March 20, 2023

Mr. Chairman, on
page C -15 you will note that the 2023/24 Capital Acquisition amount of $20,000 has been allocated to the
Customs Department on line 76328, Customs Development. This is an amount provided to upgrade the hardware for the Global Travel Assessment System.
The system plugs Customs into a real -time global database of advanced passenger information and allows
the Customs Joint Intelligence Unit to review deta ils
about arriving visitors into Bermuda. This information is analysed and has proved highly useful to Customs in border control.

2022/23 Accomplishments

Mr. Chairman, during
2022/23, Bermuda has seen an increase in the n umbers of travellers crossing our borders both via air and
sea as restrictions arising from the pandemic have
eased. To illustrate the increase, the Customs Department served 125,000 air travellers during the 2021 cal-endar year and over 273,000 visitors during the 2022
calendar year —a 118 per cent increase. In addition to
collecting over $200 million of revenue, during 2022/23
Customs successfully made five currency seizures totalling $180,000.
In the year 2022, Customs made a total of 178
drug seizures at our respective border entry points.
These seizures ranged from personal use to commercial importations with intent to supply. While we await
analyst certificates from the government analyst with
the actual weights and drug identification for most seizures , one seizure alone contained almost 120 pounds
of cannabis, which has an estimated street value of $5
million.
Mr. Chairman, the department also played an
important role in assisting with the response to COVID -
19. During the 2022/23 year, Customs, by way of its
Joint Intelligence Unit, assisted the Department of
Health COVID -19 Surveillance Unit with the tracking of
travellers on 112 occasions.
Mr. Chairman, protecting our borders requires
the Customs Department to work seamlessly with a number of other agencies domestically and internationally. Customs continues to engage in an ad hoc interagency working group initiated for the sharing of targeting-and-seizure intelligence data. The working group
includes representatives from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the UK National Crime Agency
(NCA), the Bermuda Police Service, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police (RCMP), and Homeland Security InBermuda Senate vestigations (HIS or ICE). This group has further improved the response ti me for foreign requests received
and the sharing of information as it relates to Immediate Outcome number two (IO2).
Mr. Chairman, during the dates May 9 to
May 11, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)
seven- member team visited Bermuda on the invita tion
of the Customs Department to deliver training. The customised workshop entitled Countering the Financing of
Proliferation was presented on May 10 and 11 at the
Grotto Bay Hotel and Resort.
Mr. Chairman, the critical subject of maritime
sanctions evas ion and proliferation financing was discussed, highlighting a nexus to the Bermuda Maritime Registry. Based on the findings, Bermuda Customs initiated a formal introduction between the Royal United
Services Institute and the Bermuda Shipping and Mar-itime A uthority. A virtual meeting was held on the 24
th
of June 2022 and mutual interests were shared. Formalised steps have commenced between the stakeholders for targeted training, which commenced in December 2022.
Mr. Chairman, Customs teams attended a four -
day virtual workshop hosted by the Bermuda Drug Information Network in association with the National Criminal Justice Training Centre of Fox Valley Technical College. The workshop focused on drug trends
and the new forms of illicit drugs entering the market. The course provided officers with awareness to the
changing drug trends, equipment and precursor drugs
that persons may attempt to import.

Initiatives for 2023/24

Mr. Chairman, in harmony with the Customs Department’s strategic goals,
the following initiatives are planned: Run two recruit-ment exercises during 2023/24 to bolster the activities across the department, but with particular focus being
placed on enhancing marine and airport operations.
The department will continue to utilise the excellent
training modules developed by the World Customs Organization, and Customs will engage with the UK Home
Office for strategic planning and training opportunities. It will advance a Bill in relation to advance passenger
name rec ord data (or PNR).
Operationally, the department will continue to
move toward a trusted trader programme, where recurring legitimate importers with a good track record of
Customs compliance will benefit from a reduced clear-ance time. Provide support to the National Anti -Money
Laundering Committee in its important work of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing.
Mr. Chairmen, the department will collaborate
with Skyport in the redevelopment of the Air Cargo Terminal to ensure that Bermuda has a first -rate, efficient
and secure facility to receive air importations.
Mr. Chairman, I wish to thank the Collector of
Customs, Ms. Lucinda Pearman, and her team for their continued service to Bermuda in protecting Bermuda’s
border and promoting economic development.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes the current and
capital estimates for Head 12.

We can break now? Okay. Thank you.
So, for Senators and the listening audience it
is just 12:20. We will break and reconvene at two
o’clock with the commencement of Head 25, the Department of Corrections.
Thank you.

Proceedings in Committee suspended at 12:21 pm

Proceedings in Committee resumed at 2:00 pm

[Sen. John Wight , Chairman]

COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY

ESTIMATES OF REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
FOR THE YEAR 2023/24

[Continued]

Senators, good afternoon, and the listening audience. We are g oing to resume the Ministry
of National Security, Head 25, Department of Corrections; Head 45, Fire Services.
It is now two o’clock. The Senator in charge is
Senator Dill. We are going to finish at 3:08. I ask the
Senator that if it is possible to allow at least 15 minutes
towards the end for questions and answers from the
Opposition and Independent Senators. I am sure the
listening audience would appreciate this as well.
So, Senator Dill, over to you. Thank you.

MINISTRY OF NATIONAL SECURITY
[Continuation thereof]

HEAD 25 —DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I now present the Department of Corrections,
Head 25.
Mr. Chairman, it is my pleasure to present fiscal 2023/24 Estimates of Expenditur e for Head 25, the
Department of Corrections which are found on pages
204 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate B-275 through B -277 of the approved Estimates of
Revenue and Expenditure book.
Mr. Chairman, the Corrections Department’s
mission is, To protect the public and provide rehabilitative s ervices . The department objectives are to:
• strive to maintain high standards of security, as
this is essential to the safe operation of our facilities;
• provide a humane but demanding regime
aimed at reducing re- offending by presenting
inmates with a range of opportunities in which
reward is linked to effort, incentives and earned
privileges to prepare for life after release; and
• aim to have robust and disciplined regimes and
systems in place in order to achieve operation
efficiency at all levels.
The depar tment carries out its objectives by
providing rehabilitative services across its three inmate facilities, employing a high level of security to ensure the safety of its staff, inmates and the community.
Mr. Chairman, the current account estimate for
Head 25 begins on page B -275. A total of $24,892,000
has been allocated for Head 25 for fiscal year 2023/24.
This represents an increase of $1,999,000, or 9 per
cent, over the original budget for financial year
2022/23.
Mr. Chairman, at present there are 174 fu lltime staff with an authorised strength of 215 funded
posts. The variances are due to retirement, resignations and, sadly, two deaths. In addition to full -time employees, the budget will fund facilitators and teachers
for inmate programmes.
Mr. Chairman, I would now like to draw your
attention to page B -275 of the approved Estimates of
Revenue and Expenditure book where it sets out the
current account estimates for 2023/24. Here, under the General Summary, you will note that there are 12 busi-ness units within the Department of Corrections. With
the exception of 35000, 35020 and 35109, nine busi-ness units remain unchanged from fiscal year 2022/23.
I will address each of the business units in turn.

Headquarters and OTS

Mr. Chairman, the estimate for business unit 35000, Headquarters and OTS, is $18,831,000, an increase of $1,887,000, or 11 per
cent, over the 2022/23 budget allocation. This business
unit is 76 per cent of the department’s budget allocation. The allocation w ill fund salaries and operating expenses for Corrections Headquarters and all custody
staff. The major increase in this business unit is attributed to the increase of 168 custody staff for the facilities. Please note, all of the salaries for custody staff were reallocated to this business unit in the fiscal year
2022/23, as the staff can be transferred amongst the
facilities at a moment’s notice and this reduced the administrative task of changing the business unit with
every transfer. In fiscal year 2022/ 23, the United Kingdom
Ministry of Justice continued to provide training, and
more than 163 staff members attended. Training included the following:
• Introduction to Mental Health Awareness;
• Personality Disorders;
• Defensible Decision- Making;
• Investigation;
• Counter Corruption Conditioning and Manipulation;
• First on Scene and Hostage Taking; and
• Introduction to Intelligence.
Mr. Chairman, additional training opportunities
saw the following:
• 53 staff members complete CPR training;
• 27 staff members participate in the Emergency Response Training;
• Use of Force was attended by seven staff members;
• Canine Certification was attended by two staff;
• 19 sessions held for the Promotion Qualifying Exam; and
• 12 weeks of recruit training was held for eight recruits.

Farm Facility

Mr. Chairman, the estimate for business unit 35020, Farm Facility, is
$437,000. This represents a $3,000, or 1 per cent, decrease when compared to the 2022/23 fiscal budget.
This is due to the decrease in the salary scale of the administrative assistant. The substantive administrative assistant retired at a higher scale, and the new administrative assistant will come at the starting scale.
The Farm Facility is an adult male minimum security facility with a capacity to house 90 inmates. Inmates must have completed their core sentence plan requirements and be classified as minimum or low risk
to be housed at this facility.
Mr. Chairman, in the fiscal year 2022/23, the
Farm Facility gardens got off to a slow start this planting season due to our tractor breaking down. We have finally been able to get the gardens ploughed and have planted corn, beans, pumpkin, butternut squash, lettuce, mustard greens, onions, beets, spinach, Swiss
chard and turnips. The Animal Programme was also
successful, producing nearly 2,201 eggs for consumption.
Mr. Chairman, in fiscal 2022/23, the Work Release programme resumed in May 2022 with four in-mates participating. In an effort to minimise COVID -19
risks, inmates were anti gen tested twice a week while
on work release.

Co-Educational Facility



Bermuda Senate Sen. Rev. Dr. Emilygail A. Dill: Mr. Chairman, the estimate for business unit 35030, Co- Educational Facility,
is $300,000. This represents the same budget as the
budget allocation for the fiscal year 2022/23. This facility, with a capacity of 56 cells, has separate and distinct provisions to house 40 adult females and six young
male offenders between the ages of 16 to 21. In addition, it houses the department’s residential substance
abuse treatment programme/therapeutic community,
the Right Living House. Educational and vocational programmes are offered based on the needs of the in-mates and trainees.
Mr. Chairman, in fiscal year 2022/23, the CoEd Facility offered carpentry classes to male and female inmates. The newly purchased carpentry equipment will not only benefit the inmates at the Co- Ed Facility, but it will benefit the Farm Facility and Westgate
Facility as well in the instruction of carpentry. In addition, it will provide opt ions in developing the inmate cooperative.
A chicken programme has also been established to provide a form of therapy in which the inmates
care for the chickens.
Mr. Chairman, in fiscal year 2023/24 the CoEd/Right Living House facility would like to ini tiate the
following:
• Fishing Initiative —to have the inmates catch
fish, which will reduce/eliminate the amount of
fish that is ordered from outside agencies. This will also serve as outside recreation for the inmates.
• Bee Initiative —to have beehives housed at the
Co-Educational Facility. This would allow inmates to learn the full process of yielding honey and wax. This would create a viable option for employment upon release for inmates.
Also, the wax which is generated could be used
to make candles, crayons, hair products, et
cetera.
• Furniture making—create furniture from pallets. This would allow inmates to lear n new
skills and also increase inmates’ employability.
• Expand the animal programme at the Co- Educational Facility to include goats (which is animal therapy) as well as to breed rabbits with a
view to sell rabbit meat.

Westgate Correctional Facility

Mr. Chairman, the estimate for business unit 35060, Westgate Correctional
Facility, is $1,120,000. This represents the same budget as the budget allocation for the fiscal year
2022/23. Westgate Correctional Facility is an adult
male establishment with the capacity to house 208 inmates classified as maximum, medium and minimum
security, as well as males on court remand. The majority of assessment and treatment programmes for male inmates take place at this facility. Mr. Chai rman, in spite of our challenges, the
Westgate Facility continues to strive for every oppor-tunity to provide activities and outlets to our clients. The
completion of the computer lab allowed inmates to gain
access to additional online educational and techn ological programmes, assist those inmates who required an
alternative style of educational learning to enrol in academia, and expand its capabilities to offer inmates access to legal statutes and documents that allow the inmates to pursue appeals and their current cases.
Mr. Chairman, the Culinary Arts programme
was reintroduced this fiscal year and was a resounding
success. Both staff and inmates received instruction in
all aspects of basic commercial kitchen management
including maintaining sanitary conditions, efficient food
preparation, and the skills gained to prepare varied delectable meals .

Therapeutic Community Centre

Mr. Chairman, the estimate for business unit 35090, Therapeutic Community Centre, is $1,036,000, which represents the same
budget as the budget allocation for the fiscal year 2022/23. The Therapeutic Community Centre, also
known as the Right Living House, is located at the Co -
Educational Facility. The Right Living House is a substance abuse rehabilitation programme that is segregated from the remaining prison population. The programme has the capacity to house 18 adult male offenders with a history of substance abuse and associated criminality. The programme aims to transition residents to the broader community with an increased po-tential for a life free of drug abuse and criminal activity
through providing tools and opportunities for change.
The budget allocation funds staffing, operational costs
and the inmate programmes.

Psychological Services

Mr. Chairman, the estimate for business unit 35105, Psychological Services, is $337,000. This represents the same budget as the
budget allocation for the fiscal year 2022/23. This funding provides for salaries for two psychologists who pro-vide psychological services to offenders at each of the
three facilities. The psychologists complete various assessments on offenders including assessments of
criminogenic need, areas of risks associated with of-fending, emotional well -being an d adjustment, personality factors and cognitive functioning, evidence- based
interventions to meet offenders’ needs.
Mr. Chairman, in fiscal 2022/23, 12 psychological risk assessments had been completed by in- house
and vendor psychologists and 10 males att ended risk -
focused group interventions at Westgate.
Mr. Chairman, psychological provision within
Corrections extends to risk -focused and well -being in206 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate terventions which include, but are not limited to, individual therapies like Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, including Trauma- Focused Therapy, Management of Deliberate Self -Injurious Behaviours and Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing.

Social Services and Case Management

Mr. Chairman, the estimate for business unit 35106, Social Services and Case Management, is $553,000. This represents the same budget as the budget allocation for the fiscal year
2022/23. This budget allocation provides for staffing of
one social worker and four case managers/assessment
officers and contrac ted specific service providers.
Mr. Chairman, the department’s social worker
is a member of the Department’s Multi -Disciplinary
Team and assists inmates and trainees with offencespecific associated problems in order to address behavioural, social and fi nancial problems. The Social
Work Team provides a variety of services to the inmates and trainees, including the following:
• Thinking for a Change;
• parenting programmes (Fathers/ Mothers and Children Together);
• grief counselling;
• risk assessments;
• assist ing inmates in securing employment and
housing prior to their release;
• facilitating family support and intervention
meetings; and
• providing proper assessment and classification
for the inmate population.
Mr. Chairman, in fiscal 2023/24, Social Work
and Case Management Services will continue with its
inmate support services. A new reintegration programme to assist inmates in returning to the community
will be developed. The team will also introduce the Cir-cles of Support and Accountability programme to community network partners.

Health Services

Mr. Chairman, the estimate for business unit 35107, Health Services, is
$1,469,000. This represents the same budget as the
budget allocation for the fiscal year 20 22/23. This
budget allocation will provide funding for nursing staff
and health care services for inmates. When fully
staffed, Health Services is managed by a senior nurse and five registered nurses responsible for providing
services to the inmate populati on at all facilities. There
is currently one vacant post.
Mr. Chairman, in fiscal 2023/24, the Health
Services team plans to continue developing an inmate
health services handbook and increase inmate health education sessions by 50 per cent. It is anticip ated that
the increased education will increase participation in the flu shot and vaccine clinics. The Health Services team will continue its long- term project of implementing
an electronic medical records system.

Vocational Services

Mr. Chairman, I would
like to draw your attention to page B -276 of the Approved Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure book, which is the subjective analysis of the current account
estimates. I will briefly comment on those items which
have a notable variance from the original estimates
from the 2022/23 fiscal year.
Mr. Chairman, Salaries has increased by
$1,914,000, or 12 per cent. This represents an increase i n salaries for 15 prison officer posts.
Mr. Chairman, Professional Services has increased by $91,000, or 4 per cent. This represents
funding for the service provider who will manage the new Co- Operative Programme for Inmates, as mentioned in the Throne S peech.
Mr. Chairman, Rentals has decreased by
$31,000, or 18 per cent. This represents a decrease in
rent as Corrections Headquarters has now relocated to Westgate and the savings will be used to fund the POA salary review.
Mr. Chairman, Materials and Supplies has increased by $14,000, or 1 per cent. This increase represents supplies that will be needed for the Throne
Speech Initiative regarding the inmate Co- Operative
Programme.
Mr. Chairman, the employee number, or full -
time equivalents [FTEs], for 2023/24 is 223, an in-crease of eight full -time equivalents when compared to
2022/23. Mr. Chairman, these additional eight FTEs represent Prison Officers Association [POA] posts that
were previously unfunded.

Performance Measures

Mr. Chairman, I would
now like to draw your attention to page B -277 which
outlines the Performance Measures of the Department of Corrections. The forecast for 2023/24 is as follows:
1. The average daily inmate population is forecasted at 128, with 25 of the admissions estimated to be first -time offenders who received
custodial sentences.
2. The number of inmates projected to be re-leased on parole is forecasted to be 10.


Bermuda Senate 3. In the 2021/22 fiscal year 50 per cent of eligible
inmates enrolled in deve lopment and treatment
programmes aimed to address the offending
behaviours, address educational and vocational needs and improve skill development. The department has a target enrolment of
51 per cent for 2023/24.
4. The Department of Corrections calculates its
recidivism rates according to internationally accepted practices. Based on these standards,
the rates include persons who have a convic-tion for a new offence within one, two and three
years of their release. The actual outcome for
2021/22 was 18 per ce nt.

Capital Development and Acquisition

Mr. Chairman, I will
now move to page C -7 and capital development. The
estimate for 2023/24 is $850,000. The allocation will be
used for the continuation of the refurbishment [f or] the
inmate housing units at Westgate and the repairs to the
facilities as necessary. Page C -15 shows the 2023/24
estimate for capital acquisition a s $367,000. The department will commence procurement for an Inmate
Management System (Phase 1), replacement of two
ageing vehicles and continued components for upgrades to the CCTV system.
Mr. Chairman, I will briefly set out some of the
priorities of the Department of Corrections for the upcoming fiscal year.
• The department will continue with recruitment
to fill various vacant posts including civilian and
custodial staff.
• The department will work with other uniformed
services to revamp recruitment strategies in an
effort to recruit suitably qualified candidates
and fill the needed vacancies.
• The department will work with management
services to develop a new three- year strategic
plan.
• The department will partner with community stakeholders to support the successful reintegration of inmates into the community.
• They will also work with community partners to
develop projects that can benefit both the inmates and the wider community.
• And lastly, they will continue to work with other
government agencies on criminal justice -related initiatives. Examples include the Child
Safeguarding Committee, the Anti -Corruption
Commi ttee and the Offender High Risk Management Team.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the Commissioner Keeva Joell-Benjamin and her staff who
have, throughout the pandemic, provided exemplary
service and delivered on their mission to protect the
public and provide rehabilitative services. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my remarks on
Head 25. With your permission, I will now move to Head
45, the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service.

Mr. Chairman, the mission of the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service is , To
provide fire protection to life and property through the delivery of fire prevention, airport fir e rescue, and emergency medical services to the community. We will de-liver this through the dedicated and professional service of our uniform and civilian staff in collaboration with
our community partners.
Mr. Chairman, the Service is committed to partnering with the community to provide quality education
and fire prevention progra mmes to identify risks of fire
and life safety; and to respond to all emergencies in an
effective, efficient, and professional manner. The department’s objectives are to
• continue re-certifications in Aircraft Rescue
Firefighting for the Airport Division;
• deliver the 2023/24 foundational recruit course
for trainee firefighters.
• continue leadership training courses for middle
managers;
• continue succession planning training courses
for senior managers;
• continue with the assimilation of the UK National Operational Guidance standard for Professional Firefighting Practice;
• continue the Community Risk Profile through
the Fire Certificate Application Process; and
• provide the community with access to public
safety education information.

General Summary

Mr. Chairman, the total budget estimate for the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service for the 2023/24 financial year is $14,880,000.
This reflects an increase of $1,668,000, or 13 per cent
over the 2022/23 fiscal year. This increase primarily reflects the increased funding required to meet the revised minimum duty strength at airport operations and
the need to hire an additional 24 firefighters for the L. F.
Wade In ternational Airport.
208 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Mr. Chairman, I will now address the main business units which can be found on page B -278.

Business Unit 55060 —Central Emergency
Fire Service

The Central Emergency Fire Service —$5,993,000. The Centr al Emergency Fire Service cost centre covers the provision of Fire and Emergency Services from the Hamilton, Eastern, and Western Fire Stations. These stations respond to fires, road traffic accidents, and hazardous material
incidents when required.
The business unit has a budget allocation of
$5,993,000, which is a decrease of $288,000, 5 per
cent over the financial year 2022/23. This decrease is
attributed mainly to a reduction in the anticipated over-time. These savings will be achieved through the effective workforce management of operations and personnel leave to reduce overtime costs.

Business Unit 55080 —Other Services Central

Mr. Chairman, Other
Services Central, contains the Vehicle Repair services
and Maintenance personnel. This unit has a budget estimate of $817,000, which is an increase of $263,000, or 47 per cent from the 2022/23 financial year. This increase is mainly attributed to the increasing maintenance costs of an a geing vehicle fleet including the extraordinary inflationary costs owing to supply chain
challenges.

Business Unit 55090 —St. George’s Emergency
Fire Service

The St. George’s
Emergency Fire Service— $107,000. The St. George’s
Emergency Fire Service cost centre covers the provision of Fire and Emergency Services to the e astern end
of the Island from the Clearwater Fire Station. This sta-tion responds to fires, road traffic accidents, medical
emergencies, and hazardous material incidents when
required.
This business unit has an estimated budget allocation of $107,000, which is an increase of $18,000,
or 20 per cent from the 2022/23 financial year , attributed to the increased cost of electricity, and repair
and maintenance of the station.

Business Unit 55100 —Emergency Medical Services

Mr. Chairman, the
Emergency Medical Services business unit is responsible for equipment and supplies associated with the
department’s Emergency Medical Response through-out the I sland. The unit has an estimated budget of
$150,000, which is an increase of $43[ ,000] , or 40 per cent. This increase reflects the increased costs of medical personal protective equipment, medical supplies,
and training and certification of Emergency Medical
Technicians during the 2023/24 financial year.

Business Unit 55110 —Eastern Volunteer Division

The Eastern Volunteer
Division’s role was to provide additional support to full -
time firefighters during protracted incidents .
This business unit has not received any funding for the 2023/24 financial year, which represents a
reduction of $20,090, or 100 per cent from the 2022/23
financial year. This reduction is part of the organisational redirecting of resources to support the recruitment and training of 24 new Airport Rescue Fire Fight-ers.

Business Unit 55120 —West End Emergency
Fire Service

The West End Emergency Fire Service—$144,000. The West End Emergency Fire Service cost centre covers t he provision of
Fire and Emergency Services to the w estern end of the
Island from the Port Royal Station .
This business unit has an estimated budget allocation of $144,000, which is an increase of $80,000,
or 125 per cent from the 2022/23 financial year. T his
increase is attributed to the estimated cost of minimum
overtime as a result of protracted emergencies, and
other operational expenses such as fuel, and staff welfare improvements during the 2023/24 financial year. The remaining $64,000 is allocated for building maintenance and general operational cost.

Business Unit 55150 —Training

Training. Mr. Chairman, a budget estimate of $1,004,000 for this unit reflects an increase of $832,000, or 484 per cent.
The increased funding for the 2023/24 financial
year will support the services’ operational preparedness and succession planning through the acquisition
of pro fessional qualifications obtained locally and overseas. Fire officers will complete the following courses
during the 2023/24 financial year:
• Foundation Recruit Course (for 24 new recruits)
• Emergency Medical Technician Course
• CPR Recertification
• Middle Managers Course
• Senior Management Course
• Airport Rescue Fire Fighters revalidation
• Allied Heath Continuing Education Units (CEU)
A more detailed explanation of this increase in
funding will be discussed in the Subjective Analysis.

Business Unit 55190 —Emergency Dispatch


Bermuda Senate Sen. Rev. Dr. Emilygail A. Dill: Mr. Chairman, the
Emergency Dispatch cost centre has an establishment
of 14 full -time equivalents. The budget estimate for this
business unit is $970,000. This increase of $105,000, or 12 per cent is attribut ed to an additional $100,000
allocated for overtime cost s that is anticipated due to
staffing shortage. The emergency dispatch is currently
operating with 9 of the 14 established full -time equivalents. The overtime estimation provides a more accu-rate reflection of the budgetary requirements for efficient operation of this business unit.
Mr. Chairman, during the 2022/23 financial
year, the emergency dispatch answered approximately
9,429 calls for service. This represents an increase of
2,017 calls, or 27 per cent from the 2021/22 financial
year.

Business Unit 55200 —Airport Fire Rescue

Mr. Chairman, this
business unit provides Aircraft Emergency Rescue and Fire Fighting Services at the L. F. Wade International
Airport, as pr escribed by the Overseas Territories Aviation Requirements (OTAR) part 140. The L. F. Wade
International Airport operates as a Category 9 airport.
The category of an airport determines the maximum
size of aircraft that can land at the airport, the manpower and equipment requirements, and the extinguishing medium.
Mr. Chairman, the budget estimate for this unit
is $2,548,000, an increase of $627,000, or 33 per cent.
This increase is attributable to the funding required to
increase the number of full -time equivalents to meet the
Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority regulatory requirements for fire protection of the L. F. Wade International
Airport. These requirements were amended after the January 2022 Skyport audit of the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service airport operations.
Mr. Chairman, the audit was conducted by a
UK-based aviation expert who determined that the current establishment of 23 firefighters was insufficient. Consequently, it has been determined that 48 will be
required to safeguard airport operations in alignment
with the Overseas Territories Aviation Requirements (OTAR).
Mr. Chairman, at the time of the audit completion, there were only 13 full -time firefighters at the airport station. Coverage was managed through significant use of overtime hours. In order to immediately bolster staff and keep the airport open to international
flights, the BFRS contracted 25 overseas firefighters
trained in airport rescue and firefighting. Funding for the
contract was sourced from the realignment of the existing Ber muda Fire and Rescue Service budget and supplementary request. To date, the service has spent $1,117,495 on contracted firefighters to meet the staff-ing requirements. In the 2023/24 financial year, the
BFRS intends to cease all contracts with overseas firefighters and substantively fill the necessary posts. Mr. Chairman, I now draw your attention to
page B -279 of the current account estimates book,
Subjective Analysis of Current Account Estimates.

