This afternoon’s discussions in Parliament’s Finance Committee meeting on a post-Hurricane Irma request by The Maho Group and Sunwing for assistance to help them rebuild their badly damaged resorts should be interesting. They asked for soft loans from the Dutch-sponsored St. Maarten Recovery and Resilience Fund managed by the World Bank of respectively US $12 million and $43 million plus a host of other incentives and exemptions.
The meeting is a continuation of the one in August that was adjourned. There had been criticism and in certain cases indignation among the public that such far-reaching “demands” would be made from the country under extremely difficult circumstances.
But some also pointed to the need to get stayover tourism as backbone of the local economy back on track. Sunwing wants to construct a 450-room Planet Hollywood Resort on the site of the since-demolished Great Bay Beach Hotel, while The Maho Group is rebuilding its recently-reopened Sonesta Ocean Point and – due for completion in February – Sonesta Maho Beach resorts.
Finance Minister Perry Geerlings back then had been unable to detail exactly what government’s response would be, other than preparing a turnover tax exemption for large visitor accommodation projects in general. It must be said, by that time The Maho Group had secured a US $57.7 million loan from CIBC FirstCaribbean Bank partially guaranteed by Export Development Canada, while it was not clear either whether the local government could even arrange this kind of funding via the World Bank or other means.
Sunwing is also Canadian and had only just purchased the property in Philipsburg from The Maho Group when it was destroyed. Tourism from that market had been steadily on the rise during recent years and that development is expected to continue once the full restoration of the hospitality industry takes shape.
The company has committed to resuming weekly flights from both Toronto and Montreal at the end of February, while WestJet already has two flights, with Air Transat and Air Canada to follow for the upcoming high season. If that’s already the case without the planned new hotel, more will likely follow once it’s finished.
So, complying with everything asked for is probably not possible, but considering the importance of this matter, a simple “no” won’t do.
Perhaps today’s session can provide some answers.
