July 5, 2023

Thank you, Ms. Beale.
REPORTS OF COMMITTEES

The President: There are none.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
The President: We have a few announcements. The
first is in the name of myself, the Honourable President.

THE OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL
REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM SELECTED
GOVERNMENT -RELATED ENTITIES
The President: Senators, I wish to announce that in accordance with the provisions of section 101(3) of the
Bermuda Constitution Order 1968 and section 10 of the
Audit Act 1990, a copy of the Auditor General’s Report
on the Implementation of Recommendations from Selected Government -Related Entities dated June 2023
has been forwarded to me as the President of the Senate and that copies of the said report are hereby tabled
in the Senate for the information of Senators.
And, Senators, please note that copies of the
report can be accessed on your tablets and/or on the
parliamentary website.

BERMUDA OMBUDSMAN ANNUAL REPORT 2022

The President: I do have a second announcement,
and that is I wish to announce that in accordance with
the provisions of section 24(1) and 24(3) of the Om-budsman Act 2004, a copy of the Ombudsman for Bermuda Annual Report for the year ended the 31
st of December 2022 has been forwarded to me as the Presi-dent of the Senate and that copies of the said report are hereby tabled in the Senate for the information of
Senators.
And also, Senators, copies of this report can be
accessed on your tablets and/or on the parliamentary
website.
We have other announcements. The next one
is in the name of Senator Leslie Robinson, Junior Min-ister for Economy and Labour.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
BERMUDA 2023 –2027

530 5 July 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Sen. Leslie Robinson: Madam President, I hereby
present for the information of Senate the Economic Development Strategy Bermuda 2023– 2027. Note that
copies of the report can be accessed on your tablets and/or on the parliamentary website.

The President: Thank you, Senator Robinson.
And the next one i s the Human Rights Commission Annual Report. And Senator Lindsay Simmons
will present that.
You have the floor.

HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
ANNUAL REPORT 2022
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, I hereby present for the information of Senate the Human Rights Commission 2022 Annual Report. Senators may access copies of
the report on their tablets. Thank you.

The President: Thank you, Senator Simmons.
And the next one is the Bermuda Hospitals
Board Annual Report, and I think, Senator Simmons,
you will present that for Senator Hodgson.

BERMUDA HOSPITALS BOARD
ANNUAL REPORT 2019/20
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, I hereby present for the information of Senate the Bermuda Hospitals Board An-nual Report 2019/20. Senators may access copies of
the report on their tablets. Thank you, Madam Presi-dent.

The President: Thank you, Senator Lindsay Simmons
on behalf of Senator Hodgson.

NOTICE S OF MOTION S

The President: There are none.

PETITIONS
The President: There are none.

STATEMENTS
The President: We do have a Statement, and it is in
the name of Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell, the Minister
of Youth, Culture and Sport.
Senator Darrell, you have the floor, Minister
Darrell.
EMANCIPATION 2023: LEGACIES OF HONOUR

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, for many Bermudians, Cup
Match is considered to be one of the most important
events on our Island’s cultural calendar. The family togetherness, the camps, the traditional foods and the
overall party atmosphere make this an amazing time of
year to enjoy our families, our friends and the spirit of being Bermudian.
However, Madam President, Cup Match is not
only a time for celebration; it is also a time when we
commemorate the formal end of enslavement of people
of African and Native American descent in Bermuda. It
is a time for education and reflection, for remembering
in particular the contributions of our National Hero, Mary Prince. It is a time for remembering the stories of
those who were legendary, like Sally Bassett; those
who were executed because of their attempts to overthrow slavery, like Natt, Peter, Nanc y and Mingo; those
who ran away like Lettice, Black Jack and Patience;
and those who were lashed and hanged for minor offences like Simon, Black Mathew and Tom.
Madam President, it is equally important for us
to remember that the history of Black Bermudians is not
one of relentless tragedy. So much of our heritage
speaks not only to the horrors that our ancestors managed to endure and survive, but also to our resilience
as a people. Our stories speak to our strengths, our family and community connections.
Madam President, with this in mind, the Department of Culture has set the theme for this year’s
Emancipation Commemoration as Legacies of Honour .
We have borrowed this theme from the title of the film
that we will be premiering tonight as our signature event
entitled CUP MATCH: Legacy of Honour . The production of this film, created by Dr. Dana Selassie of Zhyon
International , is supported by the Department of Culture, the Somerset Cricket Club and the St. George’s
Cricket Club working collaboratively on this project.
Madam President, as Bermudians we all know
that Cup Match is so much more than a game of cricket.
This film explores the historical and cultural meaning of this uniquely Bermudian tradition—how it has evolved
from its start with the Friendly Societies into a symbol
of excellence generations later. We have the opportunity to hear about the heritage of the game from those who have been intimately involved with the organisation, strategy and sport: Dawn Simmons, Cleveland
Foggo, Neil Paynter, Clay Smith, Myra Bristol, Erwyn
Bean and more.
Madam President, not only will this event
showcase this new film, but we will also have the opportunity to hear from present and former captains in a
panel discussion following the screening. There is no
charge to attend this event, and I encourage the public to visit www.culture.bm to reserve their space.


Bermuda Senate Madam President, in addition to this signature
event, the Department of Culture has worked with
stakeholders to put together a community calendar of
events that speak to our theme. The Department of Libraries and Archives will be hosting an event with Mr.
Milton Hill entitled “African Bermudian Maritime History:
Where Do We Go From Here?” The Department of Culture is also pleased to highlight the work of tour guides
such as Rashida Godwin at Titan [Express] who will
host a Mary Prince Legacy Tour , as well as Lunch and
Learns with Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda
(also known as CURB) .
Madam President, the Department of Culture
is also sponsoring our annual Emancipation Youth Cre-ativity Competition. Youths under the age of 18 are encouraged to submit a poem, essay, artwork or video ex-ploring the theme, “What Family or Community Legacy
Makes Me Feel Proud?” We have had some excellent
entries in previous years, and we expect this year will
be no different. The deadline for submissions is Friday ,
the 28
th of July .
Madam President, the Department of Culture
will close out the month with a two- part lecture series
as part of the Bermudian Heartbeats programme, entitled “Rites and Rituals: Memorialising Sites of Resistance and Trauma in a Modern Bermuda. ” Information on these programmes as well as previous
years’ research conducted by the Department of Culture can be found on www.emancipationbermuda.com .
Madam President, as we begin the lead- up to
Cup Match, Emancipation Day and Mary Prince Day, it is my hope that the programming provided by the Department of Culture as well as our community stake-holders will provide an opportunity for the whole of Bermuda to remember and celebrate the legacies that uplift us as a people. Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Minister Darrell.

INTRODUCTION OF BILLS

The President: There are none.

FIRST READING OF PUBLIC BILLS

PERSONAL INFORMATION PROTECTION
AMENDMENT ACT 2023

CHILD DAY CARE ALLOWANCE
AMENDMENT ACT 2023

The President: The following public Bills have been received from the Honourable House of Assembly and
are now read for the first time. Their titles are, respec-tively: the Personal Information Protection Amendment
Act 2023; and the Child Day Care Allowance Amendment Act 2023. Senators, these Bills will be taken up in
our Orders of the Day.
FIRST READING OF PRIVATE BILLS

The President: There are none.

QUESTION PERIOD

The President: Senators, we will entertain questions
on the Statement that has been read by the Minister a few minutes ago.
Would any Senator care to speak?
Senator Smith, Opposition Leader in the Senate, you have the floor.

Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Madam President, and
good morning.

The President: Good morning.

QUESTION 1: EMANCIPATION 2023: LEGACIES
OF HONOUR

Sen. Ben Smith: First, I would like to just thank the
Minister for the Statement this morning. Everything that is in the Statement I think shows the importance that the Government is giving to what is a really important event for Bermuda, which is Cup Match. But [also] the
lead-up to it, giving the opportunity for history to be
learned and for people to understand how that Cup
Match event was first started and what we should be
thinking about as we get closer to that date. So thank
you very much for highlighting that.
I just have one question which is regarding the
premiering tonight of the film. If the Minister could tell
us, it says in here how people can sign up for it. But
what time is the event (so that we have an idea what
people should be looking for )? Because I know a lot of
people will be interested in attending. So, thank you.

The President: Thank you, Senator Smith, Opposition
Leader in the Senate.
Would any other Senator care to ask questions
on the Statement?
No? Hearing none, then it is over to you, Minister Darrell.

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President.
And as I was going through that, I did recognise
that there were some missing parts, so I do thank the
Senator for his question. And I will repeat that.
The premiere of the film CUP MATCH : Legacy
of Honour will be showing this evening at 6:00 pm at
BUEI [Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute]. Now, the showing (they say) is about 60 minutes. Then
after that we will have, like I said in the Statement, a
panel discussion with current and former Cup Match
captains where we interact with anyone who decides to
come. So again, it is 6:00 pm this evening at the BUEI
532 5 July 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Film Room. And the film is called CUP MATCH: Legacy
of Honour.
The President: Thank you, Minister Darrell.

ORDERS OF THE DAY

The President: The first Order of the Day is the second
reading of the Personal Information Protection Amend-ment Act 2023. And this is in the name of Minister
Owen Darrell, the Spokesperson for the Cabinet Office.
Minister Darrell, you have the floor.
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: If you can give me just
one second, please.
[Pause]

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 25
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam President, I ask
that provisions of Standing Order 25 be suspended in relation to this Bill.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
[Motion carried: Leave granted for the Personal Information Protection Amendment Act 2023 to be read a
second time on the same day as its first reading.]

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Hold on one second.

The President: Mm-hmm.

[Pause]
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President.
I now move that the Bill entitled the Personal
Information Protection Amendment Act 2023 be now
read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Continue, Minister Darrell.

BILL

SECOND READING

PERSONAL INFORMATION PROTECTION
AMENDMENT ACT 2023

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, the Personal Information
Protection Amendment Bill 2023 provides for amendments to the Personal Information Protection Act 2016,
known as PIPA, as well as the Public Access to Information Act 2010, known as PATI, and the Public Ac-cess to Information Regulations 2014, known as PATI
Regulations , to harmonise PIPA, PATI and the PATI
Regulations in respect of personal information.
Madam President, the aim of the PIPA is to put
the control over the use of personal information into the
hands of individuals where it rightly belongs. Privacy legislation, also referred to as data protection or information privacy, provides for an important human right
and forms a critical building block in the creation of a successful information society.
Madam President, PIPA was designed to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals relating to the use of their personal information. PIPA
places duties on the use of personal information by the
organisations in Bermuda, including public aut horities.
The administrative provisions enabling the appointment
of the Privacy Commissioner and the creation of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner are currently in force.
The remaining operative provisions of PIPA will be
brought into force on the 1
st of January 2025.
Madam President, privacy is often confused
with public access to information, or freedom of infor-mation. They have similarities but are quite different. They both provide important rights to access information. PATI gives the public to right to request ac cess
to records and information held by public authorities.
PIPA provides rights for individuals to access and control the use of their personal information by all organisations.
Madam President, with that said, PATI and
PIPA together provide Bermuda with a robust information rights framework. In essence, the Government
has established a framework that creates transparency
and accountability with respect to information held by
organisations and provides rights to access : first with
the implementation of PATI for government -held records, and now with PIPA creating responsibilities for all
organisations including the government regarding the
use of personal information.
Madam President, once the remaining portions
of PIPA are enacted, it will govern the use of all personal information in Bermuda by organisations. As a
result, conflicting and overlapping provisions currently
found in PATI and the PATI Regulations 2014 wil l require deletion or amendment. Madam President, PATI
provides the public with access to records held by public authorities. At this time this allows individuals to request access to their own personal information and to
request amendments to this personal information that
is held by public authorities.
PATI also provides a definition of “personal information” and “exemptions from disclosure” [which] are in place to protect personal information from disclosure subject to public interest tests. Madam President,