Subjective Analysis of Current Account Estimates

Mr. Chairman, I will
now speak to the subjective analysis of current account
estimates and those object codes that show substantial
changes over the 2022/23 financial year found on page
B-279.
The funding allocation for sal aries for the financial year 2023/24 is $11,436,000. This is an increase of
$391,000, or 4 per cent from the financial year 2022/23.
This increase is attributed to funding of additional full -
time equivalents that will be assigned to provide fire
protection at the L. F. Wade International Airport, training, and procurement of personal protective equipment.
Training allocation of $989,000 represents an
increase of $831,000, or 526 per cent. This increase
funding reflects the cost of recruitment, mandatory initial certifications, and provisioning of 24 additional full -
time equivalents, and the annual revalidation of all tenured Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighters. This funding will
also support the organisational maintenance of t he professional competency scheme in alignment with the
Overseas Territories Aviation Requirements [ OTAR ].
An additional $11,500 has been allocated for local
training.
Travel allocation for the 2023/24 financial year
is $74,000. This supports the increase d travel requirements for fire officers to undertake specialised training
and recertifications.
Communications allocation of $294,000 is a
decrease of $52,000, or 15 per cent. This decrease reflects savings and efficiencies as a result of the Gov-ernment’s purchase of its own radio system, which has
eliminated rental fees during the 2023/ 24 financial year.
Repair and maintenance allocation for the
2023/24 financial year is $629,000. This is an increase
of $252,000, or 67 per cent. The increase reflects
maintenance of ageing vehicles, supply chain challenges and the extraordinary inflationary cost due to the
manufacture and logistics of procuring specialised vehicle inventory.
Energy allocation for the 2023/24 financial year
is $429,000. This represents an increase of $25,000, or
6 per cent. The increase is attributed to an anticipated
increase in energy usage at the Clearwater Station due
to the increased number of aircraft rescue firefighters who will be housed at the station.
Clothing, uniforms and laundry allocation for
the 2023/24 financial year is $173,000, an increase of
175 per cent. The increase reflects the procurement of
work uniforms and heat -resistant personal protective
clothing for the 24 new [recruits] .
Materials and Supplies allocation of $333,000
is an increase of $78,000, or 31 per cent. The increase
210 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate reflects the procurement of medical supplies, firefighting tools, and equipment. This allocation will also
support the Home Safety Fire Programme whereby
members of the community can request fir e officers to
visit homes to conduct a fire safety inspection and install free smoke detectors inside the home if required.

Revenue Source

Mr. Chairman, the estimates of revenue for the service can also be found on page B-279. The revenue estimate for the 2023/24 financial year is $320,000, a reduction of $36,000, or
10 per cent. Revenue in 2022/23 was above normal
due to increased licensing and fire certificate applica-tions following a lull in applications during the COV ID19 pandemic. The 2023/24 revenue estimate is in line
with pre- pandemic estimations.
Mr. Chairman, all commercial buildings and
large residential properties undergo Fire and Life
Safety Risk Assessment and submit an application for a fire certificate. T he combined revenue generated
from fire certificate applications fees and general licenc es for the 2023/24 financial year is estimated to be
$170,000.
Mr. Chairman, the Service also generates revenue from airport operations providing fire protection to
after-hour aviation flights. Revenue for the 2023/24 financial year is estimated at $150,000.

Employee Numbers (Full -Time Equivalents)

Mr. Chairman, the em-ployee numbers or full -time equivalents can also be
found on page B -279 and reflects an increase of 29,
from 127 in the financial year 2022/23 to 156 in the fi-nancial year 2023/24. Twenty -four previously unfunded
full-time equivalents will be funded to align with the new
minimum duty strength requirements for the L. F. Wad e
International Airport. Five vacant and funded full -time
equivalents will also be filled. Advertising for these
posts is currently underway and, subject to legislative
approval of the budget, the recruits will be onboarded and begin training at the earliest opportunity.

Capital Acquisition Funding

Mr. Chairman, I now
draw your attention to page C -13 where you will note
that the Ministry of National Security has budgeted $1,419,000 of capital acquisition funding for the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service. This funding will allow
the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service to initiate the
purchase of four specialised major foam vehicles for
the Airport Operations Division to replace those that
have reached the end of their service life .
Funding of $38,000 is also provided for the procurement of a new command vehicle for the airport operations. Achievements for 2022/23

Mr. Chairman, although there have been many challenges during the 2022/23 financial year, the year was also marked by
several triumphs for the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service.
• Three members of the community were given
the Community Heroism Awards by the Chief
Fire Officer for their courageous actions that
prevented the escalation of a boat fire at a gas
station in St. George’s.
• Fire Fighter Dillon Charles received the Com-munity Heroism Award in recognition of his extraordinary efforts while off duty to rescue two
people after their car went into the water.
• Ten local recruits rec ently completed six weeks
of intense training in the United Kingdom. The new fire fighters returned on the 26
th of February having successfully obtained certification as Airport Rescue Fire Fighters.
Key performance operational indicators for
emergency responses for the 2022/23 financial year indicate that there was a total of 4,169 calls for service,
they consisted of
• 614 road traffic collisions;
• 1,057 structural fires;
• 2,031 medical responses;
• 16 vehicle fires;
• 765 responses to hot refuels, aircraft sta ndby,
emergency diversions, and foreign object inspections at the airport;
• 300 special service calls to floods, oil spills,
and gas cylinder leaks.

2023/24 Financial Year Plans

Mr. Chairman, in the
2023/24 financial year the Bermuda Fire and Rescue
Service will continue to advance its objectives of train-ing and assimilation with international standards in fire safety.
Mr. Chairman, in order to ensure that the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service is meeting the needs of the community, the Minister of National Security has invited His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services to conduct a review of the
Service.
This will be an independent assessment of the
effectiveness and efficiency of the Bermuda Fire and
Rescue Service. T he objective is to ensure that we
have a future- facing fire service that meets the changing needs of our community.
Mr. Chairman, in the 2023/24 fiscal year the
public can expect that the Bermuda Fire and Rescue
Service wi ll:
• implement a robust maintenance of competency programme to support professional development of all fire officers ;


Bermuda Senate • recruit additional local fire fighters to provide
critical fire protection for the L. F. Wade International Airport;
• introduce new technology to deliver and record
all training activities, professional development, and incident command competencies;
• develop a business community risk profile
through fire safety inspections and the fire certificate application process .
Mr. Chairman, t he men and women of the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service are some of Bermuda’s
heroes. They are the first responders we see in our
greatest time of need. The service they provide is exemplary. I would like to thank Acting Chief Fire Officer
Mr. Dana Lovell and his team for their support to the
community. The Ministry of National Security will con-tinue to support them as they remain on the frontline of
keeping Bermuda safe.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my submission
for the Ministry of National Security, Heads 83, 6, 7, 12,
25 and 45.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN

SENATE VISITORS

Thank you, very much, Senator Dill.
Before I ask for any Senator to speak on these
heads I will just mention that the Minister of Tourism
and the Cabinet Office, Minister Vance Campbell [is
here], thank you very much for being here this afternoon. It is nice to see you.
We also have from the National Security, Chris
Farrow, the Permanent Secretary, and Ms. [Tarita] Cartwright for N ational Security. So thank you both very
much for joining us this afternoon.
[Committee of Supply , continuing]

Okay. So more than 15 [minutes].
So, I can now ask for any Senators to speak on
any of these heads.
Senator Smith, over to you, sir.

Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
Firstly, I would like to thank all of our uniform
service members. This particular Ministry houses the
men and women who protect our country. And it is always important that we let them know that we appreciate the service that they provide. The difficulty in the
debate that we are having today is that because of the
length of the brief there will not be a l ot of time to ask questions and get responses. But I do want the mem-bers of the service to realise that this is not because we
do not respect what they are doing [but we] want to get
as much for them as possible.
I know that the community knows that several
of the uniform services have actually had issues for a
significant amount of time and have been trying to get
improvements for their service. I am not sure whether
we have had a proper update on whether those things have been accomplished, but I will ask a couple of
questions now in the hope that we can at least get
some answers today as we move forward.
So, Mr. Chairman, starting with Head 83, the
Ministry of National Security, my question is on page B -
268. It is the Gang Violence Reduction [Team] programme. So, if you look at 2022/23, originally the
budget was $621,000. The revised budget is at a
$200,000 difference. If the Junior Minister can please
let us know what the $200,000 was spent on. Specifically con sidering that I believe the community would really like to know what is happening within this particular
programme, considering the amount of gang violence
that we have seen. Considering the increased attraction of our young people into the gang lifestyle it is a
priority of this country to get this right. And we need to
know what the money is being spent on considering
that we are now increasing that number further in
2023/24. So we need to make sure that we are getting value for money. If the Junior Minis ter can give us a
breakdown of what that number is I think it would be important for everybody to know.
I am going to jump around a little bit because
of time constraints, but I guess one way that I could handle this is that there seems to be a . . . and I will use
Headquarters to say this. There are a number of departments that do not have enough employees in each
of their sections and this has created the issue of needing to have large amounts of overtime spent. And what
we are seeing is that we are now trying to hire people
in these departments but it is going to happen slowly
over a period of time, at the same time that you will
have retirements and people leaving. So, [can] the Junior Minister let us know how we are going to fix this situation? Severa l times it has been brought in the brief
that the numbers that we are adding are going to help
us to reduce this overall overtime number, but when
you actually look at the details, it doesn’t seem like
those numbers make sense, where the amount of people w ho we are bringing in are actually going to show a
reduction.
So, moving specifically to the Fire Service,
which was the department that was just finished in the
last brief under Head 45. Obviously, this has been a
subject that has had a lot of discussion because of what
has happened at the airport. If the Junior Minister can
let us know, there was an audit that happened, but when was the first time that the Government was made
aware that there was a deficiency in the number of officers who were needed at the airport? They might not
212 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate have known the exact number, but were they made
aware prior to that audit that there was a deficiency in
the number of fire service officers who were at the airport?
It is important that you bring that up because
what we are now seeing is that we are going to spend
all of our time and energy in filling posts at the airport
while there have been deficiencies in the other parts of
the Fire Service, so East, West and Central, did not
have the full complement of officers. So the reason that
this becomes important is that as we continue to bolster the airport and not give our focus to the other parts of
the Fire Service, are we going to start to see a reduction
in what the Fire Service is supposed to be able to provide? Will we see th e closure of some of our fire services? So, the East and West ? Because somewhere
there has to be a breakdown.
Are we putting the correct number of officers
on the trucks? Do we have the correct number of officers in each of these fire houses? And if we are not able
to make up that number, what will be the impact to the service to the community?
Do we have an anal ysis of how quickly a fire
service member gets to the scene compared to the ser-vices of, say, KEMH hospital ambulance? Because we have seen this in the past, we have had to reduce the
use of the ambulance from the Fire Service in the East
End and this has an impact on how quickly they can respond to a scene.
I will say it again: Our uniform services are the
ones who we do not normally pay attention to until we really need them. And in our community, having the assurance that when you dial 911 you are going to get
that service as quickly as possible when it is saving the
life of one of your loved ones, I think it is important that
we know that we are putting the money where it needs to be, making sure we are getting support from these services so that our loved ones will be protected.
I think those will be my initial questions so I can
give some time for some responses and for others to
be able to ask questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Senator Smith.
Would any other Senator . . . Senator Tucker,
over to you.

Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I just have two questions. One relates to the
business unit . . . in relation to the Gang Violence Reduction [Team] programme. I would like to know how
success of the programme and its initiatives are being
measured. Because, again, we are investing more
money into this programme and so it would be good to
know how they are measuring the effectiveness of the
programme. I will just ask that question for now. Thank
you.

Thank you, Senator Tucker. Would any other Senator care to ask a question on these heads?
Yes. Senator Bell, over to you.

Sen. Kiernan Bell: Thank you. I have two questions for
Senator Dill, both relating to cybersecurity. So, these
would roughly fall under Heads 83 and 6.
I noted that the Government will be bringing
Bills forward on cybersecurity and cybercrime, which is
great. And I also saw that there is capex [capital expenditure] expected of $260,000- odd on the CIRT [Cybersecurity Incident Respo nse Team] implementation.
And I heard Senator Dill reference a dedicated cybersecurity unit which will establish CIRT (at least I think
that is what I heard).
So, my questions are: Will this cybersecurity
unit fall under the remit of the Ministry of National Se-curity? And can you advise where in the budget estimates under Heads 83 and 6 the operating costs, like
salary, for such a unit would fall to be budgeted for?
And those are my questions for now. Thank you.

I believe I can begin.
Let me first of all say thank you to the Senators
for their questions. With regard to the first question with
regard to the Gang Violence Reduction Team and the $200,000 increase, you asked what was the $200,000
spent on. First of all, we have had an expansion in the
programme of the schools from primary to high that
serve as preventative measures and also intervention.
Some of the monies, $36,000 [went to] community violence in Bermuda, towards cultivating a Bermudianised
Strategic Planning Conference in October. There was
$20,000 for the Safe House; $100,000 set aside for counselling; and $64,000 for the anti -violence campaign.
With regard to your question regarding the first
notice that we had of the need for an extended fire presence at the L. F. Wade International Airport, you have
asked it previously, the answer has not changed. The
first that we were notified of the need for additional fire
fighters was in February of 2022.
With regard to the overtime and the full -time
equivalents, it is my understanding that RBR does not
pay out over time. According to legal guidelines . . . pardon me. I am jumping between the questions. Okay. With regard to the reduction in overtime costs, much of
the overtime over the years has not been budgeted and
it actually required a supplementary each year. For
2023/24 staffing levels, this should result in the reduced
need for overtime and any supplementaries.
Did I get it all?


Bermuda Senate The Chairman: Senator Smith?

Okay.

Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will just
ask another question while we are waiting for those an-swers.
Considering that the recruitment process for
uniform services will probably attract very similar people to all of the different ministries, and all the diff erent
heads in this particular Ministry, it would seem that
needing to have officers in each of these ministries at
the same time is going to become a real issue. So, if
the Junior Minister can give us an idea as a population,
how many people are we attrac ting when we put out a
recruitment?
How many of those people who are coming in
on that first level of recruitment are able to pass the first level of vetting? So, the written test, any kind of mental
assessment and then the drug test that is needed, because within uniform services that is going to be one of the requirements. Because if what we are getting is the
same people applying and not being to pass those first
levels, it is becoming more and more difficult for us to attract new officers in all of these areas which means
the issue that we are trying to solve doesn’t get solved.
So, if that is the case, can the Junior Minister
tell us whether we will now see more officers from overseas in each of these heads in order for us to make up
the shortfall of this recruitment process? Because it has
reached a critical stage where overtime is out of line,
and now we do not seem to have enough people to fill
the roles. So, at some point we are going to have to
look overseas to find the manpower if we do not have the manpower available through this recruitment process.
Thank you.

Thank you, Senator
Smith.
What I will say is that we do recognise the challenges that we are fac ing in that area. But our team is
working assiduously to address any issues that we are
having with regard to our local recruiting. And we are
putting processes in place in order to ensure that as many Bermudians as possible can be transitioned into roles in our uniform services.

Thank you, Senator Dill.
Senator Tucker.

Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I just want to remind the Senator that I am still
waiting for the answer to my question. Hopefully she
will have it soon.
But I do have two other questions. One, as it
relates to the mention about retired customs officers
being hired to assist at the air port with immigration
tasks. Can the Junior Minister tell us how many customs officers have been engaged and the extent of
those contracts?
And then the second question relates to Corrections and how much funding has been set aside to
assist with the sex o ffender programmes.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Senator Tucker, with
regard to your question regarding the ability to measure
the effectiveness of the programme, if you are looking
for the number of individuals who have completed the
various different programmes, it is quite difficult to determine effectiveness. We can talk about how many incidents did not occur, but all we can continue to do is to provide the resources and support that is necessary and continue to work to transition as many individuals
as possible out of these antisocial lifestyles into productive citizens in our society.
I am trying to look at what the last question is
as we move forward.

Actually, Senator
Tucker, what I wou ld like to say is that if you were listening in the other place that the statistics were actually
offered and I will make every effort to ensure that you
get the statistics in terms of the success of each of the
programmes, the statistics concerning how ma ny individuals completed successfully and what we have
done. I will ensure that you get that. We were not able
to share it today due to the time constraints and the information that you requested which were [ for] all of the
heads, but the majority of the q uestions seem to be focused upon just two or three [heads], as opposed to six.

For the listening audience, I have
taken over the Chair from Senator Wight.
So, we are now moving on in Committee for the
Cabinet Office and the heads to be debated are Heads
9, 13 and 43.
I call on Minister Darrell who has the floor.
CABINET OFFICE

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam
Chairman. Good afternoon.
I move that the Committee do now take under
consideration Head 9, Cabinet Office; Head 13, Post
Office; and Head 43, Department of Information and
Digital Technologies.
Madam Chairman, I will start with the longest
of the three of those and that is Head 9, the Cabinet
Office and it can be found on pages B -42 through B -48.

Thank you. Please proceed.
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam
Chairman.

HEAD 9 —CABINET OFFICE

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam Chairman , the
Cabinet Office operates at the centre of the public service providing leadership advice and guidance to ensure delivery of the Government’s policies and Government’s services. This leadership continues to be seen
in the fiscal discipline within the Cabinet Office and,
Madam Chairman, it gives me great pleasure to present the budget for Head 9, the Cabinet Office, found on pages B -42 through B -48 of the Budget Book.
Madam Chairman, the total expenditure as
seen on page B -44 is estimated to be $31,763,000 for
2023/24, and represents a decrease of $399,000, or approximately 1 per cent of the original budget of
2022/23. This decrease is due to the net effect of minimal additions in several areas of the budget and higher
reductions in others, mainly the de- funding of two vacancies within the Cabinet Office as well as a decrease
in the grant allocation.
Madam Chairman, the subjecti ve analysis for
the Cabinet Office can be found on page B-45 of the
Estimates Book. Please allow me to highlight the material object code increases as well as decreases.
Salaries, line item 1, is estimated at
$6,749,000 and represents a decrease of approximately 2 per cent. While one administrative officer post
was added to the department, the temporary de- funding of one permanent secretary post along with that of
one management accountant post resulted in an overall decrease of $117,000 compared to the c urrent
2022/23 budget provision. Madam Chairman, the filling
of these two posts will be reassessed during the 2024/25 budget process.
Professional Services, line item 9, there is an
increase of $119,000 or 4 per cent compared to
2022/23. Consultancy servi ces relating to the Washington DC Office accounts for this increase.
Madam Chairman, as you may recall, the intention set last year was to establish a representative
presence in Washington, DC. Madam Chairman, we


Bermuda Senate are pleased to inform the Senate that Mr. Anthony Howell, as of mid- year 2022, has been charged with the task
of restoring the operations of the DC office as well as
strengthening positive dialogue and engagement with
business and government stakeholders in promoting Bermuda’s financial services.
The objectives for fiscal term 2023/24 will build
on those efforts by: engaging with key contacts inform-ing [thought] leaders in the US of Bermuda’s role as an
international financial services centre and tourist desti-nation; executing associated busines s development
functions; reviewing and advising on emerging US policies and legislative measures that may impact Bermuda; advising and managing direct engagement by
the Premier and Ministers with DC contacts; as well as
identifying opportunities to promote Bermuda’s environmental initiatives.
Madam Chairman, Mr. Howell, who is a Bermudian, is an expert in US politics and international relations. He has spent the last several years studying
and working overseas, where he has conducted indepth global comparative policy, legal, and international advocacy research on various humanitarian issues, and has forged relationships with various policy
stakeholders. In his role as the Government of Bermuda’s Washington, DC representative, Mr. Howell will
manage and develop diplomatic and corporate rela-tions on behalf of Bermuda. In addition, Mr. Howell will maintain a robust and healthy relationship with the
United States and work to soli dify economic, geopolitical and cultural ties.
Mr. Howell earned a degree in political science
and international studies from New Jersey City University and went on to earn an LLB in Law (Hons) from the University of Leeds. He has also earned advanced degrees, with a dual Master of Administration and M aster
of Science in international and world history with merit, from both Columbia University and the London School
of Economics, and an LLM in oil, gas and renewable
energy law with merit, from Robert Gordon University.
In addition, Mr. Howell has also earned a postgraduate certificate in global diplomacy from the School
of Oriental and African Studies, as well as a FinTech
specialisation certificate from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Howell has travelled extensively and has
lived and worked in Bermuda, Bangkok, Kyoto, Leeds,
London, New Jersey, New York, and Washington, DC.
Mr. Howell is a previous Cabinet Office Intern having worked in Washington, DC with the Government’s lobbying agency The Group.
Madam Chairman, returning to the su bjective
analysis, please note that the $63,000 increase in Rentals, line item 10, as well as the $24,000 increase
in Repair and Maintenance, line item 11, are also tied
to the re- establishment of the DC Office.
Finally, Madam Chairman, the remaining material variance is seen in Grants and Contributions, the
last line item, which shows an allocation of $19,615,000, a decrease of $550,000 from 2022/23.
This results from the transfer of the $50,000 Cup Match
grant to be more suitably housed within the Minist ry of
Youth, Culture and Sport, as well as the reduction, Madam Chairman, of the Bermuda Tourism Authority
grant by $1,040,000, as highlighted on page C -17 of
the Budget Book. It should be noted that $540,000 of
the grant reduction has been transferred to Other
Grants.
Madam Chairman , while on the topic of grants,
please allow me a few minutes to update the Senate on
the current year’s activities of the Bermuda Tourism
Authority (BTA) as well as its upcoming goals. Madam
Chairman, the Bermuda Tourism Author ity operates as
the destination marketing organisation for the Island’s
crucial tourism sector. Over the past three years the
global tourism industry has faced wide- reaching challenges and Bermuda has not been spared. Despite the
challenges, 2022 became a pivotal year for tourism in
Bermuda.
Madam Chairman, following the wide- scale deployment of COVID -19 vaccines and boosters, visitors
began to take advantage of the resurgence of both do-mestic and international travel. Bermuda navigated
through a phased ap proach to eliminate our COVID -19
travel protocols, which ended in November 2022.
Madam Chairman, while Bermuda has not yet
returned to 2019 visitor volumes, the Island saw significant growth in 2022 when compared to 2021 across
key tourism measures including air capacity, leisure air
visitors and cruise travel. Though significant increases
were seen in 2022, year-end statistics underscore that
more work remains to be done before reaching the
baseline numbers of 2019.
Madam Chairman, in 2022, total visitor arrivals
(air, cruise and yacht) recovered to 68 per cent of 2019
levels; specifically , air at 54 per cent, cruise at 75 per
cent, and yacht arrivals at 143 per cent.
Madam Chairman, leisure air visitors recovered to 52 per cent of 2019 levels, with the UK region
the fastest recovering source market for leisure air visitors, which achieved 75 per cent of 2019 levels. The
US market was at 51 per cent of 2019 levels with the
Canadian market at 46 per cent of 2019 levels. I would
like to note that the direct flight from Heathrow (rather
than Gatwick) has accelerated the recovery from the
UK market. In addition, the BTA has invested in this
particular market over the past few years when previously, it had not done so.
Madam Chairman , air capacity ( also known as
“seats ”) recovered to 61.0 per cent of 2019 levels and
hotel inventory (open and bookable) recovered to approximately 73.0 per cent of 2019 levels. Madam Chairman, the average air visitor spent $1,852 per person,
up 24.8 per cent from 2019. Total air vis itor spending
reached $270.1 million in 2022, which represented
68.0 per cent of 2019 levels . The average spend per
cruise visitor rose to $255 per person, up 13.0 per cent
from 2019. Total cruise visitor spending reached
216 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate $102.7 million in 2022, which was 91 .0 per cent of
2019. Superyacht economic impact rose to $3.4 million
in 2022, up 147.0 per cent from 2021.
Madam Chairman , the vacation rentals sector,
many of which are managed by a cross -section of Bermudian homeowners, continued to perform well, with
results exceeding the 2019 occupancy levels by 10 percentage points.
Madam Chairman, for the 2023 calendar year,
the Government will invest $19 million into the Bermuda Tourism Authority to revive the crucial tourism in-dustry for the purpose of rebuilding our economy by
creating more jobs and business in this vital sector.
Madam Chairman, total income for the BTA is
forecast to be $33.9 million. The remaining $14.9 million is forecast to come from fees paid by visitors staying in our hotels, vacation rental units, and cruise ship passengers.
Madam Chairman, the vast majority of BTA
funds are spent on selling and marketing the destina-tion. When adjustments to operations are necessary, funds allocated for sales and marketing are protected
from being cut as much as possible to ensure adequate
resources are available for this essential component of
our business.
Madam Chairman, the estimated total income
for 2023 will be allocated as follows:
• Sales will be allocated $10,012,794 representing 29 per cent of the total investment.
• Marketing will be allocated $15,160,456 repre-senting 4[5] per cent of the total investment.
• Research and Business Intelligence Division
will be allocated $941,202 representing 3 per
cent of the total investment.
• Experiences division will be allocated
$1,465,424 representing 4 per cent of the total
investment.
• The Operations Division will be allocated $6,381,744 representing 19 per cent of the total investment.
Madam Chairman, a key element of tourism's
recovery is the growth of cruise and air arrivals as well
as expansion of our hotel inventory. At 1,700 available
rooms, the Island has only 43 per cent of its 1990 volumes and approximately 73 per cent of its 2019 volumes. The reduction in available hotel rooms hinders the ability to build demand for group business and limits
vital on -Island spending that impacts businesses directly or indirectly connected to tourism in Bermuda.
Madam Chairman, airlift and hotel inventory
are inter -related and co- dependent. Bermuda’s reduced hotel inv entory has had a negative impact on
Bermuda’s airlift. The BTA works closely with its part-ners at the Bermuda Airport Authority, Skyport and the Ministry of Transport to shape and execute Bermuda’s
Air Service Development Strategy. The BTA gathers
and shar es vital data on Bermuda’s visitors and works
to build demand, fill seats, and expand airlift. Airlift to Bermuda is expected to reach at least
76 per cent of 2019 levels this summer while hotel inventory remains at 73 per cent of pre- pandemic levels.
The BTA is focused on partnering with the airlines and
developing co- op programmes to fill existing flights and
spur demand to necessitate an expansion of the airline
schedule.
Madam Chairman , the return of cruise ships in
2022 has played a significant role in the sector ’s recovery. Bermuda looks forward to welcoming over 20 0
cruise ship calls this year and more passengers than in
2019.
Madam Chairman, the BTA has shown that it
is focused on improving operations and efficiency by creating a staffing plan to lead recovery in the tourism
industry. This is important for the social and economic
success of Bermuda, and they are making sure subject matter ex perts are in place and costs are staying within
the budget. Pre- pandemic, the BTA had a budgeted
headcount for 55 roles. The BTA now fulfils the same functions with a current headcount of 42, of which
95 per cent are Bermudian or spouses of Bermudians.
Madam Chairman, each year the BTA sets corporate objectives to keep momentum towards achieving the long- term National Tourism Plan objectives
while addressing the immediate needs of the tourism industry. The objectives set out for the BTA team to achieve in 2023 are
• to increase visitor spending by 20 per cent to
30 per cent over 2022;
• to increase visitor spending directly influenced
by the BTA by 20 per cent to 30 per cent over
2022 (this includes group and event bookings
and leisure promotions that can be directly tied
to BTA activities);
• to increase the number of leisure visitors coming from the UK and Europe by 30 per cent to
40 per cent over 2022;
• to increase yacht economic impact to $14 million;
• to increase air and cruise visitors’ likelihood to recommend Bermuda t o their friends/relatives
to 81 per cent; and
• to increase the diversity of leisure air visitors.
Madam Chairman, the BTA launched the Lost
Yet Found campaign in 2022. The new campaign displays authentic Bermuda experiences asking our visitors to dive in and discover a new layer of the Island.
The campaign video highlights locations that have not
been seen before and have started real conversations
about Bermuda and what the Island has to offer. The BTA has not moved away from promoting the proximity message, that our world- class beaches, golf, and relative safety, now include all parts of the Island in sharing the full Bermuda experience.
Madam Chairman, the BTA is not just focused
on the numbers of the past. For 2023, marketing, PR and communications wil l be focused on re- establishing
Bermuda as a top travel brand. The aim is to create


Bermuda Senate strategic and media partnerships that will increase
awareness of Bermuda and enhance its appeal as a
tourist destination.
Madam Chairman , the BTA’s global communications team is engaged with journalists in all forms to create awareness and education of the Island. The goal
is to inform our target markets as to the range of vacation experiences available from luxury to adventure,
while highlighting Bermuda’s heritage and cult ure. The
team works directly with all trade partners hosting fa-miliarisation trips (FAMs) for our tour operators and
trade media to provide first -hand, personalised experiences and education of the Island.
Madam Chairman, social media and content
strategy will continue to focus on our select audiences
to drive awareness and engagement. A structured in-fluencer programme will be implemented that boosts “influenced” bookings and visits. A strong focus will be
placed on diversity to ensure that we reach the consumers as dictated by the National Tourism Plan.
Madam Chairman , the primary objective of the
Sales and Business Development team is to drive vis-itation to the Island by utilising targeted sales tactics,
data and the discovery of untapped opportunities. T he
team targets both domestic and international customers, reaching out to current and potential partners such
as tour operators, meeting planners, and large corporate and association clients.
Madam Chairman, each division of the sales
department works to promote Bermuda as an enticing
destination for various customer bases as they culti-vate, nurture and secure new and returning business to
the Island. With the continued closure of the Fairmont
Southampton (soon to be opened) —Bermuda’s largest
conference f acility —the Sales and Business Development team has set a key focus towards driving revenue and creating consistent visitor presence throughout non-summer months and with smaller groups that can
be accommodated in existing facilities.
Madam Chairman, new travel industry partners
have been identified to drive engagement and increase room nights and revenue in specific travel windows and
markets. With the support of the new brand launch and
defined marketing efforts, the BTA continues to re- educate tour oper ators, airline travel agents, and other
entities, through all sales channels to establish a preferred partnership with select US, Canadian and European tour operators.
Madam Chairman, one of the top 2023 initiatives for Sales is to develop a Travel and Tr ade certification programme that will help train tour operators and
equip them with a deeper knowledge base of Bermuda.
This new enterprise will also enable the BTA to build a
database of user information, study best practices utilised by other destinations, and increase our visitor impact.
Madam Chairman, the BTA continues to see
positive inroads in Sports and Business Development.
The goal of the 2023 strategy is to drive growth in the key verticals of golf, tennis, endurance, and sailing,
while promotin g our partnership and sponsor strategy.
This team is focus ed on the creation and execution of
signature events such as the Bermuda Celebrity Golf
Tournament and returning events like the Bermuda
Grand Prix and the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
Also, th e BTA will continue to leverage our existing
partnerships and highlight Bermuda as a destination that can deliver high- profile sporting events.
Madam Chairman , this year’s maritime strategy will focus on areas such as the superyachts, sports fishing, inter national regattas, and leisure yachting.
Each of these segments demonstrates the potential to
drive economic impact for the Island. The BTA has partnered with BOAT International, the global authority in
superyachting, who will provide the experience, acces s
and credibility needed to further tap into this segment
and improve our superyacht results.
Madam Chairman, as Bermuda continues to
position itself as a year -round destination, it is imperative that there are on- Island offerings, signature events,
and ex periences throughout the year that appeal to our
target groups. Through the Tourism Experience Investment Programme, the BTA will support home- grown
ideas and local entrepreneurs looking to bring visitors
to the Island by elevating Bermuda’s on- Island experience with significant and authentic offerings. This programme provides marketing and/or funding support for innovative tourism entrepreneurs and business owners
whose proposals successfully meet criteria that align
with the National Tourism Plan and BTA’ s key strategic
objectives.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN

SENATE VISITOR

Senator, is this a convenient time? [I
would like to] acknowledge that Lt. Col. Edward Lamb,
the Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office and
Tourism has joined us in the public Gallery.
Welcome. Thank you.

