March 13, 2023

Of the 11 available units, you
have mentioned that there are 15 referrals. How many people will be in the units shortly?

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you for that question, Mr.
Deputy Speaker. Currently there is one resident in the
house. There is one resident taking up community -
based services. We have referrals currently. Another
person will be moving in in May. And there were two additional referrals pending. So, it is a slow progression of persons who are moving in as we make assessment and availability for the programme.

I am wondering. Will there be
any rent that will have to be paid by the residents to
stay in the [Independent Living Programme]?

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Mr. Deputy Speaker, I have
mentioned before that this is an Independent Living
Programme. We are preparing young persons for the
actual real world of renting. So, yes. Rent will be paid
once young persons have secured employment and
also with the assistance of Financial Assistance.

Thank you.
This is around staffing. I was just wondering
when the full complement of staff will be hired?
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Mr. Deputy Speaker, the full
complement of staff will be hired once we increase our
capacity. Right now there is one person. And to have
all staff in place would be unnecessary with just one person. But we have the budget. We have the funds
to be able to provide staff capacity. And as our [resident] numbers increase, we will increase staffing.
And also the rent, I did get the answer: $550.

Yes, first up. There is another one
after.
Four heads, which are as f ollows:
• Head 16 —Ministry of Education Headquarters;
• Head 17— Department of Education;
• Head 18— Libraries and Archives; and
1046 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly • Head 41— the Bermuda College.
The Honourable Minister Diallo Rabain, Minister, if you are ready, you have the floor.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I
note you said Diallo Rabain. That means you must
have known me for many years now.

It has been moved that the heads
identified by the Minist er be now taken under consideration.
Is there any objection?
No.
Minister, please proceed.

HEAD 16 —MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
HEADQUARTERS

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Chairman , today I am
pleased to pr esent the budget for the Ministry of Education, which comprises the Ministry of Educ ation
Headquarter s, Head 1 6; the Depart ment of Educat ion,
Head 17; the Department of Librari es and A rchives,
Head 18; and the Ber muda College, Head 41.
Mr. Chairman , the 2023/ 24 budg et for the
Ministry of Educat ion is $139 ,847,000 and can be
found on pa ge B-126 of the Estimates of Revenue and
Expenditure for the y ear 2023 /24. This repres ents an
increase of $4,497,0 00 compared to the original
2022 /23 budg et. The curren t accoun t 2023/24 es timated revenue for t he Ministry of Ed ucation is
$258,000. The Capital Expenditure esti mates for acquisitions and dev elopm ent increased fr om
$2,273 ,000 to $6,0 65,000 in 20 23/24. The number of
full-time equivalents for the Ministry increased by 36 ,
from 1,034 to 1,070 employees.
Mr. Chairman , I commence the budget debate
today by detail ing the ex penditure for the Ministry of
Education Headquar ters, Head 16. The mission of the
Ministry Headquarter s, which is f ound on page B-127,
is To prov ide st rategic leaders hip and pol icy dire ction
for education and lifelong learning. The obj ectives of
the Ministry Headquarters have been outlined ac cordingly on t he same page .
Mr. Chairman , the commitment to education
reform and changes and transformations in the public
school system continue to be the main priority. In No-vember we engaged the Education Reform Unit, the
project management office for the education reform
initiative. Last Friday I gave this Honourable House an
overview of the E ducation Reform Unit. As a reminder, the unit is staffed by public officers reassigned
from the Department of Education and other ministries, as well as consultants , and is fully engaged in
determining factors such as curriculum, educational
philosophy, st udent policy, pedagogy , and staffing
training and development with an overall aim to modernise and transition to a socially and academically
progressive system to ensure a wholesome, accessible and equitable education for our children.
Mr. Chairman, the E ducation Reform Unit, led
by Ms . Lisa DeSilva, an educator with over 25 years
of experience, is housed within the new business unit
Education Reform, 26140, budgeted by the Ministry
Headquarters and involves 26 working groups consisting of the following:
1. Inclusivity and cultural responsiveness ;
2. School choice and admissions ;
3. School leadership;
4. System leadership;
5. Professional learning, future workforce and
capability building;
6. Learning environments ;
7. IT strategy ;
8. Transportation ;
9. Learning partnerships ;
10. Personali sed learning capability ;
11. Metrics and KPIs ;
12. Resourcing and budgeting;
13. Education Authority ;
14. Communications and Engagement ;
15. School Transformation ;
16. Overall curriculum, pedagogy and assessment frameworks ;
17. S1 S ignature Learning Programme (the existing S ignatures) ;
18. S2 and S3 S ignature Learning Programme
development for existing S ignature Learning
Programmes ;
19. S1, the new Signature Learning Programme
development ;
20. Parish Primary school curriculum and learning
experiences development for P1 and P7 ;
21. Senior Sch ool Math;
22. Senior School Science;
23. Pedagogy ;
24. Graduation;
25. Certification; and
26. Assessment .
Mr. Chairman, this extensive listing of working
groups provides insights about the breadth of work that is required and which is being undertaken for sus-tainable educati on reform. T his list also indicates the
extent and type of manpower and focused efforts that are required to transform our schools and the Bermuda Public School System.


Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Chairman, in September 2022 the first two
S1 signature learning programmes were f ully executed at CedarBridge, offering Trades and Professions
and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
(STEM) . The Berkeley Institute offered Health and
Social Care and Financial and Insurance Services.
The Signature School Transformation Teams are actively engaged and turning their attention to the next
programme which is scheduled to open in September
2024 at Sandy s Secondary Middle School . That
means that the school will provide both a middle
school and signature learning programme simultaneously in that year.
Mr. Chairman, the Education Reform Unit’s
teams are diligently s upporting the implementation of
these programmes as well as developing the S2 and
S3 curriculum for the existing signature learning programmes . In addition , they are implementing developmental work for the school transformation teams who are actively preparing for the transition of Purvis Primary and Francis Patton Primary Schools to parish
primary schools for Warwick and Hamilton Parish in June 2023. The Unit is also assisting with the logistics
of transitioning students from Clearwater Middle
School and H eron Bay Primary School , both of which
will close at the end of the 2022 /23 school year.
The Ministry is in the final stages of developing the Master Plan for the education reform infrastructure and development. Details for the plan will be
released in t he near future. Mr. Chairman , education
reform also includes the ongoing work to establish an
Education Authority. The legislation for the Authority
will be completed in the 2023 legislative year. The History and Legacy Committee will also be established t o commence the scope of work for historical
documentation of past and present schools through-out the I sland.
Mr. Chairman, to broaden our outreach to the
community, we continue to embark upon a communi-cations plan that allows the Ministry to keep our
stakeholders and the general public informed by virtually utilis ing social media platforms. The Ministry of
Education currently hosts the following:
1. Education Matters , a radio programme that
airs every two weeks on Wednesdays on
Magic 102.7 FM ;
2. Education Connection, a weekly information and discussion talk show that airs on the
Government and MOED’s Facebook and
CITV YouTube channels ;
3. Weekly Radio Morning discussions on three
radio stations —Power 95, HOTT 107.5 and
Vibe 103.
Mr. Chairman , these programmes are utili sed
to feed a broad range of information to the public at large about the many activities, services and pro-grammes relating to education reform, the Bermuda
Teacher Induction Programme, the Adult and Youth
Libraries, the Child Development Program me, the Dame Marjorie Bean Hope Academy and many other
initiatives.
Mr. Chairman , on page B-127 you will see t hat
the Ministry of Ed ucation Headquarter s has been all ocated a b udget of $7 ,236,000 for the 2 023/24 fiscal
year. Within Pro gramme 1601, bu siness unit 26000 ,
General Administration, $815,000 will sup port the operational and ad ministrative functions of t he Ministry.
Last year , this business unit included funds for consultants for education reform. However, a separate business unit, 26140, has been established for Education Reform.
Mr. Chairman, continuing under Programme
1601, business unit 26140, Education Reform Unit,
$4,412,000 operational expenses for the Education
Reform Unit includes $675,200 for general office operations and supplies , $815,000 for the continuance of
the Learning First Programme, and approximately
$2.92 million for consultants for media and other professional support services for meetings and events,
and professional technical services required for sys-tems and school building infrastructure changes that
form part of the reform unit. Of the $2.92 million ,
$898,331 is set aside for the Innovation Unit ’s consultant contract and additional funding for anticipated consultancy for the next phases of the reform process.
Mr. Chairman , under Program me 1601, business unit 26080, a budget of $630,000 has been allocated for external grants and the Bermuda College
Promise Merit Award Programme, a minor increa se of
$22,000 [over 2022/2023 ]. Madam Chairman, in
awarding grants to external agencies, the Ministry will continue to support programmes and services which directly help students improve their academic, social
and behavioural skills to achieve success. Mr. Chairman, of the $630,000, [a total of] $450, 000 has been
set aside to fund the merit-based College Promise
Programm e. These fund s are awarded to public
school grad uates with a GPA of 3.0 or higher to allow
them to attend Ber muda College tuition -free.
Mr. Chairman , $1,379,000 ha s been s et aside
in business unit 26090 f or the adm inistration of the
Ministry’s ann ual Scholarshi ps and A wards Programme. The Ministry will continue to support students
in their pursuit of tertiary -level education. The reduction
of $36,000 is directly related to a one- time grant last
year of $17,000 for Guardrailing Teaching Standards ,
and the balance was repurposed for travel for the Education Reform Unit.
Mr. Chairman , last year the Ministry received a total of 452 student application submis-sions. This reflected a decrease of 65 applications
compared to the 517 received last year. The last fiscal year the Ministry of Educ ation distributed [ 64]
awards —two Bermuda Go vernm ent Sc holarshi ps, two
Non- Traditional Studen t Awards and 49 Further Education A wards. The Minister’s A wards c omprise d two
Minister’s Ac hievement Scholar ships, one Applied
Science Scholarship, one Exceptional S tuden t Award,
1048 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly one Techni cal and Vocational Award and s ix Ber muda
College Book A wards. There were also three Teacher
Training Awards issued as well. Mr. Chairman , these
awards enable students to obtain the education they
may not have had access to otherwise.
Mr. Chairman , on page B-128 the Sub jective
Analysis of C urrent Account Estimates are shown for
the Ministry of Educ ation Headqu arters. Line 1 , Salaries, stands at $618,00 0 and show a minimal decrease of $2, 000 when co mpared with last year . The
travel expenditure line item of $48,000 increased by
$24,000, while expenditure for grants and contributions decreased by $13,000. The full bre akdown of the
$1,975,000 budg eted for gran ts and con tributions can
be found on page C-18 of the b udget book .
Mr. Chairman, the increase in travel expenditure reflects monies budgeted for the annual UK Education World Forum and overseas meetings that have
been skipped over the last few years due to COVID -
19 restrictions. The increase of $53,000 for materials
and supplies is directly related to operations of the
new Education Reform Unit .
Mr. Chairman, $4 million has been b udge ted
for Pr ofessional Services. This reflects a n increase of
$1,394,000. These additional monies have been allocated to continue the consultancy work for education
reform.
Mr. Chairman , on page B-128 the number of
full-time equivalents (or employees) in the Ministry of
Education Headq uarters remained the same as last
year at s ix.
Mr. Chairman , finally on page B-129, Performance Measur es for the Ministry Headquarter s are
outline d. The targeted outcomes for last year were
either achieved or are in the process of being completed by the end of March this year. I pause to point
out that under Target Outcomes for 2023/24 it is published that one additional signature programme would be introduced in 2023—this is incorrect. The information for Output Measures was submitted before the
decision was made to delay the open ing of the third
signature school programme to 2024 instead of 2023.
Mr. Chairman , the Ministry Team co mprises
the Per manent Secretary, our Senior Policy Analy st,
the Ministry Comptroller, the S cholarships and Awards
Programme Manager, a Relief Policy Analyst, t he Administrative Assistant/Accounts Officer, and the E xecutive Assistant to the Minister and Permanent Secretary . Mr. Chairman, each team member has contributed to the success of the Ministry’s work programmes ,
and I extend my sincere thanks to the Ministry Headquarters team and the Education Reform Unit’s team
and working groups for their continued support and diligence.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman . This concludes my
presen tation of the budg et for the Ministry of Edu cation Headquar ters.