Bermuda Senate this Bill will resolve the conflicting and overlapping provisions currently found in the PATI and the PATI Regulations 2014 with PIPA to ensure one definition of “personal information” and one legislati ve regime to request
to correct one’s own personal information.
Madam President, once PIPA is in force, individuals will access and amend their own personal infor-mation via PIPA. Therefore, a few changes will be
made to the PATI in respect to this. An addition will be
made to PATI section 12 to ensure that after the c ommencement of Part 3 of PIPA applications for individual’s own personal information will be made exclusively
under PIPA. Therefore, there will not be a gap in access
to one’s personal information from public authorities
once this Bill is enacted. Individuals will continue to
have access to their records of their personal information via PATI [ until] the PIPA rights of individuals
commences.
Madam President, additional amendments to
PATI include: Section 19 will no longer be necessary, as amendments to a record of a person’s own infor-mation will take place via PIPA. Sections that will no
longer be relevant when personal information requests
are managed via PIPA will be removed. These include
section 23(2)(a), requests for records of their own information; section 23(3) [to 23] (5), specific conditions
where records of a person’s own information might not be released; section 41(f), internal rev iew of a decision
to refuse to amend a record in respect of a person’s
personal information; and section 58(2)(b), the requirement for the Information Commissioner to report on re-quests to amend records of personal information.
The definition of “personal information” in section 24 will follow the definition included in PIPA to align the two Acts. And the Privacy Commissioner will be
added to PATI section 4, Application, and the PATI
Schedule because there was no Privacy Commissioner at the time when PATI came into force.
Madam President, PATI Regulations also have
several paragraphs relating to requests and amendments to personal information. The following will be removed:
• section 12, Application for access to personal
information;
• section 14, Form of application;
• section 15, Manner of amending personal records;
• section 16, manner of annotating personal
records;
• section 17(a), information officer’s role in conforming identity of a person’s request requesting access to their personal information;
• section 21, Request on behalf of minors ;
• Schedule 3, Application for Amendment [or
Annotation] of a record; and
• the reference to requests for personal information in Schedule 1, as they would be covered by PIPA. Madam President, moving on to the PIPA
amendments, they relate primarily to the Part 5, Supervision, and Part 6, General Provisions parts of the Act.
A paragraph has been added to the end of section 26 to clarify when the Privacy Commissioner’s Office be-comes vacant, including expiry of the appointment period; resignation in writing to the Governor by the Commissioner; if the Commissioner becomes a Senator, a
candidate for election to the House of Assembly or an
office -holder in any political party; or rem oval of the
Commissioner from the office by the Governor.
Madam President, PIPA section 37 provides a
change to six months rather than three months for the Privacy Commissioner to complete the annual report at
the end of the year. Finally, amendments to section 52
allow for the commencement of provisions of the Act for
different purposes and in respect of different classes of
organisations.
Madam President, in Bermuda we live in a
small, caring community where being neighbourly and sharing information is a natural part of life. Although we
may know a lot about each other, we all have an expectation of privacy. As we prepare our organisations
for the commencement of PIPA on the 1
st of January
2025, we bring on a culture shift within this small com-munity of ours. It will change the way we perceive personal information and its value. Both individuals and organisations will start thinking about personal infor-mation in the same way that we think about money. It
is a precious commodity, and it should be protected
across all organisations in Bermuda.
PATI has played a beneficial role in providing
access to our personal information held by public au-thorities. As PIPA comes into force, these two Acts will continue to complement one another. Guidance and related information will be published by the offic ers of the
Privacy and Information Commissioners, and the G overnment as procedures evolve.
Finally, Madam President, in closing, PIPA is
designed to meet international best practice. It is a modern, pragmatic piece of legislation balancing comprehensive protection with sensible regulation that is
appropriate for Bermuda. While providing protection of
personal information locally is of great importance,
PIPA has also been drafted with a broader perspective
in mind as it seeks to raise Bermuda to a level that will
enable it to join an international network of trust which
currently exists in between countries with similar levels
of information privacy protection.
This network increases the trust between individuals and users of personal information while provid-ing significant advantages for international business
and local businesses who would like to compete in a
global market. Many of these countries have PATI - and
PIPA- type legislation and have been working together
in tandem for decades. The Personal Information Pro-tection Amendment Bill aids in implementing a similar
regime.
Thank you, Madam President.
534 5 July 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate The President: Thank you, Senator Darrell, spokesman for the Cabinet Office and Government Leader in
the Senate.
Would any Senator care to speak on this Bill?
Senator De Couto, you have the floor.

You know, right off the
bat I have to say that we in the Opposition support this
Bill, which , as we have heard, harmonises the PIPA
and PATI legislation. It does a lot of important legal housekeeping. And the Senator, the Minister did also
refer to how these things exist around the world. So it is important, for example, that we as a top- rank jurisdiction have a sort of symmetry with places like the EU
where they have their GDPR [General Data Protection
Regulation] and other incredibly strong protections for people and their personal information.
And I note that January 2025 was announced
as the inception date, and I note that is nine years from when this Bill was passed in 2016. And I say let us [put] this Bill in action. It is really important. You know, we
recognise that businesses, organisations in general will
have to carefully undertake how to make sure that they go into compliance. It is a change in culture and how
people handle information. So I did note that the Bill
provides a mechanism for the Minister to put it into effect at different times for different classes of organisation. So I think that would be useful.
But I would suggest that the Government and
institutions involved in working with the government
would perhaps be the first people, the first organisations to get in compliance with this Bill. Because these are organisations that people are forced to give their
most sensitive data to. And I am going to give an ex-ample here that I think illustrates the importance of the
urgency there. I know we spoke in the Senate maybe
last year about the resQwest. And we learned that as
of a year ago almost 52,000 Bermudi an residents’ vaccination data were stored by this private entity. And
46,000 travellers had their sensitive TA [travel authorisation] form travel information stored with this entity.
And we learned at the time that they did not really have a proper privacy policy or a proper data reten-tion policy. So this is an example of an organisation with
incredibly sensitive data from Bermudians that I believe this Act would force them to really clean up how that
information is handled. I mean, I have also heard that
the government is taking those data and using them in
correlation with other data the government has. Now
under this Bill, Bermudians will be able to find out exactly how those data are being used and probably will be able to say, No. Get rid of my data. Take it out of
there. I do not want you doing that, which is not the
case now. The Bill had a bit in there about some chang es
to how fees were handled, and I notice that it referred
to the Commissioner could [charge] some fees for the
services. We recognise that perhaps there can be
some reasonable fees. I notice that this language of the prescribed maximum fee has been removed. And I get
a little concerned because we heard a lot of talk from
the Government about adding fees for dealing with
these sorts of human rights in a way, dealing with personal information, public access to inf ormation. So
when I see language like that, I am taken [aback], I get
a little concerned.
You know, we hear the Government was saying how expensive the PATI charges are. And I just note that recently the Government in fact lost a court
case against the Information Commissioner for her to
get her costs recovered by the government for a suc-cessf ul action. So when we talk about fees, you know,
we can see that —because the Government was trying
to hide information and take the Information Commis-sioner to court. I do not know if the Government can
really use that as an example of why it is so expensi ve
to provide these services. And that is why I think things
like prescribed maximum would be important because
it would align the Government to making sure it kept its
fees down.
I talked about the commencement. Those are
some concerns that I had, but I certainly look forward to this Act coming into force and the Bermudians’ personal information can be adequately protected.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator De Couto.
Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?
Senator Robinson, Leslie Robinson, you have
the floor.
Sen. Leslie Robinson: Thank you, Madam President.
I am in total support of this Bill. As Mr.
De Couto did say, the legislation came out initially in
2016. However, I think it has done us well with the con-sultation that the Privacy Office and others have had
with various stakeholders over the years, wheth er it be
the legal fraternity, whether it be the international business community, whether it be sporting and other organisations, to really ensure that we get the rollout of
this particular Bill done correctly. It is a fundamental
change as to how persons are going to collect and hold
personal information. It provides, as we said, for transparency and accountability of those persons. And I
think it was important that the time had been taken to
get things right so that we could then look to fully implement this Bill, fully implement the Act, which will
come into effect on January 1, 2025.
So I really want to commend the Government,
the Privacy Office and others who have been doing this for some time to gather all the information so that now
we can actually go out and educate the public correctly


Bermuda Senate on what has to take place, all the shifts and changes
that may have to go on with procedures in how they
hold and collect sensitive and also just private information.
I also want to say that they are continuing, and
the Privacy Office is continuing to do this. Because I
believe it is the intent at some point to put together guidance notes so that it can make it even a bit clearer as
to how organisations and entities ar e to comply. So I do
commend the Government and the fact that, yes, it may have taken some years. But I think [by] doing it this way we are getting it right. Because it affects a wide sector
of the community, the community at large.
Thank you.

The President: Thank you, Senator Robinson.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Senator John Wight, you have the floor.
Sen. John Wight: Thank you, Madam President.
I am fully supportive of this legislation. I know
that many organisations already have done a great deal of work to comply with the requirements of the legislation, which I know does not come into force until
2025. But in my prior working life I know that this can
be quite onerous and a very far -reaching exercise for
many organisations and in many cases very expensive to comply. But it is definitely the right thing for Bermuda, so I am fully supportive of the Bill.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator John Wight.
Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?
Hearing none, then it is over to you, Minister
Darrell.
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President. And I do take the comments in which they were intended and the spirit they were intended from Senator
De Couto. I do appreciate the support of my colleagues,
as well as Senator Wight and similarly from the One
Bermuda Alliance. So thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, I move that the Bill entitled
the Personal Information Protection Amendment Act 2023 be now read a second time.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 26

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam President, I
move that [Standing Order] 26 be suspended in respect
of this Bill.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam President, I
move that the Bill entitled the Personal Information Pro-tection Amendment Act 2023 be now read a third time.

The President: Is there any objection to the third reading?
No objection.

BILL

THIRD READING

PERSONAL INFORMATION PROTECTION AMENDMENT ACT 2023
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam President, I
move that the Bill do now pass.

The President: It has been moved that the Bill entitled
the Personal Information Protection Amendment Act
2023 do now pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
The Bill is passed.

[Motion carried: The Personal Information Protection
Amendment Act 2023 was read a third time and
passed.]

The President: Thank you, Minister Darrell. And thank
you, all Senators, for participating.
We now move on to the second item on the Orders of the Day, and this is the Child Day Care Allow-ance Amendment Act 2023. And that is in the name of Senator Leslie Robinson, the Junior Minister for Economy and Labour.
Senator Robinson, you have the floor.

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 25

Sen. Leslie Robinson: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, I ask that Standing Order 25
be suspended in relation to this Bill.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
[Motion carried: Leave granted for the Child Day Care
Allowance Amendment Act 2023 to be read a second
time on the same day as its first reading.]

Sen. Leslie Robinson: Madam President, I now move
that the Bill entitled Child Day Care Allowance Amend-ment Act 2023 be now read a second time.

The President: Is there any objection to the second
reading?
536 5 July 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate No objection.