[Committee of Supply , continuing]

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam Chairman, when
visitors come to our Island, we must ensure that their experience is frictionless. Guests are looking for those
unique and immersive experiences that allow them to
connect with who we are as a destination. Keeping our
visitors top of mind, the BTA is committed to working
with our tourism partners to elevate the visitor experience around key signature cultural, arts and culinary
events.
Madam Chairman, 2023 is going to be full of
activities and events that will ex cite people of all ages.
We are especially proud to offer a wide range of signature events and sports this year that are sure to put the
218 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate idea to rest that our Island is boring or that there is nothing to do. The list of events and many more promise to
be the highlight of 2023 on our Island. The BTA website
will show , and will continue to show, what is available.
Madam Chairman, tourism in Bermuda can
only grow through the support of its residents. That is
why local involvement is a key pillar of the Bermuda
National Tourism Plan. As the BTA enters into partnerships and sponsorship agreements, it will continue to
advocate for the inclusion of the local community. Beyond key metrics such as visitor arrivals and the eco-nomic impact of each sponsored event, they measure
partnership success by the positive social impact and
legacy for the Island.
Madam Chairman, the Tourism Standards and
Training team is responsible for raising awareness
through local involvement. Its primary focus is on mak-ing our local community aware of various tourism- related workforce and training opportunities both at the
entry and leadership levels and, where no such opportunities exist, to assist in creating pathways for industry partnerships and collaboration. This year, expect to see
a greater focus on enhancing service expectations
through the launch of many innovative progra mmes
such as: BTA+, Bermuda Hospitality Service Standards
and AnchorBDA.
Madam Chairman , Bermuda's Visitor Services
Centres offer a one- stop shop for information on t he Island. There are locations in St. George's, Hamilton, and
Dockyard, so visitors can always get consistent reliable
information about Bermuda. Through an annual grant of $500,000, the BTA continues to support the operations, promotions and activities of our Visitor Services
Centres.
Madam Chairman, the BTA’s Research and
Business Intelligence team is responsible for tracking
progress towards the National Tourism Plan goals and corporate objectives, as well as monitoring the return
on investment on sales and marketing activities,
groups, and events. In- depth research is completed
with visitors to estimate visitor spending and gain valu-able feedback on their experiences on Island. Visitor
arrival statistics are analysed monthly.
Areas of focus for 2023, M adam Chairman, include:
• measuring awareness and relevance of Bermuda’s brand amongst target audiences ;
• monitoring local resident sentiment on tourism;
and
• streamlining industry performance data, forward- looking indicators, and team performance in the BTA’ s Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) system and dashboards.
Madam Chairman, in summary, for 2023 the
Bermuda Tourism Authority will
• re-establish Bermuda as a top destination by
increasing awareness through targeted, strategic marketing activities that align with our brand; • target sales efforts, through a reengagement of
travel and trade partnership to get more group
and leisure visitors to the Island while continuing the forward momentum in sports and maritime;
• continue to support the Ministry of Transp ort’s
airlift and load factor goals and to collaborate and partner with the Ministry for critical local
transportation improvements;
• improve the visitor experience by focusing on key signature and year -round events that move
the dial on visitation thereby creating local eco-nomic stimulus;
• support the enhancement of the visitor experience through curated, elevated experiences;
• increase our Island’s value proposition through
creating a pathway for consistent industry service levels;
• support tourism entrepre neurship through our
investment programme;
• support tourism hotel investment; and
• increase local awareness through stakeholder
engagement, advocacy, education, certifications, and training.

Madam Chairman, despite challenges over the
past three years, the Bermuda Tourism Authority is
building the foundation not only to meet but eventually
exceed 2019 levels. The organisation will pursue the
ambitious goals outlined in our National Tourism Plan
and the organisation’s Strategic Recovery Plan to provide sustained growth for the future. It will take all of us
to do our part to bring the destination of Bermuda back to a place of prominence in the world of travel.
Madam Chairman, while we are in the arena of
tourism, I would like to mention the line ite m on page B -
45 for revenue from vacation rental fees. You will note that we are projecting $500,000 in revenue from vacation rentals for 2023/24. Currently, there are 324 li-censed vacation rental units in Bermuda, and we expect that number to increase in t he next year. At the
moment, there is no fee for operating a vacation rental
unit and we shall be implementing a fee structure in the 2023/24 fiscal year. These fees will be based on the
Annual Rental Value (ARV) for each property.
Madam Chairman, this Gov ernment promised
greater support for Bermuda art, culture and our enter-tainers. Members are reminded that the National Tourism Plan’s Pillar, Local involvement, Growing through our People, records that visitors to the Island cite interactions with locals a s one of the best parts of their trip.
Madam Chairman, this Ministry will sign a
memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sport in which $540,000 in grants
will be utilised to provide more ways for our visitors and locals to interact through cultural and entertainment
events. The goal is that utilisation of these funds will
support , or complement, the efforts of the Bermuda
Tourism Authority in this area.


Bermuda Senate Madam Chairman, the discussed subjective
analysis line item decreases in both grant funding and
salaries on page B -45 account for the majority of the
$722,000 decrease seen under the General pro-gramme 0901 , cost centre 19000, Administration , on
page B -44 where the same budget is broken down by
programmes.
Madam Chairman, remai ning on page B -44,
please also note that the discussed subjective analysis
line item increases for Professional Services, Rentals ,
as well as Repair and Maintenance of page B -45 account for the overall $192,000 increase seen for the
Washington, DC Office , cost centre 19045 under Programme 0902, Economic Policy and Foreign Affairs.
Madam Chairman, turning to page B -46 in relation to employee numbers , we see a total decrease of
one FTE in 2023/24 compared to the original FTE estimates of 2022/23. This results from the net effect within
General Administration of the addition of an administrative officer post against the previously mentioned temporary de- funded Permanent Secretary and Management Acc ountant posts. You will note, however, that
General Administration shows a decrease of two as opposed to the expected one. Madam Chairman, this is
merely a result of a transfer of a Senior Finance Officer post from General Administration to that of Ministr y Administration, thereby only affecting the two cost centres and not the overall bottom line FTE decrease of one, or
2 per cent, compared to 2022/23.
Madam Chairman, if we quickly turn back to
page B -44, this transfer serves as explanation for a portion of the $171,000 increase seen under programme
0903 , Government Reform , cost centre 19040, Ministry
Administration.
Madam Chairman, in relation to Capital Expenditure, you will note that in accordance with page C -
4 there are no funds allocated for Capital Development
for 2023/24. B ut within Capital Acquisitions, as seen on
page C -9, Cabinet Office has been allocated a minimal
amount of $14,000 for computer equipment.

Performance Measures
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam Chairman, I shall now turn my at tention to performance measures . And
the measures developed for the Cabinet Office are
found on pages B -47 and B -48. The majority of the
measures outlined in 2022/23 have been, or are anticipated to be, reali sed by March 31, 2023, with continuance throughout the 2023/24 period.
Madam Chairman, kindly allow me to expand
upon a few of the measures. As shown on page B -47,
within business unit 19015 , Policy and Strategy [PSS],
all targets were achieved in terms of response rates to both policy advice and service requests. The unit also
continued to monitor and evaluate the progress of the annual Throne Speech i nitiatives. Madam Chairman,
the 2022 edition contained 41 initiatives , with responsibility for the implementation of these spread across all ministries. Progress is tracked and collated by the PSS
for future reporting purposes and to show value for money spent implementing each initiative. It should be
noted that not all Throne Speech initiatives were ex-pected to be completed during the fiscal year , and
therefore some information would naturally be phased.
In addition to evaluating the Throne Speech initiatives, Madam Chairman, the unit also provided:
• training on public pol icy development to senior
officers participating in the Executive Leader-ship Development Programme that forms part
of the succession planning initiatives led by the
Department of Employee and Organi zational
Development ;
• strategic and technical guidance to the Cabinet
Office as well as weekly support to the Public
Service Executive [PSE] to ensure proper recording and ongoing progress with public and administrative policy initiatives ;
• strategic and technical advice on the development of public policies acros s ministries ; and
• provide valuable assistance to the Public Service Negotiating Team (PSNT) during their latest round of negotiations with the six unions
and/or associations representing the g overnment workforce.
The PSS ensured that negotiations with the
government for two of the negotiating entities were fully and accurately recorded and ac-counted for , and also provided strategic support, research and guidance as needed to the PSNT including the l ead negotiator.
The PSS also performed the important func tion
of Information Officer for the Cabinet Office, a function
that ensured that the Public Authority, Cabinet Office, was compliant with its legal obligations as outlined in
the Public Access to Information Act [PATI ]. Under the
Act, all public authorities are required to report annually to the Information Commissioner’s Office on the scope
and status of PATI requests , as well as ensure that the
Information Statement is accurate and current.
Madam Chairman, as seen on page B -44, Policy and Strategy have been allocated $719,000 for
2023/24, an increase of $4,000 above the current
budget. With this allocation, the unit will continue to provide the necessary guidance and support outlined in the 2022/23 highlights.
Madam Chairman, back on page B -47 in cost
centre 19020, Safety and Health, you will note that in
2022/23 two Safety and Health audits were undertaken. Madam Chairman, the focus for this current year
was safely re -integrating staff back into the office after
the brunt of the pandemic. There were many reports of
mould, leaks and overall indoor air quality received and
investigated. Of particular note is the S afety and Health
audit review that was conducted at the Department of
Corrections , and assistance was provided by the Occupational Safety and Health Officer on implementing an
action plan to address legacy building issues. In
220 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate 2023 /24 the Occupational Safety and Health Officer will
inspect the Tyne’s Bay Waste- to-Energy Facility and
will continue to do likewise with our schools throughout
the year.
Madam Chairman , while the second measure,
Safety policies and programmes developed to enhance
safety management systems , shows a revised estimate
of one compared to the original estimate of three, it is
noteworthy that significant progress was achieved in
this area during this fiscal year. Focus was placed on
both the workplace no smoking policy and the d rug and
alcohol policy. For example, Madam Chairman, to address the numerous complaints received regarding the frequent occurrence of people sm oking outside of g overnment buildings, urns were removed by Public Works and No Smoking signage was placed in the surrounding areas. This has had the desired effect of eliminating
this problem.
Madam Chairman, although the drug and alcohol policy that commenced in 2018 has been overdue
for completion, we are now pleased to inform that the
policy has been signed and approved by the Head of
Public Service. The next phase of creating a procedures document to aid in the implementation of the policy, as well a s training for public officers, will be focused
on during this year . The training material will be produced through the combined efforts of the Department of Employee and Organi zational Development, the Department of Health and the Department of National
Drug Control.
Madam Chairman, in regard to the last measure of business unit 19020, to increase the compliance
rate, although the optimistic original estimate of full
compliance was not achieved during the current year,
Cabinet Office is pleased with the a mount of training
that was conducted to enhance safety education within the public service. To enable staff to be more familiar
with the rules and laws that govern safety and health,
such as the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1982
and OSH Regulations 2 009, three main courses were
provided. They were: Introduction to Health and Safety ,
Workplace Investigation, and Health and Safety Committee training.
Madam Chairman, the feedback from departments has been positive, and plans are in place to ensure that training is extended throughout the public service this year . Naturally, by increasing safety
knowledge we shall improve the safety culture, which
in turn, Madam Chairman, facilitates increased feedback and suggestions from employees that will enable
us to prevent potentially dangerous occurrences in all
of our buildings. Our efforts in increasing safety awareness have been very successful as shown by employees steadily increasing their understanding of safety in
the w orkplace and the importance of their role in
achieving it.
Madam Chairman, directly below Safety and
Health you will note that business unit 19035, the Lon-don Office, has achieved the ongoing 2022/23 objectives set , with planned continuance throughout the upcoming 2023/24 budget year. If we turn, Madam Chairman, back to page B-44, it is seen under Economic Policy and Foreign Affairs that the o ffice has been allocated $1,197,000 for the 2023/24 fiscal year.
Madam Chairman, with that allocation the office c ontinues to provide a service to the government
by maintaining our relationship with the United King-dom through high- level dialogue with the UK Government, particularly through increased engagement with
departments of His Majesty’s Government (HMG)
across Whitehall. While doing so, the office works in
cohesion with the g overnments of the Overseas Territories on shared policy areas.
The London Office is responsible for engaging
with both Houses of Parliament ; the UK Diplomatic
Corps , such as embassies and high commissions; the
United Kingdom Overseas Territories Association; the
Commonwealth Secretariat, along with all UK -based
Commonwealth Associations; Bermudians living in the UK, including students; as well as the general UK public, that include the private sector , civil societies and
those who have a general or vested interest in Bermuda. Madam Chairman, t he London Office continues
to provide the necessary immediate assistance and guidance through its consular function to Bermudians living and studying in the UK and throughout Europe.
For fiscal year 2022/23, the London Office
noted three focused areas of consular assistance af-fecting Bermudians overseas. The areas concentrated
are student transitions into higher education primarily
accessing UK tuition fee loans; delays in processing of passports by His Majesty’s Passport Office; and an increased range of requests on humanitarian assistance
such as homelessness, mental health, and the need for
advice as a result of financial hardship due to the UK
cost o f living crises.
Madam Chairman, the objectives of the London Office for the fiscal term 2023/24 are to
• continue to support Bermudians in the UK and
Europe within its consular affairs;
• maintain dialogue across the UK Parliament by engaging with UK Members of Parliament ;
• continue engagement with UK civil servants in departments across Whitehall on all policy
matters relating to Bermuda;
• support Bermuda’s financial services regime;
• implement the political commitments made
through the Joint Ministerial Council.
Madam Chairman, the London Office has been
instrumental in cultivating greater opportunities for our youth such as Bermudians speaking alongside UK
Youth Parliament in the House of Commons and prep-arations for the Commonwealth Year of Youth following
the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year. This Government is ensuring that our relationships
across the UK Parliament are solid, including fostering
our connections with Members of Parliament. Our UK


Bermuda Senate Representative alongside other Territories and the Office of the UK Speaker of the House are exploring the
possibilities of establishing an Overseas Territories Office in Parliament.
The London Office budget currently has allocation for three postings: the Director and UK Representative, a Consular Officer and an Administrative Assistant . But the need for additional support required for
consular assistance has been identified. It is evident ,
with the increase of Bermudians relocating from Bermuda to the United Kingdom and Europe to either live or study, that it is necessary to restructure positions
within the o ffice. This will ensure the Government provides the necessary care and support to those Bermu-dians living in the UK and Europe. The Director will examine the creation of additional posts to report to the
Cabinet Office.
Madam Chairman, the London Office will also
continue to provide opportunities to graduates through its current one- year internship program me enabling
Bermudian students to gain experience in diplomacy,
external poli cy and international relations, including finance. Currently there are two Bermudians benefiting
from the programme: Ms. Jessica Sharpe, a graduate
of the London School of Economics with a B achelor of
Science in International Relations; and Mr. Frankco
Harris, who recently completed his Master’s in Criminal
Justice Policy, also from the London School of Eco-nomics. The opportunity will be open to new interns
with advertising to commence in the fall.
Madam Chairman, the Brussels Office is managed by the UK Representative through the London Office. The work on the ground is overseen by the Gov-ernment’s Senior Advisor European Affairs and Policy .
And we see that for 2023/24 (continuing on page B -44)
the office has been allocated $343,000. Madam Chairman, the mandate of the Brussels Office is to maintain relationships with key stakeholders and decision- makers in Brussels while establishing new connections.
The objectives of the Brussels Office for fiscal term
2023/24 will continue to be as follows :
• maintaining close dialogue with the European
Commission, Council and European Parliament , and other EU institutions;
• facilitating access of the Premier and Ministers
to key persons in upholding the Government’s
presence in Europe; and
• working in cohesion with the Mi nistry of Finance to support Bermuda’s global position as
a robust regulatory financial regime. A primary
function is to ensure continuous dialogue with
the European Council on the EU list of non- cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.
In addition, Madam Chairman, to ensure Bermudians gain experience in Brussels, an internship
program me will be extended to Brussels with advertising this fall.
Madam Chairman, while still on page B -44, you
will note that the DC Office shows an allocation in the amount of $436,000, an increase as previously stated
of approximately $192,000 , or 79 per cent, higher than
the current 2022/23 allocation. This increase , Madam
Chairman, is a direct result of the previously mentioned
successful engagement of a new representative presence in Washington, DC.
Madam Chairman , let me redirect back to the
measures on page B -48, where I would like to turn your
attention to business unit 19080, Head of the Public
Service. Madam Chairman , all measures have been
achieved with the exception of the first measure where you will note that an ongoing legal dispute has placed
all gross misconduct cases for officers represented by
the BIU [Bermuda Indust rial Union] on hold, preventing
the achievement of the 60 per cent target.
Madam Chairman, in the 2022/23 fiscal year,
the Employee Wellness Programme themed Nurturing
the Whole Self focused on both physical and mental
health. Public officers were traine d to pay greater attention to their mental health. Further, training was provided to assist both managers and employees on how
to support staff in crisis in the workplace and to recognise issues that cause stress and negatively impact
mental health.
With respect to physical well -being, more than
600 government employees participated in The Virgin
Pulse , [VP ] Go Global Challenge. Madam Chairman,
combined, these employees registered more than 300
million steps. This programme is designed to help employees improve healthy habits and achieve personal fitness goals.
Madam Chairman, the Government also focused on excellence in service delivery in fiscal 2022/23. Officers were trained on the Government Service Standards and recogni sed for excellence in service d elivery through the Public Service Excellence
Awards Programme. During the period, in excess of
500 employees, either as individuals or as a part of a
team, were nominated, and each month one individual
and/or team was recogni sed for outstanding public service. Madam Chairman, t he programme culminated
with a calendar year -end recognition event where all
nominees were acknowledged and thanked for their
contributions. The Employee of Year, Mr. Todd Fox,
Principal of the Francis Patton School , was rewarded,
as were three other category winners: Mr. Roger Parris
for Excellence in Supporting People; Dr. Patricia Chap-man for Excellence in Project Delivery; and Ms. Carlita
Lodge (who works in the Department of Culture) as the
Rising Star.
Madam Chairman, in the 2023/24 fiscal year,
$340,000 will be used to support the furtherance of the
Government Employee Wellness Programme to support our more than 4,000 employees. The programme
theme for 2023/24 is Empowering Yourself to Better Health. Public officers will continue to be challenged to
incorporate wellness into their daily lives through active participation. The programme will evolve on a quarterly
basis to embrace four main areas of focus. These will
222 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate include mental and emotional health, physical and nutritional health, social health and sustainability.
The sustainability segment will engage public
officers for the first time in the area of environmental
well-being. Environmental well -being is defined as “valuing the relationship between ourselves, the s pace we
live and work in, and the planet .” Employees will be encouraged to adopt an environmentally healthy lifestyle for the benefit of the workplace and their personal lives.
Madam Chairman , the VP Go Challenge,
scheduled to commence in May 2023, will again feature the signature physical and nutritional health segment.
This will be its third offering. VP Go is a well- being programme designed to cause employees to take steps toward improving their health through friendly competition while engaging in heal thy lifestyle during learning
experiences. The main event, Destination Go Challenge, is a nine -week activity challenge where employees compete with co- workers to see who can get the
most steps while trekking across the virtual globe. Our
aim in 2023/24 is to increase employee participation in
the four segments of the Employee Wellness Programme.
Madam Chairman, also in 2023/24 the Government will continue to inspire excellence in public service delivery. Persons nominated for a Public Service
Excellence Aw ard throughout the year will be acknowledged at the year -end recognition event scheduled for
December 2023.
Finally, Madam Chairman , the Government
has already commenced a review of the Government Reform Strategic Framework 2019– 2023. During the
period, the Government prioriti sed people and IT projects, laying the foundation for systemic change. Programmes to motivate employees and encourage innovation in public service delivery as well as build the
foundation for a paperless government have been suc-cessfu lly implemented. In fiscal year 2023/24, the Government will chart a pathway forward for continued re-form of its administrative infrastructure—that is , people
(meaning its employees), processes, platform (mean-ing its physical and IT infrastructure) and per spective
(meaning its public service offering). The evolved Government Reform Strategic Plan will build on the foun-dation established over the past few years toward a Future-forward Government for the people of Bermuda.
Finally, Madam Chairman , allow me to turn
your attention to, as well as expand on, the last busi-ness unit under Performance Measures , 19085 , the
PATI/PIPA Unit where we see both measures
achieved. Madam Chairman, the PATI /PIPA Unit is responsible for the coordination of the Public Access to
Information (PATI) Act and the Personal Information
Protection Act (PIPA) for the Government of Bermuda.
For PATI, the u nit maintains the PATI Code of Practice,
provides advice and guidance to public authorities, offers information officer training and carries out administrative responsibilities as assigned to the Minister in
accordance with the Act. For PIPA, the responsibilities of the u nit include
the development and implementation of the Privacy
Programme for the Government of Bermuda, as we ll as
the establishment of the Privacy Adequacy/Equiva-lency Strategy to enable the smooth flow of personal
information between Bermuda and other international
jurisdictions.
Madam Chairman , the Government of Bermuda interacts with the public, the broader community ,
and international entities and individuals on a regular
basis. This interaction includes the collection, ex-change, retention and disposal of personal information
using physical and electronic methods in the course of
conducting routine business and social processes. The
government therefore handles and holds a large amount of information related to such processes, as
well as a significant amount of personal information. I t
is therefore important that the rights of access to information and privacy principles are ingrained in the government’s operations and culture.
Madam Chairman , the u nit ultimately supports
the government in creating an environment that underpins our economic ecosystem, further developing our mandate of a trusted and transparent institution that
protects personal information. T his unit works in collaboration with the Offices of the Information Commis-sioner and the Privacy Commissioner to protect and promote information and privacy rights in the jurisdiction. The work of the unit plays a key role in the Government’s effort toward transformative change in how
the Government and [ our] jurisdiction manage information.
Madam Chairman, as shown on page B -44 of
the Budget Book, the PATI /PIPA Unit has been allocated $918,000 for the 20 23/24 fiscal year. This is an
increase of $37,000, or 4 per cent, as compared to last
year.
Madam Chairman, r equirements specified for
the unit include the following:
• development and implementation of an organisational structure to enable the requirements
of the u nit;
• implementing strategic, programme, operational and administrative measures to deliver
upon the requirements of PATI and PIPA;
• policy, procedure, guidance and template administration;
• liaison with th e respective regulatory authorities; and
• training, awareness and communication delivery.
The unit will play a significant role in the administration and facilitation of compliance requirements for
both PATI and PIPA Acts. Madam Chairman, the PATI
framewor k is operational and ( in line with the Throne
Speech announcement in the fall of 2022) being reviewed to enable the optimal structure and utili sation of
resources within the unit. In addition, the unit is coordinating the review of PATI legislation for amendment.


Bermuda Senate This activity shall include consultation with the regulator, the g overnment and the broader community.
Madam Chairman, the unit has worked in collaboration with the Privacy Commissioner and the In-formation Commissioner to examine PIPA ahead of the next phase of it s coming into force. We will soon see
amendments to PIPA and the harmoni sation of PIPA
and PATI legislation. Additionally, [harmoni sation] of
PIPA with other pieces of legislation will continue to be identified and brought forward accordi ngly.
Madam Chairman , when PIPA is fully in force,
it will have significant implications for the entire jurisdiction. The Privacy Commissioner has responsibility to
provide guidance relating to the implementation of
PIPA in the jurisdiction. Guidance notes related to elements of PIPA, as well as best -practice- based advice
for implementation, are available on the office’s website, which is www.privacy.bm
. Training on PIPA is also
available via the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, as well as through other organis ations in the community. The u nit also provides training on PIPA within the
Government of Bermuda.
Madam Chairman, the unit has integrated this
best practice into the Governme nt’s Privacy Programme and encourages all organis ations to become
familiar with the implementation steps that will help them comply with PIPA. This includes :
• conduct an inventory and classify , or map the
personal information that is used in their pro-cesses;
• document in policies and procedures how personal information is to be used in the organisation and how PIPA requirements will be met, such as for individual access requests and in-cident response;
• provide appropriate training and awareness to
staff and others ( like vendors and service providers ) who have access to the organisation’s
data; and
• analyse the privacy risk to the organisation, using tools such as Privacy Impact Assessments
and Vendor Assessments.
Madam Chairman, privacy intersects with
many other requirements and processes within the government. For example, information technology security, or cybersecurity, which is the protection of elec-tronic data from criminal or unauthori sed access and
use, is an important component of PIPA compliance. The PATI/ PIPA unit continues to work in collaboration
with the Ministry of National Security, the Information and Digital Technologies Department (IDT) and the Cy-bersecurity Governance Board to support the implementation of the Bermuda Cybersecurity Strategy, spe-cifically in relation to data breach requirements. The
unit has also participated in the inclusion of PIPA requirements into the Government’s Incident Response runbooks, ensuring that the proper steps are taken if personal information is affected. Madam Chairman, as shown on page B -45 of
the Budget Book, the next fiscal year will see fees ap-plied for PATI requests. These fees are being implemented to offset the onerous costs of administering PATI requests, some of which require copious hours to conduct research. Madam Chairman, a fee will be
charged for PATI requests that are not from private in-dividuals who are requesting information about data that the g overnment holds about them. It is not unusual,
Madam Chairman, for PATI fees to be charged in one form or another, as is the case in other jurisdictions such as the UK. Revenue from these fees is projected
to be $50,000.
Madam Chairman, at this time I would like to
that this opportunity to extend [ my thanks ] to all of the
staff at the Cabinet Office for their ongoing contribu-tions and dedication to serving the people of Bermuda.
Madam Chairman, dare I say finally, this concludes my presentation of Head 9. Madam Chairman, if I may, I now move on to
Head 13— the Bermuda Post Office.

