There was no chance I was ever going to be able to respond to all my emails yesterday as people waited anxiously to see what happened at the Public Forum held in Nassau. So I decided to wait until this morning to post a Blog, after talking personally to a number of people who were in attendance. For those who were not aware, individuals and stakeholders had the opportunity to provide input on the Draft Legislation at a Public Meeting held yesterday. The meeting was extremely well attended and those that spoke were passionate in representing their positions. I will take a moment to remind everyone that from the moment the Draft Legislation was announced we had exactly eight days to provide written submissions and comments to the government and ten days before the “only” public forum was to be held. It was a sleepless ten days, but the response from within the Bahamas and from the world fishing fraternity during that time was over whelming. I’m not going to bore you with rhetoric, here is what I understand to be the takeaways from the meeting. However, these are not promises, only points to be clarified by the government. Minister Gray gave assurances that DIY would not be eliminated; Lodge ownership would not be restricted, foreign ownership would continue; A Fishing License program will be implemented. Access will be on-line or otherwise readily available. Most likely with one day, weekly, six month and annual license options; License prices will be competitive with other destinations; Licenses will be issued by the government for all of the Bahamas, no restrictions; Wording of the legislation will be Visitor Friendly; Home owners boats and vessels used by renters will be licensed and allowed to fish; Another Public Forum is to be held on July 13th; Minister Gray is to produce another Press Release clarifying “some of the confusion.” The process for the legislation is as follows. Another Public meeting to be held on July 13th where the governments position will be made clearer. The new draft document to be revised based on the input received. That new document to be studied by Cabinet, then debated by Parliament and the Senate later this year. If the bill is passed in both chambers, it would be submitted to the Governor General for signing into law. We are not yet out of the woods, but this looks a whole lot better than it did on June 19th. Honestly, I am exhausted by the whole experience. Make no mistake there were competing and contradictory factions at work here. There were two sides to the story. I am not going to get into the who or why because that is now public, nobody has been able to hide in the dark. We now know “who is who in the zoo.” Make no mistake, there was a very real chance that DIY fishing in the Bahamas as we know it today would have been gone. As painful as the process has been, the dialogue was opened up, the difficult discussions were had and the Bahamians find themselves “potentially” with Legislation that will encourage and promote tourism. This is a bit of an after thought, since I now believe we are on the correct path. But I provide below two links to recent news paper articles that you may find enlightening. Tribune 1 Tribune 2
↧