BILL

SECOND READING

CHILD DAY CARE ALLOWANCE
AMENDMENT ACT 2023

Sen. Leslie Robinson: Thank you.
Today I am pleased to introduce a Bill entitled
the Child Day Care Allowance Amendment Act 2023.
The purpose of the Bill is to amend the Child Day Care
Allowance Act 2008 to allow the responsible Minister to
1. prescribe a maximum gross annual household
income with respect to an application for child
day care allowance;
2. provide categories of such incomes for the
granting of awards; and
3. clarify that an application for an award is
based on an applicant’s gross annual household income.
Madam President, the current eligibility requirements for the child day care allowance is a maxi-mum gross annual income of $55,000 with a maximum award being $800 per month for an eligible child. This
allowance does not adequately cover this growing cost
and warrants reforming the current child day care allowance programme as, on average, the monthly cost
of child day care is approximately $1,100 per month,
which means that parents or guardians must find an additional $400 per month to satisfy the total fees. Reforming the structure of awards will assist households
to cope with the rising cost of services provided by
these facilities.
Madam President, the adverse effects of the
global pandemic have placed financial stress on businesses. And as a result, they are forced to alter their
operations to remain gainful entities in this economy.
The cost of operating child day care services in Bermuda has therefore increased, resulting in added financial pressures being placed on families. Generally, this
means that families will be required to cover additional
expenses, as costs for goods and services are increas-ing more and more. Additional s upport for this service
is paramount to sustaining households and promoting early childhood development.
Madam President, the Government recognises
that families are vulnerable to the economic atmos-phere and require assistance wherever possible. Eligi-bility requirements needed to change in order to lend
support to more families. As such, the Government will
increase the child day care allowance benefits and ex-pand the pool of parents who can qualify. The legislation allows for the implementation of a new tiered financial award specifically for child day care services as
pledged in the 2022/23 Speech from the Throne. The
new legislation prescribes a maximum gross annual household income for eligibility in the following categories:
a) annual household income of $65,000 equals a maximum monthly allowance of $900 per
child;
b) annual household income of $97,000 equals a
maximum monthly allowance of $700 per
child; and
c) annual household income of $130,000 equals a maximum monthly allowance of $500 per
child.
Madam President, Government acknowledges
that families are finding it difficult to meet the needs of
their households, particularly with respect to ensuring
their children are provided access to day care services
in alignment with what they can afford. This uplift in
support is designed to minimise the risk of families hav-ing to decide between child day care services and employment, for example. Protecting the continuance of
early childhood education is important for the sustainability of our economy. Mada m President, negative scrutiny Child Day Care Allowance Amendment Regulations to introduce and effect these new categories will
be laid subsequently.
Madam President, this Bill is but another step
toward Financial Assistance reform and confirms Government’s continued commitment to ensuring vulnera-ble families have access to child day care services. Furthermore, this Bill is indicative of the Government ’s unwavering commitment to ensuring the well -being of all
of Bermuda’s children.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Robinson.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

SENATE VISITOR
The President: And before I open the floor to Senators,
I would just like to acknowledge the presence of the
Acting Director of the Department of Financial Assistance, Ms. Carlita O’Brien.
Welcome to you.

[Child Day Care Allowance Amendment Act 2023, second reading debate, continuing]

The President: Would any Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator De Couto, you have the floor.

Thank you for that
presentation, Senator.


Bermuda Senate We definitely agree that childcare is a vital
need that we all need to support. All families should
have access, and it is akin to a human right. So I am
also glad to see that this is put in place in a tiered way,
which provides more support to those who n eed more.
As you know, Madam President, I have been an advocate of taking some of these government initiatives and
converting them from what I would call giveaways to
what I would call focused, targeted support . It does the
most for those who need it. So again, [I am] definitely
in support.
You know, some people out there have questions, Well, how are we going to pay for this? And I think
that reiterates the importance of this Government get-ting its finances back on track so it can focus its expenditure where it can have the most impact and help
those who need it most, such as this childcare support. Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator De Couto.
Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?
Senator Dr. Emily Dill, you have the floor.

The late President
Nelson Mandela once stated, “Giving children a healthy
start in life, no matter where they are born or the circumstances of their birth, is the moral obligation of every one of us.” And certainly this amendment that has
been presented t his morning, this Bill, certainly reflects
a belief in this and a commitment by this Government
to ensure that every child in Bermuda has what it needs
in order to survive and thrive.
We know that by passing this Bill, it will afford
parents the ability to work outside of the home and be
able to provide a sure financial, a firm financial foundation for their children, as well as the fact that child- care
is critical to the social, emotional and communication
skills of all children. So I would like to thank the Government today for this amendment to the current legislation and the revision of the support levels to ensure
greater access to families who need this child- care allowance, and t ogether we will see our children not just
survive but thrive as we go forward.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Rev. Dr. Emily Dill.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Senator Lindsay Simmons, you have the floor.

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, I would like to thank the Minister and his technical team for bringing this here today.
Madam President, I am a firm believer that the best
thing we can ever give our children is education. And education begins at birth. Unfortunately, many women
only get three months off from work and have to return.
It has been a gap where people are struggling to pay child day care. So this allowance and the tiered approach that this Government is taking is something that
is needed, and it is 50 years overdue. So thank you to
this Government for thinking about not just the lower -
income people, but people who are medium[ -income]
families that actually need support as well. We find that
they are struggling as well. And I have heard personal
stories of peop le working two and three jobs and still
cannot afford child day care. So thank you for this amendment.

The President: Thank you, Senator Lindsay Simmons.
Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?
Senator Robin Tucker, you have the floor.
Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Madam President,
and good morning to my Senate colleagues and everyone.
I join in support of this particular piece of legislation. I think that whatever support that we can give to
struggling families in particular to ensure that our children are being taken care of is paramount. So again I
think that this piece of legislation and these amendments are certainly very important and beneficial to
families.
I will say though that when I was preparing for
this conversation, I am not even going to bother with my notes because I want to speak more so from how I
am feeling as not only someone who sits in this place
but as a grandparent and also as a citizen of B ermuda.
While I believe, and I want to stress that I think that these amendments are a good thing, I am worried. I am worried for Bermuda. I am worried for the future of Bermuda. I am worried that our cost of living is extremely
high. And families are stru ggling now. With these particular amendments, I am worried that even someplace
down the road in a few years’ time if we do not aggressively . . . And I am not saying that the economy and
the cost of living are not being addressed. That is not
what I am say ing at all.
What I am saying though is if the cost of living
and emigration and all of the things that we know are
also impacting our community, if we are not aggressively tackling those things, then in a few years’ time we are going to be back here having a similar conversation. So will we be moving the caps to $150,000? To
$200,000? This worries me, and that is the thing that
keeps me up at night. And I am sure that it keeps some of my colleagues up at night as well. Because while this
is wonderful, this is a wonder ful amendment —but,
Madam President, we need to address the root causes
of why we are here.
And the pandemic did contribute, but the pandemic is not the only contributor. So while I do not want
to rain on anyone because that is not my intent, . . . but
my obligation here is to also represent those things and say those things that I think are beneficial to Bermuda
and not politics. This is important. And I am glad that it
538 5 July 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate has been brought forward. But I would also look hopefully sometime in the near future to see some very aggressive steps about how we can stem the tides. Thank
you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Robin Tucker.
Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?
Senator Ben Smith, Opposition Leader, you
have the floor.
Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Madam President.
I just thought it was important to add my support to this Bill also. But hearing some of the comments that have come from colleagues on both sides, I think
it is important that we highlight that we are in a critical
state where we are having to give support to people who are already working two and three jobs, as Senator
Simmons has said. I wonder if this lowest tier, if we are
not going to cover fully childcare, are they actually able
to survive?
And I commend the Government once again
for the initiative in what is being done. But considering
that we are talking about $130,000, which would have
in the past been middle class, we are having to give subsidies to, what is happening to this group that is not
able to pay their bills now? If we are not giving them the
opportunity to be able to have childcare, the next gen-eration that is being put forward that is not able to survive and get the childcare, this will be a continuing cycle
where when that chi ld grows up, if they have not been
given everything that [they need] for them to thrive,
what does that mean for their future and then their ability to support their family?
So thank you to the Government for this step
forward, but I think it is important that we really focus on what this is meaning [for us] as a country, and how we are supporting our citizens. And what is it that we
are going to have to do to change the way that our
economy is supporting everybody? If we do not find a
way to increase the overall economy, we will continue
to see, as my colleague mentioned, the slope moving
in the wrong direction. So thank you for bringing this
forward, but it does highlight a challenge that has to have all of our focus. Thank you.

The President: Thank you, Senator Ben Smith.
Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?
Senator Arianna Hodgson, you have the floor.

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
I did just want to speak briefly since most persons have covered other points this morning. But I think
it was important just to go back to our platform. And I think it is important to go back to our PLP platform because we have committed to doing some re ally important things for the people of Bermuda. And I think that strengthening financial support for families is one of those most important things that we are working on
right now. So as many of us know, early childhood is a
critical period for brain dev elopment. And there are obviously several reasons why any government should increase access to early childcare.
So while I recognise that some persons are
concerned about what happens later, I think that we must recognise that we must act now so that we can
hopefully provide opportunities for children to increase
their employability, to gain higher earning potential later in life. I think that it was back in 2018 under the direction
of Minister Kim Wilson that this Government showed
their commitment to ensuring their children were given
the best start at life. And we actually wrote out the childcare standards. And t hose outlined both the best practices as well as some of the legal requirements of the
childcare operators in Bermuda.
And I think that today is the next step in ensuring that persons are now able to utilise these facilities that are offering services to the Bermudian public. I
think as Senator Smith noted, we do have to talk about
the fact that the lack of affordable and accessible childcare poses significant barriers in terms of employment and particularly to women, who typically handle the
brunt of childcare responsibilities today.
So I think that it is worth applauding the Minister and all the work that we are doing to make sure that Bermudians are better equipped to work and to support
themselves and their families. Ultimately. I would say
that, looking ahead, I think we should al l start having
more conversations about what additional programmes and services, resources can be shared with our people so that parents have support so that early literacy and
nutrition —these are things that persons are comfortable exploring within their own families and making the
best decisions within their households.
I would say that the positive impact of early
childcare extends beyond individual children. It extends beyond individual families. This is something that is going to improve our communities. It is something that is
going to strengthen our communities. It is something
that is going to better prepare our young people to enter
our school systems, whether it is public or private.
Yesterday we were talking about, what is Government doing for our people? And I said, Well, it depends on whom you care about, what you care about, you know, what your struggles currently are, what your
opportunities currently are. So again, I am just encour-aging us all to have more conversations about what we
can do to lessen the burden of social dysfunction on
our government, and by extension our people. That is
all I wanted to share today, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Arianna Hodgson.
Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?
Hearing none, then, Senator Leslie Robinson,
it is back over to you.


Bermuda Senate Sen. Leslie Robinson: Thank you, Madam President.
And I do appreciate all of the comments that
have been said. I guess as my colleague, Senator
Hodgson, said, this Government is closely looking at
and has taken steps for social reforms for families. When we look at the Financial Assistance reforms, the
minimum wage, and this is just another in a series of
what this Government is trying to do to help families
with operating in this economy.
I also want to speak to Senator Tucker’s point
when she does say about, Well, what are the things besides the pandemic that are causing the problems in
the economy? And the pandemic itself was a global
pandemic. And I think it is important that our people realise that Bermuda is not in a vacuum and that we are
part of this global economy. And so whether it be the
pandemic that was followed then by the war, we had supply chain issues as a result of both. It then obviously
led to an economic recession and a worldwide recession. There is no country that we can say that has not
been affected by all of these things, and of course our high interest rate environment as a result.
So what we are dealing with is not unique to
[Bermuda, it affects many countries]. Yes, it is very hard to see that when we are looking at our own financial situations within our families. And I get that even when
we are looking at our own government and our own
country as to how our economy is. But we have to understand that we are part of this global economy and
that the global economy is being affected just the same
way.
So I do thank everyone for their comments and
note that this Government will continue to press on with social reforms in order to help its people.
And now, may I?
The President: Yes, you can begin to move your —

Sen. Leslie Robinson: Madam President, I would like
to move that the Bill entitled Child Day Care Allowance
Amendment Act 2023 be now read a second time.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 26

Sen. Leslie Robinson: Madam President, I move that
[Standing Order] 26 be suspended in respect of this Bill.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]
Sen. Leslie Robinson: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled the Child Day Care Allowance Amendment Act 2023 be now read a third time.
The President: Is there any objection to the third reading?
No objection.