Yes, please proceed. You have 50
minutes altogether, approximately, remaining.
Apologies, you have an hour. Sorry.
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Okay. Give me one moment, Madam Chairman.

[Pause]

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: All right. Madam Chairman, I will proceed with Head 13— Bermuda Post Office.

HEAD 13 —BERMUDA POST OFFICE
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam Chairman, I am
Happy to present budget Head 13, the Bermuda Post Office, found on pages B -49 through B -55 in the Budget
Book.
Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office is
governed by the Post Office Act 1900, The Post Office Regulations 1933 and the Post Office (Departmental Administration) Regulations1933. Postal services are provided from the General Post Office (known as the
GPO) located on Church and Parliament Street. The Mail Processing Centre (known as the BMPC) located on New Venture House in Mills Creek, and currently the seven sub- post offices located throughout the Island.
They are located in Crawl, Devonshire, Flatts, Mangrove Bay, Southampton, St. George’s, and Warwick.
Madam Chairman, the Perot Post Office location was converted into a COVID -19 testing site in 2020
and continues to be under the responsibility of the Health Department. Postal services that once were offered at that location are now provided at the General Post Office.
224 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Madam Chairman, the overall mission of the
Bermuda Post Office is To provide the general public
with an accessible, affordable and efficient postal service.
Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office is
a member of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and
works to ensure that it meets its universal service obligation to the residents of Bermuda as Bermuda’s na-tional postal service provider and government asset. The Post Office continues to meet its local delivery standard. That is, it delivers 98 per cent of all local and
international letter mail received into Bermuda within
four working days and all arrival notifications of international parcel and express mail, to advise customers of incoming package mail within two working days.
Madam Chairman, despite the impact of
COVID -19 on the postal industry worldwide, the Bermuda Post Office is competing to survive and to remain
relevant. For example, [the new website]
MyBermudaPost.bm , implemented in late November 2021, has
increased its membership since it commenced to over
3,000 members. Current Post Office staffing were re-aligned and cross -trained for this new initiative, while
still maintaining Government on His Majesty's Service
and residential local delivery and service requirements.
Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office
has set the following high- level strategic priorities for
2023/24:
• to deliver world- class customer experiences;
• to offer new and innovative services;
• to increase overall efficiency; and
• to empower staff to best serve customers.
Madam Chairman, it is a well -known fact that
traditional letter mail is declining, and therefore the Post
Office is re -tooling itself to remain relevant. This means
providing a balanced approach between service offer-ings based on taxpayer funding and providing an effi-cient and quality service.
Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office’s
new website https://www.bermudapost.bm/
continues
to be a benefit to the Post Office online customers. Cus-tomers can track and trace incoming and outgoing mail items, open an online account and find information on all postal products and services. Stamp collectors and
interested parties can also utilise the Post Office [philatelic] link to buy retail items and stamps, place orders, et cetera.
Madam Chairman, the Post Office’s MyBermudaPost, which can be found at www.mybermudapost.bm , continues to provide a cost -ef fective service to local residents. Contrary to concerns regarding its impact on local retailers, the site also encourages customers to shop in Bermuda.
Madam Chairman, to remain relevant, the Post
Office has to continue to explore and to generate addi-tional revenue. The Bermuda Post Office business plan
is constantly being evaluated to explore new products
and service opportunities while endeavouring to improve customer service. Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office
comprises the Administration Division and the Opera-tions Division. The Administration Division includes Ad-ministration and Finance, Information Technology,
[Philatelic Services] and Quality Assurance. The Oper-ations Division is made up of the Bermuda Mail Processing Centre (BMPC), the General Post Office
(GPO), Sub -Post Office Operations, and the Facilities
and Procurement Department.

Expenditure Overview

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam Chairman, as indicated on pages B -50 and B -51 of the Budget Book,
the Bermuda Post Office has been allocated a total of
$9,285,000 for the financial year 2023/24. Though this amount reflects an increase of $350,000, or 3.9 per
cent, from the original 2022/23 budget allocation of
$8,935,000, it is actually a decrease of $189,000 from
the revised 2022/23 allocation.
Madam Chairman, you will note on page B -51
that salaries and wages continue to be the largest ex-penditure item at 81 per cent of total e xpenditure. The
total estimate of salaries and wages for 2023/24 is $7,495,000, down from $7,798,000 in 2022/23 revised totals.
Madam Chairman, on page B -53 you will note
the numbers of the full -time equivalent numbers for the
Post Office. The number of employees will be 133 employees in 2023/24, which is identical to the numbers
for 2022/23.
Madam Chairman, back on page B -51 you will
note that operational expenses for the Bermuda Post Office make up the remaining 19 per cent of the ex-penditure for 2023/24. The major operational expenses
in the 2023/24 budget are Rent, Repairs and Maintenance, Energy Costs, and Materials and Supplies. These are explained in the next paragraphs and repre-sent the continued efforts of the Post Office to maintain cost-effect ive and efficient operations.
Madam Chairman, training costs for the
2023/24 budget are $20,000, an increase of $8,000, or 67 per cent, over the 2022/23 budgeted amount. The Post Office is committed to encouraging staff to train, enrol in job- related courses and develop professionally
to increase and improve their technical skill sets.
Communications expenses are estimated at
$72,000 for 2023/24, with no change from the 2022/23 revised total. This expenditure includes telephone rental equipment, local and overseas calls, GPS devices and mobile devices for couriers and customer communications in delivery.
Madam Chairman, Rental expense for the
2023/24 budget cycle is $396,000, an increase of $77,000. This is allocated as rent for the Mail Pro-cessing Centre, which will remain at New Venture House, Mills Creek, as rental and related expenses such as the building maintenance contracts have increased to reflect market rates.


Bermuda Senate Repairs and Maintenance expenses totalling
$538,000 for 2023/24 include charges for N ew Venture
House, building repairs, cleaning contracts, cycle and
vehicle repairs, and security services. These expenses
have increased by $75,000 compared to the previous original budget of $463,000.
Equipment, which includes furniture and fixtures, handyman tools and equipment, BMPC lift, mail trays and racks remains the same at $20,000 for
2023/24 due to increased preventative maintenance
throughout the facilities.
Materials and Supplies, which were budgeted
at $195,000 for 2022/23, will be up by $30, 000, or
15 per cent in 2023/24 for a total of $225,000. This expenditure line includes increased costs for stamp production, printing, stationery and office supplies.
Madam Chairman, Transport costs, which include freight charges for the transport and ha ndling
charges of mail to foreign postal administrations , are
expected to remain the same in 2023/24 at $46,000, as
the Post Office looks to continue efficiencies in mail transport, frequency and route effectiveness.
Travel costs to support BPO required c onferences, workshops, et cetera––as a member of the Uni-versal Postal Union and Caribbean Postal Union [fees] increased by $11,000 to $18,000 during the 2023/24
budget period ––to ensure that the Post Office remains
current with global trends and innovativ e to reflect the
changing universal postal market.
Madam Chairman, Advertising and Promotion
expenses to cover Philatelic and increased BPO mar-keting efforts is estimated at $52,000, an increase of
$3,000 over the 2022/23 budget of $49,000, or a 6 per
cent increase.
Professional Services include annual dues for
the UPU, Caribbean Postal Union (CPU), EMS Cooperative and consultant fees for the Stamp Design [Ad-visory Committee]. The 2023/24 estimate of $63,000 is
an increase from the 2022/23 budgeted amount of
$48,000, or 31 per cent. A large portion of this increase
is attributed to additional stamp issues for 2023, the
most notable of which is the stamp issue for the coronation of King Charles [III] in May 2023.
The budget for Energy costs, which includes
electricity, gasoline and diesel, remains the same for 2023/24 at $213,000. Madam Chairman, this reflects
the Post Office’s ongoing efforts to monitor and control
its energy costs throughout its operations.
Insurance expenses to cover the Post Office
vehicle fleet remain the same at $12,000.
The Clothing, Uniform and Laundry expenses
will also remain the same during the 2023/24 financial
year at $60,000. This allocation will meet negotiated
union obligations and its agreement with the BPSU to
provide uniform tops for its members.
Madam Chairman, Other Expenses include
World Post Day recognition costs, staff -related costs
(i.e., retirements), office supplies, paper, debit/credit
card commission fees. The 2022/23 budget for this line item was $51,000. An increase is expected in 2023/24
of $4,000 to $55,000, or 8 per cent.
Madam Chairman, this concludes the commentary of the Bermuda Post Office’s 2023/24 current
account expenditure.

Revenue Overview
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam Chairman, t he
Bermuda Post Office continues to provide postal and other services as mandated by the government and as regulated by local legislation and UPU regulations. The
total revenue estimate for the year 2023/24, which can
be found on page B -52, is $3,176,000. This is a decrease of $136,000, or 4.0 per cent, from the 2022/23
original estimate of $3,312,000.
Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office
continues to collect revenue for other government departments. In 2022/23, as of February 28, 2023, the
Bermuda Post Office collected agency receipts of
$912,000, which is a 1 per cent increase in revenue collected in 2021/22 of $902,000. This is a reflection of the
return to normalcy in the business community following
COVID -19 and also points to the relevance of the B ermuda Post Office to local residents as Bermuda’s national postal provider and a centralised service provider.
Madam Chairman, this amount is broken down
as follows:
• HMS Customs duty collected, $378,000;
• Department of Public Transportation bus
passes, t okens and tickets sold, $213,000;
• Department of Education pre- school and [after]
school vouchers sold, $285,000; and
• Department of Environmental Protection dog li-cence fees collected, for $36,000.
Madam Chairman, these amounts, plus the nocost delivery and courier services that the Bermuda
Post Office continues to provide to other government
departments and to Government House, are not included in the Post Office Revenue figures, but should
be recognised in each respective department’s budget estimates. T he services provided by the Bermuda Post
Office in this context add to government -wide efficiencies and effectiveness and the greater role the Post Of-fice plays to provide service opportunities for govern-ment departments while helping to reduce its annual
operational costs. This is the Post Office’s direct contribution to government.
Madam Chairman, the main revenue sources
for the Bermuda Post Office continue to be Frankpost or Postal Metre Sales, Bulk Mail, Post Office Box Rent-als, Terminal Dues Revenue and General Stamp
Sales.
Madam Chairman, Frankpost or postal metre
sales are budgeted for 2023/24 at $400,000, the same
as it was last year, as Postal metre sales are a most
efficient way for small to large businesses to apply post-age to letter mail and packages without having to buy
226 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate physical stamps. Express and Parcel sales add an additional $60,000 of revenue.
The Bulk Mail budget for 2023/24 is $427,000,
or the same as it was last year. This service is especially beneficial to small businesses and start -ups who
can use the Post Office to market their products and
services using flyer mail. Flyer mail can be used to target postal codes, parishes and to specific addressees
Island- wide. Business mailers continue to take advantage of flyer mail rates. This service is an inexpensive alternative when compared to other traditional and electronic media to market and reach 38,000 residences, businesses and PO Box holders.
Madam Chairman, the philatelic sales for local,
foreign and general stamp sales remain at $95,000.
The philatelic website link is expected to drive online
sales and increase the current standing order customer base and retail [philatelic] sales locally and internationally.
Direct stamp sale revenues for 2023/24 are expected to remain the same at $489,000. Though no
budgeted change, the Post Office expects increased
marketing efforts will be reflected in higher stamp sale
revenue as the COVID -19 impact on business and local
needs decreases.
Madam Chairman, PO Box rental fee revenue
is expected to decrease with projections estimated to
be $562,000 for 2023/24, compared to last year’s rev-enues of $619,000, or a 9 per cent decrease. The Post
Office will continue to market PO Box usage as an af-fordable, secure and private 24- hour service to increas e PO Box rental revenue.
Terminal Dues, or mail revenue, received from
foreign postal administrations for the Post Office to de-liver mail received into Bermuda, is expected to reduce
[to] $350,000, or a 22 per cent reduction. This is due to
the decline of international letter mail volumes year
over year and the continued COVID -19 impact on mail
transportation.
Customs Declaration Fees, to be split and renamed MyBermudaPost Processing, and Inbound Mail Processing Fee [for Universal Postal Union, UPU products] for 2023/24 are estimated at $574,000, or an increase from 2022/23 revenues of $553,000, or 4 per
cent. The projected increase is attributed to expected growth in parcel volumes through UPU inbound mail,
MyBermudaPost and greater marketing efforts.
Madam Chairman, the Other smaller revenue
line items include Mail Handler Licence fees of $45,000, Courier Service fees of $32,000, Postage Paid [Indicia] fees of $15,000 and late PO Box rental
fees of $29,000, plus other packaging supply and retail
sale i tems. Madam Chairman, none of these revenue
items are expected to experience significant increases
compared to 2022/23, but it is anticipated that new Post
Office efforts to better market and sell its products and services will be reflected in increased revenues.
Madam Chairman, this concludes our commentary of the Bermuda Post Office 2023/24. Capital Expenditure
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam Chairman, the
Bermuda Post Office Capital Expenditure budget for 2023/24 can be found on page C -19 of the Capital Acquisition Estimates, Schedule C. The Bermuda Post
Office has been allocated $26,000 for furniture [and]
equipment, and the purchase of new delivery cycles.

Policy Changes

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam Chairman, the
budget statement for the Bermuda Post Office is often
an accurate reflection of investment in the Bermuda Post Office by the Government. There are no major policy changes within this budget year, but the Post Office
will continue to compete for a greater share of Ber-muda’s postal market and bring goods and services to
Bermuda residents at a reduced price point.
As mentioned last year, the Universal Postal
Union recognises that with an annual declining letter
mail volume and competition, posts and the Bermuda
Post Office and postal operators worldwide have to innovate and compete to survive. We have had to change operationally and be innovative to adapt to an evolving
industry.

Plans for the Upcoming Year

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam Chairman, the
Bermuda Post Office is compl eting a three- year strategic plan with the appreciated help of the government’s
Management Services Department. As mentioned ear-lier, the Post Office’s high- level objectives are:
• to deliver world- class customer experiences;
• to offer new and innovative ser vices;
• to increase overall efficiency; and
• to empower staff to best serve customers.
The focus of the Bermuda Post Office is to reassign and to better utilise staff to meet mail delivery
demands. This includes re- tooling and re- training staff,
capacity building and cross -training staff beyond the
limitations of job descriptions, in collaboration with unions. The reality, Madam Chairman, is that the volume
and type of work to be done should match the staffing
requirements to do the work.
Madam Chairman, t he Bermuda Post Office
plans to have three stamp issues and one Presentation Pack in 2023/24 in addition to replacing the $22 stamp
with a His Royal Highness King Charles III New Express $35 stamp. Bermuda will be the first country in
the Commonwealth to i ssue a high- value King Charles
III stamp. The tentative stamp programme will include the following:
• Coronation of His Royal Highness King
Charles III stamp on [May] 6, 2023;
• Reflections, July 20, 2023;
• Backyard Birds, September 21, 2023; and


Bermuda Senate • Presentation Pack 2023, November 20, 2023
(combination pack of all stamps issued this
year).
Madam Chairman, as mentioned last year, the
Bermuda Post Office has not had a postage rate
change since 2015, though inflation and the cost to provide delivery services locall y and internationally continue to increase annually. The Bermuda Post Office
has not increased postage rates in the public interest,
but a recommendation to raise postal rates will be
made this budget year to help offset the Post Office’s
annual operationa l deficit. The recommendation will be
to increase the local postal rate from 50 cents to 60 cents in 2024 to help offset increasing operational
costs.
Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office
also intends to continue to modernise its legislation this
budget year in line with ensuring compliance with UPU Acts and mandates, and international laws concerning
mail, electronic data transmission and mail item declarations. Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office is
the only government department that has direct c ompetition that impacts its revenue generation, services
and annual deficit. To survive, the Post Office has to
shift its operating model to embrace its universal ser-vice obligation to provide a postal service that is affordable and accessible to all.
Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office is
meeting its customer service needs, though there is still more work to be done. A customer service survey was
conducted in January 2023 with a final report due in March. At a high level, the following was highlighted in
this survey:
• just under 1,000 people completed the re-sponses that were received;
• BPO’s overall satisfaction rate was 76 per
cent;
72 per cent of responses are satisfied with the
value for price paid and timeliness of delivery;
and most importantly
• 65 per cent feel that the Bermuda Post Office
should be more competitive and support the
MyBermudaPost initiative.
Madam Chairman, lastly , increasing postal revenues remain the Post Office’s strategic objective despite budgetary constraints. The postal industry has changed, particularly with parcel packages. E -commerce such as online shopping and delivery of those parcels are areas wherein the Post Office intends to
grow and be more competitive. This will result in more
revenue generated by the Post Office.
The Post Office will also be looking to increase
revenues by expanding its services. For example, since its inception in November 2021 the MyBermudaPost
service and product initiative has generated over
$600,000 in revenue for government by way of processing fees and customs duty received. The Post Office’s new service Drop- and-Deliver to assist the local market, small entrepreneurs and e- commerce businesses who do not have a last -mile delivery service will
deliver packages Island- wide for $7.50 anywhere in
Bermuda the same day. Businesses can also drop par-cel mail off at any Post Office, and the Post Office will deliver it for them. If a business cannot drop off their
mail, the Post Office will collect it.
Madam Chairman, for corporations, businesses and individuals which have a PO Box address,
the Post Office will also deliver mail to them. This Post
Box Delivery service, at a fixed annu al rate, provides
added security, convenience and assurance to box
holders. The Post Office is forward- thinking and is also
considering using the General Post Office as a corporate address for exempted businesses who also want
to rent a mailbox.
Madam Ch airman, the Post Office cannot just
deliver mail to survive. It is a fact that the COVID -19
pandemic helped us to transform working from home, online shopping and consumer views. Courier and
postal transformation has been accelerated to a future
norm. Bermuda has one of the most accurate addressing systems in the world, and the Post Office will continue to capitalise on this.
Additional enhancements in 2023/24 will include the following:
• increased marketing of flyer mail, postal costs and BPO services;
• modernise and improve the look of the General
Post Office (GPO) mail letter floor;
• MyBermudaPost website will become a onestop shop payment location. Having to pay
twice upon arrival into Bermuda will be eliminated to expedite home delivery to local residents;
• a MyBermudaPost address in the United Kingdom will be established by June 30, of this
year;
• the Post Office will further explore issuing
money orders within the UPU’s postal infrastructure and international network of post offices;
• digital NFTs (non -fungible tokens) is an unchartered market for posts. An NFT is an image that is being sold in the digital marketplace
which is a one- off and not replaceable with another identical image—for example, a stamp
image. The Post Office intends to explore the
selling of out of circulation and past stamp issues in the digital marketplace with QR codes
thereon to describe each issue.
Madam Chairman, the Post Office continues to
serve the local community in need. A general delivery
service is now available in the Gen eral Post Office
(GPO) to residents who are homeless and without a
home address. The GPO address can now be used for
those on financial assistance and of no- fixed abode.
Madam Chairman, as briefly mentioned last
year, the international postal market will open up to all
228 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate postal and courier providers in the future. This anticipated change in the postal industry is why the Bermuda
Post Office is working to improve service offerings and
products in accordance with its universal service obligation to provide an affordable, convenient and acces-sible postal service.
Madam Chairman, I conclude by thanking the
hard- working and dedicated staff of the Bermuda Post
Office, who are ably led by Postmaster General, Mr.
Samuel Brangman, Jr., and his senior management
team. The BPO team did not stop delivering local mail
during COVID -19 and aim to continue to deliver mail
and provide excellent customer service to Bermuda.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Thank you.

HEAD 43 —DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam Chairman, it
gives me great pleasur e now to speak on Head 43. This
is the Department of Information and Digital Technologies [IDT], and it can be found in the Budget Book on
pages B -56 through B -59.

Mission

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: The mission of the department is, To provide informat ion and digital services
that streamline processes to facilitate the government’s strategic business objectives. Madam Chairman, the
department seeks to fulfil its mandate by securing and
maintaining its IT infrastructure that hosts applications
that are used within government departments. IDT will continue to provide governance and oversight to moni-tor and control the use of key systems. IDT will also
provide analysis tools which will allow for data- driven
decision -making. The department delivers and manages IT and telecom services used by the government departments and the department has started the planning phase for delivery of a digital reform solution for
government business processes.
Madam Chairman, I would like to thank the entire Information and Digital Technologies staff for the
service s as they continue to provide to the Bermuda
Government, especially with the challenges and staff
shortages. They have done a very commendable job
the last year serving the Government and I applaud
them for their sterling efforts.
Thank you, Madam Chairman. This concludes
my budget presentation for Head 43.

Thank you, Madam
Chairman and I would like to thank the Minister for ac-commodati ng. I think it will be in everyone’s best interest.
A lot of great information in there. I especially
enjoyed hearing about the BTA activities. On page C -
17, Head 9, there was a reference to an “Other Grant”
for $540,000. I was not sure what that ended up being.

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Sorry, I missed that. Can
you repeat that question?

Under Head 9, the Cabinet Office, page C -17, there is a listing for “Other Grant”
for $540,000. Was that a combination of many small
things or one particular thing or . . .
I think I might move on and give out some of
my other questions. One thing I have noticed that since
2017, excluding the grants, the Cabinet Office’s costs
have more than doubled, and 56 per cent of that was in
salaries, 33 per cent of that growth was in consultants.
I wou ld like to understand, how many consultants and
personal staff does the Premier have and what is their costs and roles? That would be one [question].
Related perhaps would be on page B -44, the
FinTech Unit. Now, I can’t find an item for the FinTech Unit i n the Budget Book, but on the government website it is listed under the Cabinet Office. So I would like
to understand its costs and headcounts and cumulative
costs since its inception.
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: I’m sorry, that is?

The FinTech Unit. So, I
am talking about Head 9. What I was saying is, on the


Bermuda Senate government website the FinTech Unit is listed as part
of the Cabinet Office. No?
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: The FinTech Unit has
been moved to Economy and Labour.

Sen. D r. Douglas De Couto: Okay. I’ll save that for
later. Thank you.
Still on page B -44, Head 9, and I am looking at
the protocol. We know that the Bahamian Prime Minister [the Honourable Philip E. B.] Davis visited Bermuda in October and I would like to under stand if there were
any costs incurred by government protocol officers or
things like that related to that, in conjunction with his
visit.
I would actually like to say thank you. In fact,
some of my questions were addressed in the brief, so I was glad to see that.
I would move on to the PATI/PIPA unit, also on
page B -44. And this was also discussed in the objectives as well. What is going on with the personal infor-mation of Bermudians that is stored in resQwest, and
has the PIPA unit been involved in any of that? And
how would that interact with the PIPA objectives?
I am going to shift gears a little bit . . . or should
I . . . would you like a pause, Minister?

[No audible response]

Okay. I am going to shift
to page B -51, Hea d 13. And perhaps a clarification.
How much of the $538[,000], repairs and maintenance,
is allocated to the New Venture House building at Mills
Creek?
Also, on page B -51, or I should probably say it
would be a combination of page B -51 and page B -52, I
did ask this last year but it wasn’t able to be answered.
What would be the revenues applicable to the MyBermudaPost? And what would be the allocated costs, so,
staff time, vehicle wear and tear, space in the building?
And does the MyBermudaPost revenue cover the expenses?
And I will ask just one last question and I will
give space for some others, Madam Chairman. Moving
to page B -56, Information and Digital Technologies. Actually, we did hear quite a bit about security in the National Security bit as well. The admin and management
costs last year were revised at $7 million, despite being
budgeted at around $1.4 million. Could we understand
what happened with that?

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: I’m sorry. I missed that
question. Can you . . .

Sure. Page B -56, business unit 53000, last year it was budgeted for $1.352
million but we came in revised at $7- and-a-bit million.
So I would like to understand that. I did have a question about the cybersecurity
strategy. I think we heard quite a lot in the briefs. I would like to know, have there been any data leaks or
hacks in the prior year, or leaks of any personal information from government systems? And were there costs associated in dealing with those? I guess I would
put that under the 53090, Security, business unit.
I might take a pause there, Madam Chairman,
in case any others had questions.

Thank you, Senator.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
these heads?
Senator Smith.

Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Ma dam Chairman.
Just a couple of quick questions under Head
13. The Minister spoke to the seven sub- post offices
and gave specific mention of the Perot Post Office that has been moved to Health. Is there any indication that
this post office will eventually return back to this department once whatever Health is doing with it has been finalised? And has there been any discussion about
phasing out some of the sub- post offices now that it
seems that the business model for post offices is
changing in these changing times? Thanks.

Minister Darrell, are you able to answer
any questions while we wait?

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam Chairman, thank
you.
I am going to do the best I can. I know the Senator has asked some very intricate and technical ques-tions that get down into the weeds as to what money is
being spent and where. So, I can guarantee you that
the technical officers are feverishly working on calculating those funds to give you the best answers possible
because what we do not want is for the Senator to say
that we are not trying to furnish his answers. But sometimes accuracy takes a little time, Madam Chairman.
So, I will work through what I have as I get it
and we will give the Senators some answers. I may be
all over the place, Madam Chairman, but bear with me
as I c ome up with some answers.
230 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate One of the questions, I think it was from Head
9 that Senator De Couto asked, was about the grant on
page C -17 under Other Grants, $540,000. What we
have here, Madam Chairman, is a cultur al and entertainment support grant. And th is grant is usually administered by the Bermuda Tourism Authority for matters
around cultural and entertainment support. As you
would know, when tourists come to Bermuda, there are
many activities that they would like to be involved in and
some of these ac tivities are put on by local entrepreneurs. And the Bermuda Tourism Authority in their wisdom has come up with that grant of $540,000 and they
decide over the year how they are going to best use
that fund to provide wonderful experiences for tourists
who are in Bermuda so they can actually feel local
events and cultural activities.
You can see throughout the year that sometimes they have different festivals at different places, up
at . . . I know there were a couple of music festivals.
There have been some . . . what do you call it? Food
festivals. And all of this goes into what we talked about
in the brief where tourists and guests actually say that
this is their number -one reason for coming back to Bermuda. They like to get into the cultural and entertainment aspects of Bermuda.
And so this cultural and entertainment support,
I am glad Senator De Couto asked about it because it kind of serves two purposes, Madam Chairman. It serves a purpose where we can support our local cultural and entertainment providers and also give the visitor what they want. So I am glad he asked about that and I am glad that the BTA finds it fit to make this grant
available.
And just as a recap, last year it covered many
of these local festivals that you have seen. I mean, I
can’t name them all, but I am sure individuals can recall
some of these festivals that we had which generated
quite a bit of excitement in Bermuda for tourists and
made the local vendors happy at the same time. So,
thank you for that question under Head 9 about Other
Grants.
Another question that was asked, and Madam
Chairman, I do apologise if they may not be in the order
but we are working through them. The MyBermu-daPost, and I know Senator De Couto has a keen interest in this. I don’t know why, but maybe he has interest otherwhere. But he has asked this question previously about MyBermduaPost and unfortunately —

POINT OF ORDER

Proceed.

