“Food prices will remain elevated’ – Roberts doesn’t expect immediate relief as inflation imported” – The Nassau Guardian – Thursday, June 22, 2023

Excerpt from this article; “Super Value food store chain owner Rupert Roberts said yesterday that notwithstanding all the creative measures employed by buyers in the grocery store industry, particularly within his establishment, food prices will likely remain elevated into next year and will probably continue to rise.

Roberts said the only commodity that he sees going down right now is corned beef.

“Most of the other commodities have gone up,” he said.

“Sugar went up $3 a bale; rice is up. Most commodities have gone up.

“Now, in the next 18 months, I hope they remain the same, but they are likely to go up again.

“So, I don’t know what’s fueling it, but we tripled up on orders from China … and, of course, the freight rates from China have actually come down. We locked in the prices on the China goods at least until the end of this year.

“All of the inflation hasn’t really shown in this country because when we suspect something, we buy [to lock in lowest prices]. We have a 100,000-square-foot warehouse now. Our warehouse is probably a little less than half full, and so we have a lot of opportunity to buy. We have space. We have storage.”

The Budget Debate has wrapped up and to my knowledge this subject; that of some sort of immediate relief to the average Bahamian shopper has not been addressed.

There was a lot to say about the New Cruse Port deal and how it was such a “bad deal for The Bahamas but no one seemed willing or able to offer any immediate solutions to the impact that inflation is having on the average working class of the country.

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) New Day government has bragged about their two “major accomplishments” as it concerns the working class; these being the increase of the average wage from two-hundred and ten dollars ($210) to two-hundred and sixty dollars ($260) and the decrease in Value-Added Tax (VAT) to ten percent (10%) but they also seemed unable to show how this decrease along with the addition of VAT to breadbasket items and mediation; which were once exempt from VAT, has benefited the people of the country.

It would appear that the general consensus “on the ground” beside the concerns about immigration and crime is inflation, as revealed by Fred Mitchell, Chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), Minister of Foreign Affairs and the member of parliament for Fox Hill;

“Speaking in the House of Assembly recently during the 2023/2024 budget debate, Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, the MP for Fox Hill, said inflation is clearly the number one issue faced by Bahamians and he is seeing more requests for help from constituents than he has ever seen in his time in politics.

“… It seems to me, I know people say that crime and immigration are issues which concern them, but it seems to me right now that inflation has got to be the number one issue that’s affecting people because the cost of everything has become more expensive,” Mitchell said.”

The New Day government cannot claim that they did not know of this being a major problem when they came into office, as we all knew – if we were paying attention that we were about to go through a round economic period coming out of the pandemic; even as the world began to open up and the economy begun to rebound.

It would appear that the New Day government spent an entire budget debate applying his common tactics of deflection and “smoke and mirrors to’ have the public not notice that they are actually failing the people of The Bahamas, as the double down and make even more promises on the top of those that they made during the campaign season.

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) fails for one reason, it is their nature.

END

The manner in which the Keith Bell, the Ministry of Labour and Immigration, attacked the deal surrounding the new Cruise Port, is indicative of a government and members of parliament that are simply unable to focus on what is important; so they “invent’ things/situations/issues to “deal with”; even if these situations makes them look more incompetent and inept than they already are.

I know that most would say that this is simply impossible but they [The New Day Government] does just this each and every day.

“Shanty town demolition to start ‘this year’ – Bell” – The Tribune March 6^th 2023

Excerpt from this article;

“LABOUR and Immigration Minister Keith Bell said he thinks the government will move to demolish shanty towns sometime this year.

The minister was asked during a recent interview about a timeline for when the government will move to raze the illegal structures now that a Supreme Court injunction barring such action has been lifted.

This comes as tensions over the issue continue to mount, with political hopeful Lincoln Bain and several of his supporters being stopped by police a little over a week ago as they tried to demolish homes in a shanty town off Bacardi Road.

Asked about the issue, Mr. Bell responded: “The main thing here is that this is a country, and I’ve repeated this before, this is a country of law and order. Everything has to be done in decency and respect and in those shanty towns, we have three categories of persons.

“While we have the undocumented migrants we also have persons who have legal status here in the country and we have Bahamians living in those shanty towns. So the idea is that when we do go and move to demolish, we identify those Bahamians, and we ensure that they have some place to go, or we provide Social Services to them.”

It would appear that Minister Bell has lost control of this situation as he claims to be simply abiding by the law and order of The Bahamas, but the last time I checked the demolition of the shanty towns was already deemed lawful, so exactly which “law and orders” is the minister referring to?

By the this time, shouldn’t the New Day’s government’s Immigration Minister and all other relevant ministires have had resolved all of the other factors that the Minister of Immigration is suggesting that should have been considered

So what should a Cabinet Minister do when it would appear that his portfolio is failing and he seems lost as how to get it on track?

Deflect of course, but when you do you should really deflect to something that you should be more knowledgeable about and that does not contradict the opinions of the persons whose portfolio that you seemed to now want to be passionately wrong about.

“Bell: Cruise port deal worst ever in history “– The Nassau Guardian

“Although Prime Minister Philip Davis and Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper both recently applauded the partnership with Global Ports Holding, which gave birth to the newly opened $300 million Nassau Cruise Port (NCP), Minister of Labour and Immigration Keith Bell yesterday excoriated the former Minnis administration for entering into a “bad deal” for the port — a deal he termed a “national disgrace”.

