A high-stakes policy impasse has unfolded in The Bahamas, as Prime Minister Philip Davis has ruled out further negotiation over sweeping governance reforms for Freeport, prompting a formal pushback from the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) that insists all rights enshrined in the 1955 Hawksbill Creek Agreement can only be modified via mutual, consensus-driven agreement. In a public statement released shortly after Davis’s landmark address at the Grand Bahama Shipyard, where the government unveiled its official Green Paper outlining a new development roadmap for the island, GBPA leadership revealed that the vast majority of the prime minister’s announced reform proposals were not shared with the authority in advance, and that it would require additional time to conduct a full, detailed review of the documents before issuing a comprehensive formal response.
“The Port Authority and its network of licensed operators hold legally binding, protected rights under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. These rights must be fully respected,” the GBPA statement emphasized. “Any proposal to surrender or adjust these terms must be approached through collaborative, mutual agreement, and must deliver clear, tangible benefits for the local stakeholders whose interests these provisions were originally designed to safeguard.”
During his Wednesday address, Prime Minister Davis made it unambiguous that the decades-old model governing Freeport’s special economic zone was nearing its end, noting that while his administration would welcome input on the pace and specific structure of upcoming reforms, the decision to overhaul the system was non-negotiable. He rejected outright the existing arrangement that grants the private GBPA effective veto power over local governance decisions, framing the 99-year Hawksbill Creek Agreement as a colonial-era construct that has far outlived its intended utility. “The current way of governing Freeport will come to an end,” Davis declared. “Whether we change is settled. How we change is yours to shape.”
Originally signed in 1955 between the British colonial administration of the Bahamas and the newly established GBPA, the Hawksbill Creek Agreement is set to remain in effect until 2054. In exchange for sweeping tax exemptions, the deal granted the privately held firm — co-owned by the prominent St George and Hayward families — a set of regulatory powers that are normally the exclusive purview of national governments across the rest of the Bahamas, including full authority over business licensing, construction permitting, and land use planning within the Freeport port zone.
The GBPA pushed back against the prime minister’s framing of the agreement as a static, outdated colonial instrument, noting that the 99-year framework was never intended to remain unaltered, and that successful mutually agreed amendments were implemented in 1960 and 1966 through collaborative negotiations between successive national administrations and the port authority. “That same spirit of cooperative problem-solving should guide our work today,” the GBPA noted, adding that the government’s proposed six-month initial timeline for advancing reforms was overly ambitious. The official public consultation period for the new Green Paper is scheduled to run from November 1 through April 30, 2027, with scheduled public town halls across Freeport, East Grand Bahama, and West Grand Bahama. The government has targeted a final White Paper release for July 1, 2027, draft legislation by December 31, 2027, and full parliamentary passage of the new regulatory framework in the first quarter of 2028.
The Green Paper lays out three core pillars for reform: the establishment of a government-led Grand Bahama Development Council, a full legal review of the Hawksbill Creek Agreement led by Attorney General Wayne Munroe KC to draft targeted amendments, and the introduction of a new Grand Bahama Development Act that will create a unified island-wide legal regulatory framework and offer standardized investment concessions for both the port zone and all other areas of Grand Bahama.
GBPA leadership warned that the island’s post-pandemic, post-disaster economic recovery remains extremely fragile, and cautioned that rushed, uncoordinated policy shifts could create harmful uncertainty for both existing local businesses and potential international investors. “After decades of devastating setbacks, Grand Bahama is finally beginning to see renewed hope and tangible new economic opportunity,” the statement noted. “Every investment decision made here is tied directly to local livelihoods, stable employment opportunities, and long-term commitments to Grand Bahama’s future.”
The authority added that it has long advocated for the creation of a streamlined, modern regulatory system designed to reduce bureaucratic friction for businesses and boost Freeport’s global competitiveness, and emphasized that licensed operators, the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce, the Freeport Industrial Group, small local businesses, and ordinary residents must be granted meaningful, actionable roles in shaping the new governance system via a consultation process that guarantees their voices are heard and their feedback directly influences final policy outcomes. While the GBPA acknowledged that the national central government has a critical, legitimate role to play in the island’s future, it also called for a meaningful degree of administrative decentralization away from the capital Nassau, to ensure that local policy decisions are fully aligned with the unique needs of Grand Bahama communities. Despite the sharp differences over whether GBPA’s formal consent is required to alter the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, the authority confirmed it remains open to constructive, good-faith engagement with the Davis administration to advance shared goals for the island’s growth.
Prime Minister Davis, for his part, has committed that all reforms will be implemented lawfully via the national Parliament, with no retroactive changes to existing contractual obligations. He confirmed that all legally protected rights held by GBPA licensees will be formally identified, documented, and fully respected, noting that the Hawksbill Creek Agreement cannot be unilaterally dissolved by executive decree, as it is composed of layered contracts, statutory provisions, and concessions embedded in at least six separate subsequent Acts of Parliament. He extended an open invitation to GBPA’s leadership, shareholders, and staff to participate in the reform process, noting that the private firm still holds significant potential to serve as a key future stakeholder as a landowner, developer, investor, and public partner.
The public standoff follows a high-profile international arbitration ruling issued on February 27, in which the tribunal issued a partial award dismissing the Bahamian government’s $357 million claim against GBPA for unpaid administrative costs, while rejecting seven of the eight counterclaims filed by the port authority. The Davis administration has argued that the tribunal’s ruling invalidates any claim by GBPA to a permanent regulatory franchise that operates outside the bounds of national law, an interpretation that GBPA leadership has formally disputed. In heated public remarks following the ruling in March, GBPA co-chairman Rupert Hayward pushed back against public narratives that framed his family as opposing Bahamian national sovereignty, noting “I am not a ‘paper Bahamian’” and adding “The Grand Bahama Port Authority is not going anywhere, and the Government of The Bahamas is not going anywhere.” Prime Minister Davis responded at the time by confirming “Both will remain. What is changing is the framework within which we coexist.”
Data included in the new Green Paper underscores the steep economic decline Grand Bahama has experienced over recent decades: international stopover visitor arrivals plummeted from 587,250 in 1995 to just 101,077 in 2023, while the island’s total population fell by 9% between 2010 and 2022 to stand at only 46,740 residents.