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam
Chairman.
The answer to his question, which he has
asked multiple times before, so he tried to slip it in in
this debate, which was nice. But I will give him the same answer, Madam Chairman.
Any questions or discussions, particularly
about what Senator De Couto has asked about, cannot be answered as that matter that he is particularly asking about is still in court.

Madam Chairman, I must
object strenuously to this because this is a fact -and-figures question. We have received a brief all about the
financial benefit of the MyBermudaPost to the post office and I do not understand why they can’t answer a
simple facts -and-figures . . . I am not asking for intricacies of the court case; I just want to understand the ir
budgeting process. Does this service make money or
does it lose money at the taxpayers’ expense? Thank
you, Madam Chairman.

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam Chairman, I’m
sorry . . . if I may.
I would argue that the reason for the Senator’s
question is to lead us to a place where the answer may
actually be above what is currently in court. So, I would
like to repeat the answer that we are unable to answer
that because it is actually in court proceedings at the
time.

So, Senator, I think there has been a
point of order raised as to whether . . . and the question,
as I understand it is going to the budget estimates. And
as I understand it, you are saying that you are declining
to answer the question because you say that this question goes to a court case. Am I understanding that correctly?
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Yes.

And you are saying you cannot answer
those questions.
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Absolutely.
On to another question, I mean, I know I have
a few minutes left so I am trying to get through as much as possible, Madam Chairman.
There was a question about how much money
is allocated to repairs of New Venture House. So, of those repairs that were laid out, $500,000 is for New
Venture House. And there is a contract that is going to
be worked on for maintenance and security. Madam
Chairman, I could break that down. The New Venture
House, where the post office has been working out of,
the rent is $24,472.33. The electricity for New Venture House is $7,500, parking is $937.50 and ongoing
maintenance is $9,414. Those are some additional
costs outside of what I mentioned earlier that are going
to New Venture House.
As far as the question [about the] Perot Post
Office, as of right now I think that when it will be coming
back online, or if it will be coming back online is, at this
time, still a matter for the Ministry of Health (at this
time). Once it is then given back to us . . . and hopefully
we do not have to go down this road, but I think there
has not been an official ending of the pandemic. So, I
think Health is holding onto it for whatever reason so
that they may be able to, if need be, utilise it. Once it
does come back, then we will be able to see if we will
reopen it or if it will be used for another purpose, maybe
a stamp museum or something like that. I am not sure,
Madam Chairman.
I am waiting on a few other responses that the
team is working on.
As I said, Health has not officially notified us of
the return, but there are no plans to reduce the Bermuda Post Office footprint or s ub-post offices at this
time. So, all sub-post offices will remain viable. But if
need be, we are prepared for this post office to return
in six months. And they have budgeted six months’ worth of rent in the event that it is returned.
Okay. There was a question asked about
PIPA. I am not sure exactly , but PIPA has been involved to ensure that there are no breaches of personal
information, i.e., medical data in regard to the resQwest
contract. So, the answer to that question is yes, PIPA
has been involved.
There was a question on consultants from the
Premier’s Office, so I will break it down. The Cabinet
Office has [the following] consultants:
• The Group [which is] the DC lobbyist is
$20,000 a month.
• The Belgium O ffice is $7,916 monthly.
• The DC O ffice is $13,072 monthly.
• The public service negotiating tea m total is
$180,000. • The implementation team, which covers the
work on various initiatives of Government, is
$750,000 annually.
• The London Office and Brussels Office have
continued to use the consultancy communications firm , Firehouse Communications. These
are expenses that vary by month and are dependent on use. But just as a ballpark figure,
the Firehouse Communications is usually about £4,000 per month.
With regard to salaries, please note that the
major increase over the past few years was due to the
centralisation of the Permanent Secretary post.
To the protocol query regarding the Bahamas
visit, it will be addressed. But as I am sure that Senator De Couto wants accurate figures, we are going to need
more time than is allotted to research and address it .
So in the coming weeks, this will be addressed, maybe
not in this forum but in another forum.

Yes. And data on hacks.
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you.
Waiting on those.
[Pause]

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: All right, Madam Chairman. It does not look like . . . hold on . . . Regarding the
cybersecurity leaks, there were two breaches —one in
232 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate May and one in December. The cost should have been
the cost of the PwC report which was around $40,000.
There were also some overtime costs, and I am trying
to get the exact amount now. But that was the situation
with that.
It looks like the team is still working on the final
question, and I am not sure if I will be able to furnish
the answer in the time that is allotted.
How much time do we have?

That is very kind. I appreciate that.
There was a rental for the land loss commission of $34,000 on page C -26, Head 9. I thought that
commission had wrapped up. How long do you think that we will be paying that rental? And how long will that
commission be active in requiring that rental?
Thank you.

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Okay. I have noted that
question, Madam Chairman.
[Pause]

We are down to our final two minutes.

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam
Chairman.
I am not sure that the final two questions that
we have here will be answered in the minute that we
have. But I do want to thank the technical officers for
their responses. We had some very detailed and
pointed questions.

The Chair man: While we have this gap in time, I am
noticing that there is crackling going on. So, if I could
just remind everybody to turn their microphones off
when they are not talking.
Okay . I think we are now in the last few seconds at this stage.

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam Chairman, I
move that Heads 9, 13 and 43 be approved as printed.

We now move into the Ministry of consideration which is now the Ministry of Social Development and Seniors. The two heads —Head 86 on page
B-282, which is the Ministry of Social Development and
Seniors Headquarters, and the second h ead is Head
23 on page B -287, which is Child and Family Services.
The number of hours allocated to these h eads is two. It
is now 5:10 [pm] so we will finish at or before 7:10 [pm].
The Senator in charge is Senator Lindsay Simmons.
Senator, how do you wish to proceed?

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I move that the Committee do now take under
consideration Head 86, the Ministry of Social Development and Seniors Headquarters , and Head 23, Child
and Family Services.

Thank you, Senator.
Please proceed.

MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
AND SENIORS

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you.
Minister Chairman, I am pleased to present the
2023/24 budget estimates for the Ministry of Social Development and Seniors which comprises the Ministry of Social Development and Seniors Headquarters, inclusive of Ageing and Disability Services and the K. Margaret Carter Centre and the Department of Child and
Family Services.
Mr. Chairman, the 2023/24 budget allocations
for the Ministry demonstrates that the services and pro-grammes offered will directly impact and improve the
overall well -being and quality of life of Bermuda’s most
vulnerable, which are our children, persons with disabilities and our seniors.
Mr. Chairman, ensuring the best interest protections and safeguarding our children is crucial. As
such, during the past year the Ministry of Social Development and Seniors was diligent in designing and developing a Litigation Guardian Framework. With the support of a Consultant from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office who was a former chief
executive of England’s Children and Family Court, a new team of Litigation Guardians were trained. Other
training was held for social workers and managers in
the Department of Child and Family Ser -vices, members of the Family Court Panel, judges, and acting magistrates to enforce a collaboration making the best decisions for our children and ensuring that their voice s
are heard.


Bermuda Senate Mr. Chairman, during fiscal year 2022/23, the
Ministry of Social Development and Seniors held a consultation process for the development of a Nation- al
Plan for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities and T heir
Families. This was to create awareness and promote a
coordinated approach to address critical gaps impacting the lives of persons with intellectual disabilities and
their families. To facilitate inclusion for persons with
disabilities, an accessible easy -to-read version of the
National Plan has also been developed. This is exciting work as we progress forward to empower all persons with disabilities with the requisite services, programmes and resources they require to live their best
lives with dignity.
Mr. Chairman, last year, Bermuda’s first -ever
Gender Affairs Council was established by this Ministry, which comprises 10 members who collectively bring a depth of knowledge, skills and experience relevant to gender issues in Bermuda. The Council is assiduously working on a terms of reference framework
to steer the longer -term work.
Mr. Chairman, to raise public awareness about
gender -based violence the Ministry of Social Development and Seniors organised its first awareness campaign and participated in the observance of the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women with the theme UNiTE.
Mr. Chairman, last year the Ministry was also
directly involved in the UN initiative “Multi -Country Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework [20222026]” as Bermuda launched the Joint Sustainable De-velopment Goals Fund Programme entitled “Building
Back Equal through Innovative Fi nancing for Gender
Equality and Women’s Empowerment.” This joint programme focuses on empowering women, youth and
persons with disabilities to engage in key economic in-dustry sectors. The programme will help Bermuda to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in
particular, Goal 5—Gender Equality; Goal 8—Decent
Work and Economic Growth; and Goal 9 —Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.
Mr. Chairman, during the fiscal year 2022/23
the Ministry engaged the community through various platforms, such as C ITV, YouTube, Instagram, radio
education sessions, live- stream panel discussions and
expos to ensure members of the public are aware of
the Ministry’s initiatives, services and programmes that
are beneficial to them. The Ministry hosted its first Seniors T alk and Tea in August 2022, attended by approximately 100 seniors. The Ministry understands that seniors are facing additional challenges in light of the rising
cost of living. This forum, which included a questionand-answer period, ensured our seniors were able to
learn more about the Ministry of Social Development
and Seniors through an interactive presentation that
was focused on the Ministry’s aim to improve the lives of seniors in Bermuda.
Mr. Chairman, last year the Ministry was directly associated w ith social protection efforts through proclamations, ministerial statements, guest speaking
events, and press releases. Some of these include:
• International Day of Persons with Disabilities;
• World Elder Abuse Day;
• International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women;
• Human Rights Day 2022;
• International Women’s Day 2022.
Mr. Chairman, let’s move on to the 2023/24
summary of the current account budget estimate for the
Ministry of Social Development and Sen iors which is
found on page B -281.
The Ministry’s total budget estimate for the fiscal year 2023/24 is $26,439,000, an increase of $1,848,000 or 8 per cent. Mr. Chairman, this summary
shows that the 2023/24 current expenditures alloca-tions for both Head 86 and Head 23 have increased. I
will explain the impetus for these changes commencing
first with Head 86— Ministry Headquarters.

HEAD 86 —MINISTRY OF SOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT AND SENIORS HEADQUARTERS

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, the Ministry
Headquarters, Head 86, is responsible for the budget
of five business units: 96000—Administration; 96040—
Ageing and Disability Services; 96050 —K. Margaret
Carter Centre; 96060— Policy Development; and
96070—Grants to the Third Sector.
The mission of the Ministry of Social Development and Seniors Headquarters found on page B -282
is the protection of all individuals during their lifetime and facilitation of their well -being. The objectives of the
Ministry Headquarters are listed as well.
Mr. Chairman, page B -283 shows that the total
budget allocation for the Ministry Headquarters for
2023/24 is $7,625,000, which represents a net increase
of 10 per cent, or $700,000.

Business Unit 96000 —Administration

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: I will now share details of
each of the five business units for the Ministry headquarters commencing with business unit 96000, Administration.
Mr. Chairman, the 2023/24 budget for the Administration business unit 96000 is $1,815,000. This reflects an increase of $280,000, or an increase of 18 per
cent.
Mr. Chairman, the increase of $280,000 includes
• $160,000 to cover the cost for the treatment of
vulnerable adults when all treatment options
available in Bermuda have been exhausted;
and,
• $120,000 for the National Seniors Regime,
which is inclu sive of the National Seniors Strategy.

234 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Business Unit —96040 Ageing and Disability Services

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, the mission of
business unit 96040, Ageing and Disability Services
[ADS] is, To support and protect seniors and persons
with disabilities who are at risk of abuse, neglect or self -
neglect through providing compliance, programme delivery, education and stakeholder collaboration .
ADS has a budget allocation of $980,000 for
fiscal year 2023/24, an increase of $171,000 or 21 per
cent more than [the budget allocation in] 2022/23 .
These monies will be used to purchase a structured decision -making framework for its case management programme. This framework is an evidence- based tool to
identi fy and define populations served, service priority
and response times, servicing planning, closure and
the risk of relapse. It will help social workers in their de-cision -making to ensure all decisions are consistent
and based on evidence.

Accessibility

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, one function
of ADS is to provide guidance to community individuals
and government partners to ensure accessible building and environmental design. The ADS Accessibility Officer completed 52 assessments/consultations prior to
the end of 2022 compared with 28 assessments completed in 2021. The Accessibility Officer is on track for
the targeted performance measure of 60.
ADS is also responsible for producing duty relief exemption requests for materials to facilitate persons ageing at home. To that end, ADS received and
approved five duty relief exemptions this past year
compared to three in 2022/23.

Education and Awareness

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, ADS provided
or participated in several education and awareness
events during the last year, which included the celebration of the International Day for Persons with Disabilities involving proclamations by the Minister, a virtual
open house held by Dame Marjorie Bean Hope Acad-emy, Special Olympics at the National Sports Centre, a
One Special Night dance, and the WindReach Common Ground Conference focusing on employment. ADS hosted two information sessions for parents and
carers of persons requiring receivership for their adult
children, provided information about the ser vices and
supports offered for adult protection in recognition of
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day and participated in
the Department of Health’s Wellness Week as well as
the town hall meeting about the National Plan for Adults
with Intellectual Disabilities. Additionally, ADS continues to engage with partners on key issues impacting
our seniors such as financial exploitation, cybercrime,
client welfare and receivership.
Case Management

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, case manage-ment continu es to represent the largest staffing component and primary programme of ADS. This is done
through both general case management and adult protection services, which includes receiving senior abuse
reports as required under the Senior Abuse Register
Act 2008.
Case management clients include seniors and
persons over 18 years old with long- standing disabilities.
Adult protection pertains to ADS case management clients at risk of abuse, neglect or self -neglect,
which can include but is not limited to senior abus e
cases.
During the fiscal year 2022/23, ADS received
and opened 257 new cases
• 19 case management referrals for persons under 65 years with disabilities, and 3 reports of abuse of persons under 65 with disabilities;
• 151 case management referrals (general and
• adult protection) for persons over 65 years of
age;
• 84 reports of alleged senior abuse:
o 31 were for financial exploitation;
o 18 were for psychological abuse;
o 19 for neglect;
o 15 for physical abuse; and
o 1 report of sexual abuse.
Mr. Chairman, collaborative partnerships are
essential to ADS case management and its senior abuse remit. During the past year key partnerships with
the Bermuda Government’s Care Homes, KEMH, Mid
Atlantic Wellness Institute, Bermuda Health Council and the Bermuda Police Service were necessary to ensure timely and effective case and investigation coordination.
Another key collaborative effort is the work with
MWI (Mid- Atlantic Wellness Institute) supporting clients
with complex needs due to intellectual disabilities.
Mr. Chairman, ADS has engaged and supported work towards systemic solutions and changes
which include
• development of the National Plan for Adults
with Intellectual Disabilities, including an accessible easy -to-read version;
• consultation on the project development of the
National Disability Register and long- term care
sector development;
• and the completion of a project plan to deliver
on a National Seniors Strategy over the next
six months.
Mr. Chairman, the committed efforts of the
ADS team are appreciated. Adult protection work is in-nately challenging. With an ageing population, the
workload is steadily increasing. T he complexity of the


Bermuda Senate cases is rising but despite this the team remains focused and supportive of their clients with the goal to
reduce risk and support the rights of the client.

K. Margaret Carter Centre

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, I now move
on to the K. Margaret Carter Centre, or KMCC, business unit 96050 which provides direct support for
adults with intellectual disabilities through day programme services. For the fiscal year 2023/24, K. Margaret Carter Centre has a budget allocation of
$1,736,000, which funds 16 staff in delivering direct client services to 41 service users, participating in six different programmes. The past year was s pent increasing attendance levels for all clients at KMCC and now all 41 service users have returned to a regular day pro-gramming service five days a week post the pandemic.
The clients are engaged in various programmes which
improve their quality of life and help build skills for
meeting personal care but also developing both voca-tional and life skills.
Mr. Chairman, at the K. Margaret Carter Centre
• 47 per cent of the clients actively engaged in
life skills programmes to improve their inde-pendence and teach them meaningful skills ;
• 19 per cent participated in home economic programmes such as hot lunch programmes and
creating crafts for sales ;
• 19 per cent of clients worked diligently on projects such as painting can labels, laundry programmes and sorting COV ID-19-19 test kits all
from the community partners ;
• 19 per cent of clients took the lead on a community garden at KMCC and were recognised
for their efforts with the Government Community Garden competition where they took home
third prize.
Mr. Chairman, during the last year, KMCC also
facilitated in the following services and improvements :
1. Engagement with the community’s Intellectual
Disability Team. This was a key factor in the
development of clients.
2. Support the training of six athletes who will attend the 2023 Special Olympics which will take place in June 2023 in Berlin.
3. The completion of training with a clinical psy-chologist who is an expert in the field of intellectual disabilities.
4. The implement ation of Penelope, a case management software, to ensure there is documentation of the ongoing complexities that
families are presented with; and to ensure assistance is given to mitigate those challenges
and meet their needs.
5. Hosting a community V alentine’s dance which
continues to strengthen their r elationships with
community partners. Overall, it is anticipated that KMCC clients will
re-engage in community work programmes across local businesses and have access to meaningful employment while relationships are being built with key partners.
Mr. Chai rman, the Ministry of Social Development and Seniors will continue to implement the
measures needed to improve the quality of life of the
KMCC clients, to increase their independence, and ensure clients are receiving high- quality care at all times.

Policy Development

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, I will move on
to business unit 96060, Policy Development. For 2023/24 [a sum of] $154,000 was allocated for policy
development, a decrease of $5,000, or 3 per cent. The
policy development section has one f ull-time equivalent
as shown on page B -284.
Mr. Chairman, $2,940,000 has been allocated
for business unit 96070, Grants to the Third Sector.
This is an increase of $267,000, or 10 per cent copared to the fiscal year 2022/23 [with an] original allocation of $2,673,000.
Mr. Chairman, the breakdown of the budget allocation for grants can be seen on page C -21 of the
Estimate Book. In the fiscal year 2023/24 the following
charities and organisations will receive a grant from the
Ministry of Social Development and Seniors:
• Age Concern will be provided with $25,000.
• $1,445,000 has been allocated to Packwood
Home, Matilda Smith Williams and Lorraine’s
Rest Home.
• $75,000 will be given to The Women’s Resource Centre.
• Care of the Blind, known as Vision Bermuda,
will receive a grant allocation of $15,000.
• A $50,000 grant has been allocated to Meals
on Wheels.
• The Centre Against Abuse will be allocated a grant of $150,000.
• The Salvation Army will receive $550,000 for
the Salvation Army Shelters.
• Summerhaven will be given a grant of
$600,000 to support their operational costs.
• Tomorrow’s Voices will be given $30,000 as financial support.

Subjective Analysis of Current Account Estimates

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, I will now discuss the combined subjective analysis of current ac-count estimates for the Ministry on page B -283.

Salaries

236 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Sen. Lindsay Simmons: The budget allocated for salaries is $2,211,000 in the fiscal year 2023/24, a decrease of $6,000. This salary allocation covers the Ministry’s 27 full -time equivalents.

Communications
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Communications, which is inclusive of phones, courier, and postal costs, are budgeted at $52,000 for the fiscal year of 2023/24. This represents a slight increase of $2,000, or 4 per cent.

Professional Services
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Professional services of
$1,686,000 for fiscal year 2023/24 reflects an increase
of 25 per cent. This includes funding for overseas treatment not available on the Island for vulnerable persons;
increase in funds for the National Seniors’ Regime; and
a new Structured Decision- Making tool for Ageing and
Disability Services.

Rentals

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Rentals budgeted at $103,000 increased by $93,000 resulting from the office relocation of the Ministry Headquarters.

Repair and Maintenance

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Repair and Maintenance has
been allocated $114,000, a 2 per cent decrease, reflecting a reduction in the cost of cleaning services.

Materials and Supplies
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Materials and suppl ies have
been allocated $125,000 for fiscal year 2023/24. This
is an increase of $12,000, or 11 per cent, which reflects
the extra costs of materials and supplies associated
with the office move.

Other Expenses

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Other expenses budgeted at
$8,000, decreased by $2,000, representing a reduction
in costs for food supplies.

Grants and Contributions

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Grants and contributions.
This allocation increased by $267,000, or 10 per c ent,
reflecting $50,000 each for Matilda Smith Williams
Home and Packwood Rest Home, $17,000 for Tomorrow’s Voices and $150,000 for the Centre Against
Abuse.

Employee Numbers (Full -Time Equivalents)
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, on page B -
284, ther e are 27 full -time equivalent (FTE) positions
for the Ministry of Social Development and Seniors
Headquarters for 2023/24 consisting of three FTEs for
Headquarters Administration; one FTE for Policy De-velopment; seven FTEs in Ageing and Disability Services; and 16 FTEs employed with the K. Margaret
Carter Centre.

Performance Measures

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, the performance measures for business unit 96000—General
Administration are outlined on pages B-285 and B -286.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Ministry Headquarters team for their
diligence and for remaining committed to delivering the requisite services for our community.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my budget
presentation for Head 86 —Headquarters .

The Cha irman: Thank you, Senator.
Please proceed with the next head.
Thank you.

HEAD 23 —DEPARTMENT OF CHILD
AND FAMILY SERVICES
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I now wish to present fiscal year
2023/24 estimates of expenditure for Head 23— the D epartment of Child and Family Services (DCFS), found
on pages B -287. The mission of the Department of
Child and Family Services is protecting children by
strengthening families . The objectives of the department are listed on page B -287 for reference.
Mr. Chairman, the Department of Child and
Family Services carries out its objectives by providing
investigative services; day care services; care and protection services for children; residential and homebased services for families; assessment; interventi on
and counselling services for children, adolescents and
families.
Mr. Chairman, the current account estimates
for Head 23, begins on page B -288 of the Estimates
Book. A total of $18,814,000 has been allocated for
Head 23 for the fiscal year 2023/24. This represents an
increase of $1,148,000 or 6.5 per cent. Mr. Chairman,
the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS)
continues to focus on developing an integrated service
that allows children, adolescents and families to receive services that are appropriate, coordinated and
meet any challenges they face. These challenges include but are not limited to uninvolved parenting; limited parenting capacity; social and life skills; housing;
employment; budgeting; abuse of substances; antisocial behaviour; cognitive disabilities; education; mental
health conditions and anger management.


Bermuda Senate Mr. Chairman, in order to meet these responsibilities, DCFS operates five programmes
1. Programme 2301— Services to Children and
Young Persons;
2. Programme 2302— Services to Individual s and
Families;
3. Programme 2303—Residential Treatment Services;
4. Programme 2304— Administration;
5. Programme 2305— Mirrors Programme.
Mr. Chairman, in the fiscal year 2022/23, with
the transition to living safely with COVID -19, DCFS returned to providing full -service delivery with all in -person services to children and families. Safety protocols
continue to be reviewed and updated as needed, to not
only ensure safety but to maintain consistent performance quality with best practice standards and accred-itation.
Mr. Chairman, the US Council on Accreditation
has approved the Bermuda National Standards [Com-mittee] which is used locally for accreditation of entities including DCFS who manage children. The Bermuda
National Standards Committee provides that review
and accreditation. I am pleased to report that in quarter
3 of 2022, in accordance with the requirements from the Council on Accreditation Standards, five sections
within DCFS (Intake and Investigations, Assessments,
Counselling and Life Skills (CLS), Family Pr eservations
and Foster Care) all successfully completed their reaccreditation self -studies and anticipate receiving feedback before April 2023.
Mr. Chairman, service improvements have
also been achieved by the Department of Child and
Family Services implementing a strategy that begins with the enhancement of a Structured Decision- Making
[Assessment] tool, designed specifically for Bermuda taking into account our cultural identity and social norms.
Mr. Chairman, the utilisation of this tool has resulted in an improved, comprehensive service delivery
system that has increased response time to initial referrals. Also, this tool further enhances appropriate prioritisation of referrals according to risks and ensures
that the high risks are addressed first resulti ng in better
responses and positive outcomes for clients.
Mr. Chairman, I will now address each programme and business unit for DCFS as set out on page B-288.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN

SENATE VISITORS

Please proceed, Senator. Thank you.

Services to Children and Young Persons
(Programme 2301)

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, the Happy
Valley Child Care Centre, business unit 33010, has a
budget of $1,061,000. The output measures for the
Happy Valley Child Care Centre are found on page B -
288 of the Estimates Book.
Happy Valley Child Care Centre is the only
Government -operated Child Care facility on the Island,
which provides a high- quality childcare for a maximum
of 44 children whose ages range from three months to four years old.
Mr. Chairman, each year there is increased demand for childcare placement at the Happy Valley Child
Care Centre. For the school year of 2022/23, 172 applications were received for the 16 available spaces
that included six infant spaces, five toddler spaces and
five pre- schooler spaces. The application process for
the 2023/24 school year begins in April 2023.
Mr. Chairman, the estimated revenue stated on
page B -289 is $192,000 which accounts for the monthly
fee of $400 for each child enrolled at Happy Valley
Child Care Centre. Happy Valley Child Care Centre
continues to operate at best practice standards. This
fiscal year Happy Valley Child Care Centre received its
third accreditation from the Bermuda National St andards Committee, the local accrediting body of the entities who manage children.
Mr. Chairman, in July 2022, 17 children graduated from the programme and were all prepared to at-tend preschool. Their accomplishments were celebrated with an outgoing leaving ceremony at the Na-tional Sports Centre.
Mr. Chairman, during the 2023/24 budget year,
the Happy Valley Child Care Centre will continue to up-hold its commitment to partnering with community re-sources including the Child Development Pro- gramme
[CDP], the D epartment of Health , and Fire and Life
Safety Associates. Happy Valley Child Care Centre will
continue to serve as a community service site for public
and private schools.

