By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An outspoken QC yesterday urged Freeport stakeholders to “start the engine” that would devolve the Grand Bahama Port Authority’s (GBPA) quasi-governmental powers and allow them to become its owners/shareholders.

Fred Smith QC, the Callenders & Co attorney and partner, told the Pastor’s Forum that GBPA licensees and Freeport landowners had to “take control of our destiny”, using the mechanism provided by the 1968 amendment to the Hawksbill Creek Agreement (HCA).

This allows the GBPA’s quasi-governmental powers to be devolved to a ‘local authority’ if enough licensees vote in favour of such a move - something he implied should happen because the Port Authority had “given up the ghost”.

In an address that touched on some of his favourite themes oft-repeated in recent months, Mr Smith said Freeport stakeholders “cannot rely” on the St George and Hayward children to secure their futures.

He called on them to instead own their future, rather than feeling “beholden” to central government and the GBPA.

“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,” Mr Smith said. “We are in control of our own destiny, and for over 50 years we have failed to own it.

“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.

“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.”

Despite its tax incentives and seemingly business-friendly environment, coupled with abundant land and maritime and industrial sectors, Mr Smith said Freeport’s economy was failing to thrive.

He contrasted this with Nassau’s economy, which was booming by comparison despite having “much less to offer”.

“We cannot rely on a central government in Nassau that has no vested interest in the success of Freeport,” Mr Smith said. “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.”

He added that the GBPA was failing to properly fulfill its job, and associated obligations and responsibilities, and seemed to have “completely given up the ghost”.

Suggesting that the current generation are not up to the task required, Mr Smith said: “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.”

Advocating the creation of the ‘Local Authority’ provided for by the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, Mr Smith said the GBPA should become a publicly-owned entity where the shares were owned by the 3,500 licensees, residents and landowners in Freeport.

“The mechanism is there. We just have to turn the key to start the engine,” he added, arguing that this would enable Freeport stakeholders to control their future while breaking the central government “stranglehold”.

“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,” Mr Smith said.

“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.

“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.”