June 30, 2023

Give me one moment just to reset our
clock here.
Mr. Premier, you have your three minutes.

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and
good morning.
Mr. Speaker, earlier today we opened up our
session of the House of Assembly in a moment of silence to the late Member of this Chamber, the late Gov-ernment Whip in this Chamber, former Bermuda Industrial Union President, Mr. Ottiwell Simmons, JP, affectionately known by all as “Ottie.” Of course, Mr.
Speaker, I am sure there will be other Members who
will speak to this. But I would certainly like to associate
the entire House with the condolences.
As we know, Mr. Ottiwell Simmons was a
revered person inside of our community, and the send-off that we all attended on Sunday past is a testament
to the place of which he held in Bermuda’s hearts. We lost a lion of the modern labour movement who chal-lenged a system riddled with privileges for the few and of course made sure to stand up proud for workers to make sure that they would no longer be working in disadvantaged conditions. And more than the dignity in
work, Mr. Simmons demanded dignity in work and dignity from work.
There were many speeches that were given,
Mr. Speaker, at his send off. And many persons spoke
to the impact which he had on the lives and psyche of
Bermuda. But it should be known and remembered that if it were not for his passionate work, for his fearless
advocacy, for his willingness to stand up and to make
sure to lead the Bermuda Industrial Union during very turbulent times, [we would not have] many of the privileges that we take today for granted that came about
which were enshrined in law in the Employment Act of 2000, after the Progressive Labour Party were elected,
for union members they enjoyed many of those benefits
for many years prior due to his work and his advocacy. And now those belong to all persons.
So, Mr. Speaker, as I said I would like to associate all Members of this Honourable House with that
note of condolence. And I would ask that this Honourable House do send a letter to his family acknowledging
these statements in the Honourable House today, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, what I would also like to do is to
ask the Honourable House to also send a letter of congratulations and thanks to Dr. Phyllis Curtis -Tweed,
who will retire at the end of July following an esteemed
career as a leader in Bermuda’s Public Education System. And I will happily associate the whole House.
After gaining her higher education, including a
Ph.D. and years of experience in the United States, Dr.
Curtis -Tweed returned to Bermuda to take up the post
of Berkeley Institute Principal, her alma mater, in 2014.
And in 2017 she joined the Bermuda College as Vice
President of Academic and Student Affairs.

[Timer chimes]

Yes, Mr. Speaker.
I just would like to take this opportunity to be
associated with the condolences to the family of the late
Mr. Ottiwell Simmons, and indeed to the Bermuda Industrial Union family, and also the Progressive Labour
Party family, who all mourn his passing, an d his many
friends.
Mr. Speaker, I have known Mr. Simmons for
many, many years. And my first formal acquaintance
with the Simmons family, his family came attending the
Berkeley Institute when I was the recipient of some licks
for being seen frontstage at the protest in 1970 at
school sports when we protested the school sports.
And the first year my father, who was a police officer at
the time, looked through that photo and could not help
but see me front and centre there protesting, which was
led by Ot tiwell Simmons, Jr., an upperclassman of mine
at the Berkeley Institute.
But, Mr. Speaker, the one thing that I could always say even though it was for many years that I sat
opposite Brother Ottiwell on the Government benches
and from a position of party affiliation, I could say I always admired his zeal and passion. And I can remember the one thing he always prefaced what he said, I
speak on behalf of workers. And I understand that fully, that when you speak and you are standing up on behalf
of those whom you represent, you stand from a position
of complete strength.
And certainly, his life story is one in which he is
very revered today, so much across the board. But that was not the story of his life. I think the Honourable
Member, the Deputy Speaker, put it best in his historical recollection at his funeral the type of life that h e
would have had to have led, being villainised for being
a person who represented his workers and also workers who were non- unionised. Because one thing that I
could never deny is that when I came back to Bermuda
and came and worked as a quasi -government employee, the wages were starting to really escalate in
Bermuda across the board. And many non- unionised
workers enjoyed the fruits of the labours of those who were on the front line in the 1960s and the 1970s. The
tide rose for everybody, Mr. Speaker.

[Timer chimes]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I too would like to be associated with the condolences for Ottiwell Simmons. Not only was he a great unionist, a great —I would call him a freedom fighter. He
was a gentleman and most importantly, I can call him friend. I was a part of a special group of persons who used to go out to lunch, and I felt very honoured that
they accepted me as an honorary member, being the
only female —being the only female accepted to that
group. And I can say, having sat with all of those soldiers, having sat with them I was made privy to a lot of
history as it relates to the PLP. I was made privy to the way in which they strategised. And I learned some valuable lessons from them. I will greatly miss Ottie, and I
send condolences to his family. And may he rest in
peace.
On another note, Mr. Speaker, I would like to
give congratulatory remarks to the graduating class of
the great Berkeley Institute. I have a bias because my
grandson, my second eldest grandson was one of the graduates. It was heartwarming to see so many young
people graduate. Ninety -eight per cent of their class
graduated. You do not see figures like that all over the
world. You do not see a percentage rate like that. I
would like to associate MP Swan.

[Inaudible interjection]

Yes, and he is correct. I had a
great -niece who also graduated from the Class of 2023.
What stands out is the many scholarships that
so many of our young Berkeleyites were able to secure.
Of course, there were many scholarships offered. But
of course, many of them can only take the scholarship
at the institution that they intend on attending. But
nonetheless, it speaks to the scholastic ability of those
students to be able to secure scholarships that amount to over and above the tune of $1 million in t otal. And
that speaks volumes in terms of what the Berkeley con-tinues to do for those young people who walk through their doors. And, Mr. Speaker, once again, congratulations to them.

[Timer chimes]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.


Bermuda House of Assembly Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “ We must use
time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always
ripe to do right .” And that quote applies perfectly to the
late Member, the Honourable Ottiwell Simmons. I had
the good fortune to meet him very early in life. And it
was interesting because my father served in Parliament
with him, and he used to always say, This was the
greatest Premier that Bermuda never had . And I knew
Mr. Simmons, and I respected him. But he never really
explained to me what that meant.
And it was not until I reached adulthood and
began my political career and had the opportunity to interact with him where I understood what that meant.
Because at the core was the passion to do right and
see right done by Bermudians. But there was also the
willingness to take people with him, to understand the
direction to get justice for others. He was a person who not just opposed and not just pushed, but he also tried
to understand those he opposed and those he pushed
against. He had a level of compassi on not just for those
he fought for, but he also attempted to build bridges and
understanding with those he fought against.
There is a . . . it is a very special quality to him.
He spent a lot of time mentoring many young MPs in the party and many aspiring MPs. There is a level of
greatness and a level of humility and a level of vision
that few have displayed, and few can possess. And we
can all learn a lot from Brother Ottiwell Simmons.
I am truly grateful to him for all that he and the
Members of the Bermuda Industrial Union did to move Bermuda forward. And I am thankful to his family for
allowing us to share his precious time on earth as he
fought for the people. Thank you, Mr. Speaker .

Thank you, MP Simmons.
Deputy Premier, would you like to have your
three minutes?

Hon. Walter H. Roban: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to be associated with the remarks
of the perhaps less condolence, but celebration of the
life of Ottiwell Askew Simmons. As the Member who
followed him in Pembroke East, I always felt a special sort of duty to emulate the impact that he gave to the
constituents of that area. He served for over 20 years as the MP for that area. And there was not a household
that I [visited] that did not have warm and heartfelt gratitude and affection for him in the area of Pembroke
East.
He was one of many other esteemed Members
who served as representatives for Pembroke East, and
he certainly represented a high calibre of leadership
that was given to the community during that era and set
a standard of leadership for all of us to follow, whether
it be as a parliamentarian or certainly as a leader of the
Bermuda Industrial Union, and I would argue the most impactful modern union leader that this country has
ever had. So, we should all have gratitude for his service
in this House, but also the service that he gave to our
country. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you.
Opposition Leader, would you like to have your
three minutes?
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to also associate myself in regard to the comments made to the Honourable Ottiwell Simmons. To me he was a genuine hero. Mr.
Speaker, as you may remember, earlier this year the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast recognised a number of people, and Ottie was one of those persons. And at
that luncheon a tribute was read by Ms. Ronnie Burgess of the union. I was so moved by the tribute, Mr.
Speaker, that I said that I was going to nominate him to
be a National Hero. And so the next day I called Ronnie
and asked her for a copy of her speech so that I could begin the process. And so I began the process of making him a National Hero.
But a week later the BIU called me on behalf of
Ronnie, and she said, Mr. Simons, given his service to
the union, can we nominate him for a National Hero
award? And I said, Of course, of course. So I relented
and passed the baton on to them. But be that as it may, we have changed our hero status criteria. And our friend Mr. Ottiwell Simmons would not be able to
achieve a National Hero status during his lifetime. But
he indeed is a genuine hero to most of Bermuda.
As you know, he was relentless, persistent, determined, skilful, and yet kind and gentle. As you know,
he was responsible for providing rights to labour work-ers, working- class people. They got holidays as a result
of him. They got maternity leave benefits because of
him. And the list goes on. And so again I will go on rec-ord as saying we in the Opposition have considered making him a National Hero, and we were working with
the union to make sure that it happened. But unfortunately, he passed before it happ ened.
I met him personally when I was Whip. He was
Whip under the PLP, and I was a Whip under another
party. And we had so many talks. And the labour persona was not the person whom I met, because I knew of Ottie from his labour movement activities. But when
I met him, I found that he was the kindest gentleman.

[Timer chimes]

Thank you, Honourable Member.
Does any other Honourable Member wish to
make a contribution at this time?
Minister Furbert, you have your three minutes.

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would just like to also be associated with the remarks in regard to Honourable Member and Brother Ottie. I did have the opportunity to
1584 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly serve with Brother Ottie on the Parliamentary Prayer
Breakfast Committee. And just like MP Lovitta Foggo spoke to her experience, I could also speak to the sim-ilar experience in regard to the meetings and how important and vital the members, particularly of the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast, knew that getting together
in a social context to have meetings and discuss and
communicate was vital to the success of any relation-ship. And Brother Ottie always brought his smiles and
jokes and advice as it related t o politics. And so I am
very grateful for the opportunity that I did get to spend
with the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast group and particularly Brother Ottie. So I was just wanting to share
my condolences to his family.
I also want to take the opportunity to congratulate all of the graduates, Mr. Speaker. This is a time of
graduations across our public and private school sys-tems where we see lots of persons transitioning to new
levels. Particularly for Bermuda as persons transition
into signature schools, persons transitioning into parish
schools, persons transitioning to Bermuda College, into the employment sector and also overseas institutions.
So wanting to take this opportunity. I did have the opportunity to attend th e graduation of Gilbert Institute,
where I was a guest speaker. I am an alumna of Gilbert
Institute and St. David’s Primary, and also the Berkeley
Institute, where I can declare my interest —my son
graduated from the Berkeley Institute.

[Desk thumping]

Hon. Tinee Furbert: So just a big congratulations to all
of the graduates in Bermuda.
And I do want to also take this opportunity to
congratulate all of the Special Olympians. I will associate the whole House in regard to the Special Olympians.

The whole House, yes, yes.

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Mr. Speaker, I just want to share
that sport is the only area in which we can evaluate visually someone’s skill. Any other sort of subject, you
would have to have an intimate look in regard to someone’s skill area. So, it is an area which we can relate to
in great detail.
[Timer chimes]

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Just a big congratulations to
them.

Does any other Member wish to make a
contribution? Minister Campbell, you have your three
minutes.

Hon. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the
Hamilton Princess on the successful completion and
unveiling of their Business Meeting Centre. This happened yesterday. It is a fresh, flexible and first -class facility, and it is a great addition to the hospi tality offering.
I want to thank Mr. Tim Morrison, the General Manager; his assistant, Roydell Neverson; their staff; the Green family for their continued investment and reinvestment
in the Princess facility; and also, the contractor, D&J,
on excellent work. This is important because it re- invigorates and brings our product up to par with what is to
be found in other jurisdictions. So once again I would
like congratulatory remarks to be sent to the Hamilton Princess on their successful unveiling of their Business
Meeting Centre. Thank you.

First of all, I would like to be associated with the comments for Brother Ottiwell Simmons. I know that some of the benefits that we enjoy today
are because of his hard work and determination, and in most cases his sacrifice.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to send congratulatory wishes to the 2023 Dame Jennifer Smith Future Leader Award winners. We celebrated our awards cer-emony this year. This was our 17
th year. And it is
awarded to students in St. George’s who have demonstrated leadership skills at an early age. And from East
End Primary we had Zio Coddington and Shiloh Mellow; from St. George’s Preparatory School we had
Kenzi Denbrook and Cruise Simons, so we had two boys, which is a bit different. From St. David’s Primary
we also had Christian Fox and Adahja Brian, two boys
again. And for Clearwater Middle School we had Tyree Fox and Alexis Harvey.
What also made the ceremony special, Mr.
Speaker, was that the speaker for the event was Maxi-milian Santiago. And he is a young man who spoke
about, Talk more about what you can do versus what
you can’t do. And he is a first -year student at Purdue
University, and he is studying meteorology and aviation
management. But he was a 2015 recipient of the exact
same award. So what we are seeing is that the persons
who have received the award are now coming back or
entering university. In some cases, some have act ually


Bermuda House of Assembly finished university and even in terms of this ceremony
are giving back.
I would also like to extend congratulations to a
young woman by the name of Courtney Jeffers. She
happens to be the daughter of Antoinette and Charles
Jeffers II. She entered yesterday Morehouse Medical
School, something that I am sure most of us know
would be a prestigious step that she takes. And we pray for her as she goes on her journey. I would also associate MP Tyrrell with that.
And also, congratulations to the graduates of
East End Primary St. George’s Prep School, but [also]
all of the graduates on the Island. There have been
many graduations. And there has been much to celebrate, Mr. Speaker. So on that note, thank you very
much.

Good morning, Mr. Speaker
and colleagues and the people of Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, I start off on a good note. As MP
Foggo said, Berkeley had their graduation, and 98 per
cent of the S4 class graduated. Only two males were
not yet successful. So, we want to congratulate our
alma mater.
I want to speak particularly of two young men
from Devonshire, Am in Robinson and Roziah Garland.
They both exceled. One exceled in getting multiple scholarships; one exceled at the point that it was kind
of sketchy whether he would graduate. But he applied
himself throughout the year and walked away not just
with his diploma, but the Principal’s Cup for perseverance, which speaks to what we need to do as people,
stand by our y oung men even when they need help.
Mr. Speaker, on a sad note I would like to bring
to the House and the people of Bermuda the passing of
the former Prime Minister of Barbados, Lloyd Erskine
Sandiford, who passed last week. And also, the former
Governor General of St. Kitts and Nevis, Governor
General [Sir Samuel Weymouth] Tapley Seaton. He
passed yesterday. They both did their part to bring the
Caribbean away from colonialism to where we are now.
Joining the chorus of platitudes for Uncle Ottie,
a lot of people know what he did for the country and the unions. But some of us in this House, probably [Hon-ourable Member] Derrick [Burgess] especially know him, the man. And he took me under his wing years
ago. But there are two things that stand out in my mind,
Mr. Speaker. Number one, he told me, As politicians
you stay with the people. And the people will stay with
you. Do not detach yourself from the people. And what
is more applicable to those of us from [Back o’] Town,
we used to be looked down upon, Mr. Speaker. And he
said, Even when they look down upon us, we have to
raise each other up. And that is what he did not just for people from Back o’ Town, but as MP Swan said, he
raised up the Black middle class of this Island. And for that we shall be eternally grateful. And without even an
official thing, he is our hero. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

First of all, I would like
to associate myself with the remarks that were made in
regard to Ottie Simmons. I have known Ottie for 40- plus
years as a very good friend of my late husband, Frederick Wade. I used to sit and listen as they were at the
house wit h their kitchen cabinet . I learned much. I never
envisioned that I would be coming into politics. But I
certainly benefited from those opportunities. Ottie may
have been small in stature, but he was a giant among men. So thank you, Fearless Leader Ottie Si mmons.
I would also like to take this opportunity to extend congratulations to the graduates. But without the counsellors, without the teachers and without the education officers, they would not have been so successful. So, I would like to congratulate all of those individuals who are actually retiring at this point, and there are quite a few of them.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to congratulate
all of the individuals who got scholarships and awards
this year. And on behalf of all of those people, including
my daughter, I would like to thank the clubs, the organisations, the businesses and Government for providing
scholarships for our children. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, MP.
Minister Weeks, you have your three minutes.

Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Good morning, Mr. Speaker,
and thank you for giving me the opportunity.
Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by associating
myself with the condolences for Brother Ottie Simmons. I do not know where to start. Most people have touched on the greatness and the impact that he has
made. Before there were single- seat constituencies,
there were dual seats. And it was Brother Ottie and
Brother Nelson Bascome in Pembroke East and Pembroke East Central. And when they split up, our Deputy
Leader followed on and took the seat of Brother Ottie Simmons, and I had the honour of following on wit h
Brother Nelson Bascome.
It does not dawn on me that these giants of
men laid the foundation for men like myself in Pem1586 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly broke when we walk around and greet people and people greet us. And things may appear to be easy, but they are not because of men like Brother Ottie and— I
see my counterpart in Pembroke East smiling. Brother
Ottie and Brother Nelson laid the groundwork for us.
When I became the MP, Brother Ottie summoned me to his house. And I say “summoned me” because when he sent a message to my mama that did not give me a choice, and I had to come and sit with
him. You know? So, he told me about the struggle. He
told me about himself. He told me about Brother Nelson, told me some things about Brother Nelson. I did
not know about how intricate and together they were in
dealing with the struggles of our people.
And every now and then he would have me
come and talk to him. And he would guide and sometimes cajole. But most times it was always a kind word, you know, just to keep me going. So he is going to be
definitely sorely missed, Mr. Speaker.
But before I take my seat, Mr. Speaker, I want
to bring congratulations to the Principal, Ms. Kennelyn
Smith, of Victor Scott Primary School. This past Monday she had a special assembly for her community
partners. She honoured us. I was one of them. Victor
Scott is in my constituency. There were people like Big
Brothers and Big Sisters, even like church, Fish and
Tings.
But I am really, really wanting to highlight the
involvement of the BPS [Bermuda Police Service]. Inspector Karema Flood, Inspector Derrick Golding, Sergeant Raoul Ming, Sergeant Shawnta Edmonson and
PC Kimberley Spring. Mr. Speaker, these officers make
time for the students at Victor Scott almost every single
day. And I just want to congratulate them in my three
minutes, Mr. Speaker.

If you will indulge me, I will use
these three minutes to actually be a PLP three minutes.
So first I wanted or wished to associate myself with the condolences to [the family of] Brother Ottiwell Simmons
as well. I did not know Mr. Simmons at all, but I knew many people who did. And certainly I am in awe of the
legacy that he has left, certainly, a man amongst the
people. And if I were to use the Opposition Leader’s words, a true, genuine hero.
Mr. Speaker, I also wish to congratulate my
cousin, MP Kim Swan, for his recently winning or ac-cepting an award by the Sport Bermuda Magazine for
his contribution to golf. And certainly, it does not take
long if you ever speak to the MP about his passion [for] golf and his stories of where the sport has taken him.
And so I just wanted to acknowledge that and congratulate him.
Then speaking of magazines, I was actually in
an office, and I picked up the latest The Bermudian
magazine. And in that magazine, there were a bunch of
Best of Bermuda awards. So naturally my eye was
drawn to the Most Effective Politician. So, I wanted to
congratulate Minister Tinee Furbert for winning that
award.
[Desk thumping]

Well, finally, Mr. Speaker, I just
wanted to take a brief moment to acknowledge that two
days ago would have been the 84
th birthday of former
Leader of the PLP, L. Frederick Wade. When we speak
of legacy, when we talk about legacy in terms of Ottiwell
Simmons, I just wanted to acknowledge another giant
as well. Mr. Speaker, as many of us know and feel, November of 1998 does not happen without the groundwork of Freddie Wade that he put in. And I, even as one
of the youngest members, just want it to be crystal clear that the party will keep his memory and legacy held
high. Thank you.

[Desk thumping]

Go right ahead.



Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Neville S. Tyrrell: Mr. Speaker, first let me associate with the condolences already sent to the family of
Ottiwell Simmons. I certainly want to say personally that Ottie was one of my mentors. Very quietly he directed me in many issues concerning workers. So, I
certainly appreciate him for that. And in fact, he even
twisted my arm to sit on the Hotel Pension Plan Fund
so that he could have some direction because he knew I had some background in pensions.
Second, Mr. Speaker, I would like to have condolences sent to the family of a couple of my constitu-ents. One is the passing of Isabel Irene Tucker of Spice
Hill, a very supportive family of not only myself but the
Progressive Labour Party. And I would lik e to give special condolences to her two daughters, Iva and Ken-isha, and certainly her grandson, Peter, who seems to
be very fond of talking to me all the time.
The other family is [of] the late Lindar DeRoza
from Pearman’s Hill. And I certainly again wish to send
condolences to that family.
Mr. Speaker, if I do not do what I am about to
do next, I think the House might be doing condolences for me next sitting. So, I am going to use the rest of my
time to thank a teacher, a very special teacher who is
my neighbour. She sits on my branch executive. She
always canvasses with me and gets mad when I do not
take her. She has put in 34 years in the teaching pro-fession. I see everybody looking to be associated, and
I will not do that individually. But she is Jamier Simons.
As I said, she is my neighbour, a very hard- working person. So I would certainly like to associate the Premier,
the Deputy Premier, her schoolmates, MP S wan and
Minister Weeks. As I said, if I did not do this today, Mr.
Speaker, I know what it would be like for me next week.
So again, congratulations to my teacher friend.
And let me also congratulate the other teachers. [Jamier Simons] is actually retiring, so that is why I
brought that up. But she is not lost to the system because I am going to push her to come out as a sub. So I think we will still see her in the system at times.
I also just want to congratulate teachers in general. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Government Whip, Mr. Tyrrell.
Does any other Member wish to make a contribution?
Deputy Speaker, you have your three minutes.
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, first I would like to ask this House
to send congratulations to Mr. Edwin Wilson. I would like to associate Minister Weeks with this and my
cousin Cole and my cousin Roban and the Premier. Edwin celebrates his 88
th birthday on Sunday. Edwin
worked for government for over 40 years. The last job
he had, he was a Labour Relations Officer. Edwin was tough, but he was fair. And we certainly missed him
when he left, when he retired.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk about Ottie a
bit, Ottie Simmons, my mentor, my father in politics, my
father in trade unionism. Ottie reinforced in me what integrity is. I can recall being in his office one time, and
he ordered some goods for the union. And the supplier
in the States says call him back . And he had in on the
blower, and he says, Mr. Simmons, I have your goods.
Do you want me to devalue your duty, the cost, so you
can pay less duty? Ottie says to him, Whatever it costs,
you put it on the invoice. We do not mind paying our
taxes. And that is what really reinforced to me the integrity that Ottie has taught us all at the BIU, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, also I would like to thank all of the
Members for their kind words this morning about Ottie. Certainly fitting. And he was our Whip, as you know, for
many years. As my cousin John Barritt said w hen he
became Whip of the other party , he learned from Ottie.
He watched him and he learned, and he learned very
well. Ottie was a good teacher. And if I happen to do
anything wrong, you can blame Ottie, right?
[Laughter]
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: But let me say, Mr.
Speaker, let me say that certainly again on behalf of the BIU, we want to thank everybody for their kind words to
Brother Ottie. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Deputy.
Does any other Member wish to make a contribution?
MP Dunkley, you have your three minutes.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I too would like to add my condolences to the passing of Ottiwell Simmons. When I first got involved, when I actually came back to Bermuda
and started working, Ottie was standing up for workers
and their rights. And our paths crossed in the H ouse of
Assembly when I got elected and Ottie was already here. And for many, many, many years he represented
not only the workers of Bermuda, but the people of Bermuda. And I think we should reflect on the commitment
that this great man had in service to the people. He
stood up. He stood strong, and he stood for many people who did not have a voice.
And while oftentimes we were on different
sides of the aisle, Ottie was a man you could always respect because even in his disagreement with your
position, there was a respectful dialogue. And I would
like to take this opportunity to send my condolences t o
the family and the friends of Ottiwell Simmons on the
passing of a man who certainly played his part in making Bermuda a better place.
And one thing I will reflect on Ottie is, you
know, often before you actually have the pleasure of
1588 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly shaking a person’s hand or meeting a person, you form
opinions based on what you might see, hear or read. And so when I had the opportunity to first meet Ottie in person and then to spend some time with him in the
House of Assembly and work with him, I was amazed
at how cool he was at all times. And if we can—well,
we can take many things from the passing of Ottie. But
one thing I will always remember i s even in the heat of
occasions Ottie was a cool person, a cool character.
And that is to be appreciated.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to send condolences to the Joynes family of Cable Hill on the passing
of their mother, Gloria Joynes, who passed a few days
ago. She follows her husband who passed just a few
years ago. A good Bermudian family, and Ms. Joynes
was somebody I always enjoyed climbing the hill to
speak to because she always had something to say. And it was well worth the time to climb that hill and to
listen to Ms. Joynes. So, to the Joynes family, condolences on the passing of your mother.
And on a more pleasant note, Mr. Speaker, I
would like to send congratulations to our swimmers in
the CAC [Central American and Caribbean] Games.
The entire team who went to the games, and I would
associate the entire House with that. But just last night
we had two medal winners in Ms. Harvey and Ms.
Moore. So congratulations to the team, and congratu-lations to Senator Ben Smith, who coaches the team.
The swimmers are doing very well, and congratulations.

[Timer chimes]

Good morning, Mr. Speaker, and
good morning, honourable colleagues.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to rise in this House
and join my honourable colleagues in this House as we send our condolences out to the family of the Honour-able Ottiwell Simmons. I like the fact that the Deputy
Speaker highlighted the fact that his parliamentary contribution in this House, he was not just a —certainly a
landmark as it relates to . . . and a person of height as
it relates to his being over the union. And throughout [the] movements in Bermuda he certainly made his im-pact on this Honourable Hous e. And he should so be
remembered with so many of our other colleagues.
Mr. Speaker, when I joined the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party in a number of different roles, I appreciated when each of those roles were punctuated
by Members within the party who provided support.
And those senior Members taught us how to act, the
things that were of importance and also highlighted to
each and every one of us the importance of integrity, of
keeping our word. And as a result of that, I appreciated those of which the Honourable Ottie Simmons was absolutely one of those. He certainly prov ided me a great
support.
And I distinctly remember when taking on the
reins of being the chairman of the party, I asked the Honourable Ottiwell Simmons if he would come and
look into a matter as it related to a disagreement that
was had within the confines of that party. I can say safely that he did not rule in my favour. I thought that if
you selected someone, they would rule in your favour.
They did not. And Ottie did not rule in my favour. But it created in me a level of respect for those who agree
and those who do not agree wi th the positions that you
take.
He was an honourable man. He was a wonderful parent. He was a fantastic figure in our country, and
he is absolutely a role model that we must continue to emulate in our behaviour in this House and in the way
that we handle our unions and the way that we t alk to
each other and the way that we deal with each other. It
was high in integrity, and it was indeed worth the mention and the admiration and the things that we say in
this Honourable House today.
Mr. Speaker, your time is important. Thank
you.

Thank you, Honourable Member.
Does any other Honourable Member wish to
make a contribution at this time?
No other Member.
Before we move on, I am going to rise to make
a couple of comments myself in regard to former col-league, Ottie, as we all referred to him. I had the privilege of saying Uncle Ottie because of a family connection on another side, but he was Uncle Ottie. And on
Sunday we heard stories of the heroic leader that he
was, the outstanding contributions that he made for this
country. And we all could go on and on about that.
But today I want to take the approach and talk
[about] the man whom I knew, how humble he was. And
Ottie was always . . . and I should say Uncle Ottie was
always comfortable no matter what setting I found him
in or what setting you saw him in. Even in confrontational situations and situations where some of us may
not be as comfortable, he always seemed to find a place there. And there was a humbleness of the man
that allowed that to happen.
You know, at the funeral on Sunday a few
members got up and referred to how he called them
John- boy or Johnny -boy. He always, from the very beginning, called me Denny -boy. And it was not one of
those names that I was all that favourable with, but Uncle Ottie got away with it. And I never questioned him
about it. And even up until the last time I ran into him in the str eet it was, Hey, Denny -boy, how’s things going?
And we always had good times.
[Inaudible interjection and laughter ]



Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Yes. Right.
I can remember the Labour Day activities. And
some of you may remember back then that Uncle Ottie,
when he was president, he usually would have the Sunday activities at his house. And we would set off after
we had gone down and set up the stalls and activ ity for
the Labour Day events that Sunday. We would end up at his house. And it was just the families’ opportunity to sit around and see him in his personal setting and just
how comfortable he was with no matter who walked in.
And he just made you feel lik e this was your place to
be that day and no matter who it was who showed up.
But that just speaks to how humble he was.
We also heard on Sunday how easily he cried.
And some of the family members told stories of how he
cried at different funerals and things that he had attended. Well, MP Adams, you brought in a former leader, husband to MP Simmons -Wade. You brought
him in in your comment.
I am going to end on a little story. And, MP Simmons -Wade, you may or may not remember this. But
at your husband’s funeral I was joking with the Deputy
Speaker at the funeral this week for Ottie that, you
know, I am not a pallbearer for Ottie at his funer al on
Sunday, but I carried Ottie in St. John’s already. On the
day of our Leader Frederick Wade’s funeral, Ottie was
one of the pallbearers when we got into the graveyard. And the graveyard, Ms. Simmons -Wade, was way up
on top of the hill there. Ottie was in front of me. I was at
the end. I think Nelson was at the beginning. It was Nel-son, Ottie and myself. As we started up the hill and because he was so humble and personal and emotional,
Ottie just lost it. He just . . . it spoke to how close he and
Freddie were in their personal relationship. They were
true friends. And he just lost it.
He literally fell apart and was on the coffin crying, just broke down. And all of a sudden, we were not carrying one body now; we were carrying two. Because
we had to carry the weight of Ottie leaning on the coffin just bawling and broken down! We could n ot say, Ottie,
get out of here. You know, we just had to let him lay
there . . . and we carried his extra weight. But that was speaking to how humble Ottie was. He did not care that he was out in the crowd of all of these people. And that
was a huge funeral. He did not care who was there. He
was expressing how he felt about the loss of his dear
friend, his dear friend. But that speaks to my friend, Uncle Ottie.
Let us always remember what he has done for
this country and the significant impact he made in bringing us to who we are as people in this country and the
standards that he set for us all to fulfil. Thank you.

[Desk thumping]

Premier.

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you very much, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I am grateful the indulgence of
Honourable Members.

FIRST READING

CUSTOMS TARIFF AMENDMENT (NO. 2) ACT 2023

Hon. E. David Burt: I move that the Government Bill
entitled the Customs Tariff Amendment (No. 2) Act
2023 be placed on the Order Paper for the next day of
meeting.

Are there any objections?
There are none, continue Minister.

BILL

SECOND READING

CHILD DAY CARE ALLOWANCE
AMENDMENT ACT 2023

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, I rise today 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
for the responsible Minister to prescribe a maximum
gross annual hous ehold income with respect to an application for a child day care allowance to provide categories of such incomes for the granting of awards and
to clarify that an application for an award is based on
an applicant’s gross annual househol d income.
Mr. Speaker, on June 16, 2023, the Honourable Members of this House were made aware that the current eligibility requirements for the child day care al-lowance is a maximum gross annual income of $55,000
with the maximum award being $800 per month for an
eligible child. On average, the monthly cost for child day
care is $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 wit h the rising cost of
services provided by these facilities.
Mr. Speaker, 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. Generally
this means that families will be required t o cover additional expenses, as costs of goods and services are increasing more and more. Additional support for this
service is paramount to sustaining households and promoting early childhood development.
Mr. Speaker, this Government recognises that
families are vulnerable to the economic atmosphere and require assistance wherever possible. Eligibility requirements needed to change in order to lend support
for families. The new legislation provides a maximum gross annual household income for eligibility in the following categories:
• $65,000 equals a maximum monthly allowance
of $900 per child;
• $97,000 equals a maximum monthly allowance
of $700 per child; and
• $130,000 equals a maximum monthly allowance of $500 per child.
This uplift in support is designed to maximise
the risk of families’ having to decide between child day
care services and employment. Protecting the continuance of early childhood education is important for the
stability of our economy. Negative scrutiny Child Day
Care Allowance Amendment Regulations will be introduced and effect these new categories, and that partic-ular regulation will be laid after the debate of this Bill.
Mr. Speaker, the amendments to the Child Day
Care Allowance [Act 2008] fall into alignment with the Government’s overall plan to strengthen social protections within the economy. We would note that we have
already made amendments to our Financial Assistance Act by allowing persons who have timed out after seven
years to continue to receive a reduced benefit. Mr.
Speaker, this change not only improves a household’s ability to ensure that their child is in day care; but it also
increases the purchasing power of those households
who are grappling with the cost of living within our society.
Changes like this, Mr. Speaker, are what set
the Progressive Labour Party apart from other political
parties in the Island. We have made it our commitment
to the people of Bermuda to ensure that we expand so-cial protections. We have made it a commitment t o expand labour protections. But it speaks to the humancentred approach to policy development that we actually have, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, not only are we making this change for today, but there are more
changes to come. And so we are doing it in a very deliberate manner, the way in which we are making these changes, that ultimately improves the lives of the citizens within this country.
The next changes that we will make in this particular House, which are in alignment with the framework of the social protection changes that we will make,
are to increase the pool of persons who would actually
be eligible for financial assistance. Right now if a person has over $500 of assets in their financial assets in
their bank account, they are not eligible for financial assistance. We are going to amend that so it moves up to $5,000. And $5,000 is important because if a person
does have a little bit of savings but does find themselves in hardship where there is a reduction of income,
$5,000 is not going to last long in this economy. So we
would want to ensure that we provide households with
a greater level of stability prior to their going into a po-sition where they drain all of their assets and they have
no further assets to support them in maintaining a decent and dignified quality of life in this economy.


Bermuda House of Assembly The other change that we are going to make is
to ensure that a dollar in is not a dollar out as it pertains
to child support. So we only calculate 50 per cent of the
income received to child support so that the other
50 per cent can go toward supporting goods and services to the child.
Mr. Speaker, we will also allow gifts to be provided to recipients of financial assistance [FA]. You
would note that there could be emergency situations
that take place, and we as MPs at times will want to
give support to members of our constituency who are on FA. However, based on the current rules, you are
unable to provide a gift. For example, if you go to a constituent’s house and their fridge is broken and that constituent has children, they cannot afford a fridge because they are unable to retain cas h. But because of
who we are in our hearts, we will want to provide a level
of support even to the extent of purchasing a small
fridge to help that family.

Mm-hmm.

Hon. Jason Hayward: Well, this change allows you to
do that.
We also know that there could be severe medical emergencies that the total coverage may not be
covered by the health insurance plan that the individual is on. And as a result, this allows individuals to also receive gifts through mechanisms such as GoFundMe,
where those gifts can then be utilised for the specific
area of providing medical support.
Mr. Speaker, we recognise that there is a gap
for persons who need sudden- hardship benefits within
our society. So we will also be seeking to make a legislative change to allow households to receive a sudden-hardship benefit for groceries, health insuranc e,
medical expenses, death expenses, rent or mortgages, or utilities. [This is] for individuals who find themselves
on sudden hardship that is due to recent unemploy-ment, a natural disaster, death of a household member
due to domestic violence, or a public health emergency.
Mr. Speaker, if it is one thing we learned from
the pandemic, it is that we need to ensure that we have
adequate social protections in place to respond to crises that our families may find themselves in. So, Mr.
Speaker, we will be moving forward with a benefit of
$1,500 that is available for individuals who find themselves in sudden hardship for a three- month period.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased about the work that
this Government is doing regarding expanding social
protections, expanding eligibility requirements, increasing benefits to [those who] are considered to be some
of the most vulnerable in our society. A lot of the
changes we are making support able- bodied individuals, Mr. Speaker, but also it supports low -income earners. It supports our seniors, and it supports our disabled
population. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report that Cabinet has approved changes to the Table of Allowable
Expenses, which means that the Table of Allowable Expenses which govern the benefits provided to all recipients of financial assistance, those benefits will in-crease. And as a result, every single recipient who is
currently on financial assistance will receive increased
benefits whether it be increased medical benefits, utility benefits, food benefits, rent benefits, medical supply
benefits, benefits for utiliti es—each and every one of
those recipients will receive enhanced benefits to better
support them in this particular economy.
When we talk about what is the ethos of the
Progressive Labour Party, it is founded on the bedrock principles of our providing additional social and economic protections for the people of Bermuda. And I
think with the amendments we are making today, the amendments we have already made and the amendments that we will continue to make, we are demon-strating that in action. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And
I thank the Honourable Minister for bringing this legislation to the House. I would echo a lot of his sentiments
in terms of the protection of the vulnerable amongst us,
but I will put that into my contribution as well as my
questions to him.
Mr. Speaker, we are here today to debate the
Child Day Care Allowance Amendment Act 2023, which is amending the Child Day Care Allowance Act
2008. That piece of legislation, that Act, also outlines
what the regulations can set forth. So this entire framework is to provide an allowance to eligible parents and
guardians to meet the cost of child day care, which the
Minister has helpfully pointed out averages at $1,100
per month.
Mr. Speaker, we have spoken ad nauseam or
certainly at length as it relates to social safety nets in
this Honourable House. And we constantly have to
speak about it because if we are not here for that, I do not know what else we are here for, to be frank. The
most vulnerable amongst us are the people we will need to take care of. And as I have said before, it is my impression certainly in all of the reading of history that
I have done that a society is judged more so on how it
treats the vulnerable amongst it, Mr. Speaker. But as
every piece of legislation comes before us, it has to be
scrutinised and we have to have a question about the
cost/benefit of all of the actions of any government. And, Mr. Speaker, I think that one of the things that a
child day c are allowance provides is access to early
childhood education.
1592 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, in the absence of ensuring that
our children are put into committed, dedicated educational environments, you can only imagine what would happen hereafter to the wider society. We cannot have
parents for all intents and purposes having to with draw
their children from early childhood education because
they cannot afford it. And therefore, they would not be
able to work because they would have to look after their children. And we would just see that cascading impact
into not just our wider societ y, but also into our wider
economy.
Mr. Speaker, it goes without saying that we
have to make sure that these things are taken care of and they are taken care of seriously. I followed the Minister’s words on deliberately. And to that end the Opposition supports this Bill and has some further questions for the Minister.
The Minister mentioned, when he started
speaking about (I want to say) financial assistance developments that are coming down the road, about ablebodied persons. I think one of the things we have to be very clear about when we talk about social safety nets,
Mr. Speaker, is that just because a person is able- bodied does not mean they are without need. This is a difficult reality that we face not just in Bermuda, but all
over the world. So I just want to develop on that thought
a little bit and make sure the Minister knew that cer-tainly the Opposition is not of the opinion that this country is without need and that there are those in this country who should not be neglected when they experience
that need and hardship.
I was a patrolman some years ago, Mr.
Speaker, in the Bermuda Police Service. And we had occasion to go up to St. Monica’s Village. And I recall it
was a normal call, to be frank; we had dozens of those
calls all the time. But I went into an environment that
shocked me. The need as related to the children in that
household and in fact that particular complex I was in
was shockingly evident. Later on as I moved on in my career and worked with more and more senior constables, sergeants and the like, I realised a part of the job
was assisting people in those sorts of circumstances.
And later on I worked with some teachers and a school’s resource officer or assisting schools’ resource
officers when I was a community beat officer and realised how many people in our community actually contribute money to families in need.
And it always stuck with me, Mr. Speaker, because for all intents and purposes I grew up on White
Hill, and there were people in need, and the community worked together on those matters. But I had never . . .
I was a Somerset kid to be fair, Mr. Speaker. I hardly
ever came to town. And to see what I saw was bracing. We cannot neglect the people in need in our community. It is simply unacceptable.
Mr. Speaker, with that being said, I would like
to go into the Minister’s Statement of 16 June from which I would like to read. So with your permission, Mr.
Speaker? The Speaker: Go right ahead.

