GBPA has a liability to pay the Government annually until 2054
STATEMENT: Michael Pintard issued a statement tonight and did what he always does. He folded for the people with power and turned his back on the people without it. His statement on the GBPA arbitration is not just wrong on the facts. It is a window into exactly the kind of leader he is. The Port Authority tried to claim one billion dollars from this country and sought to kick the Government out of Freeport entirely. Out of immigration, customs, licensing, utilities, land regulation, everything.
The tribunal threw out every single one of those claims. Every single one. And the tribunal established that the GBPA has a liability to pay the Government annually until 2054. Pintard did not mention a word of it.
He chose to carry water for the Port Authority instead of celebrating a victory for his own country. That is not Opposition. That is surrender.
When Prime Minister Davis had the courage to take the Port Authority to arbitration, something no Prime Minister in history had ever done, Pintard predicted failure. He sounded like he was hoping the Government would lose so he could score a political point, even if it meant The Bahamas was humiliated before an international tribunal. What kind of leader roots against his own country? What kind of leader would rather see the Port Authority win than see the Bahamian people get what they are owed? A weak one. A tissue paper leader who crumbles the moment anyone with money or influence pushes back.
Pintard says the Government should have “negotiated.” Negotiation is what every government tried for fifty-seven years. They talked, they met, they reviewed, they expressed concern, and the Port Authority kept collecting while Grand Bahama kept suffering. Pintard’s grand vision is to go back to the strategy that never produced a single dollar for the Bahamian taxpayer. The people of Grand Bahama who lived through Dorian and COVID and still pay the highest light bills in this country know exactly what that strategy is worth. Davis did what Pintard would never have the backbone to do. He filed the claim. He took the risk.
And the tribunal confirmed the GBPA owes the Bahamian people money every year until 2054 and the Government has every right to govern Freeport.
The FNM ignored the problem. Davis found the solution. Now Pintard stands behind a press statement as weak as his leadership pretending this is a loss. He cannot lead his own party. He cannot hold the Government to account on actual facts. He cannot stand up to the Port Authority or anyone else with real power. Every time it matters, every time the pressure is on, Pintard bends. He bends for the powerful and breaks his promises to the people. That is his record and no press release can change it.
Prime Minister Davis is the first leader in our history to back Sir Lynden’s warning with action in the courts, and the courts agreed with him. Pintard had his chance to stand with the Bahamian people. He chose the other side. Read the award for yourselves. Then ask one simple question: who is fighting for you and who is fighting against you? The answer has never been clearer.
