By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet Minister yesterday sought to “clarify” the seemingly new hard-line work permit stance, telling Tribune Business it was “not a firm policy” and no final decision on it had been taken by the Government.

In what some might interpret as ‘back tracking’ or an attempt to soften the remarks made by Immigration minister Fred Mitchell in the House of Assembly on Monday, Khaalis Rolle, minister of state for investments, said the proposals had been “thrown out there” in a bid to get public discussion going on the work permits issue.

Emphasising that the Christie administration intended to strike “the right balance”, Mr Rolle said there had been an overreaction to Mr Mitchell’s remarks, and he urged businesses and investors “not to panic”.

Asked by Tribune Business whether the policy proposals, as laid out by Mr Mitchell, had made his job of attracting new investments to the Bahamas harder, Mr Rolle replied: “The clarification that needs to come is that it was just thrown out there.

“The Government has not developed a firm policy position on it. This is just being considered as a mechanism to create domestic jobs for Bahamians.

“It’s not a firm policy, but the Government will be flexible in meeting the needs of its citizens.”

Asked about the response to the work permit proposals by some in the business and political community, Mr Rolle replied: “I think in some regards there has been an overreaction to it, but if you read in detail what was said, you’d not see the Minister say this is definitively the policy.

“This is something out there for discussion, and we will come up with the right balance that makes sense.”

When it came to how businesses and investors should react to the work permit proposals, Mr Rolle said: “I wouldn’t panic. I’m ensuring that a balanced approach will take place that meets everybody’s needs.”

The proposals, as laid out by Mr Mitchell, sent a collective chill through the private sector - and both Bahamian and foreign investors, new and existing - as they outlined a significant hardening of the Government’s stance on issuing work permits.

Apart from implementing “substantial” increases in work permit fees, Mr Mitchell said the Government wanted to phase out new, and renewed, work permits for housekeepers/landscapers, gardeners, labourers and jewellery store ‘gemologists’ within one year.

He also singled out for special attention the Bahamian hotel industry, questioning the increased number of permits for expatriate assistant managers, food and beverage managers and butlers, while criticising the use of foreign photographers and videographers.

Another target was the Grand Bahama industrial sector, where Mr Mitchell said work permit applications would be refused ‘cold turkey’ unless programmes were put in place to hire and train Bahamians.

The reaction from the Bahamian political and business community was largely negative, with the likes of Branville McCartney, Democratic National Alliance (DNA) leader and former immigration minister, branding the proposed policies as ‘unworkable’.

He also warned that, if implemented, they could “cripple the economy” and set back its recovery, as no nation - not even the US or UK - could meet all its labour needs.

If Mr Mitchell’s comments were intended as a ‘Green Paper’ to start the dialogue, it has come across as a very clumsy way of doing so, given that it created an immediate concern in the Bahamian business community as to whether they would be able to hire workers - at reasonable cost - vital to the profitability of their operations.

While the work permit row seems set to rumble on for some months, Mr Rolle hinted to a Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) luncheon that no major renewable energy projects were likely to be approved by the Government until major legislative and regulatory changes were made.

Responding to questions from businessmen on the Government’s investment approvals process, Mr Rolle said: “If it’s energy-related, no energy project to-date has been approved by the Government.

“The approval process requires major legislative adjustments and regulatory strategies to determine where we go with alternative energy...... There are major policy decisions, and legislative deconstruction and reconstruction, to provide the necessary approvals.”

Acknowledging that he would “like to see the cost of energy reduced tomorrow”, Mr Rolle said the Government had to be “very responsible” in achieving this.

This meant it could not approve every solar or waste-to-energy project it received, as it was unclear which “combination” would work best in meeting the Bahamas’ energy needs and reducing the costs.

On waste-to-energy plants, Mr Rolle said these needed a sustainable supply of waste - and the right type of waste - to function best.

Mr Rolle admitted that the Government had been dealing with “a backlog” of applications at the Investments Board, due to limited resources, but said improvements in the process were starting to come through.

While there sometimes had to be “a step back before you go forward”, the Minister said the Government had sought to minimise the impact of the changes on investors, and it was now beginning to see some of the rewards.