Minister Bean Tours Nassau Port
Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Strategy Cabinet Minister Marc Bean recently toured Nassau’s new container port and adjoining 15-acre freight terminal, the “Bahamas Weekly” reports.
The newspaper said Mr. Bean and Permanent Secretary Derrick Binns were eager to see the new facilities because of Bermuda’s long-term plans to relocate container ship and stevedoring activities away from the Hamilton waterfront.
Mr. Binns is quoted as saying: “Minister Bean was most impressed with the willingness of the multiple stakeholders to work together for the greater good of The Bahamas in the relocation of the port from [major Nassau thoroughfare] Bay Street.
“He was also impressed with the speed at which the Gladstone Freight Terminal was constructed. As Bermuda considers the redevelopment of its own waterfront, the lessons learned from The Bahamas will place us in good stead.”
Okay. Now hurry home and make a decision on Zane DeSilva’s planning appeal.
If they plan on relocating the Front Street docks, why is there a ton of new construction going on right now on the Front Street docks? Are Minister Bean and PS Derrick Binns out of the loop about what’s going on here?
Or was this just a ruse to get a nice all-expenses paid trip? Or, perhaps the plan is to finish the current building on the Front Street docks and then move them? That would display the usual amount of planning and foresight. (i.e. none).
Minister Bean was very impressed with his fine dining/golf/shopping
As a qualified civil engineer Minister Bean is obvioulsy able to derive an enourmous amount of benefit from a site visit like this rather than it just being a nice jolly.
If it was john swan going down looking @ it I sure you would be jumping for joy.
Either you all want waterfront development or you don’t want it
Either you want an xray machine or you don’t want it
There are no solid plans @ present for the waterfront to be developed.
So in the meantime the govt is installing an x ray machine..
So, just so we have this right….
In these days of extreme austerity, when the government is ceasing pension contributions in order to make ends meet, it is in your view appropriate to have all-expenses paid tours of foreign ports so that Ministers can start to plan to redeploy the Front Street port facilities to some indeterminate place, at some indeterminate time in the future.
I see. And in the meantime they continue building the $20m x-ray machine. On Front Street.
By the way, if John Swan were going I wouldn’t mind at all. He is a private individual and we, taxpayers, would not be paying for it. Next week, when Bean and Binns get back from this junket, they will listen with the rest of us to the budget, with (I’m sure) Cox’s empty bleating about ‘sacrifice’ and ‘austerity’.
True Mad Dawg, all true!
Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing??
$20m on a scanner and housing so they can rip it out in a few years time – and anyway Corporation of Hamilton own the docks and waterfront – not Gvt of Bda, so a jolly time was had by all. Sickening, especially when these two just got back from a “Sustainability Conference” in Miami
Isn’t funny, I was just thinking yesterday that the moving of the Hamilton Docks is also top of my list of priorities that I think that our Government should be dealing with now, and that we should also consult with Bahamians who are considered world experts in this field. It is just amazing how great minds think alike! You think they stayed at Atlantis or not? Do the PLP use election consultants from Bahamas as well?
This government is so far out of it – it’s scary. They seriously need a realty check – vote them out soon
PRIORITIES: Our Government has YET to figure out what the word means! DISGRACEFUL!
Marc Bean wants to move the docks from Hamilton? Now?? When we’re talking about cutting back on people’s pensions just to help pay interest charges on stratospheric loans??
To where??? The rumour is to Tynes Bay. Yeah, riiiiight! How convenient! This couldn’t have anything to do with Zane DeSilva’s desire to push through his warehouse-building plans just over the other side of Barker’s Hill on Devonshire Marsh, now could it?
Naaaah! It’s just a co-inky-dink!
I have no problem with the Minister visiting Nassau to view their new port facility but I think it would be very useful to report to the people of Bermuda on his findings so that we can hear if he, and our Government, believe it is feasible in this economic climate to build a new port in Bermuda.
I understand that the cost of the new port in Nassau was around $82million and another $15.2 million for a new freight shed. I also understand that they presently handle some 60,000 containers per year and that is expected to rise to 65,000 in the next couple of years. By comparison, the last time I checked Bermuda was handling maybe 24,000 containers per year – some 30% less that Nassau. Would we seriously be able to recoup the cost of a new port by adding to the cost of handling each container?
