Opposition Leader Allen Chastanet and Tourism and Investment Minister Dr Ernest Hilaire engaged in a heated exchange in parliament last week over the nature of the government’s agreement with Global Ports Holding (GPH).
Chastanet alleged that the government had leased Saint Lucia’s port lands to GPH for the nominal sum of one dollar a year.
Hilaire, however, dismissed the suggestion, accusing Chastanet of deliberately misleading the public.
“They (GPH) paid off the debt of SLASPA. They are developing the new vendor’s arcade, a fisherman’s village at Bananes, the Wharf at Point Seraphine, Jeremy Street, the boardwalk, and the Soufrière waterfront. A series of activities will take place. That’s the concessionary agreement. Plus, we share the head tax with them.”
The dispute has cast a spotlight on the nature of concessionary agreements and “peppercorn rents”: arrangements in which a symbolic payment, such as a single dollar or a token sum, is used in contracts to create a binding legal obligation.
Such provisions are common in large-scale public-private partnerships, where governments provide land or assets at a nominal rent in exchange for significant private investment in infrastructure, operations, or debt relief.
Hilaire also outlined the obligations placed on GPH under the agreement, including rent payments, construction, maintenance, and upgrades.
“One is to pay the rents. Two, to build, operate, and maintain. Three, to maintain all the facilities. Four, to construct buildings on the demised premises. Five, to keep all such buildings and erections, including drains, in good and tenable repair. And it goes on and on with all the obligations, of which just one of them is the rent of the land.”
In this case, the government maintains that the GPH agreement is a trade-off: debt repayment and investment in Saint Lucia’s tourism infrastructure in exchange for long-term operating rights. The Government of Saint Lucia maintains ownership of all assets and will become the sole owner of the entire development after the lease agreement expires.