FORMER Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said the Speech from The Throne read during the opening of the new session of Parliament yesterday was mainly a rehashing of plans he had promised on the campaign trail.

He spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the event at Baha Mar yesterday.

“The Speech from The Throne seemed like a copy of our proposals that we were presenting throughout this entire electoral process, on our rallies, etc, we spoke about housing programmes, we were embarking on a mission to ensure that we presented opportunities for each and every Bahamian throughout the Bahamas (to) have an opportunity to own a home, providing them with land, incentivising them with concessions, etc, and moving towards a policy where the down payment would be removed or minimised because that is one of the greatest obstacles to homeownership within the Bahamas,” Dr Minnis said.

He said he is looking forward to the government implementing its promise to lower the value added tax rate.

“They continue to talk about reducing VAT but remember when we spoke about removing VAT off breadbasket items they thought it was impossible and we did it. But I’m looking forward to them reducing VAT to 10 percent, the Bahamian people are looking forward to that.”

Dr Minnis also spoke about the Atlantis resort’s announcement that unvaccinated employees have to pay for their own weekly antigen tests. The Killarney MP said since the Davis administration has promised to introduce free COVID-19 testing, the burden should not fall on Atlantis workers.

“If Atlantis is requiring individuals to pay, then the government who had made a statement that testing will be free, the government should be paying for them, not the individual,” he said.

Dr Minnis also maintained his position that the government hosting the opening of Parliament at Baha Mar was unconstitutional.

Yesterday morning, Dr Minnis released a statement which noted that Article 65(1) of the Constitution says “each Session of Parliament shall be held at such place and commence at such time as the Governor-General may by proclamation appoint.”

He said when Parliament was dissolved in August, a proclamation noted “that the next session of Parliament shall be held in the City of Nassau.”

“The Baha Mar property sits outside the boundaries of the City of Nassau, as legally defined,” Dr Minnis said in a statement.

However, yesterday, Bahamas Information Services released a photo of a proclamation signed by Governor-General Sir Cornelius A Smith which paved the way for the next session of Parliament to be held at Baha Mar. Still, Dr Minnis suggested the process may not have been followed.

“We had concerns. The provost marshall normally would read the proclamation, to our knowledge that was not read and we saw this morning where the proclamation was within the booklet and was mentioned by the Speaker. But at no time was the provost marshall to our knowledge, read the proclamation and therefore (we wanted to let the population know) that the procedure as we know had not been followed. But the proclamation was in the booklet and mentioned in Parliament.”

He also said he hopes the government will release the costs associated with hosting the event at the resort.

“We don’t know the price tag yet. This government has said they will be very transparent, I’m sure they will release the figures for the Bahamian populace,” he said.