It has been previously estimated that a new port for Bermuda would cost upwards of $200 million and possibly much more. But that is not the total cost because we would need to expand and improve our infrastructure such as widening of roads, strengthening bridges etc. to handle the extra and heavy freight, including 40 foot containers. Most goods in Bermuda are destined for Hamilton and the surrounding area so if the docks are moved to Somerset, Southampton Annex, or St. George’s, we can expect far more heavy trucks between the new port and Hamilton.
By all means look to the future, but look carefully because a new port could become an economic nightmare.
By reading the usual, ignorant comments, from the same group of ignorant bloggers, i cannot help myself into thinking that some people just like to create an issue out of nothing. just to remind those who choose not to know the reality, or have difficulty retaining information, Minister Bean attended the KPMG infrastructure Strategy summit in Miami, and the following week, attended a Energy conference in the Bahamas. Now I realize that some of you love to try and denigrate any PLP Minister, and seek to question their “qualifications” for everything(yes, we know what you are really trying to imply), it just so happens that Minister Bean is the Minister responsible for Infrastructure strategy AND Energy! i guess you would prefer that his admin assistant went on the mission instead right?
The reality is that while at the energy conferance, Minister Bean and his PS took up the offer to visit the port development in Nassau. its called ‘killing two birds with one stone”. Contrary to “pastor”syl (yeah, right) and others, the waterfront development is a very important project for Bermuda’s future, but i guess you need Sir John to tell you that for you believe it.
What you mis-calculating. negative people dont get, in your attempt to make Ministers look irresponsible while DOING THEIR JOBS, is that the majority of the people in this island understand and appreciate these efforts of the Governmnent, and are totally turned off by all you shadows who are hell-bent on destroying the current government without EVER offering any alternative solutions. its for that reason alone, that i will not vote for the OBA. Start acting like a government in waiting instaed of revealing your inability to even be an effective opposition! just look at Pat Pamplins remarks on this issue in todays RG. Absolutely confusion and ignorance wrapped into one aka CLUELESS!
Minister Bean, keep up the good work,the people love you! And to the OBA, as i mentioned before, present some young candidates of Bean’s calibre(the PLP has already) before you critisize anybody else.
PS, Senator Fahy, the neo-oligarch/sorcerer behind the veil, does not cut it.
Are you actually allowed to post on news sites while you’re at work as a civil servant?
Fool, we are not the OBA, we are ex-PLP who have had enough. Your message stinks of being on the payroll.
Not sure where “Wise Mind” gets the idea that all of the bloggers who have a negative reaction to the idea of Bermuda building a new port are OBA supporters. I’d like to think that my comments were reasonably constructive – certainly NOT any kind of attack on Senator Bean – and I’m moving towards supporting the OBA because I’m really tired of all the scandals surrounding our PLP Government, their lack of transparency, and their outrageous attacks on our Ombudsman and our Auditor General who both have a duty to examine our Government and to report to us, the people, on their findings.
Wise Mind, you are a paid civil servant and I am paying your wages. I’d like you to get back to work and stop wasting my money by wasting your days looking at the computer and trying to justify the actions of one political party or another. That is not your job. Do it at home in your own time.
Now get back to work.
As it looks the docks will not be moving, but will be redeveloped at its present location.
I sure hope they looked at their gambling trade and I’m sure they participating in one or more of their casinos. Thats what I hope they also bring back with advice to their Cabinet team.
@ Wise Mind: I don’t Sir John to tell me anything! He lost me when he touted a gambling casino on Front Street that would be closed to Bermudians – in which I am positive he hoped to profit.
I am not going to address your snide inverts around my earned designation of Pastor. You don’t know me, and you have made sure I don’t know you. However, if you think this is a good time to be thinking about spending more millions on ANYTHING except our immediate needs, (and a new dock is far from an immediate need [if it is a need at all] as you note yourself – it is a long-term possibility), your sobriquet of “wise” appears to me to be sadly misplaced.
Tell him Pastor Syl!
You are one of the most sensible contributors on here and I always respect your comments even when i disagree sometimes. Personal attacks only confirm the unintelligence of their author.
Go get ‘em, Pastor Syl. Nothing like a little righteous indignation to clear the air. You are right on the money.