Thank you. On 16 June the
Minister said (as he just said) in his Ministerial State-ment , “The purpose of this Bill is to allow the Minister to
(1) prescribe the maximum gross annual household income in respect of an application for a child day care allowance; (2) provide categories of such incomes for
the purpose of granting awards; (3) clar ify that determination of an application for an award is based on the applicant’s gross annual household income.” I am going to break these down, t hese three purposes because
I think that there is a more efficient mechanism by which to accomplish these things.
The first purpose of this Bill, Mr. Speaker, is to
prescribe the maximum gross annual household in-come in respect of an application for a child day care allowance. Simply put, Mr. Speaker, this is, What is the
most income the parents or guardians can earn before
being eligible for the award? Again being mindful, Mr.
Speaker, there must for all intents and purposes be a
cap on how much that family can bring in to then be
eligible for the award. And this is set out in the regulations as well. But by virtue of this already being enshrined in law specifically in the regulations, this includes the amount that the qualification is for as well as
the amount of the award. This demonstrates that the
Minister actually already has the power to increase the amount of the award as well as the qualifying criteria.
Now, the Minister actually said in his 16 June
Statement that the current “ allowance does not adequately cover this growing cost and warrants reforming
the current child day care allowance programme.” Now,
I agree with this. But what the Minister could actually
do right now is by way of an amendment to the regulations actually increase this award. So on the first purpose, that is why I raised that. I think there is a more
efficient way, and in fact could bring this matter to a close and successful implemen tation faster than the
current method.
The Minister went on in saying in his 16 June
Statement that “t he Ministry will implement a new tiered
financial award specifically for child day care services
. . . .” And the Minister just spoke to those tiered systems again in his brief. This touches on the second pur-pose of the Bill wherein the Minister said, “provide categories of such incomes for the purpose of granting
awards.” And it is true that the regulations as they stand today have no tiers or categories for which these qualifications take place and therefore the amount of award
that is given. Equally, what can be said though is that there is nothing in the principal Act or regulation that
says you cannot implement a tiered approach. It only
says the maximum amount of the award as it is today. So it is clear that the regulations provide the director of
the department with the ability to vary the amount of the
award.


Bermuda House of Assembly To this end I think that again the Minister could
bring an amendment to the regulations and get this assistance to the families actually today.
The third purpose of the Bill, as the Minister
said, it will “clarify that determination of an application for an award is based on the applicant’s gross annual
household income.” Mr. Speaker, when we get into
Committee, I will actually speak to the swapp ing of the
definitions that are enshrined in this current Amendment Act. And to that end I will leave that for Committee.
But what I definitely say is that insofar as getting assistance to families as quickly as possible, this is
something the Minister can do by way of amending the
regulations. And in fact, the Minister acknowledges this
in his Statement. “ To this end, Mr. Deputy Speaker, the
Members of this Honourable House should expect subsequently to have tabled amended Child Day Care Allowance Regulations to introduce and effect the new
tiered rates. ” So it is quite clear that the mechanisms
by which to make this change or to increase the relief
and assistance to families is actually the regulations.
To that end, Mr. Speaker, I would question the
Minister. If having the power to increase the allowances
by way of amending the regulations, why bring an
amendment to the actual Act instead of bringing that
relief more quickly? To that end, Mr. Speaker, I close
my presentation. I thank the Minister for bringing this
legislation, and I look forward to a fulsome debate in
the Committee. Thank you.

Thank you, MP Richardson.
Minister Wilson, yes. Minister Wilson, you have
the floor.
Does any other . . . yes, Minister Wilson. You
have the floor.
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, you will recall approximately two
months ago the Honourable Minister Hayward informed
this Honourable House of this Government’s intentions
to make further provisions and amendments to the Financial Aid initiatives so that we could continue our ob-jective and our goal of strengthening the social protections for Bermudians and those in need. And, Mr.
Speaker, you will note that part of that framework also
as announced by the Honourable Minister contained
reforms to the current Financial Assistance programme
that would again provide social and economic benefits and support to those families in need. And the Child Day Care Allowance [Amendment Act 2023] which we
are debating this morning is just one of those examples.
But you may also recall, Mr. Speaker, that the
enhancements that were spoken about by the Honour-able Minister included but not excluding the expanding
eligibility, allowing recipients to retain partial income from their work, adding new funding schemes to allow
the recipients to receive gifts, as well as creating short -
term funding for sudden hardships. And, Mr. Speaker, again some of those enhancements are designed spe-cifically with the sole objective of ensuring, as best as possible, that Bermudians do not fall through the cracks
and that we provide the proper support and safety nets
for individuals, and one of which, which I am so happy to be able to discuss and debate this morning . . . yes,
this morning—

Still morning.
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: It deals specifically with greater
access to childcare.
And again, Mr. Speaker, these enhanced protections for individuals and families in need will make sure that eligible Bermudians have the full financial
awards and support that are required to prevent them
from falling through the cracks.
Mr. Speaker, let me just spend a few moments
speaking about the importance of childcare and early childhood education. Mr. Speaker, many books, aca-demic research and even songs have been written and
sung about the importance of children and that children
are our future. And we as legislators, I submit, must do
everything that we can to support that particular position. And I am glad to hear that the Opposition have indicated that they are supportive of this very critical
piece of legislation.
And if I can quote former US President FDR
[Franklin D. Roosevelt], and he once said, “ We may not
be able to prepare the future for our children, but we
can at least prepare our children for the future. ” So the
natural question, I submit, Mr. Speaker, is, What does that look like? What can we do as legislators or parents,
et cetera, to prepare our children best for the future? As
a mother and a former educator, I believe that the answers can be found in the foundations of early childhood education. What we do not want is a situation
where parents cannot afford to provide the basic needs
to their children and in particular as it relates to early
childhood education.
I remember, Mr. Speaker, this was many years
ago when I was looking at early childhood education for
my children. It was at a time when you almost registered your child depending on the facility that you were
looking at from birth. And fortunately, the circum-stances were such that I was able to afford the facilities
that I wanted. And this Bill allows for those parents to
not go broke or not to have to make choices, important choices as to what bills are going to be paid and ensuring that their children receive a class -A education at an
early age. And the benefits of that are as follows, Mr.

Again, this speaks specifically to the importance of early childhood education, which if you believed in that, you would obviousl y believe in the reasons behind this legislation to ensure that all parents
have equal access for their children to early childhood
education without breaking the bank —those persons in
need, Mr. Speaker.
1594 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly All of the evidence suggests —and I am going
to rely, Mr. Speaker, real briefly on evidence that is from
the OECD, WHO, as well as the World Bank that speaks to the importance of early childhood education.
Obviously, a good quality early education is essential
for supporting the child’s development. And almost all
of preschoolers who have been able to be impacted by
the ability to have and receive early childhood educa-tion end up developing higher expectations as well as
rewards, as well as developing learning expertise. And
it helps to decrease the risk of individuals or children who are developing learning difficulties if they are able
to be afforded with the early childhood education.
And the World Bank, Mr. Speaker, has actually
done a number of studies, and they have indicated that
for preschool -age children, access to quality childcare
education drives better nutrition and better health and
academic outcomes.
Mr. Speaker, in addition to that, early childhood
education improves social skills, allows children to en-gage with their peers, learn how to listen, how to share, how to express their emotions in a healthy way. And of
course these are skills that are crit ical for a child’s development that can be brought on for future skills in future years. Early childhood education is also linked to
greater successes in life as well as in particular, Mr.
Speaker, it allows parents the freedom to study and/or continue wit h their working experience. One of the major benefits of this is to allow to give parents the freedom to continue working or to be educated. Without the
benefit of being able to put your children in childcare,
those provisions as it relates to advancement of work,
continuing with work, in addition perhaps to participat-ing in further education would be greatly curtailed if you
did not have somewhere proper and safe for your child
to be during the day whilst you are at work or studying.
Mr. Speaker, research also from the WHO
shows that early childhood education offers screening
for health and behaviour issues. Oftentimes it is the teacher who may have observations of the developmental milestones of that child, and they will be able to
articulate what their observations are to the parents
and/or the community nurses to ensure that a proper
screening takes place. These are all, Mr. Speaker, I
submit, the benefits that have been well documented
and supported by evidence with respect to the benefits
of early childhood education.
In addition, as the Honourable Member who
just took his seat indicated, this early childhood education does positively impact society, Mr. Speaker. It has multigenerational impacts as well because it ensures
as best as possible that children will learn to grow up
and contribute positively to their communities and to
their societies.
So, Mr. Speaker, those are some of the examples I think that warrant the support for this legislation in particular as it relates to the benefits of early childhood education. However, there are also benefits as
they relate to the economic impact of persons having the ability to access early childhood education. Whilst
we see that childcare is very important to all families, it is particularly critical for those of lower incomes, those
where children may be disadvantaged, women and single-parent families because again as I indicated, the
ability to access childcare allows parents to continue to
work, which allows them to increase their hours of work.
It helps to move them out of poverty as well as improv-ing the family and the children’s long- term life chanc es.
So, Mr. Speaker, this initiative in this Bill that
we are debating this morning obviously has quite a number of benefits, not just from the child’s perspective
as it relates to being involved and enrolled in early
childhood education, but also as it relat es to the economic benefits. And, Mr. Speaker, obviously when parents are able to work and to contribute to their livelihood, it certainly has a positive impact on one’s mental health. If a person is able to go to work and know that
they have access to chi ldcare and the child is in a safe
environment, then that allows the parents to be able to
participate in the economy by working, paying taxes
and the like, and being more productive.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is also important to note
that oftentimes the child- minding responsibility does fall
on the mother. And in circumstances perhaps of a two -
[parent] home, if childcare is not being made availa ble
because it is un- accessible because of the financial
burden, then oftentimes it is the mother who is at home
caring for the child whilst the father is working. And that
of course creates further gender pay gaps where the
mother is at home and not parti cipating in the economic
support of the f amily, but the father is [participating]
simply because they are unable to access childcare at
an affordable price.
Mr. Speaker, the OECD, if I can just quote this
real quickly? In 2020 their Policy Brief on Labour, Employment and Social Affairs, their key findings are as follows, and I submit these are also applicable to Ber-muda: “High childcare costs are one of the f actors contributing to inequalities in childcare use across income
groups. In European OECD countries, children under
the age of 3 in low -income households are one- third
less likely to participate in early childhood education
and care (ECEC) than those in high -income households.” (And it also goes on to report, Mr. Speaker, that)
“Childcare costs can substantially weaken employment
incentives for parents. On average across OECD countries, a low -paid single mother, who takes up full -time
work, loses almost t wo-thirds of her in- work earnings to
childcare costs, taxes and the loss of social benefits.”
So, Mr. Speaker, I think that it is critically important that the Bill that we speak about today (which is
supported and I am very glad that it is supported by all
sides of the House) provides for the benefits to the fam-ily to ensure that the children hav e access to childcare
and that the reasons that I have enunciated insofar as the importance of child care will be preserved for all in-dividuals who are in need whether they can afford to
pay for childcare or not. If they have a need, this Bill


Bermuda House of Assembly allows for the Minister in their discretion to be able to
provide basically a tiered system to ensure that per-sons are able to avail themselves of the financial sup-port so that the childcare provisions can be made available to their children.
And again this is a perfect illustration of the
Government’s commitment to ensure that the social
protections that are needed for all members of our so-ciety, particularly our children, are provided for and that
we are pleased, and I am particularly please d to be able
to stand today to support this legislation. Thank you,

So you have the floor, sir.

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, first I would like to thank this Minister for bringing this legislation to this House. And as I
heard the speaker from the Opposition, I think if the
Minister had the authority to implement the changes as he is proposing today, he would have done it. Because
as you see this Minister in particular, this Minister has
brought many changes to give financial assistance to
our people. And I know if there was any loophole in the
legislation to have done it, it would have been done, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, children are very important to all
of us and particularly to this Government. And even
though the economy is the way it has been the last cou-ple of years and improving as we speak, this Government has not stopped, has not stalled in giving our people assistance. Because we realise that our people have to live. So that has been very important to us.
Even during the pandemic you saw this Government
just make the funds available so our people can live
comfortably, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, this Bill that the Minister brings
today is one that increases the inclusion of people who could not get the benefit before. As we all know, in order to qualify for the benefit prior to this, it is $55,000
per household which disqualified a l ot of people. In fact,
right now I think it is about just over 100 people getting
this benefit. And it certainly will increase because we realise that people out there are suffering right now. Because, Mr. Speaker, if you check around, to get in a
nursery today, it is going to cost you at least about $300
minimum a week. And just imagine somebody, a single
parent, particularly a female because they are most of
the time who have to labour with this situation, making $54,000 a [year] and has got two children. I do not even
know how they make it, Mr. Speaker, because they will
not be able to get this benefit. Now, as you know, Mr. Speaker, this benefit
started in 2008. And what this Minister has done is increase the amount from $800 to $900. That is a
12.5 per cent increase to try to assist our people. Now,
Mr. Speaker, there is I think one government preschoo l
nursery, they call it Happy Valley, I think the rate is
probably around about $400 a week. And so I think
there is a criterion that you have to meet in order to pay that rate because if you have got someone making
$100,000 a year, I do not think they wil l qualify to get
into that particular nursery. They should not qualify before Ms. Smith who is making $54,000, Mr. Speaker.
But this takes it up to $130,000 per household,
Mr. Speaker, making it even more available to those parents out there who are struggling. And even if you
have got a single- parent household making $70,000 a
year and have got two children, they are still st ruggling
because they do not meet this threshold. But you cannot cover everybody. Because one thing people say —
some people will say, those who really do not think
what the objective is, Well, you’ve got some people that
shouldn’t get it who are getting it. Well, there is no foolproof programme in the world that you can put in place
that those who should not get it [do not] get it. There is
not one, because if there was, we would have known
about it. And that person who can bring that one, I am
sure many countries would thank them and probably reward them with a free vacation, because we face it. England faces it. The United States faces it. Everywhere faces this situation, Mr. Speaker.
Now, Mr. Speaker, one thing I would say. During the 1950s and 1960s I was not here during that
time. Probably you and [Honourable Member] Tyrrell
were around, right?

No.

[Inaudible interjections and laughter]

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: We thank God for grannies, Mr. Speaker, because in those days grannies did
not work because they had about eight children. So if you had a child there was always somewhere to take
little Johnny, right? And you just drop them. Their grannies could feed him and everything else, right? Today
the grannies are younger, more energetic. They are going and doing yoga and all that type of stuff. They do
not have time for that, Mr. Speaker.

[Laughter]

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: So these are changing
times, fortunately or unfortunately, Mr. Speaker.
But the Government understands that. And this
Minister, Minister Jason Hayward—let me repeat, Minister Jason Hayward, as busy as his Ministry is, has
come to this House and said, Look. We have got to ad-dress this here. We’re going to put something in place.
And I am sure—and let me repeat. I know if he would
1596 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly have had the authority it would have been done yesteryear. And he says . . . well, I know he has looked
around. Knowing Jason, Jason is going to look to see if he can do it. And when he found out he could not, he
said, I’ve got to bring something to this House. And it is
done.
And if we look at all of the other programmes
that he has brought here to assist people, not trying to
get people off in a sense of trying to take out those who
should not have it, he has brought here one where we
can increase it for people because we know, just by canvassing and walking around this country, we know
more people need it, Mr. Speaker. And that is what we
have done. But even in some of the programmes that
he has in place, he has attached a training programme
to try to get you off [of financial assistance]. And what
this Government has also done, they are saying, Well, okay, Derrick, you have got a job. But you’re not [making enough]. So we’re going to top you up. We’re going
to help you out. Because in some places, and I am sure
here, if you had a job, that disqualifies you also. But because you have a job it does not mean that you can
afford the food and . . . and (where is Wayne? He is
gone) electricity and all that type of stuff. You know? So
this Government is saying, Wait. I’m going to fix it. I’m
going fix this.
And once upon a time, Mr. Speaker, before this
Minister took over, you could only stay on financial assistance for five years. He has increased it to seven
years and then he has put a little rider in there that if
you expire at that time, I am going to give you something to keep you going for another three months before we can regularise it. So this Government is doing all it
can to assist our people in these difficult times, Mr.
Speaker. You have seen this Government increase
benefits for seniors for pres cription drugs. That is what
this Government has done, Mr. Speaker! All that with giving discounts to seniors to go and get their car licence. This Government is all about trying to take care of its people.
As Ottie Simmons would say, Stay close to the
people, and they will stay with you, as Kim Swan said
earlier. Ottie always said that. And that is what this Gov-ernment is going to be [doing], serving our people. At
the same time we have got to balance the books. We
understand that, too, Mr. Speaker. And I think the Finance Minister is doing a great job in doing that, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I do not think people know we
have got over 2,000 people on financial assistance, you
know. We have them, many of them seniors, Mr.
Speaker. And then as the Minister has brought here
earlier that the dependence ratio on when you compare
seniors to those in the workforce in the year 2026 it is
going to be about 44 per cent. That is high! And I think
the world average is probably around 34 [per cent]. We
have to try . . . And that is why the Minister said we
need some jobs. When he said we need jobs, common
sense would tell you that, Hey, we need investment too in order to get jobs. But some people read it wrong, say,
Oh, he’s trying to bring all of these people in here. But what do you think? The Minister is very astute. He is
very intelligent when it comes to knowing what he has
to do in order to get these workers in here. We all un-derstand that, because if you do not do that, your pension is in trouble.
So the Minister is addressing that as he is addressing and making more people qualify for this allowance, Mr. Speaker. And we realise that if you do not
bring the child up right . . . and when I say bring up right,
some people do not have the financial capability to do
that. And as we understand, this Government understands that if the children do not have the proper foun-dation, they don’t have . . . they have to miss a meal a
day. That is not the way we want our children to be brought up. And that is why this Government sees it as very important to take care of our children so the parents can have the luxury of feeding them, giving them
three squares.
Mr. Speaker, I am sure you can remember and
[Honourable Member] Tyrrell can remember years ago—
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Well, you are the oldest, you know.

[Laughter]

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: [Honourable Member]
Tyrrell thought I am picking on him, Mr. Speaker, but we appreciate his age. He looks good for his age, right? He looks good.

[Laughter]
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: But once upon a time
you went to school, Mr. Speaker. And Johnny lost his
sweater. And Johnny goes, Mama, I lost my sweater.
Mama had to scratch and say, How am I going to buy
Johnny a sweater? because every penny is accounted
for. But if you had the luxury of some funds, Mary, take
him downtown and get him another sweater or whatever. That is comfortable living. And that is what we are
trying to do because children will lose their sweater or
their coat or whatever! But our aim, our objective is to make it comfortable so that Mama can go downtown
and get him another sweater. We do not want that child
to go to school and he is cold or she is cold. That is not the objective of it, Mr. Speaker.
So, Mr. Speaker, we are very cognisant of the
importance of our children having comfort in their homes, going to school in comfort, having breakfast,
lunch and dinner. And that is why the Minister could not
wait to get this Bill here so he can give those families
relief ASAP! I applaud him for that, and I applaud this
Government for looking out for our children. Because if


Bermuda House of Assembly the children, if the foundation is not right, what do you
think is going to happen 15 years from that time? If the family is not right, the country is not right. And this Gov-ernment, it is very important to us to make sure that our
families are right and w e are giving the assistance
where needed and where necessary.
Again, Mr. Speaker, if we had a foolproof system to put in place, we would have had it there years
ago. But that is not going to stop us from trying to help
those who are genuinely in need.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

[Desk thumping]

Mr. Speaker, the Member who
just took his seat touched on many points. And so what
I would like to say, because I am not going to touch on
all of those points, but I want to say this is an example
of where a Minister has been very considered in his ap-proach to how we can meet the needs of our families.
And it is true that when we take care of our young ones,
our future leaders, we are indeed securing our future.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to say this is a part of
a systemic approach. Because you just cannot do
things piecemeal and just address one part over here and forget about all of the other parts that fall into making a wholesome community. But what is evident, we
live in this society and we see persons who do make
what one might consider a very healthy salary. How-ever, we also understand and appreciate we live in a
society where the cost of living is extremely high. And
so the approach applied in this Child D ay Care Allowance Amendment Act 2023 is one that I said in the beginning is a considered approach which meets the
needs of families. Because we know it is not what you make, it is what you have to pay out, right? And many of us living in this society have to pay out quite a bit of
money to sustain our households.
And I have seen many a family where, even
though they are hardworking individuals, they sit there and determine whether or not they forget about work,
try and rely on something like financial assistance to take care of their young ones. Because currently the
way things have operated, if they take in one more dollar, they will find themselves in a situation where they lose the assistance that they need and they cannot help
their young ones except to go on financial assistance. So here is a situation where t he Minister has said,
You’re not going to be penalised for working hard. Be-cause we as Government, we know we need every-body, [every] capable body we can [to be] working. That
is how societies take care of themselves, through the
earnings coming up, through the taxes, et cetera, from people’s wages. The more people who work, the more
[there is] in the government coffers.
But here is a situation where we are figuring
out how to keep our able- bodied employees in continuous employment while at the same time, as a Government, providing funding to secure the family and ensure that people are allowed to move forward, to ensure that
they are not being penalised because of the salaries
that they make, to ensure that our young ones are get-ting the assistance that they need in school so that they
can grow up to become competent workers, citizens in
their own communities and so that they can be loyal citizens and give back to their community the same way
that their parents, et cetera, are doing so.
So I want to thank the Minister for his ingenuity
in bringing this legislation today. And I hope that when
I am out hitting the roads canvassing, I hear from some of the parents whom I have heard from when they are
saying, Thank you. This is a good thing. I can work. I
can take care of myself. And I can be proud, a proud parent knowing that I can sustain my family and my
household. So, Minister, thank you.

[Desk thumping]

Minister Furbert, you have the floor.

BILL

SECOND READING

CHILD DAY CARE ALLOWANCE
AMENDMENT ACT 2023

[Continuation thereon]

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Deputy [Premier].
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I want to start with a word, “respect.” And the reason I want to start with this word is
because this House is comprised, [in the] majority, of
males. And, as parliamentarians, women are a minority. I know our males are very familiar with the term “respect,” right? I am saying this because this Child Care Allowance Amendment Bill is very significant to
women. The importance of it I want to be able to express today, and I want to thank Minister Hayward for
bringing this forward. He is a man of his word. He is a
man of wanting to put in protections for our people and
definitely assisting and helping our people. So when he
says he is going to get something done, he pushes forward with it.
So I want to say today, Minister Hayward, respect. That word “respect,” Mr. Speaker, means that
there is a deep admiration. And our country should have a deep admiration for what is being presented today. As I was driving today on lunch, I got a message
from one of my relatives. And they were asking me if I
was available next weekend because they work shift
work. They work in the nursing profession. And they
were asking me if I was available so that I could assist
with childcare for one of my relatives. And I have to
bring this up because while we are here today talking
about childcare allowance as it relates to day services,
there is a segment of our community who does shift
work. And this particular childcare allowance may not
be applicable to that particular group of persons who need services throughout graveyard shifts or after -five
[pm] working hours.
But it is a huge help; a huge help to parents
who have to work. One of the number -one reasons why
parents require this sort of assistance through a child-care allowance is so that they can return to work. And
we are constantly talking about the importance of our
economy and returning people back to work. As a mother, as a woman, we spend many hours in unpaid
childcare. There were times, yes, back in the day,
where persons did it all. They worked. They cleaned. They laundered. They cooked. They di d extra—
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Tinee Furbert: I know they do it now too. But
what I am saying is today I am going to talk about today.
It is more intense, Mr. Speaker, because people are
working two and three jobs. And they are still having to
take care of their families all day, all the time. So it can be very stressful. So this sort of assistance for our people, for our women is huge, Mr. Speaker.
I could not be a politician if I did not have childcare. There are persons out there who could not be in
their profession if they did not have childcare. We have
lawyers, we have nurses, we have teachers, we have
bus drivers, we have people in housekeeping, all
places of employment. And they could not do that if
they did not have childcare. And whether it is a family
member or a friend assisting in that capacity, or whether or not it is a regulated facility providing that
care, it is necessary for persons in Bermuda. If you are
going to survive in Bermuda, you have to work. So it is
key. I am glad that we have recognised that this is beneficial to all parents.
Another sort of issue that gets brought to my
attention many times is the availability of our only gov-ernment day care centre/nursery, the Happy Valley
Day Care Centre. A lot of people actually desire this
service, again number one because of the cost. De puty
Speaker Burgess mentioned that the fees were $400 a
month. That is a significant savings for any parent having to go to work and being able to manage their fi-nances. Only $400 compared to what the rates are,
which were mentioned, approximately $1,100, some


Bermuda House of Assembly are $1,200, some are $1,300! Some are $1,400, Mr.
Speaker! You know, this is what people are paying for their children to be in childcare.
And any help, I am sure, is helpful to any family
in our community. I mean, we have spoken about the different thresholds. Trust me—even someone who is
in a household that is making $130,000 still requires
assistance with the cost of living in Bermuda.
I wanted to share, which I am hoping this
House knows already, that the majority of our house-holds in Bermuda are led by single women with chil-dren. So that means, Mr. Speaker, that they have to
take responsibility for buying food, paying for electricity,
being responsible for rent, being responsible for their
insurance and their children’s insurance, Mr. Speaker.
But they are mostly the breadwinners, if our household
surveys are showing that the majority of our house-holds are being led by single parents. Again, an awesome example to give to show why this childcare allowance will help our people.
We also know that the greatest cost to rear children is the cost of shelter and the cost of food and the cost of childcare and education. If you have sent your
children to school, a nursery school, you would have
known what it costs to send them to nurser y school. But
even in the latter part of life when they finish high school, what it costs to send your children to college. And for those of you who have done that, it is a significant amount of money, right? So we spend lots of
money on educating our chil dren. So we would hope
with this opportunity, with this allowance, that this also
gives our parents the opportunity to even pocket or
save money for further education, such as tertiary edu-cation.
So we do owe a great deal of thanks and gratitude that we are pushing this forward. Happy Valley Day Care Centre, again being $400, we are looking at
the savings, that we are putting money back into the
pockets of people in our country so that they can us e it
at their discretion. It is very important in helping our
economy and helping our people get back to work.
We have heard our other colleagues speak to
why it is important for children to be in school. We have
heard about social engagement, age-appropriate development, the opportunity for them to play and learn, the opportunity for them to develop their gross and fine
motor skills and their communication skills, Mr.
Speaker. I think Bermuda has been fortunate in the capacity, particularly during the pandemi c, to allow our
children and to make sure that our children returned back to school.
There are many jurisdictions, and particularly
throughout the Caribbean, Mr. Speaker, in which chil-dren were very delayed in their return back to school.
And I know that the preschools . . . and Minister Wilson,
you can correct me, but I believe that they actually were
in the majority of the time when they were trying to deal with COVID -19 and the pandemic. So this is a very
needy cause and support for our children to maintain in nurseries and preschools. You know, it really helped us
out particularly throughout the pandemic.
What we have learned also, because I have
heard reports from other jurisdictions in regard to the COVID -19 pandemic, is that math and English scores
and the performance of many of our students are not at
par in many other jurisdictions. I cannot speak to Bermuda at this point. But this is just all of the reason why
we should encourage education at an early age so that
our children are in school learning, Mr. Speaker.
Some years ago I was a part of the Financial
Assistance Reform Group, and MP Jackson and MP
Hayward were also part of that reform group. And we
were evaluating the importance of this childcare allow-ance because we had the opportunity to see how much
it wa s costing us as a jurisdiction. And we had great
discussions in regard to how important and beneficial
this allowance is to many people. And now that we are
opening up the threshold, someone has mentioned in
regard to its being only available to a couple of hun-dred. And now we are able to expand it, expand the
threshold in regard to the gross household income
where more people can take advantage of this.
I have had many calls about it already from
people wanting to know how they can sign up, how they can take advantage of the childcare allowance. And I
do not want us to take the words “take advantage” out of context. People need help, Mr. Speaker, and par ticularly in the area of being able to afford childcare.
What we have not talked about is that there is
a significant amount of debt that is out there as it relates to nursery schools not being paid, and nursery schools
not being able to afford their benefits for their staff as
far as social insurance and pensi ons because people
cannot afford to pay for childcare. So they are sending
their child to nursery school, and they are racking up
debt. So again this childcare allowance will help many
families, support many families, support many employ-ers in the field of childcare with being compensated for
their service. What happens when someone cannot afford a service? They do not take them. So then we have
children who are not in school. We have children who are not in nursery school. We do not want that for our
children, because in the end it is the child who suffers.
So with this assistance, Mr. Speaker, it is just
so important. I do not want to discount the importance
in the lives of many people whom this will help. So
again, I support this Bill. I support this amendment, this change in the overall picture of the support for our children, the support for our families, the support for our
women, the support for employers, employees, the support for entrepreneurs, Mr. Speaker. All of these
roles help our economy, Mr. Speaker. So I look forward
to hearing about how this change, this Bill will continue to help many people. I look forward to the reporting
from Minister Hayward in regard to how this childcare
allowance has helped many people, Mr. Speaker, many people I am sure whom it will help. And with that,
Mr. Speaker, I will close. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
1600 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Thank you, Minister.
Does any other Member wish—
MP Richardson, would you like to make your
contribution at this time?

Good afternoon to you, my
colleagues and those in the listening audience.
I am overjoyed to be able to stand and comment on what is now being proposed, because I think we all understand how fundamentally important it is for
people to get off to a good start, because even though
you can take a corrective action, it is going to be a lot easier if you can start off moving in the right direction.
Mr. Speaker, one of my reference points for
now (and I do not know if it is actually a military state-ment or just for what we call uniform services ) relates
to the five Ps. And there are different ways that people
express it, and I will smile and say there is a sixth “P,”
but I will not use that today because of the environment
that we are in. But for me what I always say is, Prior
planning prevents poor performance. So because of
the environment we are in, I am not going to use the sixth “P” that people sometimes put into that place. So
I will leave it alone. But for me it is important today to
talk about the fact that prior planning does prevent poor
performance. And by extension, planning results in a
plan. And a plan is normally composed of many, many
parts.
I am happy today to commend the Minister.
And clearly it is not just the Minister, because the Minister cannot act by himself. He has the support of his technical officers. He then has to have the support, of
course, of his Cabinet colleagues and support of us as
the greater Members of the caucus. Plus of course there are members of the community who will ask questions, make statements and help to inform what we do.
So I think that we can collectively stand today and congratulate many people who form part of this process in
terms of getting us to where we are today.
Many before me have spoken about the various strands in the social network that are being put together to ensure that those of us who need the assistance or can benefit from the assistance can do so.
What I want to do today is those two things, to empha-sise the fact that it is prior planning that prevents poor
performance. And the Minister, based upon his various
statements, is clearly demonstrating that he is going
through the process now of planning in many aspects
to ensure that there are the appropriat e social elements
in Bermuda to help those of us (and I do say “us”) who need them, because we never know when we are going to be in a position to need them.
The second point I want to make is that we
have to remember to be consistent. And I know for me lots of times, I guess from my background, is very often to evaluate concepts based upon how much are the costs from a purely financial perspective? And I want to
encourage all of us today not to think of the Child Day
Care Allowance Amendment [Bill] as purely financial because of course it does provide money, but to think
of it as an ongoing part of the necessary social family
building blocks that are very, ver y important.
I want to state that, thankfully, I am beyond the
stage of having very, very small children. But I have children. I have nieces and nephews. And actually I am reminded today that one of my nephews is going to not
graduate, but is going to have his school -leaving ceremony at the age of five. But just think through the significant benefit that can arise from this in terms of ensuring that more children will have a more sturdy start.
And from that I want to call this a call to action for par-ents. Let us not l ook at this as, Oh wow! Now I can send
my children to school for free! More so, that I can now have a better chance of planning my child’s education from the beginning.
If I think back for my children actually, when it
came to trying to find a day care when they were like
two or three, it was actually quite challenging because
you have to, number one, know what you want for the child; and then once you are thinking of wh at you want,
it is then going out and finding somebody who has that sort of philosophy in terms of teaching so that you can actually match it up. And then of course once you find
all of those things, guess what? There are no places
left over, or as others have said, it becomes very, very
expensive.
So I want to encourage parents now to start to
plan their process. It is not about the most expensive school. It is more about the more comprehensive
school, that you can have the opportunity for your children to go to school and (guess what?) to play, because at that age there is a lot of learning in play. I know that for my wife (I want to say, bless her heart ) a lot of
the learning actually even came out in terms of in the
kitchen when she would be cooking, for example. And
she would have the children t here and have them help
her count out the ingredients in terms of ounces (and
spoonfulls , rather ) and those sorts of things. And
helped them to better coordinate or better understand how numbers go together because obviously one and
one is two. But what do two eggs do, for example, or
the two spoonfulls of sugar , whatever the case may be?
So that is what I want us to really make sure
we do now for those younger parents, and actually for the grandparents also who have influence over their children, is to let this be a call to action for the community. It is very important for all children of course to have
a very strong start. We recognise that if a child does not have a strong start . . . you can make adjustments as
they get older to get them back on the right track , but it
is clearly a lot easier if you can get them on the right track from the start and they can then make a lot more
progress.


