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TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2022
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Gov’t eyes double return on ‘harsh health realities’ • Out Island clinic overhaul expands from 9 to 19 • AG: ‘Most aggressive’ plan in Bahamas history • ‘Don’t promise what can’t deliver’ on $66m bid
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Government plans to solve “the harsh realities” of Family Island healthcare by doubling the number of new and renovated clinics that will be
overhauled via $45.5m in development financing. Ryan Pinder, the attorney general, in addressing a recent public consultation on Eleuthera’s two new clinics revealed that the Government is expanding its healthcare transformation effort to 19 facilities as compared to the nine originally targeted by the former Minnis administration. Acknowledging that the available funding will have to be stretched to, in effect, double the return, Mr Pinder pledged that the Government “will not - and cannot - allow” existing conditions at multiple Family Island clinics to persist given that it could compromise the quality of healthcare received by Bahamians when the COVID-19 pandemic remains a threat.
Bahamasair: Extra $200k weekly fuel bill ‘won’t suffocate’ demand By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMASAIR’S top executive yesterday voiced optimism that a fuel bill which has skyrocketed by up to $200,000 per week “won’t suffocate” travel demand despite the airline readying “another small” fare increase. Tracy Cooper, the national flag carrier’s managing director, told Tribune Business that Board permission will soon be sought for the latest ticket price rice as the airline seeks to “cope” with soaring fuel costs without pushing air travel “outside the means” of Bahamians. While the airline has added “some fuel surcharges” on to its fares, mainly on international routes as opposed to domestic ones, he added
• Airline to ask for ‘another small’ fare rise • Won’t put cost ‘outside Bahamian means’ • July bookings already at 50-60% loads
Bahamas ‘telling the story’ to its investors By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Government is focused on “telling the story about The Bahamas” and its postCOVID recovery to ensure international investors and markets retain confidence in the country’s debt, a Cabinet minister said yesterday. Michael Halkitis, minister of economic affairs, in leading the Budget debate in the Senate said the Davis administration was concentrating on ensuring that lenders, creditors and other investors have faith in the Government’s economic recovery and debt management strategy to the extent The Bahamas can still access the credit markets at competitive interest rates when it needs. “I believe we have a good story to tell here in The Bahamas,” he argued, pointing to the recently oversubscribed $385m international bond issue that was placed with help from a $200m Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) guarantee. “We have a strong recovery underway, driven by tourism, the prospects are good and we are bullish on The Bahamas.” Mr Halkitis said this was the message that the Government is continuing to drive home in its conversations with Bahamas-based and international financial
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BAHAMASAIR
that prices were “still comparable” with what passengers had paid in prior years as Bahamasair (and likely Bahamian taxpayers) attempted to “absorb” some of the expense hike itself. Conceding that fuel costs will be “the biggest issue” for the national flag carrier as it heads into summer, a peak travel period that is key to its financial fortunes, Mr Cooper asserted that the adjustment in fares to-date has only been about $10 and said: “Bahamians shouldn’t be afraid to travel on Bahamasair.” This latest obstacle comes after Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister who has responsibility for Bahamasair, last week said taxpayers had provided some $150m in subsidies over the previous
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Ex-GBPA chair loses $82k claim strike out By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A FORMER Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) chairman’s bid to be removed as a defendant in an $82,300 claim brought by three ex-employees of his insolvent BISX-listed company has been rejected by the Supreme Court. Justice Petra Hanna-Adderley, in a May 13, 2022, ruling found that Hannes Babak should not be struck out as the “validity” of claims he had “guaranteed” that the trio would be paid their due severance needed to be determined at a full trial. Daniel Mitchell, Nathaniel Hield and Washington Carey launched their action against the former GBPA chair, and his now-defunct Freeport Concrete Company and The Home Centre entities, on June 9, 2017, in a bid to enforce an Industrial Tribunal ruling from earlier that year that they and other former workers
HANNES BABAK were owed redundancy pay following their terminations. Mr Mitchell is claiming $55,100, with Mr Hield and Mr Carey asserting they are due $15,100 and $12,100, respectively. The trio subsequently obtained approval on February 7, 2019, to alter their claim by adding Mr Babak, Freeport Concrete’s chairman, and who enticed Bahamians to invest in the now-failed company
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RYAN PINDER
CLAY SWEETING
The $45.5m funding is coming from a combination of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which is providing $40m, with the $5.5m balance secured via European Union (EU) grant financing. The Attorney General revealed that a separate, COVID-related loan from
the IDB worth some $20m will take the available healthcare-related financing pool to some $65m. The $20m COVID loan, Mr Pinder added, will help finance the acquisition of 15 new ambulances for the Family Islands. And it will
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COVID testing end ‘game changer’ for key markets By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net HIGH-SPENDING tourism markets have hailed the elimination of COVID entry testing and the Health Travel Visa as a potential “game changer” for The Bahamas given the reduced “hassle” involved in accessing the country. Rick Gardner, director of CST Flight Services, which provides flight coordination and trip support services to the private aviation industry throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, told Tribune Business he had received “immediate positive feedback” after posting news
of The Bahamas’ COVID restrictions relaxation to private pilot social media forums last Wednesday. While unable to predict figures, he fully expects the move to boost private aviation traffic to The Bahamas over summer 2022 and beyond, adding: “It’s like the high jump. Any time you lower the bar more people get over it.” Meanwhile, Peter Maury, the immediate past president for the Association of The Bahamas Marinas (ABM), voiced hope that the end to COVID entry testing for vaccinated travellers as well as the Health Travel Visa would help
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