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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020
$4.52 DPM: New GB Power charge is ‘unavoidable’
K PETER TURNQUEST By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net THE deputy prime minister yesterday described Grand Bahama Power Company’s (GBPC) new Dorian recovery levy as “unavoidable” if electricity supply is to be restored to the entire island. Arguing that this “comes at a cost”, K Peter Turnquest, said: “Obviously any increase in any utility cost or tax is a concern to us as representatives as well as to the government. This, unfortunately, is one of those costs that I think is unavoidable. “The fact of the matter is we need to restore services to the entire island and that comes at a cost. We have had conversations with the power company since the storm as to how we facilitate this restoration and, unfortunately, this seems to be the only option that is available to us to ensure an efficient restoration of power. “It is important that we extend those power lines out to the east, because there are projects that are waiting right now to get started and to begin reconstructing and expanding in some instances. Again, while it is certainly regrettable, unfortunately it is necessary.” Mr Turnquest spoke out after GB Power unveiled the Storm Recovery and Stabilisation Charge that will be added to all customer bills with effect from April 1, 2020, as it seeks to recover the $15.6m cost associated with restoration of its uninsured transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure. Dave McGregor, the utility’s chief executive, argued that the additional levy on consumers was the most transparent and “fairest way” to achieve its objectives since it will act as a ‘pass through’, much like the fuel charge, from which GB Power will not earn a single cent in profits. “We don’t profit from this,” Mr McGregor told Tribune Business of the new charge. “This will be a direct pass through like the fuel charge is. The only alternative is to build this into the rates, but when there is no hurricane we end up making money. “We feel this is by far the fairest way for customers to pay for the hurricane. The hurricane needs to be paid for, and the best way is to pay through the customer. It will be a separate line on the bill, a separate charge.”
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Correction YESTERDAY, we published a story headlined “Treasury holds event for accounting officers”, which included a picture of assistant treasurer Donna Delancey. It was incorrectly captioned Mary Mitchell, who is the treasurer. We apologise for the error.
$4.54
$4.45
‘Holding the bag’ on 50% sales fall
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
A BAHAMIAN plastics product supplier yesterday said pleas for government assistance have not been answered as it prepares to terminate more staff following a 50 percent sales slump. Louise Munroe, owner of Plastic Property Ltd, told Tribune Business her business is in “a total mess” due to the 25 cents to $1 per bag charge imposed on consumers who purchase single-use plastics prior to the full ban taking effect from July 1, 2020. With Bahamians having emphatically rejected the fee, she explained that the wholesale company has literally been left “holding the bag” because retailers
• Plastic supplier’s pleas get no answer • Bag fee leaves business ‘in total mess’ • New staff cuts loom; call for taxes return
are refusing to order any from her given virtually zero demand. As a result, Ms Munroe said the loss of her previously “number one product line” has already caused the termination of two staff from Plastic Property’s ten-strong workforce, with a further two lay-offs imminent. With her calls for the removal of the plastic bag fee seemingly falling on deaf ears, she added that “the worst thing” about the company’s situation is that it has already paid VAT and import tariffs to bring in inventory that it cannot move. While acknowledging
the need to safeguard The Bahamas’ environment, Ms Munroe argued that other countries - such as the UK and Canada - had introduced the single-use plastics ban gradually and in such a way that it gave companies in the sector sufficient time to adjust. She asserted, though, that Plastic Property Ltd was being asked to “change a 22 year-old business model in just 12 months” - something she described as “just ridiculous”. Despite urging Romauld Ferreira, minister of the environment, to eliminate the minimum 25 cent per plastic bag fee during a Rotary
A FORMER Immigration minister yesterday argued that many Bahamians simply fail to take advantage of available employment opportunities because “their work ethic is bad”. Branville McCartney, the ex-Democratic National Alliance’s (DNA) leader, told Tribune Business that the prime minister’s floated solution for better skills/knowledge transfer between expatriate hires and Bahamian understudies was “good in theory, but very difficult in practice”. Responding after Dr Hubert Minnis suggested that expatriate workers should be replaced by other foreign hires should they fail to properly train a Bahamian replacement before their visa expires, so as to prevent them establishing long-term “roots” in this nation, Mr
BRANVILLE MCCARTNEY McCartney reiterated that any “understudy” policy should be applied on a caseby-case basis rather than across-the-board. Pointing to numerous “intricacies”, not least the cost to Bahamian employers from having to cover two salaries and uncertainty over whether understudies will
Labour specialist: to discuss ‘good understudy ideas’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
see them for one week, they get paid, and then you don’t see them because they call on sick or they’re in Miami. “The work ethic is, and has been, for Bahamians simply bad. I am a proponent of Bahamians first, Bahamians having opportunities, but we also have to be realistic about the situation, where we are, and you hardly get anything done in your business or profession depending on what your call is, when you have Bahamians who don’t want to work,” he continued. “They want a job, they want to get paid, but they don’t want to work. I am involved in many businesses, and see it every day. What the prime minister is saying is
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meeting last month, Ms Munroe told this newspaper: “I have not received any relief at all. No one has been in contact with me. I’m now trying to figure out what to do. This is quite a big issue and challenge for my business that I’m going through. It’s very bad.” Revealing that Plastic Property Ltd is currently holding 200,000 single-use plastic bags it cannot move, she added that she has not counted the other banned products also held in inventory - such as styrofoam plates and cups. Despite reducing orders