BILL

THIRD READING

CHILD DAY CARE ALLOWANCE
AMENDMENT ACT 2023

Sen. Leslie Robinson: I move that the Bill do now
pass.

The President: It has been moved that the Bill entitled
the Child Day Care Allowance Amendment Act 2023 be
read a third time.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
The Bill . . .

Sen. Leslie Robinson: Let the Bill be passed.
The President: The Bill is passed.
Is there any objection to the passage of the
Bill?
No objection.
The Bill is passed.
[Motion carried: The Child Day Care Allowance Amend-ment Act 2023 was read a third time and passed.]

The President: Thank you, Senator Robinson, and
thank you, all Senators.
We will now move on with our agenda.

MOTIONS

The President: There are none.

CONGRATULATORY AND/OR
OBITUARY SPEECHES

The President: Would any Senator care to speak?
Oh . . . Senator Lindsay Simmons, you have
the floor.

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, first of all, I would like to give
the condolences to the family of the Honourable Ottiwell Simmons, JP. He was a unionist, a former Member
of the PLP. Bermuda lost a great champion and a hero. I know all of my colleagues are going to want to say
something, so I will keep it brief. But condolences to his
family, especially his daughter Emma. And he is going
to be a great miss.
540 5 July 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Madam President, on a brighter note I would
like to congratulate the Special Olympics and the medals that they brought home to Bermuda. They did an
amazing job. So congratulations to the team that represented Bermuda in the Special Olympics.
And lastly, Madam President, I want to congratulate all of the graduates from preschool right up to
high school. It was amazing to see so many of our
young students graduating, especially in the high
school. I know from Berkeley, the Berkeley Institute,
only two students did not graduate with their class. And
then we had one student who actually graduated a year
early, and she was the valedictorian. So well on to
Kaylen for graduating a year early and being valedictorian. So thank you, Madam President. Those are my congratulations and obituaries for today.

The President: Thank you, Senator Lindsay Simmons.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Minister Darrell.
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, I would like to be associated
with my Senate colleague’s comments on the passing. And we have not been here for almost a month. I know
the tributes have poured in in all forms of media. We
did attend a wonderful home- going service for Brother
Ottiwell Simmons who, as was stated, was a former
President of the Bermuda Industrial Union. He was one
of the fathers of Bermuda’s labour movement and as well as a representative of the Progressive Labour
Party. And, Madam President, it was an honour to be
able to be in the presence of other labour greats and
supporters and family of Brother Ottiwell Simmons at
his home- going service a little over a week ago. And
again, to his family, to the members of all unions in Ber-muda and members of the Progress ive Labour Party
and Bermuda as a whole, I just want to once again pass on condolences to the family, friends and supporters of
Brother Ottiwell Simmons.
Madam President, on a happier note, I would
like to congratulate a slew of sportsmen who have returned to Bermuda in recent weeks.
We did see, and I will be giving another Statement on this later, but we did see all of the Special
Olympians, whom we did highlight in this place a while
ago before they left. But they have since returned to the
Island, Madam President, increasing their medal toll
from previous years in the Special Olympics. This time there were 11. There were eight bronze medals, one
silver medal and two gold medals, Madam President.
So I want to once again congratulate the participants,
as well as the administrative staff, as well as families of
all of the Special Olympians.
And it is the intention of the Government,
Madam President, to fully honour the Special Olympi-ans at a ceremony next week, where we will be issuing
them Certificates of Achievement. We will be providing a motorcade for them so all Bermudians can come out
and show their support followed by a reception to honour them and their families. So, Madam President, we
are very proud of our 19 Special Olympians, as they
have returned from Berlin, Germany, and repres ented
us proud at the Special Olympics.
Also, Madam President, you have seen many
reports of our teams who have represented Bermuda well in the CAC [Central American and Caribbean]
Games. I want to congratulate a Senate colleague,
Senator Ben Smith, who is the head of the swim team who represented Bermuda well in the CAC Games. I
know there were medals that were won in swimming,
silver I know by Ms. Emma Harvey. And my memory is
failing me right now, but I am sure the Senator will assist me in a moment with the other members who did
win medals at the swim competition of the CAC Games.
As well as other teams and individuals who
were competing. I know we still have Mr. Jah- Nhai Perinchief to compete. We have the bowling team down there [which], despite some challenges, have been
able to compete. We have the Women’s Hockey Team
who have b een competing. So I want to congratulate
Bermuda’s team at the CAC Games. And, Madam President, there will be much said about other sportsmen and individuals who are leaving for the Island
Games this week across the pond. And we want to wish them well as t hey go, and I will be bringing a Statement
in future sessions to highlight all of the athletes and
support staff who are representing Bermuda. Thank
you, Madam President.
Oh, Madam President, sorry, one more. I
would like to congratulate a young man, a former stu-dent of mine. I am very happy to see this, and we know
it is the season for scholarships now, Madam President. But this one particular I would like to highlight, Mr.
Zyhun Robinson. Mr. Zyhun Robinson was a student of
mine at the Berkeley Institute. He currently attends
West Virginia University. And he has been awarded the
Bermuda International Long Term Insurers and Reinsurers (also known as the BILTIR) Scholarship to continue his studies at West Virginia. And this is a young
man whom I was able to know very closely at the
Berkeley Institute, and it makes me very happy, and I
know his family is proud of the work that he is doing in his studies. And I look forward to all of the great things
that are coming from Zyhun Robinson. So I want to say,
Madam President, congratulations to Zyhun and his
family for this achievement.
Thank you.
The President: Thank you, Minister Darrell.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Senator Tucker, you have the floor.
Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Madam President.
I would like to also be associated with the comments and the condolences expressed to the family of
Mr. . . . or I should say the Honourable. I believe they


Bermuda Senate bestowed that title upon him at his wonderful service.
So Ottiwell Simmons and also to Emma, whom I know
from high school.
I would also like to extend condolences to the
family of Eulene Wilkinson- Furbert. So the condolences, I will say she has known me before I knew me.
She has been a family friend for a lot of years. So extending condolences to her family, Betty Ann, Charles
and the entire family.
And also extending condolences to the families
of Mr. Boyd Smith and Ms. Violet Charves.
I would like to extend wonderful congratulations to Senate Leader Smith, which Minister Darrell
has already mentioned. But go, go, go, Senator Smith!
And his team for a very excellent job. Well done! The
team performs to the level of what the coach is act ually
able to encourage them and train them to do. So, well
done, Senator Smith and your entire swimming team.
Also, I would like to say congratulations to the
entire body of Special Olympians. There was obviously some controversy, which is quite disappointing. Not even a little bit —quite disappointing. But again a job
well done to every one of the participants!
And I am saving this congratulations for last.
So I want to say congratulations to my godfather, Car-vel Van Putten, for 56 years, retirement after 56 years
in the hospitality industry. It is probably unlikely that
people do not know who Carvel Van Putten is. But if
you have ever been to the Hamilton Princess, he would
be the deep- voiced always -on doorman at the Princess. He is an absolutely wonderful person, as I said.
No bias; he is my godfather. So congratulations to him
on a well -earned retirement.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Tucker.
Would any other Senator . . .
Senator Arianna Hodgson, you have the floor.

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
I myself wanted to include myself in the condolences that have been sent to the family of Uncle Ottie, to Aunt Emma and Schavonne and Serene and Shad-dai and Szaine and all of the rest of the family members. I spent a lot of time with my grandfather and Uncle
Ottie and playing with Schavonne and doing all of the
things. And I did not realise that I was walking amongst
giants way back then. Now, you know, I regret that I did
not make as much time for them as perhaps I should have. So I definitely want to inc lude myself with the condolences sent.
I also wanted to congratulate and thank the organisers of the Mount Hill Block Party. It was an amazing day. They started with some time for the kids. They
had a senior hour or two. Shine Hayward was playing some music. It was a really great day. So again , I want
to congratulate and thank the organisers. And hopefully
next year will be a better, bigger event as well. And I also want to congratulate and celebrate
our sisters or our neighbours over in the Bahamas as
they celebrate their 50
th anniversary of independence.
Again, I had the opportunity to speak with Minister Fred Mitchell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service of the Bahamas. And it was interesting to hear
the story of two islands that had similar beginnings but
took two different routes. So again I just want to celebrate them. And we celebrate them from Bermuda. That is it for me. Thank you , Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Arianna Hodgson.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Senator Ben Smith, Opposition Leader [in the
Senate], you have the floor.

Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Madam President.
First, I would like to be associated with the condolences to the family of Honourable Ottiwell Simmons.
I just think it is important that at this time no matter what
anyone’s differences are, it is important that we show
the support for the family at a ti me that I know they will
all be missing and mourning him.
I would also like to now give some remarks
when it comes to the CAC Games, as the Minister has started his remarks, and be associated with the performances of, first I would like say the Bermuda Olympic
Association for the organisation of taking this team to
El Salvador where originally it was with some kind of
anxiety of going to San Salvador and participating in
these games. It was well organised. I will say that the Bermuda team has really made Bermuda proud, seeing
the pink and blue throughout the vill age, having the opportunity to see the rugby team as they won their first
game and then continued on that momentum. Our
young boxer —I had an opportunity to sit and talk with
him during breakfast and lunch. And just the camaraderie between the Bermuda team and the support for
each other.
Of course, I would love to celebrate our accomplishments in the pool with Emma Harvey winning a sil-ver medal and a bronze medal, and Madelyn Moore
coming back with the silver medal. So overall just the
performances of our entire team, and they are continu-ing to participate as we are here today. The triathlon is
going on as we speak. The team is continuing to work
hard and continuing to make Bermuda proud with our
participation.
Finally, I would like to be associated with the
remarks to the Special Olympians. I think it is important that we continue to support [them]. I thank the Minister
for taking the time to actually travel to Berlin to support
our Special Olympians, to show t hem that they are just
as important as our able- bodied Olympians. So thank
you to the Ministry for that level of support. And I hope
to see in the future that we will continue to elevate the level of support for all of our athletes who we know
make Bermuda proud when we get those results.
Thank you, Madam President.
542 5 July 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate The President: Thank you, Senator Ben Smith.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Vice President Kiernan Bell, you have the floor.

Sen. Kiernan Bell: Thank you, Madam President.
I just wanted to associate myself with the condolences to the family of Ottiwell Simmons. I was also
lucky enough to know him both as a child growing up
and as a young professional in my first labour arbitration, although regrettably I was on the other si de.