Bermuda House of Assembly So again this whole idea of prior planning applies to us individually, but also for us as the broader
community. And that is when we come back into the Government. I believe that government should be relatively small in terms of, do only those things that are
necessary. And in this instance this is one of those necessary things. As I said earlier, yes, I did first of all think
about, Oh wow! How much will this cost? from a financial point of view. But the flip side is, Mr. Speaker, what
will it cost the co mmunity if we do not ensure that our
young people get off on the right foot? What will it cost
our community, Mr. Speaker, if they are not able to, for
example, enter primary school fully prepared? What will
it cost the community, Mr. Speaker, if they actually do
enter primary school ill -prepared and then progress to
the middle school or secondary school still not pre-pared or less [prepared] than their peers?
As we know, a lot of times what happens is that
if I am not prepared for the class, I will tend to be disruptive to get attention upon myself and cause greater
disruption for the entire class and at some level cause the class to learn less because I am being disruptive in
having to draw more attention to me from the teacher.
So that is going to be very, very important.
The other thing, Mr. Speaker, that I believe
happens is that when young people, and all of us, actually, when we are given various options are able to find ourselves . So we never know what we want to do.
And a friend of mine actually told me not long ago . . .
she has a daughter, and she used to be fairly strict with her daughter in terms of, You can’t play with this. You
can’t, you can’t, you can’t. But her father helped her to
understand that it is important to allow the children to do different things because that is how they learn.
It is interesting, because now her daughter is
probably around 21– 22, actually just over 21. And she
has now gone into the medical field whereby she would
record the fact that it was her younger years when she
was able to go into the yard for example and play with the sand and play with the dirt and go swimming, all
those kinds of things, that piqued her interest in terms
of how animals actually interact, how they live and
those things. And now she is going to go on to a strong academic career. That is what she is doing now.
Mr. Speaker, for all of us in this room I believe
that we have different levels of influence whether it be
our children, our grandchildren, or those children who
are in the neighbourhood. So I want us to also reflect
on what we can do in the context even of this day care allowance to assist the various neighbourhoods in a broader way. Minister Furbert spoke earlier in terms of
persons have already called her to ask how they can
benefit. And I trust that we will take time to make sure
that we understand how this programme will work and
encourage others to fully participate.
I believe a secondary step, Mr. Speaker, is that
those who either currently [offer] or want to offer childcare services also understand how this can help them
to better manage their businesses. It does not mean suddenly increasing the cost of coming to the day care,
but to [how] best they can maximise what this means. Because now you can have, say, 15 children paying the
amount that is proposed, which should help to
strengthen the school environment and not have parents having to make choices in terms of, Do I send
them to school or not? So I think that is going to be very,
very important.
And the last thing I think I will say, Mr. Speaker,
is that if I reflect on my own upbringing. When I was probably around the age of six or seven there was ac-tually a teacher who made a tremendous difference in
my life. And that teacher was named Ms. Iant he Pearman. I remember very clearly even now, it was on a
Friday afternoon. We had some math problems to do.
And school was almost finished, and I was not finished
what I was doing. And she simply said to me, Anthony,
you can take the book with you, you kn ow. It’s okay.
Take it home for the weekend. Do some work in it and then come back. I believe that was one of those things that caused me to be more numeric, I suppose, or financially oriented. And then of course, I went on to do
what I had to do from the accounting and the broader
business arena.
I stood briefly at Harrington Sound on Wednesday and made the same point —that we need to remember the value of education —because every single day
an educator has the opportunity to change a person’s
life trajectory. And I note today that the Minister of F inance, or the Premier in his role as Minister of Finance,
spoke about the increased salaries that are going to be
paid to the educators. And there was some negative
comment about that. But I want to even tie that into this
in terms of remembering the valu e of educators. And
even if we go back in our minds in terms of how much
more respected they were back in the so- called day. An
educator would be able to walk throughout the entire
community and be very, very respected, whereas now it does not seem to be s o much. But that is part of a
broader commentary for us as a community to get back
to understanding the value of education and realising
that you do not suddenly learn at the age of 15, 20, 25 or 30. It actually starts [long] before that.
And it goes back to what I said earlier in terms
of, truly, prior planning in this instance will prevent the poor performance of our children, our future leaders,
our future persons in the community who ultimately will
take care of us collectively. So I w ill say one more time
to the Minister, to obviously all of your colleagues, that
I continue to look forward to the various social aspects
that you bring to discussion, that you bring to this floor for actual legislative change to make life easier, and I
guess more than easy, it is to make life more hopeful.
Because if I am a parent and I have no sense of being able to provide for my child, and things like [what we
are doing] today make it seem like, Okay, guess what?
Now I can do these things, that is hope.
And I know that we all realise that sometimes
hope is one of the greatest impetuses that we can have
1602 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly because then we start to believe in what we first
thought of was the impossible. So I thank you, Mr. Min-ister. I commend you for bringing this to the House to-day. And I look forward to those in the community, especially younger parents, embracing it and developing
a more hopeful sense for their children’s future, and by
doing so the community will be better for that.
So thank you, Mr. Minister, and thank you, Mr.
Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Ever so briefly, the need for this Bill today is
one that I commend, like others have, the Minister for
bringing to this Honourable House. And we only have
to look at the context of the challenges our society is
faced with to appreciate the need. The cont ext that I
speak of . . . I reflect on a period now some maybe 15
or 20 years ago almost, Mr. Speaker, when I remember
a good friend of mine, Mr. Phil Perinchief, writing articles about debt and the poverty line. And the report that
came out around 2007– 2008, thereabouts, listed a
household income of $70,000 being deemed poor or
near poor.
And we do know, as the Minister has articulated quite well, that many households are single [parent] households. And we also know collectively that
many of those households are by single women as well,
notwithstanding the instances where there might be a single male raising a family. The challenges that this
family would have, whether or not it be a single child or
multiple children, are very dire when you put it in the
context that since that time period that I reflected on in
my opening remarks we have had a plethora of anti -
social behaviours that make parenting even more challenging than it was when those statistics that Mr. Perinchief and I were speaking specifically to were on a
frequent basis applied today.
So in the context of the Minister’s comments
where the provisions for $900 per child if your income
is at the $65,000 threshold, or $700 per child at the
$90,000 threshold, and $500 per child at the $130,000
threshold are quite significant when you look at the
challenges that parents have in raising their young
ones in this modern- day society.
Notwithstanding the social threat that a parent
is faced with navigating their children through the social
climate of the community [there] is also the economic
threat that is posed, because during that period that I
highlighted the cost of living has acc elerated exponentially during that particular period. We have seen the cost of food outstrip that of what a family can truly afford to put even a wholesome meal on the table. I do not
hear people complaining as much about their profits as
I do persons complaining more about [how] their ability to afford to pay has been [impacted]. And that, I believe,
is something that we are mindful of. And trying to take some measures to stabilise costs for the average family
is something that is thought of very seriously when it
comes to within our party.
But I can tell you this. As this provision, this
amendment Bill provides, I think the Minister for social rehab, Minister Furbert, mentioned the word “dignity.” And dignity is very important when one is receiving assistance. It is no fault of anyone who even may be earning six figures to find themselves in a position where what they are earning just does not allow them to enjoy
a good standard of living. One need only look at what it
would cost them to afford the rent to facilitate a family of two or three additional children.
We have come to appreciate that the days of
our growing up in families of six and seven, and one family being raised in a small one- bedroom house with
one bath, there are many social ills that we would not tolerate today. So it is acceptable for families to even
expect to have two and three bedrooms to be able to
accommodate the [number] of children whom they
have, particularly children of different sexes. So when
you are out there looking to rent, it is not unreasonable
for a landlord in these particular days to meet their ex-pectation of covering their costs to want in excess of
$2,500 and upwards for that rent, depending on what
their mortgage is.
We all know the stories of families who were
caught in the upward draft of the economy back in the
early 2000s, and some, many, were able to become
first-time homeowners carrying $6,000 and $7,000 and
$8,000 mortgages. What happened when the reces-sion came and tore the heart out of them? Many of them were left without homes. Because unlike other jurisdictions where Fannie Mae and agencies like that
were taken to task by the authorities and provisions
were put in place, that is not necessarily the case [here]. So many people in Bermuda find themselves
without homes.
And dare I say the compassion that we see
coming from the Minister is not a universal type of com-passion that we have to live with in our country, sadly,
across the board? But we will soldier on to try and do
our best to make that an accepted reality. Bec ause the
reality is, Mr. Speaker, the cost of living in this country
far exceeds those who once called themselves middle
class. And I hear this. I understand this, as I am a 65 -
year-old today, Mr. Speaker. I know what diminished
earnings means to persons w ho get older and care
about and try their best to contribute to their extended family. And it is not uncommon in this society to see
grandparents still trying to help those who are of their
loins who might be far younger. So, yes, the lingering effect of the recession of the 2000s was passed down
the line. The lingering effects of a pandemic are immediate and passed down the line. So this particular amendment that we are having to contend with as it relates to families is real and immediate.


Bermuda House of Assembly As I often say, and I will return to a 25- year
hobby horse, I am a dreamer, yes. Happy Valley Day
Care Centre, not far from where we are speaking from today, is very much a success story. I look for the Ferry
Reach Day Care Centre of a similar model. I envision
the White Hill Day Care Centre of a similar. Why? Because if it is a good model, I think we need to look forward, be forward- thinking in the future to find out how
we can expand upon those models to meet a growing
need. And a [previous] Member [said], I think it was
Member Richardson, you know, we need to do all we can as the Minister is doing on the front end to provide
childcare as a preventative mechanism to save children
who are coming up in an environment that is all so
harmful to them. And ther e are far more people in our
society, albeit a small percentage, but sufficiently enough, aggressively enough to want to disrupt that type of harmony.
I salute the churches and persons who are social minded and charitable organisations who get to-gether to try to fill in the gap. But this is a mechanism where with dignity —with dignity —a family can receive
help. And the sliding rule that goes to a househo ld up
to $130,000 I think is necessary, and it takes into con-sideration that there are many people with that type of
household income that are one pay cheque away from
being in a very precarious position.
And one other thing that comes with dignity as
well is allowing persons to have some savings when
they can get help. Why would you want a person to be
totally exhausted of everything rather than having a little bit of something in reserve before they can appeal
for some help? I am fully in favour of that and know that
the spirit of understanding the plight of people in the
community has not fallen on deaf ears. And so as we
look at the cost of . . .
You know, in another life I am a talk show host,
and I have had the pleasure of interviewing on many
occasions the current President of the Bermuda Industrial Union, who speaks to the cost of a basket of goods
ever so well. And the way in which that has diminished
over the last 20 years means that $5,000 in Bermuda
can go very fast. It could be one month’s rent for a fam-ily who has three children. And it could be the majority
of one month’s rent for a family. It certainly could be a
sizable port ion of that family’s monthly allowance for
groceries. When you throw in their electricity and their
other costs, that is certainly one month’s worth of expenses. Because the $5,000 allowance is only 1/12 of their income, which falls below the debt and poverty line of $75[,000]. It takes more than $5,000 a month to get
up to $75[,000]. So that number I am sure would be a
sliding scale number that I am certain would be taken
into consideration.
And yes, we talk about dignity, finally, as it relates to gifts, where we do know that there are family members who care for their families. And you might
have a person who is a senior who very well is in need
of some financial assistance. But even with t hat, it does not preclude them from caring about their grandchildren and the like. And there are many seniors out there who are taking what little they have as they negotiate
between medicine and food and necessities to make
sure that their loved ones who will survive them get some help.
So these considerations as articulated by the
Minister as contained in this amendment Bill are well thought [out], and I am pleased to have the opportunity
to lend some support. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, MP.
Does any other Member wish to make a contribution?
Any other?
Deputy Premier.
Hon. Walter H. Roban: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for
the opportunity to contribute to this important debate.
Much has been said by Members thus far, and
I must commend all of the contributions thus far and
certainly commend the Honourable Minister of Economy and Labour for bringing this Bill to the House. It is
a continuation of a number of steps that this Government has taken to address the issue of social protec-tions and using what resources are necessary to at
least stabilise the quality of life of members of this com-munity.
There has been particular attention made because we know that this particular social protection
mechanism is very important to families. We as a country are confronting a number of issues in our continuous
efforts to be sustainable through economic develo pment, through opportunity and through ensuring the
quality of life of our citizens generally. One of those
concerns is the development of our children, the stability of our families. And the family has evolved certainly
in many recent decades, as has the profile of our work-force and the profile of our living situation in the country.
As has been mentioned, most households are run by
women. Women now (and this has happened over the
last 50 or so years) make up the majority of our work-force. So the very nature of work, the very nature of
how the economy functions in this country is very much
linked to the ability of a particular gender within our so-ciety, [who have] the capabilities to ensure stable family
life and ensure stable economic income. That is where
we are.
So this has meant that as things like certain
services of a social nature have evolved, it has had to
be responsive to the needs of families and what the family life of Bermuda has become. It is a family life
where our women, our Bermudian women are at the
core of the stability of family life in this country. And in some cases they are the main economic drivers of the
country. And if we link our economic stability to our social stability, we have to be mindful of the interests of the women of Bermuda.
1604 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly If you will just give me a moment, Mr. Speaker,
I would like to read something. And it comes from the
2007 PLP Platform titled “Patterns of Progress.” One of the key national objectives in that platform was social
transformation. And let me just go to a f ew snippets of
it if you give me permission, Mr. Speaker. “ The PLP
Government focus is on social transformation in order
to challenge the real structures of inequality and pov-erty.”
Depending on their financial circumstances,
families can look forward to free childcare services for parents. That, Mr. Speaker, speaks to a consistency of
attention that this Government has had. And what we
know is that the manifestation of that intention in 2007
was the child day care allowance, the principal legislation of 2008 which we are amending today. There has
been consistent attention to the needs of families by this Government. I thought it was important to point that
out, the amendment and the work of the Honourable
Minister for Economy and Labour in this space, and he
has articulated this very clearly, that it is part of an effort to continuously affect and address the strength of social protections for this country.
And we know, even though I sought to give
crystallisation to how this originally came about, we are here now in 2023 having followed a very, very difficult
period for this country where perhaps there were some assumptions about the social protections we h ad in
place. But the pandemic experience and the aftermath
of that have shown gaps. And those gaps, just as had
to happen, I believe we have seen in other countries,
we have had countries much wealthier than ours and
with more resources than ours find themselves and their social protection mechanisms challenged for stability.
But here we are now in 2023 having been
through an experience that we know that there are things we needed to do to assess and make adjustments to the social protection mechanisms. And that is the Bill that the Honourable Minister, in a line of consistent efforts to address this, so he has brought a number of measures of which he spoke about in his brief
that are further refining, further amending and bringing further sensitivities to the needs that this country requires around the social sort of framework that can support families, that can ensure the quality of life for families, that can ensure sustainability of families, that can
ensure an avenue for our children to be ensured the
best opportunity in the start of their life and that their families can be confident that they will get support for their needs.
And I have heard some of the numbers, Mr.
Speaker, about now the average monthly charge for child day care is like $1,400. I believe that is a number
that I did hear mentioned by Members. And that is extraordinary because I can remember when this Bill was
brought we were talking about the average cost for
monthly child care was $700. And that was seen to be
exorbitant at that time. And here we are, that has nearly doubled based on the presentations that have been
submitted to this House today. So this show s there is a
real need.
I do not doubt that those costs are necessary,
because those people providing those provisions in our community are clearly dedicated toward doing it. They
have costs that they have to give attention to. They
have standards from a regulatory standpoint that they have to abide by. And these are important things for the
safety and benefit of our children; they have to be in
place. So they have costs to their obligation to their oc-cupation that we as the Government must ensure are
in place. Because the safety and welfare of our children
who are in daily care are important. And there is a cost
to that. Certainly, the quality of the background of those
persons who are giving the care . . . we want to make
sure that they are qualified to provide the care.
Even though there are some people who may
not necessarily have any academic or certification, there are some people in this community as we know, their life experiences have made them eminently qualified to give childcare. But the environment upon which
they give it is important to be proper, not so much that
they need a piece of paper that I qualify to take care of a child, but that the environment that they are doing it
in is healthy, is safe and is providing for the needs of
those children. And we appreciate that there are costs
associated with that. But there is also an obligation to make sure that those environments are the best that
our children require.
So those costs, by and large, are necessary.
But it certainly is surprising and concerning that we are
seeing almost double possibly the cost to a family who
may not be able to afford this service which is necessary for their welfare, for that family to function that they
are confronted with this cost. So that is another reason
why this type of amendment that is further refining the
framework in a line of consistent efforts to do so as we learn, as we understand is being done.

[Mr. Christopher Famous, Acting Speaker, in the
Chair.]

Hon. Walter H. Roban: Social protections will always
have to be refined to be assessed and monitored so
that they are applicable to the needs of the community
as it exists. As we may know historically, Mr. Acting
Speaker, the country was not always this responsive. Much of the attention toward the welfare of children was
done privately years ago by charities. Charities such as
the Sunshine League, such as the Brangman Home, such as the Friendly Societies. As I understand it, one
of the mantras of the Friendly Societies was, We will
take care of the widows and the orphans and bury the
dead. That was part of the mantra of the Friendly Societies. Also the vestries as well provided some level of support in certain communities.


Bermuda House of Assembly But here we are now. Those were in less modern times when there were not these levels of administration available consistently Island- wide. But now it
is. And now it is the Government that is playing a major
role in ensuring that these services are availa ble. And
we certainly have the support of people in the community who are providing these services privately. There
are certainly public institutions that do it as well. But the standard is no less needed.
So what the Honourable Minister has brought
today is the continued refinement of a long evolution of necessary care toward the needs of our families and
the needs of our children. And we will continue to look
to refine these. So for those who might say, Well, it’s
not enough. Okay, you are right. But it will never be enough because these sorts of services, the social protections that are required, will continuously need to be assessed and evaluated and determined if they are being effective. This is a part of that process today.
I commend once again the Honourable Minister for Economy and Labour for bringing this Bill, a part
of a package of social protections, assessments that he
and his team have gone through that will be necessary.
And I am sure he will bring more and his team will bring
more in collaboration with other Ministries such as
Health, and Social Development and Seniors. I am sure
we will see more because this is a necessary process for any Administration to go through. Where the gaps
are we must plug them. Where the needs are we must
provide them. And I am proud to be a part of a Government that has seen this, that has responded to this over
decades, and we are continuing that process today.
Thank you very much, Mr. Acting Speaker.

Thank you, Honourable Deputy
Premier.
Would any other Members like to contribute to
this debate?
The Chair recognises the Honourable Member
Dunkley from constituency 10.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Mr. Acting
Speaker, and good afternoon to everybody.
As colleagues have already said before me, we
on this side support this piece of legislation because
obviously in any right -thinking society it is important
that we help those in need of help. And it is up to those
with authority, with leadership in Gover nment to decide
what that level of support will be. As the Honourable
Member before me just spoke, the Deputy Premier, he referred to the social protections . And I think that is an
apt phrase that he perhaps used.
In listening to this debate and reading through
the legislation in advance of today’s debate, there are
two things that struck me as important to raise here today after showing my support for this legislation. If we believe that the Bermuda economy is str engthening
and all of the economic indicators are saying so, this
legislation is a misnomer to that thinking. Because clearly, if the economy is taking on all fronts and all Bermudians have an opportunity to be involved in the strengthening of the economy, then there should be an
opportunity for them to go out and get gainful employ-ment, provide for their family and do all of the things that we have talked about today.
And so when the economy really does start to
turn in the right direction and get stronger in every area, we should see these people who need the social protections, we should see them able to take up employment and have some of those protections fall away because of the opportunity that is provided for them. Because, Mr. Acting Speaker, I am sure you will agree that
men and women feel much better when they are out there doing for themselves, contributing and taking
care of their families.
The last point that I will make today, Mr. Acting
Speaker, is that I have heard through the debate today
that we have single- parent households. And a number
of speakers have talked about the lady being the provider in the house. And there has been some mu ted
conversation around the family. Well, we have seen, in my humble opinion, Mr. Acting Speaker, over a number
of years what I would consider the breakdown of the
family unit. And [we need to] to strengthen our society, if we are going to put people in a better position to have
good gainful employment, quality of lives, everything that people would aspire to in life, raising their family in good conditions, sending them to good schools, able to
enjoy their weekends, take a trip, socialise with family
and f riends, do all of those things that we look forward
to outside of work where we can let our hair down and enjoy our lives, enjoy our family, enjoy the people
around us, enjoy this beautiful country that we live in.
If we want all of that to take place, one of the
most critical things that we have to deal with, Mr. Acting
Speaker, is we need to actually focus in on strengthening the family unit, because it takes two to create a child, and it takes two to raise a chil d, Mr. Acting
Speaker. One of the greatest privileges, one of the largest responsibilities, Mr. Acting Speaker, in life is that
responsibility of having a child. And as we talk about single- parent households and the breakdown of the
family unit, I think it is time to reflect a little bit on how
we can strengthen that family unit. Because in the world we live in today, it is much more complicated than when
we grew up. I mean, when we grew up if you ran down
the street and played, you knew you were coming hom e
before dark. And family and friends really were not concerned about you because they would send you home
before dark.
But nowadays, if your children stray too far
from home, you are worried about them. Because of increased traffic on the roads and, you know, all of these types of things. So if we are going to really see
our country get on a better footing, it has to star t with
the family being stronger. And single- parent households have a harder job in the difficult world that we live
in. So we as Members of the Parliament elected to
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Bermuda House of Assembly serve the people of Bermuda, we need to think more
about how we strengthen families. And when we strengthen families, these social protections will still be there, but they will be needed by fewer and fewer people.
I am blessed to be a grandfather now of two
young children. I have two children of my own. And I
never really thought it was so true until I became a grandparent on how much you love and appreciate
your grandchildren. I mean, every day I go home I make
an excuse, I make a point to go by my daughter’s and
son-in-law’s house to see my grandchildren. And a lot
of times when I go to work in the morning, I make another excuse to stop by in the morning. Because the joy
I get from seeing those bright, sunny faces trying to
learn about the world, so full of energy, so inquisitive about things, it is the biggest joy that one can get. And at this age of my life, I worry about my grandchildren
because with a little bit of experience we know the challenges that we face in the world.
So as legislators who worked hard to get
elected and who, like our constituents, are here to serve them, if we can do anything to improve Bermuda
with all of the debates we have about the economy,
about health care, security and all of that —if we can do
anything, one of the most important responsibilities falls
under Minister Furbert, and that is the strengthening of the family unit. Because if we can strengthen the family
unit, we will strengthen Bermuda.
So as we discuss this Bill today, I am not about
to pour cold water on it in any way. I just want to bring the reflection back [to this], we have a lot of work to do
in our community. And I remember a former Member of this Honourable House who sat on the other side, Dale
Butler. He talked about it all the time. And all of us in
this community, we talked about graduations this morning, the pride that we had in our children and our nephews graduating. We should have that pride.
But we need to make it so that all of the parents
in our community are putting just a little more effort into
making sure their family is doing well. It is a tough world
out there. And when we think about it, there really are
fewer and fewer people who ac tually care about what
happens outside their sphere of influence. So when
your children are young and they look into your eyes as
the parent, or the grandparent or the provider, they look
into your eyes to see the hope that they have a better
future. And t heir future has to be [better] because we
become stronger people in taking care of them. We do
not shirk our responsibilities. We spend time with them. We make sure they get a good education. We do homework with them. We read with them every night when
they are put to bed.
Now, this legislation here today, these changes
allow parents to have more freedom to do some of that.
So we applaud the Government in doing that. But the commitment to raise our children is 24/7. And I am sad
to say that we can all do better [raising chi ldren]. So, Mr. Acting Speaker, as we support this legislation today, we need to support families and call all of those people up, all of those twosomes who had children.
They have a responsibility to raise that child in the appropriate way to give that child a foundation to stand on just like our forefathers gave us a reasonable foundation to stand on when we were growing up.
I am not pointing fingers. I am just making a
general statement that we can all do better.
Thank you, Mr. Acting Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Acting
Speaker. This is a pleasant surprise, and I appreciate
your allowing me to participate in the debate.
First of all, I would like to extend to the public
. . . We all know that Bermudians are very proud and
we do not like handouts. And we certainly do not like the idea of going to an office to apply for assistance. But in this instance and in many other instances where
the Government is providing the safety net and the stability to help your family grow and become more com-fortable in our society, I urge you to take advantage of
it. I urge you to take advantage of it. Because we know
how the poor and the wor king poor are talked about in
this country and the many attempts to blame them for their circumstances where not in every case that is the
case. So this is something that your tax dollars over the years have helped pay for, your work and your contributions to society have helped build for. And I urge you
to take advantage of this. Because this is part of the
debt that we as a society owe to our families, and es-pecially to our children.
Because of the way the economy has shifted
over the past 40 years, the days when you could drop your children off to Nana or Auntie or even, you know, your wife could stay home with the children have
changed. Very few families can afford to have only one
breadwinner. And a lot of families, due to the break-down of the family unit, only have one breadwinner. So
the access to child care is important. So I have worked
on jobsites where people did not have reliable child care. And it affected their ability to make time. It affected their ability to maintain employment. It affected
their ability to be able to maintain their family structure because they could not rely on, every day on the way
to work dropping somebody off, dropping their child off
and knowing that they were being cared for and taken care of. So this is something that will provide a great
assistance to that [situation] because there are employers, Mr. Acting Speaker, who shy away from single mothers as employees because of the supposed unreliabilit y. And I think anything we can do to help people


Bermuda House of Assembly help themselves, people who are trying to do the right
thing and being able to maintain employment, it is a good thing.
Mr. Acting Speaker, the other issue is that without reliable and affordable childcare, people make in-teresting decisions about their lives. In a country that is
dealing with a population crisis, we do not need any
more impediments to Bermudians having chi ldren. We
do not need any more impediments to Bermudians having the ability to look ahead and say, Okay. I can do
this. I can build a family. Because the capacity to have
children and build a family, it stabilises our community.
It gives people a sense of investment in our community.
And this is something we should really encourage
wherever we can.
Now I think that my colleague on the Opposition bench who took his seat, I think he has got a good point in terms of maintaining the family unit. I think that
is a critical part, and we all have a role to play with that.
But I also think that we now have to also, as the Government has taken these steps toward assisting families, we should also ensure that every aspect of our
community is doing what they can to assist families,
whether there are things like businesses looking at
flexi- time to give people th e opportunity to do the work
40 hours a week or however many hours a week at a rate that allows them to maintain a better family -work
structure. Maintaining or introducing work from home,
which has been a tremendous positive for many people
in terms of the work -life balance. And yes, Mr. Acting
Speaker, pay a decent wage for a decent day’s work.
That can go a long way toward helping to strengthen
and maintain the family structure.
So I am glad to support this legislation. I think
it is very timely. It speaks to our desire to be able to
help lift our people up. And I am encouraged by the work that we are doing and the progress we are making
not just in terms of providing safety nets , because I
think that is a natural part of being a member of the
Progressive Labour Party, to put a safety net out for all
of our people. But also looking ahead to the next debate, not to anticipate the debate, but also giving people the opportunity to earn more money and contribute to our economy and be able to lift themselves out of
poverty through entrepreneurship and employment opportunities. That is a positive thing, and I am very glad
to support this Bill. Thank you, Mr. Acting Speaker.

Thank you, Member from constituency 33.
The [Chair] now recognises the Honourable
Education Minister, Diallo Rabain.
[Hon. Dennis P. Lister, Jr., Speaker, in the Chair]
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
And thank you, colleagues who have spoken already.
Mr. Speaker, when I look back at the Progressive Labour Party’s 2017 Platform, it stated that a PLP Government would create change that would put Ber-muda’s children and their future first. We have just heard from the Member from constituency 10 who sat
down. And something he said at the end of his presen-tation really caught my attention. And he said, he spoke about the life (and I am paraphrasing). He spoke about
the life and the setup that his forefathers, or our forefathers, had left for them to build upon, Mr. Speaker. Un-fortunately for some of us, including the Member, that
was built upon the backs of the very people we are trying to help now. And so to actually say that just does not sit right with me because not everybody is in that
position that this Member did speak of.
But, Mr. Speaker, I go back to the 2017 campaign. And the Progressive Labour Party also said that
we would create a fairer Bermuda and evaluate approaches that best support family -first policies for families with children in lower incomes and break the cy cle
of poverty.
Mr. Speaker, this Government’s core ethos
when it comes to education has always been deeply
rooted in the belief that all citizens, regardless of their
station in life, should be provided with the tools and
means to obtain their educational goals.
And, Mr. Speaker, there is a clear divide between the ethos of those who sit on this side and those
who sit on the other side that has been reinforced,
when I go back and think about the comments about our forefathers and the like.
But, Mr. Speaker, our commitment to providing
these needs for our students and our people, including education reform, including providing financial assistance for students at the Bermuda College and overseas institutions, is very clear. And today we are just
seeing another step in the direction that our core ethos
drives us to want to do and need to do.
Mr. Speaker, if you will allow me a little bit a
latitude and talk about some of the things that have
been accomplished since 2017 for our children, for our
students and for the people of Bermuda, although there
will be persons who may not sit on this side who disagree with us. So, Mr. Speaker, when I talk about the last six years and I talk about what we have done for
our children, we have introduced the Bright Start Programme. It is a programme that allows preschool to ad-mit children down to the age of t hree. It has provided a
very unique opportunity, a very good opportunity for persons who could not afford childcare, an opportunity for their children to start the public school system at
three years old rather than four.
We have introduced the Basics Programme. It
is a programme introduced by the Child Development
Programme that gives new parents skills, workshops
and the tools to become better parents. So again, giv-ing back at that lower age where it is most critical.
Mr. Speaker, since 2017 we have provided the
Bermuda College with a grant of $300,000 specifically for financial aid. That grant, Mr. Speaker, I am proud to
1608 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly say, has helped 434 persons attend the Bermuda College since 2017. Mr. Speaker, since 2017 funding for government scholarships, government awards and government grants has increased from around $1 million when we became Government to the current
amount of $1.95 million. And now today we are making
changes in the Child Care Allowance Act to increase
those eligible for this allowance in order for our children to benefit from early educational opportunities.
Mr. Speaker, it should come as no surprise to
anyone who has followed the Progressive Labour Party and supports the Progressive Labour Party to know
that this is just the ethos in which we operate. So there
will be some out there who say, Glad we’re now doing
this versus some who will say, Why are we doing this?
This legislation is brilliant. And for those who went be-fore me, I do want to thank the Minister for bringing it, Mr. Speaker. It is no surprise that the last speaker from
the other side was part o f the Government that reduced
the threshold from $75,000 to (I believe it was) $60,000,
which created a regime where [fewer] people qualified for this benefit. So we are doing what we naturally do
in correcting past wrongs.
But, Mr. Speaker, while I do state that we are
going in the right direction, there is some more that we can do and some more that we will do. And we will not
shy away from continuing to move in the right direction. Now, Mr. Speaker, I may differ from most who have
gotten up and stood and spoken about this. I do not
view this as a handout, a hand- up or a financial assistance. I view this as a human right for our children. The
United Nations Convention on Education on the rights
of children speaks to the comprehensive human rights enshrined of children that make it a human right for children to have three primary objectives. And they are
children’s learning and development. We must advance children’s learning and development. We must
enable families to manage parenting and work, and we
must reduce the impact of disadvantage on children’s
life chances. Everything that we are doing today
speaks to some of that, Mr. Speaker.
This Child Care Allowance Amendment Bill is
an essential step and addresses more specifically the
second point that I made, but it does just touch upon
point one and point two. In particular when we are referring to enabling families to manage parenting a nd
work, this speaks to it. And I believe we have had persons also speak to that, how it enhances women’s
place in the workforce. However, Mr. Speaker, as I said, there is additional work to be done. And we must continue to focus on quality, inclusivity an d equity when
it comes to education. And I am grateful, Mr. Speaker,
that this is one of the 18 working groups of the Education Reform Unit.
It is important to stress how early intervention
into the lives of our children can make their lives, and by extension the lives of our country, that much better.
This is not just a social policy, Mr. Speaker. It is work to
complement today’s legislation. And it is one that is backed up by any data that you read upon early child
development.
Mr. Speaker, Nobel Laureate James Heckman
has been recognised for his pioneering work in micro-economics and has developed what we call the Heck-man curve. The Heckman curve shows that the highest
rate of economic return for any country comes from the
earlier its investments are in its children. Mr. Speaker,
unfortunately, most modern societies view their success of providing support for education in what they do
in the later stages of children’s lives. All data point to that being the most incorrect way of approaching the
situation. What we do at the beginning of our children’s lives will provide the enhanced outcomes for our chil-dren that unfortunately we seek to try and catch up on
after they have become young adults.
Leading research, Mr. Speaker, also indicates
that children’s social, emotional well -being and their
ability to self -regulate in their early childhood have
more to do with their being successful than their early
childhood academics. Again, this may be something
that has been slightly different from what we have
heard today. But it is because the self -regulation is fundamental to their attention and thus increases their abil-ity to learn as they grow. The inability of any country to provide for children and their parents with the ability to
have access to early childhood care will have an impact
on our society and our community years from now. We have to look past this immediate economic impact of
providing this type of support and understand that we
reap the benefits of what we are doing now many years
into the future. And we simply just cannot afford not to provide these early interventions for our children.
So the ability to look beyond today, as the colleague who spoke on the other side from [constituency] 10 seemed to intimate around the economic impact that such a programme will have, will only condemn us to a group of individuals 20 years from now still suffering from the same things, the same issues
and ills that we are battling now, Mr. Speaker. But this
is the hallmark of this Government —putting things in
place that we know will reap the benefits years from
now and balancing that against the need for i mmediate
gratification which some people would like to see us do. It is important for us to build a solid foundation for a prosperous nation, and that starts with making sure that
our children are taken care of from birth.
Early investment in our childcare development
will create a vibrant economy and one that we can be
proud of. These early investments are data proven to
build a robust, vibrant and healthy economy. So, Mr. Speaker, I recommend to all of my honourable colleagues, take an opportunity to read the position paper
published by the Ministry of Education entitled A Bright
Start for a Brilliant Future: Early Education Childhood
in Bermuda. And after reading that, Mr. Speaker, we
probably would not be here for as long as we are de-bating something that we all should just be getting up
and saying, Thank you, Minister Hayward, for bringing


Bermuda House of Assembly this forward and looking out for our children and our
country’s future.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

[No audible response]

Hon. Jason Hayward: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the intention of the Government
to make these changes was simply to help people live
a decent and dignified life in our society. It was simply
to help ensure that people are able to have a decent quality and standard of life in Bermuda. The c hanges
that I spoke about in terms of the reform in the social
protection, these are human- centred policy initiatives.
Mr. Speaker, let me say this. A Member spoke
about there is a more efficient way to make these
amendments, and the Minister need not have to bring legislation to the floor of this House to make the
changes. I cannot support that notion, that theory or
that view by the Opposition Member. If I had the authority to make the changes, Mr. Speaker, I would have gone ahead and made the changes.
The reality is the way in which the Act is drafted
and the regulations associated with the Act are drafted only speak to my ability to amend the income and expenditure thresholds of an individual. However, with
changing the regime to a household annual income, which means we had to amend the principal legislation
to take into consideration a household assessment, as
a household assessment would not have been able to
be achieved by simply amending the regulations. So
we had to make the amendments and provid e the necessary changes to the principal Act. That is what we are
doing here today so that we can have the regulations
that include the tiered system and the household assessments so that persons can receive their increased
benefits and then so that more B ermudians can take
advantage of the benefits.
But this change guarantees that every single
mother who makes under $130,000 in this community
who lives independently will receive a benefit. Every
single parent, whether it be a mother or a father, who
makes under $130,000 and lives independently will r eceive a benefit per child per month. That is a big deal,
Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is about helping children
have access to adequate child day care. This is about
helping our children prepare for their entire life’s journey by providing them with a s ound foundation.
Mr. Speaker, just to go into some of the numbers so that individuals are clear, the government currently pays out roughly around $90,000 per month on
child day care allowance. Those funds go to roughly 30
day care facilities and support roughly 110 famili es.
The median household income in Bermuda, Mr.
Speaker, at last record was $63,500, which means that
the lowest threshold will cover half of the incomes that are received in Bermuda. The median income is not the
average. It means that half of the populati on is above
and the other half of the population is below. And our lowest threshold, which is $65,000, means that anybody in that particular income bracket who lives inde-pendently and has a child will receive a benefit.
So we just did not pluck $65,000 out of the sky.
We pegged it to the median. So if the median for a one-person household was $63,500, then what we did was
if two parents were underneath the median that was
how we got to the top threshold of $130,000.
Just looking at the numbers of our population
that fall underneath the median and using that calcula-tion, this will significantly benefit a number of house-holds in Bermuda. And how do we know if this programme is working? It is when I come here to this Ho nourable House and provide the annual report and you
see that the number of persons who are receiving child
day care increases, and the benefits that Government
provides increase correspondingly to that allowance as well.
Mr. Speaker, it does not matter how well our
economy is doing. People will continue to need social protection systems. The measure of our economy is not
the number of parents who are able to take advantage
of child day care allowance or not. That may be a measure of the Government’s commitment to its citizens, the number of people who can take advantage. But there is no correlation between the number of people who
can take advantage of child day care allowance and the state of our economy, because our econ omy can be
progressing. At income levels within our economy it
may not progress at the same pace. So we will certainly
. . . there will always be a need for us to provide assistance. And at this point it is not designed to be a tem-porary assistance. It is something that we anticipate
building upon in future years.
Because if the Government’s fiscal position
was in a space where it can absorb free child day care
for every child in Bermuda, then that is what we would
do. Just like when we made college free for everybody who wanted to attend Bermuda College. So at thi s point
in time the benefit is not meant to be universal, but it is
meant to support people who are in need.
If I look at the neo- liberal mind- set, Mr.
Speaker, they would have us continually providing relief and support to the business community under the
notion that when they do well, it would trickle down to the rest in our society. But you see, this Government is
about empowerment, the empowerment of our residents. The human- centred approach is the hallmark of
our governance model. So we have no challenge with
providing additional social protections to the people
and families of Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, with that said, I move that the Bill
be committed.

Honourable Members, we are now in
Committee of the whole [House] for further considera-tion of the Bill entitled
Child Day Care Allowance
Amendment Act 2023 .
Minister Hayward, you have the floor.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Chairman, I rise in this Honourable House today to speak to the Bill entitled the Child Day Care Allowance Amendment Act 2023.
The purpose of this Bill is to amend the Child
Day Care Allowance Act 2008 (the principal Act) to al-low the Minister to prescribe the maximum gross annual household income in respect of an application
made to obtain a child day care allowance; prescribe categories and the level of qualifying incomes for the
purpose of granting an award; and provide further guidance to determine as the ability for an award based on
the qualifying gross annual household income,
Mr. Chairman, I would like to move clauses 1
through 6.

Continue.

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Chairman, clause 1 is self -
explanatory.
Clause 2 amends section 2 (“Interpretation”) of
the principal Act by defining “gross annual household
income” and “supporting parent or spouse.”
Mr. Chairman, clauses 3, 5 and 6 amend the
principal Act in section 3 (“Application for day care allowance”), section 7 (“Conditions applicable to award”)
and section 10 (“Powers of Director”) to clarify those provisions in relation to the gross annual income of an
applicant.
Clause 4 amends the principal Act in section 4
(“Qualified persons”) to provide that a person is qualified to apply for a day care allowance based on a gross
annual household income not exceeding the maximum
prescribed amount rather than a gross annual income
not exceeding the maximum prescribed amount.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I note in the amendment Bill at clause 3, which
reads, “Section 3 of the principal Act is amended — "(a) in subsection (2) by deleting ‘income,’ and sub-stituting ‘income and the name and gross annual income of any supporting parent or spouse, . . .’”
And then it moves on to repeal subsection (3)
of the principal Act.
Now, my question: It appears that the definition
in the amendment Bill inserts new definitions into section 2 of the principal Act and then removes the definition in section 3(3) of the principal Act. My question to
the Honourable Minister is . . . it app ears that these definitions mean the same thing. Could the Minister please
clarify the difference between these two definitions?
And if so, why the change in the location of the definitions? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Honourable Minister.
Further on to clause 4 of the Bill, reading,
“Amends section 4”
“4 Section 4 of the principal Act is amended—
"(a) in subsection (1)(c) by inserting after ‘an-nual’ the word ‘household’;
"(b) by repealing subsection (2).”
Actually, I would like to speak to that. Specifically in section 4 of the principal Act, subsection (2)
says (in part), “a person is not qualified to apply for a
day care allowance where the total of the person’s gross annual income and the gross annual i ncome of a
parent or spouse referred to in section 3(3) exceeds the
maximum prescribed amount.”
It appears that this Bill removes that limitation,
that being that a person is not qualified where they do
not meet certain criteria. Could the Honourable Minister please clarify where that limitation has been moved to,
if at all?
Thank you.

Thank you.
Minister.
Hon. Jason Hayward: In the principal Act that particular carveout was pertaining to a person being qualified
on a personal income level, not exceeding the maximum prescribed amount. However, we have removed
personal income levels and we have moved to annual household income that we inserted in section 4(1)(c).
And as a result there is no longer a need for that clause.



Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: MP Richardson.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Would the Honourable Minister . . . so my
question relates to how a person would be not qualified,
because section 4(2) says “a person is not qualified
. . .” I take the point that we are given that we are
changing enough definitions and we are changing
enough about basically how we count the household
income. But it still says “a person is not qualified” and then follows on. It strikes me that it should then just update the definitions. In other words, we should still have
an ability to [disqualify] a person if they do not meet
certain criteri a.
That is how I am reading it. If the Honourable
Minister could help clarify, is the intent to remove the disqualification or the limitation?

Hon. Jason Hayward: What we thought the best practice is that we just speak to who qualifies. And by nature
of not meeting the criteria of section 4(1)(a), (b), (c) and
(d) as to who qualifies, it automatically speaks to who
is not qualified. So there is no need for that clarification
because they would actually mean one and the same
thing.

Continue, Minister.

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Chairman, clause 7
amends section 17, Regulations, of the principal Act to
allow the Minister to prescribe the maximum gross annual household income, not the maximum gross annual
income; and to prescribe categories of such incomes
for the purpose of granting a maximum award within
each category.
Mr. Chairman, the final clause, clause 8, provides for the Act to come into operation by notice published in the Gazette. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Members, are there any objections to
the Child Day Care Allowance Amendment Act 2023
being reported to the House as printed?
There are none.
The Bill has been reported as printed.
Members, that actually brings us to the end of
that matter.
The next matter this afternoon is the motion,
which is moved by the same Minister who just led the
1612 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly last debate. It is the motion which was given on the 16th
of June 2023. And it reads,
“BE IT RESOLVED that this Honourable
House supports the Economic Development Strategy
Bermuda 2023– 2027, as tabled by the Minister” [of
Economy and Labour].
And as you know, the Minister was participating in that last debate. It took a period of time. And he
will be participating in this one as well. Mother Nature
has called. So we are going to give him a few minutes
just to resolve that, and then we will proc eed.

