Grand Bahama Deserves Relief: Manufactured Confusion Can’t Dim a Simple Truth

For decades, the people of Grand Bahama have been clear about one thing: electricity costs too much, fails too often, and holds the island back. Any serious national conversation about energy must begin and end with that reality. Yet recent statements from the Grand Bahama Power Company, echoed by the Chamber of Commerce, appear designed less to clarify solutions and more to manufacture confusion — particularly the notion that the Government of The Bahamas is not acting in the best interests of consumers.

That narrative is false.

Electricity is not a luxury product. It is essential infrastructure — a cost-of-living issue, a public safety issue, and a prerequisite for economic growth. The Government’s responsibility is not to protect a business model; it is to protect people. Its singular interest is bringing real relief to Bahamians, including Grand Bahamians, in the same way that relief is now being delivered in Nassau: lower costs, fewer outages, and modern, resilient systems.

The suggestion that Grand Bahama must wait for population growth or increased demand before affordability and reliability can improve is not just flawed — it is backwards. Reliable, affordable power attracts investment and people, not the reward for already having them. Families cannot plan their lives around promises of future stability, and investors do not gamble on islands where high costs and load shedding are treated as acceptable.

The Chamber’s focus on “economies of scale” misses the larger point. The Bahamas is one country. A fragmented approach that normalises unequal burdens across geography undermines national competitiveness and social fairness. A coordinated national energy strategy is not artificial — it is responsible governance.

Equally troubling is the political distortion being injected into this issue. The Leader of the Opposition Michael Pintard, effectively carrying water for the Grand Bahama Port Authority — the parent of GB Power — would prefer to cast doubt on the Government’s intentions rather than acknowledge a simple truth: meaningful reform threatens entrenched interests but benefits ordinary people.

Experience matters. In New Providence, modernization, automation, and disciplined investment have already delivered dramatic reductions in outages and improved reliability. Those outcomes were not achieved through delay or defending the status quo, but through decisive action.

Grand Bahama has been screaming for relief for decades. The ultimate goal is not confusion, fear, or protection of legacy arrangements. It is affordability, reliability, and opportunity for the Bahamian people.

That priority is non-negotiable.