Bus owners and the Ministry of Transport officials remain at odds over increased franchise fees despite last week’s meeting to pacify angry owners who have threatened to shut down the busing system at the end of the month.
Nicholas Jacques, Bahamas Omnibus Owners Association president, said that in the meeting Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin told him if owners carried out their threat to indefinitely park their jitneys from October 31, she would take to the airwaves to advise the public to carpool, rather than be held hostage to their demands. Mr. Jacques also vowed not to back down, because he was not satisfied that the Ministry would meet owner’s demands.
He chided the minister for not knowing about the fee increases, nor that tour bus owners and taxis were exempt from these fees.
“She claimed that she did not know anything about these fees,” said Mr. Jacques. “She did not know that we were paying that much. That is what she said to us in the meeting. Her being the minister she is supposed to know. How ridiculous could this be? How mediocre can we be in running a government? We cannot have government ministers not knowing what is going on in their ministry.”
Source: Felicity Ingraham, The Tribune
