Videos: Roban, Premier On Heritage Wharf Work
In the House of Assembly on Friday, Parliamentarians sparred over the Heritage Wharf, with discussions over the work not being completed and the Norwegian Breakaway being tied to the already existing dock.
Speaking at the arrival of the Norwegian Breakaway on Wednesday, Public Works Minister Trevor Moniz said his Ministry “has devoted considerable, time, effort and resources to ensure that the completed infrastructure meets all the requirements and professional standards necessary…
He said the arrival of the Breakaway made international news with all eyes focused “to see if we could pull off the amazing challenge of having the Heritage Wharf completed on time.”
Speaking after the press conference, he said that the work will not actually be completed until September.
Minister Trevor Moniz speaking after the arrival of the Breakaway:
PLP MP Walter Roban said, “The PLP is happy and jubilant about the arrival of the Breakaway. It is another example of the success that Bermuda is building in the cruise industry to have such a prestigious ship in our shores.
“We just wish to remind people, even members of the Government, that without the Heritage Wharf, which is there, the Breakaway and other high quality ships would not be in Bermuda.”
“We notice right now that the two ships that came in earlier this week are all tied to the existing and original Heritage Wharf dock,” continued Mr Roban. “We now see it finally reported in the news they are not expecting the enhancements to the Heritage Wharf to be finished till September.
“We don’t have a great problem with that, but we have a problem with how the Government misrepresented, in our view, the whole situation with Heritage Wharf…they painted a pictured as if we as a Government built a sub standard facility that was somehow crumbling into the sea…”
Mr Roban speaking outside the House on Friday:
Speaking outside the House of Assembly, Premier Craig Cannonier said, “We certainly had a dock built there some time ago, the question in mind was the dock was deteriorating and falling apart in many areas, so work had to be done.
“We can’t have these large cruise liners coming into our dock the way it is right now. It may hold up for a while, but after a persistence of these many ships coming in, we know it’s a major, major challenge.
“In fact Pilot Cann stayed on the ship while it was docked there to ensure that if we needed to use the thrusters or whatever the case may be…to sustain the ship on the side of the dock that it was able to and could be done.”
“They were not able to finish the work before the ship came in,” said the Premier. “But again I need to reiterate the fact is we never said it was going to be done before the cruise liner got here, but we have been working towards that date to see if we can get it done.”
The Premier speaking outside the House on Friday:
Minister Moniz was scheduled [PDF] to give a Ministerial statement on the Heritage Wharf, however it was postponed, something which caused the Opposition to question why the statement was not delivered.
“This morning something happened around Ministerial statements. A statement that was supposed to be made was pulled,” said Mr Roban on Friday in the House of Assembly.
“Is there something to hide? Is there a cover up? I want to know. Why did they withdraw the statement? We all want to know what is happening at Heritage Wharf.”
When the announcement about the work was originally made in February of this year, the Government said, “A contract valued at BDA$22,369,961.93 has been awarded to SunRise Construction Ltd who are partnered under the contract with Crisson Construction Ltd and Onsite Engineering. The contract is scheduled for completion before the arrival of the Norwegian Breakaway on May 15th 2013.”
The 1063-foot long Norwegian Breakaway is the largest cruise ship to ever visit Bermuda, and was carrying around 3,700 passengers and a substantial amount of crew members. Over the course of this season, the ship — which can carry up to 4,000 passengers — will make 22 trips to Bermuda.
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pee l pee, let’s count all your flaws and i want you to fess up to all your flaws.
come on pee l pee. i don’t have a college degree but i am smart enough to know that the dock would be fixed enough to allow the ship to come along side and work would continue.
everyone has been saying the same thing over and over. if the dock was up to standards from day one. we could not be in the position we are in now.
good night roban and crew.
Roban, remind us again of who is responsible for this work being necessary? Go crawl back under your rock, or whatever Universe you & the rest of the PLP arrived from.
plp,
WE DONT CARE WHAT YOU THINK!
Guest what? they arrived from the same rock you all will throw Craig under soon.
So funny, so true.
Instead of downing the current Government, who have only been in power 6 months, why don’t the PLP help them get us out of the financial mess they put us in.
OBA LIES, Get Over It
PLP LIES, Get Over It
Ronan go find burch!
