(Statement by Progressive Liberal Party Chairman Senator Fred Mitchell.)
NASSAU, Bahamas, June 1, 2021 — As National Chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party, I join the disappointing voices of our Grand Bahama candidates contesting the 2022 general elections with regards to the 2021-2022 Budget.
The Budget boasts of millions of dollars spent on Hurricane Dorian recovery efforts in Grand Bahama. Today hundreds remain homeless, jobless, without supplies and enduring the wait and see pain game for food and relief funds.
The residents of Grand Bahama and the wider Bahamas were hit with increased taxes immediately after Prime Minister Minnis and the FNM took office in 2017. Dr. Minnis during the campaign promised he would eliminate VAT. Among his many other broken promises, Dr. Minnis and the FNM increased VAT.
For four years now the people of Grand Bahama have been struggling under this uncaring FNM government. With five elected FNM members of parliament in Grand Bahama and among them four cabinet ministers, there still remains no adequate hospital facilities, no fully operational airport, and no major hotel.
There is no clear explanation given by this FNM government as to where the initial millions of dollars allocated to complete the Rand Memorial Hospital went and why the construction work has taken so long. Dr. Minnis, by way of this budget, is asking the Bahamian people to trust him with more millions to upgrade Grand Bahama’s major health care facility.
The recently delivered Budget to Parliament by Dr. Minnis sells yet another bag of election goods to Grand Bahama and Bahamians generally.
The nerve of Dr. Minnis expressed in this budget to think he can get away with neglecting Grand Bahama for four years and now offer last minute incentives for votes. In fact, the majority of Grand Bahama residents have no resources to take advantage of the incentives noted in the Budget and small businesses are flat out exhausted with the process to get assistance.
The Budget is a play on big numbers with no meaningful connect to the small man. It presents more feel good promises and dismisses the hurt, pain, and financial challenges being experienced by ordinary Bahamians.
Grand Bahama deserves better.
The PLP is well positioned with a caring and competent leader, the Hon. Philip Brave Davis, who has lived and worked in Grand Bahama for a number of years and is determined to create a better quality of life for the people of Grand Bahama.
Our candidates, unlike the present five FNM members of parliament, will serve the entire Grand Bahama Island and not just cater to the need and greed of a select few.
This Budget, dressed with Dr. Minnis’ political ambition to rule over our beloved Bahamas for five more years and compound the suffering of Grand Bahamians, has further energized our five compassionate, astute, well qualified, and ready to serve PLP candidates for Grand Bahama and Bimini.
Our team of Obie Wilchcombe, West Grand Bahama and Bimini; Kirk Russell, Central Grand Bahama; Ginger Moxey, Pineridge; Curt Hollingsworth, Marco City; and James Rolle-Turner, East Grand Bahama, identify with the people and state of Grand Bahama and see this budget for what it really is – unaccounted millions of dollars, an overload of promises and incentives for votes, and ongoing loans that threaten to burden Bahamians yet unborn.
Grand Bahama understands now more than ever that a vote for any FNM candidate is a vote for five more years of Dr. Minnis’ neglect and cold hearted leadership.
Dr. Minnis and the FNM have failed Grand Bahama and the entire Bahamas.
They must go.
