The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) support permitting oil exploration in Bahamian waters ...once regulatory safeguards were in place... ...potential earnings could "eliminate The Bahamas' National Debt in five years"

Chamber Backs Oil Exploration

By NEIL HARTNELL

#Tribune Business Editor

THE Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) yesterday backed permitting oil exploration in this nation's waters once regulatory safeguards were in place, telling Tribune Business potential earnings could "eliminate the National Debt in five years".

I Chester Cooper, the BCCEC's chairman, effectively told this newspaper that the Bahamas - and its economy - could not afford the 'opportunity cost' of passing up the financial benefits if commercial quantities of oil were found within this country's territorial boundaries.

Projecting that revenues worth a conservative $1 billion per year could be generated if the Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) and its joint venture partners were to discover oil deposits that could be extracted, Mr Cooper said the sector had the potential to "transform the economy" - both directly and through spin-off commercial activities.

Calling for a "non-partisan" debate on oil exploration in the Bahamas, the BCCEC chairman acknowledged that a comprehensive environmental, health and safety regime was required to protect this nation's environment and tourism industry.

Urging the Government to "get on with it" when it came to developing such a regulatory regime, Mr Cooper pointed out that the energy and tourism industries already co-existed in the Caribbean, in the shape of Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados. Cuba, also a tourism-dependent destination, has begun to drill in waters near its territorial boundaries with the Bahamas.

Emphasising that the BCCEC's support depended on the necessary safeguards being in place, Mr Cooper suggested it was time to lift the debate on oil exploration, and BPC's activities, to a higher level and away from being a 'political football'.

"Now that the political season is over, it is a good time to have a comprehensive, non-partisan debate on the issue," he said.

"We support the continued exploration of oil and, if successful, the eventual development of a safe and well-regulated industry. We urge the Government to quickly put the proper regulations in place for the orderly development of this industry."

Oil exploration was first seized on by the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) as an issue that it could exploit for political mileage in the general election run-up. Then former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham attempted to use it, and BPC, to portray the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) as 'conflicted' and unlikely to act in the nation's best interest, given that Davis & Co (now Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis's law firm) and former PLP attorney general, Sean McWeeney, were named as the company's legal advisers.

There were then suggestions that Prime Minister Perry Christie had acted as consultant to BPC while in Opposition. Eventually, the PLP pledged to hold a referendum on whether oil drilling and exploration should be permitted in Bahamian waters, while Mr Ingraham backtracked from an earlier position that the FNM would not permit the industry if re-elected.

Ultimately, the former Ingraham administration returned to its already-stated position that oil drilling would not be permitted, and no new licences issued, until an appropriate regulatory regime has been implemented. Government officials have already visited the likes of Norway and the UK to examine those countries' regimes, and what the Bahamas can learn from and bring here.

Nevertheless, just prior to the general election, the Government decided not to renew the five BPC licences that expired on April 26, 2012, and returned the company's $300,000 fee payments to it. This leaves the ball very much in the newly-elected Christie administration's court.

BCCEC chairman Mr Cooper, meanwhile, indicated that the tremendous economic benefits - if oil was discovered in sufficient quantities in Bahamian waters - meant this nation, with its limited natural resources, narrow economic base and troubled government finances, could not afford to spurn this opportunity.

"The likely revenues can eliminate the National Debt in five years and contribute significantly to education, healthcare and development of infrastructure across the country and, importantly, an expansion in GDP leading to more favourable economic metrics," Mr Cooper said.

He added that the revenue generated from oil exploration could be used to reduce import tariffs on oil imports, reducing energy and gasoline costs. This, in turn, would lower the cost of living and doing business in the Bahamas, and make this nation much more competitive in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).

"We cannot afford to be dismissive of these realities," Mr Cooper said, acknowledging that a proper regulatory regime - and its enforcement - were "a must" to preserve the environment and tourism industry.

Noting the example set by other Caribbean nations, he added: "It doesn't have to be one or the other - both can co-exist. It is being done in the region, in Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago.

"Clearly, the risks can be managed. We further understand that the Cubans are drilling right across the Bahamas' border. So we need not re-invent the wheel with respect to the regulations. We can draw on our friends in the international community with tried and tested regulations, like the US, UK, Trinidad and the Clean Caribbean Initiative."