[Laughter]

Sen. Kiernan Bell: But my heartfelt condolences to his
family. The country was lucky to have him.
And on a lighter note, I also wanted to associate myself with the congratulations to all of the athletes.
And I look forward to either congratulating them in person when I see them or along the roadside, cheering
for them as they are in the motorcade.
Thank you.
The President: Thank you, Senator Bell.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Senator Leslie Robinson, you have the floor.
Sen. Leslie Robinson: Thank you, Madam President.
I too want to associate myself with the condolences for Uncle Ottie. I call him “Uncle Ottie” because
his family and my family were very close particularly
back in the day. My Clark e family in particular, Uncle
Ottie was best friends with my Uncle Bradford Clark e.
He was also very close friends with my father, Law-rence Clark e. And I remember my Uncle Bradford
years and years ago was up there so proud on nomination day. This is decades ago, the first time that Un-cle Ottie went into the House or put himself as a candidate to be elected. It was a very proud day for our family
in particular.
Uncle Ottie, you may not know, also used to
drive taxi many, many, many years ago. Our family had
a taxi, and he used to use that taxi. And he would always come back with stories about all of the people and
the tourists whom he met. And being the person w ho
he was, many times those same tourists, repeat visitors, would want Uncle Ottie to pick them up and tour
them around the Island.
As an MP and growing up in my early years in
North Shore, he was our MP for Pembroke East. And
he was a person who was always on the doorstep in
spite of all of the other things that he was doing for social justice and in the labour movement, et cetera. He
would be always on the doorstep to give time, to hear
about concerns . And I remember in particular in the
1970s, whether it be when we had to deal with the shooting and killing of the Governor, Sir Richard Sharples, who was our neighbour back then right next
door to us. Or even later on in the 1970s when we had the riots, Uncle Ottie was there to make sure his con-stituents were okay. So we do remember him, and we
say condolences to the family and others.
In addition to that, I would like to also be associated with the congratulatory remarks to the Special Olympians. I think it is just wonderful how we as a society, all of us have evolved. Countries have evolved.
The international community has evolved whereby it is
a wonderful thing to see our Special Olympians on display. And for all that they do, all of the training that they
put in, the coaches, et cetera, we just say Congratula-tions! to them.
I also just want to mention as well, I think Senator Robin Tucker mentioned about Boyd Smith, his passing. His daughter, Marva Bridgewater, is a member of our church, Bethel AME Church. So we are sending condolences to the family, to the family of the lat e
Boyd Smith.
Finally on a nice, happy and bright note, we
want to congratulate the Bermuda Conference brand Young People’s Division [YPD] of the AME Church.
Last Friday night they held their what we call iRock
awards at Mount Zion AME Church. And the premise
behind that is Christ is the solid rock on which we stand.
And because of that, our children rock. So we were able
to give awards to children who were from each church, but in particular we want to make mention of the Chau-tauqua award, which went to our own Senator Owen
Darrell, the Minister of Youth and Sport and Community
and Culture, for all that he has done over the years. And
he is, just like myself and Senator Dill, the former
YPDers (as we call it) within our AME church. And it
was just wonderful to be able t o congratulate him and
honour him for all the work that he has done as an educator and now as a Minister and Leader of the Senate.
Thank you.
The President: Thank you, Senator Robinson.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

SENATE VISITOR
The President: And before I move on, I would just like
to acknowledge the presence in the Gallery of the Minister of Tourism, the Honourable Vance Campbell.
Welcome to you, sir.

[Congratulatory and/or Obituary Speeches , continuing]
The President: Yes. Senator Emily Dill.

Thank you.


Bermuda Senate I too would like to associate myself with the
condolences for the Honourable Ottiwell Simmons,
who was indeed a champion for justice and a role
model for all of us.
I would also like to associate myself with the
condolences for Mr. Boyd Smith.
Madam President, I would also like to express
condolences to the AME Church family on the passing
of Bishop Richard Franklin Norris, who was the 116th
elected and consecrated bishop of the African Method-ist Episcopal Church. Bishop Norris actually began his
journey as a minister here in Bermuda where he served
as the Pastor of St. Luke AME Church, I believe in the
early 1960s. And he also served the Fir st Episcopal
District, of which Bermuda is a part, from 2004 to 2012.
He was a great leader, and he will be deeply missed.
And our condolences are expressed to both his immediate family and the AME Church family.
I would also like to express condolences today
to the family of retired Branch Pilot, Mr. William David
Christopher Darrell. Mr. Darrell, not only was he a gentleman who took his job very seriously, but he was also
an excellent tenor soloist. And his voic e will be deeply
missed. So we extend our condolences to the Marine and Ports family and in particular the marine pilot fra-ternity and the Darrell family as a whole. He too will be
deeply missed.
Madam President, I would like to, like my colleagues, associate myself with all of the congratulations for the athletes and all of the different activities
that have gone on. And certainly the Special Olympians
and all that they bring to this community, t heir fight, their
fervour and their excitement about being included in
this significant event.
I would like to extend congratulations to the Allen Temple AME Church family on the celebration of
their 150
th anniversary this past weekend. They were
able to kick off a year of activities as they celebrate 150
years of ministry in the Sandys community.
I would like to extend congratulations to Mr.
Kelly Zuill on his 60th anniversary as a gospel music radio announcer. And as all of you know, Mr. Zuill is also responsible for hosting us each week on the radio. So,
Mr. Zuill, we say congratulations to you on your anni-versary tomorrow, July 6!
I would also like to extend congratulations and
a very, very happy birthday to Ms. Melvina Robinson of Devonshire, who celebrated her 90
th birthday, I believe
it was yesterday. So we say to you, Ms. Robinson, Congratulations on a life well lived!
Last but not least, Madam President, I want to
congratulate all of the graduates, all of our high school,
college graduates, nursery, right on up. But in particular
I would like to congratulate a young man. In 2017 the
Island was rocked and shocked when w e heard about
two children being abducted and taken overseas and to the Middle East. And an international search went out for these young people. It was in the newspaper at that
time. And they were eventually, after a search, they were eventually found and returned to Bermuda in
2019 right before the start of the pandemic.
So as you can imagine, the older of the two, he
became the caretaker for his younger brother during
that period. But he returned to Bermuda, and then they were shut down and he was engaged in remote learning. But I am happy to report that he, along with h is
family, they dared to believe that he could graduate with
his graduating class. So last week at the Berkeley Institute, he was able to graduate with his class after having to make up so much lost time over those years. And I would like to congratulate Mr. Azem Yazoglu for a job
well done and wish him every success in his future as
he continues to soar and become all that God has destined for him to be.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Rev. Dr. Emily Dill.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Senator De Couto, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam President.
Well, I guess I would like to associate myself
with many of the former comments, including condo-lences to the family of the Honourable Ottiwell Simmons.
I would also like to associate myself with the
congratulations for all of our athletes, especially the
Special Olympians, and the swimmers. There are too
many to list. I would like to add onto that two young Bermudians, PJ Rodrigues and Christian Ebbin, f inished five out of twenty -six at the United States Youth
Sailing Championship at the 29er class, which is a pretty challenging class. So, I want to congratulate
them.
And I also wanted to call out an organisation I
probably have mentioned here before, and many of you
may know it. It is called Bermuda Is Love. Often people
say, How can I get involved? How can I help to improve
the community? Where do I start? What this organisa-tion is great at is they are very active on social media.
You can almost always find them with a post of information saying how you can come and join in. You know, and they do everything from free legal clinics,
participating in feeding programmes, clothing drives or
even trash cleanups. And they will tell you where to go,
where to show up. And you can bring your energy, your
time and yourself, and you can help make the world a
little bit better. And I just want to congratulate them for their consis tent commitment and organisation to pitching in and making Bermuda better.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator De Couto.
Would any other Senator care to speak at this
time?
No. Hearing none, then I would just like to associate myself with the condolences that are extended
544 5 July 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate to the Honourable Ottiwell Simmons, to his family for
their loss. He certainly is a great loss to Bermuda. He
did so much for the labour movement and for Bermuda generally. And I got to know him also, my husband and
I, personally when he lived in the Warwick neighbour-hood.
I would also like to associate myself with all of
the comments that have been made for the Special Olympics. I had the opportunity of working with this
population for some time, and I was very pleased to
note that the Minister was able to travel with them and
to see the results that they achieved in representing
Bermuda.
Also to the swim coach, and certainly I want to
commend Opposition Leader Senator Ben Smith for all
of the work that he does with the swimming athletes.
And finally, I would just like to associate myself
with Robin Tucker’s comment on Carvel Van Putten because he grew up in our neighbourhood, so I knew him
from way back. And he was certainly a wonderful ambassador for Bermuda. And anybody who ever went into the hotel, you know, he would greet them warmly.
And he always remembered people, and he was well
liked by everyone who ever stayed in that hotel. So I
would just like to join you in your comments about him because he was a wonderful ambassador for Bermuda.
And for all that said now, we will move on.

ADJOURNMENT
The President: It is over to you, Minister Darrell, adjournment.

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, I do now ask that the Senate adjourn until Wednesday, July 19.

The President: Would any Senator care to speak on
adjournment?
I see all the hands raised. We will start with
Senator De Couto first of all. And I will then move on to Senator John Wight.

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO OUR POOR
ROAD CONDITIONS

Thank you, Madam President. As you know, we have not met in a few weeks so
we have had an opportunity for many key topics to accumulate. So I would like to touch on a few of them today.
Let me first talk about the roads, Madam President. On Sunday I was invited by several residents in
the Warwick area to visit with them and discuss the
condition of the roads, road safety. And I also did a little
tour of the neighbourhood to take a close look at some
of their concerns. Now of course I think everyone on the Island understands that the general condition of the roads is abysmal and unsafe. So some of the things that we talked about, Madam President, of course was
the common situation of the numerous potholes. I know
that the Minister was recently quoted as saying, You
will not see a dramatic improvement probably in a year. I do appreciate his straight talk. We definitely would
prefer that. But I am sure many people are disappointed
to hear this, but unfortunately not surprised. And,
Madam President, over the past six years, they —we
have learned not to expect much from the Government, unfortunately.
Madam President, the road markings. Again,
on my way to these meetings on Sunday I was surprised, but very pleased to see a new yellow line on the
road in Harbour Road near Salt Kettle. I think this appeared sometime in the past two weeks. Like I say, I
was glad to see this line appear. It has been a frequent
topic from residents in that area. In fact, I used to live
in that area, and that line was removed from the road, I
do not know how long, but I feel like at least two to three
years ago, maybe even fo ur, too many to count perhaps. So glad to see it.
Madam President, on the road safety topic, let
me talk about Ford Road on the western end. It is quite dangerous, the traffic there, and again a common topic
from the residents. It is dangerous for the pedestrians.
I do not know, I assume many of you are probably familiar with that part as it comes around the golf course.
And one side of the road is quite steep, and there is a
fence. That is what prevents pedestrians from falling off
of the side of the road. In one corner the road is starting
to collapse. There are some nice cones out there, but
there is a huge pothole and we can see what is going
to happen.
In many parts of the road the wooden railings
are broken or missing. Now, these railings are not go-ing to stop cars, but if you are a pedestrian trying to,
say, walk between the bus stop and your home or to
the Railroad Trail or what have you, this railin g is what
stops you from falling off of the embankment and into
the bushes. So from a pedestrian point of view, it is very
unsafe and very concerning for the neighbourhood.
You know, Madam President, speaking of the
bushes, pretty much throughout the area and around the Island, especially after the heat and the rain, but
throughout the year we have seen the foliage along the
roadsides and even along the curbs grown quite lar ge
and protruding quite far out into the side of the road.
And as you can appreciate, Madam President, that
makes it quite awkward for pedestrians and traffic on
our narrow roads, for vehicles to go past without being
in the other lane. And again so many area residents
have expressed their concerns to me about safety. And
I really wanted to bring that up in the Senate. It is a
number -one local topic.
Now, Madam President, to make it worse, most
of that unchecked foliage is Mexican Pepper, which I think as most of you all know here is a fast -growing and


Bermuda Senate highly invasive plant. And I bring this up because I personally have a strong dislike for this plant. We know
Senator Tucker’s dislike of feral chickens. That gives
you an idea of how I feel about Mexican Pepper. And
sometimes on the weekends when I have a little time, I
like to go around the house on what I call a Mexican
Pepper patrol by getting rid of it wherever I can see it.
As you know, it is tricky to eradicate, and it keeps com-ing back and you have to stay on top of it. Like the
roads. But at least it does not wake me up in the morning like the chickens.
So, Madam President, all of that Mexican Pepper reminds me of the empty lot on Reid Street, which was intended to be the Ottiwell Simmons Arbitration
Centre. And in fact, I believe the groundbreaking for
that project happened in July 2020 just about three
years ago from today. Unfortunately, that failed project now looks like it may be better thought of as the agricultural initiatives of the new Economic Development
Strategy. Perhaps a Mexican Pepper garden.
Madam President, as we in the Island have
been reflecting on the legacy of the Honourable Ottiwell Simmons over the past few weeks, I think we can all
agree that this is not a particularly good way to honour
his legacy.
But, Madam President, back to the roads. I had
a long meeting with one of the area residents who had been in touch with Government in the summer of 2019 about the numerous road safety issues in his area, not
just the ones I have mentioned but things around traffic
control and sidewalks and crosswalks, like ferry termi-nals and the ferry stops. And he had done his homework. He showed me a dossier. He had consulted with
all of the other neighbourhood watch groups and neigh-bourhood groups in his area and come up with many
good ideas to increase the safety in that area.
So he wrote to the Minister. And to be fair, and
again this was the summer of 2019. To be fair, the Minister did respond relatively promptly. I would like to
thank the Minister for that. But then, Madam President,
it was not until the summer of 2021 that anyone in the
Ministry actually looked at his letter and bothered to respond. Two years! Two years. How did we get here,
Madam President? Lack of money? Lack of staff? Lack of capability? Or simply lack of concern by the leadership of the conditions experi enced every day by the
people of Bermuda.
While we know that these issues are problems —

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Point of order, Madam
President. Point of order.
The President: Minister Darrell, what is your point of
order?