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• Not enough exploiting job opportunities • Understudy plan can’t be ‘hard and fast’ • But review expat permit holder businesses “stick it out” through their probationary periods, the former immigration minister under the last Ingraham administration warned a “hard and fast” application could unduly burden the private sector. “The main reason persons are hiring foreigners is because we don’t have persons here to do the job. Let’s be real,” Mr McCartney told Tribune Business. “It also applies to the likes of gardeners and handymen. I understand what the prime minister is saying about giving Bahamians opportunities but unfortunately they don’t take the opportunity. “They don’t want to be handymen, they don’t want to be gardeners and they don’t want to be housemaids. You
PETER GOUDIE
THE Chamber of Commerce’s top workforce specialist yesterday said he plans to discuss “some good ideas” for solving the government’s understudy issues when he meets its labour chief next month. Peter Goudie told Tribune Business he wanted to create “dialogue” with John Pinder, the director of labour, on ways to resolve the training of Bahamians to take over from expatriate workers through the transfer of knowledge and skills. The initiative was given further impetus by the prime minister’s closing mid-year budget address on Monday, during which he suggested that expatriate workers who failed to adequately train Bahamian understudies to replace them before their permits expire should be replaced by new foreign workers to prevent them establishing long-term roots in this nation. “I’m having a meeting with John Pinder soon about all this and some ideas I have,” Mr Goudie said. “I want to have a dialogue with him. We need to talk about this stuff. There are other ways to do things. One opinion is not necessarily the right one, which is why I want to have dialogue with the director of labour. The minister [Dion Foulkes] knows I’m going to talk to John. “I think we’ve got some good ideas about how to solve the issue of understudies. I have some ideas and I think they’ll like them. It’s something that I think is more palatable and achievable.” Mr Goudie said his meeting with Mr Pinder, which is scheduled for the second week in March, comes after the understudy issue was discussed at the last meeting of the National Tripartite Council, the joint
Bran: Bahamian ‘work ethic is bad’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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Activists blast GB Power’s storm levy ‘total disregard’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net ACTIVISTS yesterday blasted the addition of a Dorian restoration charge to all Grand Bahama residents’ electricity bills as showing “complete disregard and great insensitivity” for the island’s plight. Pastor Eddie Victor, president of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens (CCC), told Tribune Business that storm-battered consumers and businesses “cannot bear” the additional levy that Grand Bahama Power Company has described as essential to recovering $15.6m worth of post-Dorian infrastructure repairs. The utility monopoly reiterated yesterday that the Storm Recovery and Stabilisation Charge will only increase consumer bills by an average one cent ($0.01) per kilowatt hour, but Pastor Victor said this would be of little comfort to residents given that energy costs were already high prior to Dorian. Given that Grand Bahama residents and businesses did not own the
• Consumers, businesses ‘cannot bear’ fee • Argue utility, Emera should foot $15.6m bill • Renew call for URCA to take on regulation transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure whose rebuilding will be financed by new charge, he argued that GB Power and its 100 percent owner, Canadian utility giant, Emera, should instead take responsibility for funding the repairs - particularly given the latter’s deep pockets. Pastor Victor also slammed the seeming rush to introduce the new charge, which will be added to all Grand Bahama consumers’ bills from April 1, without undertaking a full public consultation exercise to obtain feedback from residents and the private sector on the likely impact. He added that the episode further highlighted the need for the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) to take over supervision of GB Power and all other Freeport-based utilities from the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), along with the introduction
of energy sector competition - especially in the island’s west and east, and outside the Port area. “It is absolutely - I don’t know if I should use the word unconscionable - for an increase to be put on an island still recovering, and which will probably be recovering for several years,” Pastor Victor told this newspaper of GB Power’s action, which has been approved by the GBPA as its regulator. “It just shows great insensitivity to the economic situation in Grand Bahama. We’re, the coalition, totally against it. There should have been a way to deal with this apart from increasing customer bills. Those bills are already high, and now they’re going to put an increase on the population? It is completely not right. “I can safely say the population of Grand Bahama is against it. Even as a pastor, I work with a network of 140
pastors on this island, and they’re all totally against it. It just brings to bear the need for an independent regulator, such as URCA, to be active on the island.” Dave McGregor, GB Power’s chief executive, admitted in an interview with Tribune Business that the additional consumer charge would “not be an easy sell” amid the slow post-Dorian recovery but argued that it was “the fairest way for customers to pay” for the damage inflicted upon its uninsured transmission and distribution network. He explained that the new levy will act as a pass through, much like the fuel charge, and that GB Power will not earn one cent in profit from it. This, Mr McGregor, would not be the case if the fee was incorporated in GB Power’s existing tariff structure, as it would add to the utility’s bottom line in years when
no hurricane occurs. Explaining that the fee had been calculated to spread the $15.6m Dorian cost recovery over five years, thereby minimising the rate impact for Grand Bahama residents and businesses, Mr McGregor said the reliability and price predictability that GB Power has created since 2013 “needs to be paid for” - especially when the $27.5m repairs from Hurricane Matthew are factored in. Pastor Victor, though, yesterday questioned why GB Power was seemingly in such a rush to introduce the levy just seven months after Dorian hit the island. He also queried why it had not given customers more advanced warning and a full explanation. “It shows complete disregard for the economic condition on the island,” he slammed. “The other side of this is that they’re saying the cost of living is going to increase further on the island. We already have a high cost of living on this island, and they’re increasing it more.
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