Sir Jack Hayward, one of the principal owners of the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), has a few concerns that, he says, are negatively impacting business on Grand Bahama.
After many months of shunning the press during a nasty spat with the relatives of his deceased partner, Edward St. George, Sir Jack once again has a lot to say on the situation in Grand Bahama.
One thing he is concerned about is the high cost of electricity and the inefficiency of electrical power provided by the Grand Bahama Power Company (GBPC).
He said that a couple of big companies have already left the island and others are not happy.
“We had the glass company pull out and we had other people do the same,” Sir Jack commented during a recent press conference.
He was referring to the March pull-out of Fenestration and Glass Services. The company closed its $20 million facility in Freeport saying that the costs of electricity from the Grand Bahama Power Company were “six times the price” that the company would pay in North Carolina, where the company has since relocated.
Another company, Polymers International Limited, was also saddled with electricity bills amounting to nearly a half-million dollars per month, forcing the company to lay off over two dozen contractors.
A Polymers’ executive said at the time that electricity costs in Grand Bahama were nearly five times that of its nearest US competitor.
Not just businesses are affected, residents have also complained that their monthly bills were outrageous.
Just last week, Emera, a publicly traded Canada-based holding company, purchased an additional interest in the GBPC, making it the majority owner of the power company with a total interest of 80.4 per cent.
Emera CEO, hris Huskilson, announced construction of a new $35 million electrical generating plant on Grand Bahama to address the current unreliable electrical supply.
He also stated that the company plans to install two, one megawatt wind turbines, after a study concluded that wind energy is possible.
Power isn’t the only concern that Sir Jack has.
He also said that the Port Authority’s efforts to improve the island’s economy have been stymied by the government’s refusal to renew former chairman Hannes Babak’s work permit.
He said a number of projects that Babak was working on, including attracting a LNG plant to the island, are now simply “gathering dust.”
“We’re working on things – we’re a bit leaderless without Hannes Babak,” Hayward said.
He expressed his displeasure with the government’s decision to deny Babak’s work permit, saying that the GBPA was a good candidate for such a permit.
“In our organization, we have one work permit – Graham Torode, president of DEVCO (Grand Bahama Development Company), we have over 250 employees, Bahamians. One work permit, I think that’s a hell of a good record,” he said.
He also hit on another situatin where a work permit wsa denied.
“When we applied for another for Chris Johnston it was denied, we wanted it for special projects – in fact he would have supervised this bridge, an engineer 22 years with Hutchison Whampoa, and he worked seven days for us and then had to leave.”
