By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An ex-Cabinet minister yesterday blasted Grand Bahama Power Company as "inhumane and heartless" for asking customers to foot the bill for $15m in Dorian recovery costs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Obie Wilchcombe, the former West End MP and ex-tourism minister, told Tribune Business he was "certain" the utility can afford to delay adding the extra charge to consumer bills beyond its target October 1 implementation date given that Grand Bahama's economy "has hit rock bottom".

Responding after Dave McGregor, GB Power's president and chief executive, warned that the company "cannot kick the can down the road for ever" on the already-delayed implementation, Mr Wilchcombe argued: "GB Power Company must not be permitted to impose any further tax (levy) on the people of Grand Bahama.

"It is inhumane, it is incoherent and a ruthless business proposition to want to impose a new tax on October 1, 2020, in the midst of the most socially and economically troubling times in the history of Grand Bahama."

He continued: "The people of Grand Bahama are struggling, and many must find a 'hustle' to meet the exhaustive and astronomical fees that are already being charged by GB Power Company. In fact, many have complained that the recent monthly bills have skyrocketed.

"To seek to impose an increase is morally contemptuous and heartless. How did they arrive at a decision to impose an additional tax following Hurricane Dorian? The limping economy has hit rock bottom, the job market plummeted, Bahamian lives were lost and many are today living in adverse conditions as they await assistance to repair their homes."

Mr McGregor and GB Power have long argued that the additional charge, which was approved by their regulator, the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA), prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, will only add a small amount to customers' monthly bills.

The charge for GB Power's three customer categories was initially set at:

• Residential - $0.013 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) or 1.3 cents

• Commercial - $0.008 per kWh or 0.8 cents

• GSL (industrials) - $0.010 per kWh or one cent

Mr McGregor reiterated in a recent interview with this newspaper GB Power's belief that adding the Storm Recovery and Stabilisation Charge as an extra line item in customer bills was '"the fairest and most transparent" way of recovering the $14m-$15m invested in repairing its transmission and distribution infrastructure.

The only alternative, he added, was to build the levy into GB Power's existing rate structure, which would enable the utility to reap more profits in years when there were no hurricanes. Mr McGregor intimated this would be unfair to GB Power's roughly 19,000 customers.

However, the prospect of any further increase in energy costs - however small - will inevitably arouse alarm and controversy in a COVID-19 environment where unemployment has hit an all-time high and there is great uncertainty over the economy's recovery prospects.

"Any company can waive a persuasive economic argument to justify such a need," Mr Wilchcombe said yesterday. "We must have the fortitude, in the people's interest, to rebuke such arguments as the level of hurt, pain and frustration already epidemic on Grand Bahama will increase.

"GB Power must not be allowed to add more salt to the open wound. GB Power has reaped handsomely over the many decades. Whilst I do not question the generally high quality of service provided to the island, I do question the high fees now charged and shameless effort to increase these further.

"I am certain that the GB Power Company and its parent company [Emera] could wait it out as we plan a path for a better future. Grand Bahama will need vision, time and patience to recover and boom again."

Mr Wilchcombe is not alone in feeling this way. Pastor Eddie Victor, president of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens (CCC), a long-time GB Power critic, told Tribune Business that Grand Bahama's long-suffering economy, still reeling from the combined impact of Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19, simply "cannot handle" even a small increase in energy rates for years to come.

Arguing that GB Power should instead tap its shareholders and own capital reserves, rather than its customers, to recover Dorian-related costs, as the T&D infrastructure is not publicly owned, Pastor Victor said: "There is no economic reasoning by which the Power Company should be able to lay any additional charge on the population for quite some time. We cannot take it.

"We're totally against any type of fees or cost recovery being levied against any customer, commercial or residential. We're totally against it, fundamentally against the Power Company charging the citizens to replace their own infrastructure. Whoever owns the infrastructure should pay for it, and that's the philosophy we're guided by."

K Peter Turnquest, deputy prime minister and MP for East Grand Bahama, declined to comment when contacted by Tribune Business on the basis that he was unaware of GB Power's plans and had not seen this newspaper's reporting of the situation.