[Laughter]

We are just waiting. For the public, the
listening audience, we are all human in this facility. And
Mother Nature affects all of us at some time. And we
have been gracious that the Minister was able to lead
the debate this morning, and we are just giving him a
few minutes so he can come in and lead the debate this afternoon. We have already gotten the indulgence of
the House to provide for that. And we are just asking
the listening audience to follow suit with us. And mo-mentarily we will start the next mat ter.
And for the sake of the listening audience, in
today’s Order [of Business] we had two pieces of busi-ness. The first was the Child Day Care Allowance
Amendment Act 2023, which was just concluded. And
that was actually a Bill to be done. And next is a motion. And that motion is being put by the same Minister, the
Minister of Economy and Labour, Minister Hayward.
We will now call on Minister Hayward to present his motion.
Minister.

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, I thank you for
your indulgence.

No problem. Quite all right.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, I move that the
House do now take under consideration the following
motion, notice of which was given on the 16
th of June
2023:
“BE IT RESOLVED that this Honourable
House supports the Economic Development Strategy
Bermuda 2023– 2027 , as tabled by the Minister of
Economy and Labour on the 16th of June 2023.”

Are there any objections?
There are none.
Continue, Minister.

MOTION

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
BERMUDA 2023 –2027

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to
lead off on the debate surrounding the Government’s Economic Development Strategy. Mr. Speaker, what is
abundantly clear is that this Government has a plan for
the economy and the future success of Bermuda. Mr.
Speaker, thi s Economic Development Strategy builds
upon the economic recovery plan that was presented
to the Parliament and members of the public after the
economic downturn experienced by the pandemic.
Mr. Speaker, in September of 2022 I released
and tabled a Position Paper which spoke about the
challenges of an ageing population in Bermuda. The Position Paper set out our argument highlighting that if
intervention does not take place, we will have sever e
challenges to our economy and our way of life based
on Bermuda’s rapidly ageing population. It was predicted that Bermuda’s current working population will
be unable to support the local economy in years to come. That situation is as a result of a number of circumstances:
• decreasing birthrates and increasing death
rates;
• the population expecting to age at a very rapid rate.
Mr. Speaker, in 2016 the median age of Bermuda’s population was 44.1 years. By 2026 the median
age will increase to 48.6. Over that period of time more
people will also retire.
Mr. Speaker, as a measure of a level of sustainability in relation to the number of workers you need
in your population to sustain your ageing economy, we looked at the old age dependency ratio. The old age
dependency ratio, based off of the calculation that we
used, is the number of persons between the ages of 20
and 65 who are able to support the population 65 years
and older. In [ 2017], Mr. Speaker, Bermuda’s dependency ratio was 28.0. In [2017] the OECD average old
age dependency ratio was 28. 9. Mr. Speaker, that puts


Bermuda House of Assembly in 2017 the old age dependency ratio, the OECD average, was 28.9, which will place Bermuda underneath the OECD average. However, in 2026 Bermuda’s old age dependency ratio will be 43.6 while the OECD average will only move to 35.5.
And so the Government felt as though if we
were able to peg our ratio with the old age dependency
ratio, it would move us in greater alignment with how the rest of the world is actually ageing. And then also
create an average level of support that is requ ired to
support our seniors population. So when we looked at
it, we determined that if this problem goes unaddressed, all of us in this country will have challenges.
This issue transcends politics. This issue pertains to the future well -being and stability of Bermuda.
Left unaddressed, it will have a negative impact on our
economic growth and our economic development. Left unaddressed, it will mean that the average resident will
have to spend more on health care. Left unaddressed,
it means that we will have challenges with sustainable
pensions. Left unaddressed, it means that we will have gaps in our labour force. It means that we will not have
sufficient supply coming from the local economy to supply the jobs that are needed to fuel our economy. Left
unaddressed, it means that we will have a smaller tax
base while we have a society which may need increased social support.
And so the Government’s position was that we
needed to increase our working population by 8,418
workers based off of the calculation at that time. That
number will move as the demographics in our population shift, Mr. Speaker. And it is important to under stand
that it is a moving target. But that is our aim, to increase
our working population.
Now, unlike Canada, Mr. Speaker, Bermuda
just cannot welcome 9,000 new residents into our pop-ulation without ensuring that there are not significant
levels of displacement or ensuring that they just do not
compete for jobs that currently exist, which means we will ultimately not be increasing our working population,
but increasing our overall population. So the way this
Government decided to approach this particular matter
is move down a direction where we have robust eco-nomic growth and development across multiple industries, which will create additional economic activity across the board, which will create more jobs. And then
those jobs will be filled by, number one, able- bodied
Bermudians, and then where there is a gap between
the labour demanded by the market and the labour sup-plied, we will fill that with our guest workers to get to a better old- age dependency ratio, but also we will put
our country on a path of sustainable growth and development.
But if we want to know where we are going, we
must have an understanding of where we currently are
from an economic standpoint. And so our economy re-mains robust and resilient. The Minister of Finance estimated that last year our economy would have expand ed between 3.4 [per cent] and 3.9 per cent. The quarterly GDP [ gross domestic product] numbers that
we got in indicate that we are trending in that direction
and that in real terms our economy will increase by at
least 2.9 per cent. And I say “at least” because there is
always a statistical anomaly between quarterly GDP
and annual GDP produced by the production method.
And the production method has always come out
higher than the quarterly GDP numbers. And that is why I say “at least 2.9.”
But even with that 2.9 per cent increase, Mr.
Speaker, it means that our economy has surpassed pre-pandemic levels. So our economy has expanded
beyond where our economy was in 2019 pre- pandemic. So this is significant. We are waiting on our an-nual 2022 GD P numbers, which will show the exact
level of where our current economy is. But all of the in-dicators, the major indicators are trending in the right direction. Whether it be payroll tax receipts, employment income, whether it be household consumption,
whether it be employment numbers, whether it be tour-ism numbers, all of those indicators are trending upward.
And there is even confusion around retail
sales. We report retail sales in volume and value. In
volume terms our retail sales are down. But in value terms, our retail sales are up in 2022, which means the
total revenue received by retailers in 2022 was hi gher
than the total revenue that they received in the previous year. And even if you look at the index numbers, they
are higher than the two- year trend. So there is significant movement in the right direction.
And what we want to do is utilise that platform
that we are currently on where we are trending in the right direction and accelerate and enhance that growth. And that is what the Economic Development Strategy
aims to achieve. It aims to propel us further in the right
direction. It aims to provide a strategic framework that
guides the way in which we approach economic growth and development in Bermuda. The Economic Development Strategy, Mr. Speaker, contains strategic priorities, and within those strategic priorities contains strategic initiatives with action items that will be executed
on by the country’s economic development agencies
and with industry partnerships and assistance. Each initiative that is set out in the strategy, Mr. Speaker, will contain specific action items that will chart a path to
Bermuda’s continued economic prosperity.
Mr. Speaker, what one cannot argue at this
point is whether or not we have a plan for the economy.
We have a plan, Mr. Speaker. The plan is robust. We
have a plan, Mr. Speaker, and the plan is clear. We have a plan, Mr. Speaker, and the plan is strategic. We
have a plan, Mr. Speaker, and the plan is comprehen-sive. We have a plan, Mr. Speaker, and the plan is rel-evant. We have a plan, Mr. Speaker, and that plan is
timely.
In formulation of the plan, Mr. Speaker, we conducted a detailed review of our current economic development activities. We looked at and did an in- depth
1614 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly review and analysis of our economy. We looked at
which industries are growth -drivers, which are employment -drivers and which present the greatest level of
opportunity. We asked for feedback from stakeholders.
We asked for feedback from the public. And all of that
feedback sought was used in the development of the
plan.
Will there be gaps as it pertains to ideas that
people have that are not featured in the plan? Yes,
there will be. Is there space to carry out economic activity in the areas or the gap areas that are identified? Absolutely. And so the feedback that is giv en today if a
gap is identified, the Government is open to having further discussion on that item if it will advance the country’s economic situation. So the debate should be
viewed in that particular light, that this plan should
transcend point -scoring. W e welcome critical feedback,
and that is why we put the plan in front of the House for
debate today because we welcome the feedback. And
where there are gaps identified, as I said, we will have
meaningful discussion. But this economic development strategy as currently laid out sets a roadmap which provides a clear path for Bermuda to move forward.
It is a strategy that seeks to build an economy
that creates greater opportunities for the people of Bermuda. It is a strategy that supports our entrepreneurs
and our small businesses. It is a strategy that seeks to support our farmers and seeks to suppor t our fishermen. It is one that embraces new technology and opportunities for diversification.
Mr. Speaker, there are five strategic priority areas:
1. local and international business retention and
expansion;
2. business attraction and investment promotion;
3. entrepreneurship and small business develop-ment;
4. continued execution of the economic recovery plan; and
5. people.
Mr. Speaker, before I continue I would just ask
your indulgence as to provide me with a time check, because the clock is not on, and I do not want to run out of time on my deliberations.

The time is 3:45. You have an hour.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Jason Hayward: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the first strategic priority is local
and international business retention and expansion. It
is important if we are trying to grow our economy, Mr.
Speaker, that we ensure that we support the businesses that are currently here, that we suppor t them in
keeping their doors open, support them in ensuring
they want to continue to domicile in Bermuda and also
work with them on their expansion plans. We want to
see entrepreneurs moving into small business owners, small business owners move into bein g medium- sized
business owners and then medium- sized business
owners progress to being large business owners.
The three growth drivers of our economy, Mr.
Speaker, are the three largest sectors. There is international business, real estate activities, and financial
and insurance activities. The strategic focus on retention means that in each of those areas we have to have
meaningful engagement with industry to ensure our
business ecosystem continues to work for them. We
need a business ecosystem that allows businesses to thrive in our economy. We need to have a better understanding of what are some of the impediments to
growth, some of the barriers, and remove those barri-ers as best as we possibly can.
Many say there is too much red tape surrounding doing business in Bermuda. And so now I am in a position where I am asking direct questions back to
small business owners or large business owners. I say,
What specifically is the red tape that needs to be re-moved? And then identify when the request is reasonable. We will then work to ensure that we create an en-vironment that is less filled with that red tape.
Mr. Speaker, Bermuda’s largest sector is our
international business sector. It represents currently 28.1 per cent of all economic activity in Bermuda. That
sector has had a five- year growth rate of 2.4 per cent
per annum. In 2021 growth value added of that partic-ular sector was just under $1.8 billion. When individuals
want to do their year -over-year comparison, I ask them
to look at this sector and tell me which year that this
sector declined— after the pandemic or during the pandemic? Because it did not. It remained robust and increased, which means that this is real and genuine growth, which means the growth that was experienced
by this sector is the largest growth that this sector has
experienced in 15 years. How do you get growth such
as that if the bus iness environment is not conducive to
growth? Whether before or after, the business conditions had been maintained and the current stewards of
the economy are the Progressive Labour Party.
But when we look under international business,
we have insurance and risk, reinsurance, captive insurance, life and annuity. We are seeing huge growth in
the life and annuity sector, Mr. Speaker. We have com-panies that continue to warrant captives in Bermuda.
And we maintain our position as the world’s risk capital
and one of the most significant reinsurance hubs in the world.
Asset management is a key feature of our international business activity. The number one area that was identified that we have missing opportunities that
came from stakeholder consultation was in the area of
asset management. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to report to this House I have already begun those conversations with stakeholders in the fund management and
asset management sector to see how we can ensure that we capitalise on the opportunities that exist in that
particular space. I will have a number of meetings with


Bermuda House of Assembly fund and management administrators over the next
weeks, and then I will also have meetings with the law firms who actually have a lot of control over where funds are allocated globally.
But underneath that particular area within our
economy we want to ensure that we have a sound legal
and regulatory framework which supports growth and
industry expansion. We will work with industry to deter-mine expansion barriers, mitigate risk and reduc e external global threats as best as we possibly can, identify key fund formation law firms and alternative asset allo-cators, and ensure that we have closer relations with
industry and we appropriately market Bermuda as a jurisdiction.
The second- largest sector is real estate and
renting activities. In this particular sector we see huge
opportunity for growth, [and it could] be the growth in affordable government housing. We looked at the overall capacity for our residential lots across the Island,
and there is plenty of capacity for continued development based off of the Bermuda Plan. We want to en-sure that we increase the availability of housing in our
economic empowerment zones (EEZs), and we have
incentivised that through approved residential
schemes. We will also be expanding the framework of
economic empowerment zones to South East Hamilton
so that we can encourage residential development in that area, as well as expanding provisions so that we
entice and encourage further levels of residential development in the City of Hamilton.
As I meet with both residents and companies,
one of the major concerns they have is Bermuda’s current capacity to house their expansion efforts. From the ground as we canvass, affordable housing remains a
main concern for constituents. And the Government will
be deliberate as it pertains to supporting the expansion
of residential development of residential dwellings in
Bermuda.
We will also be ensuring that we have the appropriate legislative framework to ensure that there is a
healthy relationship between tenants and their landlords. We also want to ensure we expand opportunities
for Bermudians to acquire a piece of property on the
Rock. We are going to expand initiatives like the mortgage guarantee programme, an initiative that supports
first-time homeowners, an initiative that will be expanded to support other segments within our community as well.
And then the third- largest sector is our financial
and insurance sector. We will ensure that we have the
proper legal and regulatory framework to support that
sector, which represents 13.1 per cent of our domestic
economy.
The next strategic initiative seeks to support
and enable growth of employment industries, those industries that employ the majority of our population. The top five employers in Bermuda are
1. international business;
2. wholesale/retail trade; 3. public administration;
4. accommodation and food services; and then
5. human health and social work.
Collectively these five industries represent
18,224 jobs. Just under 60 per cent of all jobs within
our economy are held by 5 of our 19 industrial sectors.
And so it is important that we support employment in
those areas, ensuring that we identify challenges that companies in those sectors face, work with companies
to overcome those challenges and expand their capabilities.
The action items that you will see outlined in
the strategy are ones that are practical, ones that do not set lofty theoretical goals that we cannot achieve. These are action items which are actually achievable.
Accommodation and food services, which is
our hospitality industry, our hotel and restaurants, Mr. Speaker, is a huge job creator. In 2022 that sector accounted for 3,269 jobs, 10.3 per cent of the jobs within
our economy. That sector is driven by our vis itors, business visitors and tourists. We need to ensure that we
improve domestic transport capacities, expansion of
both air and cruise routes, develop a robust year -round
calendar, ensure that we have increased visitor attrac-tions, improve our marketing campaigns and ensure that we have the proper marketing penetration in international or overseas jurisdictions.
We see a huge upside, Mr. Speaker, in that
particular sector. We have a number of hotel properties
which are offline. When those hotel properties come
online, a significant number of employment opportunities will return to those particular sectors.
We will also have strategic focus on agricultural, forestry and fishing. Alarmingly, Mr. Speaker, ag-riculture, forestry and fishing represent less than 1 per
cent of our economy. There is huge opportunity for us
to increase capacity in that area. It is a huge opportunity
for us to double the current output of that particular sec-tor.
The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry
of Economy and Labour will work collectively to exe-cute on a robust, integrated agriculture strategy. We want to ensure that we have the appropriate agricultural economists and agronomists on Island to support
us with developing that strategy. We want to ensure
that we provide direct support to our farming community. In support we are going to also revise and update
our existing crop and dairy industry strategies, and re-develop the Agriculture Service Centre as a modern facility to support all facets of our local agricultural sector.
The agricultural and fisheries sector is [now] a
critical component to Bermuda’s success moving forward and a critical component to food stability and price
stability if adequately supported.
The Minister of Home Affairs will work through
our Blue Economy Strategy that seeks to facilitate sus-tainable fisheries, expand sustainable maritime tour-ism, produce cleaner, cheaper energy and increase
blue investment in Bermuda.
1616 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly This week Bermuda just finished its two- day
climate summit. In that summit there is great appetite
for increased investment in climate- related initiatives.
The climate strategy is a two- pronged strategy. Number one, it seeks to ensure that we are walking the walk we talk as it pertains to sustainability and environmental prudence. The other portion of the strategy is ensuring that we have the adequate financial products to at-tract large- scale institutional investment from an asset -
management standpoint that goes into global climate-related initiatives.
And then the third is ensuring we leverage our
current capabilities within our insurance and reinsurance sector to provide coverage to under -covered areas through creative insurance vehicles.
Mr. Speaker, we seek to hunker down and support and enable growth of economic empowerment
zones. The BEDC is tasked with overseeing our economic empowerment zones. We want to ensure that
our entrepreneurs in those zones and our small business owners withi n those zones have access to the financial tools and support that they need, they have the
access to the adequate level of funding that they need
and that we build our culture within those EEZs that attract greater levels of business. And we also seek to
expand our current three economic empowerment
zones, which are North East Hamilton, St. George’s
and Somerset, with a fourth, which would include an
economic empowerment zone in South East Hamilton.
Notwithstanding what we do, Mr. Speaker, if
our economy or jurisdiction is not business -friendly, we
are not going to see the outcomes that we desire. And
so we will ensure that we have regular engagement with all sectors of our business community. Develo ping
key industries, Mr. Speaker. When an international
business wants to move to Bermuda, there are all sorts of support and concierge services provided to that international business. But we see we dropped the ball a
little bit when our local businesses wanted to expand.
And we see that as a gap, and we are going to close
that so that our local businesses are provided with the
same level of support and concierge services in their
expansion efforts.
We want to ensure that all businesses are clear
about what our legislative framework is, what our tax framework is, support service that can be provided to
them so that persons do not have a difficult time progressing through their small business and entrepreneurship journey. We cannot continue to encourage persons to be business owners and then not support individuals on that particular journey. So that is actually
what we seek to do, support individuals on their journey. There are a number of individuals who have marvellous ideas but do not have the capacity to execute
on those ideas. We will do a better job in terms of assisting those individuals with bringing their ideas to fru-ition and supporting them on their journey.
Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt that Bermuda is
a blue- chip jurisdiction. Bermuda is safe and secure; it is stable. It is open. It is accessible. It is a globally con-nected country where one can enjoy a sophisticated is-land lifestyle. Our business reputation and our business
environment are Bermuda’s secret sauce. It is what
sets us apart from the rest of the world. It is a key part
of our value proposition.
But, Mr. Speaker, we cannot take for granted
and believe that the rest of the world understands what Bermuda has to offer. We have to go out there in the
world and share with the world and show the world our
value proposition to attract more businesses to domicile in Bermuda to create greater levels of opportunity
for the residents of Bermuda.
We are encouraging investment in infrastructure whether it be our subsea cable infrastructure,
whether it be within hotel developments, whether it be
with the development of our 11- acre waterfront,
whether it be in space and satellites, whether it be in
renewable energy. These create huge opportunities for
us to attract investment, create more diversified industries which will ultimately create jobs to create more opportunities for our people.
The third strategic priority is Entrepreneurship
and Small Business Development. Mr. Speaker, we will
formulate a national entrepreneurship strategy on top of the work that we are currently doing to support our
entrepreneurs and small businesses. We will ensure
and we will have amendments before this House that help and seek to optimise our regulatory environment.
We want to ensure that entrepreneurs are provided
with greater levels of education and skills development.
As well as that, we will expand the r esources that we
provide to start -up businesses, whether it be incubators
and accelerators.
I had the fortunate opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to
tour workforce development centres on the East Coast
of the United States. I have met with a number of city mayors. I also met with a number of directors of eco-nomic development agencies and business incuba tors.
And in those cities, just like in Bermuda, it was observed that the new businesses with the highest rate of
success after opening were those businesses that would provide part of incubator and accelerator programmes. So it is a proven model that when you are
able to cradle and nurture a business in its early stages,
it is a greater likelihood for success. And we will expand
those. But even if a business is mature, when that business finds itself where it needs [help], we need to en-sure that there are mechanisms in place to assist those
businesses.
Mr. Speaker, Strategic Priority 4 is Continued
Execution of our Economic Recovery Plan. In December I came to this House and reported that 80 per cent
of the initiatives in that particular plan are on track. And
many initiatives have been successfully executed on.
An initiative that came out of that plan was the Economic Investment Certificate. Yesterday I was able to report to the public, Mr. Speaker, that associated inBermuda House of Assembly vestment in that particular certificate is over $425 million. People continue to invest in our economy and seek residency. Part of it must be attributed to the steward-ship of our economy.
But I have also had a strategic planning meeting with the Project Management Office as to how we
can move to ticking the completion box for a number of
areas within that recovery plan that are on track. And we will ensure that we accelerate the outcomes o f that
particular plan.
Implementation of a minimum wage was part
of the Economic Recovery [Plan]. And if I recall, in June
of this year we were able to implement Bermuda’s first
statutory minimum wage rate of $16.40. So I do not
want anybody listening to have the belief that it ems
within that plan are not progressing. What the contin-ued execution means is that we have made significant progress; we recognise there is still a way to go and we
will accelerate the progress on the other items.
This takes me to strategic priority five, Mr.

people. Ensuring we have a skilled local
workforce. If we create 9,000 jobs, those 9,000 jobs
should not all go to expatriate workers. We need to ensure that the people of Bermuda are able to take advantage of the opportunities that exist within their economy. We want to ensure that we work at executing on every strategy that is aimed at building the skills capac-ity of our local labour force. We want to ensure that we
best place Bermudians in position to take advantage of
opportunities within their economy and progress as
well.
Mr. Speaker, a labour force survey was released . . . or conducted in February of this year. Mr.
Speaker, I am not at liberty to share the information
within that report as of yet. But what I would say is the
employment challenges we faced after the pandemic
are not the employment challenges we are currently
facing. And the data support it. The level of unemploy-ment that existed directly after the pandemic is not the level of unemployment that our young people are facing
now. We have had significant growth in our economy.
The Minister of Finance articulated that when he looked
at first quarter payroll tax receipts, 1,700 more employ-ees were working in our economy versus what was reported or recorded in the previous period. It speaks to
a significant level o f progress on multiple fronts.
For those people who are on financial assistance and are able- bodied, we will work to empower
those individuals so that they can live independently of our social protection regime.
Mr. Speaker, I will be bringing legislative
changes to the National Training Board. Right now how
the National Training Board is constructed, it is designed to meet the needs of all industries. I will reduce
the responsibility of the National Training Board and
transform it into a National Certification and Apprentice-ship Board which will focus on skills trades, national
certification and apprenticeship, and ensure that we
have more of our young people being channelled into vocational fields, being channel led back into the trades.
And we must be deliberate about it, and we will be deliberate about it. Because there are huge opportunities
for our young people who may not find a business environment as an appealing occupational category.
But for our young people who do find a business environment as an appealing occupational cate-gory, there are more opportunities that exist for our young people now than ever before. There are more
young people who get to take advantage of internships,
graduate training programmes, summer programmes within our international business community than ever
before. Each and every time I speak with industry, the
primary thing I speak about is not their corporate social responsibility as it pertains to the amount of money they
are giving to charities within our community. While that
is needed and that is appreciated, I ask about the hu-man capital side of their investment in terms of how
many Bermudians they are investing in their own labour
force. Mr. Speaker, the strategy seeks to ensure that we have as many capable and willing Bermudians in
the labour force as possible.
The other part of the strategy, Mr. Speaker, as
it pertains to our labour force, is ensuring that we strategically use immigration as a lever for greater levels of economic activity. When we look at competitive jurisdictions and we look at why a jurisdict ion may not be
competitive or attractive to a number of companies, it has been told directly to me that the families who work
within their companies have concern in terms of their
immigration stability. And they would like to go to environments that provide a greater level of stability.
They also talk about companies that are put out
because of lack of stability as well. This came through our feedback. But then when I look at the work that
other countries are doing, whether it be Overseas Territories or large European countries, they are all utilising immigration as a tool for greater levels of economic
activity. Bermuda cannot remain as an outlier in that
particular area, as we must make meaningful progress.
And we have begun making meaningful progress in
terms of what we have done with PRCs [permanent
resident’s certificates]. And the plan calls for more progress to be made.
I know immigration is a touchy subject, Mr.
Speaker. But we must make reasonable measure, progressive changes in that particular area for the benefit
of the entire community. I believe in my mind that based off of where I currently am, the work I have cur rently
done to get my education, I feel as though I will always be all right in Bermuda. I do not see a position where Jason Hayward, based off of how I structured my life,
would be infinitely challenged living in the Bermuda
economy. So I can say immigrat ion is touchy, and I am
not going to touch it. But I see a bigger picture, and I
have a bigger vision. And this will benefit not just me,
but a greater level of Bermudians.
How do we harness something to create opportunities for other persons? But it is about how we
1618 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly communicate that to our public as well. We are not going to force- feed any changes down persons’ throats.
But we also have to send a message that Bermuda is a welcoming environment to our expatriate residents,
that we want you here! We want you to contribute to
our economy, and the plan outlines some of the
changes that we seek to make in that particular area.
These changes are only a portion of the changes but will have a significant benefit to our overall stability, our
economic stability.
Mr. Speaker, as I enter the last three minutes
of my hour, I want to begin . . . or end where I started.
And that is, this Government has a plan for our econ-omy. The plan is clear. It is robust. It is comprehensive.
It is strategic. And it seeks to create opportunities for
the people of Bermuda. It seeks to put us on a sustainable pat h. It seeks to create a roadmap where we can
channel our resources so that workers, unions, industry, government, civil society, engineers can all work together to enhance a c ommon framework. As I stated
before, this plan is bigger than politics. It is about the
ultimate well -being of our economy and our society. If
executed effectively, it provides us with a greater
framework to provide increased economic and social
benefits f or the people of Bermuda. It creates better levels of opportunity.
Mr. Speaker, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Prior preparation prevents poor performance. And this
Government has placed in front of the people of Bermuda a robust strategy that we seek to execute on over
the next four years. Thank you, Mr. Speaker .
[Desk thumping]

But we will see how we get on
because I think that the Honourable Minister provided
quite a lot to speak about.
He ended his presentation on a particular note
relating to immigration. And the reason I am picking it up and starting there is because I do not want to leave anything out. You see, Mr. Speaker, Bermuda has had a problematic history with immigration, and it has not
always worked out well to everyone’s benefit. However,
in today’s Bermuda, we are in a skills economy. And
there are certain skills we do not have. That is not to
say we cannot get them, we cannot train for them, but
we do not have them as it st ands and we need them to
keep our lifestyle going.
The economy is not —and the Honourable Minister said this once, I cannot remember which debate. The economy is about more than numbers; it is about
people. And the people who are on this Island are so
vital. The entire identity of what it is to be Bermudia n is
contained in 21 square miles in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and resides in so few people that it could not
fill up a football stadium. That is all of our history, our culture, our heritage, all of that. And we need to not only
preserve but excel that. And immigration is one of the
levers, as the Minister said, we have to work with. We
do not have a lot of oil. In fact, we do not have any. We
do not have a lot of natural resources. We are not Norway. We do not get to just pump stuff out of the grou nd
and then create a bunch of social programmes. We have to work far harder to get the exact same standard of living as every other country in the world. We have
fewer resources to do it with and more threats.
So when the Honourable Minister took his seat,
I had to pop right up. Because what Bermuda has
needed for a long time is a direction of travel, a plan, a
strategy. You see, because the Bermuda that was is
gone. It is not the 1980s anymore, Mr. Speaker. Facebook put paid to that. The generations that walked uphill both ways to school, they are gone. We were talking earlier today in a debate about childcare and about the
way that families were raised in the past. It is gone. And
what replaces it is going to be decided in this Honourable Chamber. Now, it can be decided intentionally or
accidentally. But one way or the other, this country will
be defined by what we do in here.
To that end I am so very thankful to hear about
a broad batch of ideas. Now, I have some thoughts on
those ideas, and they are not all favourable. I think we
could all see that coming a mile away. But what we
have to do is make sure that the things that w e are doing are productive, helpful and impactful. And I respond
to the Minister’s invitation to [give] feedback as it relates
to the gaps that I see within the Economic Development Strategy.
There are a few points I would like to speak to
in general before I similarly follow him on a page- bypage assessment of not just the strategic priorities and
their headings, but also the action items contained
therein. The Honourable Minister had spoken about a
few characteristics of this plan. He was describing this
strategy as robust, clear, comprehensive, relevant and
timely. It is my intention to challenge the Minister on all
of those because I agree with him that we are in a position to make or break .


Bermuda House of Assembly The Minister spoke at length about the ageing
demographic in Bermuda. And I can say that when that
report was released it scared me a lot. We spoke today about taking care of the most vulnerable amongst us.
Well, those who are definitely the most vulnerab le
amongst us are the people who have already contributed to our success. Those are the people who should
not have to figure out how to live. But on our current trajectory following the ageing demographics report,
they are the ones who will be the most impacted by our
numbers. They are the ones who are going to have to decide, Well, can I stay in the country where I was born
and raised, raised my family, bought property (or not),
contributed to the economy, to sports clubs? They are
the ones who are going to be the most impacted.
And the way that we can tackle that, again, is
in this Honourable House. But we have to tackle [this by] pulling all the levers of this economy. We simply can
no longer ignore the parts that are difficult or uncomfortable to deal with. And to his credit t he Minister said
he is going to start that process.
[Inaudible interjection]

Well, to his credit he said he
started the process. And again, I do not think he and I
have to be on the exact same page with a lot of things. But I am looking forward to the continued development
in this space.
Mr. Speaker, one of the things that I like to see
in project plans, and this is something in my profession that we like to see, timelines and deliverables. That is
just our thing in my profession. And when we look at a project, a plan or a strategy that does not include those
elements, then we start from a sceptical position. And
that is a fair enough thing, because you need a sceptic.
That is not a cynic, Mr. Speaker. You need someone
who is going to sit there and interrogate the data, someone who is going to sit there and question and push back. When I was at the Bermuda Monetary Authority
we called it challenge meetings. In other words, we
would leave an onsite examination, take all of our findings, go into another meeting, and a handful of people would sit around the table opposite you and your reports and then pick it apart. And you learned what not
to write and what to write, what to do and not to do.
Mr. Speaker, this strategy has five strategic priorities. It is a curious one, though, because the first two-thirds of the strategy (ending on page 44) are business -
related—two -thirds of a 63 -page strategy. And I have
to say I am just really happy to see that we are working
on things like value propositions. We are working on
things like retention of international business. We are
working on things that we know we rely on today, and
it is highly likely we will be relying on in the near term.
So that was fantastic, seeing that.
But as I progressed through . . . and I am very
excited, by the way, very, very excited. The information
I found in the strategy was . . . I enjoyed reading it. I thought that this was work that someone had clearly
done their research on. And I think I will be able to speak to the Minister on a more frequent basis when
we come into the House because of the quality of the
information that is now outlined in the openi ng parts of
this report. So with that being said, Mr. Speaker, let me
now speak to parts of the plan itself and where I think
the Minister of this plan and the authors have done
quite well and where there is space for improvement.
[Laughter]

Strategic Priority 1, local and
international business Retention and Expansion. I
might need the hour now that I am thinking about it.
One of the things I do in my profession, Mr. Speaker, is
anti-money laundering training. And as anyone who
has gone through anti -money laundering training will
tell you, it just goes on and on and on.
[Inaudible interjections and l aughter]

Strategic Priority 1, Local and
International Business Retention and Expansion. One
of the strategic initiatives is to support and enable
growth of economic drivers, right? And the Honourable
Minister spoke to this international business activity being key. I think none of us are lost on that point. Most
specifically, though, reinsurance and insurance, cap-tive management, life and annuity. There are parts of
international business and this report breaks it down
and spells it out. One of the things I like about it is that
it spells it out, because I do not think that a lot of people
are aware that when we talk about international business, we are talking about a lot of different things. We
are not talking about one thing.
A great example is someone who works in discretionary investment management had not walked
across the road into a reinsurance company. Those two
things are not alike enough or certainly in the whole. Someone who works in fund administration is probably
not going to get a job in the trust services sector the
next day. So even within this one huge pillar of the economy upon which we all rely, there is enough diversity of activities and professions that we have to actually understand what we are talking about when we say
“international business” because if you do something in
a service trust industry, that does not mean that you are
going to be servicing a reinsurance business at the same time. And this breakout was good.
The action items under this were quite interesting. It speaks to insuring legal and regulatory frame-works, work with growth and industry expansion, work
with industry, identify key fund formation information
1620 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly with law firms and other experts. Mr. Speaker, my takeaway from this section is . . . I am a little surprised that
these are actually written down, these action items. These are things that our service providers in industry
are doing today. And they have to do them to survive.
One of the things you learn in this space, Mr. Speaker,
is you are always trying to onboard business because
the business you are doing, the work in progress, ages
eventually. You finish it, and it goes out the door and
you invoice it . But then you have no new business. So
you are constantly working to get these in the pipeline.
So I am reading this, and I am thinking, Well, I
think they’re doing this anyway. And if they weren’t do-ing it, they would just fold. So I thought, Okay. Well, fair
enough. Let’s keep going through this and let’s see where we’re going. Real estate activities. I was very
happy to see that. One of my earlier career projects
was working on the formation of anti -money laundering
regulatory frameworks for the Superintendent of Real
Estate in Bermuda.
One of my earlier career projects was working
on the formation of anti -money laundering regulatory
frameworks for the Superintendent of Real Estate in
Bermuda. And I got to know the real estate industry
quite well, more than a few of the actors. And I was
quite impressed. I had no idea how large the economic
activity in the real estate industry was and knowing that now I am glad to see that this Government has similarly
outlined and is going to report and work in this space —
the expansion of Economic Empower ment Zones
[EEZs], approve residential schemes —these are all
good things.
I had a question as it relates to public affordable housing because a great part of the conversation, or certainly the Minister’s points in this strategy and in
this debate, has been how successful the economy is.
And so the statement is, The economy is successful
and it is on the right trajectory . And in the same conversation we are talking about increasing the size, robust-ness and resilience of the social safety net, that is, [the]
expansion of financial assistance. Obviously, we talked
about child day c are allowance. And there are a number of other initiatives that the Minister spoke to in a
previous debate. I cannot remember them all. But
[there] are quite a lot. So, one of the questions that I
raise is while the economy is doing great, but we seem
to need to keep helping more and more people. So I
look forward to the Minister speaking to that, what appears to be a dichotomy, and it might be . . . I am just
looking forward to it. I am really, really looking forward to that, [him] clarifying it.
The Minister also spoke about financial and local insurance services, local banking, local trust. These are good. I think a lot of people do not realise that when
we talk about financial services in Bermuda, we really
are talking about the financial servi ces that service
overseas persons, transactions, and things like that,
and local. And the two, as much as they are similar in
nature, they do not in fact meet in the middle. So, we do have to listen to not only ABIR and ABIC, or rather
take advice from ABI R and ABIC, but we also have to
make sure we are taking advice from the Chamber of
Commerce as well. To that end, I am thankful that the
Minister has said that he is going to be working along-side these businesses and continuing to progress, for
example, bank reform. But here we have again another
action item ensuring there are legal and regulatory frameworks in place to support growth and industry expansion. That is in a different action item, but it is clearly
the same one. To that end, I raise the question of, well, they should already be doing this.
Mr. Speaker, moving on to strategic initiatives
support and enable growth of employment industries. This report outlines the five top employment sectors:
international business; wholesale and retail trade; public administration; accommodation and food ser vices;
and human health and social work. One of the things I
am glad about is that we are going to start focusing on
things that actually generate jobs and economic activity in Bermuda, Mr. Speaker. Because it is one thing to
have an idea, it is another thing for an idea to have an
impact. And that is the one thing we could do a lot less
of in Bermuda, is dreaming up things instead of working
on the things that produce meaningful, significant, im-pactful impacts.
So I am glad we are going to be focusing on
these job posts. I note that in wholesale and retail we will be working on things like “[i]dentifying warning
flags.” I am a little concerned when I see things like
“[e]stablish a working group,” to be fair, Mr. Speaker.
Anytime I see groups or panels or work . . . anything
being convened or named, it feels like it is a step that
we have yet to decide what the outcome is. In other words, a group of people are going to sit down and they
could very well turn around and say, “Let’s not do any
of that and let’s go do something else.” So I am always
very cautious because it seems like another step. And
we have a couple of these working groups being
formed in this strategic plan.
Mr. Speaker, in my opinion, as the Minister
continues to work in this space these working groups
and panels and all these sorts of things, they are going
to have to be kept a very, very close eye on. Because
we are going . . . because it feels like it is just more and
more people having more and more to say. I am sure
the Honourable Minister is well aware in his role that
everyone always has something to say.
I am a little concerned. I saw one of the action
items was “[i]ncrease retailers e- commerce capabilities
and completing BEDC online marketplace.” I feel like that is the SME marketplace that we already saw in the
Economic Recovery Plan [ERP]. And we will speak a
little bit about that as we get down to that part. I did like
that the Minister said that we will do a little bit more to
encourage local businesses, especially as it relates to
concierge services. I myself am not a fan of concierge services; I fee l it is sort of an ill- defined . . . I am not
quite sure what to make of it a lot of times. I suppose I


Bermuda House of Assembly just sort of came up the hard way. But what I can definitely say is less red tape is good, more clarity is good.
I thought that was very appropriate. He said,
created by the compliance guys. It is noteworthy, Mr.
Speaker, that compliance is not normally associated with creating less work. But that means that the Minister has only ever run across bad compliance professionals.

