PLP CHAIRMAN SUPPORTS THE PRIME MINISTER ON FREEPORT
The following statement was issued by the Chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party following the Prime Minister’s address on the future of Freeport, Grand Bahama:
21 October 2026
Tonight, at the Grand Bahama Shipyard in Freeport, the Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis KC MP, set out a new framework for Grand Bahama. The Progressive Liberal Party stands fully behind him.
At the heart of his address was one question: who governs Grand Bahama, and in whose interest? It is the question on which this party was founded.
The PLP was founded on 23 November 1953 by William Cartwright, Cyril Stevenson and Henry Milton Taylor. Their purpose was to end minority rule and give the Bahamian majority a voice in their own government. In 1967 the PLP led the country to majority rule. In 1973 it led The Bahamas to independence.
The Hawksbill Creek Agreement comes from the world our founders set out to change. It was signed in 1955 by a colonial government, before Bahamian women had the vote and before majority rule. More than seventy years later, its terms still shape how the Port Area is governed.
On Grand Bahama, the work of majority rule and independence is unfinished. Tonight the Prime Minister took it up. The framework he set out would make public authority on Grand Bahama answer to the Bahamian people, through the Government they elect. Every resident would be governed to one standard, wherever they live. In his words, “Now is the time to finish the work that independence began.” This is the work and mission of the PLP.
In our Blueprint for Progress, we told the country that Grand Bahama had waited too long. We promised a Regulatory Roadmap for Freeport and a Grand Bahama Development Policy. On 12 May, the Bahamian people renewed our mandate. Tonight the Government began to keep that promise.
The Green Paper, Grand Bahama: A Framework for Stability and Growth, is online at www.gbframework.com. It proposes a Grand Bahama Development Council, a structured legal review of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement directed by the Attorney General, and a Grand Bahama Development Act. Formal consultation opens on 1 November and runs to 30 April 2027.
The PLP honours the people who built Freeport and the families who have stood by it through every storm. Change will come lawfully, through Parliament, and rights lawfully held will be respected. The Prime Minister wants a settlement that residents, licensees, investors and the Port Authority can all live with. This party shares that aim.
We call on every member of the PLP, and every Bahamian of every party or none, to read the Green Paper and take part in the consultation. The Government has committed to read every response.
Our founders set out in 1953 to put the governing of The Bahamas in Bahamian hands. That is still our purpose. On Grand Bahama, we intend to see it through. This is the work and mission of the PLP.
Fred Mitchell MP
Chairman, Progressive Liberal Party