“It is a bad deal,” said Bell, who used a great portion of his contribution to the 2023/2024 budget debate in the House of Assembly to rip apart the deal, which was signed in 2019.

“As a matter of fact, I would submit that this is the worst deal in the history by any government and any administration in the history of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. I’ve never seen nothing like this, never.”

Bell charged, “When the FNM and the competent authority (former Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis) signed this deal, they wrote off hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, in revenue for at least 27 years.

“What is most disturbing is that the honorable member of Killarney (Minnis) is proud of his deal. Madam Deputy Speaker, to make matters worse, this deal was done by the same government that spent $44 million of taxpayer money in 2009 to dredge the same port that they turned around and gave away.”

Keith Bell continues to talk about the “give away of the port”, a claim that he is unable to substantiate with fact; most of this contribution based on speculation and supposition and most of it spent addressing the Port deal instead of what is happening in Immigration; I guess this is not as important or salacious as the “stories” that he seemed so willing to create concerning a matter that most people would accept his opinion on, if he were able to show some positive moment in his very own portfolio.

Keith Bell’s contribution seems to be indicative of the New Day government’s approach to govern,   total unfocused and out of touch with reality and as the saying goes; “you are free to our own opinions’ but not your own facts.  So while Bell contradicted the sentiments  of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Tourism and Aviation on this matter, he also seemed quite willing to contradict the facts and the numbers by making up his own.

“$85.3 mil. in govt. revenue from cruise port next year – Figures contradict Bell’s claim that govt in deficit position from port deal.” The Nassau Guardian June 15^th 2023

Excerpt from this article; “The government of The Bahamas is projected to rake in revenue of $85.3 million next year as a result of the redeveloped Nassau Cruise Port Ltd. (NCP), up from $72.3 million in revenue in 2019, according to numbers released yesterday by NCP.

The NCP release came on the same day that a Cabinet minister claimed the Bahamian people are being robbed as a result of the deal the Minnis administration entered into for a public-private partnership arrangement for the new, state-of-the-art $300 million port.

The $85.3 million in revenue would include $82.8 million in head tax and $2.5 million in lease payments.

Minister of Labour and Immigration Keith Bell claimed that over a five-year period – from 2023 to 2027 – the port will get $575,800,000 in revenue while the government gets a mere $18 million, which he claimed amounts to a deficit when one considers the $44 million The Bahamas government invested over a decade ago to dredge Nassau Harbour.  

NCP did not reference Bell in its statement yesterday but outlined facts on the port deal and its projected impact, which directly contradict the information he provided in Parliament while contributing to the budget debate.

NCP noted that it completed the construction of the new berth six and extension of berth one in early 2022, which has materially improved the cruise port’s vessel capacity and consequently the number of passengers coming to Nassau.

In 2023, Nassau is forecasted to surpass 2019’s passenger count by approximately 300,000 passengers and in 2024 the total number of cruise passengers is estimated to climb to 4.6 million passengers.

“As we look forward, Nassau Cruise Port Ltd. forecasts from FY2024 to FY2027 are based on cruise passenger bookings for the next two years and future estimates,” NCP said.

“Notwithstanding the addition of berth number six and the expansion of berth number one, passenger capacity and revenue generation is limited by the number of berths available and the size ships each berth can accommodate. It is also impacted by The Bahamas tourism seasonality.”

The cruise port projects that 4.6 million passengers will visit in 2024 for a total revenue for the port of $34.1 million; five million passengers are expected in 2025 for a total revenue of $47.4 million; 5.2 million are projected for 2026 for a total revenue of $60.4 million; 5.4 million passengers are expected in 2027 for a total revenue of $64.7 million and 5.6 million are forecast for 2028 with a projected revenue of $68.9 million.

The revenues do not represent profits as expenses and dividends to investors are included.

“In summary, the development of the new Nassau Cruise Port is the envy of the Caribbean,” NCP said.”

My opinion to the “Hon.” Keith Bell would be simple and straight to the point.  Please stick to your portfolio and get the country out of the bind that you and the New Day government has it in, as it pertains to it not being able to reclaim Crown Land that has been built on illegally by persons that are here illegally.  It has become quite apparent that you are now even a failure at spreading cheap nonsensical political propaganda.

Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is their nature.

END

Today is being recognized as Labour Day or Sir. Randol Fawkes Day; the man recognized as “The Father of the Labour Movement”. It is a day set aside as a holiday on the first Friday of June to recognize and celebrate the nard working proletariat
This day has been hi-jacked by the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), and to hear them tell their story – it is a PLP holiday but the only thing that they have succeeded in doing is to create separate between the average workers based on politics when this day has nothing to do with politics.
The PLP has become toxic to the Workers Day Celebrations by first separating the workers from their colleagues, whom they should be walking with, by encouraging them to walk with the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), turning the march into a political event.
They further separate the workers from their fellow colleagues by encouraging them to end the march at Gambier House, the PLP Headquarters; instead of encouraging them to end it and socialize together on Arawak Cay.
The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) has always been a party of separatists and only encourages “togetherness’ with it politically convenient for them as a party and/or government.
The PLP fails for one reason, it is their nature.
END