Dear Editor,
Your editorial of April 8 made the case that governments have an obligation to develop safe infrastructure for Bahamians who pay taxes to pay for "airport lights, roads, public schools, police patrols, etc.". And, you opined that no independent country should look to foreign developers to install safety infrastructure for its people.
I agree with your editorial writer's view that it is the responsibility of governments to ensure that infrastructure is safe. This does not mean that all infrastructure needs to be publicly owned and or managed. Safety of public infrastructure facilities can be very efficiently and effectively accomplished through a legislative framework requiring all public infrastructure to be licensed and regulated by adequately and competently staffed regulatory authorities.
The Bahamas government owns no airport on Grand Bahama island; the mega-transshipment port on that island is also privately owned by a company which owns and operates private transshipment ports around the world, including in China, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Panama and the United States of America.
Some of the most lucrative employment of Bahamians in Grand Bahama has been with the company that owns the air and seaport on that island. The privately-owned airport at West End has also served as a vital economic link for that part of the island. I do not believe that it can be successfully argued that Grand Bahama would have benefitted more if its air and sea ports were publicly owned.
Your editorial writer may not be aware that where privately-owned airports fall into disrepair or fail to meet the needs of a local community the government always has the ability to acquire the facility and bring it to acceptable standards. Such was the case when the FNM-led government acquired and redeveloped the airports at Rock Sound, Eleuthera and at Great Harbour Cay in the Berries, for example.
The government of The Bahamas owns and operates 29 airports around the country: one here in New Providence, four in Andros, four in Abaco, one in Bimini, one in Great Harbour Cay, three in Eleuthera, two in Cat Island, two in Long Island, four in Exuma, and one each in San Salvador, Inagua, Acklins, Crooked Island, Rum Cay, Ragged Island and Mayaguana. This is a very expensive undertaking. Only 11 of these have permanent lights permitting scheduled night landings, notably the international airport in Nassau, two airports in Abaco; three in Eleuthera and one each in Andros, Exuma (Moss Town), San Salvador and Inagua.
During the first Christie-led government a number of small airports had emergency lights installed. There is now a promise that such lights will be installed at the airport in Mayaguana and at some future date in Fresh Creek, Andros and Stella Maris, Long Island. It is noteworthy that prior to this accident Mayaguana was never on the government's list of airports to be outfitted with emergency lighting. In yesterday's edition of your newspaper, the project manager for the I-Group in Mayaguana is quoted as saying that the airport in Mayaguana had been without lights since the 1960s. I do not know when the first landing strip was constructed in Mayaguana but I would hazard a guess that it was never lit at any stage.
The record shows that the maintenance of the emergency lights installed during the last decade has been sporadic and hence unreliable. At Long Island for example, flooding damaged the emergency lights at Deadman's Cay Airport and these have yet to be repaired or replaced.
It would appear that it makes good economic sense for governments to allow private investors to invest in the development of infrastructure that will serve to meet both their investment needs and the needs of the resident populations around our country. Your editorial writer might wish to know, for example, that the only access for residents of Grand Cay, Abaco to an airport is the privately-owned airport at Walker's Cay.
The development and use of private infrastructure by the wider population is a common practice around the world where many transportation networks (railways, bus transportation as well as interstate highways), airports and sea ports are privately developed, owned and operated to the benefit of local economies.
As to who pays taxes and what those revenues are spent on, your editorial writer may not be aware that Bahamians who own real property in the Family Islands pay no real property tax - regardless of the size and value of their property, regardless of whether their property is vacant or developed, and regardless of whether it is used for residential or commercial purposes. Your editorial writer should also be aware that undeveloped property owned by Bahamians in New Providence is not subject to real property tax. And, finally the editorial writer should know that the least developed Family Islands, including the entire constituency of MICAL, with the sole exception of Inagua, have enjoyed duty free importation of construction materials for the better part of the last two decades. It would prove impossible for any government to operate and maintain public infrastructure on many of our islands if the cost had to be borne by the taxpayers living on those islands.
The maintenance of multiple airports on multiple islands creates a heavy demand on scarce government revenues especially when those airports are located in non- or low-revenue generating islands. If investment in the development of infrastructure on such islands proves attractive to private investors it makes good sense for government to entertain proposals for such investment.
- Kirkland Turner

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