FREEPORT, Grand Bahama - The government would have spent $17 million by the end of the summer to keep the Treasure Bay Casino at Our Lucaya open, and has pumped millions of dollars into the island's struggling economy in direct support, thereby saving thousands of jobs, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said Saturday night.
"Without the support of the government in 2010 after the Great Recession took hold, Grand Bahama's tourism would have collapsed," said Ingraham at the opening of the Free National Movement's (FNM) Marco City constituency office.
"Many of you used to go to Miami or Florida on Discovery Cruise Lines [and] that cost us (government) nearly $8 million," Ingraham told supporters.
"We supported the Norwegian Cruise ship which made 48 calls here [with] 120,000 passengers; we paid half a million dollars for that.
"We gave some of the support to Carnival, to Delta, to U.S. Air, WestJet out of Canada and more recently Vision Airlines. [We gave] more than $4 million for direct marketing support for the Grand Lucaya hotel."
Ingraham said this support gave hundreds of businesses in Grand Bahama the ability to survive.
Unemployment on the island stands at 21.2 percent, according to the Department of Statistics' latest labor force and household income survey released earlier this month.
The survey, which was conducted in November 2011, also showed that jobless people who are no longer looking for work (discouraged workers) jumped 42 percent.
Ingraham said strong economic and financial headwinds worked against the country and the government during this current term.
However, he said things would be worse under the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP).
"Like the rest of the world, our economy faltered, the great economic recession, the worst in more than 80 years, made the bad state the PLP left you in worse," he said.
"I'm not happy about our results, but I did the best I could, and anybody who thinks somebody else could do better - vote for them. But I assure you, if you think this is the frying pan, that's the fire."
New airlift initiative
Ingraham said Bahamasair will acquire another jet and take over the service now being provided by Vision Airlines to Grand Bahama.
This will mean that a 160-seat Boeing 737-400 Jet aircraft will have the capacity to deliver 6,600 seats monthly to Grand Bahama and when combined with the seats Bahamasair now has coming out of Fort Lauderdale, it will be 8,800 seats per month delivered to Grand Bahama - nearly 100,000 seats a year coming to Grand Bahama, he said.
This service will reduce travel time from cities like Baltimore, Maryland; Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia and Louisville, Kentucky, Ingraham said.
He added, ticket costs will be reduced from $600 round trip to $300 round trip.
"We expect that the Grand Lucaya and Grand Bahama Airport Company will view this initiative as a life saver for both the airport and the hotel," the prime minister said.
"We also expect that this effort could result in the opening of the Reef Resort by next winter, resulting in the creation of hundreds of jobs directly and spinoff jobs indirectly for you here in Grand Bahama. We are taking steps to take advantage of the continued turnaround in the world economy."
Straight talk
Saying he was talking to Grand Bahamians straight, Ingraham said, "Papa knows that you have been catching hell for almost 10 years now. The PLP left you catching hell - they didn't meet you catching hell. But when they left, they left you catching hell. And they spent their five years in office promising, but doing nothing for you in Grand Bahama."
Ingraham also said, "The first challenge we have for Grand Bahama is to get you back to where we left you in 2002, before you dabbled with and touched Perry Christie and the PLP and got your hands burnt.
"We did it before. We are going to do it again. Once bitten, twice shy. You had them - once with them is more than enough. We know exactly who they are. We know what they represent. We know what they will do."
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