Services to Individuals and Families
(Programme 2302)

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, I will now
speak to the activities covered under the programme
2302 which are
• Business unit 33020—Investigating and
Screening;
• Business unit 33030—Foster Care;
238 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate • Business unit 33200— Counselling and Life
Skills.
Mr. Chairman, the total budget for thes e three
business units for the fiscal year 2023/24 is
$6,059,000. This represents an increase of $169,000,
or 3 per cent, compared to the fiscal year 2022/23.
Mr. Chairman, the Investigation and Screening
section is responsible for providing comprehensive investigations and assessments to children who are referred for services. The budget for this business unit
33020 for the fiscal year 2023/24 is $2,273,000. This
represents a decrease of $73,000, or 3 per cent, com-pared to the fiscal year of 2022/23.
Mr. Chairman, this section provides services
and support for children and families referred for abuse
or neglect. The department is committed to partnering
with stakeholders to promote the safety and health of
families while protecting children from abuse and neglect. This is achieved through the investigations and
assessments process. When required, referrals are
made to counselling and support service organisations.
Mr. Chairman, when a referral is made to
DCFS, a screening is conducted to determine if it mee ts
the threshold for abuse and/or neglect. The Structured Decision -Making Assessment tools are utilised to designate the timeframe required to initiate contact with a
child and/or their family. The performance measures for
intake and assessments can be fou nd on page B -291.
Mr. Chairman, the Screening, Investigations,
and Assessment teams have a combined total of 18
staff and are mandated to provide these types of ser-vices and thus operate 24 hours a day. After regular
working hours, the weekends and holiday coverage is
provided on a crisis basis to ensure that assistance can
be given to the police, the hospital and members of the
community. In 2022, this section responded to 38 on-call or call -out referrals.
Mr. Chairman, the investigation team received
984 new referrals in 2022. This is an increase from
2021, when 918 new referrals were reported to DCFS. The department has one central screening system
which allows investigations to be processed and assigned in an expedited manner. All mandated referrals are provided immediate feedback on whether the referral meets the threshold for investigation, and they are
given the designated response time. Mandated reporters made 793 referrals and 191 were from other sources in the community.
Mr. Chairman, the team is r equired to respond
within 24 hours, 5 days or 10 days depending on the
nature of the referral and the designated timeframe.
The department received 207 referrals that required a
24-hour response; 486 referrals required a five- day response; and 35 referrals required a 10- day response.
Mr. Chairman, in April 2022, a Multiagency
Safeguarding Hub (MASH) was established between
the department and the Bermuda Police Services to re-view all referrals received. Through the weekly MASH
consultations, the team determi nes the investigations approach that is needed for each case. They stipulate who will be involved and decide if a joint investigation
or forensic interview is required.
Mr. Chairman, the investigation team participates in multiagency team meetings such as the Sexual Abuse Response Team (SART) and the Child Protection Team (CPT). Senior staff were involved in the
Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC)
initiative for Bermuda which is dedicated to ending domestic abuse through a collaborative approach. The Investigation team also participated in numerous train-ings throughout the year that ranged from understanding child abuse, interviewing children with disabilities,
best practices in suicide and assessment to trauma- informed courses.
Mr. Chairman, as a result of the trends in exposure to family violence, DCFS will continue to be involved in the implementation of the MARAC to review
and reduce the risk of exposure for children. To that
end, $96,000 was budgeted for the fiscal year 2023/24
to assist w ith this programme. DCFS will engage in further specialised sexual abuse interviewing training for social workers who conduct forensic interviewing. Families (both the parents and children) are presenting
more multifaceted mental health issues and DCFS wil l
explore training that will further assist staff with under-standing mental health.
Mr. Chairman, the Department of Child and
Family Services has taken on the additional tasks of
vetting requests from employers who hire individuals to
work with children (s uch as day care providers). Individuals who wish to foster or adopt a child locally or overseas must also demonstrate that they do not have a child abuse history and are not listed on the Bermuda
Child Abuse Register. The request requires extensive
researc h and is conducted by the Senior Programme
Manager for Investigations, along with the Intake Coordinators, on an overtime basis since this is a task outside of their current duties. In 2022, [there were] 264
requests completed for local and overseas agenci es.
Mr. Chairman, the assessment team for business unit 33020 is responsible for conducting compre-hensive assessments on children and families who are
experiencing issues inclusive of cognitive challenges,
domestic violence, substance abuse, behavioural pr oblems, and emotional concerns. The purpose of the assessment process is to produce a comprehensive report that provides recommendations to empower families. Families or individuals are provided an overview of assessment processes as well as the consent forms required for engaging in services. As participation in the
assessment is voluntary, clients can decline services
following the referral or can withdraw from services, at
their discretion, at any point in time during the assessment process.
Mr. Chairman , the assessment team receives
referrals internally from within DCFS and externally,
from the Family Court and Supreme Court. Service proBermuda Senate vision entails three main areas —individual assessments (child and/or adult); family assessments; and
consultations. A t otal of 227 assessment tools were administered collectively by the team.
Mr. Chairman, the staff of the Screening and
Investigations Team and the community stakeholders
are thanked for their commitment for being the first response in promoting the safety a nd health of families
while protecting children from abuse and neglect. Ap-preciation is also extended to the Assessments Team
for empowering families through the comprehensive assessments completed on at -risk children and families.

Foster Care
(Business U nit 33030)

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, the budget for
business unit 33030, Foster Care, for the fiscal year of
2023/24 is $2,641,000. This represents an increase of
$100,000.
Mr. Chairman, during the 2022 calendar year,
a total of 63 children occu pied foster care beds, four
fewer than the previous year. The team was also re-sponsible for case management duties for the chil-dren’s birth families and foster families. Last year, the
Foster Care Programme serviced a total of seven therapeutic foster chi ldren. The children in this category
have a variety of physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioural challenges. Out of those seven children, one
was adopted and one was transferred from Foster Care to Residential Treatment Services. By the end of the
year 2022, a total of 15 children left the foster care programme, four were placed into Residential Treatment Services , four aged out of DCFS , six were reunified
with their birth parents , and one was adopted.
Also, 2022 was a very busy year for Foster Parent Recruitment. The Foster Care Coordinator interviewed 26 interested persons for foster parent recruit-ment. Out of those, six were approved. In May 2022,
Foster Care Month, the foster care team resumed hosting the in- person Annual Appreciation Tea for Bermuda’s foster parents. This event was held at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club.
The Foster Care Programme ended 2022 with
Christmas gift donations for all foster children. Items
were generously donated from anonymous members of
the public, the RenRe Insurance Company , and the
Pembroke and Hamilton Rotary Clubs. Each child was gifted with multiple items for the holiday season.
Mr. Chairman, DCFS would like to
acknowledge the foster parents of Bermuda. These are
unsung heroes who provide loving, stable homes to
children who have experienced significant trauma. Appreciation and recognition must also go to the Foster
Parent Association which works in partnership with the foster care team. They provide extra support to foster
children and foster families in t he form of financial sup-port for educational trips, specialised recreational pro-grammes, laptops for senior schools and tertiary education scholarships for foster youth post high school
completion.

Counselling and Life Skills
(Business Unit 33200)

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, the purpose
of the Counselling and Life Skills (CLS) business unit is to advance and promote the emotional well -being of
youth up to 18 years of age and their families. The
budget for business unit 33200 for fiscal year 2023/ 24,
is $1,145,000. This represents an increase of $4,000
compared to the fiscal year 2022/23.
Mr. Chairman, CLS counsellors rallied around
a collaborative approach in 2022. The team increased their availability to engage in professional care conferences wi th other teams within DCFS. This collaboration
assisted in solution- focused service plans that promoted wellness for families and their children. CLS
continues to work diligently with external stakeholders
with the intent of being supports and advocates for families who may feel displaced in a society that can discount their future and potential. Referrals are mainly received from external entities such as the Department of
Education, Child and Adolescent Services [CAS], and
the public. These referrals are screened through the
department’s investigation/screening section and decisions on appropriate interventions are determined by
the use of the Structured Decision- Making tool and
then assigned for services.
Mr. Chairman, the number of referrals that
were received for 2022, was 107, a slight decrease
compared to 2021. Of this, 105 received services and
two were denied. The referrals that were denied were
based on clients being involved in external services
prior to the referral.
Mr. Chairman, in 2022, the num ber of children/adolescents who were serviced because of domestic violence was similar to 2021. Since post -
COVID -19 and the lifting of restrictions, children/adolescents who had experienced anxiety and depression
are now trying to readjust back to in- schoo l learning experiences and in- person socialisation.
The CLS team noticed that in 2022 “vaping” is
still a trend continuing among adolescents. Substances such as marijuana and alcohol are still also prevalent
among adolescents. Young people are still choosi ng to
use substances as a coping strategy for the purpose of
self-medicating to deal with life stressors, trauma, and
grief. The complexit ies of their family systems and their
experiences of having to deal with a global pandemic
have impacted adolescents and their ability to emotionally regulate , hence, the increase in substance usage
as a coping strategy.

Residential Treatment Services
(Programme 2303)
240 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, I will now
speak to activity covered in programme 2303, Residential Treatment Services, which include Family Preservation, the Brangman Home, Youth Development Cen-tre, Observatory Cottage (also referred to as Oleander Cottage), the Psycho- Educational Programme and
Youth Residential Treatment. For the year 2023/24,
this pr ogramme has a budget allocation of $7,783,000.
This represents an increase of $188,000, or 2 per cent,
compared to 2022/23.

Family Preservation
(Business Unit 33060)

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, the budget for
business unit 33060 for the fiscal year 2023/24 is
$1,508,000. This is an increase of $97,000.
Mr. Chairman, the Family Preservation team is
responsible for providing ongoing intervention to monitor and ensure the safety of children at risk of abuse or
neglect, assist families to improve functioning, increase child well- being, reduce the need for placement in out -
of-home care, and enable children in out -of-home care
to return safely to their families.
Mr. Chairman, the Family Preservation Section
has been accredited by the Bermuda Nat ional Standards Committee in accordance with the Council on Ac-creditation Standards from 2018 to 2022. Being accred-ited means that the Bermuda National Standards Committee has determined, through a rigorous assessment
of evidence, that the Family Preservat ion Service
meets the Council on Accreditation Standards and that
they follow best practice and provide quality service to
the community. In October 2022, the Family Preserva-tion commenced a rigorous reaccreditation assessment. The department awaits the outcome of that assessment.
Mr. Chairman, for the calendar year January
through December 2022, the Family Preservation team served a combined total of 143 families and 232 children. Caseload complexities and risk levels remained
high throughout 2022, thus requiring a high number of
face- to-face contacts, multiple court appearances, family conferences and consultations with community and
government stakeholders.
Mr. Chairman, Family Preservation workers
attended 67 court hearings over the year. The court ap-pearances were for Domestic Violence Protection Orders, Protection Intervention or Emergency Protection
Orders, Custody/Access matters, Supervised Visita-tion, Juvenile Court, Supervision Order Applications
and Reviews, and Care Order Applications, Reviews
and Discharges.
Mr. Chairman, [there were] 325 parents’ or
caregivers’ assessments completed during the calendar year. Of these assessments 48 per cent of households assessed had coping skills/mental health/ cognitive functioning identified as a need. This i s defined as parents/caregivers having difficulty coping with stressors in their life which creates situations that places the
children in their care at risk.
Fifty-three per cent of households assessed
had parenting skills identified as a need, and [this is]
defined as improvement of basic parenting skills as
needed by the parent/caregiver in order to ensure
safety and appropriate discipline of the child.
Thirty -two per cent of households assessed
had Resource Management identified as a need, and
this is defined as parents/caregivers facing challenges
with resources being insufficient or [ not] well managed
and/or including debilitating debt. As a country we are
all still feeling the financial impacts of a country normalised after the pandemic. Many househo lds continue to
be challenged meeting the basic needs of their families in areas such as food, clothing, and medical needs.
Mr. Chairman, 314 child assessments were
completed during the calendar year. Family Preservation services plans and interventions wi th families have
very specific goals or objectives that the parents and children are expected to achieve through the services
provided by Family Preservation with the goal of eliminating or reducing the risk of harm and future harm of
their children.
Mr. C hairman, in 2022, [there were] 13 staff
who became certified in Train -the-Trainers in Crisis Intervention for Families and Crisis Intervention with Children with Developmental Disabilities. Trainers from
Cornell University were on the Island in April 2022 to
facilitate this training. All successful trainers are now
certified to facilitate parent groups as well as trainers to
train other professionals in the method.
The goal for 2023 is to provide Therapeutic Crisis Intervention for Families for both parents , foster parents, and professionals working with families.
Mr. Chairman, I will now speak to the Brangman Home, business unit 33070; the Youth Develop-ment Centre, business unit 33080; and the Observatory
Cottage (referred to as Oleander Cottage) business
unit 33090.
Mr. Chairman, the 2023/24 budget allocation
for business unit 33070, Brangman Home, is
$1,213,000, the same as budgeted for the 2022/23 fiscal year.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 33080, the Youth
Development Centre, received an allocated budget of
$246,000. This is an increase of $87,000, or 55 per
cent compared with 2022/23. This reflects a realign-ment of the department’s staff resources.
Mr. Chairman, the Observatory Cottage, business unit 33090, was allocated a budget of $1,368,000
which is a mi nimal increase of $1,000.
Mr. Chairman, Residential Treatment Services
(RTS) provides group living intervention services to
children between the ages of 12 and 18 years. These
are adolescents who are deemed to be at risk in the
community and require care and protection in a safe
and structured residential environment. All children


Bermuda Senate placed in this service have had their situation and circumstances considered by the Family Court, where it
has been deemed appropriate for them to be placed on
a care order and as such become the responsibility of
the Director of Child and Family Services.
Mr. Chairman, the RTS programme provides
services 24 hours [a day], 365 days a year. The young ladies are located at the Brangman Home while the
young men receive services at Oleander Cottage. The
Youth Development Centre is utilised to provide oneon-one and special management of residents based on
their needs as indicated by ongoing evaluation, and if
they are placed in the care of the director of DCFS as
a result of criminal behaviour.
Mr. Chairman, RTS provides in- house/ residential services for 19 adolescents in 2022. This total included 8 males and 11 females. The girls remain the typical “at -risk” group of enrolments at RTS. This is evident through research that indicates gi rls have more
identified risk factors than boys. The low enrolment of males remained consistent through the fiscal year with zero enrolment in the last two quarters. The first quarter
was the highest enrolment with two young boys, ages
12 and 13.
I am happy to report the low number of boys in
care created opportunities for these boys to receive intense services such as, closer observation, mentoring
and therapeutic interventions. Mr. Chairman, 14 of the 19 residents have been identified as long- term as they
have no plausible family reunification plan. However, alternative family placements have been found for seven residents in care. During the 2022/23 budget
year, seven of these residents turned 18 and, out of
those, three were eligible for the independent living option, and four found alternative placements with community support.
Mr. Chairman, RTS has successfully met the
majority of the performance measures, as outlined on
pages B -291 and B -292. Statistically, data and the
other performance quality improv ement process have
been consistently used to monitor quality and determine changes needed to improve the service provided.
The 2023/24 budget is designed to continue providing
resources that allow this programme to provide a qual-ity service to children and families.
Mr. Chairman, also during the 2022/23 budget
year the Brangman Home had renovations completed that have increased capacity and have provided more
efficient use of space to accommodate therapeutic programmes for individuals and group interventions for the girls and their families. The security system at both the
girls’ and boys’ homes continue to be assessed and enhanced to ensure the care, safety, and protection of the
residents and the care team.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff at the Residential Treatment
Services and community stakeholders for their commit-ment in providing trauma response services to the residents of group living, with the aim [of] restoring hope
and building resilience in their lives.

Psycho -Educational Programme
(Business Unit 33100)

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, the PsychoEducation, [or] Psycho -Ed, programme was developed
to clinically address children who could not be effectively treated in Bermuda or those who had exhausted
all available local therapeutic/treatment services. The
budget unit 33100 for the fiscal year 2023/24 is
$2,108,000, the same as the previous year.
Mr. Chairman, the Psycho- Ed programme provides children with protection, care, and nurturance by
licensed and accredited therapeutic overseas facilities. The Psycho- Ed programme provides a safe, supportive, and therapeutic environment for each child while
working collaboratively towards either family reunification or an alternative permanency option.
Mr. Chairman, in 2022, the Psycho- Ed programme had a total of 12 clients who received services
in overseas therapeutic programmes for a complexity
of issues identified across the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM- V) Criteria of Mental
Disorders. All Psycho -Ed clients serviced overseas received the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) with a scoring ranging of 20 to 50.
A score of 50 is defined as having serious
symptoms or serious impairment in social, occupa-tional, or school func tioning and 20 is defined as having
a danger of hurting self or others. The result of low
Global Assessment and Functioning (GAF) scores required that all Psycho- Ed clients receive intensive clinical treatment with a long duration of treatment options
coupled with one- on-one staff interventions, psychotropic medications, frequent team meetings, psychiatric hospitalisations, family intervention programmes, and
overseas therapeutic visits.

Youth Residential Treatment
(Business Unit 33110)

Sen. Lindsay Simmo ns: Mr. Chairman, business unit
33110, the Youth Residential Treatment budget for financial year 2023/24 is $1,340,000, an increase of
$3,000, due to the realignment of staff within the organisation structure.
Mr. Chairman, Youth Residential Treatment is
an Administrative and Professional Services section
that provides the necessary accounting, management,
counselling and clinical services to all of the residential
homes and programmes.
Mr. Chairman, a new residential programme
that will become fully operat ional during 2023/24 is the
Independent Living programme.

Independent Living Programme
242 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Sen. Lindsay Simmons: In the 2022/23 budget, capital funding was allocated for the establishment of the
Independent Living Housing regime. In the 2023/24
current account budget, more than $300,000 has been
allocated to fund staff for the operations of this programme. The Independent Living Programme is the
first of its kind in Bermuda, whereby we are providing a
“lifeline/safety net” to young adults ageing out of the
care of the DCFS, affording them the best opportunity
for success as they transition into adulthood.
The mission of the Independent Living Programme is , To empower, encourage, [and] edify our
young people as they transition into adulthood to
achieve their goals and become independent and self -
sufficient, utilising the community resources to achieve success. The programme is housed in St. George’s
and has the capacity to accommodate up to 11 young
people.
Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to report that the
coordinat or and staff have become certified Independent Living Specialists.
Over the next fiscal year, the Independent Living Programme anticipates having the final phase of
renovations of the physical plant completed and to be
fully staffed whereby clients’ needs are met and they
are guided through this transition as they become self -
sufficient, productive citizens of Bermuda.

Administration
(Programme 2304)

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, I will now
speak to programme 2304, which covers Administra-tion business unit 33120, and Grant Funding, business unit 33130. The fiscal year 2023/24 budgeted for these
two progra mmes is $3,159,000, reflecting an increase
of $377,000 or 14 per cent.
Mr. Chairman, the Administration section of
DCFS is responsible for the general supervision of these sections within the department and the oversight
of the Psycho- Ed Programme and the Mirrors Programme. The budget for business unit 33120 for the
fiscal year 2023/24 is $2,613,000, an increase of
$281,000 more than the previous year.
Mr. Chairman, all staff development and training are delivered via this section to ensure that the staff
at DCFS remain skilled and current with best practice
standards. The Administration section has continued
their membership with Relias Learning Syst em as the
core training vehicle for staff professional development
in the field. Relias has become a web- based training
partner for DCFS. Orientation training has [been] custom designed for each section within DCFS based on
the core needs of each section.

Grant Funding
(Business Unit 33130)
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, the budget for
business unit 33130 for fiscal year 2023/24 is $546,000, an increase of $96,000. Mr. Chairman, the
grant funding will provide $375,000 to Teen Services;
$75,000 to funding a cross -ministry initiative to assist
families in cris is; and, $96,000 to hire a domestic violence specialist and promote education and awareness
for the introduction of the Multi -Agency Risk Assessment Conference model for Bermuda.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN

SENATE VISITOR

Thank you. [Ms.] James, I am sorry.
Thank you for joining us today.
Back to yo u, Senator. Thank you.
[Committee of Supply continuing]
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, as outlined in the 2022 Speech
from the Throne, the Government, in partnership with
SafeLives UK, will introduce a Multi -Risk Assessment
Conference mod el in which there is a national cross -
ministry approach to increase public awareness of the damaging effects of domestic abuse and family violence on public health and to improve the Island’s systematic response to domestic abuse and family violence.
The Bermuda Police Service, Department of
Child and Family Services, and Centre Against Abuse
in partnership with SafeLives UK (specialists in domestic violence in the UK), have commenced a collaborative initiative to assess the prevalence of domestic
abuse on the Island, identify and map services that sup-port victims and predators of abuse, and to seek public
and stakeholder feedback on services and needs for
both victims and predators currently available on Island.

Mirrors Programme
(Programme 2305)
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, finally, [for]
the Mirrors Programme, business unit 33140, in August
2022, Cabinet approved the establishment of the Mir-rors Programme (Mirrors ), within the Department of
Child and Family Services as a substance permanent programme.
The budget allocated for the Mirrors programme for 2023/24 is $752,000.


Bermuda Senate Mr. Chairman, Mirrors continues to produce results in the short -, medium- , and long- term to make better learners and build a [resilient ] community of young
adults with positive life outcomes in education, employment, and lawfulness. Everything they do is based on
evidence from data collected since Mirrors inception.
Mr. Chairman, to date, Mirrors has served
7,199 youth and trained 742,000 adults including par-ents, teachers, [and] volunteers in positive youth development. Mirrors entered its second year of the implementation of the PeerForward programme in the public senior schools, with ongoing support from [the] Mirrors
Alumni and Friends Association, [ Centennial ] Bermuda
Foundation, Bermuda Community Foundation, and
Charities Aid Foundation. This support allowed another
year of partnership with the Berkeley Institute and CedarBridge Acade my to build a college and career -going
culture in schools using peer leads as the driving force
to increase students registering to the overall goal of
three or more colleges and completing scholarship applications.
Mr. Chairman, 44 volunteers have been tr ained
to date and are active in supporting [the] Mirrors programme which relies heavily on volunteers to deliver its
work. We thank our volunteers for their continued commitment and dedication to Bermuda’s youth. We could
not have served students without t heir support and services. We encourage more volunteers to register with
Mirrors so they can reach more youth and families.
Mr. Chairman, Mirrors experienced challenges
with the availability of local facilitators this year and had to rely on partnership wi th Quantum Learning Global to
support the Community Programme in October 2022 and the SuperCamp Junior Forum in February 2023. Mirrors staff have performed to international standards
and two members have been offered the opportunity to train and deliver services in Singapore and South Africa with Quantum Learning Global. Ms. [Jeanene] Todd
has put in an exceptional level of work towards her cer-tification and has been awarded Facilitator Foundation
Training Certification, Facilitator Certification and Academic Facilitator Certification. She has demonstrated a
standard of excellence in the transformation methodol-ogy and Ms. Todd is in the process to achieve the Lead Facilitator Certification and the Train- the-Trainer Certification over the next few years.
In the current year, Ms. Todd provided Quantum Learning workshops for 142 Department of Youth,
Sport and Recreation staff, 10 Endeavour staff members, and 15 new recruits at the Bermuda Fire Service. The feedback was positive on the experience and content of t he training with 100 per cent responses in the
excellent and good categories.
Mr. Chairman, in 2023/24, the Mirrors Alumni
and Friends Association will continue to support the
programme through the volunteer recognition scheme and the annual Bermuda- themed art competition entitled “My Happy Place, ” the community service project
at the Mirrors Field of Learning at Southlands, and the college and career readiness PeerForward programme.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the volunteers, corporate Bermuda, the Alumni Board Members, and the Mirrors
team for their commitment to the development of Bermuda’s youth.

Subjective Analysis of Current Account Estimate

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, I would now
like to discuss the subjective analysis of current account estimates for the Department of Child and Family
Services (DCFS) found on page B -289.

Salaries

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Salaries. The budget allocation for salaries is $9,852,000, an increase of $611,000.
The addition of six Mirrors staff accounted for $478,000
of this increase. The remaining $133,000 is [the] com-bined cost for the salary of a Residential Care Officer
and staff salary increments.

Other Personnel Costs

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Other personal costs are
budgeted at $129,000 [and] reflect a decline of $7,000
due to the reduction in staff allowances related to
COVID -19 health requirements.

Training

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: The budget for training is
$184,000, an increase of $50,000 due solely to the
training c ost associated with the Mirrors Programme
which will be a DCFS programme effective April 1,
2023.

Transport and Travel
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Transport and travel costs increased by $2,000 and $3,000, respectively, due to the
Mirrors Programme costs for tr avelling to workshops
and training camps.

Communications

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Communications, inclusive
of phones, couriers, [and] postal costs, are budgeted at
$192,000 for fiscal year 2023/24. This represents an increase of $9,000 for the addition of the cellular and
postal costs for the Mirrors Programme.

Advertising and Promot ion
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Advertising and Promotion
shows a $12,000 increase related to the costs for pro-moting and advertising enrolment in Mirrors.

244 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Professional Services

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Professional Services. Professional services budgeted at $3,962,000 for fiscal year 2023/24, increased by $428,000 or 12 per cent.
This comprised $303,000 that will fund the staffing requirements at the Independent Living Programme and
$125,000 for hiring local contractors for the Mirrors Programme training/camps.

Rentals

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, the budget for
Rentals is $1,415,000, an increase of $40,000. This additional amount is the rental cost for facilities that will
house the Mirrors’ camp and programme.

Repair and Maintenance
Sen. Lindsay Sim mons: Repair and maintenance
have been allocated for $547,000, a decrease of
$7,000 reflecting a reduction in cleaning maintenance
that was required to support COVID -19 protocols.

Materials & Supplies
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Materials and supplies cost
decreased by $7,000 to $370,000. There was a reduction in the purchase of supplies such as testing kits due
to the [reduction] in COVID -19 protocol[s].

Grants and Contributions

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, the budget for
grants and contributions is $1,336,000, a decrease of
$4,000 which reflects a net difference between a reduc-tion in foster fees and the added grant for the MARAC initiative.

Employee Numbers (Full -Time Equivalents)
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, on page B -
290, you will note that there are 105 full -time equivalent
positions for the Department of Child & Family Services for the fiscal year 2023/24. The additional seven FTEs
represent six staff at the Mirrors Programme and one
Resident ial Care Officer needed for the DCFS residential homes.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes the budget
presentation for Head 23, the Department of Child and
Family Services. However, I do want to share that
DCFS has a rich database of Performance Quality Indicators (PQIs) and key information about each of its
programmes offered that paint a detailed picture of the
important and critical work that they do for children and
families. I acknowledge that my colleague , Senator
Tucker , accepted an invitation last month f rom DCFS
to attend the fourth quarter and annual presentation of
the PQIs for DCFS. I am sure she would agree that based on the presentation of the PQIs, the work here
at DCFS is highly extensive and critical[ly] needed for
children. The staff at DCFS are hard- working and have
deep commitment to children and families of Bermuda. We certainly thank them for the work they do. While it may seem to be the most thankless professional work,
the impact each staff [member] has when assisting
those they come in cont act with is priceless.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my budget
presentation for the entire Ministry of Social Development and Seniors, Head 86 and Head 23.

Thank you very much, Senator Simmons.
Are there any Senators who care to speak on
these heads?
Senator Tucker.
Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you Mr. Chai rman .
Before I begin asking my questions, I first want
to thank the Junior Minister for bringing the brief to this
Chamber tonight. I will actually concur with her that
having had the opp ortunity to attend two stakeholder
meetings (actually I attended the one she just men-tioned, and there was one I believe last year [where]
MP Jackson and I were also in attendance.), we would
absolutely agree that the DCFS staff are some very hard- working people. And they are in a very thankless
job. So before I ask my questions, I will say again, while
there are a few of them in the room, as well as the Permanent Secretary, to again say thank you for all that
you do because I can only imagine that often you are
in a difficult spot, a rock and a hard place because of all of, you know, all of the community things that go on
and the efforts to assist families and children. So,
again, thank you.
My first question is from page B -283, the General Summary, business unit 96000, Administration.
So, funding from this line item . . . The last fiscal year
included $280,000 to assist in the introduction of the
community intellectual disability regime and the corollary mental health services. In addition, $20,000 from
that same line item last year was for the creation of the
implementation of a disability register. So, I would just
like to know if the J unior Mini ster can provide an update
on these two initiatives and how much if any additional
funding will be spent to advance those initiatives this
fiscal year.
My next question comes again from page B -
283, General Summary, b usiness unit 96070, Grants to
the Thir d Sector. A total of $2,673,000 was awarded to
various charities. Looking at page C -21, at how those
funds have been allocated, line item 6912, Rest
Homes , shows a total allocation of $1,095,000. I would
just like to know if the Junior Minister can provide a
breakdown of the rest homes that will receive funds al-located from this line item and if she can give details on
the specific amounts to be awarded to each home during this fiscal period. T hat would be helpful.