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: The Senator is misleading the House. There have been many Statements in this place. There have been many Bills and the like that
have been brought to this Senate Chamber that show
that the leadership and Government of this country are not neglecting the public. So I think the point of order
needs to be made, Madam President, that the Senator
is misleading the House by using terms like Someone
told me or I feel like when the evidence has been
shared and brought to this place time and time again
about the work that the Government is doing and the
leadership is doing for the people of Bermuda. Thank
you, Madam President.

The President: Senator De Couto, be mindful of —

Yes, Madam President, I
will. But you know, I do have the documents that show
that this gentleman’s concerns sat unacted on and unresponded on within the Ministry for two whole years.
So I can show those to you if you would like, Minister
Darrell. Two years. So that is why things like that lead
many people in Bermuda to feel like, despite the protestations of the Minister, and I am telling you that these
are things people tell me. So you can tell me I am not
telling the truth, bu t this is what I hear in person. They
do not feel that the Government and its leadership is
truly operating out of concern for the good of the people. And I appreciate the Minister has a different view
on that. But that is my view, and it is the view of the
people whom I speak with that has been expressed directly to me.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

So that is the roads,
Madam President. Let me turn now to the economic development of this country and the Government’s recent
Economic Development Strategy. And I know it was debated at length in some other venues, but I do have
some comments that I think are important to share
here, as that is my Shadow portfolio.
Madam President, let me start with the positives. It is good to see the Government finally acknowledging and showing that they understand the im-portance of international business [IB] to Bermuda,
Madam President. And conversely why Bermuda is important to international business. And this report, actually I would encourage those who may hear these comments or read about them later, to read the report. Because in fact it really lays out quite well what Bermuda’s
value proposition is and could be for internat ional business and vice versa. I mean, it is one factoid that we know, about a quarter of the Bermuda Government revenue comes from the payroll tax through the IB employees. This gives you an idea of how critical that industry
is for us.
So if we want to support that and keep it going,
we need the kind of reality -based understanding of how
546 5 July 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate that part of the economy works in all of its various
forms. It is not just insurance. And the report does a
good job of laying out the variety there, how it works in
Bermuda and why it works in Bermuda, why they are
here. And it is good to see that [viewpo int] rather than
to see the PLP Government using IB as a convenient
political whipping post.
Madam President, another very positive point
is that the very act of releasing this strategy by the Government is a way of their acknowledging the state of
Bermuda’s economy. That it does not seem to be what it is or could be. And we know that the first s tep to solve
a problem is to acknowledge that the problem exists.
Now, Madam President, if we look at the charts
in that document, they will say, Oh, look how the economy has grown! In fact, the charts are even labelled
Annual expansion of economy in five years. But if we
look at the same data, the total cumulative growth over
five years of the economy is only 1.7 per cent. That is
not per year; that is an aggregate, or total, over the five
years. And as we have discussed at length here in the Senate, it is even w orse than that because most of that
growth was driven by i nternational business. So I will
not get too [much] into the details, but we know that. And I have given you the facts and figures that your retailer, your restaurant, your small business is in fact
not experiencing that great of an experience.
And we also know by benchmarking against
other economies, while they have been able to bounce
back and continue to grow very well post COVID -19,
we are at best treading water, Madam President.
Madam President, as you know, treading water can be
very tirin g. And if you cannot keep it up, you drown.
That pressure, that stress, that is what the person on
the street in Bermuda is feeling if they are not lucky
enough to work in IB. And again, based on what my colleagues and I hear on the doorstep, most voters f eel,
despite the protestations, the Government is not doing
a good job. Despite all of the rhetoric, the day -to-day
lives of many people in Bermuda have not improved
materially.
So, Madam President, yet somehow even
faced with this cold, hard reality, there are numerous
PLP Government yes -men out there (yes -people, that
is) constantly begging for credit, constantly saying
things like, The people should be thankful! I am not a
psychologist, Madam President, but I think it must be
tough for our PLP Government representatives to
spend so much time asking for thanks and credit. That
indicates to me that they might not actually be that sure that they are doing a very good job.
But going back to the Economic Development
Strategy, Madam President. If indeed the Government had done as well as it says, why do we even need the
strategy? It begs the question.
Madam President, I will propose that most of
us now in Bermuda could be considered honorary res-idents of the State of Missouri in the United States. Now
some of you may know that this is referred to as the “Show me” state. This phrase is attributed to Missouri
Congressman Willard Vandiver, who in an 1899
speech said, “ I come from a state that raises corn and
cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy elo-quence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me. ” So, Madam President, on the behalf of everyone in Bermuda, I say to
the PLP Government, Stop talking. Stop asking for
credit. Start working. And show me.
Madam President, let us dig into the strategy a
little bit, and I am going to highlight four main areas of
concern. Number one, there do not seem to be any
timelines on any of the initiatives or any indication of
how they will truly get done. And based on the Government’s track record, it is understandable that many people will be sceptical. Second, once we get out of the
world of business, the plan is thin on the ground. The first two priorities around business get 33 pages. Local
entrepreneurship and small business gets two pages!
The existing Economic Recovery Plan gets two pages,
and people, the fifth priority, including immigration, gets
11 pages.

The President: Senator De Couto, I need to remind
you [that] you have just less than a minute.

I will end with an anecdote. Most of the plan is basically recycled stuff that the Government is asking for credit for. Early on in my ca-reer I had a convo with a boss, difficult situation. I said,
Look, man! I’m trying to help out here. He was a little
bit old school. I was sort of asking for credit from him.
He looked at me and he said, You’re not helping out.
You’re doing your job. For the interest of everyone in
Bermuda, I exhort this Government: Do your job. Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator De Couto.
I would like to remind Senators that in the adjournment you have 15 minutes, a maximum of 15
minutes.
Would any other Senator care to—
I think John Wight, you have indicated. Senator
John Wight, you have the floor.

CONCERNS REGARDING THE OFFICE OF THE
AUDITOR GENERAL’S REPORT

Sen. John Wight: Thank you, Madam President. I will
take far less than 15 minutes, as usual. Thank you.

[Laughter]



Bermuda Senate Sen. John Wight: Madam President, I just want to
speak on a couple of items referring to the announcements that were made today. The first one is on the
report on the implementation of recommendations from
selected government -related entities, which I read with
interest and with concern. As mentioned by the Auditor
General, Heather Thomas, in her report, the primary responsibility of the office is to assist the parliament in
holding the government to account for how it manages
and utilises assets and safeguards the scarce resources at its disposal. Heather Thomas is the Auditor General in Bermuda. I have the greatest respect for the
role and for Heather Thomas herself. And I think she
does an excellent job, as does her staff, often under
difficult circumstances.
The Auditor General is accountable to various
stakeholders in Bermuda, including the public. And it is largely from that stakeholder that I am voicing my remarks today.
Strong governance is important to every organisation whether it be private or public. In fact, I think it
is important that governments everywhere be a model
for strong governance as a model to all organisations.
The Office of the Auditor General has audi t responsibilities for 55 government organisations. The report that
Heather Thomas prepared last month referenced issues for these entities that hold assets entrusted to
them of $2.4 billion.
What concerned me most about the findings in
this report were twofold, Madam President: First, the number of entities with independent audits in arrears often with qualified or adverse audit opinions, which is
not good. Second, several of Ms. Thomas’s obs ervations were not being acted upon on a timely basis. So
approximately two- thirds of these entities have either
material or material and pervasive misstatements.
Also of concern to me were the number of
years that ministries had allowed these entities to go
without being audited. For example, Madam President,
the contributory pension fund has not had an audit
since March of 2012, and all audited opinions from
2005 to 2012 resulted in disclaimers that audit opinions—i.e., there is not enough information for the Auditor General to provide an opinion on for which $1.6 bil-lion are entrusted for the benefit of hardworking Bermudians to retire on.
Madam President, the contributory pension
fund is not the only entity going back 10- plus years. So
is the public service superannuation fund and the government employee health insurance fund. Several oth-ers are more than five years in arrears. And the Aud itor
General’s observations not being acted upon were
equally concerning to me.
None of what I am saying, which comes directly
from Ms. Thomas’s report, is meant to embarrass anybody, Madam President, but rather to highlight that as a country, whichever Government of the day is in
power, we cannot allow this to continue. Strong gover nance is the foundation for a well -respected jurisdiction. Bermuda is no different. Having raised this issue for the need for improved government governance, which I believe is essential if Bermuda wants to remain in the forefront of respected jurisdictions, is what needs to come
next. In conducting my research on what other Western countries have focused on to improve their governance, a common theme was a focus on accountability
and transparency. Some countries like Canada in 2003
even went as far as creating an independent commission to advise the government of the day as to what
rules and protocols needed to be put in place to im-prove their governance.
Whatever the action taken in Bermuda, one
thing is for certain, Madam President. We cannot turn a blind eye to this and do nothing and allow it to continue.

CONCERNS REGARDING THE BERMUDA
HOSPITALS BOARD ANNUAL REPORT

Sen. John Wight: So that was my first observation,
Madam President, about the Office of the Auditor Gen-eral’s report. The second is related to the Bermuda
Hospitals Board Annual Report. So today the Senate
received the Bermuda Hospitals Board Financial Statements for the y ear ended March 31, 2020. The Auditor
General, Heather Thomas, signed her audit report in
March 2022. Thus the annual report was ready for the
House and Senate to review a year ago and thus delayed one year. In addition, recently the Hospi tals
Board Financial Statements for the year ended
March 31, 2018, were presented. In reviewing these financial statements, I noticed that the Auditor General
signed her audit report in March of 2021. Thus they
were ready to be presented to the House and S enate
at that time.
So my concern is, why is there a delay of two
years bringing forward the annual reports? First, financial statements are of most use to Bermuda’s stakeholders when they are current. Second, the hospital’s
finances are of great interest to Bermudians. And finally, where is the annual report for the year ended
March 31, 2019? We have now received the prior year
and the following year, but not that particular year. I would ask again under the heading of improving governance protocols that annual reports are presented to
the House and the Senate on a timely basis. Thank
you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator John Wight.
Would any other Senator care to speak on the
motion to adjourn?
Senator Leslie Robinson, you have the floor.

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO OUR POOR
ROAD CONDITIONS
Sen. Leslie Robinson: Yes. Thank you, Madam President.
548 5 July 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate I am going to just speak on I think two of the
points that Mr. De Couto raised, and I guess I am saying this because I am the Junior Minister with respect
to two of his concerns, first being the roads and then of
course the economy. So I would like to speak to the roads situation.
And first, we all understand and as a government and even as just ordinary citizens, we all under-stand and know how terrible the roads are at this point.
What Mr. De Couto did not state or did not —

Can the Senator refer to
Senator De Couto or Dr. De Couto, please?

