A public political dispute has erupted in St. Vincent and the Grenadines over the financial status of the country’s main cruise ship pier, with opposition leader Ralph Gonsalves pushing back firmly against recent claims from current Tourism Minister Kishore Shallow.
Shallow recently made public assertions that the cruise ship facility has operated at a net financial loss for the past five consecutive years, placing a sustained drain on public finances that forced the national government to step in with financial support. According to the minister’s official figures, total operating costs for the pier between 2019 and 2023 amounted to 15 million Eastern Caribbean dollars, with only 2023 delivering a modest surplus of EC$266,000.
But Gonsalves, who leads the Unity Labour Party, has categorically rejected Shallow’s framing of the pier’s finances. In a direct response to the minister’s comments, Gonsalves clarified that any public funds spent in relation to the pier went toward settling outstanding construction debt, not covering ongoing operating shortfalls, as Shallow had claimed.
Gonsalves emphasized that the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Port Authority holds full responsibility for managing the pier’s operational accounts, and the central government has never contributed taxpayer funds to cover the facility’s day-to-day running costs. “The government never put any money for the operation of the cruise ship pier as Shallow pointed out. Absolutely not,” Gonsalves stated.
The opposition leader also provided key historical context to the facility: the cruise ship pier was originally developed and constructed during the New Democratic Party administration led by Sir James Mitchell, not under his own Unity Labour Party government. While Gonsalves acknowledged that the pier suffers from inherent location and design flaws that date back to its original planning, he noted that it has still fulfilled its core function for the country’s tourism and trade sectors.
Gonsalves recalled that when his Unity Labour Party took office, the previous administration had left outstanding construction arrears owed to the Kuwaiti Fund for the project. In 2002, Gonsalves traveled to Kuwait alongside then-budget director Isaac Solomon to negotiate and settle that outstanding construction debt. That one-time payment is the only public money his administration has put toward the pier, he confirmed.
Accusing Shallow of deliberately misleading the public to score political points, Gonsalves dismissed the minister’s narrative that the Unity Labour Party had mismanaged the pier and forced central government bailouts for operating costs. “But Shallow typically wants to throw smoke in people eye with something – government run this thing so bad that they had to put money from central government – not true at all,” he added.