Please stop making ignorant, insular, antiquated, generalizations about ALL foreigners, this is not the 19 th century and educate yourself. The U.S. Is about 12 cents per kwhr. Have you heard of economies of scale??????? How can you compare a utility with a million customers to one with less than 20,000. It is simple economics. They have nuclear power in south Florida do you want that in the Bahamas? I thought not. As for guaranteed profits it is the best model. Utilities will not invest in such a capital intensive industry without an assurance of a return on their investment. Without it you will have what grand Bahama was before emera, an old declining inefficient plant starving for maintenance and capital.

Yes, managing it right into bankruptcy. Birdie should familiarize herself with the last actuarial review done on NIB. Based on current contributions and benefits expended the fund will be insolvent ( that is BROKE by 2028). Fully 22% of contributions are consumed by administrative costs, by far the highest in the Caribbean. Barbados is 5.2% and Trinidad 4.9%. So it is 400% more expensive to run, no wonder it is going broke! In short NIB is a wonderful idea, it has helped many people, but it is terribly bloated and inefficient and has been mismanaged by successive governments. And this is the govt that he wants to manage a massive health care program? Truth is these funds should be sacred and managed by an independent management team free from govt interference. Instead govts have used NIB as a slush fund to pay for all manner of expenditures that have nothing to do with pensions. We can not afford a national health program until our beauracracy becomes honest, and efficient and with as minimal govt interference as possible. The 40 year track record of NIB gives us

We would like it to be cheaper than 33 cents of course but given the limitations ( lack of economies of scale, added expense on an island Importing fuel etc) is it accurate to characterize it as a rip off ? I do not think so, there is a limit to how cheap electricity can be produced given our drawbacks. As for the customer paying for the plant, this was a win/ win situation. The new plant was more efficient so even with the addition of the 3 cents to cover costs, the overall cost to the consumer was still reduced compared to rates with the old plant. Also the new plant is more environmentally friendly which is a plus. The short is nothing is for free and this is a better banana than before, and probably the best given the circumstances. Also with the newer plant there were far fewer disruptions to power, this is an incontrovertible fact, leading to better service.

Tal I simply said reduce salaries to a reasonable level, not hard to figure out, just look at comparable wages at similar utilities. Hard to argue with that. As for the color of workers that has no bearing for me, I do not judge people by the color of their skin and see no reason why you introduced race. That has no bearing on running a corporation profitably. Finally, we all would like higher wages, we simply can not as a county afford a civil service that consumes 60 % of recurrent expenditure. It is untenable and unfair to taxpayers. We need to make sound and painful economic decisions before they are soon forced upon us by the IMF. The world have changed, we have to or will be made to against our will. Note for the first time ever Barbados fired 3000 civil servants last year, under pressure from the IMF. We will be there soon without changes.

It is much better than anything BEC has provided, or likely to anytime soon. The base rate is @ 20 cents per kWh, so currently total of just under 33 cents. 3 cents of the base rate is to pay for the construction of the new plant. When this is paid for the base rate will be reduced accordingly. It is not as cheap as we want but very good given the limitations of small economies of scale and with the soon introduction of natural gas will be better for the environment of grand Bahama.

I doubt you are correct. Grand Bahama has a customer base of only 19,500 customers. Emera is a very profitable multi billion dollar company with power plants in numerous countries. I trust their expertise better than yours. Natural gas can be done profitably and will be done so in grand Bahama shortly. It is no panacea, but is much cheaper and environmentally friendly than oil.

Very simple. Legislation should be passed in parliament designating certain civil servants as vital to national security ( BEC and the police force) making it illegal to unionize. Then immediately disband the unions, and reduce salaries to reasonable levels and terminate the incompetents.

Emera could solve our electricity problems. They have already done it in grand Bahama where they built a new power plant in 2012, which because of increased efficiency reduced electricity bills and greatly reduced blackouts. The fuel surcharge this month for grand Bahama power company is less than 13 cents. The new plant has turbines that can run on natural gas which is the cleanest fossil fuel available. Emera has plans to ship natural gas to grand Bahama shortly, which will further reduce electricity bills and lead to a cleaner environment.

I agree with you completely. I have voted for 3 different parties the last 3 elections, simply to get the last bastards out. Our only options are voting for a terrible arrogant FNM or a really terrible corrupt PLP party. In this country we do not vote for a party, more so we vote against the terrible incumbent party. At least we have the sense to rotate them now every 5 years.

We were also told by Mr. Hanna and Mr. Davis that the building was insured and it was not. It was a bold faced lie so why would we believe anything these men have to say. Mr. Hanna deposit the $2.6 million in the treasury immediately, until then the Bahamian people do not believe a single word that comes out of your mouth. We are sick and tired of coverups, cronyism, and LIES.