Sen. Leslie Robinson: Dr. Senator De Couto.

The President: Point taken.

Sen. Leslie Robinson: My apologies.
What Senator De Couto did not state or did not
put in context was the fact that we have had this very
unprecedented heavy rainfall. And so, yes, the roads
were not in that great of condition even prior to, but cer-tainly now given all of the rainfall that we have had, it
has certainly caused even more problems. And this Government is certainly and totally aware of that. It has only been in the last couple of weeks that we have not
had that much rain. We are still having rain, but not as
much. So persons from the Ministry can now go out and actually look and assess where the problems lie.
Now, I will say that I am glad Senator De Couto
actually raised these points because today the Ministry of Public Works has come out with a press release.
And, Madam President, I would like to read a bit of that
statement if you do not mind.
The President: Certainly you may, Senator Robinson.
Sen. Leslie Robinson: It says, “‘We appreciate the
public's patience and understanding as we continue our
work to address the pothole issues caused by the recent heavy rainfall ,’ said Minister of Public Works, Lt.
Col. the Hon. David A. Burch . . .
“The Minister thanks the public for their patience during this challenging period. Contrary to speculations, Minister Burch would like to clarify that the repair efforts have not been hampered by staff vacancies
within the Department of Works and Engineer ing.
“The main obstacle the Ministry faces had
been with the continued heavy rainfall, which occurred
during a short period. That continuous downpour re-sulted in an overwhelming number of potholes appearing all at once. “Minister Burch added: ‘I should note that the
repairs are not being delayed due to staff vacancies,
but rather with the sheer volume of potholes . . . .’” And
as I mentioned earlier or just a minute ago, we are as the Ministry assessing the state of the roads. “‘ This review will identify the state of all roads (public & private),
the cost of repairs/repaving, and . . .” (will identify additional funds that can be used to) “ increase the pace of
road paving planned for this year and next .”
So I want to say, Madam President, that this
Government is well on top of the situation given the fact
that we are only now a couple of weeks having gone,
you know, through the period of tremendous rainfall.
And that we have persons out there assessing the
roads. And as the Minister said, both public and private
roads.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
Sen. Leslie Robinson: Now, Madam President, I
would like to turn to a bit of what Senator De Couto said about the Economic Development Strategy [Bermuda]
2023 –2027. First, what I do find interesting, and Senator De Couto has every right to pick things apart. But what I find very int eresting is that, you know, in another
place when this was actually debated, broadly speak-ing the Members of his party supported broadly speak-ing the actual plan. And some even said, you know, it
appeared to be well thought out, et cetera. So I understand that Senator De Couto can pick apart things. But
I do find it interesting that in another place, it was
broadly agreed that the plan appeared to be relatively
acceptable.
Now, second, I would like to say he mentions
about there are no timetables, deadlines, et cetera.
This is a plan, and on the front of [the document] it does
state from year 2023 to year 2027. And so it is allowing
us the time as a government to be able to carry out the
necessary work that has to be done as laid out in the plan. But there is a deadline date. So I do not want us
to leave here thinking that there are no deadlines or no
dates. So as time goes on, you will hear more about the
strategy and the i nitiatives and the things that are being
brought out.
Now, Senator De Couto also mentioned about
the fact that as a Government , we do not necessarily
agree or think things are not great with the economy.
Earlier on, Madam President, I did mention about the
fact that we have had a global pandemic, supply chain shortages, the war, the recession as a result, high interest rates, so we recognise and understand that we
are, because we are part of this global society, that we
do have issues with our economy and that is why we
actually have an Economic Development S trategy.
Most municipalities and countries will have something similar. I think we have to commend our Government
for at least putting something together that has taken a while because when you look at the document, and
even though Senator De Couto might actually state and


Bermuda Senate feel that things are being regurgitated, I can say that
there was a lot of time and effort put into this document.
So, if it may mean that some things have been said before it is because of the consultation, the extensive consultation that was brought into the actual process.
Now, one of the things that I will state though,
you know, we talk about our economy —and I am going
to finish up because I realise that time is going by —but
I want to state that in spite of how we each, as a family,
as persons, may feel within this economy, we have rating agencies that have actually reaffirmed Bermuda’s
credit ratings. And what I want people to understand is
that international business, companies that are rated
themselves would not be here on this Island unless
Bermuda itself had a very hi gh stable rating. And I want
to just mention the recent rating that we had with Stand-ard & Poor’s. Standard and Poor’s is one of the leading agencies for rating countries and rating companies.
They reaffirmed our A+ rating and stable outlook. I think
this is important. They reaffirmed our A+ rating and stable outlook.
The [Standard & Poor’s] report states that, “Despite the economic recovery, we expect ,” yes, “ a fiscal
deficit in line with the government’s budget of 1% of
GDP this year. We assume that a combination of GDP growth, recovering revenues, and a commitment to fiscal consolidation will lead to decreasing fiscal deficits,
and will stabilize the government's net debt burden.”
This is from Standard & Poor’s.
The report added, “The ratings reflect Bermuda's strong institutional framework and prudent policy-making, prosperous economy, favourable external profile, good fiscal flexibility, moderate net general govern-ment debt burden, and limited monetary flexibility. ”
And so despite the constant doom- and-gloom
that we may feel —and we get a lot of this from whether
it be the newspaper, whether it be from other col-leagues from the other side, et cetera, we have to be
proud of the fact that we have a reaffirmed A+ rating
and stable outlook from Standard & Poor’s.
Madam President, I can tell you from my own
experience, I have had to sit in meetings with representatives from Standard & Poor’s and they do deep
dive. They ask questions and they want to see the re-ports, et cetera, to back up the answers that we are
saying. So it is not just about this Government telling
Standard & Poor’s what is going on, but they do a deep
dive. I want people, I want the public to know and understand that in spite of how we may be feeling individually, I can say that when there is a ra ting agency the
calibre of Standard & Poor’s reaffirming our A+ rating
and the fact that companies that are rated themselves
A+ and more, that they are here . . . it means that this
Government and this country is doing well. We are rising above those ashes and we will continue to press
on, and with the help of this Economic Development Strategy for Bermuda we will get to those days of great
prosperity, I am sure, that we experienced back in the
2000s, early 2000s. Thank you, Madam President .

The President: Thank you, Senator Leslie Robinson,
the Junior Minister for Economy and Labour.
Would any other Senator care to speak on the
motion to adjourn?
Senator Ben Smith, Opposition Leader [in the
Senate], you have the floor.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Madam President .
Madam President, we just listened to . . . the
Senator gave a speech regarding reports that show the state of the economy for Bermuda from a very specific
angle.
I do not want anyone to be confused. It is important that the international business portion of our
economy continues to be strong, continues to flourish
and continues to grow because at present that is what
is propping up everything that happens in our c ountry.
And to have that support and the level of report that comes out is an important factor.
But, Madam President, earlier today we heard
that $130,000 is a figure that (in Bermuda) you need
help when you are making that amount of money. In
most places in the world, $130,000 would be an astro-nomical amount of money. And in Bermuda, it is moving towards working poor. So this is not, as mentioned
over and over doom- and-gloom, it is the middle class
sliding down and now we are not having to just support
the group that has needed our support over an extended period of time, we are now starting to see an
increase in the people we are going to have to support.
The factors of global recession, the factors of
coming out of a pandemic are factors that every country in the world is having to deal with right now. And many
countries are having [to] put in plans with urgent effect.
They are changing things drastically because they
know that they need to draw population to their country,
they know that they need to get outside resources to
come to their country —and Bermuda is in that same
position, trying to vie for the same items. We need more people. We need more money from outside of the country to come in.
Madam President, Senator De Couto when he
was pointing out that there were many things in this
new planned strategy by the Government and as has
been mentioned, the Opposition is supportive of the
plan. The issue is implementation. This country is
known for making many reports and vetting many
plans. But, Madam President, many of those reports
and plans sit on a shelf and they never see the light of day. We are in a situation now that is becoming more
and more of an emergency because our citizens are
decid ing that they need to opt out of Bermuda because
they cannot survive being here. A young mother got a diagnosis of her child that meant that the medication
that was needed was going to cost $80,000 a year. It
550 5 July 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate meant that it would wipe out whatever money she
made. There was no possible way to survive in Bermuda . So the decision is that she had to move to the
UK. Not because she did not want to be in Bermuda ,
but because it is impossible to be here—that is a health
care issue. These are the realities that everyday people
in Bermuda are dealing with. People are making the
decision to leave their elderly loved ones at the hospital, not because they no longer love them, but they cannot afford to take care of them. We have to highlight
what is happening. Both sides have an understanding that this situation is past critical. We cannot gloss over
it by talking about the things that are happening to one
group at the top because the truth is that this group did
not feel a l ot of impact by COVID -19. They were making
lots of money throughout and continue to do so.
But as the middle class shrinks, because the
economy is not changing, we cannot afford to have a
plan that is not being implemented. So you have heard
the support of the Opposition. Everything that —there
are lots [of things] in that plan that are really good, but
we need to get active and we are willing to help to get
the implementation to happen. But it cannot be just lipservice. It cannot just be these are the things that we
think we are going to do or that are a great idea or that
we think people will think are a great idea, but we are
not going to actually get them done. Because immigration reform, since 2017 to now, has moved the needle very little. And now we are seeing that it is a very important part of this plan. But if we are going to move at
the pace that we have been moving up until this point, very little will cha nge. And we will keep having these
conversations over and over again as more of our citi-zens leave to go to another country which then means that there are [fewer] people to pay the bi ll that is being
left behind.

TOURISM FOR BERMUDA
Sen. Ben Smith: Madam President, since the last time
we were here, I have travelled quite a bit representing Bermuda and this was going to be my speech for today.
The first trip I took was to the Bahamas for our team to participate in the Bahamas Nationals, and I just wanted to highlight that the reception that was given when we
arrived in Bahamas, to me, was just an indication of the
welcome and how we, as a country, are going to have
to go back to how welcoming we were as a people. It
was the people of Be rmuda that made visitors want to
return. It was how open we were for bringing people
into our country that made people say, Bermuda’s got
the most friendly people in the world and that is why I
want to go back and participate in their country . I am
not sure that we are able to be as happy and friendly
because we are starting to have to have our head down
to work extremely hard for less money with a more ex-pensive economy. And then the last night, we took a
visit to the facility in the Bahamas, I think it is called the Baha Mar. It is an unbelievable facility. It just gives you an idea of what we are competing against. It is —
An Hon. Senator : Concessions.