Thank you, Minister. Please continue
when you are ready.

HEAD 17 —DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Chairman, I now present the budget for Head 17, the Department of Education.
Mr. Chairman, it was three years ago today on
the 13
th of March 2020 that the Royal Gazette published an article stating that the international organi sation, Innovati on Unit , Australia, New Zealand, had
been selected to help rebuild the Bermuda public education system. Mr. Chairman, that article also included the statement, “Innovation Unit had ‘ emphasized
that Bermudians are the guardians of the vision for the
Bermuda public school system. ’” Mr. Chairman , that
remains true today.
Mr. Chairman, three years ago I underscored
that we as Bermudians will take ownership of transforming our public education system and that Bermudians will design our transformed education sys tem
via consultation with stakeholder groups so that we
can create a system that is right for Bermuda and not
something that has just been transplanted here from
somewhere else. Mr. Chairman , the work that has
been carried out over the past three years has re-mained true to what was stated three years ago.
Mr. Chairman, over the past three years we
have continued to consult and engage students, par-ents, young people, school staff, school leaders, community and business partners, Department of Education Officers and government departments. We
have also committed to progressing with education reform in phases. This allows us to learn from the previous phases as we continue to reform our public education system. I , as well as all of Bermuda, can be
encouraged by this course of development as we
head into the Parish Primary School phase of reform.
The establishment of the Education Reform Unit, as
discussed in the budget brief for Head 16 and the full
support from the Commissioner and her team at the
Department of Education have been key to the progress of the education reform agenda.
Mr. Chairman, as we have engaged in the
work of education reform, we have remained true to
the vision that we have for our students as outlined on
page B -130. And that is, All students are educated to
lead personally and professionally, contribute locally and compete globally.
Mr. Chairman, now in our third year of education reform, we are confident that the work that is being undertaken by our staff, community members and
change partners will enable us to achieve the depart-ment’s objectives outlined on page B -130, as follows:
1. increase academic rigour and student en-gagement;
2. ensure career, college and workforce readiness;


Bermuda House of Assembly 3. enhance the quality of teacher pr actice and
system leadership;
4. improve the infrastructure and instructional
resources; and
5. ensure system success.
Mr. Chairman, page B -133 shows that a total
of $114,872,000 has been allocated to the Depart-ment of Education for the fiscal year 2023/24. Mr.
Chairman, this is $2,544,000 more than for 2022/23.
The main contributing factor for the increase is the need to fund education reform activities such as $1,659,000 for the new Parish Primary Schools at
Francis Patton and Purvis Primary for September
2023 and $865,000 to bolster the substitute budget.