Listen to the video of the premier – ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah
That is all you hear ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah ah
Dang…hope he doesn’t talk like this when he is over seas representing us.
It is a shame that the PLP didn’t start the necessary repairs/modifications to the pier prior to the election given the fact that back the they knew this was required (as confirmed by Mr. Burgess last week). But I guess the need to retain power was that much greater of the need for the PLP then ensuring that the tourism industry retains faint hopes of being rehabilitated. It is a shame that the PLP didn’t want to acknowledge the failure of the original dock and the need to rectify these issues simply due to am imminent election.
Reminds of how the PLP had numerous legal and professional opinions regarding the damaging term limits and how they aren’t designed to protect Bermudian jobs but in actuality had the exact opposite effect. It is a shame that despite knowing this the PLP retained this damaging policy as a means to placate some of their support base to the detriment of thousands of Bermudians regarding their employment and future employment opportunities. So again this shows that the PLP was more concerned with retaining their support at the detriment of the Bermudian economy as a whole.
Those actions exemplify standing strong for the PLP (a now power hungry institution), but not so much for Bermudians as they claim.
Seems as though the OBA fans are behaving like little children now. Hardly any of them are able to comment on the issues at hand, instead are playing the blame the old stuff game. To me this shows that they are not pro Bermuda, but instead anti PLP. If you were mad or upset at the actions of the PLP, how can you just give the OBA a pass on their mistakes (most of you do not even want to admit there have been mistakes made.). And don’t give me that “they just got into power” crap, the majority of the ministers elected have been ministers before.
What mistakes?
The Breakaway was allowed to dock, 8,000 passengers descended upon Bermuda, and the transport system was free of hitches (as opposed to previous years).
Care to comment on the rest of my post?
The problem is there is no substance to your post to address. Please provide examples of the mistakes and then explain what the fall out from those mistakes has been. Without that it’s just your opinion which can be viewed as anti-OBA.
LOL
So on a side note can the people who did not vote at all be also anti the last administration, note I did not say PLP but “last administartion”? Or are you just discounting them….again.
basically what you are saying is that if you yourself do something wrong your are going to blame someone else for it, and not take responsibility for your actions.
Sounds like little “Johnny” needs to stop putting his hand up…smdh..
So let me get this straight, its not okay for one government to give false reports on any scale, but okay for another to do the same? Is that the message thats being conveyed here????
Sorry, meant to say government party.
Sad… the dock was not originally made for a ship that did not exist.
LOL
This dock should have been build for ships that didnt exist. They should have know they were going to exist now. Bigger ships has been the direction from some time. Just look a Royal Caribbean megaships.
As bothered as I am by Minister Moniz’s over zealous ‘mission accomplished’ statement, it is evident that they did have a contingency plan in place. The should have been more forward about the projects status and I would like to know:
1 – what is the full scope of the work to be done
2 – what of that scope has been completed
3 – where are we with the remaining tasks
Now, from the PLP, I would like to know:
1 – when we’re you planning to do the need work, you have already admitted you should have started it at the end of the last cruise ship season. Obviously you felt it more important to keep the people ignorant for the sake of your reelection rather than a sub
*damn touch screen*
- rather than a subject of national importance to this country that the work be done to ensure it could be completed in time for the next season.
2 – when did you receive the report informing you of the deficiencies of the initial works
3 – did you already have plans in place to have the work started after the election
4 – if there were plans, why did you not brief the OBA of the needs or the plans during at the transition, given that this was a matter of such national importance that you have been playing about it for the last couple months
For myself, as annoyed as I am about the failure of the OBA to be 100% honest to the electorate about the projects status, I do recall them mentioning in statements and I am happy that they did have contingency plans in place, I can commend them for the hard work trying to get this project done.
I am left with complete disgust and contempt to the PLP for their blatant mismanagement of this project, for their attempt to bury it for the sake of self preservation in an election, for their attempt to dismiss this attitude as nothing more than a mistake and for their attempts to make themselves look like saints in this whole ordeal by saying they are speaking for the people by criticizing the governement for their actions. This whole ordeal highlights completely the belief in the PLP of party before country, both before the election, and even now after their supposed rebirth.