Leave it alone.
The online marketplace, I think this is something that obviously should have already happened, but . . . and I will speak to that when we get to ERP.
Accommodation and food service. We thought
we would then move into action items talking about the BTA and what the BTA will do. And, again, the BTA action items read exactly like what they should have al-ready been doing, to my mind. “Work with transport to
improve domestic transport capabilities; Work with
transport on the expansion of air routes and cruise
calls; Develop a robust year -round calendar; Increase
visitor attraction through signature events; Increase marketing campaigns to encourage locals to v acation
on island; and Increase marketing campaigns in key
overseas jurisdictions.” Yes, this feels like the opening
page on a website and that they should have already been doing that. So, when I see that I go, Well, wait a
minute. What have they been doing this whole time if not that?
Mr. Speaker, Focus on Growth Opportunities
[and New Industries], still under the first strategy —Agricultural, Forestry and Fishing Sector. This one has been a bit of a political football as we worked on . . . ah,
I can’t remember the name of it now . . . the fishing.
One of the things . . . fish processing. That was it. One
of the things that I think we have not touched on enough
and I think the Home Affairs Ministry working in this
space is a good idea. I am glad this space has got the
Minister’s attention , the Minister of Economy, is agriculture, because quite a large amount of our land lies un-used. We have our food costs [which] are expensive.
And we are an island that only a few ships come to. I
mean, this feels very much like this is something we
should be good at. To that end, I am very happy that
we will be working in the agricultural sector, and that will be getting a lot of attention.
I am a little worried about the Integrated Agriculture Strategy. Any time I see a project plan that includes project plans, I am not entirely sure that they are delineated so much that success can come out of
these. In other words, and I will speak to that again when we get to the Economic Recovery Plan which is
baked into this Economic Development Strategy.
Moving on, I think the blue economy is a good
space to work on although it is clearly a space we have
to be very, very careful on. Our blue economy has sustained families and lifestyles for hundreds of years and we have to be quite careful when we work in that space
as either a government body or an authority.
Climate risk finance is a great developing area.
Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we definitely want
to make sure we do is keep up to date with the developments in international business. The Minister was absolutely right that there are people competing for
those businesses. The Cayman [Islands] would love to grab a half dozen of our reinsurance companies. The same goes for Mauritius, Hong Kong, Singapore, Gibraltar, Cyprus, BVI, Seychelles —

[Inaudible interjection]

Yes, just about anybody
would like to grab them. But here is the difference. They all have beaches, Mr. Speaker. They all have the things that we thought for some time were quite special about
us. So one of the great things about this is making sure that our value proposition includes those things that
make them want to either come here or stay here. And
that means we have to do a lot more than just sell the
beach. We have to sell ease of doing business. We
have to sell service providers who are professional. We
have to sell capabilities in market.
So, we have got a lot of work to do. Now, do
not get me wrong. It is not as if everyone is just packing
up their bags and rushing to leave. But we sure as heck
need to make sure that we are innovative and thought -
leading so that when people come to Bermuda, or rather when people consider coming to Bermuda, they
know that they are coming to a place that is accomplishing great things in that sector.
Mr. Speaker, within this Strategic . . . we are
still on Strategic [Priority] 1, and within it it talks about
FinTech which has become quite a bit of a batting ball
in Bermuda politically. What I can speak to is, we have a programming company in Bermuda that has done
quite well with property and casualty calculations in
software and that touches on SureTec and things like
that. One of the things we have to do if we are going to
be successful in this space, Mr. Speaker, is make sure
that our capabilities and capacity for information tech-nology resources is very, very well developed. And that
is no small thing considering the price of energy and
considering everything from ageing infrastructure to professional skill sets. And this ties directly, again, back
to the point on immigration, because it does us no good
to try to encourage software companies moving to Bermuda if their engineers cannot.
1622 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly With that point, Mr. Speaker, the Economic
Empowerment Zones, this is a great . . . this one, this
is one of the points I wanted to make. We have been
talking about the Economic Empowerment Zones for
years. And so one of the questions I have is, there
seems to be a lot of the stuff we are already doing or
have thought to do that is in th is Strategic Plan. And
that goes across the Strategic Priorities. So, for example, I mentioned the BTA, the Bermuda Tourism Authority, specifying action items that it shoul d be doing
already. We have spoken about that for any number of
service providers and now we come to the Economic
Empowerment Zones which is an ongoing project. And
I am not entirely sure, and when the Minister stands up
I would like to get his perspective on why these ideas
are being folded into the strategy, why the strategy does not include more new ideas. Mr. Speaker, that takes us out to Business Attraction and Investment Promotion. I agree with the
Minister and I am glad to hear that we are going to go
out and convince people that we are a viable, attractive market. One of the things that we have not don e to my
mind is advertise just how successful we are at the area
of regulation. For example, Mr. Speaker. when the Financial Action Task Force assessed us for compliance
with international norms, we scored the highest. We
scored above the US and Canada. We absolutely outdid ourselves. Our competitors wound up on black lists.
I mean, that feels like something that I would paint
across a building. That, yes, you can go to Cayman, but
they are on a list and it is going to be that much harder
for you to open bank accounts, move money around,
move people. When you come to Bermuda, that is not a problem.
Mr. Speaker, I like that we will have an open
and accessible, or at least it is aiming at having an open and accessible business environment. One of the
things that we do have that benefits us, Mr. Speaker, is
Bermuda is a small place. You do not have to go very far to get help with anything in Bermuda. And we need
to make sure that things like catalogues for services are
made available to everybody.
Mr. Speaker, when we go further into the document we come to ideas like subsea cables and utilisation of space and satellite. Again, Mr. Speaker, so what
I would have done here in this Strategy is in some way,
shape or fashion wait, categorise or classify these
ideas and initiatives. In other words, which ones are going to have the most impact and we pick up those ones first and we run with those ones. Those get the re-sources [and] those get the commitment. Those are the
ones that the management reporting information is on
a far more frequent basis. That is how we tackle that
one, because some of these things are going to take
years and years and years. They have been in development for years already with almost no impacts and yet what we do not want to do is put them alongside
those high impact, high value projects and initiatives
that are contained in here because we do not want to deflect our resources. Again, [it has already been said] ,
that this is our attempt to make sure that things like our
ageing de mographics do not end badly.
Mr. Speaker, moving on to Strategic Priority 3,
Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development. Now, this goes back to my point of some of the things
we we are seeing in other places. Again, online . . . we
are seeing under the Bermuda Economic Development
Corporation (BEDC) and I believe this is what the Minister had said. “[Develop] an entrepreneurship policy
framework which includes: formulating a national entre-preneurship strategy;” (again, a plan wit hin a plan is always a dangerous thing on a project .) “optimising the
regulatory environment; enhancing entrepreneurship education and skills development; facilitating technology exchange and innovation; improving access to finance; and promoting awareness and networking.” That is one heck of a thing, Mr. Speaker. And that
would have been hard to do under ideal conditions.
So I am looking forward to an entrepreneurship
policy framework. And this takes me back to my point
on deliverables and, well, timelines. And I thank the colleague who assisted with the phrase deliverables. If we
develop an entrepreneurship policy framework, this is a finite product that can be finished. And I would expect that there would be a deadline associated with that. So,
in other words, 31 January 2025, or something like that.
Thereby we know exactly what the accountabilities are and we can also track it across time, Mr. Speaker. But
again, that is not what we are seeing on that particular
plan.
Strategic Priority 4. Now, Mr. Speaker . . . by
the way, Strategic Priority 3 was two pages. Everything
else before that was quite lengthy, multiple pages, lots
of discussion, lots of information, and then the second
we get to entrepreneurship and business development,
it just got brief, really, rea lly fast. Strategic Priority 4 is
Continued Execution of the Economic Recovery Plan.
Now, the Economic Recovery Plan is an interesting
one. The Minister and I have had a number of exchanges on this one and I hav e also [asked] a number
of parliamentary questions asking about this, including
finite details like which government head it comes from,
what are our timelines, what is our rate of completion
and things like that.
Now, one of the things that has me concerned
is the fir st principle, which is avoid plans within plans,
and we have just got the biggest, one of our biggest
plans within our next biggest plan. In fact, it is all of onefifth of it. I am not entirely sure . . . the Minister has said
that 80 per cent, we are at 80 per cent completion rate
for these items under the Economic Recovery Plan.
The Economic Recovery Plan includes things like these
small to medium ecommerce marketplaces that we saw earlier in this st rategic development strategy. At this
point we are starting to see things that are interwoven. So all of a sudden things are popping up in multiple documents. And every time they manifest in these documents it is getting harder and harder to determine


Bermuda House of Assembly when do we expect to see delivery of this, who is delivering it and obviously by when and what resources are being allocated. So it just confuses things.
I mean, the Minister also spoke about 80 per
cent completion rate on ERP. And I see on number 1
for ERP. Diversifying Bermuda’s economy, is medical
tourism, vertical farming . . . casino industry —Mr.
Speaker, these are all things that are current, live topics
that are in front of this House on a regular basis. So,
this is something that, when I see again a plan within a
plan, and in fact these things that are apparently prob-lematic in implementation and are buried further in,
then I am starting to question the 80 per cent completion rate. And I look forward to when the Minister up-dates the House again on the next ERP.
To that end, Mr. Speaker, last but not least,
ending on Strategic Priority 5, People. This Government has a National Workforce Development [Plan]. It
has a Youth Employment Strategy. It has said, and I
want to say it was two budgets ago, that the Minister
introduced the Personal Employment Plan [PEP] for
able- bodied persons on financial assistance. Which I
want to say the number is around 250, but I stand to be
guided.

[Inaudible interjection]

Well, feel free to correct me.
So, two years ago when we were discussing
the budget, we said that we were going to have Per-sonal Employment Plans for every able- bodied person
on financial assistance. That was two years ago. And
now we are talking about executing that same thing we
talke d about two years ago now in this Strategic Plan.
You see my point of concern here, Mr. Speaker? Why
is this in here? It should be done.
Mr. Speaker, I will go back up and talk about
the Youth Employment Strategy and the National Workforce Development Strategy. These things have been drafted and worked on now for some time. So
when we add them to another plan and another strategy to say, Oh, now we are going to . . . I see it says,
“Execution of National Workforce Development Strategy.” Well, I know the Minister has been executing the
National Workforce Development Strategy. There is no way that this is all going to kick off today. So, agai n, I
look and these are some of the gaps I see when I go,
Okay, why is this in here? Because this is already happening.

[Inaudible interjection]

Mr. Speaker, the gap is that it
is incomplete. I believe the Minister mentioned a checkbox, and there should be a checkbox next to these things. Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to hear about the
national certification regime. I think qualifications are key. Certainly I can only speak from my experience, but
it was my qualifications that got me in the right places
to do the right things that al lowed me to build my career.
So I am very, very happy to hear that we are going to
work on that. That is fantastic.
Lastly, Mr. Speaker, just as I flick through that,
I spoke before about the working population. One of the
things the Minister said that I found very interesting was
that dealing with this carefully . . . because what we do
not want to do . . . and I will just beg your indulgence
here, Mr. Speaker, because I have to scroll down my notes. Ah! Making sure that people do not compete for work. The reason is, and I thought this was fascinating,
as that will not increase the working population but shi ft
it. That is a good point. Because the last thing we need
is to shift it around. We do need it to increase.
And so the way we do that is by working quite
clearly on immigration policies that favour Bermuda
while simultaneously working on those certification regimes and those sorts of things within the workforce so
that we create a base level of employment and we
therefore only add to it. Yes, yes, that is . . . that is . . .
I am just very happy to hear that because I know that immigration being a tough political option . . . and, by
the way, I am sure many, many people will speak on immigration later, especially given just how much it was
a political hot potato over the last 10 years. I mean this
has been dominating the Bermuda social and political
environment for 10 years —
[Inaudible interjections and laughter]

—at the cost of more than a
few people’s . . . people have been arrested for this. I
mean, this is our challenge. It is the challenge of our time.
And we can actually . . . and this is the funniest
part about it, Mr. Speaker. We can actually save our
ageing demographics and our culture and sustain our
economy and do everything worth doing, including in-creasing our social safety net if we get that rig ht. How?
I mean, come on, it is right there! And it is what we have to do! And if we do it, and we nail it, then Bermuda moves from just . . . just accelerates. Because I do not
believe that Bermuda is done on our trajectory of de-velopment. I believe that we have better days ahead of us.
I think this is a country that can have fantastic
public transport, fantastic roads, fantastic retirement care. It can have a fantastic education system. It can
be all those things and more, but it has to be done
through the challenge —not around it, not ov er it, not
under it —through it. I am just looking forward to that. I
am looking forward to this challenge getting stuck in. It sounds like the Minister is willing to do it.
1624 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly With that being said, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to
note [that] the Honourable Minister spoke about this issue, when I say “this,” we are talking about Economic Development Strategy transcending politics. You know,
Mr. Speaker, it is —
[Inaudible interjections and laughter]

Mr. Speaker, one thing I
would like to note is that it is not hard to be a cynic. It is
just not rocket science. Anyone can just simply appeal
to their baser selves and just be bitter and resentful and
throw sticks at anything that is different, new or foreign,
or just . . . just . . . I just do not like it. That is not hard. I
would hope that our politics (echoing or building on to what the Minister said) are strong enough that they can sustain differences of opinion, because that is undoubtedly what we are going to face in this.
The Economic Development Strategy does not
cover a couple of months. It does not cover a few . . .
$10,000. It is not impacting five people. This is a big
deal and it is going to change a lot if we do it right. And
therefore, it is in the middle of politics, ironically. Because that is how we address conflicting opinions. So
the Economic Development Strategy is going to have
to come before this House again, and again, and again because the things that it hopes to address are nothing
less than the safety and peace of our country and our
people in the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

[Desk thumping]

Oh, I am going to be nice. Because what I am going to do, as I be nice, is to encourage the
speakers on the other side of the aisle that before they
speak up I would encourage them to come up with
some solutions, because what you will recall, Mr.
Speaker, is that the Minister said in his Statement that
this is not about point scoring. This is about a collaborative effort. So we cannot get into this space where all
we are doing is identifying gaps but not prepared to
make any formative and r eputable solutions. Mr. Speaker, I will admit that the last 45
minutes were long and so I may be mistaken but I recall
the Member who just spoke before me said that he appreciates that the Minister spoke with ABIC and ABIR
and encouraged him to speak to the Chamber of Com-merce. And so Mr. Speaker, I am sure you have seen
on page 4 of the Economic Development Strategy
where it clearly lists the stakeholders who were con-sulted which includes the Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Speaker, the Member who just spoke before me also asked, Why doesn’t this strategy include
any new ideas? He said that the strategy includes many
initiatives that were already being done. So perhaps he
conveniently missed out the word “expand.” And what we mean by that is this Government has done the research, identified the initiatives that are working well,
where we are getting the most bang for our buck and simply seeing that we will be investing and expanding
those programmes.
Well, Mr. Speaker, right from the beginning I
want to thank the Minister and his team for putting together this robust and timely Economic Development
Strategy. It is quite clear that anyone who reads it can
see this document was quite a significant under taking.
And so the collective effort it took to get done is certainly commendable.
Mr. Speaker, this afternoon I anticipate what I
would call a lot of political back and forth, to-ing and fro -
ing. What we say versus what they say. And so before
discussing economic development, I think there is tremendous value in us taking the time to remove the political language and listen to a non- biased assessment
as to where we are economically today. To go eve n further, I think it is also important for this assessment to be credible by both the Government and the Opposition, and so I believe an assessment by S&P is more
than appropriate. You see, Mr. Speaker, the Opposition
Leader recently referred to S&P as th e gold standard of
rating agencies. He said their credentials were impeccable and have withstood the test of time. And I for one
completely agree.
[Laughter]

And so, Mr. Speaker, I asked myself, what does S&P, the gold standard of rating agencies, have to say regarding where we are and our current state of our economy? Now, Mr. Speaker, I said that I was going to remove the political language, and I
think I deserve some credit because if I was going to
be political I would have slipped in the fact that it was S&P that downgraded the OBA while they were in Government. But I did not do it.

You just did.
[Laughter]



Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Jache Adams: In fact, my colleague, Anthony
Richardson, wanted me to say that S&P said that when
they downgraded the OBA’s performance they said they did it because of the OBA’s continuing weak economic performance and financial performance. But I
told MP Richardson I would do no such thing today!
[Inaudible interjections]

Instead, Mr. Speaker, today I will
hold back from the political language and simply remind
those listening that just a few weeks ago S&P reaffirmed Bermuda’s A -plus credit rating. And they said
the ratings reflect Bermuda’s strong institutional framework, prosperous economy —and listen to this, Mr.
Speaker —prudent policymaking. Now, this brings me
to today’s debate, because I am encouraged to see the Minister on behalf of this Government put forth yet another demonstration of our commitment to prudent policymaking. The Economic Development Strategy in-volves a clear path to sustained economy growth, job
increases, reduced deficits. It addresses the anticipated economic challenges due to an ageing population. It continues on our path toward bui lding a nation
of owners.
Mr. Speaker, there are a number of topics that
I could discuss within the Economic Development
Strategy. But gone are the days when an MP’s time is
unlimited and I see the speakers before me got one
hour and my time is cut a little bit shorter. But nonetheless, recognising that, today I figured that I would focus
on entrepreneurship and small business development because within this strategy, Mr. Speaker, it quite
rightly says that “Bermuda was founded on a legacy of
entrepreneurship.” It says, “This entrepreneurial legacy
continues today, and our island’s SMEs will be at the forefront of driving Bermuda to success in the future.”
[Ms. Susan E. Jackson, Acting Speaker, in the Chair]

When I think of entrepreneurs, I
think of the persons who do not have time to complain
because they are busy making the products. They are
making the deliveries. They are creating a marketing strategy. They are managing the books. They are paying the bills. They are managing staff and so much more every single day. So, Madam Acting Speaker, I
want to spend some time this afternoon assuring those
hard- working entrepreneurs of this country who have
taken the unconventional route, who have made the investment, who have taken the risk, who are dreaming
bigger than any of us could possibly imagine, that within this strategy, this Progressive Labour Party Government has not forgotten them. We will continue to advocate on their behalf and we will c ontinue to provide resources and support to help them succeed.
Madam Acting Speaker, while on the topic of
resources, the Bermuda Economic Development Cor-poration (BEDC) offers an incubator programme which
is aimed to help our small businesses in the early
stages of their development. Within the programme en-trepreneur s are given an office space with telephones,
Internet, and a meeting facility. They are also paired with business development officers dedicated to help them grow their business. The BEDC will also arrange
for discounted or even free support services such as
marketing, legal work, website development, accounting. The incubator programme is a fantastic programme. Madam Acting Speaker, the BEDC also offers an accelerator programme where businesses that have
been established for at least three years can partic ipate. It is aimed to put them on a path to get their busi-ness to the next level. The programme helps entrepreneurs build their network, improve their management
skills, [and] it helps them to find and how to improve
efficiencies, how to increase their rev enue.
Madam Acting Speaker, I know you may be interested in knowing that entrepreneurs who have com-pleted the accelerator programme on average have
seen a 38 per cent increase in their revenue. But guess
what, Madam Acting Speaker? The Minister within this
strategy has clearly articulated that more can and will
be done to expand these programmes and other support services so that our entrepreneurs are . . . and
soon- to-be entrepreneurs (sorry), have a greater access to resources to see their businesses succeed.
Madam Acting Speaker, the BEDC also focuses on enhancing the skills of our new and experienced entrepreneurs. As Chairman of the BEDC I often see one of the biggest mistakes our entrepreneurs
make is believing they know everything when they walk
in the door. The reality is no matter how successful you are or how great of an idea you think you have, there is
always room to grow. And so, Madam Acting Speaker,
the BEDC hosts a number of courses. From those which help entrepreneurs to develop their business
plan, teach them how to prepare proper financial statements, there is a course on how to incorporate your
business, how to effectively manage debt, how to set
up an online payment system and so much more.
But guess what, Madam Acting Speaker? The
Minister within this strategy has articulated that more
can and will be done. So now, guided by this strategy,
1626 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly the Government will be investing in resources that will
further increase the skill sets and expertise of our en-trepreneurs by teaching entrepreneurship at an earlier age, better utilising technology and so forth. It is quite
simple. When you know better, y ou do better. And so
enhancing the skills of our entrepreneurs is absolutely
a part of this Government’s economic strategy.
Madam Acting Speaker, I also wanted to touch
base on the Economic Empowerment Zones. This is
important to me because these areas, these zones, in
some respect historically have not received the same level of investment as other areas. And so the Government aims to introduce programmes that promote
growth, investment, and the regeneration of those areas. So, Madam Acting Speaker, included in the action
items of the Government our strategy aims to develop
a robust marketing strategy to attract businesses, in-vestors, and developers to those zones, expand the
North East Hamilton Zone to South East Hamilton . So
now we are talking about waterfront properties. We also aim to collect more data more regularly so that we can make a more informed decision on how to best service the businesses that operate in those areas.
Madam Acting Speaker, now that I am speaking about the EEZs, I will do a shameless plug and re-mind the public that businesses that begin in any of the
EEZs will not have to pay the employer portion of pay-roll tax for two years.
So what does this all mean? Why would I even
mention this? Madam Acting Speaker, this means that an individual can call the BEDC today and immediately
begin a course that will help them develop their business plan, taking their idea from a concept and putt ing
it on a piece of paper, having them think of the risks,
the competitors, the demands. What will they do if
things do not go according to plan? Once the business
plan is established the individual can participate in the
incubator programme where they wi ll not only receive
office space and office facilities for free, but because
they are located within the EEZs [they] will also be exempt from paying their portion of payroll tax for two
years. That is this Government, together working with
the BEDC, to see our entrepreneurs succeed.
So, Madam Acting Speaker, I will end with this.
I will end by acknowledging that an Economic Develop-ment Strategy means nothing without proper execution.
While I understand a strategy, a roadmap, a vision is
necessary, I also understand the people of Bermuda
elected us based on our ability to execute, produce re-sults, and impact the lives for the betterment of our peo-ple.
Madam Acting Speaker, I am proud to stand
with a Government that understands that. And so we have reduced payroll taxes for 86 per cent of the workforce, with increased pensions for our seniors, with in-creased financial assistance benefits. We have put a price freeze on gasoline. We have introduced a minimum wage [which is] amongst the highest in the world. We have put together a mortgage guarantee pro-gramme that offers reduced mortgage rates and are here today with a holistic Economic Development Strategy explicitly stating how we plan to do more. Prudent
policymaking, Madam Acting Speaker. So again, I
thank the Minister and his team for putting together this
strategy. And I, along with my other colleagues, now
commit ourselves to execution. Thank you.

[Desk thumping]

Thank you, MP Adams.
Is there anyone else who would like to speak
to the motion?
MP Dunkley, you have the floor.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Madam Acting
Speaker. I thought the Government Members would be
jumping to their feet to support the Honourable Minister—

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: —so I will do that —

[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: —now.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I thought the Chief Interpolator was out of the House but they seem to have all
chimed up.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: They haven’t had their dinner yet so they are hungry.

Just continue.

[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Madam Acting Speaker,
before I get into the main context of what I wish to
speak about tonight on this Take Note Motion about the
Economic Development Strategy, I just want to refer back briefly to comments that the Honourable Member
who spoke just before me made in regard to Standard
and Poor ’s [S&P]. And while in no way do my comments reflect on the Standard and Poor’s rating agency
themselves, because obviously they are well respected, and in many circles they carry a great deal of
weight. But Standard and Poor’s does not get the pulse
of the community. Standard and Poor’s does not pick
up the heartbeat of what is going on in our country when you walk up and down the hills and the byways
in our constituencies. So while I respect S tandard and


Bermuda House of Assembly Poor’s, where I get my information from is the people
who I serve. And clearly, while the Government is intent on having everyone believe or be of the view that the economy is strong or the economy is heading in the
right direction, we still have a lot of work to be done. So
the rating of Standard and Poor’s does not help us as
we try to lift all the people of the country.
Madam Acting Speaker, when I first read
through this plan, I was pleasantly surprised. I was
pleasantly surprised because the plan in my view was
fairly well written and presented. I think it touched on many of the important aspects of the challenges we
face in our country and how we move forward. And I
believe that it is a very workable strategy, Madam Acting Speaker. It does start by focusing in on international
business, and I am not going to take my time to go
through the entirety of the plan because 30 minutes
would not do justification to that and I think that at this
stage of the day people’s attention spans tune in and
tune out. So I want to make a couple of key points and
then allow the debate to flow from there.
But I start out by reflecting on international
business because there has been a lot of discussion
back and forth in this Chamber for many months about
international business. And it is clear that at this stage
international business is carrying a heavy load for our
economy. I have spoken about it [on] many occasions and I think international business was one of those areas of economic opportunity that managed to weather
the COVID -19 storm better than most other areas. International business, while it had c hallenges through
COVID -19, managed to work from home, managed to
continue to do their work, and Bermuda was an attractive place for international business to be with COVID -
19 because while we were restricted, the restrictions
allowed them to continue thei r business and when
some of the restrictions were lifted they could still enjoy
much of what Bermuda has to offer. And that is why we
have seen international business continue to grow through COVID -19. And that is a good thing.
I believe that there is still a lot of upside with
international business, simply put, by the footprint that they have on our country at the present time and the related offices they have throughout the world in other
jurisdictions. If we manage to attract some of that to our
shores in a controlled and appropriate way, I think it will
be a tremendous asset to our country. But we must not
forget that while international business is carrying a
great load for our country and we are grateful, there are still ma ny sectors of our community that continue to
struggle. And I think this plan, if enacted in the right
way, will help us get to a much better position.
I appreciate in the plan that the Minister and his
colleagues have taken some time to put a bit of back-ground to it to allow the community —and I urge members of the community to read this plan because it is a
four-year strategy that is going to take place. And you
know, the proof of the pudding is always in the eating.
[We will see] whether it will be successful or not or how much we will get done in that period of time. But I encourage members [of the community] to read it be-cause then they will have a bet ter understanding how
we go forward from here.
Much of what we have to enact to make this
strategy successful will have to come back to this
House over and over again for different sections to allow it to move forward, so it will continue to be talked about here. But the community needs to understand i t.
This is a backdrop for us to work off of to move forward and be successful in many areas. And international business is going to play a key part to that. But the other
four pillars play an equally critical role because, in my
view, if we get those other four areas, certainly four and
five, right that will mean that throughout Bermuda there
can be prosperity and hope and better lifestyles. And to
me that is the key to this whole plan.
If you read through the plan, it is alarming for
many people when they see how quickly Bermuda has gone from a rate where we have got a reasonable num-ber of seniors in our society to a rate where it is alarming how that population has increased. And as a s enior
myself, Madam Acting Speaker, just turning 65, I glory.
I glory in the opportunity to be a senior because that
means you must have done some things right to live to that age. And if you take good care of your health, you
can live productively for another 20 or so years, even more. And so we need to ensure that not only do we make sure that our working population has the ability to
sustain our community, but seniors have an opportunity
to enjoy the golden years of their life. And that is going
to be a difficult balance for us.
When the Minister laid out those figures, and I
jotted them down quickly, that seniors make up 44 in 100, I think. Minister, do I have that right of the working
population of 20 to 64? And that number has risen drastically. And that means that immigration is necessary
but it is also important that we get more Bermudians to join in our workforce.
The big elephant in the room and, Madam Acting Speaker, I am going to list five, what I call critical areas for us to succeed and this strategy be successful. So the first critical element is immigration. And the Honourable Minister spoke about that and th e Honourable
Shadow Minister and the Deputy of the One Bermuda
Alliance spoke about that as well. Immigration, in my
view, is one of those five areas that has the ability to
make or break this strategy.
For as long as I have been old enough to pay
attention and be involved in what is going on around me in the community, immigration has always been in the headlines —always. It has never been far from it. It
always comes to the forefront again. And it is som ething that governments have wrestled with for my adult years, about 45 adult years. It has been quite confrontational. It has been quite divisive at times. And we
have always struggled to find a happy medium. And sadly we have made some good decisions in immigration, but sadly too often we have looked back and we
1628 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly have criticised the decisions we made and have not
supported those. I hope we do not get in that position as we move forward right now. The Honourable Minis-ter has said, and it is written down in the plan, that we
will need 8,418 new people, immigrants, to the Island
in five years, or 1,684 people a year.

Workers.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Workers. Workers.
And that is a significant number because of that
a small percentage could be Bermudians because we
do not have that many Bermudians unemployed, that
large number unemployed. But one area to tap into and
it was hardly mentioned in this strategy at all was the
challenge of emigration.
If we are successful in creating new hope and
new opportunity in Bermuda, I believe, as my colleagues do, and I think colleagues on both sides of the
floor believe that there is the ability to bring many Bermudians back home to work. Not just those who are
going away currently or who have just finished educational opportunities, but those who might have left to go
to other places for whatever reasons or greener pastures. And so emigration has hurt Bermuda I think to a
large extent over the past few years. W e need to turn
that around and allow that to help Bermuda. That will
take some of the load off of the immigration that is required.
Now, I know the One Bermuda Alliance will
support immigration policies that help Bermuda, allow
Bermudians to still have the opportunities, but bring in
talent that we need. And it is clear that in this plan, when you look through the entirety of the plan, that
there is going to be a great deal of talent that is needed
to make it happen. And we are talking about four broad
[sectors] of development, so we are going to need
some great talent in there. One of the key obstacles
that we will face in this is imm igration, although it is
listed as an opportunity. That is obstacle number one.
The second obstacle that we need to overcome—and do not get me wrong that I am trying to be negative by saying obstacles, because in my life, and in everyone’s lives, we always have obstacles. Obstacles come every day. But to me obstacles are opportunities, because successful people manage to deal with
those obstacles and turn them around and make them
work for themselves.
So another obstacle which is an opportunity is
education. Now, education is something that has been
in the forefront of conversation in our community for a
long time. We have made some changes that we
thought would be progressive and help our country going forward, but now education is still in the forefront of
our conversation and the policy we do here and there
is some restructuring going on at the present time. Ed-ucation allows Bermudians and residents the ability
and the opportunity to take part in this economic strategy. If we do not get it right quickly, and our children still suffer because they cannot get the best education
that they need, this plan will be lacking. And so we have to get education right and it appears that we still have
a long way to go.
Let me digress here just for a moment because
it is going to come up in another point that I make. We
live in a world right now where information is instantaneous. And it is not from the traditional areas we got information from before, the evening news or the newspaper. Yes, they still have their part to play, but infor-mation is pushed out over our phones and you have social media bloggers and you have people who have
these blog chats and all of that, so information gets put
out there. Whether it is correc t or incorrect, it creates
more difficulty in getting policy and initiative put forward
in a timely fashion.
So when we are dealing with education or hotel
development or whatever we have, we have a responsibility to make sure that we can get that information out
there and we have a responsibility as citizens of this country to take a moment and try to listen to what is
said before you entertain those who are typing in the
keypad without really understanding what are the facts.
I do not say that to support any one position. I just say that because it is one of the things that has disturbed me over the recent years because when people hear
something, immediately they run off and the story is changed automatically very quickly. And then you are in a bad position trying to catch up.
Look, we all admit education needs reform,
and tough decisions have to be made. And so when we make those tough decisions in immigration, in education, in development throughout our country —and that
is what this plan is going to do— it is going to hit on al l
of those hot points. We need to be able to take it to the
people so they understand it quickly and get it so that
we do not get tied up into long- drawn- out arguments
about this thing. And so they support it as well.
And what we also need to do as individuals, we
cannot say Well, not in my neighbourhood. We need to
say, Is this good for us generally so we can move forward? because Bermudians are leaving the country.
And they are not leaving the country because things are
going swimmingly here. They are leaving because they
see other opportunities. I do not like that.
You know, I am critical of where Bermuda
stands quite often at times. But I try to couch that in a way that brings some sense to the debate. Because Madam Acting Speaker, every morning when I wake up
I am blessed to be Bermudian. I am blessed to wake
up and look out at the South Shore. I am blessed to be
able to circulate in this community, whether I agree or
support or disagree with people, I am still blessed in
Bermuda. It is the best place in the world. But we have our issues. We have more issues now tha n I can remember in some time. So if we are going to deal with these issues, we have to be able to put aside some of those barricades we have in debates where we are just
talking to each other but we are not listening. I am not


Bermuda House of Assembly saying that this is happening in this Chamber all the
time; it happens at times. But I am saying that we are going to have some public meetings where it is going to get pretty tense about what has to happen.
It has already happened at some of the meetings. Look at the Fairmont Southampton. We are at loggerheads there now because people are stuck in their
positions and that development is not taking place as it should do in the timelines that the Honourable Premier
has promised. And some people are now actually questioning that. And so we have to be able to break through and we have to work together for the betterment of education.
One of the first obstacles and the first opportunity is immigration. The second is education. The
third, Madam Acting Speaker, is health care. Health
care is mentioned briefly in this but I raise it as an ob-stacle which we can turn into an opportunity. And here
is why. The PLP has talked a great deal about the reform of health care in recent years. And we have seen
very little progress. Now, I will give some leeway be-cause of COVID -19 [being] around for a significant period of time. But I remember in 2010 t he PLP with former Minister, the Honourable Member of this Chamber, De Silva, launched a health care reform plan. And here
we are now, there has been very little progress.
Secondly, the cost of insurance is making it difficult for those who are struggling in our country to stay in meaningful jobs because the cost of insurance has
continued to rise and it is getting prohibitive. Just on my
way back from lunch today I was stopped by somebody
in the street who was talking to me about that subject.
It happens every day.
Thirdly, in regard to health care, the cost of
health care generally in Bermuda continues to rise. And
we have one of the highest costs of health care in the world. That is a real concern. Because if we do not address these issues what will happen, Madam A cting
Speaker? Those costs will continue to rise. They will be
passed onto the consumer who . . . those who are insured. And they will continue to struggle. Now, if we can
have some health care reform and deal with the challenges at the hospital, which are real . . . and I do not
want to get into those at this debate, but the hospital
has some serious challenges. If we can deal with that
in health care reform, and if we can get more people in
our economy working, that health cost will be spread
over a larger number, and it will be more bearable,
younger people as well. That is why a lot . . . one of my
colleagues just interpolated in a good way —

[Laughter]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: You know you have
younger people in the workforce, they are less apt to use health care. And so companies that have . . . you
know, we all . . . company policy dictates your premiums. So if you are involved in a company they will look at, say your 50 employees, and they look at your pre-miums for the past year and they say, Oh, the claims
weren’t that bad so it only has to go up 2 per cent or
5 per cent. Or, they were pretty good. We can hold you
level. But if you get a younger workforce in, it helps all
of us because for the first 10, 15, 20 years of their working life, they are not paying . . . they are not going to the
doctor much, but they are still paying their insurance premiums. That is a hard thing that young people have.
They [say], Why do I have to pay premiums when I
never use it? I say, You are insuring yourself for the future too. So we need to deal with that third obstacle
of health care. And the Government needs to do a bet-ter job of that. And we are happy to support good policy in that area.
The fourth obstacle that we have, Madam Acting Speaker, is infrastructure. Now infrastructure is mentioned in this document. But clearly, infrastructure
is a tremendous undertaking that costs a significant
amount of capital, no matter what it is. And when I say
infrastructure, yes, I am referring to the typical infrastructure that you would think —the roads, all of the
power, all of that type of stuff as well. But when you
have a national economic strategy that is going to bring
new industry to the Island, new business to the Island,
hopefully new capital to the Island, it will mean that infrastructure will have to be developed around a lot of those sites. And if there is not a proper plan on how that is going to be done, the red tape, as the Minister referred to earlier . . . and I give the Honourable Minister
credit for making the commitment that he will deal with
the red tape. Full support on this side. A lot of politicians
talk about it. It has been eased through time, time and
time again. But we need to make sure if this plan is go-ing to be successful, we have to find expedient ways to
get through that red tape because it is going to be necessary if you want your infrastructure to keep up with
the development. So if we can deal with the infrastruc-ture cha llenges, and if we can find the capital to get involved in those challenges, we will have to do it.
Now, one of the first things that needs to happen is . . . and this is a small point. It is not a big point
in the scheme of things. But one of the first things that
needs to happen is that we need to make sure that the
infrastructure that we have now works effectively. Our roads are in very poor shape in many ar eas. And the
rain, the recent deluge of rain has certainly added to that challenge. But we need to make sure we bring those up to standard because with the traffic we have
on them now, they will deteriorate quite rapidly if they
are not in reasonable condition and make it more diffi-cult for us to do what we have to do. And so I would like
to see a focus on the infrastructure and look forward to
the Honourable Minister of Works to lay out a plan on how that is going to tie- in to this national economic
strategy.
And the fifth area which could be an obstacle,
but it will . . . it could be an opportunity. And that is leadership. And the Honourable Member who just spoke
1630 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly before me talked about the need to get things done.
You have a plan, you need action, you need to move things forward. And I refer to that as leadership be-cause it is going to be led by this Honourable Government. And the Minister, to his credit, has brought a plan
that we generally support.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I could find some things in
there to pick out, but in a 62- page document, even a
teacher can find a way not to give you a good grade,
because I had some of those in school. And this to me,
when I read it I was pleasantly surprised because I saw
some time put into that document. I saw consultation
put into that document. I have been around long enough to know that when something is written down that they have been out and talked to some people
about it. And that means that the docume nt can work.
If there has been consultation, broad- based consultation, that means the document can work. And now the
most critical thing, Madam Acting Speaker, is leadership. And that is going to mean that this Cabinet is going to have to pull the load to get it done because a lot
that is in there we will support.
We are not going to push back on. We will be
there for it. We supported the Fairmont Southampton, but the deal is not done yet. That is one of the most
critical things in Bermuda today is to get that hotel
opened up again. And you would have thought that
three and a half years on we would see more progress
than that. And I am not going to dwell on it tonight, but it is just the point that if the leadership cannot close that deal, we need to do better. Notice that I am not saying—as my colleagues told me not to say —that the PLP
cannot do it. No, no, no! What I am saying is —
[Laughter]

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: —as my colleagues told me
to say is that we need to make sure that we do better
than our past record has done.