Programme 1701, Central Administration

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Chairman, I begin with
the analysis of Central Administration, which can be
found on page B -131. Mr. Chairman, monies budgeted for the upcoming year for business unit 27000,
General Administration, will cover the costs for inventory purchases of educational and office supplies for
the school year. Mr. Chairman, there was a minor decrease of $23,000 budgeted in expenditure for the
fiscal year 2023/24 due to a reduction in COVID -19related expenses.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 27001 holds the
budget for the Office of the Commissioner and primarily funds the salaries of the Commissio ner of Education and two direct reports, the Director of Academics and the Director of Educational Standards [ and
Accountability ] [ESA] . The Commissioner of Education
and direct reports are responsible for the strategic
planning; leading, overseeing, monit oring and auditing
staff work ; and holding staff at the department and
schools accountable for carrying out their duties and responsibilities. Mr. Chairman, this year a total of
$398,000 represents a significant decrease from last
year by $631,000. This de crease represents a reallocation of funding for education reform to the newly
reformed unit and expenditure efficiencies.
Mr. Chairman, the Executive Leadership
Team (ELT) supports the work of education reform when necessary. Mr. Chairman , last year the E LT
contributed to reform efforts by participating in status
update meetings with our change partners , reviewing
and providing feedback on design briefs and documents developed by the school s and [systems] transformation teams , and providing feedback for St age
Gate Reviews , participating in systems conditions
working groups and supporting school transformation
teams and other working groups. One d irector was
reassigned to serve as the Chair of the Governance
Team while simultaneously serving as a member of
the Learning First Programme from its inception until
there was a restructuring of the Governance Team
and the Learning First Programme. Mr. Chairman, last school year through the
then Learning First Programme there were two transformation teams in place w ith numerous working
groups who dedicated their efforts to preparing for the opening of the first Signature Learning Programmes at the Berkeley Institute and CedarBridge Academy ,
which had their historical openings on September 12,
2022. Mr. Chairman, I attended both openings and
observed with tremendous joy the S1 students being
clapped in on their first day of school.
Mr. Chairman, last year senior officers also
served as members of one of the six System Conditions Transformation Teams working to create the enabling conditions for school success and to sustain
the outputs of education reform. These teams were as
follows:
1. Graduation and Credentialing;
2. Curriculum;
3. Teaching and Learning;
4. Partnerships with industry and the community;
5. Partners as educators; and
6. Professional learning.
Mr. Chairman, Education Department Officers
contributed to the co- development of materials to
support the system- wide adoption of a new pedagogical framework , Bermuda's Model for Deep Learning,
to guide and support teaching and learning in Signa-ture Learning Programmes [ SLPs ]. Mr. Chairman, officers also assisted with the development of an assessment policy and helped to finali se and implement
the processes for forming and developing effective
learning partnerships for SLPs with business, community and research organi sations, and with government departments. Other Education Department Officers worked
with our change partners and Innovation Unit , and
selected school leaders and staff to co- create the resources and proc esses required to recruit, credential
and support teachers to deliver Signature Learning
Programmes and to develop a new advisory curriculum, as well as statements and criteria for inclusivity
that guided the work of all teams. Mr. Chairman, officers also contributed to the development of new graduation requirements for the current S1 students, final-ising and implementing a learner profile and developing the rubric and procedures for the learner portfolio,
a key element in the new graduation requirements.
Mr. Chairman , for the 2022/23 academic year,
five school transformation teams are in place in addition to numerous other working groups which are carrying out work to progress, transform and redesign the Bermuda Public School System [ BPSS ] for Bermuda’s
children. There will also be System Condition Teams
in place. Mr. Chairman, the five school transformation
teams include teams for the following:
1. The Berkeley Institute;
2. CedarBridge Academy ;
3. Francis Patton Primary ;
4. Purvis Primary; and
1050 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly 5. The new signature school for Hospitality and
Tourism and Educational Services that will
open at the Sandys Secondary Middle School
site in September 2024.
Mr. Chairman, in addition there are many department and school staff serving on over 20 working
groups, and other staff carrying out work in support of
these school transformation teams, systems condi-tions teams and working groups. Mr. Chairman, the
Office of the Commissioner also funds a communica-tions consultant. The department has developed a comprehensive framework for systematic, interactive
and authentic communication and engagement, and
at the heart of this framework is the strategic communication plan underpinned by research and evaluation.
Mr. Chairman, school communities will be
invited to support the department’s communication
priorities and objectives while developing strategic
communication plans for their needs. Mr. Chairman,
some elements of the framework are already in place,
and a series of workshops this academic year will build capacity and orientate school leaders and key
personnel to the framework before full implementation.
Mr. Chairman , we continue to maintain three
newsletters to keep our stakeholder groups informed:
1. The Scoop, targeted at all public school families;
2. BPS Matte rs, targeted at all public school
staff; and
3. The Link Express , targeted at all Education
Department staff.
Mr. Chairman , a total of 97 newsletters were
sent out for 2021/22, and newsletter audiences are
given the opportunity to communicate directly with the
Commissioner’s office through mini -surveys and a link
to the BPSS Family Feedback Form embedded in
each mailing. A fourth newsletter is to be added this
academic year called Best Practice , a vehicle for
teacher leaders. Mr. Chairman , the BPSS Family
Feedback Form remains open for all stakeholders
24/7, including members of the general public , to
submit questions, comments, suggestions and com-plaints. Over the last year there have been 72 such
submissions, considerably down from its inaugural
year.
Mr. Chairman, the department is also developing a social media programme aimed at engaging the community and BPSS families in classroom and
extracurricular activities. A new social media takeover
programme has met with considerable success and is
now in its s econd term of implementation. Each
school has an opportunity to celebrate their students,
staff, and programmes or school at least twice a term
on the district Facebook and Instagram pages. Mr.
Chairman, the communications consultant is also a
member of the education reform Communications and
Engagement Working Group. This is to ensure that the Department and Education Reform Unit [ERU ]
work is coordinated and aligned with the messaging
sent out by the Department of Education to parents
and BP SS staff.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 27030, Human
Resources, has been allocated a total of $715,000 to
fund the salaries of technical and administrative staff,
expenses to advertise and recruit staff and monies for annual long service awards to teachers . There is an
increase of $215,000 over the fiscal year 2022/23 due to an increase in the cost of Long Service Awards.
Mr. Chairman, in 2023/24 funding for business
unit 27031, Staff Development , decreased minimally
from the previous year’s budget to $67 2,000. These
funds will be used to fund training and professional
learning to enhance the skills and competencies of
our teachers, educational staff, school leaders and Education Department staff.
Mr. Chairman , our educators have engaged in
professional l earning focused on changes that have
come as a result of education reform. In June 2022 in
preparation for this school year our pre- , primary and
middle schools, Dame [Margorie Bean Hope] and
Success Academy Robert’s Avenue participated in
Professional Learning Activities that afforded them the
opportunity to take a deep dive into the following :
1. High Impact Teaching Strategies [ HITS ].
These are strategies that increase learning when they are applied and used consistently.
2. The BPSS LEGIT Pedagogical Model . This is
a teaching model based on deep learning principles , evidenced- based strategies proven
to have a positive impact on student learning,
how to use effective feedback and total partic-ipation techniques .
3. The BPSS LEGIT Lesson Plan. A new system-wide fra mework that is to be used for
planning for teaching and learning which includes the HITS and the LEGIT pedagogical model .
4. The BPSS LEGIT Action Learning Framework . This is an inquiry process by which educators come together in teams to identify a
problem of practice, to learn about and try out
evidence- based approaches to addressing
their problem, and to evaluate and reflect on
the outcomes in order to improve teaching
and learning in their schools.
Mr. Chairman, school principals also engaged
staff arou nd these practices throughout the year on
designated site- based professional learning days.
Mr. Chairman, coordinated by our Education
Reform teams and Innovation Unit, the S chool Transformation Teams [STT s] for Francis Patton Primary,
Purvis Primary and the Signature School for Hospitality and Tourism and Educational Services participated
in the following Professional Learning Activities in June 2022 as part of the school transformation process:


Bermuda House of Assembly 1. Design Minds ets;
2. User Research and Introduction to Synthesis ;
3. Insight Generation;
4. Case for Change;
5. Vision for Learning;
6. Mapping Existing Practice;
7. Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment ;
8. Technology ;
9. Time and Space;
10. Culture, Relationships and Professional
Learning ; and
11. Educators of the Future.
Mr. Chairman, in June 2022, amongst other
activities , our senior schools, which were doing the
final preparations for the opening of the first signature
learning programmes [ at The Berkeley Institute and
CedarBridge Academy ], part icipated in:
1. completing the pacing guides for the S1 curriculum;
2. layering appropriate assessments and pedagogical practices; and
3. identifying experiential opportunities across
S1.
Mr. Chairman, it is also important to note that
the process of school redesi gn is structured so that
staff who are members of S ystem Transformation
Teams and Working Groups learn, grow and develop
as a result of the professional learning activities and the work that is being carried out. Mr. Chairman, the
learning and development of capabilities is incorporated into the structure of the school redesign process.
Mr. Chairman, our preschool leaders and preschool, P1 and P2 teachers’ professional learning activities focused on the following :
1. SEE- KS (Social Emotional Engagement —
Knowl edge and Skills) ;
2. SCERTS (Social Communication, Emotional
Regulation and Transactional Support) ;
3. Creative Curriculum Kindergarten (CCK) ;
4. Heggerty Curriculum (Reading) ;
5. Project Based Learning (Social Studies, Sci-ence and the Arts) ;
6. Inquiry Learning; and
7. Math Mastery and Play -Based Math.
Mr. Chairman, there have also been systemwide professional learning activities throughout the
year focused on the Cambridge curriculum, subject -
based professional learning for teachers of encore
subjects and personali sed pr ofessional learning for
Student Services staff. Mr. Chairman, a workshop was
also held in October 2021 with Dr. Yeap Ban Har , one
of the world ’s leading experts in professional development for teachers in Singapore Mathematics , and
again in October 2022. Mr. Chairman, a Math Teacher
Certification Programme was also launched this school year along with a professional learning programme for Teacher Leaders across our primary and
middle schools. Mr. Chairman, our substitute teachers also
participate in site- based and system- wide professional
development activities throughout the year, in addition
to participating in an onboarding and orientation session at the start of the school year.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 27090, Educational Standards and Accountability , has oversight for
our 18 primary schools, four middle schools, two sen-ior secondary schools and one special school, Dame
Marjorie Bean Hope Academy. This team comprises
three assistant directors who supervise school princi-pals to ensure effective leadership, quality teaching ,
quality services and quality programmes in our
schools. Educational Standards and Accountability
work is essential for the growth and development of
school leaders and for school improvement .
Mr. Chai rman, over the past year Educational
Standards and Accountability assistant directors continued to support school principals; however, the work
of education reform in the Bermuda Public School
System was and continues to be their priority. In April
2022 an announcement was made that Purvis Primary
and Francis Patton Primary would be the first of the
10 Parish Primary Schools to open under a reformed
education system, and in June 2022 the [School ]
Transformation Teams for those primary schools were
established with two of the assistant directors designated as STT co- leads, along with the principals of
each school. At the outset of the school transformation process for these schools, the School Transformation Teams engaged in six workshops guiding
them through developing blueprints for their respective schools.
Mr. Chairman, following several iterations of
the blueprint designs, the S ystem Transformation
Teams are progressing toward the implementation
phase of Parish Primary Schools.
During this phase of the school transformation
process, the School Transformation Teams will focus
on considerations for the logistical components such
as staffing, training, equipment and curriculum. Also
included in this phase of the transformation process
are Stage Gate Rev iews. During the Stage Gate Reviews, the STTs present the prototypes of their blue-print statements to the Education Reform Governance Committee to determine what ethical, legal, political,
fiscal and regulatory processes need to be taken into
consideration and addressed and also to stress test
the desirability, feasibility and viability of blueprints.
Mr. Chairman, the S ystem Transformation Teams are
still in this phase of the transformation process.
Mr. Chairman, the 2020/21 budget for business unit 27095, Attendance, was transferred into
business unit 27090 to fund the salaries of four
[school ] attendance officers and a school registration
and attendance coordinator. It is the responsibility of
this team to ensure that children of compulsory school
age are in school on a daily basis. The school registration and attendance coordinator also oversees the
1052 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly annual school registration process for the enrolment
of children in all public schools. Mr. Chairman, the funds allocated to this business unit 27090 are
$645,000, with a small increase of $2,000 over last
year’s budget.
Mr. Chairman, substitute teachers ensure the
continuity of teaching, learning, services and programmes when teachers or other school staff are sick or on leave. A total of $3,640,000 has been allocated
for business unit 27160, Substitutes. This is an in-crease by $864,000 to cover the costs for substitutes ,
including the provision of allocated substitutes for all
school levels, substitutes for teachers engaged in the
work of education reform and substitutes who are assigned for teacher absences throughout the year.
Mr. Chairman, the overall budget for the Central Administration programme is $6,743,000 for the 2023/24 fiscal year, which is $407,000 higher than the
previous year’s budget due primarily to the increase in
funding for substitutes.