Bermuda Senate I would just like to add, I do recognise that
when she gave her brief that the Pembroke Rest Home
was also included . . . as an overall in her statement .
But I would jus t like to know about that specific line item
that I mentioned; what and how much . . . what rest
homes and how much is going to be given to each of
them.
The next question, again from page B -283,
Subjective Analysis of Current Account Estimates, line
item Rentals is, Can the Junior Minister let us know the
amount of rent payable for the headquarters’ new office
space as I cannot f ind where that amount is represented in the list of expenses on page B -284 or in the
Government Department Accommodation Rentals on
pages C -26 through C -28. So, if she could just provide
those details .
Moving to Head 86 . . . Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, how much time do we have left?

We have until 7:10 . So, we have
roughly 43 minutes left.
Sen. Robin Tucker: Okay. Perfect. I do want to give
some time for my colleagues to ask questions, or anyone else. So, I just want to be mindful. Thank you.
So, to Head 23, from page B -288, the General
Summary, business unit 33020, Investigation and
Screening, the business unit has a decrease of $73,000 as the Junior Minister mentioned. On page B -
290, Employ ee Numbers show a decrease of one full -
time employee. So, given that there were, as was reported, 984 new referrals in [2022] , an increase from
918 in 2021, can the Junior Minister provide an expla-nation for decreasing the Investigation and Screening budget by $73,000 and reducing the staffing numbers
from 1 9 to 18?
My next question [is on] page B -288, General
Summary, business unit 33080, the Youth Development Centre, can the Junior Minister provide a breakdown of what this budget expense includes as [an]
$87,000 increase from the original amount allocated in
2022/23 ? It is pretty substantial amount. So, I would
just like to have some details as to what those funds will be spent on.
Again, page B -288, General Summary, business unit 33080, the Youth Development Centre, g iven
that some children . . . Let me just back up a second. I
would just like to know whether there is any plan to create an aftercare facility or some ki nd of behavioural facility that can very closely align or even take a step in
advancement on what is being done at the Youth Development Centre. The reason for that is because
some of us will remember that an SDO [special development order] was created to demolish the Observatory Cottage and replace it with a $9 million multi -purpose centre for boys and girls that have some behavioural -type issues. And I believe it was the vision of the
late Nelson Bascome; it was a project called Pathways
Village. But the project never materialised. So, I just wanted to know if the Junior Minister could say if there
were any considerations for creating a similar facility
and maybe, you know, sort of adding on to the Youth
Development Centre in that way.
A last question that I will ask so I give my colleagues an opportunity is [on page] B-288, General
Summary. I would like to know (and this has to do with Residential Treatment) what facilities are available to
children under 12 years old since R esidential Treatment Services is available to children 12 to 18. And
which line item is associated with funding that particular area?
Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Tucker.
Senator Simmons, would you like to start answering some of the questions posed thus far, or would you like to continue and have more questions asked?

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: I could answer some of the
questions right now.
The rest homes were made up of $1,095,000
[and they were] Warwick Parish Council [for] $820,000
and Matilda Smith [for] $275,000.
Another question was asked: What is the rent
for the headquarters ? For the year 2023/24 , it is
$88,000.
The Community Intellectual Disability Team
[CIDT] registered work to date. CIDT is in operation and
making a great impact in the community to support persons with behavioural needs under MWI. Disability
Regist ry initial consultation and project development
has occurred to be coordinated with other initiati ves to
ensure its sustainability.
And those are the answers I have thus far.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
On page B -290, [regarding] the employee
numbers of the Mirrors programme, I think I heard ( and
I apologi se if I misheard) that y ou were not able to get
enough local fac ilitators for that programme, and an external provider had to be used. If I did hear that cor-rectly, how many local facilitators w ere you short, and
what was the cost of the providers? Thanks.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN

SENATE VISITOR

Any other questions?
Senator Smith.
Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, there was quite a bit of information about the Mirrors programme and obviously the transition into this department , and some of the
changes in cost are related to that transfer. I j ust wondered if we can get a little bit of clarification. So, as an
example, it says , “communications.” That number has
gone up because of the ( I guess ) phones and different
things that are having to be used. Are we just transfer-ring the actual phone from the other department, or are
we buy ing a new phone? I just want to know, you know ,
what is that cost ? Is it just transferred over , or are these
new items under communications for the Mirrors programme?
There was also on [page] B -288 . . . The Junior
Minister mentioned a domestic violence specialist. If we
could get a little bit of information on this specific role
and whether this is something that we have already
started to look to find, this person . . . Is this a local expert, or are we having to go overseas to find the talent
for this particular role?
Mr. Chairman, I have just been going through
some of the performance measures. And I am just wondering if the Junior Minister could go through some of
these performance measures so that we have an understanding of what is actually being assessed be-cause as an example on [page] B -285 it says, “Average
number of cases managed per Case Manager (best practice standard: 1 Case Manager to 25 clients) . . .”
And it looks like in 2021/22 we had 48. And then the
forecast for 2022/23 was 50. And then the revised for
2022/23 was 56, which seems to be over double the amount that is the best practice. So, if that is the case,
should we be looking to hire more people to be able to
cover that? [I am] j ust wondering if we could get some
clarification as we are looking through these perfor-mance measures , whether they are being assessed to
make sure we are getting the data that is going to allow us to make sure we are doing everything that we can i n
this particular Ministry.
So, thank you.

Thank you, Senator Smith.
Senator Simmons, I will allow you time now to
answer some of these questions.

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Sure. To answer one of Senator Tucker’s questions, the change reflec ted by the
decrease in investigations is related to the realignment of staff in the organi sation chart and, as such , the reduction. This change will have no impact on services
provided by the investigation team.
And another question was asked: W hat facilities are available for children under 12 years old on the Island ? The private charity Sunshine League used to
provide this service. With this charity closing down, fos-ter care is the only option available for children 12 and
under who are placed on a care order.
To answer another question [regarding] the
communication cost , Mirrors communications cell
phone bills were transferred to DCFS. The individual
who will be trained locally [will] provide support to domestic violence clients who go t hrough the syst ems.
And one more. ADS case manager to client ratio is to demonstrate the current demand on [the] office.
We have engaged [a] management services review
and [have] now received approval for two CM posts.
I hope that answers your questions.

Are there any other Senators who wish
to speak on these h eads?
I think there still may be a question or two outstanding that have been requested so far. If not, Sena-tor Tucker?

Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have a couple more questions , if that is okay ,
from page B -288, the General Summary . And I would,
if I may be allowed to, combine two business units . So,
the first business unit would be 33070 Br angman Home
and business until 33080 Observatory Cottage. I would
like to know why on the p erformance measures . . . I
may actually have quoted the wrong page. B ut I would
like to know on the performance measures . . . because
the two residential facilities , one houses girls, one
houses boys , why the performance measures are not
the same. So, if we could get some clarity around that .
I would like to know from page B -288, General
Summary, business unit 33100, Psycho- Educational
Programme, $2,108,000 [is] budgeted for [the] 2023/24
financial ye ar, which obviously as we know [is a] zero
increase over the prior year . Can the Junior Minister
provide a breakdown of the amounts that will go to each
facility for tuition ? And to be clear, Mr. Chairman, I am
not asking for facility names, just something like,
School A pays “X” amount or is paid “X” amount , just
so that we can get an idea of how much of these funds are actually being allocated to schools overseas.

Next question.

Sen. Robin Tucker: Yes. Again, from page B -288,
General Summary, business unit 33120, Administration. Can the Junior Minister provide a breakdown of
the 2023/24 budget estimate of $ 2.613 [million], which
represents a $281,000 incr ease from the original
2022/23 budget? And some details . . . And forgive me
because there was a lot of information coming out, so


Bermuda Senate she may have already mentioned this . But I just do not
recall what the added $281,000 was for.
Another question that I have is from page B -
289, Subjective Analysis of Current Account Estimates,
Grants and Contributions. The Budget Book . . . I will
just get right to the point. Page C-21, line item 7073,
Cross -Ministry Initiative received a significant increase.
The budget estimate 2022/23 was $75,000, and 2023/24 was increased to $171,000. So, can the Junior
Minister provide the reason for this significant increase
in funding for that particular programme?
I have two more questions if that is okay.

Sure. You are on a roll.
Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you. [Regarding] page B -
291, Performance M easures , 33020, Investigations
and Screening, c an the Junior Minister tell us why performance measure number two, the number of children
who had repeated substantiated abuse or neglect investigation within six months of closure has been discontinued?
And the last question I have for now i s from
page B -291, Performance Measures, business unit
33020, Investigati ons and Screening. It was noted that
last year there had been an increase in referrals for
some categories of sexual abuse. That information actually came out of the details in the 14 March 2022 [Official] Hansard [Report ] (from another place, right? ). It
showed that there were 124 referrals in 2020, [ 197]
cases that were referred in 2021, and that child- onchild sexual abuse or sexualised behaviour increased
significantly from 69 cases in 2020 to 106 in 2021,
which equals 56 per cent of the total number of sexual
abuse referrals. Can the Junior Minister provide an update on the statistics and provide details as to what , if
any, plans the Ministry or the department has to alert
parents about these troubling statistics and to educate
them on how best to protect their children?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Senator Tucker.
Senator Simmons?

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you.
I am still waiting for some answers, but I have
one answer for you, two.
Mirrors has six staff, remaining persons who
help are volunteers, 44 who we have trained who [ build ]
value. Bermuda is working with Quantum Learning Global in which we work with overseas facilitators to help to support the local community programme.
[Regarding] t he breakdown for overseas
schools , we are not able to indicate how much will be
provided to each school because at this point we do not
know which children will need which school. The
schools used are very specific to the child, and not the child t o the school. New schools are reviewed and approved based on the recommendations made based on
comprehensive assessments conducted. The increase in cross- ministry initiatives increased. This relates specifically to the multi -agency
risk assessment committ ee which is a Throne Speech
initiative.

[Pause]

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Just waiting for some more
answers.

[Pause]

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: We do recognise the performance measures are different for the boys and girls
homes and [these] are being revised f or the next reporting period to separate cottage measures from clinical
measures. I hope that answers your question.

I think there is also one, Senator, on
why one of them had discontinued the number of children who had repeat substantiated abuse or neglect .
That target is discontinued for the coming year. I think
that was a question posed by one of the Senators.

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Yes. I am still getting answers coming in.
[Pause]

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Sorry. So, the number of children who had a repeat substance abuse or neglect
within six month s, [the] statistic is still captured by
DCFS and is reported on quarterly in our PQIs.

Senator Tucker, does that answer your
question?
Sen. Robin Tucker: Mr. Chairman, respectfully, it does
not explain why the measure is discontinued in the Budget Book. So, if the Junior Minister could provide
just a bit more clarity specifically in respect to that part. Thank you.
[Pause]
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: So, to answer the question,
we do not know why it was discontinued in the [Budget]
Book. It should not have been removed, and that was
an error. And we will follow up on it.
Thank you.

Thank you, Senator.
I think there was a question ; I think it may have
been from Senator Smith regarding the domestic violence person, whether that person was going to be
hired with a local skill set or whether that would need to
go over to somebody from overseas to fill that role. I
think.

248 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate [Pause]

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: The individuals will be
trained locally to provide support to domestic violence clients who go through the system.

Senator Smith .

Sen. Ben Smith: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair man.
So, I guess my follow -up question to that response is : How is the person identified that would get
the extra training to become the specialist for this particular job? It seems like a very specific job. And for the
training to happen locally, is that being done in conjunction with somebody outside of Bermuda? Just if we could get some clarification of how we get to this expert
locally , [that] would be helpful.
And Mr. Chairman, while I am speaking, I am
just looking again on [page] B-291 under the Performance Measures. I believe it is number four under In-vestigation and Screening. And this is what I meant ear-lier when I said , you know, [needing] some clarity on
the performance measures because they do not seem
to make sense. So, the number of children abuse referrals responded to in the designated response time is at
90 per cent. Considering that you are getting a referral
for abuse, I would think that having thi s done in a timely
fashion would be at 100 per cent. So, I am just wondering why you would not be able to do something this
specific and this important in a timely fashion. And I am
just looking at a lot of these numbers that are just say-ing 100 per cent . You know, I am hoping that we can
have some clarification on where these numbers are coming from because in some cases it is actually stat-ing in the question that it is a specific number, and the
answer is a percentage. So maybe just the language needs to be changed? It would just be helpful , considering how important this process is , for us to know what
these performance measures are so that we know what we are comparing.
Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Smith.

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you.
As stated before, ADS case manager -to-client
ratio is to demonstrate the current demand on [the] office. We had engaged in a management service review
and now received approval for two new case manager
posts. And to also answer your question, we would ad-vertise , we are working with an organisation called
SafeLives [in the] UK.

Senator Smith .

Sen. Ben Smith: Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
So just to put it as clearly as possible, the person who will be trained by the UK firm has been identi-fied, or we are in the process of finding that person who
then will go through training so that they become the
specialist? I just want to know because it sounded like
it was important when it was read out in the brief. If we
could get some details on how we are going to get to
the end result , which is having the expert here locally
to do the job.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We have time, Senator. Yes, please,
go ahead.
Sen. Robin Tucker: This is Head 86, page B -283, Subjective Analysis of Current Account Estimates on Sala-ries. The line item shows a decrease of $6,000, and
while a reduction in payroll might be a good thing, I am
just interested to know why there is a decrease. What
explains the decrease when there is no adjustment in
the staffing number?


Bermuda Senate I would also like to know on page B -284, the
Revenue Summary, if the Junior Minister can provide
an explanation as to this expected revenue source of
$5,000.
[I have] another question [on page] B -285, Performance Measures, business unit 9640, Ageing and
Disabilities Services. Can the Junior Minister tell us
why reporting on the percentage of welfare checks or
face- to-face visits in the following year after disposition
was disconti nued in 2022/23?

Senator Tucker? One last question.

[Pause]

Sen. Robin Tucker: Yes, Mr. Chairman, Head 86, under the General Summary, Grants to the Third Sector, business unit 9670. Can the Junior Minister just provide some clarity around the allocations for 2022/23? The
original budget allocation was $2,673,000. And then it
was revised to $3,431,000. And then of course this
year’s estimate is $2,940,000. So if the Junior Minister
can provide some clarity around that increase, for the
revised figure for 2022/23 that would be most helpful.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Senator Tucker.

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, the question
regarding the decrease in the salary cost for Head 86,
vacant posts are mandated to be budgeted at 75 per
cent for the 2023/24 budget per the Ministry of Finance.
So that’s why there is a decrease.

[Pause]

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Mr. Chairman, Welfare
Check Indicator was discontinued as it was not capturing long- term programme support appropriately. The
intro of our structured decision- making tool would assist with more appropriate performance measures.

Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And
thank you to the Junior Minister for that response.
I would just ask for an undertaking that a performance measure that actually addresses the point
she just made is going to be found in the performance
measures in the Budget Book for maybe next year.
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Sure.
Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you.

The Youth Devel opment Sector.
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: I did answer the Youth Development structure.

Sen. Robin Tucker: The question . . . oh, actually . . .
thank you. Sorry. There are a lot of questions out there.
But—
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: I do have two other answers
for you.

Sen. Robin Tucker: Do you? Okay. Thank you.

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Head 86, [regarding] grants
to the third sector. The revised budget includes special
injection grants to three residential homes. This is not
budgeted for 2023/24.
Also, 96070, Grants to the Third Sector, the revised 2022/23 . . . 34 . . . sorry, one sec ond. Let me get
the amounts. I’m sorry. I answered that question already.
I believe that was all the questions, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Senator Simmons.
Senator Tucker, you have one more to do?
Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I
thank the Junior Minister for her response as it relates to the revised estimate, but if she can provide a little bit
of clarity, because I am not sure what that means, that
there was a special funding to three residential homes. As far as I am awar e, there is not sort of a significant
increase in children going to the homes or anything like
that. I could be wrong, so I stand to be corrected. But if
she can give some clarity around exactly what those monies were for that would be great. Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Simmons. As I
was saying before, I really appreciate the time you gave
to people to ask questions. It is a very meaningful process when time is permitted so I greatly thank you for
that.
So, having said that, Senator, would you like to
move these heads?

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I move that Heads 86 and 23 be approved as
printed.

Thank you, Senator.
We return back to Madam President.
Thank you all.

Senate resumed at 7:06 pm

(Sen. the Hon. Joan E. Dillas -Wright, President, presiding)

REPORT OF COMMITTEE

ESTIMATES OF REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
FOR THE YEAR 2023/24

The President: Good evening, Senators.
First of all, I want to thank you all for the debate
today. It has been a long day for you all but you have
participated well and I particularly want to thank the two chairpersons, Vice President Kiernan Bell and Senator John Wight. Thank you, very much, for chairing the Committee.
We will now move on with the Orders of the
Day. I would just like to say to you all that we have a number of Bills to debate, but I have been asked by Senator Arianna Hodgson if she can do her . . . she
wants to do two Bills tonight and that would be Bill 6
which is . . . hold on . . . which is the Land Tax Bill,
which is Bill 8, and Bill 10 which is the Customs Tariff.
Do I have agreement from Senators that she
can do that?
Thank you.
Senator Arianna Hodgson, if you would like to
begin.
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, I move that the Bill entitled
the Land Tax Amendment Act 2023 be now read a sec-ond time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.

BILL

SECOND READING

LAND TAX AMENDMENT ACT 2023
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, today I am presenting to this
Honourable Chamber the
Land Tax Amendment A ct
2023 . T his Bill will amend the Land Tax Act 1967 by
increasing the applicable rates of land tax for the two highest bands. Madam President, as the Honourable Premier stated in the Budget Speech, Bermuda land taxes for high-value properties are comparatively low
when looking at other jurisdictions. Therefore, to pro-vide additional revenue to the Government an increase of 5 per cent will be implemented for the top two bands
of applicable land tax rates. This increase is expected
to yield an additional $2.4 million in tax revenue for the Government.
Madam President, as Senators in this Honourable Chamber are aware, the annual tax period for land
taxes runs from July 1 to June 30 of each year. So as
is customary for land taxes, the rate change is pro-posed to go into effect as of the 1
st of July 2023. This
will ensure that the Office of the Tax Commissioner has
sufficient time to make the necessary adjustments to
billing amounts and notices to be provided to impacted homeow ners and that those homeowners who will be
affected have reasonable notice of the increased amounts becoming due.
Madam President, we do not take increases of
tax on any taxpayer in this country lightly. However, we


Bermuda Senate are at a time when the Government must find a balanced approach to increasing revenue to help fund critical infrastructure projects and other expenditure as required to deliver vital services to the public. As stated
in the Budget Speech, the Government will be imple-menting changes to a number of fees, charges and
taxes to meet its revenue targets. And while this Bill
may raise applicable rates for the top two bands of land
tax, this increase is in contrast to the fact that the vast
majority of homeowners will not see an increase in their
land t axes this year.
I will also add, Madam President, that the majority of the workforce, which we can safely assume
also includes a number of homeowners, will see their
taxes decreased in the upcoming fiscal year so we believe that this Bill is striking the right balance with today’s Bill. Thank you, Madam President.

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

Thank you, Madam President.
It is just a question as to what jurisdictions this
Government uses for their benchmarking. Thank you.

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Sorry, Madam President, I
know from the conversations that were had that the initial conversations were actually comparing us to the
US and so we were looking at s ome of the states along
the East Coast, and it was actually some industry partners who actually had raised this to us. And it was a
space where we actually realised that we could flex a bit more. It is also worth noting that 4 per cent (I believe) of the t op properties will be affected by this
change.

The President: Would any other Senator care to speak
on this Bill?
No? Then Senator Hodgson, it is back to you.
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, I move that [Standing Order] 26 be suspended in respect of this Bill.

The President: No, do the second reading first.
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: I do apologise and I should
know better. I usually —

The President: You usually do.

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: So, Madam President, I move
that the Bill entitled the Land Tax Amendment Act 2023
be now read a second time.

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

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 2 6

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
I move that [Standing Order] 26 be suspended
in respect of this Bill.

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

[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
I move that the Bill entitled the Land Tax
Amendment Act 2023 be now read a third time.

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

BILL

THIRD READING

LAND TAX AMENDMENT ACT 2023

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
I move that the Bill do now pass.
The President: Is there any objection to the passage
of the Bill?
No objection. The Bill is passed.
Thank you, [Senator] Arianna Hodgson and
Junior Minister.
[Motion carried: The Land Tax Amendment Act 2023
was read a third time and passed.]

The President: You can move on to item number 10. I
believe you wanted to do that Bill now.

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Yes. Thank you, Madam
President.
Madam President, I move that the Bill entitled
the Customs Tariff Amendment Act 2023 be now read
a second time.

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

BILL

SECOND READING

252 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate CUSTOMS TARIFF A MENDMENT ACT 2023

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President , Senators are requested
now to give consideration to the Bill entitled the Customs Tariff Amendment Act 2023 .
Madam President, the Bill proposes to amend
the Customs Tariff Act 1970 with measures reducing the sugar tax on selected goods; and creating new duty
reliefs. The measures of the Bill affect both the First
Schedule and the Fifth Schedule to the principal Act.
Madam President , in the 2023/24 Budget
Statement in support of the E stimates of Revenue and
Expenditure, the Government promised to table in this
session changes to the principal Act that will ensure
that the 75 per cent sugar tax is focused on sodas and
drinks with significant amount s of added sugar, [and]
candy made primarily from sugar and chocolate.
Madam President , in keeping with this promise, this Bill
proposes to reduce the duty rate applicable to selected items that have a relatively small amount of added sugar. Specifically, the Bill provides a lower rate of
25 per cent for low-sugar drinks and nutrition bars . For
non-dairy creamers containing added sugar, the duty
rate is to be reduce d to 35 per cent.
Madam President , I have no doubt that Senators have heard it said many times before that Bermudians are eating and drinking too many added sugars.
Health officials have consistently warned our community that added sugar in our diets can contribute to self -
inflicted health problems such as weight gain and obe-sity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. For this reason, the sugar tax is something that the Government will
continue to levy on beverages and food stuffs with moderate to high levels of added sugar.
Madam President , I now progress to those
measures of the Bill respecting new duty relief . In the
Budget Statement, the Government recognised that
business investment is key to economic growth and
acknowledge that customs duties charges for upgrades to equipment represent a disincentive to business own-ers to invest. Accordingly, t he Bill provides 100 per cent
end-use duty relief for goods reported for capital investment schemes for the business establishments of per-sonal care service providers. Personal care service
providers will include non- medical personal care services such as barbershops, beauty salons, fitness centres or gyms, massage parlours and spas.
Madam President , the Bill also proposes to introduce a 100 per cent end- use duty relief for articles of
school uniforms imported by local business for resale.
This measure is intended to help reduce the cost of school uniforms for the parents of school- aged children. The relief will cover uniform items such as jackets, blazers, windcheater s and wind- jackets, school
crest patches, ties, trousers and shorts, dresses, skirts
and divided skirts, shirts, sporting T-shirts and vests,
jerseys, pullovers, cardigans and school shoes. Madam President, the Bill further proposes to
eliminate duty for imports of stone aggregate for use in the local commercial manufacturer of structural concrete products such as ready -mix concrete and concrete blocks. This measure is calculated to mitigate any increase to construction costs arising from the rapidly
dwindling supply of local limestone aggregate.
Madam President, finally, the Bill provides
100 per cent duty relief for articles of uniform and
equipment for Bermuda’s international- level sports
teams . Madam President, Bermuda’s international
level of sports teams are ambassadors for our Island
nation both on and off the field. The Bermuda Cricket
Team’s recent success at the ICC T20 World Cup,
Americas sub- regional qualifier in Buenos Aires, Argentina, could not be a better illustration of this fact. A
great deal of positive international exposure has accrued to Bermuda in consequence of this fantastic
achievement by our Bermuda cricket team.
Madam President, it is hoped that the new relief of goods for Bermuda’s international sports teams
will encourage more investment in the further development of our Island’s international level team athletes.
Madam President, i n addition t o the principal
measures of the Bill that I have already described, the
opportunity is being taken to streamline the importation of goods for Government capital expenditures schemes, and to make a small number of clarifying
changes in both the First and Fifth Schedules to the
principal Act.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Arianna Hodgson.
Would any Senator care to speak on this Bill?
No? On the Customs Tariff.
Senator De Couto, you have the floor.

First of all, I really welcome the duty breaks on the school uniforms, on the capital investments, and to encourage this kind of local
investment and I definitely think that this is a good idea.
Unfortunately, with the sugar tax, this Bill does
not address the original problems. We know that the
monies raised by the sugar tax were promised to go into education and to improve health, and that has not happened. These changes do not affect that.
We also know that the mechanics of how this
works means that these price differences do not always filter down to the consumer. So let me take . . . you
know, I like to drink a Coke Zero or a Diet Coke. You go into the shop [and it] costs the same as what we call a full- fat Coke. So, those people drinking the pineapple


Bermuda Senate soda or the full -fat Coke, as you . . . they are not incentivised to drink the Diet Coke because the distributors
are just taking the tax money, the tax charges, and they
are just spreading it across all of their goods. So unfor-tunately, these sugar tax duties do not quite achieve the goal when it comes to some of these goods because of how that extra cost filters down to the marketplace.
So unfortunately, you know, while I am glad to
see the reduction on some of the items, I just don’t think
it is going to address the issues that people are having with this.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator De Couto.
Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?
Senator Ben Smith, you have the floor.

Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Madam President.
I just want to make a couple of quick remarks
on this, specifically, the reduction for the uniforms for sport teams. I think it is a really important one. Anything
that we can do to lower the cost for our teams but at the
same time in the last couple of years we have changed our national sports colours, or there is a lot of change
in uniforms and it would be important for us to have our
teams leave Bermuda and compete looking like the na-tional team that we want to see.
So, if this is going to help incentivise that I think
it would be a really good thing. And maybe a step for-ward (I know that I have the Minist er in the Chamber),
to maybe look at an opportunity to maybe buy in bulk so that we can further reduce that cost for teams. You know, as a national incentive for us to be able to do
that, I know that it has been discussed several times but I think it would be a great initiative [to do] that.
Just following on what my colleague just said
about the sugar tax. This has been an issue for quite some time. One of the main factors behind the support
of the sugar tax was that you were going to be able to
use that funding for the education portion of this for actually reducing the cost of the healthy items so that we
can encourage our people to eat healthy.
One of the biggest problems that we have in
Bermuda right now is that the expense of healthy eating
is so hig h. So, yes, there is this issue of the sugar tax
changing these taxes in order to affect certain items,
but as we were doing the research on this particular
item, we have actually found that the item that went up the most after the sugar tax —the part that was shocking to me —was the price of bottled water. And that was
because the stores knew that this was an item that eve-rybody was going to buy regardless, so when they
shared the tax amongst the items this was an item that
was easy to bury the tax [on], wh ich was the opposite
of what the goal of the tax was.
So, anything we can [do] to start to move toward getting better education for how we take care of our health in the country, anything we can do to bring
down the cost of the healthy foods, and do every thing
that we can to try to make sure that our population is healthy, we will support.
So, thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Ben Smith.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Hearing none, then Senator Hodgson, Junior
Minister of Finance, it is over to you.

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
What I can say is that on Thursday we will be
sharing more details in terms of our investments on
health promotion. So, I hope that will satisfy some of
the concerns for the Opposition. Again, when we talk about the relief that Government provides, it is hard for
us as a Government to provide relief for that and then
it only gets soaked up by the energy companies, by the
groceries, by so many other entities. Right? S o, essentially, we are going to continue to try to provide the re-lief, but we cannot say with certainty that these changes
are going to result in a better solution or a better option
for the consumers. That is a conversation we can go
into, but I will leav e that for today.
I would encourage persons who notice the
price increases on things such as water to notify the right authorities to our cost of living . . . let them know.
We can only work with the information that is provided.
With that being said, Mad am President, I move
that the Bill entitled the Customs Tariff Amendment Act
2023 be now read a second time.