Mm-hmm. Well said, Mike.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: And so I lay those five obstacles out which can be opportunities because I am a
Bermudian. I wear this pin every day when I put on a
jacket and every day when I come to the House. And when Bermudians love their country, they want to work
together to get it done. And this plan has the ability to
get it done. And now it is up to the execution.
Thank you, Madam Acting Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Madam
Acting Speaker.
Madam Acting Speaker, I will continue with this
debate in the spirit of the previous speaker. I was very
appreciative being that we have had two speakers from the Opposition, I would deem it as the good cop/bad
cop scenario where my good Brother Richardson was
there, he admitted that he was sceptical, and sceptical means doubtful. And he dropped in . . . he is very good
with language. And he dropped in there cynical as well,
and I think he was more leaning on the cynical side be-cause I think . . . and then MP Dunkley was in there and
he started off very well by giving credence to the report.
I am here to say, likewise, Madam Acting
Speaker, that this Economic Development Strategy is
basically a roadmap. It is a roadmap that encompasses
things that are already in train. Yes. And it . . . it . . . it is
not . . . and if I could just get a little help from my own
team. You know what I mean? I am here trying to bat
on a good wicket, but you know there is a little dust blowing across it. And with the dust blowing across it
just got in my eye. So if I could beg your indulgence just
while I clear my eye, and take a little sip of water . . .
[Inaudible interjections]

But I just want to say that
in this roadmap it is important, and I have noticed what
the Honourable Minister responsible for [Economy and]
Labour is doing. And every speaker thus far has
touched on emigration in some form. And I would touch
on it in a ver y large way right at the outset, Madam Acting Speaker.
Like MP Dunkley, I declare my interest. I am a
senior passed that official age. And as a consequence,
we are of a growing number of people who are ageing
out of contributing to the tax base. Very important. And
in this report . . . and the Honourable Minister who is
very much learned when it comes to matters relating to
statistical data and the like, there are statistics in there
that point out that we have challenges both at the growing age of the baby boomers moving out of the tax contributing and looking for pensions and the like, but a
very low percentage of younger people to move into the workforce with a population of Bermudians [who have emigrated] of which we could possibly attract back with
such a roadmap that shows them some hope to come
back to Bermuda. It has both presented itself as a chal-lenge and an opportunity.
The Honourable Whip for the Government, the
Deputy Leader, just for his benefit, I wanted to start off by making mention (as did my honourable cousin from
Pembroke) of the Ministry of [Economy and] Labour at
the very outset of the report gave thanks to people like the Association of Bermuda International Companies
[ABIR], BermudaFirst, and for the great unwashed , I
was a co- Chairman of the first BermudaFirst, along with
Mr. Don Kramer and former Premier Ewart Brown,


Bermuda House of Assembly which brought together a collection, the widest collection of businesspeople in the country to look at Ber-muda’s challenges when the recession hit in a real way. And out of that came a very much collaborative effort.
So the effort of BermudaFirst is not to be underscored as the fact that BermudaFirst in itself encompasses a great number of stakeholders from a wide
range of backgrounds in Bermuda, notwithstanding Bermuda International Long Term [Insurers] and Reinsurers [BILTIR]; Bermuda Chamber of Commerce
(which the Government Opposition Whip alluded to
were not consulted); the Bermuda’s Employers’ Council; the Association of Filipinos in Bermuda felt it not
robbery to make a contribution; the Bermuda Industrial
Union; and the Association of Insurers and Reinsurers
[ABIR]. So the insurance industry was covered on any number of fronts, notwithstanding.
And internally you had the Ministry of Home Affairs; the Ministry of Finance; Bermuda Tourism Authority; and the Ministry of Public Works. And that is government talking within itself. It is an initiative which was called CMIT , in which different departments and organisations worked collaboratively so that they do not operate in silos. So, you have a report, the foundation of
a roadmap that puts together the many things that are
happening in those particular areas that are impacting
Berm uda. And trying to bring all that together takes
work. And it takes a plan. It takes a strategy. And it
takes being able to point out what is in train that [is]
purposeful and how it fits into a wider scheme. And that
is what we have here today: a roadmap for the next four
years of how we envision this country moving forward,
to address what? Not just dropping something like, We
have got to grow the workforce. And here, take it or leave it, this is what is going to be. That winds people
up, that causes people to protest and t he like. No!
That is why I was very pleased with the tack
taken by the former Premier Dunkley inasmuch as he
would appreciate how difficult it is when you have an idea and you do not get buy -in. This Minister is trying to
get buy -in because that group of myself (which is growing) and those 60- year-olds who before long (if the Lord
spares their life) will be qualified for that long- awaited
pension, are counting their days to get there. And that
is a growing number. And that number is not getting any
smaller. And the pool of workers in Bermuda is not
growing.
So for those of you who are already receiving
your pension, you need to be convincing your children and your grandchildren that what the plan that Minister Hayward has is for all of our benefit. All of our benefit!
Because unless we get enough people contr ibuting to
the tax base, we are going to be in a pickle, and in a
pickle right fast. And so that is why I appreciate the
good cop/bad cop scenario today. And I stood back and
I was able to find that the good cop was able to come out and expose himself rather early. Because it is important! It is very important because unless we get the
buy-in . . . and I said this in a previous debate when we were talking about the Fairmont Southampton. That
early in that debate there were persons who were trying to make us believe that the hotel component of those
rooms was the only one that qualified for tax exemptions.
I had a conversation, a very long conversation,
with someone last night who was very exercised about concessions. And I said, Listen, with the [number] of hotels that have become condominiums in this country,
and the [number] of people living in condominiums that
were once earmarked for hotels, look at where you stay and how that has contributed to the lack of beds that
we have t hat contributes to the lack of airline service
that we have. There is a direct correlation. And what we
are trying to do is to find a space, a happy place (may I
say) where we could agree on some things in the national interest.
And dare I say that this strategy today is in the
national interest. Notwithstanding what persons’ dispo-sitions might be toward a particular government or party, it is in the national interest that we get some success in this country. It is in the national interest that we
get more people working in our economy. And if we
cannot find them in Bermuda . . . and let me say this,
because Members talked about the threat of health
care.
Let us talk about the threat to emergency services. The real elephant in the room is that a lot of Ber-mudians who would like to work who do not quality for
work because of choices they have made in their life as
it relates to drug policies in this country as well. There
are a lot of persons who when it comes to security
measures and whether or not you want somebody to
walk up to your house and take a statement in confi-dence do not qualify for that. And it is a problem in Bermuda! It is, it really is, it tru ly is.
So, we have to look . . . and yes, immigration
has been a thorny . . . it is a personal issue and that is
why I am so appreciative and willing to support the Minister in this regard because he is prepared to lay it out
in a comprehensive way and have us look at how, in
fact, we go about tackling this problem in a collaborative way.
Now, let me say this, there are many in the
country who are anti -PLP (and that is fine) who would
very quickly have you believe that the PLP cannot manage, and the economy is going to go to hell in a handbasket. Well, it did not happen between 2001 and 2007,
when I was one of the chief critics of the PLP. Bermuda
enjoyed the most successful economic boom in Bermuda’s history. And so one of the things in this report I
did notice [is] that there are provisions for insurance,
employment insurance in the future, unemployment insurance (may I say) and that is good. And that is a les-son learned from the unexpected pandemic which has
sort of [hamstrung] . . . made t his country very much
real, notwithstanding the country had to get over a recession that many did not buy -in for quite a long time.
1632 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Funny enough, the workers of Bermuda were
the first real buy -in in one of the 2008 or 2009 conferences of the BIU downstairs in the theatre that I attended. The workers of Bermuda took the first pay
freeze. The hotel workers of Bermuda took the first pay
freeze around 2009. And I was there in an official capacity.
The economy at this particular time, now in billions as of 2021, is up to some $6.3 billion and scheduled to increase even more when the results come out for 2022, up considerably from 2017. Notwithstanding the challenge that we have with the cost of living in Bermuda causes many Bermudians to feel uncomfor table
and many Bermudians to look for greener pastures. So
that is a challenge that we must meet. But before we
can meet . . . you know, my work, what I do in my trade
is that I build new things and repai r broken things. And
you first got to look at the fundamentals that are broken.
So you cannot fix everything at the same time. You
have got to compartmentalise, and we have got to put
some key corners in the jigsaw puzzle. And in this jig-saw puzzle getting sufficient enough people contributing to the tax base is of significant importance to
make that very much a priority.
I cannot help but emphasise that repeatedly
because Members said we should start doing it. We
have been doing it. We have had this conversation in December (December 9, I do believe) when in a
speech on the motion to adjourn ( maybe on December 2, yes, it was ) when a thousand additional workers
[brought] hundreds of millions of dollars to the annual
economy , where 8,000 . . . because our workforce is
shrinking by that number, and replacing it is not that
easy because every year at the other hand you have
people like me ageing out of it. And so finding the right
balance of workers is what that . . . this, when it comes
to expanding the workforce, is really and truly all about.
When it comes to how tourism fits into this
equation, tourism is very significant. Notwithstanding
that international business is the breadwinner, and finance and the like. Hospitality and the services that
support hospitality, food services and the like, contribute to employing a great deal of people in this country
already. And the success of tourism will create more
opportunities for persons to do so. And we are doing
our part to tie those ends up. I will declare my interest.
On a Wednesday you might hear me from 10:00 to
11:00 on Tourism in Focus . And this is no commercial
for a wonderful station. But if you tune in to Magic
102.7 FM, you would hear me.

[Laughter]

But I want to say this. A
couple of weeks ago I had a Minister who was at a sis-ter station there doing a broadcast. And I saw him and I said, You need to come in here for a second. I just
need five minutes of your time. And 10:10 by the latest you will be out of here. Well, ten to eleven we were say-ing our wrap- up. And that was the Minister of Education. Why? Because the signature schools and the plan
to focus in on hospitality and give our young Bermudians some experience . . . and that is a critical piece to
what the Bermuda Tourism Authority is actually doing
as well.
And so, you know, a person came to me and
said, How is education tourism? I said, Very much so!
Because the reason why I am able to host a weekly
show on tourism is because I was educated in tourism by Bermudians in the field! And so in the vacuum of
that, trying to get more Bermudians excited about the
industry today is going to take some education. And that is what is happening. But unless you can cause
those to talk together and work together in that space,
it could just be as persons say, an idea. But no! It is now a strategy! It is a strategy because people are
starting to see and join up and show you how it is joined
up.
And that is indeed what we are trying to do in
the report as it relates to residential, which also is im-portant. Because when you look at the economy when
it comes to residential, and it comes to real estate, it is
a very important driver of our economy as well. And you
know, I will declare my interest. I have a long- standing
vision for that property up at Morgan’s Point, and some of the property that is all tied up and so forth. And I de-clare my interest: I love the game of golf and love what
it has done f or this country. And a hundred years ago
many golf courses were built and we probably had as
many a hundred years ago per square mile, per capita,
as any place in the world then and we do so now. And
I can see the synergy because, you know, Bermuda does not have the space to be a Disney World or Monaco, but we can be who we are to the [number] of people who we need to attract to this country to make tourism work.
And you know, the late Jim Woolridge also always used to talk about value for money. And the balance between the cruise visitor and the on- Island visitor
coming by air is an important balance made tougher . . .
no, let me put it this way —made easier when we do get
to see the shovels going in the ground up at the Southampton Princess.
And let me declare my interest there because
people have interest they want to declare. My great
grandmother, Boris Hall, Emily, property was compulsory acquired where the cycle shop is today, where development would take place for the purpose of having a necessary tourism property open in 1970. And so that is why you will hear me keep talking about the tourism
side of the residential, for the concessions, because . . .
that far outweighed the others. Because we need the
beds. And the [number] of beds that would be associated with that residential side being a tourism component, would go a long, long way to offset what we have lost up and down the coast.


Bermuda House of Assembly Madam Acting Speaker, as we look at how
tourism factors into this equation, it is important, and it
was stated in the report and it bears repeating. And to use the language, to “develop a robust” and he has
used this word, he loves this word. “a robust year -round
calendar.” Oh, my, my, my, my, my, my! Talking my language! What does a year -round calendar mean? A
year-round calendar means that maybe people will
wake up and realise that Bermuda was once a winter
destination before the advent of cruise ships.

[Inaudible interjections]

Oh yes. And maybe if Bermuda only needs, you know, “X” thousand—not mil-lions, “X” thousand—people to make it work in January,
February, March, October, November [and] December, maybe we will start figuring out . . . and that is where
we are working. And I am not talking about things that
prior to. . . I am talking about deliverables that the Bermuda Tourism Authority have on mandate right now.
And why would you have to mention . . . the
question came from one of the . . . the Honourable . . .
the Whip for the Government. The Acting . . . well, he
is the Acting . . . well, he is not here, so no one is acting
right . . . well, yes, the Honourable and Learned Member Pearman is Acting and Madam Chairman you are
in the Chair.

[Laughter]

But you know, that is okay.
Because to get a robust year you need to work on the months of the year and know the people who it appeals to. And what are we doing in that space? You know, we
were criticised, the Progressive Labour Party, of having
no appeti te for the yachting community. Well, I make
no apologies. Before I was a golfer, I was a boater. I
went through Town Cut at age four, following not, not
. . . in a fishing boat, following sailing at age three, [in]
1960 , Gladwin Lamb ert, sailing through Town Cut as a
skipper for the first time having crewed for Colin P earman.

[Inaudible interjections]

No, it is the story of our
lives. My mother was upset when she saw her baby
coming through Town Cut from White Hill because she
left him home with her momma, and her daddy was tired of me crying and he says, Come with me. And he
took me to watch his grandson sail for the first time in a
sailing race! You know, this BTA is talking about authentic
tourism. Why? Because we are not afraid to unearth
the truth about a lot of sports that are everybody’s
sports. Sailing. Gig rowing. Piloting. It is the shared love
of the water that crosses all racial boundaries in this
country. And I will never allow us to be pigeonholed,
being a golfer as well, to allow people to just think that
just one segment of society like it because they have more affluence. There is a shared l ove for the water! As
I know you, Madam Ac ting Speaker, love the water and
have actually lived on the water and sailed the Atlantic.
But I am here to say that this is what this plan encompasses. And it is timely too because we just opened up
a wonderful marina in St. George’s. And you are going to see this week as well, if you want a good vantage
point. You can come up by Port Royal Go lf Course. You
can come have breakfast or lunch or something, or an
evening drink, and watch those great, big, massive fishing boats come in. Or you can go over to St . David’s
Head or you can come to St. George’s and watch some
of them who are actually berthed there because you
can catch marlins, only going a mile and a half off of
Pink Beach and Mid Ocean and catch a marlin, deep
water.

[Inaudible interjections]

I am here to say that this
is what this strategy is tying in. It is showing people the
relevance of what an economic plan means to them.
And yes, there are people in our midst who have great
pain. This recession of 2008 and this pandemic and a
dispassionate (in some respect) regime that in other jurisdictions . . . you know, Fannie Mae is leaned on. I
think of my friend, my brother , from Mississippi who is
a lawyer who used to tell me when he was up at the
Princess and we would dri ve around and he would tell
me, You know my job is to really, Swannie, is just to go
and catch those boys that got away with murder. And I would say, Yes? And he said, Yes, it is shame what
happened. And some of them went running and hiding
when they overleveraged the world and the like.
Those decisions were not made by workers
who took the first pay cut in Bermuda. Those decisions that impacted this country in large measure were made by boardroom decisions, when XL went down to two,
when AIG changed their name, changed it back. When people like my mother had . . . had . . . used to put their
money out in their gas tubes for life insurance boys to
go around and pick it up every week, and persons who
worked for British American found that company gone. Yes! And many others! You did not hear a peep about
how wrong that was. Not a dicky bird, as the Colonel
would say, about that. And it was wrong and it tore the
heart and soul out of this country. But this Government
came in in 2017, because at the backdrop of that people had then told people, Listen, you have got to do with less and there are no free lunches. A nd school tuitions
and scholar ships got eliminated. And all types of cuts
1634 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly went about around the persons who were hurting. That
is why I appreciated the opening remarks of the former Premier Dunkley who accepted the report. That it is workable (as it certainly is). And there are many areas.
It is comprehensive. And you know, ther e are many areas in which you can delve into. I just picked but a few
because my time is just about up. And I just want to say
thank you, Madam Acting Speaker, for this opportunity.

Yes, thank you, Madam Acting Speaker. I was not quite sure where I was going to land
with this. But what I can say is that we have a 60- page
plan that we seek to implement in hopes that we will be
able to relieve the challenges that we as a country are
facing. And I will commend the Minister for the effort
that has been put into this and the team who have been working on putting this together. But as I went through
it, it was evident that we were in some ways regurgitating some of the challenges that we have already been
talking about.
Another Honourable Member said he wanted
to hear solutions, and I am not sure what sessions he has been in, but there have been, during my tenure in
this House of Assembly, hundreds of solutions that
have gone out on how to address some of the challenges t hat we have, whether or not the existing government, or any other government, takes up the Oppo-sition’s ideas and thoughts.
What I can say is that one of the topical issues
of emigration, and I can recall several years ago when
we were addressing the issue we knew that in a dec-ade-plus coming on that we were going to be in this
position. But yet at that time it was so politicis ed that
we could not even have a proper conversation about what needs to be done. And then when I look at the 60 -
page plan we have here, and I also look at some of the
articles that the substantive Honourable Minister had
put out in the newspaper, much of this stuff was put out there many, many years ago.
My concern is that we are now at a critical
point. And if we cannot get ourselves back to a zero
point where we can then begin to build on what we do
have, then we are just prolonging the stress and the
pain that our people are going through. The challenge
that the whole world is having is, and this is attempting to address how we are going to deal with it, like Bermuda, is that we need a positive population. Most countries are declining [in their population]. And they are trying to figure out what to do. A nd if you take a look
around the world and you go online and you take a look at what many countries are attempting to do, it is quite astounding at the length that some of these countries
are going to by offering homes, by paying people to
come to their countries, you name it. All you need to do is start a business in some of these countries and they
give you residency within a couple of weeks.
And we know [about] the challenges around
Bermuda in it being small, and we want to ensure that we secure the future for our young people coming along, but one of the challenges that we are having
right now is that our young people are leaving the country. And we still at this point have not really gotten to
the grassroots as to what is going on and all of the issues as to why our young people are leaving. And I can
remember long before I got involved in politics during the former Premier John Swan’s days w hen unemployment began to be a challenge for young people in Ber-muda. And it has been growing since, to the point now where emigration is a major, major challenge that we
have.
The Honourable Bob Richards, former Minister
of Finance, used to say to us all the time, Well, we got
to stop the bleeding. We have got to stop the bleeding.
And I am hoping that as we go through this plan, and as this Government goes through this plan for the next
couple of years that we are going to find a way to stop
that bleeding, which of course, number one, will help
the economy. And then how we can build on that.
I am not sure if the plan really will address
these issues, which is why the Honourable Member,
the Shadow Minister, said that we are going to have to
pay very close attention to these committees that are going to be formed, all these different committees that
are going to be formed. And I have said in this House
before, the challenge that we have with bureaucracy ––
and the Minister said he is looking to reduce the red tape––the challenge that we have is whenever there is
a challenge we call a committee toge ther to figure out
how to keep somebody from drowning. Instinctively
somebody just needs to jump over and get something
done. But we form committees and then the committee
forms another committee to decide, Well, should we
give them a rope? Should we give them a plastic pipe
to breathe through? A metal pipe? And it goes on and
on and on. And in the meantime, within the next five
years, we will have lost more people leaving the coun-try.
Now one of the things I have not heard anyone
speak about is the fact that some of our international companies are now moving their people. They are actually moving them. So now we got another challenge
on our hands. And so it is going to take a combined effort to make this work. But how is that going to look?
How is that going to work out? Because a lot of solu-tions have been put on the table only to be just looked at and never taken up. And now we are going to form
some committees to go through the strategy plans here
. . . and I am grateful for this plan because I suspect,
just like for us when we are out there, canvassing and
on the streets talking to people, they are looking for
someone to tell them, What is the plan? What is the
plan? And how are we going to move throughout this
challenge that we are having?

B ermuda House of Assembly The need to grow the population is decades
old. This is not new. It is decades old. Our birth rate has
been declining for Lord knows how long!
[
Inaudible interjections]

It has been declining. So, this
is a challenge that governments after governments still have not gotten to the root of how we actually fix this. Now there are solutions on the table. We know that. And I saw in one of the particular articles where we are going to be offering these different things and it actually
was a copy of a plan that I saw from Brian Duperreault when he was trying to get billionaires here. And he had this list of things that they were all . . . these billionaires
were going to contribute to the Island, and blah, blah, blah, blah. And here we are now, many years later, still in a position where we have not implemented some of
these things. So time is of the essence, really and truly.
Time is of the essence.
So, I believe, and I heard someone say, Start
off with emigration. I believe we start off by stopping the
bleeding. We stop our people from leaving. Because I
don’t think we have gotten to the root of that yet. How
do we keep our people from leaving? Now, there are some solutions in here that I actually saw. And I identi-fied [one] and I said, Okay, well, maybe that will help.
Education and these things will help. But the challenge
is getting to robust growth, [and it] is a real, real challenge.
Now one of the things I differ with the Minister
on is that he said our economy is resilient. And in my opinion, the 2008 recession taught us a lesson that we are not resilient. Prior to that we rode through reces-sions like water off of a duck’s back, but when 2008 hit
we realised that we were not resilient. We cannot be resilient because the cost of living continues to go up and we still have not gotten a solution to it yet. Okay?
[
Inaudible interjections]

It is not a stretch. The cost of
living continues to rise and we have not gotten control of it. We have not gotten control of it. There are oppor-tunities that we have in this country to help reduce the cost of living. The approach to it is not reducing duty,
that is not going to do anything because the cost continues to go up. I laid out in this House some of things that we need to do in order to address that issue.

The solution is . . . I will tell
you what the solution is. Having our Ministers not mislead people when they have meetings. We can start
there. If you want to interpolate, we can start there. The solutions need to be based on real information. And that is what I appreciate about the Minister. He is giving us real information. Okay? He is giving us facts, num-bers and the likes. The question is: What are we going
to do about it?
In another five years from now we will have
continued to lose people in this country who need to
stay here. If we cannot fix the issue of getting invest-ment back into this country any time soon, we are in a world of trouble. We are in a world of trouble! And so to
me, yes, we have to increase our funding to aid our
people. We have no other choice right now. But what we do have a choice of is how we can get investment into this country.
We have got a great example. We still cannot
get . . . today is the deadline for the breaking of the
ground of Southampton Princess. It is not happening. Nothing is happening. So we are waiting to see what is going to go on. We have an opportunity to have casinos open. Not one [casino], after deadline, deadline and deadline! You know, Mike Tyson said something interesting. He said, “Everybody has got a plan until they
get punched . . . .”
[
Inaudible interjections]

“ Everybody has got a plan
until they get punched . . . .” And we as a country have
been punched with the recession, COVID -19, emigration, cost of living, you [can] go on and on and on. And the challenge we have is, how are we going to address it?
I am grateful that the Minister has brought this
here. But let us not move from the reality check that we are in some serious trouble, despite the fact that the Minister is saying that, you know, things are improving. Well, we need to get to ground zero and really, really make things happen. We can put education and things
in place. These are all good things that need to happen.
We can help our people with good things to happen. But guess what? Every entrepreneur out there worth his salt knows that you need a few things in order to
thrive without the assistance of Government. And that number one [thing] is that you need to have a customer
base that you can rely on. You need numbers. You
need traffic. You can have the most wonderful product, but if you do not have the traffic, within three years . . .
and I would say in Bermuda because of how tough it is, within two years many of those entrepreneurs are down and out. They cannot make it. If they can get through
1636 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly the third year, then they are beginning to understand a
little more about what they needed to do.
Now, I take to heart the fact that some Members have mentioned that they needed to upgrade
themselves. And some have. But the ones that I know
who are worth their salt, who are on the money, are still
struggling. Which is why we still need to give assistance
to entrepreneurs. Because we are not at that point.
Now, by 2027 I want to believe that we [will be]
at that point. Because they laid out 60 pages of a plan here. We have seen plans before. I can recall when the Premier was Opposition and he called out and he said
. . . actually, I highlighted some of those things. He
highlighted the fact that, Oh, well, you know, our failure
of economic diversification. On the OBA; he was talking
about the OBA. Well, okay. What are we doing? What are we doing now, now that he is Premier? And then he went on to say, Failure to address the cost of living issues. These are things that he was pounding. I just
brought up cost of living and all of sudden everybody wants to interpolate.
We need to empower . . . and I am going to
[give] part of the solution here. We need to empower
entrepreneurs to look at the source of where they are
buying things. We still do not have a really Black -owned
grocery store. And there are many sources out there, outside of America, that we can be buying our goods from. But we are so stuck on buying from the same people who are basically raping us —

[Inaudible interjections]

Shipping costs as well, my
friend. If we want empowerment, then we got to be willing to address the issue and make it happen. As a Government that talks about they want to empower Black
people and the likes, then let’s do it! What empower-ment do we have? What do we own? What do we own
of any consequence? We cannot even ship our stuff in.
So let’s do it! I am saying, let’s do it! Many of us in this
room know other resources.
To this day not one Member has sat down with
me and said, Look, what are you talking about? You
know, they will get up in the House and say, oh, this
and this and this and that. But pull me aside and have
a meeting with me and . . . say you know, What are you
thinking? And if it does not make any sense to you, then
fine.
Fine. But I get up and I give solutions. Right?
Nothing we have heard.
I have talked about . . . the fuel companies
were brought up. Oh, how they stagnated fuel prices.
Well, hold on a second! It was the fuel companies that did that. We did not thank them. We did not even thank
them! And the truth be . . . yes, the truth behind it is that
the cut that they took so that Bermuda prices will go
down, the Government promised to give it back to
them. That is no . . . to the taxpayer, they are still paying
the same price. They do not even know it.
[Inaudible interjections]

Yes, so here we go. So we
are misleading. Right? The truth. Right?
So my intention is not to be the bad cop here
but to talk about some realities. That is all I am talking
about. Realities! So the question becomes, if it is going to take a while for us to get simple things sorted out . . .
we still ain’t got our lightbulbs. How long did it take for parents to get their money for school uniforms? Right.

Hon. Walter H. Roban: Point of order, Madam Acting
Speaker.

There is a point of order. Yes.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. Walter H. Roban: The Honourable Member is
misleading the House. Presumably he is referring to the
LED bulbs that were promised. They are being distributed now. They are on Island. They are being distributed. The Honourable Member was misleading the
House by [asking] where they are. They are here.

Thank you very much. At
least he answered. We got an answer! We actually got
an answer. I must say, Well done! I look forward to having my lightbulbs that are going to save me on my [electric] bill, because that is important.
The five steps in approach here and I took note
of, particularly, the entrepreneurship one because that
strikes the heart. I have been an entrepreneur since
young, selling candies, down in St. David’s when I was
a young kid, going away and buying them. So I got
schooled really early. So I was looking at the action
items on page 46. And I am actually quite pleased
about the approach that this is taking. What I am con-cerned about is how long it is going to take. And I have
said this before, but one of the major issues that we are
faced with is cash flow right now. That is what young businesses have a challenge with, cash flow. And so
until we find a solution to that issue, and one of those
is paying duty upfront, then our entrepreneurs are go-ing to continue t o be cash strapped because they have
to find the money and put it up front.
The question right now is, Who is going to give
you money up front in this economy? And not just BerBermuda House of Assembly muda’s economy, but the world’s economy. Who is going to give you any money? Ain’t nobody going to give you any money. There ain’t nobody going to loan you any money. And so for the entrepreneur it is difficult,
because now it has to rely on Government to feed it.
And that is why we see the concessions that we are
seeing.
But at the end of the day the results are speaking for themselves. We are nowhere near being out of
the woods. No, not at all. So we are going to continue
to have to rely on others to support us. And that is a real challenge.
We are a smart, nimble people. We come from
entrepreneurship. But yet other countries now are sur-passing us in just about everything that we do. Thank
goodness reinsurance is here. Thank goodness! Thank
goodness for the life insurance [business] now that i t
has seen an infrastructure that was put in place for Bermuda back some time ago and are taking advantage of
it, because these things have cycles. And so they are
taking advantage of it.
But guess what? It is not enough. Because
each and every one of us, if we walk out on the street
right now, you can close your eyes and you will bump
into somebody who is struggling. If we cannot address
these issues and if we just put up our hands and say ,
Oh, well. Oh, that’s like a low blow, cost of living. There
are solutions to addressing this! And it is not lowering
duty!
But we are putting up our hands in the House
of Assembly and saying, Well, I don’t know what to do!
The solutions are out there. So if we are going to do
entrepreneurship, let’s really get to the root of how we solve some of these issues and do something! The
people of Bermuda are waiting for us to do something.
When we tried to do something with immigration, guess
what? We could not even get in the door just to have a
conversation. And here we are now, yes, giving up, giving up. Here we are now looking at policies that quite
frankly were on the table back then.

Were they?

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Oh, yeah, they were on the
table back then! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah —blanket no.
Unbelievable what we are dealing with. And that is why
we are in the state that we are in.

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Blinded, smoke all around
us and we are saying, There is no fire anywhere! Unbelievable that our Cabinet Ministers are “chirpolating” like that. And that is why some of them are in trouble!
[Laughter]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes! Oh, this is going to be
real interesting because there is a lot of electioneering going on right now. It is going to be real interesting.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Oh, yes, you are hearing it!
That is why you are putting out a plan because you are
hearing it. You have not done anything . . . when you
came into Government in 2017 you went through the list this, this, this and about the OBA. And you still have
not done the same things! And we were only Government for four years! And then we got to hear somebody
get up and say, our Honourable Member s say, Oh, well,
we got downgraded by Standard and Poor’s, completely not understanding what was go ing on.
We inherited a country deep in debt, trying to
figure out a plan forward. But after that particular Standard and Poor’s, that first one, guess what, it never happened again. Never happened again! Where are we now? Struggling; looking for advice. And when g iven
advice, they gotta chirp. And maybe it is just the tone
that I am giving it in. Maybe it is, right? But you better
pay attention, Government , because the wall is coming.
People are getting frustrated. Getting frustrated! They
know it. That is why we h ave got a plan.
I commend the Minister for putting this plan out
because he knows we are in trouble. He knows it! And we have got to fix this problem. So, I am going to support every positive effort that the Government attempts
to put forward that is going to make some sense. But if
we continue on like we are, emigration is continuing to
punch us out; cost of living, punching us out; investment —lack of investment —punching us out. Southampton Princess, we are still tryin g to get it open, and
here is D -Day. It is supposed to happen today. Nothing!
No update, nothing; waiting for the SDO (Special De-velopment Order). The hotel is not going to get reno-vated until that SDO is approved.
My assertion of that is this: it is going to get approved. That is why we are hearing all of these wonder-ful things. Let us see what happens. Let us see if I am wrong. But it is going to get approved because the Government does not have anything else! It has to approve
it. And they will back off on education, too. They will back off, just as long as they get Southampton Princess.
And that is not to take away from the work that
the Minister has done. He has done fantastic work. We
are glad to see some of this stuff in here. And it is going
to take some tweaking. Let us see if they allow for us to have some input in tweaking some of this stuff. Let
us see! Based on the conversation today it i s not going
to happen. Let us see! So, if it is going to take us together to make something happen, because they certainly do not know everything and we certainly do not
know everything, but I bet together we can get something done.
1638 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly And, yes, I agree with the Honourable Member
“chirpolating.” Some people are fooled. But they are
waking up now. They are waking up because the Gov-ernment is hearing it. Thank goodness. At least there is
some light that we believe is at the end of the tunnel that we can get somewhere with this here. But I am not
going to back off from pushing the fact that we need to
get some stuff done. And the lack of sup port out there
right now for our Government is coming from a cross
section of people . . . a cross section of people. Yes,
the sky is falling; the sky is falling, that is why you are doing this. This is an admittance that the sky is falling.
The admittance that the sky is falling is that we have to
continue as a Government to give and to give and to
give, even when we do not have. We have got to give because the sky is falling. Yes! It is falling.
So, let us see what we do. And for all of those
smart Member s in the House of Assembly who are intellectually capable of turning this thing around, I hope we do it. I really do. But until then, we are going to call
you out because this is a long time coming. Regurgi-tated some stuff; some stuff new. Okay, I get that . I get
that. But let us see. Because I can assure you that the
issues and the red tape that is out there . . . people
have been talking about it forever. And since they chastised us about, Oh, we ll, we need to communicate with
the banks , well listen, Government , go to the bank and
the BMA and see if we can shorten the process of opening up an account! That will help. That will help.
Guess what? They cannot do it, just like they accused
us of not being able to do it. So shock me . . . go and
get it done!
But the rhetoric that I am hearing is antagonism
towards the banks, and the banks are certainly beginning to express themselves. We were in this House not
too long ago when IB business at the Budget Breakfast
spoke their mind. And an Honourable Member in this
House got up and chastised the person because they had some affiliations supposedly with Royal Gazette .
Yes, you all remember it. Well, you think that is going
to get you any brownie points? We could say a whole
lot about people. Thank goodness the OBA does not
necessarily go there.
[Laughter]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: And today we were attempting to have an even- keel. But an Honourable Member
got up and wanted to be cheeky and said, Well, I was
going to do this here, but . . . but; and . . . and . . . laid
out everything that they were going to do but I am not
going to do it , but does it anyhow. And you want to work
together? Quite frankly, the Shadow Minister was very,
very, very measured in his approach. This guy . . . for
some reason he ain’t got an attack bone in his body . . .
he is not going to just attack you, he is going to be fair about what he believes and sees.

[Inaudible interjections] Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: And the first person to take
a shot is a PLP Member —not an OBA Member! Unbelievable.
But yet, you know, they are always getting attacked and people are always saying they cannot figure
out what to do. There ain’t nobody in here saying that
you do not have intellectual capital. You have got it; use
it!

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Use it!
Oh, I am true to form. And this is a Minister talking about misleading people in meetings! True to form.
And he thinks it is okay to apologise and that is
all okay. He will be held accountable for that mislead-ing. He is being held accountable for that misleading. That does not help the cause. He is making things difficult for his other Minister s. Making it difficult! Sometimes, just keep quiet. That is all. But some of them
have not learned that lesson.

Keep quiet.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Listen. Listen. I do not get
up every time. I do not. But you can rest assured if I do
get up, I am going to hold you accountable. And we
need to fix this situation.
So, to the Minister , I am going to support him
(he is somewhere around here). I am going to support
him through this here. Let us see how we get on. But
time is of the essence. And if he does not move swiftly
more people are going to drown. That is the challenge
we have in t his country.
Thank you.

Because what we are actually
saying tonight —and I propose to say —is that there are
some good ideas in this plan. They are not all good and there are some gaps, like the Honourable Deputy
Leader for the Opposition said earlier. But there are some good ideas in this plan.
Before I start, Madam Acting Speaker, I would
like to refer to two quotes from speakers who spoke
earlier in the debate. The first was from the Honourable
Minister for Economy and Labour himself, Mr. Jason
Hayward, who said we welcome feedback. I am going to take him at face value and I am going to offer feed-back. If he would like to take it he is welcome to; if he
does not wish to, that is up to him. He is the Minister ;
we are just in the Opposition. We have our say; they
get their way.
The second quote I would like to refer to is actually from the former Premier, my colleague MP
Dunkley, who said we are very happy to support good
policy —and I know that to be true. If this Government
advocates and advances good policy, we will support it because ultimately we put country above party —

[Laughter]

—and we want to see Bermuda
succeed.
And I notice that a Cabinet Minister is chuckling
by the statement I just made to this Honourable House
when I say that we put country before party. That is
true, and it is known to be true. So do not chuckle.
Madam Acting Speaker, what I wanted to talk
about for a moment before getting into the substantive strategy was a television show about 20 years ago. It ran for almost 10 years. It was back when Netflix and
other shows like that were just beginning, so it had several seasons and several episodes, and you could
watch them one at a time or you could binge watch them all at once. And it was a show called House. And
it was a show about some brilliant doctors who were, I
believe, in Princeton, New Jersey, at a hospital. And
the show was actually slightly formulaic. At the beginning of the show you would see this ordinary person or
a couple of people and you would try and figure out, okay, which one of them is going to suddenly befall some terrible accident or injury or attack and then off
they would go to the hospital where this great doctor,
Dr. House, would try and diagnose the problem. And it
would always be really, really rare cases —it would be
lupus or something that, you know, is not really readily recognis able to the general man or woman on the
street, or even the general practitioner, doctor. It would
take a specialist to diagnose, this master diagnostician,
to figure out what was wrong with a particular person. And in the end, they usually did figure out what was
wrong.
The reason I am talking about this is because
they had to figure out what was wrong before they could identify the illness and then cure it. They needed to first identify the problem before they embarked upon a solution.
Now, my suggestion is that you do not need to
be a master diagnostician to notice and figure out that
something is deeply wrong with our Bermudian economy. All you have to do to realise that is look around
you. We have pothole [filled] roads in a dangerous state
of neglect. We have boarded shop windows in our formerly thriving city of Hamilton. We have closed busi-nesses. We have inflation and it is getting worse. We
have Bermudians leaving. We have a tightening job
market. We have $3.25 billion in debt. And that does
not even recognise the unfunded pension liabilities
which are, again, about the same amount, leaving us
$6 billion to $7 billion in unfunded liabilities in the future. We have a faltering education system—and it has been
faltering for some time . And we have a health care system that, whilst very, very good, is terribly, terribly expensive.
But my point is that these are recognisable
problems. And you have to diagnose the issue, and you
have to accept that there are issues, there are illnesses, before you can hope to administer a cure.
Now, as I said, I intend to say some positive
things about the Minister’s plans. But I also intend to
provide some constructive criticism. My concern is that
there is a duality in the current Government . My concern is that the Burt Administration keep insisting that there is not a problem with our economy [and] that they think everything is okay. Now, Minister Hayward, in this
very House two sittings ago, said that all economic indicators —all economic indicators —are good. He also
described the Burt Adminis tration and the PLP as
quote, “excellent stewards of [the] economy.” That was two sittings ago.
Even today, he described the economy (not the
plan, the economy) as quote, “robust and resilient.” So,
my problem is that those statements do not ring true.
They ring very hollow. It certainly does not feel that everything is okay with our economy. And jus t like with the
doctor, you have to accept that there is an illness and
figure out what that illness is before you can embark on
the cure. And that is very, very important, Mr. Speaker, because when doctors differ, patients die.
[Hon. Dennis P. Lister, Jr., Speaker, in the Chair]

And my honourable colleague,
MP Cannonier, the former Premier, was speaking earlier about his frustration when someone is in the water
drowning and we have a committee to discuss whether
a rope is thrown or someone gets into the water or what happens, and there is a committee discussing it for
months and months and years and years . . . when
1640 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly what needs to happen is someone needs to jump in the
water and save the drowning person —or ideally, throw
a life preserver. To be fair, and I am trying to be fair here, one
can understand how you could have a conversation about the Bermudian economy and have some people
say that everything is fine and have some others say,
Well, everything is terrible . Now, that is not just politics;
that is not just the Government saying one thing and
the Opposition saying the other. No, Mr. Speaker, it
goes much deeper than that.
Where there is a duality in our economy is the
duality between international business and local business. Because it is right to say that international business in Bermuda is doing quite well, thank you very
much. And were it not for the fact that international busi-ness is doing so well, we as a jurisdiction would be in deep, deep trouble because it was international business who kept us afloat during COVID -19. It was international business who allowed—I do not know if it is
3,000 or 4,000 Bermudian s who work in international
business —to go home and sit at home during COVID -
19 and continue to be paid.
So, international business economy —yes, I
see that. But international business is akin, Mr.
Speaker, to a glass tower and everything may be fine
in that glass tower but what is going on on the ground
around it? What is going on on the local side of things,
with local businesses and Bermudian workers —small
and large? People are downsizing. People are outsourcing. People are losing jobs. People are working
from other jurisdictions remotely. Remote working is
not good for us. It is not good for Bermud a. Yes, t here
are some who will come to our shores and work remotely from Bermuda, but that is like a salmon swimming upstream. The stream is the fact that all of these
people who in the last 20 or 30 years who we had come
to Bermuda, pay into our health care system, work here
. . . the companies and businesses that are doing work
in Bermuda do not need that many people anymore.
So, international business is downsizing, and we need (I am afraid) to be real about the fact that the Bermudian economy is not doing well enough even if our colleagues and friends from international business are do-ing quite well.
That, too, has its problems because when you
are cheek by jowl and one is doing well and another is not, that fosters envy and that fosters dissatisfaction
and we have to look at the whole picture. And to be fair, this plan does seek to look at the whole p icture. But
where my criticism comes in is that let us just stop the
façade of trying to say, We are the Government , so of
course, because we are the Government the economy
is just fine. We are excellent stewards. Everything is okay. All economic indicator s are okay. This is just not
true. And even if it were true, people do not think it is
true. So what happens? You lose their trust. You lose
the ability for consensus decision- making. You lose the ability for collaboration because people just do not believe you anymore. And if you do not have trust how can you work together to solve the problems?
Moving on then, Mr. Speaker, to the next point:
What is the cure? I know that one of the backbench MPs from the PLP invited us to identify solutions, and I
gladly do so.
Solution one, and it is not rocket science. It has
been said before, and I have said it before. We need to
increase the flow of foreign capital into this Island. We
need more foreign dollars.

