....he is pure status quo...don't rock the boat, borrow, tax and spend.

....because they don't want to talk about cutting spending, transparency, government waste, corruption, inefficient government etc etc.

....much easier just to cry poor mouth, borrow $2.3 billion last year and now ask for more taxes and say that the wealthy can pay more

...and of course PMH has the bed capacity to handle a potential outbreak of CoVID 19 on a cruise ship based in the Bahamas.

India has stopped exporting vaccines.

Europe has stopped exporting vaccines.

We better secure the Chinese or Russian vaccines.

So how many vaccines will the Bahamas receive 20,000 or 100,000?

With a population of 350,000 when can we expect to get 80 to 90% of the population vaccinated?

Answer these questions and you will determine when the Bahamas will be able to open.

It appears that the second dose of the vaccine is give 2 months after the first dose?

So when we get 300,000 doses we need to wait another 2 months after that for the final ppl to get their second dose.

So lets assume the paho/who sends us 40,000 vaccines every month. That will take 8 months to get 320,000 doses. That's the first dose.

Then we need another 320,000 doses for the second does.

So at this rate it will take 20 months to get all the does.

This puts the reopening of the economy well into 2023.

Remember there are 7.6 billion ppl on earth and every last country, many third world countries with bigger resources than the Bahamas but with cheap small minded governments are trying to get these cheap paho/who vaccines and don't want to pay up for the Pfizer or Morena vaccines with 95% effectiveness.

So I think Minnis should leave the emergency powers in place so we don't get another break out of the virus like the one being experienced in Europe at the moment.

By the way, Europe just stopped exporting the AZ vaccines. So all eyes on India for cheap vaccines.

Forward thinking governments would be wise to engage Pfizer and Morderna directly about a year ago for supplies and logistics.

Better keep the US$ government loans coming in to keep the dollar on par. Better keep the food outreach to feed 100,000 Bahamians. Better keep the emergency laws in place even through the election. No body move.

Yes, they want to get around CDC guidelines and US consumer protection laws and the US justice system and they can pollute or waters without interference from the US. Not to mention they US taxes they would save.

Imagine how much more money the cruise ships will make. The Bahamas and our environment will be the major looses.

All workers coming in will be foreigners. More fees for the Bahamas government.

Amen.

A friend of mine forwarded to me a link to the PLP's 2022 Election Manefesto. My comment to him was "I definitely will not be reading it. Every five years the PLP and FNM write magnificent manifestos. If they could execute one tenth of their visions the Bahamas would be a first world country".

Excellent editorial on the RPT 50% discount.

From persons I have spoken to who religiously pay their RPT taxes every year it is disappointing that nothing is done for them.

It actually creates an incentive to let the tax build up for years and then offer the government 10% to settle the entire bill.

I guess we are so desperate for money we will accept anything.

so true bahamarich. sounds too good to be true, much like Oban, Bahama Petroleum.

zero quotes, zero town meeting to explain it, zero audits, confidential deals, no name companies involved with zero transparency on beneificial ownership or true control.

but yet the impact on bahamians enormous.

i doubt another $300 million in revenue for the government will stop the massive annual deficits. they will find away to wittle it away with no audits, reviews, easily accessable financial statements or explanations to the bahamian ppl as to what is actually going on

in fact if it weren't for the tribune i wouldn't know about it

Unfortunately theses types of gatherings are part of wider and pattern of behavior that is frightening.

They also occur at some AirBnB’s which fall through the cracks as they are small hotels. For enterprising foreign investors flush with inexpensive foreign currency they buy up properties rent them on AirBnB, pay no hotel occupancy tax, no Bahamian employees, no national insurance, no security staff to enforce the law, some have rental cars and pick up and drop off service. They are used for large parties and certain other activity detailed in a recent Nassau Guardian activity.

This is not a police issue. This is a Town Planning and regulatory enforcement issue.

Large law abiding, tax paying, Bahamian employing hotels and restaurants are going broke and closing left right and center as these enterprises shut down our big box tourism product.

No one seems to care.