Calling on the Government to "get on with it" when it came to developing a regulatory regime, because the opportunity cost of not doing so was too great, Mr Cooper said the Bahamas had to ensure its people were either trained abroad - or qualified Bahamians enticed back home - to participate in the oil exploration sector.

The BCCEC's energy and environment committee, he added, felt there was too much misinformation circulating on oil exploration, and called on the Government and BPC to better educate the public. The BCCEC is also planning to start discussions by hosting a luncheon on the topic shortly.

May 18, 2012

tribune242

Caribbean Blog International

Bahamian workers must have the right to remove themselves from harm’s way in the workplace and not suffer consequences that threaten their employment

Employers chief: Workers must get rights to escape from 'harm's way'
By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor



BAHAMIAN workers must have the right to remove themselves from “harm’s way” in the workplace and not suffer consequences that threaten their employment, the Bahamas Employers Confederation’s (BECon) president said yesterday, something employees currently enjoy no protection on.

Brian Nutt, speaking to Tribune Business in the wake of the report on the Freeport Container Port tornado incident being released, said he agreed with the recommendations made by its author on reforming Bahamian occupational health and safety laws, including the provision of statutory protection for workers wanting to remove themselves from life-threatening workplace situations.

The report by Jacques Obadia, a former International Labour Organisation (ILO) executive, said the Bahamas needed to amend the Health and Safety at Work Act 2002 - its main workplace safety statute - “in a number of areas” to bring it into line with key ILO conventions on the issue.

A key reform, the report said, was to address “the protection of workers removing themselves from a work situation presenting an imminent danger to their life or health”.

Backing this recommendation, Mr Nutt told Tribune Business: “I guess right now that it would be the employer who would determine whether it’s a life or death situation, and it could be that someone is dealt with unjustly.

“There has to be a right for an individual to get themselves out of harm’s way.”

Mr Nutt confirmed to Tribune Business that the Health and Safety at Work Act had effectively been a toothless piece of legislation during the eight years since it had been passed in 2002, as it had lacked the standards, codes of practice and regulations to give it enforcement teeth.

This was confirmed by the Freeport Container Port report, which hinted that this state of affairs could potentially have left Bahamian workers dangerously exposed.

“The Act has been in force since 2002, but without the regulations and codes of practice, nobody knows what they are supposed to do,” Mr Nutt said. “Other than making people more aware of health and safety, and the fact the Act does require any business with more than 20 employees to form a Health and Safety Committee, there’s nothing else in the Act. The Act provides for these committees, but it’s the regulations and codes of practice that give them an agenda as to what meetings should be like.

“All the Act is is a framework. It’s similar to the National Health Insurance Act passed by the PLP. That’s enacted; that’s a law, but no regulations under it, so there’s nothing happening with it.”

Mr Nutt said that while he had not been on the committee, formed from trade union, government and employer representatives, that had been asked by the second Ingraham administration to draft the Act’s regulations, he knew it had “put a lot of work into it” and passed its draft on to the Government, where it had been “for some time”.

The BECon president added that the regulations’ drafting had also been interrupted by the 2002 change of government, the Health and Safety at Work Act being one of three Bills passed into statute by the first FNM government just prior to that year’s general election.

“The PLP came into power and did not do anything to put in regulations and codes of practice,” Mr Nutt told Tribune Business, adding that the FNM had to pick up the thread once it returned to power in 2007.

The BECon chief questioned whether the “price tag” that would come from enforcing the Health and Safety at Work Act may had caused the Government to hesitate, given the state of the Bahamian economy and fears about imposing additional costs on business, and suggested the administration could have “stripped it down a bit to get something out there”.

Mr Nutt said that when the first Ingraham administration passed the Health and Safety at Work Act, along with the Employment Act and Minimum Wage Act, it had viewed this legislation as bringing the Bahamas into compliance with the ILO’s “core conventions”.

Yet the Freeport Container Port report confirms that the Bahamas is still not in compliance with all these conventions, as it urges this nation to “initiate the formal process leading to the ratification of the main ILO occupational health and safety standards”.

These include the ILO’s Convention 155 of 1981, and its Protocol 2002 relating to the recording and notification of occupational accidents and diseases.

July 27, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International