Because if I take $1 out of my
pocket, Mr. Speaker, and I pay to you that $1 and you
take that same $1 and you pay it to the Deputy Leader and the Deputy Leader takes that same $1 and pays it
to someone else and eventually it goes all the way
around the room and comes back to me, we are no bet-ter off as a room. The same dollar is just circulating all
the way around.

What we need to see is . . . we do
not need another committee looking at what the bipar-tisanship committee already looked at and established which built upon the committee chaired by William Madeiros. We have reports. We have a nonpolitical committee whic h gave a report to a political committee, including Members of the OBA, who sat I think for almost
two years under the stewardship of MP Caines behind
me.

[Inaudible interjections]

And they came up with a series of
proposals of four buckets of legal changes. Only one of those four buckets has been implemented. It was im-plemented June, either two or three years ago. I might


Bermuda House of Assembly have lost a year with COVID -19. The other three buckets remain unsolved. Solve them.
Now earlier, and previously the Honourable
Minister of Economy and Labour recognised that we
need more workers here. We agree. We agree. And
this is dealt with in the report that he has provided to
this Honourable House at page 15.
And he says, and we agree, “ Given the need to
grow our working population . . .” Now, the Honourable
Minister has offered a figure of circa 8,000 new workers. The OBA is on record previously of offering a figure of 10,000 new workers —

The Bermudian public would like
to think that if all that is between us is the number of
new workers that we need to get into Bermuda that we
could reach a consensus decision and get the job done
together.
Sometimes we need to get out of our own way.
And by the way, what we need to be welcoming is job creators, not merely people of high net worth—although obviously people of high net worth are an advantage, and I have commended publicly before on the
Honourable Minister ’s EIC programme. I think this is a
good programme. It is bringing in people of high net
worth into Bermuda. But what we need to focus on is
job creators who will not just come to our Island, not
just buy a nice house and come with their husban d or
their wife or their children— and that is great. That is not
a problem. But we need to do better than that. We need
job creators who will bring businesses to our shore. So there is solution number two.
Solution number three is we need to reduce the
cost of Government . And as the Honourable Minister
recognised today, and he was commended for it by
members of the Opposition, we need to get rid of the
red tape of doing business here.
Now, the Honourable Minister today when he
spoke to this Honourable House said he would work on
getting rid of red tape. It is amazing how frustrating it is to actually get anything done on this Island. I do not know if the Member s of this Honourable House (when
they are not MPs or Minister s or whatever they happen
to be), in their own lives try to arrange something or
start something or assist someone else with a business. It is mindboggling how long it takes to get anything done.
And I believe it was the Honourable Whip for
the PLP, MP Tyrrell, who gave a speech to this Honourable House not so long ago about this being the Island of “No.” And I am afraid it is. And what we need to
do together is to change this to be the Island of “Yes”
because there are a lot of other jurisdictions out there
that are dying to eat our lunch. And when the Honour-able Member , MP Cannonier, former Premier, observed that there are businesses in Bermuda today in
our international business sector who are looking at moving or are already moving workers elsewhere, that is true.

And I do not want it to . . . you
see? This is the problem. The Honourable Minister asks which ones , challenging me, as if what I have just
said is a falsehood.
It is not a falsehood; it is true. I do not want it to
be true because I want Bermuda . . . we want Bermuda
. . . both sides of this aisle want Bermuda to succeed.
But I am afraid it is true. And the Honourable Minister knows full well I cannot say which ones because I learned this information in my capacity as an international lawyer. I am talking about clients.

[Inaudible interjections]

So the Honourable Deputy Premier of the PLP just asked me, Why raise it?
Why raise it? Because you have to diagnose
the problem. You have to recognise the illness and you
have to recognise there is an illness before you can
start to cure it.
And the interpolation goes on. I am just being
told I do not know what I am talking about. Okay. Maybe
I do not know what I am talking about. But you know what? I stand by what I just said in this Honourable
House to my honourable colleagues. And I am not fearmongering. I am not . . . and now I am being told by the
Honourable Deputy Premier that I am fearmongering. I am not fearmongering, and I am sorry . . .
Look, it does not reflect badly on the Government of the day that people in their economy might actually have the business sense to be considering other jurisdictions. That is life. That is reality. That is what we
are facing. That is what we are dealing with and that is
what we are trying to avoid toget her—together. And I
have already praised this plan, so do not say I am mischief making or fearmongering.

[Inaudible interjections]

There we are.
Number three . . . I am glad that they are distracting me from my themes. We need responsible
1642 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly spending. We are not approaching our spending as a
Government responsibly. We no longer have the luxury
of having a credit surplus. We have $3.25 billion (give or take) in debt. That is huge. We need to start . . . I am
being asked by another Member of this House how many times I am going to mention that. I would th ink it
would be a pretty important thing. One might describe it as the proverbial elephant, although there have been a lot of elephants in the room today. So, yes, it is a big
deal and it is, yes , something that we should be worried
about.
So, back to the plan. Whilst it is a bit soviet to
talk about five- year plans, I would invite the Minister
who invited us (I remind him) that he would welcome
feedback, I will give feedback. And I was actually going
to use the quote that my Honourable friend MP Cannonier used earlier about plans which was Mike Ty-son’s quote, although I think in fact the actual quote
was Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the
face and I think the “in the face” bit actually makes it a
little more vivid. Mike Tyson, Everyone has a plan until
you get punched in the face—

[Inaudible interjections]

Yes, I am not punching you in the
face, Minister , I promise!
But if you look around now in Bermuda, it does
feel like we have been punched in the face. So let us
look at the importance of the plan, and let us offer what
I believe to be genuine feedback that is sincere and heartfelt and meant in that way. The important part
about a plan, and again this is not rocket science, it is
the delivery. So it is all well and good to have a plan,
but we need far less talk. Ironic that I would say that as a politician, but far less talk —

—and a lawyer! What is not to
love? Politician and lawyer.
We need less talk and more action—we need
delivery. And this means we need to move away from smooth talkers and we need to move towards those
who in fact roll up their sleeves and get things done.
I am going to say something that might be
slightly surprising, and I hope it does not undermine the
Minister. It is not my intention to undermine him if he gets praise from the Opposition, but for him to roll this
plan out I think took some courage. And h aving
watched him recently since he has assumed his new Ministerial role, although it has not been that recent, he
is trying to get things done. So I recognise that. And let me also add that it is not just about getting new things
done. It is about ensurin g that those things that should
normally [be] done are done.
And I think I can pick up on a point that MP
Jarion Richardson made earlier where some of the action items in this plan are rather like, Okay, well, that is what you should have been doing anyway . So, be
bolder, push harder, see how we can get these things done and at the same time see how we can be better as a Government , as a jurisdiction, as a community, as
a society, as an island in getting things done that should be normally done because we do not do that terribly well at the moment. And that is not a party/political
point. It is just an observation.
I think that Bermuda is tired of poor management and mismanagement, and I think Bermudians are
frustrated. I think there is little confidence left in politics.
I think most Bermudians feel politicians talk and do
nothing; that we are all unreliable. That we are all just
as bad as each other and that we are not solving the
problems that they want to solve. The comment that I
hear most often, and maybe it is just about me, but it
might be about all of us, is, I cannot believe the things
you guys debate when you are up in the House. You
are not talking about the things that I want you to talk about. You are talking about things that do not matter to me. And I do hear that a lot. Perhaps others in this
Chamber have heard that.
And we need to —

[Inaudible interjection]

Again, interpolations.
Maybe they are just talking about me. But I
think it might be something we should all contemplate a little bit.
Let us go back to where I started. I think we
cannot keep saying on the one hand the economy is
doing fine, and on the other say, Okay, we recognise
that things are dire and we can fix them . And the reason
why those two things do not sit well together, leaving
aside the duality between IB and local business, is because if you are going to get the things done that must be done you need the country to understand that it
needs to be done becaus e it is a dire circumstance.
And it is only in a dire circumstance that the Island, the
people, the community, the society will come along with
you. So if you say everything is fine, they are not going
to go for the extreme surgery to clear that illness.

[Inaudible interjections]

—at the same time as . . . Well, if
they can be true at the same time, no doubt people who
speak after me will explain how. But I think that that is
trying to have it both ways. In order to have confidence
in their politicians, the people need to have trus t in us.
And as I said, I do fear that this trust is long gone.

[Inaudible interjections]

We hear from the Minister how we
are trending in the right direction. Well a trend is only
relevant from where you start the trend. And it is not
really helpful to say we are trending in the right direction
if we are comparing it to a year ago and COVID -19 because it is very easy to go from zero to hero.
[Inaudible interjections]

You need to . . . well, I mean, let
us look at this report. I mean there are some things in this report that are just astounding. On page 7 of the report, for example . . . look, you know . . . who was it?
I think it was [ Benjamin] Disraeli , a Prime Minister of the
UK, who said there were Lies, damn lies and statistics ,
right? Well here is a statistic, Mr. Speaker, apparently
during the height of COVID -19 between 2019 and
2020, we saw an increase, yes an increase, in the total number of local businesses between 3,399 up to 3,520.
Now, perhaps that was all the businesses created to
bring in the equipment to help [with] COVID -19, but I
mean to suggest that between 2019 and 2020 everything is rosy because we had a business increase in local businesses . . . it just does not ring true in the context of what people were living through. So maybe
those are companies that imported masks or —

Hon. Jason Hayward: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

Point of order?
POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. Jason Hayward: The Member is misleading the
House. The statistics show that we have an increase in
companies. He cannot come back and say, Well, that
is a lie . That is what the data actually suggests. It is also
unfair and also untrue to question the starting point of
the comparison when in my deliberations I said that our
economy has surpassed pre- pandemic levels, which
means the growth, actual growth, of our economy is doing better than it was pre- pandemic.

Sorry, I think the Minister for
Economy and Labour just said that air arrivals is not the economy.
I would have thought that air arrivals is a pretty
darn important economic indicator for the Bermudian
economy. And if it is trending downwards, you get my
point about not trying to make everything such a rosy
picture and just admit that there are problems, because if we can admit that there are problems we can agree
about what they are. If we can agree about what they
are, we can hopefully agree on the best solution and
we can work to deliver that solution. Again, a doctor cannot successfully treat a patient if they do not even
think the patient is ill.
Again . . . my time is running out, Mr. Speaker .
In summary, we have to admit that we have problems.
We have to work together and agree upon solutions.
And most importantly, once those solutions are known
we have to deliver, because if we are going to be any better off in six years’ time than we were s ix years ago,
we need to work together to build an Island and econ-omy with confidence. We need confidence, we need competence, we need hope, we need hard work. So
that is the feedback, and as MP Dunkley said before
me, we are most happy to support good policy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker .

Mr. Speaker, I heard several comments about You gotta do something about the
cost of living. You gotta do something about the cost of
living . Then I am sitting here scanning the world news
and every country has a cost -of-living crisis. Even the
country that we have to answer to called Great Britain.
Their government is in constant meltdown. Their prices . . . fuel prices are going up. Their banks have just increased mortgage rates for the 10
th time in one year!
Their Chancellor of th e Ex —whatever it is called, the
Finance Minister —

The Exchequer said, Well,
if you got problems with the bank, give us a call and we will work with the banks to try to save people from, you
know, not having to make payments for six months .
That does not sound like a robust economy. It sounds
like everywhere in the world.
Moving on, Mr. Speaker .

[Crosstalk ]

Mr. Speaker, one of the
things, the key things . . . let us stop beating around the
bush. One of the key things in this plan is increasing
the population on this Island because of our ageing
population, because of this, that and the other.
The thing that differentiates us from the OBA
when they came with their Pathways to Status was just that—Pathways to Status. They wanted to give a blanket amount of Bermudian status to persons. Nowhere in that plan, our [PLP] plan, says Pathways to Status .
So let us be clear about that. It is the pathways to in-creasing our population. There is a difference.
Mr. Speaker, immigration has been labelled as
the third rail. For anybody who does not know, if you go in the subway in New York you can go on two rails and
you would be cool. But if you hit the third rail that is it,
you are over. And I do not see anywhere the signs of
people about to protest against the PLP and our plans
to increase the population. Nowhere. Not like what was
happening with the OBA.
Well here is the reality, Mr. Speaker . Here is
the reality, Mr. Speaker . In order for us to increase the
population, we are going to have to increase housing. There is no way we can bring in 1,000 people without
having accommodations for them, much less 8,000 . . .
whatever —

[Inaudible interjections]

Four hundred, exactly. We
cannot even . . . well, I will not say the exact words, but
. . . the point is, Mr. Speaker . . . Mr. Speaker, the point
is we have to increase housing which is in the plan. Whether it be some sort of high- rises in North East
Hamilton or other parts of the Island. But here is where the OBA, who loves to say they want to work with us . . . here is where their plan gets a punch in the face,
again. They are the first ones to protest when there are
major housing projects being proposed. How are we
going to increase the population, like they want it, if we
do not increase housing?
[Inaudible interjections]

No, that is not what I said.
We can increase it.
My point is, Mr. Speaker, in support of the Minister, in support of the Government , we have to be pragmatic. We cannot just have rose- coloured glasses and
say everything is fine . No! Everything is not fine. Oh,
see? Right? But the reality is we have to be with the
Minister , support him and guide him to pragmatic decisions because when the hammer drops [and] we start
getting more people here and when the hotels open —
hotels, plural —when we start seeing plans being put
towards the Planning Department for major housing developments the OBA needs to just chill and understand
they need, just like they said today, to support the Minister, because whether they like it or not, the housing is
going to happen. Whether they like it or not, our GDP is going to grow under the PLP.
So, all I will say to our colleagues, let us be
pragmatic in our deliberations, support the Minister ,


Bermuda House of Assembly and when some people make a noise, give them the
Mike Tyson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker .

Thank you, Honourable Member.
Does any other Member . . . Minister Campbell?

Hon. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Mr. Speaker .
Mr. Speaker, I am glad you are back because
it was becoming extremely difficult to say Madam Acting Speaker or, you know, Mr. Acting Speaker —

[Crosstalk]
Hon. Vance Campbell: You know, so —

[Laughter]

Hon. Vance Campbell: Yes, but I want to begin by talking about a comment made about economic indicators
pointing in the right direction—all economic indicators
being pointed in the right direction. That is possible. But
we can still, as a country, have a ways to go. And I thi nk
I have not heard the Minister say that we did not have
a ways to go. And if I am looking to get to St. George’s
and I am heading east and I am in Bailey’s Bay, I am
going the wrong way. But if I turn around, I am now
heading in the right direction, but I still have a ways to
go before I arrive in Somerset.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to read two quotes.
One from Martin Luther King, Jr. and one from Sir Win-ston Churchill.
Martin Luther King was quoted as saying,
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What
are you doing for others?’” And the quote from Sir Win-ston Churchill is, “It's no use saying, ‘ We are doing our
best. ’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary. ”
Let us look at this Economic Development
Strategy, Mr. Speaker . There are five key areas:
1. Local and International Business [Retention
and Expansion] . We are looking at measures to retain
and expand in that region. This means an increase to
Government’s revenues. It means an increase in jobs
for our people.
2. Business Attraction and Investment [Promotion] Promoting that —inward investment, expansion of
the economy, jobs.
3. Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development . Creation of a nation of business owners and,
again, job creation. Mr. Speaker, this allows many who
have had a bit part to play in our economy to participate
in a great way. It allows those who may have been frozen out of our economy to participate in our economy
as an entrepreneur and small business owner in a great way. Point 4 . . . sorry, before I move onto point 4,
we all know a healthy economy needs entrepreneur-ship and a thriving small business community.
4. Continued Execution of the Economic Recovery Plan , Building, rebuilding the foundation, providing
a platform from which to launch future development
and expansion of the economy.
5. People. Ensuring that we have a skilled local
work force inclusive of execution of the Youth Employment Strategy. Encouraging Bermudians to remain
competitive in the labour market. Facilitating an environment for a high quality workforce adding another
feature to Bermuda’s already attractive business jurisdiction. Finally, improving the ability of Bermudians to
participate in the local economy.
Mr. Speaker, one of the big four firms, Deloitte,
provided a very unbiased analysis of the Economic De-velopment Strategy. And I do agree with much of what
they have included in their analysis. In particular, the
following three points:
Immigration reform is critical to the success of
many of the initiatives within the strategy. That is why it is included in the plan and I want to commend the Minister and his team for an excellent comprehensive plan.
Two: That we should prioritise those items in
the plan based on the following three criteria: ease of
execution, anticipated value of the economic impact
and finally, [the] anticipated speed of the economic im-pact of those items.
The last item is the development of the Hamilton waterfront. It is critical to driving economic invest-ment into the city of Hamilton and the country as a
whole.
Mr. Speaker, what is the Economic Development Strategy? It is a strategic framework —I think that
word is critical. It does not have all the meat on the bones, but it is the framework that will guide Bermuda
to sustainable economic growth and development. The
framework will help ensure that future economic initiatives are in alignment with strategic priorities. Those initiatives contained with the strategy will contain specific
actions which will chart a path for Bermuda ’s economic
prosperity.
Mr. Speaker, the strategic initiatives contain
actionable items in regard to immigration, emigration, new business development and labour policy changes
for current and future sectors —did I just say that? It
says, “ The strategic initiatives contain actionable items
in regard to:
• Immigration, emigration, new business development and labour policy changes for current
and future sectors;
• Driving investment, innovation and improved
opportunities for a sustainable Bermuda; and
• Expansion of current and future sectors and
activities to promote sustainable growth, increased job creation and accelerated recovery.”
1646 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly So, the business plan, the strategy, that the
Minister has presented here today contains just about
everything that we heard from the Opposition as to
what they would do, what they [would] recommend.
Mr. Speaker, let us look at the employment
sectors within Bermuda.
• International business —15 per cent of jobs.
• Wholesale and retail —12 per cent of jobs.
• Public administration —12 per cent of jobs.
• Accommodation and food service (which you
could refer to as the hospitality industry )—
10 per cent of filled jobs.
• Human, health and social work —8 per cent of
filled jobs.
• All other industries —43 per cent.
Although accommodation and food service, the
hospitality industry, represents 10 per cent of filled
jobs, its impact on jobs is far greater, particularly as it relates to the wholesale and retail industries. Our visitors, both leisure and business, purchase food in the
hotels and restaurants keeping the wholesalers of food
busy. The hoteliers and restaurateurs require supplies
to meet the needs of their patrons. Again, they look to
many of the wholesalers on Island for those supplies.
We all are aware of t he impact, the positive impact, that
our visitors have on the retail industry.
When we look at our visitor arrivals over the
years, in 2018, we had 766,000 visitors spending $544 million. In 2019, we had 805,000 visitors spending
$556.5 million. In 2022, we had 545,379 visitors spend-ing $359 million. So, the contribution to our econ omy is
great.
Let us talk about the National Tourism Plan,
Mr. Speaker. The objectives are to create a six -year, or
was to create a six -year plan and we are into that six -
year plan up to 2026, and to build a clear view of our future for tourism and its effect on the Island as a whole.
The vision goes on to say that Bermuda will
have a growing and balanced tourism sector. This
means we will grow tourism, and at the same time ensure better balanced seasonality, better balanced
price -value perceptions, better balanced visitor volume
(and this means air versus cruise visitors), better balanced benefits for all residents of Bermuda. And the
mission of the National Tourism Plan will enable, or be
the catalyst for, changes that boost the tourism sector. And how will that occur, Mr. Speaker ? We ll, the NTP
(the National Tourism Plan) will:
• work with all relevant stakeholders to ensure
their voices are heard ;
• focus on the things that matter ;
• help bring about change in a sustainable way ;
• help foster cooperation v ersus competition Island-wide—and I believe we are talking about
amongst key stakeholders; and
• be visitor -centric in our approach. Mr. Speaker, Bermuda’s history is one of constant innovation and change from farming to shipbuild-ing to military bases to tourism to financial services.
This change has not only manifested change from one
industry to another, but it has also changed and [evolved] within indus tries. So tourism has begun that
change and that evolution.
There has been a recognition that agility must
be built into our tourism plan. There are seven pillars,
as this House very well knows, Mr. Speaker , to the National Tourism Plan:
1. Awareness and Relevance ;
2. [Greener] —to become a greener destination;
3. Infrastructure—we need improvement, we
need to have the infrastructure in place that
creates the frictionless experience for our visitors.
4. Local Involvement —that is the basis upon
which the industry was built in the first place, and our visitors constantly report that interac-tion with locals is the best part of their vacation
here in Bermuda.
5. Innovation—let us start thinking like a visitor.
Let us provide what they want, not what we
think they want.
6. Teams and Groups —designing distinct positioning for groups, business meetings, sports —
that have a significant impact on the Island and raises the profile of Bermuda as a tourist destination.
7. Year -Round —embracing all seasons. Development of relevant vacation packages for different times of the year and for different target
markets.
Mr. Speaker, earlier this week I was in a meeting and the discussion around tourism and hospitality
began with tourism and hospitalities percentage contri-bution to the country’s GDP. The conversation was quickly refocused, as percentage contribution to GDP
does not tell the story of the importance of the tourism
and hospitality [industries] to the overall economy here
in Bermuda. The true value that the industry has to our
overall economy is the multitude of jobs it provides and
the other industries that it has a positive impact on.
The industry affords entry level employment
across a number of job categories that require little to
no specialised skill set or training at the entry level. In
addition, the industry allows for those in the entry level positions to gain specialised training and to increase
their skill set whilst on the job, if they have the interest
and the drive to do so.
Mr. Speaker, I must be like MP Swan, I am getting close to being a senior. I got another couple of years to go, but I temporarily lost my place as well.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Vance Campbell: I am not putting all seniors in
that category, Mr. Speaker .


Bermuda House of Assembly [Laughter]

Hon. Vance Campbell: Okay. Here we go.
Mr. Speaker, let’s talk about the launch last
year, the rebranding of Bermuda , the Lost Yet Found
campaign. It is a wide- ranging multi -media marketing
initiative that highlights Bermudian experiences and en-tices visitors to dive deeper into the Island’s culture, thereby making a vacation on Island a richer and more
rewarding journey. Mr. Speaker, this campaign leans
into the mystery of Bermuda. It invites visitors to find
Bermuda for themselves and to find the activities, the
people, the cuisine and experie nces that speak to
them. We are talking about what the BTA has been and
are doing for tourism improvement, and hence to increase job opportunity for Bermudians and to contribute towards economic recovery and expansion as a whole. We are talking about examples of the BTA succeeding in doing what is necessary to improve tourism
and hospitality in Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, earlier this month, the Tourism Investment Amendment Act 2023 was passed in this House. In general terms, this Act provides a period of
relief for the following:
• a new hotel —from 10 years to not exceed 15
years;
• a refurbished hotel —from five years to not exceed 15 years;
• a new restaurant —from three years to not exceed five years;
• an existing restaurant —from one year to not
exceed three years; and
• an attraction—from three years to not exceed a maximum of five years.
The idea, Mr. Speaker, behind the potential period of relief was to further incentivise investment in our
hotel, restaurant and attraction offerings, thus raising the quality of what we have to offer our visitors and locals alike, also making us more competitive with other
jurisdictions. Mr. Speaker, let us not forget that a greater number of hotel beds increases our capacity for
the number of leisure air visitors that we can accommodate here at any point in time. There is also a correla-tion between that nu mber , i.e., our capacity , and our
ability to attract greater demand and our ability to ne-gotiate greater airlift to the Island.
Mr. Speaker, these amendments to the Tourism Investment Act 2017 are bearing fruit. Our goal is to bring a T ourism Investment Order here for the development of the Ariel Sands property in the not -too-distant future. We anticipate an additional three, possibly four Tourism Investment Orders coming toward the
House in the coming months. Mr. Speaker, I have al-ready met with the restaurateur who is interested in investing further in Bermuda and who wanted to know
more about the concessions offered under the rec ent
amendment to the Act for restaurateurs. During the
coming days, weeks and months, there will be a delib-erate outreach campaign to restaurateurs and the owners of existing attractions , to anyone considering opening a restaurant or attraction anew to make sure that
they are aware of the concessions, to help facilitate
their plans, to help make their dreams a reality. Mr. Speaker, those amendments passed earlier this month
benefit hard- working Bermudians, not only rich oversea
investors. They benefit hard- working Bermudians.
Mr. Speaker, if you happened to be driving or
walking through Hamilton in recent weeks, you would
have not been able to ignore a significant uptick in activity. And on Wednesday of this week, Mr. Speaker, as
I drove through Hamilton along Front Street, it took me
15 minutes to get from Bermudiana Road to Court Street. And there was no accident holding up traffic.
One of the main r easons for the slow movement of traffic was the constant crossing at the traffic lights by not
only locals but a noticeable increased presence in the
number of visitors taking pictures, crossing back over,
going into shops, coming out of shops, eating at restau-rants, waiting and going up the steps into restaurants.
There was activity. Trucks were double- parked.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Vance Campbell: Yes, breaking the law. But
double- parked or waiting to park to make deliveries to
restaurants, bars and nightclubs that were getting ready for the anticipated activity that they were now enjoying that was not there [before]. And we are not . . .
for those on the other side saying . . . we are not saying
there is not still room for improvement. There is. There
is a lot of room for improvement, but we are going to
talk about the improvement that has already taken place. Because we have no t reached where we want to
be should not preclude us from talking about the progress we have made. And that is what we are doing
here today. Mr. Speaker, with this increased visitor ac-tivity in addition to the activity of the residents going
about their daily business, there was a buzz about the
city that was quite noticeable. You could feel it. And in
support of this activity , the hoteliers that I have spoken
to this week all reported high occupancy rates. And we
can back that up once those results come out for the
entire month.
Mr. Speaker, in my capacity as a Minister responsible for the Cabinet Office, I will bring legislation in the coming months that will assist Government de-partments in their efforts to retain and expand businesses here. For example, we are talking about legislation around intellectual property, trademarks and ser-vice marks. We recently passed the Personal Information Protection Amendment Act 2023, setting a date
of January 1, 2025, for full compliance, raising Bermuda’s profile in this space, removing a pote ntial obstacle for entities that do business in and across other jurisdictions. Martin Luther King—“Life’s most persis-tent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” Sir Winston Churchill —“It’s no use saying, ‘We’re
1648 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly doing our best.’ You have to succeed in doing what’s
necessary.”
Mr. Speaker, I trust I have provided a few examples, a few examples within the Ministry of Tourism
and the Cabinet Office of what this PLP Government is
doing for others —“others ” being the people of Bermuda. Mr. Speaker, I have provided a few examples within my Ministry of Tourism and the Cabinet Office that we are succeeding in doing what is necessary for
the people of Bermuda.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In recent months, I have been talking to my
wife and she sa id to me, You know, you are getting old,
cantankerous and argumentative.
And I said, Well, sweetie, I am getting old, argumentative and cantankerous because it comes from
being protective and wanting to see what is best for my
people.
So, I have to commend the Minister because it
takes a lot for me, because I am old, cantankerous, argumentative and protective of my people, to be able to
say I looked through this document and most, if not all,
of my concerns and questions were addressed. So I am
glad to be able to stand up today and throw my support
behind it. It is important that this plan works —not for the
PLP, not for the Honourable Minister or the Premier. It
is important that this plan works for every single one of
us.
And it is really interesting because you know,
alongside being old, cantankerous and argumentative I have a reputation of being a hardliner on immigration,
which I am. But in a conversation months ago with one of my colleagues, they said, You don’t want anything;
you don’t want anyone to come here.
Mr. Speaker, I said to them, I’m not stupid. I
know we have to increase the population.
The question is to ensure that the people can
maintain their confidence in our ability to do it so that we do not follow the same path as the One Bermuda
Alliance. And so, in the conversation, I said to them,
Only Nixon could go to China. And the origin of that
quote is because President Nixon, before his disgrace,
was known to be of such a hardliner , antisocialist, anti -
Communist mind -set, he could go to China and negotiate with the Chinese. Why? Because nobody would
think that he was a little pinko, or communist , or whatever phrase they wanted to throw around back in those
days. And so, the PLP is the only existing local entity
right now that can tackle the issue of immigration. We are the only ones.
And it is important because the issue of immigration and the abuses and the exploitation that have occurred under [the immigration policy] for my Bermudian people from time immemorial is one of the reasons why I got involved in politics. [I was] coming back to
Bermuda in the late 1990s and Bermudians did not feel
that they were getting the treatment that they wanted,
the opportunities that they were qualified for and the
protection that they needed from being discriminated
against in favour of , many times, sometimes foreign
workers who were less qualified. So, as we move forward with this we have to . . . and I am glad that the
issues around housing were being addressed because
that is important . People wonder, Where are these people going to live? Am I going to be displaced? Am I go-ing to be pushed to the sidelines of my own country? It
is good that we are speaking to those issues and how
we are going to protect, and it is good that we have
things like the National Youth [Employment] Strategy, the National T ourism Strategy and the workforce strategy to show people how we are going to keep you in-volved in where you should be in our economy.
But we must make sure that our people continue to feel protected and to feel the trust that they placed in us when we went up there and blocked Parliament and did what we did, that they are not going to
be forgotten and left behind. That is a critical compo-nent of moving forward with this. And I think I cannot
stress enough, as my colleagues said, we ain’t giving
away status like some other folks’ plan.
Now, Mr. Speaker, when I read the report and
it talked about having this committee to investigate why
Bermudians are leaving, my first impulse was (because
I am old, cantankerous and argumentative), that we do
not need a committee. We know why they are going. .
But I slept on it and thought about it. I said, Look, I know
why people are going anecdotally because of what
people have told me. But we have not sat down and
truly broken down and analysed the full spectrum of cause that has led to this effect.
The departure of our people and our ability to
bring them home . . . because we all know, those of us
who are like me—old —know that there was a time
when Bermudians did not leave Bermuda, especially not for cold England. We did not leave. We found no
reason to leave if we could avoid it. And for people to
leave, they have genuine and real reasons, and they are multifaceted reasons. And for Government to address these reasons, we need to move from a place of
facts and information and not just anecdotal infor-mation.
We need to move pretty quickly on this because we are losing our people. And we have to find out ways just like we are working to become more competitive to attract investment and tourism investment
and things of that nature, to be able to attract and retain
our people and our talent.
I was glad to see the red tape around entrepreneurship being addressed. This is critical! When I had
the opportunity to serve as a Minster of Economic Development and had the BEDC under my remit, our main


Bermuda House of Assembly focus was this: I do not want your business to fail because we slowed you down; I do not want your busi-ness idea to die on the vine because you could not get the information and concierge service you deserve. So,
to see that this is going to be a focus in terms of helping
people go from concept to creation is critical.
We also have to go and look. The BEDC has
done some wonderful work at looking at how we can create vendors’ markets, how we can create new versions of brick -and-mortar entities that are lower cost
and create opportunities for first -time entrepreneurs to
break into the business and grow and expand at a pace
that is more manageable. We looked at how we broke down the economic impediments to provide more capital to entrepreneurs. So, the work is there. And working ahead with this, it is a beautiful thing to se e that we can
make this come to fruition.
For tourism, I am glad that the Honourable Minster gave us a great overview of what is happening in the plan, and I am going to encourage him and tell him,
But don’t stop there. We know that if you walk up and
down Hamilton for a few nights, it is kind of dead. And
you know, I was talking to one of my colleagues in the
Opposition and we were talking about how with all of
these young single people working in IB who have
come to Bermuda, it should be more active. And part of
what we must be prepared to do is go to our community—our total community, the business community —
and this well from the business community standpoint.
What are the laws and regulations that are holding you back from being able to make more money, hire more
Bermudians, provide more services that would enhance our product?
To the community we have to ask: What do you
have the stomach for in terms of making our product
more appealing, more exciting, more relevant? Be-cause really, I think it’s . . . we have had a marketing
problem, but the reality is we have a product problem.
And we have to address the product and it has to begin with a willingness.
There were people and there remain people
who do not want things like Carnival [festivities]. Right?
Now, I am not quite . . . because I am old, cantankerous
and argumentative, I am not quite in physical shape to
go out there and shake my thing with a costume.

Mr. Speaker, when I had the
privilege of seeing the numbers for Carnival over the years, it was one of the fastest growing tourism events in terms of bringing in tourists, in terms of the diversity
of tourists that we were looking to get. If you went
aroun d to the Airbnbs, you saw them packed, the hotels packed, taxis moving. This is an event that is of great
importance to Bermuda because it combats the notion that we are for the nearly dead and newly wed. And a
lot of people do not l ike it. But we need more of it.
I say bring it on more. Manage it. You do not
want a complete free- for-all. But part of the conversation, again, with the business community, with the wider
community is: What can we do to make Bermuda more
exciting and more appealing? And what do we as a
people have the stomach for to drive it forward? That is
a critical conversation that needs to be had.
Mr. Speaker, we know that while there is much
good and there are many signs to be optimistic —the
green shoots of progress are beginning—we know that
more needs to be done. We know that more needs to
be done to move across the goal of increasing our population while retaining and keeping and attracting and
bringing home our Bermudian people. We know more
work needs to be done of attracting business creators
but also making sure that Bermudians are also able to become business creators and capitalise on businesses that are brought here. And we know that we
have to do more to make our product appealing and
create more of a sense of hope in the community that
things are going to look up, not just from a statistic , because statistics for the average person . . . GDP means
nothing to someone who does not have a job. It means nothing.
So, the movement from the numbers to the reality in people’s lives is at the core of what we are doing
and why we are doing what we are doing. So, I am very
glad to support the plan. I am very glad with the thoroughness and the reach and the vision that has been
outlined in those pages and I am glad to throw my sup-port behind it.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

—so I will do my best, Mr.
Speaker . But I am going to reflect on some of the comments I made earlier (to be honest ) just to remind us all
and myself at the same time that prior planning pre-vents poor performance. And again, we are back to the
same idea whereby the presentation and discussion on
the strategy and the recovery plan . . . those demonstrate yet again that we as the Progressive Labour
Party Government have a very good plan. Others have
critiqued, I guess, but I stand behind the Minist er in
terms of it being a robust plan.
1650 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly I want to stand from the mountaintops and say
the economy is robust because robust means that it is
able to overcome certain obstacles or challenges and still move fo rward. So, in that context I want us to know
that. And certainly , for the listening audience, we always have this commentary in terms of the glass being
half full or half empty, and, clearly, people’s personalities gravitate to that one way or the other —either they
always see the glass as being half full, which is an optimistic person , and [others] see the glass as always
being half empty, which is a pessimist.
Again, based on some of the comments that
were being made earlier, if I go to the doctor, Mr. Speaker, and I have, let’s say, a headache or some
other ailment, the doctor can certainly diagnose that issue and help me out. It does not mean that Anthony is
dead. He can still function correctly . So the doctor
hopefully would say to me, Anthony, your hand hurts. It
does not mean you cannot do anything else, so you still
can move forward and perform. And so, in the context
of our economy, there are many areas, Mr. Speaker,
whereby the economy is doing very, very well. Yes,
there are some issues that have to be addressed. No
question about that. Some of those things might be employment. Some might be more specific to those who
have to change or retool themselves t o learn different
things. But it is clearly correct that the economy is doing
better than some persons may think.
One of the interesting comments for me is
when the Minister talked about payroll tax and that it had improved so significantly. That is one of those areas, Mr. Speaker, whereby fundamentally, we pay payroll tax based upon employment . And nobody is going
to pay —either individually or corporately —more payroll
tax than they should. And so to the extent that the fact
is that payroll tax has increased, it means that either there are more people employed or those that are employed are making a huge amount more money. Either
of those things means, Mr. Speaker, that if you make
more money or there are more persons working, more
money will be spent which then benefits the economy
and we can move forward. So, just as a very small point
to the Minister that, clearly, he is report ing and commenting on the fact that the economy is doing well.
Also, the Minister of Tourism has just commented on the fact of going to Hamilton. I do not come
to Hamilton very often —certainly not during the daytime, during the lunch period. And I was here, I think,
two weeks ago, and I was pleasantly surprised about the [number] of people just walking up and down the
street “getting in my way .” (quote/unquote) I want to be
able to come in Hamilton, move quickly, get served and
move on. And guess what. I had to go into the store and
I had to wait because there were others before me. So
clearly, people are not just browsing; they were actually
buying things.
So, I want to say again to those who are here
and also those in the listening audience that the economy is not the best, but it is moving forward and the fact that we are not on our knees does validate what the
Minister said in terms of the economy being robust.
Before I make my substantive comments, I will
also say that I was, I want to say more than surprised, I guess, that one of the former speakers, in his own way, criticised or rejected the commentary from Standard & Poor’s. Because we can all rest assured t hat if
the Standard & Poor’s commentary was negative to the
Government, then others would stand up from the
mountaintop almost and shout, Guess what. Bermuda
is doing bad because S&P said so, whereas the reverse, it is not true.
For some reason, they do not seem to embrace
the fact that Standard & Poor’s is a professional entity; they have their own processes that they follow. And just
to say that [because] they were not here, they do not
come, for example, and walk around Reid Street or
whatever, Church Street , that their analysis is incorrect
is in and of itself incorrect. And Mr. Speaker, I have to always be mindful because I know that sometimes my . . . I guess my word choice . . . even though the concept, I think, is right, my word choice sometimes gets
me in trouble. So I have to be very careful about what I
am going to say. And that is that when we criticise objective commentary for our own good, we are stepping on very dangerous ground. And so I will leave it at that.
Certainly , though, we cannot say that when
S&P criticises Government, we agree, [but] when they
support Government or give objective commentary that
is positive, that suddenly what they are doing is wrong.
What I would like to do is have everybody . . . I tried my
best to think of an example that does not cause offense,
I suppose. But sometimes when I am here, Mr.
Speaker, I think of being in a field. And you know how sometimes in a field, you have to be careful where you
step because if you step, your shoes get soiled. And
some of the commentary has me thinking like that —be
careful where I stand or where I walk. So, I will leave
the imagery there for now.
Mr. Speaker, today when I was listening to the
comments, it is always interesting that I come, I have my own thoughts, I read the information that we have to read, and I have a sense as to where I am going to
go with my comments, but I am always informed by the
commentary of those Members opposite. And today, what was interesting, refreshing and almost made me
laugh to some degree was the Opposition spokesperson, my namesake, MP Jarion Richardson. When he spoke, literally in my mind it was: Is it possible under
the Westminster system for the Honourable MP Rich-ardson to work more directly with the Minister? Because he was basically, as we always say now, building
a perfect line and length. He was complimentary. He
understood what we are going with. And even in his, I
guess, intent to be constructive, he was just that —constructive. He was not negative. And clearly, he under-stood and underscored the points that were made by the Minster .