Sen. Ben Smith: They might be concessions, but I tell
you what, this is a giant facility that has more restaurants than we might have on the Island. It was amazing
to see.
But what I wanted to point out was that, on the
main floor, is a casino and there were not a lot of people in that casino. We, as a country, cannot —and I know
that it has been pointed out before that the casino gaming in Bermuda will never be a silver bullet. The truth is
that Bermuda is so far behind when it comes to gaming
that we have actually missed the boat and now we are
seeing that in other jurisdictions it really is not having the impact that most people thought it was going to
have. And I just thought it was important that I pointed
out seeing that this amazing facility that they have in
the Bahamas, which is actually quite separate from the
rest of the Island and the level of over -the-top living that
happens in those facilities is quite different from the
way that the rest of the people in the Bahamas are living and the reality that they are seeing. We have to be
careful that as we highlight that, we do not end up in
the same situation where more and more of our citizens are not actually able to participate in the lifestyle that is
being provided for some portions of our population.
Talking about travel —I know that most of the
country was upset when we did not have a Boston flight for quite some time and there has now been some
changes in the Canada flights. And presently we have an issue where the Miami flight is not happening, at
least for this summer, but I am not sure how far that will
extend. Taking teams away, not having that Miami flight
had a huge impact that I am not sure that I fully realised until we went through the travel process. You had to
take a team to New York. You h ave to spend the night
in New York before you go to your next destination in
order to get to your final destination because the flights
do not line up. The cost of rooming on the way out and
then on the way back [because] you have to stay in a
hotel again, so you have added two nights of hotel just
to travel. Bermudians love to travel but knowing that our
dollar is not going as far as it used to, adding that cost
is going to have a significant impact on locals and I
think it is important that we push the Go vernment to do
everything they can to start to get our airlift back to
where it should be, and then so that we can start to increase our airlift because our competitors to the south
have figured this out. Coming out of the pandemic they
were able to increase their airlift to multiple cities while
we seem to be moving in the wrong direction, losing
flights which is now costing us more as citizens to be
able to travel, but it also gives [fewer] options for people
to be able to come to Bermuda . I think it is i mportant
that we do everything that we can— and if the Opposition needs to give support towards this, then we will


Bermuda Senate gladly do so. But I think it is important as a country that
we figure out this airlift situation.
I understand that on one hand, this will be completely blamed on the Fairmont project, but that cannot
be the only reason that we have been losing flights be-cause we were losing flights before this and the issue
is that airlift number is also having an im pact on what is
happening at the airport, which then we get to hear the
continued cry of revenue guarantees when it comes to
the airport. But all these things are connected. Let us
have the Government really push for us to get an increase in the airlift so that we can get more people to
the country, [with] more money circulating through our
economy.
Finally, Madam President, I think it is critical for
us to focus on the implementation of a plan. Bermuda
cannot wait until 2027. Some of these things need to
be dealt with immediately and having more meetings
and more committees for us to get to a result two years
from now, three years from now, will not work. We are
imploring the Government . Let us get moving, get to
work to get this stuff done. It has taken a long time to
get to the point of having a plan. We cannot now have
that plan sit on a shelf.
Thank you, Madam President .

The President: Thank you, Senator Ben Smith, Opposition Leader [in the Senate].
Would any other Senator care to speak on the
motion to adjourn?
Senator Dill, did you want to speak? No? Oh,
sorry. Then it is over to you Minister Darrell.

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO OUR POOR
ROAD CONDITIONS

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President .
Madam President, while it was difficult to sit
here and listen to a lot of the fictional I heards and I
think reports that came from the first speaker from the
One Bermuda Alliance, I would implore him to sit down
with the Senate Leader of the One Bermuda Alliance
because I can guarantee that I have looked, I have read
and I have discussed with many people that there was
no one, Senator Smith, no political party, Senator
Smith, that generated more white papers, more green
papers, any other colour papers that you want to talk
about, than the One Bermuda Alliance. And I know you
will try to separate yourself from that party, but you do have a colleague that sits behind you who will have
much history about that party that can tell you about
papers written by that party that sat on shelves and
went absolutely nowher e. Put that aside.
We talked about issues with the roads and yes,
Madam President, as an individual that is well -connected with the community, and I go up and down and
everyone sees it. Yes, there are challenges on our roads and some of that is due to works that we are do-ing to improve the infrastructure in this country and we
have laid out that plan many years ago. We tried to set
expectations as to . . . sometimes things get a little difficult before they get better. W e have laid out press releases saying that, you know, i t has gotten to [these
bad] levels because of the rain, but we will talk about another plan which Senator Smith likes to talk about
which sits on shelves. And that is infrastructure plans
and how when the One Bermuda Alliance came into
power they were given plans of how to improve infrastructure in this country and how much money it would
cost. I have said this before, Madam President, that the
One Bermuda Alliance took those plans, put them on
shelves and decided to invest in a boat race, an airport
and a failed Morgan’s Point project.
Madam President, when we talk about infrastructure that is failing, that does not happen overnight.
Just like success does not come overnight, and you
have heard that one before, Madam President , problems do not arise overnight. That is not the topic of my motion to adjourn today, Madam President, but I
wanted to start there and just ask the Senator from the
One Bermuda Alliance and the Senator also from the
One Bermuda Alliance who has direct connections with
the United Bermuda Party to sit down and reflect on
what has not been done in the past that may have put
us in the situations that we find ourselves. So, while it
is great, and he would like to—“he” meaning the Senator on the other side—would like to fancy himself as
some great politician, I am sure t hose listening could
see right through the politics and see how he only spoke about roads on Ord Road, but there are roads that may be in his colleague’s area where she walks
quite a bit that are far worse than that, but he does not
know about those becaus e he does not go to those areas which makes me believe that —

The Senator does not
know where I go and do not go, Madam President . I
suggest that he stays away from that topic.
Thank you, Madam President .

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Suggests .
The President: Minister Darrell, continue.

EDUCATION AND EDUCATION REFORM
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam President, thank
you.
552 5 July 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Madam President, but the subject of my remarks today on the motion to adjourn are a very serious
subject. And it comes in the context, Madam President,
of in the past week I attended the two graduations of the two public senior schools on our Island. It also comes with the context, Madam President, of a lovely
12-year-old who lives with me named Tatum and a vibrant six -year-old who lives with me named Oliver . And
I will get to them in a moment.
But as I attended the graduations last week,
Madam President, of these two senior high schools and
as I do speak for education in this place, I felt it was
necessary to come here, not focus on the doom- andgloom and the dark -cloud approach of some other Senators and speak directly to something that is on the
hearts of every single Bermudian in this country. Something that was at the very top of the Progressive Labour
Party’s platform in 2017 as well as 2020.
Madam President, there will be no surprise as
an educator of 15 years, son of an educator of almost 40 years (who also taught and was in this place), that the topic of education and education reform, a father
who has two children in the education system—this
topic, Madam President, is important. And as I attended
these two graduations last week, Madam President,
there was a consistent theme, whether it be with the
graduating classes or with the young people that were
speakers at these graduations. That theme, Madam
President, was Embracing Change. Shout out to principal Kenneth Caesar of CedarBridge Academy, who re-minded us that the CedarBridge motto for the 2023 Class was Change. And he talked about having to
choose a new growth experience which was adopted for young people, the faculty and the school alike. In his wisdom and his vision, CedarBridge decided to get Mr.
Darren Trott who was a [graduate of the] Class of [2013] as the ir guest speaker and he summed it up perfectly, Madam President , by saying, “ The moment you
stay within your comfort zone, you are choosing not to change .”
Madam President, he said, last week Friday,
“It’s important to get out of your comfort zone,” to
change “and . . . challenge yourself . . .” for growth. Remember the topic of this motion to adjourn, Madam
President, is education and education reform. Why
should we listen to Mr. Trott? Mr. Trott was one of the
first students to receive the Ministry of Education’s exceptionality scholarships. Specifically for students with
disabilities —and before I hear chirping from t he other
side, yes, that may have been a plan that came from
another Government but was put on a shelf, Madam
President . The PLP funded this scholarship, Madam
President . I am happy to report, as he said at the graduation, that Mr. Trott is now employed at a local company in Bermuda and thriving well.
At the graduation ceremony at the Berkeley Institute, my alma mater, Principal Ms. Keisha Douglas reminded everyone, as all Berkeleyites do, that you
must keep the end in view, respice finem. The Berkeley Institute guest speaker, another former student of mine
Mr. Calon Minors, a former Bermuda National Football
team player reminded us that transition is a time period
where we change from one state to another. Those
transitions, Madam President, are challenging but we
must embrace them. Without transitions , Madam President, and you can say it with me, There will be no
growth.
So while I had this enlightening experience and
left these graduation ceremonies feeling charged and energised, I have to speak about the disconnect ––and
the Minister of Education is working hard with the teams
and the educators to layout this plan. And I wonder how
is it that individuals on the frontline of our education
system, my former colleagues and leaders, and those
who have the most to benefit from the reform, have embraced this change. But there is a silent majority who like to get a little wild e very once in a while and they
want to hold our current education system in place. We
must be honest with ourselves, Madam President, and
ask, Who will benefit from that approach of leaving
things the way they are?
My colleague, the Minister of Education has
made several statements in another place and in the
media [to say] that unfortunately, Madam President, to
be honest, the current system does not serve our chil-dren well. Less than 50 per cent of our children —that is
my children, Madam President —are not achieving the
expected standard at the various checkpoints. We have
known this for a long time. The basis of a thriving economy and a country is its education system. If we do not
reform public education, Madam Pr esident, we are condemning more young people to be unemployed and to
seek opportunities, like the Senator said, off Island and
will likely increase the inequalities in this country along
the lines of racial divide and as you have heard before,
encouraging Two Bermuda s. I do not want to imagine
the increased unemployment that could come with that,
the increased inequalities, the increased rise in antisocial behaviour and social tension.
Let us cast our minds forward. But in order to
do that we must confront the reality that we must embrace change. I look across the data of the graduation
ceremonies that I attended last week. There were
10 per cent, Madam President, 10 per cent of that graduating class that had a GPA of 3.0 or higher. If we look
across the pond, that is the average of high school
graduates. And some of us think that we should just
return to the education system as it was before COVID -
19 and kind of s nap back to the system the way it was —
and it is not a slight on educators. But as I attend an-other place every Tuesday and accept collective responsibility, I am asking our community, the Opposition, everyone to embrace the change in our system. It
does not help when the One Bermuda Alliance has
Members who sit in another place that get up and just make opinion pieces about dangling carrots —literally
used the terms clouds of uncertainty and that voices
are not being heard. I can tell you this that my colleague


Bermuda Senate is going up and down this country. He is listening to educators, listening to community stakeholders, listening
to students in the system. I have a challenge today [to]
everyone listening, Madam President, I have a challenge to those who only seek to cast clouds of uncertainty on education reform. Here is my challenge: support our children, Madam President, and get involved.
If you want a world- class curriculum that is relevant for
our children, for Bermuda and globally, get involved,
Madam President . If yo u want a model of teaching and
learning that incorporates authentic real -world learning
experiences, meaningful projects, attentive and differ-ing needs of each and every child, get involved, Madam
President . If you want assessments that demonstrate
what your child has done, what they can do and what
they have learned, Madam President, get involved. If
you want new graduation requirements that insure that
children leave with a Bermuda Signature School diploma and have the necessary skills, knowledge, values and relationships to take up apprenticeships of
their chosen profession, trades and contribute to the requirements for entry into college and universities, get
involved, Madam President . If you want to support the
development of inclusive and culturally responsive systems, policies, procedures and frameworks that will support and sustain 21
st century learning, including
buildings, funding, workforce developments and ac-countability, get involved.
Final one, Madam President, if you want an education authority that will take full responsibility for public education, thereby minimising the politics of public
education, Madam President, we need to embrace
change and get involved.
The President: Minister Darrell, you have seconds left.

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you very much.
And as I close, Madam President, I hope that this is the
headliner in the media tomorrow. I hope that this challenge is one that shows the Progressive Labour Party
has not been sitting here for six years and doing nothing. I am standing here today in this place to make my
commitment to t he reform of public education well
known, Madam President . I am asking you. I am imploring you. I am imploring those on the other side to stand with me: embrace change, support this, get involved becaus e our country depends on it.
Thank you, Madam President .

The President: Thank you, Minister Darrell.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

SENATE VISITORS
The President: As you are the last speaker, before we
depart, I just want to acknowledge the presence of Peter and Patricia who are sitting in the Gallery. They are
visitors from Toronto and they have been here from the outset of this meeting. Thank you both for your pres-ence here in the Senate. We wish [that] the rest of your
stay, that it is wonderful. At least the weather has improved somewhat, except for today, but enjoy the rest
of your stay and thank you for being here this morning.

[Conclusion of motion to adjourn]

The President: Senators, we are adjourned now until
19 July and thank you for your participation today.
The Senate stands adjourned.

[At 12:33 pm, the Senate stood adjourned until
10:00 am, Wednesday, 19 July 2023.]

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