Programme 1701— Student Services

Hon. Di allo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Chairman, Programme
1701, Student Services, facilitates the provision of 13
essential programmes that directly provide services to
meet the diverse needs of our students who have been identified as having exceptionalities or special
needs. Business unit 27061, Behaviour Management,
funds behaviour therapists for preschools and primary
schools as well as one education officer for behaviour
management. In addition, the funding covers our two
Alternative Education Programmes, which facil itate
suitable alternative education environments and services for students with behavioural challenges. This
business unit’s 2023/24 budget is $1,292,000.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 27062 funds the
operational costs of Success Academy Robert’s Avenue. These costs include costs for bespoke training
and for the rental of equipment such as photocopiers
and printers, office and educational supplies.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 27063 includes
our school psychologists who address student needs
for the areas of academics, behaviour and mental
health. Further, the school psychologists provide comprehensive psycho- educational evaluations, consultations, short -term counselling, interventions and
preventive services across the entire public school
system. Mr. Chai rman, school psychologists are engaged in and are a valuable resource for schools in relation to the MTSS (multi -tiered system of support)
process, a system priority. Mr. Chairman, MTSS, a
multi -tiered system of support , is a proactive and preventative framework that integrates data and instruction to maximise student achievement and support
students’ social, emotional, and behavioural needs
from a strengths -based perspective.
Mr. Chairman, through the MTSS process, a
school -based multidisciplinary team meets weekly or bi-monthly to discuss the needs of students and to
suggest interventions and resources to address concerns. The school psychologists, as participants on
the MTSS Team, collaborate with staff to ensure that students have the necessary support including partnering with specialist human resources from within the
public school system and the wider community. Recommendations for bespoke interventions are made through consultation within the MTSS framework and
using the data derived from psycho- educational assessments carried out by school psychologists. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to report that as
of September 2022 the department has a full complement of school psychologists. Mr. Chairman, I am also pleased to report that our school psychologists
have integrated technology into psycho- educational
assessments through the use of Q -Interactive software which is enabling them to conduct assessments
in a more efficient and cost effective manner. Mr.
Chairman, in the new fiscal year school psychologists
will continue to manage their assessment referrals and provide consultation to school staff to ensure the
delivery of services before and after psychoeducational assessments. Mr. Chairman, the 2023/24
budget for business unit 27063, School Psychologists,
is $930,000, with a minimal decrease from last year.
Mr. Chairman, $304,000 is budgeted for business unit 27064, Adapted Physical Education. The
Adapted Physical Education (APE) Programme is a
developmentally appropriate physical education programme which provides students on IEPs (individual
education plans) with physical education services to
meet their unique needs. Mr. Chairman, three specialist male teachers deliver the Adapted PE Programme
for the Bermuda Public School System. These teachers provide services to students with diverse physical
needs by providing the adaptive support necessary to
enable students to be included in their respective
schools’ regular physical education programmes. Mr.
Chairman, students receiving adapted physical education services also have IEPs with goals and objectives
which are in line with the regular physical education
curriculum.
Mr. Chairman, this specialist team also organises the annual Department of Education Adapted Physical Education National Track and Field I nvitational. This Invitational includes students from Primary
1 to Senior 4 who have special physical needs and receive adapted physical education services, as well
as former students who have transitioned out of the
Bermuda Public School System and are pr esently at
the K. Margaret Carter Centre and other facilities. Mr.
Chairman, feedback from this event being reinstated
in 2021/22 was very positive, and we will now revert to holding this event annually with COVID -19 restrictions
now removed.
Mr. Chairman, $289,000 is budgeted for business unit 27065, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Programme, which employs specialist teachers who proBermuda House of Assembly vide students with academic instruction. These teachers collaborate with classroom teachers to ensure that teaching and learnin g are effective and that students’
needs are met during instruction in the regular classroom. Mr. Chairman, the monies budgeted for this
business unit are for salaries, disability -specific resources and materials, hearing aids and equipment, professional development and consultant audiology services. Mr. Chairman, teachers of the deaf and hard
of hearing are preparing for the expansion of the teaching of sign language at the middle and senior school levels. The teachers are also designating time
to collabor ate with paraprofessionals, before and after
their sessions that are held with students, with the aim
of educating administrative staff on the specific needs
of persons who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Mr. Chairman, the Vision business unit,
27066, has been allocated a budget of $106,000. Students with visual impairments have unique educational needs. In order to meet their unique needs, students must have specialised services, books and materials in appropriate media, including braille, as well
as specialised equipment and technology to ensure
equal access to the core and specialised curricula and
to enable them to function and compete with their
peers in school most effectively and, ultimately , in society.
Mr. Chairman, the students were also intr oduced to the new vision rehabilitation therapist at Vision Bermuda at the beginning of the academic year.
Unfortunately, due to COVID -19 restrictions and the
renovations at Beacon House, the students could not
participate in independent [ living ] skills, A ssistive
Technology, and Orientation and Mobility (O&M) training; however, under a hybrid instructional method
(Zoom and in- person), students were engaged
through limited contact in- person community activities
in independent living and career education thr ough
gardening and job shadowing. Mr. Chairman, our students maintained a garden and shared the produce
with school staff and neighbours. In addition, one student completed a job shadowing programme at the
Port Royal Golf Club, which led to subsequent summer employment at Ocean View Golf Course.
Mr. Chairman, presently one Vision teacher
supports 11 students with visual impairments. In addition to carrying out their duties, the teacher also provides professional development to school staff and
para- educat ors who work directly with the students.
As a result, the para- educators have completed additional expanded core curriculum courses primarily in
the areas of Independent Living and Orientation, and
Mobility course trainings to meet the needs of our students. Mr. Chairman, our teacher of the visually impaired is also assisting with developing Dame Marjorie
Bean Hope Academy's community support programme.
Mr. Chairman, the business unit 27071, Office
Support, has been allocated a budget of $641,000. This bus iness unit serves as the secretariat for the
Student Services Section and funds the salaries of one Assistant Director of Student Services, two administrative assistants, and four learning support teachers who provide services to students with special
needs.
Mr. Chairman, the Counselling Programme,
business unit 27072, is a Comprehensive, Developmental School Counselling Programme [CDSCP]
based on an international model, with four components: Classroom Guidance/Core Curriculum; Individ-ual Planning; Respons ive Services; and System Support. The Comprehensive, Developmental School Counselling Programme has an integral part to play in supporting students’ academic, personal, social, emotional and career success with a focus on providing
and supporting a myriad of protective factors for all
students and coordinating services with other school
professionals and community service providers.
Mr. Chairman, research has supported the
position that transformed school counselling programmes are preventive, developmenta l and integrated within the school’s educational mission and led by
school counsellors who utilise their many talents and
skills. Some researchers suggest that when students
participate in a developmental school counselling programme [and] there is more counsellor interaction with
programme stakeholders, students have higher academic achievement and they are better prepared for