Bermuda House of Assembly It would be good if we could do this whereby he
works together constructively and we can all say together that, listen, no plan is perfect. These are some of the tweaks that have to be made; but for the good of
Bermuda, let’s all move forward with this plan. Let’s get behind the plan, because clearly, Bermuda has to succeed for each of us and all of us because if for some
reason Bermuda fails, it is going to affect each of us and all of us.
I have always maintained that no matter our
personal circumstances, unless you have significant li-quidity or you can sell your house, you cannot leave
Bermuda. And so again, it speaks to the fact that we
have to really get on board this thing and know that we
are all in this together. And I will say to . . . I will just say
this: it is okay to give a compliment even in the context
of the Westminster system. And before I give my substantive comments, I will also say this, Mr. Speaker. I
know that sometimes I get caught up because when I
am here there is a different energy —sometimes good,
sometimes bad, but hopefully always constructive. And
for today, my mind went back to the R eply to the Throne
Speech. And I remember saying when I looked at it that
it was a non- event. And my commentary was a bit
strong because others came to me and said, Anthony,
you know, you should not say those things , and whatever the case may be. So I have to be careful as to what
I say, [I need to] try to convey the message or the sentiment but be mindful because I do not want to be offensive certainly to Members opposite, because as we
refer to ourselves on most occasions, we are Honoura-ble Members and should respect it in that context.
Now, Mr. Speaker, if you will allow [me], I want
to go back somewhat to what I said earlier today in terms of demonstrating that this economic strategy and
recovery plan does demonstrate an effective —an effective —an effective plan to move us forward. And I am
actually going to use a slight reference back to the child
day care from earlier today, not to re- litigate that, but
more so in terms of it goes back to education.
Now, one of the key strategies of the plan is
people. People . That is you, me, our cousins, our brothers, our sisters and our families. I know for me in the community, a lot of times when I speak to people, they
always come back with, Anthony, what have you done?
What is your party doing to affect me? Me, me, me. And
so, today we talked, of course, about child- care. We
talked about some other things. But right now, let’s now
talk about the people aspect of the strategy. A partial quote is, “Education is the key to unlock the golden
door of freedom to our people.” That, Mr. Speaker, is a
partial quote that was attributed to George Washington
Carver in a letter to Booker T. Washington as long ago
as 1896, which is more than 127 years ago. And the
context of that was he was actually offered a job that
would pay him less than he was currently earning. And he made the decision though to accept the job at a lesser pay because he understood the idea that educa-tion is a key. And he was able to deliver education to allow people to exercise their freedom.
The same thing applies now to us in terms of
Bermuda’s current trajectory . Given the fact that there
is a change in job market, given the fact that what we
as employers want from people is different, we have to
start to adjust. So, in the context of the strategy . . .
think about this. The Minister is the Minister of Labour
and Economy. How much of a foresight was that in
terms of how the economy actually needs people to
move it forward. And now having the responsibility for
Economy and Labour gives the Minister a significant
opportunity to be efficient when it comes to making ad-justments or making recommendations in order to
move those things forward.
Now, clearly, the Minister is able to articulate
very well his intent and how all the pieces fit together.
And my role now is just to highlight the fact that for the
key aspect of people . . . for anyone who is listening to
me now in the listening audience, understand that this
is how the people aspect of the strategy will impact you,
me, our cousins, our brothers, our sisters and everyone
else.
First of all, it is the execution of the National
Workforce Development Strategy. The idea of that, Mr.
Speaker, is to lay the foundation for a 21
st century workforce development system for Bermuda. That, Mr.
Speaker, has to be agreed as being forward- thinking.
As I said earlier and the Minister certainly has explained
this many times, the Bermuda economy of today is not
going to be the same as the economy of tomorrow, and
we have to make sure that we are ready and prepared
for the jobs that will be availab le. And that is why I am
speaking to the idea of a 21st century workforce.
Mr. Speaker, one of the significant challenges
or opportunities for us going forward is our young people. We may cast our own minds back to the fact that
when we went to school or whatever we did, at some point in time, we wanted to get a job. And there is nothing more demoralising, I suppose, than looking for a job
and you cannot get one after you apply, apply, and apply. And so, with the execution of the Youth Employment Strategy, it will help to address unemployment by
facilitating greater opportunities and educational pathways for all young Bermudians from ages 18 to 26. And
so, our young people who are between those ages —
18 to 26—can now have greater assistance in finding
employment, first of all by planning for themselves to be able to have better experiences that tie into the local
economy, and they will then be able to move forward.
The Minister spoke, I think it was two weeks
ago now, in terms of the implementation of personal
employment plans, and I believe this is very important
because . . . actually, it even ties in with the education
reform process because people have to understand
that a good plan even involves us personally, and there
needs to be a plan for us going forward. And so it is
going to be helpful to understand what your personal
1652 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly employment plan is because that is how you are going
to get yourselves from A to B to C to D, if that is what you are trying to do. So that is a concrete way of how we are going to move forward.
The next one, Mr. Speaker, even though it is
not directly impacting me, it actually brought me some
excitement because it talks about the creation of a national certification and apprenticeship board. Mr. Speaker, that is very, very critical because it provides
an independent assessment, if you will, for people to
decide whether or not you are competent.
This, Mr. Speaker, is a real -life example. I recently had a chance or opportunity to get some painting
done. And I had a choice between two people, and I
chose one person. And after I chose that person, I was
like, What? Are you sure that you know what you are
doing when it comes to painting? So, it would have
been interesting if I had the opportunity to ask him
simply, Are you qualified for what you do? And when
they say yes, prove it to me and just show me some
certification which would make it easier.
And again, I am mindful with what I say, but I
know for our women in particular, the same thing applies because when they want to get something done,
it would be nice for them to have an objective standard
to look to. And so when you get something fixed or
whatever to just say basically, If I am going to hire you,
please show me your certification in this area. And that
will be very, very helpful.
So, I am looking forward to the creation of the
National Certification and Apprenticeship Board be-cause it is going to be key. And it is going to be nice,
Mr. Speaker, if we get to a stage whereby we go back to what it was before in terms of having real apprenticeships because that is important for people to be able to
learn on the job.
And again, interestingly, when it came to this
painting, there was an older gentleman and a younger
one. And I said to him something, and he said, Well,
what I am doing is basically teaching my son how to
paint. Because painting is more than just putting paint
on a wall; you have to understand what you have to do,
chip off the paint, fix the cracks and all those kinds of
things , and also make sure that you apply the paint correctly. So, that is going to be, I think, something very, very exciting.
The next one is building technological expertise within the local economy. Mr. Speaker, the PLP Government, influenced for sure by the Premier as a techy, I suppose, but certainly led by the Minister, is in fact laying the foundation for a successful FinT ech industry. Many people want to speak negatively about
that, but the reality is it is a job. It is an economy going
forward that will be robust, to use the M inister’s words.
The one reason, Mr. Speaker, why I stand confident is
because I happen to be old enough to remember immediately before the insurance industry took off in the
1980s. It was the same idea in terms of, W ell, no , don’t
get involved; it is not going to have any future, and those sorts of things. But I happened, from my professional capacity, to understand how really Ace and XL
started. And now we know how it came to fruition . But
in the early 19 80s was when they actually started out.
So, for those who know, when they were doing
accounting, they were using basic Excel spreadsheets.
It was that basic when it first started out. And they used
to get excited when they received a premium payment, which represented a policyholder, and so they were
getting excited. I am saying now is the time for us to understand that this is [where FinTech is now] and for
young people to start to really embrace it. And as the
Minister has said (and certainly the Premier has supported this), one of the greatest areas in all of these
things is actually compliance. And now is the time for
our young people and not -so-young people to really
look into it if they are interested and grab it now while it
is new.
When the demand comes, you will be able to
then better position yourself to even negotiate the higher salary. It will take some work. Bermuda College
obviously offers some classes in that regard and there
are some online classes. But certainly, Mr. Speaker ,
this is going to be a significant area for us going for-ward.
The totality of those five, Mr. Speaker, which
would be the execution of the National Workforce De-velopment Strategy, the execution of the Youth Em-ployment Strategy, implementation of Personal Employment Plans, creation of a National Certification and
Appr enticeship Board, and building technological expertise within the local economy will certainly bode well for us as we do start to move forward. And as I said
earlier, the economy is not on its knees. There are some areas whereby it has to improve. But by and
large, the glass is more than half full and it is up to us
now to prepare ourselves to take advantage of those
things that take place.
I always want to encourage everyone not to listen to the naysayers. I spoke earlier even in terms of
the idea of hope. We have to find ways ourselves to
develop our own sense for the future which will give us hope. And to go back for a moment when it comes to
the whole idea of technology, Mr. Speaker, it is really incredible for the numerous young people who are pre-paring themselves to do just that.
And if I may give another personal example, I
had to prepare a business case, if you will, for a future
opportunity. And it was very interesting for the first time
for me to be able to talk to my son and have him understand the concept of what I was trying to get done. And even more interesting was the f act that he was asked
to do a similar project where he was working. And we were able then to talk about the concept of a data-base—not the details , because, of course, you have to
be confidential , but the concepts of time value of
money, of understanding RO I [return on investment]
and those sorts of things. So, for me, it was quite an
exciting time in the sense of, yes, this is what we are


Bermuda House of Assembly doing. Then he reported back to me that where he
works right now there are actually many people who are
understanding insurance, reinsurance, technology and the whole nine yards. And so, I would say that obviously
not just for him, but the future does bode well for al l
young people.
So, Mr. Speaker, I will just repeat what I said
earlier at the outset that truly, education is the key to
our individual futures. It is up to us, though, to decide
how we want to use those keys. And certainly, please
everybody, when people start to dwell o n the negative,
remember these couple of things. One, you may be
sick; your finger or your arm or your hand may hurt.
However, the rest of your body has to function. You can
still move forward, and you certainly do not say, Fine, I
have a broken wrist. I c annot function. No. Yes, you
can. You put the wrist in a cast, and you are able to still
move on because you cannot afford to stagnate.
Also remember that when it comes to objective
analysis, entities such as Standards & Poor’s , they
have a job to do and, of course, they have a reputation
to uphold, and they are not going to tank their reputation by doing something in the Bermudian context that
is intentionally wrong. And so we have to understand
. . . and I see Member Cole Simons there. He would
understand from his bankin g background that , yes, it is
important that when a rating agency provides a report, it does add validity to what you ar e doing, because in
the business community, a lot of times it is your rating
. . . actually, every time it is your rating that has an impact on . . . when you go to borrow money, for example,
if you have a stronger rating, the cost of your borrowing
becomes a lot less. And that has an impact on what you do. You can therefore employ more people and the
whole nine yards. I will not go there too much.
In the House here, I do say again that I smile
sometimes because I have to think through how I ex-press what I want to say. Imitation, again, is the greatest form of flattery, which would be according to MP Richardson. Because effectively his words expressed
that he supports what the Minister has put forward. And
MP Dunkley says he was surprised. And I smile because going back to school, if a student, for example, gives you a paper and you are surprised at it, it means
one of two things. It is more than exce llent, or you
simply misjudged their ability. But either way, you give
a significant grade. So rather than just say , Minister, it
was a brilliant paper, he had to go on and say some
negative things which, again, is unfortunate.
And just remember , for all of us , that it is okay
to be complimentary to one another because we are
not here as enemies. We are here to move forward on
behalf of all of our people. And certainly, in this instance, we are talking about the Economic Recovery
Strategy and the Plan, and it ha ppens to be this Minister right now, Minister Jason Hayward, who is leading
it. So therefore, some of our comments are to you personally, but clearly, we reflect on you and your role as a Minister. As I said earlier, it is you, the technical officers, your fellow Ministers, all of us as MPs, how we talk about different things and our constituents —people in
the public who say all of these things to us which causes us to realise what we have to do.
But I would like to finish, Mr. Speaker, on the
point of a personal compl iment and commendation to
you, Minister Hayward, because you are able to have a significant plan, especially around the social net that is
necessary, and you seem not to be deterred by what
happens sometimes here in all this negativity and even how sometimes you are criticised in the public arena. I
want to, certainly, encourage you to keep on moving
forward and to know that you are leading us in the cor-rect direction.
And my final, final comment actually . . . and I
should not do this , but anyway, even for one of the
other speakers in terms of the commentary seems to
be, If the economy is doing so well, why do we need
social protections? That is a whole different conversation because it speaks fundamentally to them not understanding that —

I wouldn’t say it does not
matter . But it is not as if a buoyant economy will not
have people that still need assistance and protection whether they be old, young or otherwise. And so . . . I
know what I can say. It is nonsense for people to try to
say that because the economy is doing well, there
should not be a need for continued social protections.
Again, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you very
much for this opportunity. And to you, Minister, go forward. Thank you.

Thank you, MP Richardson.
Deputy Premier, you have the floor.
Hon. Walter H. Roban: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I must say there have been quite a few contributions made today on this very weighty topic , this motion that has been brought forth by the Honourable Min-ister for Economy and Labour. And I, of course, commend him for the presentation of the Economic Devel-opment Strategy, without a doubt. But I would also say
this, and this is a non . . . this is just a governmental
comment about governance and the responsibility
around governance that every government has to face.
When you decide to put together a weighty
plan, it puts enormous weight and responsibility on the orchestrator of the plan irrespective of whether it was
FutureCare, education reform, health care reform, [or]
criminal justice reform. These put weighty responsibili-ties not just on the Government but on the individual
who is the articulator, perhaps orchestrator of the plan.
So, I would ask that we all not pray for Minister Hayward, but we should all be observant of him and mindful
of him and the enormous res ponsibility that this plan is
1654 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly putting on him as an individual. He is human as all other
Members of this House are , whether it be my honourable colleague Kim Wilson or my honourable colleague
Diallo Rabain. They are human beings, and they are
tasked with enormous plans that are going to be significant to the country. And it is everyone’s hope that they
will be successful.
But I am mindful of the enormous weight these
plans put on them. And we must take care for them and
be mindful of the enormous responsibility the Honourable Minister for Economy and Labour has (as that is the plan we are talking about), but there are other Ministers. And this is not specific to any one government.
This is the cycle of government. Any government that
puts a weighty plan on its agenda puts a weighty responsibility on those who must carry it out.
Having said that, Mr. Speaker, I would like to
start by saying this is an enormously promising plan for
the country. I commend the Minister because certainly,
as the Minister of Economy and Labour, he has been
doing a whole lot of stuff. And in connecting to the de-bate today, Mr. Speaker, I am mindful of this particular
report that he has done and has presented to this
House and to the country around addressing the challenge of our ageing population. And I have had this conversation with the Minister, and I know there has been
much that has come up. And there were other Members
who spoke about these issues, particularly on the other
side, and were very, I guess, forceful with their delivery.
I sort of equal it more so like a presentation of a banshee, but be that as it may. And talked about how, We
did it as well. Well, actually, no.
Certainly, previous administrations have spoken about the population and the state of our population and the need to increase the population, but there
is one thing I have been very complimentary to the Minister about, Mr. Speaker. He presented actual data to
support the Government submission around this. And I have never seen this in this form since being involved in Parliament. I have never seen a deliberate effort to
deal with the issue of our population needs, our workforce needs in a form that actually was credible in backing up the assertion. I have heard people from the
Chamber of Commerce, I have heard people from the
UBP [and the] people from the OBA talk about the need
to increase our population, but never were those assertions built around data in a real sociological as well as
economic and credible look at our population issues
and why.
And this is not a political development in reference to the information that the Minister brought together under his position paper to tell us why. And yes,
it certainly brings credibility to the assertion that we do
need to increase our population. But it does it in a deliberate way that helps people to understand why, not just as a political gimmick to increase your voting base, not just as a political gimmick to score political points,
but in a deliberate way to ensure that sociologically and
economicall y, we are dealing with this issue in a way that increases the working population, because that is
really what we need to do. We do not necessarily need to give a slew of people status or a level of permanence, which may make the local population feel inse-cure. We need to increase the working population so that it advances and ensures the quality of life of everybody who is here.
This report (and I told the Minister this already)
I believe makes a firm case. It can be argued against
like any other position paper, but actually it makes the
best case that I have seen so far that any government
will be able to use in the future to advance the issue of
where we need to make important decisions about our
population needs.
So, on that basis, this Government has come
up with an Economic Recovery Plan and, by virtue of the report that we are talking about today, the Eco-nomic Strategy that the Minister has put to this House
and put to the country to consider. And I happen to believe that if you want a credible plan, you need to have clear priorities, not a whole lofty list of things that are
totally unrealistic to fill because they sound good or look
nice or maybe they are the latest buzz word like some
of those that we hear around the world and certainly
locally.
The five priorities of the Economic Development Strategy 2023 –2027 are:
1. Local and International Business Retention and Expansion. So, focusing on local business
and its development and its health and also international business which is a core part of our economy and both their retention and their expansion.
2. Business Attraction and Investment Promotion.
Business attraction—keeping Bermuda’s image as an attractive place for business, for considering doing business , and developing business. And investment —not just people coming
to do business but bringing their money with them to accomplish their business.
3. Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development. Entrepreneurship was talked a lot about today and I think sometimes entrepreneurship is like the buzz word that we like to
fan around because if we look like we are
friends of entrepreneurs, we look like we are a
bit trendy, you know, like we are in the know.
But the focus here is on entrepreneurship.
I happen to believe that this country has
had a long history of entrepreneurship. At times, it has been supported and perhaps more than it has not been. This Government has actually a history at least in the last six years of
empowering agencies to support entrepreneurship and support in providing the investment
environment where people are interested in not
only continuing their businesses or developing a business but also to be successful. There are


Bermuda House of Assembly agencies that have been given more power
and more endowment to actually support that.
4. Continued Execution of the Economic Recov-ery Plan, which the Minister has been exhaustive in his public communication about.
5. People. And of course, at the core of this are
people. People are at its core. People are why
we are here. It is the people that this ultimately must benefit, Mr. Speaker. So, I am satisfied
that these priorities are the right ones.
Now, perhaps as a blessing or a curse, Mr.
Speaker, there is a considerable [number] of items that
are attached to not only the Economic Recovery Plan but also this Economic Strategy Plan that are associated with the work of the Ministry of Home Affairs. And
I must say that the Minister reminds me of this all the
time. And we certainly have had discussions about this ,
and he has required information from my Ministry to
help in the development of some of the statements that
he made to support the interest and work of Economy
and Labour.
And so there are a number of areas within this
particular Economic Development Plan that pertain to
my Ministry, namely subsea cables, the energy regulatory sandbox, the marine development, energy —particularly green energy funds and blue energy funds and the Blue Economy Strategy. And certainly, agriculture has also been a crucial topic spoken about and having
an integrated agriculture strategy for this country are
components that are under the remit of my Ministry.
And of course, something that is perhaps less
terrestrial is space, and having a national space strategy for Bermuda. Some people may ask, Well, why would we need a space strategy? We are not launching
rockets. We do not have astronauts. You know, we are
not putting Tang in a bag with people drinking it, you know, in space. But guess what. Bermuda does have
an interest in space and its future. And these are some components that are embedded into the Economic De-velopment Strategy.
Now, just touching on subsea cable communications, which is identified on page 39, we have legislation in place now, Mr. Speaker, the Submarine Ca-bles (Protected Areas) Order 2019 and certainly a plan
to establish Bermuda as an Atlantic hub for subsea cable networks. Right now, there is not one. But guess
what, Mr. Speaker. There is a w hole lot going on in this
sector. Companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook , to
meet the demands on their own businesses, are all
planning to lay subsea cables across the Atlantic seabed. Not only that, Bermuda at least is not venturing
into this area without some experience, Mr. Speaker.
Bermuda already has subsea cables coming into it, international transatlantic subsea cables. There are three
of them—Globenet, Gemini and Chal lenger. So, Bermuda already has a history in this space. And yes,
there are Bermudians working in this particular area as
well. There have been companies here for many
years —international companies. And I believe the Honourable Member who sits in c onstituency 14 actually
once worked in that sector before he moved on to other
areas. The subsea cable industry is real. It is already
connected with Bermuda. Bermuda plays a crucial role
already in transatlantic telecommunications. Ninety -
five per cent of the global communication , Mr. Speaker ,
does not go through satellites , it goes through subsea
cables . Some of us have experienced the r esult . . .
well, every day we experience the result of that , just by
virtue that you can watch certain programming, or you
can make a call or send an email or order something
from China. That is what's happening. T hose cables
are serving that industry and some of that bandwidth ,
global bandwidth, comes through Bermuda .
You can go online and see the map for yourself. You can see cables that go t hrough Bermuda, that
go down to South America, go to Europe, hit the East
Coast of the United States . Bermuda already plays a
role, but we want to do more. T here are about three
different hubs in the Pacific , and Bermuda wants to be
the Atlantic hu b. Th ere is no Atlantic h ub of principal in
the same way that the capacity in the Pacific does .
Now, Mr. Speaker, one wants to know , Well,
what has the Government done to forward this? Well,
the Business Development Agency ( BDA), which is
also under the M inister , actually has been working with
our Ministry as we have created a framework to attract
this sort of business to Bermuda , and with all the appropriate environmental considerations because our plan is to potentially have three or four more cables
coming through Bermuda. A nd if we can be successful
with our interactions with certain key players globally , I
believe, and our Ministry belie ves, and this G overnment believes it will happen. Also the Regulatory Authority which deals with bandwidth and manages spectrum is also a key player in this . But the BDA is the main
market er, and I can tell you now I am in discussion s
with the B DA right now about potentially —well , they
plan to go , although they raised it with myself ( but I do
not think I have to go), is actually a major conference in
Singapore every year which brings all the global players. The BDA is being talked to about having a major
presence there to talk to some of the key players because now Bermuda’s opportunity has been created
legislatively for us to be an Atlantic hub and talk to the
key people.
Mr. Speaker, this is a real opportunity that we
are developing for ourselves and my hope is that the work that is going on , I have already even spoken to
someone about . . . they want to talk to us about bringing one of the major players here so that I can speak to them about our work in this area and there has been ongoing work since we passed the legislation.
Mr. Speaker, that is a real opportunity of p otential value to Bermuda that can see much more business and revenue opportunit y, creating of jobs, new companies in Bermuda, in this space , and making Bermuda
1656 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly the Atlantic h ub for transatlantic cables will be a plus for
our Island.
Moving on, Mr. Speaker, renewable energy.
This is perhaps a topic that everybody knows I speak
quite a bit about .

Hon. E. David Burt: You have won awards about it,
too.

Hon. Walter H. Roban: Yes, you know , I do not . . . I
am not going to preoccupy myself with past successes .
I am looking for successes of the future for our country ,
Mr. Speaker. T hank you for the compliment , Premier ,
but that is what my focus is on. Not the award I got yesterday , but in making sure that Bermuda gets her rewards tomorrow .

[Laughter]

What award did you get yesterday?
Tell us. Tell us!
Hon. Walter H. Roban: I do not need to repea t my successes.
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Don’t get distracted by
. . . It is on his record by the—
Hon. Walter H. Roban: Mr. Speaker , I am worried . . .
I am concerned about the successes of our country not
my own personal successes right now . But I am going
to move on because what we are doing in the area of
energy in this country . . . I note a quote from a Member
of Parliament on the other side who said other countries
are passing us in everything we do. Nonsense, Mr.
Speaker!

Nonsense!

Hon. Walter H. Roban: Nonsense. That is a classic
Opposition doom- and-gloom comment and there are
so many areas that I could go on to, which are not part
of my brief today , which would say otherwise. N ot only
would I say it . . . I am not saying it because I am saying
this is what other people out there in the global commu-nity tell me when I go around the world and speak to
people about Bermuda. T hey are amazed by what we
are doing here because we are way ahead of a lot of
countries in the things that we do here, in so many areas.
We must not let the perfect be the enemy of the
good . We are doing a lot of good in Bermuda and when
I say Bermuda, I am talking about Bermuda —not just
PLP Bermuda. I am talking about Bermuda. S o when I
hear statements like this , I have to cringe because it is
clearly somebody who does not have the confidence in
our country , perhaps , as we all should have, if they are
saying that . Seriously , Mr. Speaker, but anyway —energy .
Bermuda has been a c entre for innovation for many
years . That is one of the qualities that keeps people
coming here and doing business because we are a
centre for . . . we have great attributes and some of the
attributes the M inister has listed in his S trategy Report
that keep people coming to Bermuda: sophisticated jurisdiction , quality workforce (this is on page 10) ease of
doing business . Yes, there are some challenges doing
business , but guess what ? As an inter national business
centr e and in some other aspects of our . . . we actually
are a business [centre] that people know for like business .
The recent climate risk conference, again under the stewardship of the H onourable Minister for
Economy and Labour and the BDA of which is under
his Ministry . . . magnificent conference. I t went so well .
I went to it last year , this year it was bigger . People are
coming to Bermuda for these sorts of things because we are a place to be for business , and not only legacy
business but new business , like climate risk finance
and generating climate risk solutions . Bermuda is seen
as a key player internationally . They are coming here
to do business and the innovation that we developed in
other areas , I am h appy , it has also been attached to
the energy sector .
The energy regulatory sandbox which we devised is a tool for attracting energy investment into the
country . We now have a sector in the energy space
which is in need of change. It is currently dominated by
fossil fuel , okay, fossil fuels like generation, Mr.
Speaker. We want that to change. Th e energy regulatory sandbox is one of the tools that this Government
has devised to bring about that change, t o not only diversify generation, but to attract investment into the
country that will come with that innovat ion, Mr.
Speaker.
Already we have a candidate in the area of
wave technology that has parked up to Bermuda because of this particular feature of our legislative framework . But not only because of that , but because we already have a sterling reputation as a place for doing
business in the region.
Hon. E. David Burt: Yes!

Hon. Walter H. Roban: That is why they come.
So when we do innovative things , it just adds
to the quality of our jurisdiction . So the energy regulatory sandbox , which is there to find the mechanism
around our sectoral legislation , which is designed in
some ways to protect our energy sector , is also going
to attract investment . That investment will bring hundreds of millions of dollars that will also bring potential
for new companies to be developed— local companies—and also training and new opportunities for our
people.
And this is not just for overseas investment . Locals who are interested in being more diversified in the


Bermuda House of Assembly energy sector can also participate in this sandbox .
Even the current utility that is licensed to provide power
can actually make an application in this space. So it is
not closed just to international [entities]. If there are locals who have innovations , who want to partner ( locally
or internationally ), they can also participate in the sandbox. And the sandbox is already not only attracting positive international attention [but also] local attention .
And there are other countries that are already duplicating what we are doing with the sandbox . That is the
credibility Bermuda brings to the marketplace, Mr.
Speaker, and I am very excited and proud to be involved with that process .
Mr. Speaker, we recently passed . . . we made
sure that all of the legislative components are in place .
A company called Seabased [Limited], which I have
spoken about in this House before, is completing their
environment impact assessment and their application
will go through the appropriate regulatory process . And
once it is done , within 18 months , a utility scale wave
park will be deposited in the jurisdiction of Bermuda and
be the only type in the region. Again, bringing international attention from the United N ations and from other
countries to Bermuda because of our excellence, because of our reputation and our tradition of innovation.
The ocean, Mr. Speaker, is a key component
of the future economic development of this country and can potentially , again , not only attract hundreds of millions of dollars of investment to the country , it can create a whole new sector —a blue economy —this is another key component within the Economic Development Strategy , Mr. Speaker, that this G overnment is
putting considerable energy into.
And I must say , Mr. Speaker, I heard some talk
about the expenditure of Government . None of the initiatives that I am talking to you about today , that are
under my Ministry , that are about attracting investment
are costing us anything significant because we have in-ternational partners that are working with us to develop these items . So the G overnment is not having to expend money to create these frameworks that are going
to attract investment and are already attracting investment .
Let me just jump back a little bit . I already have
had meetings with not only local but also international financing that wants to put money into our Blue Economy Strategy . In fact , I have one local bank that wants
to not only put seed capital in , they want to be involved
with the fund administration, with setting up the fund the
. . . okay, like investment funds . They have come to us .
We did not have to go to them.
I have international companies coming to satisfy their ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) requirements , to invest in our B lue Economy Strategy .
That is what is happening now . I have not spent a dime,
as a Government Minister of course, to do this , other
than . . . because we are getting the expertise from not
only locally but internationally to create these opportunities , [and] others are coming wanting to invest . In fact , ironically , one of the persons that I have had somewhat
of a longstanding relati onship with, who will likely invest
in our Blue Economy Strategy at some point after we
have some discussion s, I have already sent them to
another international organi sation that is talking about
investing somewhere else. But they are a committed
Bermuda partner, so that is the excitement . That is the
reputation that Bermuda brings to the table locally , internationally , as to how people see us .
So, [the] focus on page 22 is the marine development and our B lue Economy Strategy . This has been
much talked about . It was established through a partnership between the Waitt Foundation and the Bermuda Government and Bermuda Institute of Ocean
Sciences (BIOS). Out of that will come a marine spatial
plan which has been the subject of some discussion in
the community amongst a number of parties . But it is a
journey , Mr. Speaker. Like many important plans , even
this Economic Development Strategy , that the Honourable Minister Jason [Hayward] has put—again , this is a
journey . We are making steps and we have a pl an for
the journey .
And these lofty plans , such as the Blue Economy Strategy , is a part of a journey that we are looking
to take with our community , to reshape the community
in some way . I will just sa y I do not recall , Mr. Speaker,
an Economic Development Strategy of this nature being developed by any G overnment prior to now. I could
be wrong. I have paid attention to politics in this country
under numerous administrations for most of my life be-cause this is my interest . I have not seen this . I have
seen different proposals around certain sectors , but a
consolidated economic strategy for the country of this magnitude compiling multiple sectors —I have not seen
[one]. I am sure i f [there was], it is sitting in a library
somewhere for us to look at because clearly either not much was done around it or maybe it was completed in
some far -off time . I do not know . But I have not seen it ,
not in my memory of local politics .
Another component of what we are trying to do
in the energy space, Mr. Speaker, is not just about
bringing in international investment . It is also about cultivating local involvement in our energy sector and in our Blue Economy Strategy . So we have plans to ensure that there is an investment facility that is put to-gether under the B lue Economy Strategy . But it is also
a Blue—there is a Blue Fund which is going to have a
facility to attract international investment .
But there is also going to be a G reen Fund, as
well, and that G reen Fund will focus on how we can find
ways to ensure that those who have had the least opportunity to take advantage of renewable energy and
opportunities to get that opportunity .
So part of what we are going to be doing is finishing work on developing community solar . A lot of
work has gone into figuring out what would be the best
modelling solution so that we can get more residents
who normally cannot afford the upfront cost of what I
would call the distributive solar on the rooftops . How do
1658 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly we get them to benefit ? The community solar model will
be that model that will help us to do that because we
want the average citizen do benefit from renewable energy. W e want them to see how it can benefit them and
create opportunities for them.
Out of that will come training for energy installers, energy assessors , local people. And we want
some of this . . . we want much of this investment to
come from local people who are interested in being involved. It will certainly involve potentially large substantial investors , but it is our goal that they be local .
Now last but not least (because I know I have
very little time, but it is important to talk about ) is agriculture. The Minister has already spoken about the I ntegrated Agriculture Strategy . We do need a change in
our approach to agriculture, Mr. Speaker . And that is
referenced on page 22 [of the Economic Development
Strategy]. W e have retained an agricultural agronomist
and we are going to have an economist and we are going to focus on what more we can do . I would like to
see perhaps around 10 per cent more land or around
20 per cent more land put back into production so that
we . . . you know , we once were a country where we
were farming 3 ,000 acres . We only have about 700
[acres] left, but it is important .
Agriculture is a key component of the future of
this country . It can add more to the economy and I am
looking forward to working on the numerous things that
the Minister has already mentioned in agriculture to ensure that agri culture becomes a key component to our
food security and agricultural and our strategy of eco-nomic revival .
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Deputy [Premier].
Does any other Member wish to make a contribution?
Opposition Leader, you have the floor.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It has been a long debate so I will not be very
long. I just have a few contributions to make, Mr.
Speaker.
First of all, as my colleagues have said, obviously a lot of work has gone into this document . And,
as a consequence, it appears that a number of stakeholders have been involved with this document and
they have come together and made their contributions ,
as far as developing their industries —be it agriculture,
be it real estate , be it small business and medium- sized
enterprises , be it the international business, the re- insurance companies and the banking systems. And so
it looks like a compilation of recommendations from industry stakeholders, and they have put together the ac-tion plans . And having read them all I can say is that,
as my other colleagues have said before me, a lot of
these recommendations have merit and so, generally
speaking, we are supportive. Having said that , we still have other contributions that we would like to make going forward. Mr.
Speaker, the first thing that I would like to address in
regard to this Economic Recovery Strategy [sic]—

Hon. E. David Burt: Economic Development.
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Economic Development
Strategy. Mr. S peaker, in preparation for this , I noticed
a comment from a gentleman named Bruce Scott from
Harvard. And he made the following comments —if you
will allow me , Mr. Speaker —

Go ahead.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: And I am going to read —his
name is , as I said, Bruce Robert Scott , The Concept of
National Economic Strategy .
He goes on to say, “National economic strategy . . . comprises a vision of a desired future state of
the economy, a time frame within which [the] state is to
be achieved, and a set of policies and institutions for influencing the mobilization and allocati on of resources
[and] for promoting their efficient utilization.”
Mr. Speaker, he goes on to say, “As with firm
strategy, the vision provides [a framework for] reference for establishing priorities for the mobilization of resources as well as the fractions to be allocated across various product markets.” He says, “A vision helps [to ]
establish goals that in turn animate an economic strat-egy.”
Mr. Speaker, what I was looking for when I was
reading this paper and this E conomic Development
Plan—

Hon. E. David Burt: Strategy.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: —Strategy plan 2023, was a
vision statement for the country . A vision statement that
the country would buy into and say , Oh, yes. I see myself in that and I am in unison with the Government in
regard to achieving the vision as presented.
Mr. Speaker, I said let me just find out some
examples of vision statements that have been used.
And I, interestingly enough, I went to the UK Labour
Party . And the UK Labour Party says , “Labour's first
mission in government will be to: Secure the highest sustained growth in the G7—with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making
everyone, not just a few, better off .”
Mr. Speaker, to me that is a vision statement
that can be tweaked and applied to Bermuda and other
jurisdictions . Again, I said let me check another one. So
the country of Wales in the UK they did a similar one
for economic recovery strategy after COVID -19. The
theme was e conomic resilience , reconstruction and r ecovery after COVID -19.
Their vision, if you will allow me, Mr. Speaker,
is, “Our vision is a well -being economy which drives


Bermuda House of Assembly prosperity, is environmentally sound, and helps everyone realise their potential. It is rooted in [their] existing
economic action plan, Prosperity for all, with its pro-gressive purposes of reducing inequality and spreading
wealth and well -being across all of Wales. Our economic well- being is without any doubt tied to our [ environment, cultur e] and social well- being. ”
Mr. Speaker, I take the view that a vision statement should have been embedded in this document because at the end of the day , a vision statement Is
what the country is looking for . It is funny that I did this
because if I reflect on the vision statement , I was walking on Front Street and a young Bermudian lady who is
a lawyer , said, It is interesting where we are today . And
she said, Cole, I am not gonna vote for any party because I have not seen a vision statement for any party .
I said , We’ll have ours . So I met with her and
we went over ours.
So again, people are looking for a vision that
will give them hope and not just industry that , industry
this, IB this, small business that , small enterprise that ,
fishing industry that . . . they are saying let us be in this
boat together . Show me my vision that will get me excited to support this document , this Economic Development Strategy .
I would encourage the Minister and the G overnment to amend the E conomic Development Strategy for Bermuda for 2023 to include a vision that the
people of this country can see themselves in and buy
into. So that was a contribution that I thought I would
make in regard to that .
Mr. Speaker, now I will go on to just a few
points in the report and then I will take my seat . As I
said, it is getting late, and I will just quickly go through
what I have here, some notes that I have made. The
first issue that I would like to bring to the attention is in
regard to . . . first of all, before I do that , when I read the
report , my first inclination was this is a sales document .
This is like —from an investment perspective— a product offering document . And so in essence , what they
have provided and what is provided in here, is a sound
overview of the industries in Bermuda and it also shows
how we can improve those industries , and it is a good
educational document . In essence, because it is a
sales document , I take the view that the BDA could present this to people who want to invest in this country when they are on their marketing and sales endeavours
overseas . And I see it more as a sales document and a
document that shows government priorities , Mr.
Speaker.
And so, is it a pure E conomic Development
Strategy Plan? I said , as it is currently written, I would
say it is a blend of a sales document and an economic
recovery plan —development plan . So those were my
initial comments .
Now, as I said earlier , there are issues that I
would like to speak to in regard to the technical details
of this . On [Strategic Priority] 1, I will go to the Bermuda
digital bank. The P remier has indicated that , you know , we have to have a digital bank or a speciali sed bank to
deal with some of the high -risk industries , and I have
no arguments against that . I think for us to be nimble ,
yes, we should be able to find financial banking institutions who meet its international regulatory standards
and move for ward.
The issue of the digital bank has been an issue
that has been presented by the Government of Bermuda for a number of years and it seems as though
that we are not making much progress on this development because at the end of the day we still do not have that bank and it has been on the agenda for a number
of years . I am sure progress is being made, but I would
like to see some timelines attached to this digital bank .
The other issue that I would like to speak to is
the issue of agriculture, forestry and fishing. Again, we
have in the r eport that what is important to this country
is food security , more local production, more resilience
and sustainability in the Island, and that the G overnment was going to provide input , make inputs cheaper
and more affordable. And these take the form of fertilisers and seeds . And I support that 100 per cent, Mr.
Speaker, because obviously the supply chain challenges and the cost and inflationary features , you
know , that has put a strain on our fishermen and on the
agriculturist industry .
Again, on the blue economy , I was at the conference last week and I would like to say that it was very, very productive and very informative . And the issue of the blue economy arose and I want to say that the Bermuda representative did a world- class presentation on BOPP, and our guests from overseas see the
opportunities that are available in our blue economy, and I think our reinsurance partners, our life insurance
partners also see opportunities in those endeavours.
So, Mr. Speaker, I would encourage the M inister of the E nvironment and the M inister of the Economy
to continue with the dialogue with the Association of
Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR) and the Association of Bermuda International Companies (ABIC)
and Bermuda International Long Term Insurers and
Reinsurers (BILTIR) in regard to developing those opportunities in the blue economy and at the same time
ensuring that there is no harm to our marine environment .
The M inister also spoke about they were going
to increase the blue investment in Bermuda , and when
I read that I am saying, Blue investment facility . . .
What is this all about? Who will be responsible? And
where are we going to get the resources and capital in that space ? Will it be from taxpayer money or will it be
a joint venture between the G overnment , the people of
Bermuda or the international business ( IB) sector ?
Mr. Speaker , they also speak to the M arine Development Act, and I would l ike for the M inister to provide some meat on his thoughts and direction on the Marine Development Act.


1660 30 June 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Walter H. Roban: Mr. Speaker , may I take a point
of information?