So Bermuda has long term plans to move the docks? How does that tie in with the amount of work that they’re doing at the current site? Or the xray equipment that they made a big deal of purchasing from a company that is under investigation worldwide for paying kickbacks to their customer? Who exactly was the beneficiary in Bermuda is something we can only guess at
Boy you people are really dangerous, if I was a foreigner I would be scared to live here because all you people do is make things up as you go along. It is beyond me how some of you think that all Ministers do is push paper. FYI the Ministers set all the policies issued by their Ministry, they are the say alls of their offices. Now, The Minister, Marc Bean, from what ive read, attended KPMG’s infrastructure conference in miami to discuss Bermuda’s infrastructure because he is the what? Minister for Infrastructure Development and Strategy! A week later he attended another conference in the sunny island of Nassau, The Bahamas (which made you more upset because he got to leave the island twice within one week)but again to attend An Energey Conference,also apart of his Ministry and isn’t Bermuda looking for alternative ways to supply cleaner energy to the Island).
You All Killing me, I am happy to see my tax dollars going to something that will move us forward.
I guess the OBA will never travel abroad to do the business of our country! stop with the negative talk, you are doing your cause no favours.
@ Gvt Mechanic & verbal kint: thank you for your kind remarks. I truly believe this medium provides a welcome venue for discussion, expression of feelings, education around and clarification of the many obscurities emanating from our present government. It is counter-productive to shoot and/or insult the messengers.
@ Concerned citizen: I would be happier about Minister Bean’s visit to anywhere if I got some kind of feedback about what he learned and how it will impact us here. (And maybe we will get it now, since there has been some discussion around the topic.) What would really make me feel more confident would be to learn that he decided moving and rebuilding the docks was much too expensive a project at this time. Then I would begin to believe he is a bit more in touch with Bermuda’s economic reality than some of his colleagues.
On that note, I would be incensed to learn that the Minister and his Permanent Secretary were in Miami and, knowing they were also heading to the Bahamas, which is little more than a ferry ride away, flew back to Bermuda first before travelling to the Bahamas. Now that would be a major waste of our cash!
The idea of relocating the commercial docks to the North Shore has been kicked around for many years. It is nothing new. That was when the plan was to make Hamilton docks cruise ship only.
Berfore any docks are built anywhere else a new causeway that will be useable in anything up to a cat 1 hurricane is much higher on the priority list IMO.
Where is it? The PLP has been promising it since 2004.
Asking the same question triangle
Why not spend the time and money trying to figure out who’s turning their heads when certain containers are being off-loaded with etc etc etc…
Great minds think alike… All the rest of you bloggers please stop throwing sand in the wind. I’m sure you’d hear from the minister on his return of his findings.
Do your thing minister Bean.
@ Wise Mind…..
Just to put us straight then, can you very kindly enlighten our dark minds by shedding some light on Minister Marc Bean’s “qualifications” to hold this (or any other) political portfolio….
Looking forward to being enlightened!
@argosy, what qualifications do ANY politicians have to serve? very few have political science degreess right? as for Minister Bean, he is a trained aviation specialist( that might make him qualified for the Ministry of Transport right?),
Beyond that, as wise mind states, the oBA does not have anybody under 40 of his calibre, and i think you all realize that. But, from what i hear, and see of Minister Bean, he is a very intelligent man whose range of knowledge is very broad, but you all would not know that either, why, because you prob hhave never met or talked to the man. lets put it this way, iF he was an OBA candidate, you would be heaping praise on him etc, and would prob have him as your party leader(craig cant walk in his shoes)! @argosy, like wise mind said, we understand the basis of your question, oh what a shame.
As a strong critic of the PLP ministers and their policies i can admit Marc is probably one of the strongest ministers with the PLP. Also because there is a small political pool to pick from on this island he obviously would be welcomed in the OBA camp. However the flipflop party has put mr bean in an unusual situation which appears he is reluctant of handling this without upsetting one side or the other. The fact that Marc has not made a decision after three months on the SDO applied for by Zane and Furbert shows the bad position the flipPLoP party has put him in. If we had more fairnness within the flipPLoP people would be willing to accept ihs decision no matter what it wud be. So he finds himself in this awkward position in which he is obviously reluctant to rule.
Thank goodness the PLP are still jetting off to far distant shores and spending the bounty the white man stole. Here in the Burhamas we really know how to waste the tax payers dime – hey, they support me!