the future. With many children reporting that they feel
most comfortable receiving health- related services at
school and a majority of those accessing mental
health services do so through their school, school -
based mental health services such as school counselling prove to be an effective component of prevention
and intervention services. Mr. Chairman, this business
unit funds the sal ary of an Education Officer for Counselling, 16 school counsellors who service pre- and
primary school students, nine school counsellors who service middle school students and one alternative
school counsellor. Mr. Chairman, $3,037,000 has
been budgeted for this business unit.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 27074, Learning
Support, funds three Education Officers for Special
Education and Learning Support, in addition to 37 learning support teachers who provide special education services at our pre- school, pri mary and middle
schools; Dame Marjorie Bean Hope Academy; and for
our trauma- responsive programmes at our primary,
middle and senior Success Academies. This funding also includes assessment materials to ensure the ap-propriate diagnosis of students with special education
needs.
Mr. Chairman, professional development has
continued to ensure that the school team process is in
alignment with the response to intervention process, a
component of the multi -tiered system of support
(MTSS) framework. Mr. Chairman, learning support
teachers have been provided with ongoing profes1054 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly sional training on the school team process, pre -
referral intervention process, individual education
plans (IEP) planning and audits, intervention learning plans (ILP), dyslexia, ADHD and identifying key concepts with behaviour. Learning support teachers were
also presented with IEP implementation and documentation methods in order to collect data for IEPs
and ILPs accurately. Professional development was provided for school staff that focused on children’s
instructional, behavioural and environmental needs.
Mr. Chairman, ongoing professional development has also continued for our para- educators on
how to support students’ learning, behavioural and personal goals. Under the guidance of the Curr iculum
and Assessment Division, education officers complet-ed all access arrangements and exemption requests
for schools that were required for the administering of the Cambridge Checkpoint assessments and the
IGCSE [International General Certificate of Sec ondary
Education] exams. Access arrangements may include
the provision of more time for students to take exams—for example, those who have dyslexia or
ADHD. Mr. Chairman, this business unit increased by
$23,000 for much- needed learning support services.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 27076, Early
Childhood Education, has been allocated $114,000 and reflects the funding for the salary of the Education Officer for Early Childhood Education.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for business unit
27079, Paraprofessionals, i ncreased by $54,000 with
a budget allocation of $7,642,000. This business unit
provides for the delivery of paraprofessional and edu-cational therapist assistant services for our students with diverse learning needs. The paraprofessionals
and educational therapist assistants provide instructional support to teachers, ensure protection and safety, and provide support for transition and life skills for
students with special needs. This includes providing
adequate support for students with physical excep-tionali ties, including those who are deaf or hard of
hearing and those who are visually impaired.
Mr. Chairman, the business unit 27083, Autism Spectrum Disorder (or ASD), is allocated
$681,000 to fund salaries for teachers and those paraprofessionals who serve students with autism
within the ASD programmes at three primary schools,
one middle school and one senior school. Mr. Chairman, current projections indicate that we will need to
increase our ASD offerings over the next few years at
the primary level. In th e past couple of years we have
had students who have participated in blended programmes where they join their peers in identified classes with the intention of transitioning them into the
general education classes with or without support. During the 2022/2 3 school year, five students are participating in such programmes. As our need for addi-tional ASD classes increases, we need to consider
and create additional functional skills classes at the
primary level. Mr. Chairman, business unit 27084, Alternative Education, funds Success Academy Robert’s Avenue, the alternative support programme for middle and senior -level students. Currently, Success Academy Robert’s Avenue services five students, three sen-ior school students and two middle school students ,
with the goal of assisting them in acquiring replace-ment behaviours that will lead to reintegration into the mainstream middle school environment, or transition
to senior school, or GED preparation or Penn Foster
programming. Mr. Chairman, short -term (four weeks
or less) respite support for middle school students
remains in place. There has also been a recent request for placement of students on out-of-school suspensions , to attend Success Academy. A separate
program me inclusive of location and operational costs
is being explored to address these specific needs.
Mr. Chairman, this business unit also funds
students who are in alternative education programmes across the Island. We currently have eight students in alternative placements —one at Impact Mentoring
Academy, one at Christian Lighthouse Academy, and two fem ales and [four] males at TLC.
Mr. Chairman, the Adult Education has just
begun the resumption of services. We have two males
slated to attend and another two students awaiting
placement. This will take the alternative placement
population to 12 students ( 10 males and 2 females).
Mr. Chairman, educational therapists, educational therapist assistants and other members of the
Multi -Tiered System of Support School Teams continue to provide tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 support for students in our schools who have behavioural challenges. These supports range from classroom monitoring and consultation to caseload admission, as well as the
following:
1. daily tracking schedules;
2. developing individual crisis management
plans;
3. implementing behaviour intervention strategies; and
4. developing functional behaviour plans and anti-behaviour intervention plans.
Unfortunately, tier 3 behaviours at the primary
level continue to increase.
Mr. Chairman, we are pleased that partnerships have been strengthened with supporting agencies such as the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS), Child and Adolescent Services (CAS), Probation Services and the Department of Health.
One example of this is reflected in the monthly meet-ings of the High- Risk Intervention Committee, where
mutu al clients and their specific unique needs are discussed and support is actioned. We continue to work with the educational therapists at CAS, which has helped bridge the gap with the continuity of services
we provide students.
Mr. Chairman, ETs (educatio nal therapists)
and ETAs (educational therapist assistants) have conBermuda House of Assembly tinued to incorporate the FBA (Functional Behaviour
Assessments) to BIP (Behaviour Intervention Plans) specialist training to produce FBAs and BIPs across all levels. These are created for all tier 3 students.
There are presently 33 students who require tier 3 support. Mr. Chairman, for the 2023/24 year, ETs and
ETAs will increase the level of support they provide to
classroom teachers and will work to improve the plan-ning and monitoring of student progress. This will be
accomplished by creating collaborative intervention plans, tracking replacement behaviours and sharing success with stakeholders using MTSS. They will utilise a whole- child lens and integrate academics and
behaviour. Impleme nting a data- driven technological
support system will support this collaboration and
problem- solving amongst the MTSS Team.
Mr. Chairman, Kickboard was piloted in eight
of our school environments. Kickboard is a total end -
to-end behaviour solution that helps districts and
schools drive climate and culture initiatives. This enables educators to input and analy se the full range of
student behaviours and interactions in real -time. This
tool also provides real -time assessment and progress
monitoring of social –emotional learning and the effectiveness of school climate initiatives like Positive Be-haviour Intervention Support, Response to Intervention and MTSS (multi -tiered system of support),
providing much- needed behavioural insights into students’ everyday experiences at school and the quality
of their interactions with others. A plan is being developed to implement Kickboard in the rest of our
schools.
Mr. Chairman, the Student Services S ection
provides an extensive range of educational services for our students with exceptionalities. The total budget
allocation for this business unit for the 2023/24 fiscal
year is $20,660,000.

