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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
Fred Smith QC speaks to The Pastor's Forum in Grand Bahama
By Fred Smith, QC Grand Bahama Human Rights Association President
Feb 11, 2015 - 12:43:18 PM
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Freeport, Grand Bahama - The following is a speech called, "The Future of Freeport" given by by Frederick Smith QC to The Pastor’s Forum in Freeport on February 10, 2015:
Freeport belongs to all of us.
The Future of Freeport is in our collective hands.
We, and each one of us, are entitled to manifest the future that we want for Freeport.
We, the Licensees; we, the landowners; we, the residents; we, the people and citizens of Freeport and Grand Bahama are actually in control of our destiny.
We cannot speak of Freeport, without including Grand Bahama.
The destiny and future of each are inseparably intertwined. So, when I speak of Freeport, I include Grand Bahama.
We are in control of who we send to represent us in Parliament.
We are in control of the three District Councils in Grand Bahama.
We are in control of Port Authority.
We can demand accountability and transparency from The Port Authority and from Local and Central Government.
We, as consumers of services are entitled to respect.
We are in control of our communities our parks.
Let me give you an example of abdication of responsibility; of abdication of our Community and property rights!
Explain the Take Taino Back Campaign.
We are in control of our environment. We are in control of our investments.
We need to OWN IT instead of always feeling beholden!
Freeport belongs to us!
We hold the future of Freeport in our hands.
Unfortunately, we have continued to abdicate responsibility for the future of our community to politicians, particularly those in Nassau; the Port Authority, and foreign investors.
Wee continue to fail to appreciate the dignity, the strength and the power that we hold in our hands to manifest our future
We are in control of our own destiny and for over 50 years we have failed to OWN IT!
There are several points to note:
1. We can take political control.
2. We can politically force the Government to recognize and respect the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, and that it should be the One- Stop-Shop Investment Authority.
3. We hold the financial and political power to make the Port Authority respect licensees landowners and residents and to hold the Port Authority accountable for development, promotion and management.
4. We are in control of creating an open-door investment environment.
5. We are in control of creating a liberal immigration environment.
6. Reflect on our history! Not just of Freeport but also West End.
7. Remember how Freeport and Grand Bahama first grew: a liberal, investment climate; a liberal immigration policy; a Port Authority where the buck stopped as a One-Stop-Shop: little Central Government control.
How did Freeport grow from nothing to where it was 25 years ago? And why, for over 25 years , has it drifted listlessly in limbo?
It has limped along on the vestiges of most of its past glory.
Freeport is not the Magic City many of you knew it to be.
When you compare Freeport and Grand Bahama with everything that it has to offer to investors; forests; land for homeowners and residents; a beautiful environment; the marina environment; the industrial sector; the maritime sector; the free-trade zone, you must ask yourself why is Freeport not booming?
Why is a place like Nassau, with much less to offer; less beaches for the tourists; very little public spaces; not one public golf course; a small, crowded, little island; no maritime industry; it has little compared to Freeport Grand Bahama, booming beyond belief?
Share with what I have seen in Nassau; Albany!!
We have the future of Freeport in our hands and we need to take control.
We need to direct central government,
We need to direct our local government and our local members of Parliament.
We need to direct the Port Authority.
There will be no future for Freeport; there will be no future for you and for our children if we do not grasp ahold of the reins and ride this horse!
The future of Freeport is in our hands; nothing more and nothing less
We cannot rely on a central government in Nassau that has no vested interest in the success of Freeport; a Government that is constantly at odds and at war with the Grand Bahama Port Authority; a Government that is constantly in competition with the people of Freeport for all the tax dollars earned in Freeport.
We need a Grand Bahama Party!
We need to take over the Port Authority.
We are in competition as well with a Port Authority that has completely given up the ghost!!
A Port Authority that is in competition with the Government.
A Port Authority that has completely given up hope of being able to do its job.
A Port Authority that remains in existence now simply to take! To eke out an existence in a dying and limp economy.
We cannot rely on the children of two families that invested here 50, 40 and 30 years ago. These are not the people who invested. They are not the entrepreneurs, business people, or visionaries that first created Freeport.
Nobody has a right to continue to control the Port Authority.
Describe the 1968 amendment to the HCA which provides for devolution of power to a “Local Authority” under a “Transfer Agreement”
That is what needs to happen.
We need to find a group of investors to take over – not buy - the Port Authority; or buy it! To make it public. To make it representative of us so that the shares are owned by licensees, residents and landowners, (foreign and Bahamian) of Freeport, so that we are in control of our destiny.
The mechanism is there. We just have to turn the key to start the engine!
Central Government should not have the kind of stranglehold control they have over Freeport.
We need to elect our own members of Parliament.
We should create a need for a Grand Bahama Party; not be beholden and subservient or slaves to either the FNM or the PLP or, in future, perhaps the DNA. None of them respect and understand Freeport.
We need our five local members of Parliament to be answerable and to promote the agenda of Grand Bahama in Parliament, not the agenda of central government, our political and financial competitor.
We need to keep the bulk of the taxes that we earn in Grand Bahama (stamp duties, license fees, business licenses, customs duties, excise taxes, recording charges, corporate taxes, Port Authority licensee fees, and now VAT).
Grand Bahama earns hundreds of millions of dollars for the Port Authority and Central Government each year. Where does all the money go? Not here!!!
Review the lack of the GBPA and Government infrastructure expenditure. Our education facilities; our medical facilities; why are there are no fire stations throughout Freeport? No emergency services; no maritime services? No Coast Guard?
Why is it that we continue to allow ourselves to be abused?
The future of Freeport is in our hands and our hands only!
You are the Spiritual Leaders of our communities in Grand Bahama.
The challenge that I throw out to you as leaders of the community is to inspire and embolden! Urge all of your constituents, all your followers, all the people that look up to you; all of our future generations in Freeport and in Grand Bahama to take control of a future that belongs to us all!
Our future is not safe in the hands of the politicians from Nassau.
It is not safe in the hands of a Port Authority owned by inexperienced children of some of the original investors
We need to be responsible for ourselves!
We need to manifest and ACTION our VISION for Freeport’s future! For our future!
The future of Freeport is in OUR hands!!
© Copyright 2015 by thebahamasweekly.com
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