The ClaimA Progressive Labour Party flyer claims the One Bermuda Alliance has pledged to end Economic Empowerment Zones in Northeast Hamilton, Somerset and St George’s. The flyer adds that the OBA “has pledged to get rid of grants for businesses operating in the EEZ” and that “this policy would be a disaster for business owners struggling to compete” in EEZ zones.The responseThe OBA says the flyer is a “bald-faced lie”, and that neither the OBA nor any of its Shadow Ministers had ever made such a pledge.The TruthThere is no record of the OBA pledging to end the EEZs. In fact, the OBA has called for the tax breaks given to businesses in EEZs to be extended to other small businesses. So the claim the OBA has pledged to eliminate the EEZs is untrue.The backgroundIn 2011, the OBA did oppose giving grants to EEZ businesses, and in the debate on the proposal, Shadow Finance Minister ET Bob Richards said grants, as opposed to loans or guarantees issued by the Bermuda Small Business Development Corporation, were a “moral hazard” and this was not the road the Government should be going down.Mr Richards and his colleagues had so many objections and concerns about the lack of criteria for the grants that Minister Michael Weeks withdrew that section of the Act and came back a month later with an amendment which laid out strict criteria for how the grants should be given.It was also revealed that the BSBDC had given out $274,000 in grants without any legal authority and another amendment validated the grants after the fact.The OBA still opposed the grants, primarily because they would use up BSBDC capital reserved for larger loans and guarantees which they argued would be more helpful to businesses than single $10,000 grants.What else?The PLP flyer claimed the OBA’s “pledge” and there is no evidence that the OBA has pledged to repeal the grants would deprive businesses in the EEZ of the grants and make it impossible for them to complete. The criteria makes clear that the grants do not go to the businesses themselves but to service providers for assistance in business planning, marketing, consultancy and accounting services.