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

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 2 6
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
I move that [Standing Order] 26 be suspended
in respect of this Bill.

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

[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
I move that the Bill entitled the Customs Tariff
Amendment Act 2023 be now read a third time.

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

254 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate BILL

THIRD READING

CUSTOMS TARIFF AMENDMENT ACT 2023

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
I move that the Bill do now pass.
The President: Is there any objection to the passage
of the Bill?
No objection. The Bill is passed.
Thank you, Senator Arianna Hodgson.
[Motion carried: The Customs Tarif f Amendment Act
2023 was read a third time and passed.]
The President: Senator Hodgson, can I just confirm
with you that you are carrying over the items number 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12? Those are the Bills under the Finance.

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Yes, I have them written so
we will be . . .

The President: You will do them another day, you are
not going to—
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Yes.

The President: Fine. Thank you. It is just to let all Senators know that they are being carried over.
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you.
We will now get back to the beginning of our
Orders of the Day.
We will now entertain the second reading of the
Fire Safety Amendment Act 2023 and this is in the name of Senator Rev. Dr. Emily Dill, Junior Minister for National Security. Senator Dill, you have the floor.

Madam President, I
am presenting to the Senate this evening the Bill enti-tled Fire Safety Amendment Act 2023
.
Madam President, the Bill before the Senate
seeks to amend the Fire Safety Act 2014 to clarify that the National Fire Protection Association ( NFPA ) standards and codes do not apply to the operation of air
crash and fire rescue services in Bermuda.
Madam President, under the Fire Safety Act
2014, the NFPA standards and codes apply to premises. And it was never intended that the standards and codes would apply to the operation of air crash and fire rescue services in Bermuda. Madam President, the operation of air crash and fire rescue services current ly
[complies] and will continue to comply with the UK Air
Navigation (Overseas Territories) Orders or any Over-seas Territories Aviation Requirements (OTAR) made thereunder in relation to air crash and fire rescue ser-vices.
Madam President, the purpose of this Bill is to
amend section 7 of the Act to provide expressly that the NFPA codes do not apply to air crash and [ fire] rescue
services at the Bermuda airport. Madam President, t his
change will not affect the safety of the travelling public.
The Air Cras h and Fire Rescue Service will
continue to meet UK Air Navigation (Overseas Territo-ries) Orders and any Overseas Territories Aviation Requirements [OTAR].
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Dill.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

SENATE VISITOR

The President: And before I open the floor to the other
Senators I would just like to acknowledge and welcome the Permanent Secretary of National Security, Mr. Chris Farrow. Welcome to you, sir.

[Fire Safety Amendment Act 2023, second reading debate continuing]
The President: Would any Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Ben Smith, Opposition Leader [in the
Senate] you have the floor.
Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, I just have a question if the
Junior Minister is able to provide to us what the NFPA
would have . . . if we were implementing and following
those rules compared to the rules that we are currently
following and will continue to follow, what would have


Bermuda Senate been the difference between those two? Because we
are spending the time to specifically say that we will not
be following the NFPA for the Bermuda Airport. I would just like to know what was the difference? Is it a number of firefighters that would have been different? Is it the services that would have been provided? If we could
just find out what this difference means so that we know after this Bill is passed what the difference will be. Even though the public will probably not see the difference, it would be important for us to know why we had to make this particular amendment . . . to see what the difference would be. So, thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Smith.
Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?
Hearing none, then Senator Dill, it is over to
you, Junior Minister of National Security.

Madam P resident, I
move that the Bill do now pass.
The President: It is has been moved that the Bill entitled the Fire Safety Amendment Act 2023 do now pass.
Is there is any objection?
There is no objection; the Bill is passed.
[Motion carried: The Fire Safety Amendment Act 2023 was read a third time and passed.]
The President: Thank you, Senator Dill.
I think the next Bill is yours as well, the Police
(Amendment and Validation) Act 2023.

Madam President, I
present to the Senate this evening the Bill entitled
Police (Amendment and Validation) Act 2023 .
Madam President, the Bill before the Senate
seeks to amend the Police Act 1974 to clarify the scope of the information that may be supplied by the Bermuda Police Service. It will also validate the information provided and fees charged for the information provided under the Supply of Information for Civil Proceedings
Regulations 1968 prior to this Bill coming into force.
Madam President, the Supply of Information
for Civil Proceedings Regulations 1968 provides for the Commissioner of Police in his absolut e discretion in
each case to direct the supply of information and evi-dence in the possession of the Police Service concerning traffic and similar accidents to bona fide parties, to civil proceedings, their legal representatives, trade un-ions or friendly societies bona fide acting on the behalf of such parties and to insurance companies on application, which shall be made in writing to the officer in
charge. It also provides for a fee of $100 to be charged
for the Supply of Information.
Madam President, the Police Act 1974 provides for the Governor to make orders for the better
carrying out of the Act, including the conditions under
which information, reports and statements in the pos-session of the Service may be made available to private
256 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate persons, and the payment of fees for any information,
statement, or report so made available, and for any search therefore.
Madam President, the purpose of this Bill is to
amend section 32 of the Act to clarify that the infor-mation, reports, and statements made available to private persons, must not only be in the possession but
under the control of the Bermuda Police Service. It will
also provide specifically that the service may provide information in its possession as to whether a person has been convicted of an offence by a court in Ber-muda, and provide that the information, reports and
statements in the possession and control of the Service, now available to private persons, may also be made available to a body of persons.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Emily Dill.
Would any Senator care to speak on this Bill?
Senator Ben Smith, Opposition Leader [in the
Senate], you have the floor.
Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Madam President.
The Opposition does not have any issue with
the amendment that has been put forward. Thank you.
The President: Thank you.
Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?
Hearing none, then Senator Dill, Junior Minister of National Security, it is back to you.

Madam President, I
move that the Bill do now pass.
The President: It has been moved that the Bill entitled
the Police (Amendment and Validation) Act 2023 do now pass. Is there any objection to that motion?
There is no objection. The Bill is passed.
Thank you, Senator Dill and thank you Senators.
[Motion carried: The Police (Amendment and Valida-tion) Act 2023 was read a third time and passed.]
The President: We move on to the next item on our
agenda, and that is the Public Holidays Amendment
and Validation Act 2023 in the name of Senator the Honourable Owen Darrell spokesman for the Cabinet Office, Government Leader in the Senate, and Minister.
It’s over to you.
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, I move that the Bill entitled
the Public Holidays Amendment and Validation Act 2023 be now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.

BILL

SECOND READING

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AMENDMENT AND
VALIDATION ACT 2023
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam President, the
Public Holidays Amendment and Validation Act 2023

before this Honourable Senate amends the Public Hol-idays Act 1947 to make proclamations made by the Governor under the Act subject to the negative resolu-tion procedure and validates proclamations previously made under the Act.
Madam President, Honourable Senators will
recall that the Legislature was most recently invited to consider a proclamation for a public holiday on the 18
th
of October 2021 to mark the Olympic success of Dame Flora Duffy. Madam President, Honourable Senators
will know th at the practice has been to make such procBermuda Senate lamations without parliamentary scrutiny. However, recent advice from the Attorney General’s Chambers has
confirmed that this is not the correct process.
I can advise Honourable Senators that under
section [1] of t he Statutory Instruments Act 1977 a statutory instrument means among other things a proclamation. Under section 6(1) of that Act every statutory
instrument made by the Governor is subject to parliamentary scrutiny. Under section 6(2) the affirmative
resolution procedure applies unless the enabling Act
specifically applies the negative resolution procedure.
Honourable Senators will no doubt have taken
note that section 4 of the Public Holidays Act 1947 does
not specify the negative resolution procedure and, as
such, it is the affirmative resolution procedure that ap-plies to proclamations made under that Act. Madam
President, this can be impractical in circumstances
when the Legislature is not in session and there is a
need for a public holiday to be declared for some observance or event.
Accordingly, Madam President, the Legislature
is invited to approve amendments to the Act to ensure
that proclamations made under the Public Holidays Act
1947 will now be subject to the negative resolution procedure. Additionally, Madam President, in considering the previous practice it was further proposed to validate
those proclamations previously made under the Act. It
should be noted that it is opportune to make these amendments presently in light of the proclamation proposed to be made to declare Monday, May 8, 2023, a
public holiday to mark the coronation of His Majesty
King Charles III.
I am pleased therefore to commend this Bill to
the Senate for consideration and support of Honourable Senators.
Thank you, Madam Presi dent.
The President: Thank you, Senator Owen Darrell,
Spokesperson for the Cabinet Office.
Would any Senator care to speak on this Bill?
Senator Ben Smith, Opposition Leader [in the
Senate], you have the floor.
Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Madam President. Thank
you to the Minister for those brief remarks.
The Opposition is in support of this and we understand that you have to make these adjustments in order for us to move forward. So thank you.
The President: Thank you, Senator Smith.
Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?
No? We have full support.
It is over to you, Minister Darrell.
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President. And just to note, people may interested that in
recent years the proclamations that have been rec-orded are holidays such as the Dame Lois Browne- Evans funeral holiday which was in 2007; the anniversary of the arrival of the first Portuguese immigrants and this was in 2019; the declaration of Bermuda Day public
holiday which was in 2019; the Flora Duffy public holiday in 2021; and the public holiday and National Day of
Mourning of Queen Elizabeth II which was recently in
2022.
So, Madam President, I move t hat the Bill entitled the Public Holidays Amendment and Validation Act
2023 be now read a second time.

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

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 26

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

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

[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam President, I
move that the Bill entitled the Public Holidays Amendment and Validation Act 2023 be now read a third time.

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

BILL

THIRD READING

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AMENDMENT AND
VALIDATION ACT 2023

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam President, I
move that the Bill do now pass.

The President: It has been moved that the Bill entitled
the Public Holidays Amendment and Validation Act
2023 do now pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
There is no objection. The Bill is passed.

[Motion carried: The Public Holidays Amendment and
Validation Act 2023 was read a third time and passed.]

The President: Thank you, Minister.
258 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate We will now move on to the next item on our
agenda and this is the second reading of the Munic ipalities Amendment Act 2023 in the name of Senator Junior Minister for Public Works, Senator Leslie Robinson.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

SENATE VISITORS
The President: And before I open the floor let me just
acknowledge and recognise the Permanent S ecretary
for Public Works, Mr. Randy Rochester. And welcome to you, sir, and colleague, Stephen Simons. Welcome to you both.
[Municipalities Amendment Act 2023, second reading debate, continuing]
The President: Senator Robinson, you can present
your Bil l.
Sen. Leslie Robinson: Thank you, Madam President.
I move that the Bill entitled Municipalities
Amendment Act 2023 be now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.

BILL

SECOND READING

MUNICIPALITIES AMENDMENT ACT 2023
Sen. Leslie Robinson: I am now presenting the Bill
entitled Municipalities Amendment Act 2023
.
This Bill seeks to amend the Municipalities Act
1923 to reduce the time frame between an ordinary mu-nicipal election for the Mayor and Councillors of the
Corporations of Hamilton and St. George’s from three
years to two years, therefore allowing any successful candidate upon the conclusion of an ordinary election to serve for a period of two years in their position rather than three.
Madam President, following on from the Honourable Minister of Public Works in the prestigious House of Assembly on March 10, the duly elected Government made two commitments to enact municipal reform in not only the two election platforms, but in the 2020 Throne Speech as well. Though these vows were
made before my tenure here in this Chamber, I su pport
my Government’s intention and obligation to keep manifesto commitments that are made in the wider public interest.
Madam President, the Government was democratically elected twice on a platform that included municipal reform. And we have been working diligently to progress this initiative. However, continuous court matters have delayed the fulfilment of this pledge. What do I mean by this? Madam President, as a fresh pair of eyes on this matter, please indulge me as I provide a quick [recapitulation] on why we are considering this
Bill that lay before the Chamber today.
In 2019, the Government intended to legislate
municipal reform in accordance with the aforemen-tioned commitments. However, as many here today will recall, this Chamber rejected the Bill. Again, as this was before my time, it is not my place to dictate what was right or wrong. I merely point out the reasons on all
sides that were well articulated and understood at the
time. And I only mention this to put into perspective with the present day. Shortly after this rejection, the Corpo-ration of Hamilton launched against the Government a constitutional challenge in relation to the said Munici-palities Reform Bill.
Madam President, as a reminder to yourself
and colleagues, the Supreme Court of Bermuda ruled in favour of the Government as articulated in the Chief Justice’s judgment of Corporation of Hamilton v the At-torney -General and the Governor of Bermuda 2019.
Quickly thereafter this ruling, the Corporation
of Hamilton then appealed to the Bermuda Court of Appeal, as is their constitutional right . However, this court
matter was right in the middle of an ordinary municipal election year. Therefore, after consultation with both
municipalities, those being the Corporation of Hamilton
and the Corporation of St. George, it was agreed by all
parties to postpone the ordinary municipal election for one year from May 2022 to May 2023 to allow for the judgment from the Court of Appeal. The Municipalities
Amendment Act 2022 was subsequently passed in both the House of Assembly and this Chamber.
Madam President, following that legislation,
the Appellate Court judgment was received which was ruled in the Government’s favour. Upon receipt of this ruling, the Corporation of Hamilton indicated that they will be seeking a further review of the decision by the
Privy Council of the United Kingdom. Although as the Honourable Minister and the Mayor of Hamilton have stated, there is no indication as to the time frame for this review.
Now, this brings us to today where we await
the ruling of the Privy Council. Madam President, it
seems this twice democratically elected Government’s
commitment to enact municipality reform is taking a lit-tle longer than expected. Vision has been decided, re-search done, and there has been support from the Cor-poration of St. George. The last thing remaining before this administration brings forth a revised plan and legislation is this review during which a municipal election
is scheduled to occur.
With precedent being set previously, at first,
Madam President, this administration originally in-tended to postpone the municipal elections, again, while awaiting the UK’s Privy Council decision. HowBermuda Senate ever, after consultation with the corporations, we revised our approach and instead elected to reduce the
length of time for municipal elections because:
1) it allows the opportunity for any serving officials to step down without triggering an extraordinary
election at taxpayers’ expense;
2) it gives outside individuals the opportunity to
serve; and most importantly
3) if the judgment is received from the Privy
Council within 2024 and supports the decision of the Bermuda Courts, this method allows for a quicker fulfilment of this country’s duly elected Government’s goal
of municipal reform without the ousting of any elected
incumbent municipal offi cer.
Madam President, as the Honourable Minister
Burch stated in the House of Assembly, the Government will fulfil its promises to the people of Bermuda who have put their faith in this administration. Municip al
reform by the Corporations of Hamilton and St. George
will be advanced. But in the meantime we must allow for the Privy Council process to run its course.
Madam President, clause by clause, if I can
just mention the two clauses?

The President: You cert ainly may, Senator Robinson.

Sen. Leslie Robinson: This Bill would reduce the
timeframe between an ordinary municipal election for
the Mayor and Councillors of the Corporations of Hamilton and St. George from three years to two years.
Clause 1 of the Bill is self -explanatory.
Clause 2 amends section 9 of the Municipalities Act 1923 by reducing the length of time between
municipal elections from three years to two years and deleting a spent provision.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank y ou, Senator Leslie Robinson,
the Junior Minister or Public Works.
Would any Senator care to speak on this Bill?
Senator De Couto, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam President.
I think we can agree that given where we are
today the exercise of democracy is preferable to not
permitting it to be exercised. And I am sure that the rate
payers of the corporations would welcome the opportunity to have their say in who was running the c orporations that spend their taxes.
But frankly, Madam President, we should
never have been here. The election should not have
been suspended and the Government should not have
been pursuing this so- called reform.
Madam President, we look around today at this
Island and we have numerous, numerous problems: Our children’s education; this Government’s staggering
debt that is threatening the future of our future generations; violence; roads that are not in good condition; trash that does not get picked up on regular basis; not
enough hotel beds to support the tourism industry we
need; not enough flights. Madam President, we need
more— better jobs and a better economy. That is the
reform that we need in this country, Madam President.
This so -called municipal reform does none of
those things. In my mind it is about a power struggle or a need for control. There is no problem, Madam President, that you or I have today that this would solve. I
look around the City of Hamilton and the roads are being paved quite well, the trash is collected regularly, [and] the street lamps work. My understanding is they
are a very good employer for their staff. My view is that
the Government should just leave them alone and
crack on with the problems that they have in front of
them.
As for St. George’s, Madam President, they do
not need municipal reform, they need a tourism industry that is working, they need support from this Government and they need an economy that is booming. And
I would note that several references were made by the
Junior Minister that the Supreme Court ruled in their favour and so on and so forth. We all know, Madam President, those rulings can go either way as they go up.
So, we ought to wait until we get the final version or
opinion from the Privy Council before we put too much
weight on what has already happened.
So, in conclusion, Madam President, while we
are glad that the rate payers will have their opportunity
to exercise their vote, we are regretful that we are even
in this position to start with.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator De Couto.
Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam President, while
I understand —

The President: Senator Darrell.

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Sorry.
—what Senator De Couto was saying, as my
Senate colleague and Junior Minister did point out ear-lier in her brief, the debate about the takeover has been
discussed over and over on multiple occasions. At this
time we are not here to rehash a lot of the things that I
know Senator De Couto and quite possibly those whom he represents wish to rehash over and over. The goal
here, Madam President, is to actually advance this Bill
for what is in the best interest of these municipalities
and what is in the best interest of Bermudians.
So, Madam President, I implore the rest of the
Senate this evening to take a look at [why] we are actually here and [what] our objectives [are] this evening
so that we can advance this Bill and push on to more
important matters down the road.
Thank you, Madam President.
260 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate The President: Thank you, Minister Darrell.
Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?
Senator John Wight, you have the floor.

Sen. John Wight: Thank you, Madam President.,
I am not a supporter of this municipal reform. I
don’t really understand why Bermuda is better off with this reform, but I think there are so many priorities for
Government to focus on that I am just a little disap-pointed that we are where we are today. But in the whole scheme of things I won’t say anything other than
what I have just said.
Thank you, Madam President.

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

Sen. Leslie Robinson: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled Municipalities Amendment Act 2023 be
now read a second time.

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

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 2 6
Sen. Leslie Robinson: Madam President, I move that
Standing Order 26 be suspended in respect of this Bill.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]
Sen. Leslie Robinson: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled Municipalities Amendment Act 2023 be now read a third time.
The President: Is there any objection to the third reading?
No objection.
BILL

THIRD READING

MUNICIPALITIES AMENDMENT ACT 2023
Sen. Leslie Robi nson: Madam President, I move that
the Bill do now pass.
The President: Is there any objection to the passage
of the Bill?
There is no objection. The Bill entitled the Municipalities Amendment Act 2023 is passed. Thank you, Senator Leslie Robinson, Juni or
Minister for Public Works.
The Bill is passed.
[Motion carried: The Municipalities Amendment Act 2023 was read a third time and passed.]

The President: Moving on then and continuing with our
agenda. The next item, there are several of them that have been carried over, but the next one is the consideration of the draft Regulation entitled the Marine and
Ports Authority (Pilotage Dues) Regulations 2023. And
that is in the name of Senator Dr. Emily Dill, Junior Minister for Transport. You have the floor .
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam President —

[Crosstalk]

Madam President, I
move that the Bills [sic] entitled Marine and Ports (Seaborne Services) Regulations 2023; Marine and Ports
Authority (Pilotage Dues) Regulations 2023; and Marine and Ports Authority (Port Dues) Regulations 2023
be now read a second time.

The President: It is not a Bill is it a regulation so —
[Crosstalk]

The President: We can carry it over.

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam President, we
can carry those over until Wednesday.

The President: Yes, we can carry all of the rest over.

[Inaudible interjec tions]
The President: Yes, all right. Senators, we will carry all
Regulations over to our next meeting.
We will now move on then to item number 14
on our agenda.

MOTIONS

The President: There are none.

CONGRATULATORY AND/OR
OBITUARY SPEECHES

The P resident: Would any Senator care to speak?
Senator Ben Smith, you have the floor.

Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Madam President.
I would just like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the recipients of the awards from the Sports Awards that happened over the weekend. Most


Bermuda Senate people will know [of] the hard work that goes into athletes preparing for high- level competition locally and internationally. It is an amazing kind of hard- work project
where a lot of times they are doing this work with people
not seeing what they are achieving day to day. And to be able to recognise them I think is extremely important.
I would like to take this opportunity to also congratulate all the volunteers and coaches and officials
who work along with these athletes for them to reach
the heights that they have. So congratulations to eve-rybody who participated and for all of our winners.
Thank you.

The President: Thank you, Senator Ben Smith, Opposition Leader [in the Senate].
Would any other Senator care to speak?

Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam President, I too
congratulate—

The President: Senator Darrell.

Sen. the Hon. Owe n Darrell: Sorry. I would like to congratulate the Bermuda Football Association [BFA] in
the completion of one part of their football season yesterday and that was the completion of the Premier Division league. The league was actually won by the PHC, Pembr oke Hamilton Club.
I did have the stats here, but I don’t have them
in front of me. But I happened to be on hand with the MP for the area, MP Neville Tyrrell, up at the field in
Warwick yesterday and to see the jubilation on the
faces of their fans as wel l as the players for all the hard
work they have put in. And as the daily reported today,
they did secure the league title with 9:0 victory over an-other club, which unfortunately has been relegated.
But I know the BFA has another very important
weekend coming up next weekend where we have our national team playing as well as the finale of the still -tobe-decided first division. And then I think the BFA will
finish off this part of their football season with the FA
Cup on April 2. So I just want to congratulate the BFA
and in this instance the Pembroke Hamilton Club for winning the Premier Division league trophy 2022- 23.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Minister Darrell.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Senator Robin Tucker, you have the floor.

Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Madam President.
Just very quickly, I just wanted to say congratulations to Mr. Glenn Fubler and his team for organising such a wonderful event on Saturday, the Peace Walk,
where everyone gathered from and left from Bermuda
College and ended at Warwick Workmen’s Club. A
bunch of my colleagues were there and there were about maybe 60 people or so, altogether, which is very, very good, especially for their first initiative.
And also MP Scott Pearman as well as MP Ianthia Simmons -Wade who are the MPs from the area,
also participated and were part of leading that initiative
as well. So, again, I just want to say thank you for organising it and again, congratulations. It was a really,
really great event.
Also, I would just like to say congratulations to
little Lara Holdipp. That is the 10- year-old who sacrificed her long flowing hair and participated in the St.
Baldrick’s event to raise money for cancer victims. So I
just want to say congratulations to her. [It w as a] very
bold move. And from what I understand she is very
proud of herself for doing that, and obviously her parents are as well.
So, thank you, Madam President, and of
course, everyone who participated in St. Baldrick’s.
Thank you.

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

Thank you, Madam
President.
I first of all would like to take the opportunity to
congratulate a local technology firm called Paradise
Hub which will be featured on season 3 on Bloomberg
TV on a show called “Beyond Innovation.” This is exciting because this particular show features innovative
and new and emerging technologies. Two venture capitalists Anthony Lacavera and journalist Michael Ban-croft, travel the globe in search of investors and founders who are taking risks and betting on our future. And
they were recently here in Bermuda in order to tape that
episode and we look forward to seeing it on season 3.
And the name of the show again is Beyond Innovation
and it is Paradise [Hub].
Madam President, I would also like to take the
time this evening to express my sincere condolences to
the family of Mr. Gerald St. George Simons. Mr. Simons
was a choir director and also a singer with a beautiful
tenor voice. He was an avid sportsman (I am told) in his
younger years and later a sports fan. Gerald was some-one who you heard before you saw him. He was a
strong supporter of the Rangers and the St. George’s
Cup Match team which is not surprising given that his
middle name was St. George. He loved blue- and-blue
and considered himself the unofficial coach and expert
for all of his sports teams. He had a larg er-than- life personality, an infectious laugh and warmth that embraced
everyone that he met. Gerald will be deeply missed and
we pray that he will rest in peace and that his family will
carry on his legacy of love and laughter.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Dill.
Does any other Senator care to speak?
262 20 March 2023 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda Senate Senator De Couto, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam President.
First, I would just like to send my condolences
to the family of Shirley Tuzo of Ten Pin Crescent. I am
a little late on this but I just wanted to send [the family]
my best wishes.
Moving on from there, down the hill, I would like
to associate myself with the congratulatory remarks for PHC. I would like to associate myself with the Senator’s remarks for the Peace Walk which I attended and it was
a beautiful day for a walk with a large group of people.
And I would like to associate myself with the
remarks with respect to all the awardees and attendees
of the Sports Awards. I would like to single out Sebas-tian Kempe. I mean, he is a family friend and he also won as a Youth Sportsperson of the Year. I want to
congratulate him on all of his achievements this year.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator De Couto.
Would any other Senator care to speak at this
time?
No? Then I would just like to associate myself
with the condolences that have been expressed for the
family of Mr. Gerald Simons.
With that, I turn over to Minister Owen Darrell
for adjournment.
ADJO URNMENT
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: This came faster than I
thought, Madam President.
Madam President, I now do ask that we adjourn to Wednesday, March 22, 2023.
The President: Yes. Thank you.
Would any Senator care to speak on the motion to adjourn?
Senator De Couto, you have the floor.

I have already missed
bedtime, so here we ar e.
Madam President, we come here today to discuss the work of the country. Now, you know me, I like to use my facts and figures, Madam President. And we have this thing in debate called ad hominem. What that
means is that if you cannot debate the facts and figures
of the argument being applied, because you don’t have a good response on the merits of the case, what you
do then, Madam President, is you attack the person.
Now, Madam President, there are those who
when they hear someone making a strong argument against what they are doing, they like to cast asper-sions on their interests, they like to cast aspersions on
who their friends may or may not be. Typically, Madam
President, these people when they make these ad hominem attacks, they do not really know what the
heck they are talking about. That is what I would say, Madam President.
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Madam President —

And there are those,
Madam President —
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: Point of order.
The President: W hat is your point of order?
POINT OF ORDER
Sen. the Hon. Owen Darrell: The Senator is referring
to individuals as “these people.” Madam President, I
would like a point of order as to who s pecifically are
“these people” of which the Senator refers.
The Pr esident: Senator De Couto.

Oh, Madam President,
that would be those people who might make an ad
hominem attack on you because they did not have a
good rejoinder or rebuttal to an argument based on facts and figures. The general case, Madam President,
as you would imagine.
Now, Madam President, I would like to speak
on my and my friends’ interests. My friends are a wide
variety of friends, and when I come to the Senate Chamber I don’t bring this notion of who my friends may
or may not be because that is not why I am here,
Madam President. I am here to serve the people of Ber-muda in the best way I know how, in whatever way I may know how, without favour to any particular friend. Except sometimes, you know, in the congrats and obits we have to select a few things.
I also speak to my interests, Madam President.
Well, we all have interests and we all have declared them so anyone who has a concern about those can go and look them up. And I am sure if somebody had a specific co ncern with somebody’s interests and who
they might be representing and they felt that they were
not adequately disclosed, they could bring that to your
attention, for example, Madam President, rather than make an ad hominem attack — hypothetically speaking,
Madam President.
But let me speak to what my biggest interest is,

our children, their children, our seniors, and


Bermuda Senate those, Madam President, who this country need to a
better job serving.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator De Couto.
Would any other Senator care to speak on the
motion to adjourn?
Hearing none, the Senate stands adjourned
until Wednesday, March 22.
Thank you.
[At 8:07 pm, the Senate stood adjourned until
10:00 am, Wednesday, 22 March 2023.]

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