anticipates open-ing November 9, 2019. MSC plans to invest $5

million over the next 10years to further restore theisland's ecosystem.

gg Continued from / PAGE 1...

very little [pushback], butthere has been, as witheverything, there has beensome inquiries and almostevery inquiry that wasmade, Michelle(McGregor) and I we per-sonally spoke with theparties involved and at theend of it they were ratherpleased." Mrs. Ferguson added

that her agency has metwith stakeholders as wellas the surrounding com-

munities of Bimini andCoco Cay."We went out and we

did stakeholder engage-ment on several levels.We did it on a communitylevel where we had a com-munity meeting,” Mrs.Ferguson said.“We also had persons

on the ground doing inter-views with persons withinthe community. So that'swhat we did on the com-munity level. Then wehad engagements from thevarious environmental

NGOs of The Bahamas,the Nature Conservancy,The Bahamas NationalTrust, the various govern-ments Ministry ofEnvironment, theDepartment of MarineResources and also theUniversity of TheBahamas as a key partner,Cape Eleuthera, Centerfor Oceanic Research(COR)."So, there was exten-

sive engagement withlocal environment com-munity just to get feed-

back and to find the possi-ble right fit for the part-nership when it comes tothe management aspect ofit."MSC creates a won-

derful opportunity toshow how an area if prop-erly managed what resultscan happen, but it's alsounique because it is a firstopportunity for a privatepartnership cooperationfor something like this, soall around it's a veryunique project." Ocean Cay Marine

Reserve will host overhalf a million touristsannually. The MSC Marine

Reserve Bahamas antici-pates being a low impactisland nearly completelysolar, with a solar farmthat will produce up to600KW which will allowfor the island to be operat-ed without any othersource of energy when theship is not in port. According to Gianluca

Suprani, SVP PortDevelopment and

Shoreline Activities forMSC Cruises, there areplans to use bio-diesel tooperate generators whichwill allow for minimalimpact.Use of a water well,

sent to an advanced filtra-tion system producing upto 120,000 gallons offresh water and the use ofsolar electric carsthroughout the cay as wellas the ban of the single useof plastic are all featuresof the MSC MarineReserve at Ocean Cay.

MSC Cruises to Transformgg Continued from / PAGE 2...


Gov’t to Address PublicTransportation Issues ers, but bus drivers, deliv-ery drivers, but to deal withRoad Traffic, so we canhave one cohesive policythat is both accepted by thegovernment of TheBahamas and more sobought into by theBahamian people andbought into by those per-sons who are involved inthe transportation busi-ness.” Public service drivers

had imposed on the govern-ment a July 1 deadline to

have their issues resolved.Bahamas Taxi Cab

Union President WesleyFerguson said given all thegovernment has on its plateright now, coupled with theminister’s only just return-ing to the country, he has noissues with the new dead-line.“Granted that Minister

Wells is basically a newminister of transport, weare working hand and handto try to make them under-stand that it’s not a quick fixand at the same token wehave given him an opportu-

nity to address some of theissues that he promised hewould have addressed bynow,” Ferguson said.“However, without

being barbaric and withoutbeing for lack of a betterword antsy about goingahead, we’ve just giventhem a little leeway tomake good on his promis-es.” Ferguson has however

made it clear that if noth-ing’s resolved by theAugust deadline, the unionwill have little choice butto up the ante.


GOT NEWS?call The Journal

TIP LINE at 356-7254


A4 The Bahama Journal

Wednesday - July 24th, 2019 NationalNEWS

BCPOU Files TradeDispute Against BTCMinistry of Labour citingBTC’s failure to negotiatein good faith on the pro-posed voluntary separa-tion packages (VSEP). According to Rolle,

“This action is contrary tothe Collective BargainingAgreement, namely article4.7 which suggests thatnegotiations should ensuewith the unions, before aformal proposal is made tothe staff.”Rolle pointed out that

BTC CEO Gary Sinclairhas yet to complete thenegotiations with theunions relative to theVSEP packages beingoffered

“More seriously, wehave not signed anyIndustrial Agreement withBTC,” he said.“The truth is a foreign

concept to BTC’s CEO,Gary Sinclair.“On Friday, July 19,

Mr. Sinclair emailed meand very pointedly statedin his email, that he is‘respectfully concludingour consultative discus-sions’ and he will be mov-ing ahead with the launchof the VSEP program atBTC in the coming days.You can’t get clearer thanthat. “Unfortunately, it seems

as though Mr. Sinclair wasattempting to deter theunions and had hoped that

we would have gone awayquietly and forfeited therights of our members.Now he’s stating in thedailies this week that BTCis only in the ‘planningphase’ of its VSEP pro-gram.”Rolle indicated that he’s

confident that followingthe normal processes, theMinistry of Labour willprovide a hearing and arbi-tration date, bringing BTCback to the negotiationtable. “Our only aim is to

ensure that our membersare treated fairly andoffered equitable packagescommensurate with theiryears of service.Additionally, we have to

be very deliberate with ouractions to ensure that theVSEP packages aredesigned appropriately.Primarily because pension-able individuals acceptingthe packages will be transi-tioning a financial burdento the already multimilliondollar mounting debt of thepublic purse, subsequentlythe Bahamian people. Thisis an unfortunate positionwhich carelessly cameabout under the terms ofthe BTC sale to CWC,”Rolle said.“I find the actions of the

BTC CEO, Mr. Sinclair tobe most disingenuous. Youcan’t treat the staff withdisdain, call them ineffi-cient and ‘dead wood’

behind closed doors andcall for unity in the publicface.“Staff can’t be efficient

when they are not providedwith the tools to performtheir job functions. Thisbusiness has not made anymajor capital investmentsin BTC for almost fiveyears. As a part of theshareholders agreement,CWC is paid a 2 percentmanagement fee to man-age BTC. They need to dotheir jobs. It’s appallingthat all advanced levelactivities for the technicaldepartments, namely ITand engineering have beenoutsourced to Miami.Local technicians mustalso rely and coordinate

with external personsfrom Barbados, Jamaicaand Curacao to offer sim-ple services to our cus-tomers.

“This isn’t globaliza-tion. This is CWC’sclever way of reducingcosts and removing jobsfrom Bahamians.” However, Rolle point-

ed out that the unions arecommitted to their effortsof negotiating what’s bestfor its members and urgedSinclair to spend less timetrying to sway publicopinion and more timebuilding internal consen-sus with his teams. “Only then will we see

a true shift in the cultureat BTC,” he said.



vol. 31 - no. 116 wednesday - july 24th, 2019 75 cents

Documents