Thank you, Honourable Minister. Before you come on to Finance and Corporate, perhaps
this is a convenient moment just t o pause and remind
the listening public that we are in the Committee of
Supply for further consideration of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the year 2023/24. This
is the debate on the Ministry of Education covering
Heads 16, 17, 18 and 41.
You are currently hearing from the Honourable Minister of Education, Minister Rabain, who is speaking to Head 17, the Department of Education. For those following the Budget Book, this is at page B -
131, and the Minister has just finished business unit
1702, and I presume he is coming on to business unit
1703.
Minister, please proceed. You have four hours
left in the debate, which concludes at 5:25 pm.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I
am glad that you are following me as well.
Programme 1703—Finance and Corporate
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Chairman, continuing
on page B -131, Finance and Corporate Services,
business unit 27002, funds staff in the Finance Admin-istration Section with a budget of $762,000. This team
includes a department comptroller, trainee departmental comptroller, financial services manager, a payments supervisor, a salaries supervisor, a salaries
clerk, three accounts clerks and a messenger. This
section is responsible for providing
1. financial advice to senio r management;
2. cost-effectiv e, responsive financial services;
3. procurement and contracting services; and
4. corporate planning solutions to management,
employees and schools.
Under the direction of the department’s c omptroller, the team coordinates the payment of salaries
for over 1,000 educators and department staff, pays
all suppliers and vendors for goods and services purchased, and organi ses the collection of receivables.
This section also plays a key role in reducing non -
instructional costs and identifying cost inefficiencies.
During the past year the c omptroller has contributed
to the efforts of education reform by providing financial
reports for the Education Reform Unit Budgeting and
Resourcing Working Group.
Mr. Chairman, Office Accommodation, business unit 27003, has a budget of $1,080,000 that
funds the salary of the office receptionist and covers
the costs for the annual rent, office maintenance, electricity and communication costs for the department’s
physical offices at 44 Church Street. Add itional funding of $127,000 has been provided for office spaces
for the IT, F acilities and Student Services T eams to be
located together at some point in the future.
Business unit 27040, Educational Stores, was
allocated a budget of $720,000, which suppor ts the
salaries for six staff and other expenditures such as rent, inventory freight costs, and gas and diesel. The
Stores section provides centrali sed purchasing, inventory management and distribution services to all public
schools, Bermuda College, and o ther government departments such as the Department of Youth,
Sport and Recreation.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 27041, School
Transport ation, is allocated a budget of $438,000 and
funds the salaries of three bus drivers and a bus attendant to safely transport students who attend Dame
Marjorie Bean Hope Academy and for students in
ASD programmes in other schools. Two groundsmen
who maintain school sports fields and one labour,
transport and safety officer are also funded from this
budget. This budget enables transport services for our
most vulnerable population of children.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 2704[ 2], Building ,
Grounds and Equipment, is budgeted at $1,334,000, a decrease of $139,000. These funds enable the facilities manager to provide planned, preventive and daily
1056 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly maintenance to all public school buildings, grounds
and equipment ensuring a healthy, safe learning envi-ronment. This includes the monthly maintenance of all life safety equipment (fire alarm), elevator inspections,
burglar alarm sys tems, drinking water fountains, water
tank cleaning/chlorination, air conditioning maintenance, supplying custodian cleaning supplies, cleaning company services, uniforms and health safety in-spections. Maintenance tasks, electrical, plumbing,
masonry, carpentry, painting and air conditioning are
scheduled for planned, preventive and daily works. Pest control services are provided in all schools as a
health and safety measure. Additionally, this budget
funds manned security services at all middle schools
for the safety of our students and staff.
Mr. Chairman, funding for the 2023/24 will be
used for the following:
1. Francis Patton Primary and Purvis Primary
will open in September 2023 as parish primary schools. Dedicated work has been carried
out for education reform and will continue to
be carried out to advance our education reform agenda and to achieve the vision for
learning for children.
2. Enhancements in the Education Department
schools ’ infrastructure. Removal of asbestos
vinyl flooring, upgraded with envi ronmentally
friendly, non- wax, non- skid flooring.
3. Enhancements to school bell systems . Removal of analogue systems, upgraded to digital systems with battery backup, programmed
for school breaks and automatic changeover
as it relates to daylight savings .
4. Enhancements to schools ’ air conditioning
systems. Continuing the i nstallation of ultraviolet lights that kill mould spores, viruses, bacteria and fungus .
5. Playground upgrades . The i nstallation of two
American Disabilities Act compliant play-grounds, ensuring equal access and benefit
for all students .
6. Fire alarm upgrades . Replacing nonaddressable systems with fully addressable
systems that allow the Department to monitor
and address emergencies efficiently, with the
ability to identify the precise location of any
and all alarms.
7. Security camera upgrades . Installation of LED
infrared camera systems that give us the ability to monitor our schools 24/7, day and night.
All events can be stored in case of malicious
events allowing data to be retrieved by law
enforcement on request.
Mr. Chairman, the budget priorities for this
business unit for 2023/24 include
• ensuring all maintenance tasks for Francis
Patton Primary and Purvis Primary are carried
out by t he desired timelines ; • ensuring facilities staff continue to train at
Bermuda College and supporting all team members with enrolling and participating with
supplementing the requirements as it relates
to our safety ; and healthy , environmentally
safe cleaning products ;
• addressing all health and safety requests as a
matter of priority by following up with all relevant parties and ensuring stakeholders are
updated throughout the process ; and
• carrying out cleanliness inspections throughout public schools to hav e all schools consistently maintained at a high level of cleanliness
throughout the school year.
Mr. Chairman, the final business unit , 27050,
Information Technology , is funded for $2,603,000.
This business unit funds the salaries of an IT manager, a computer services officer, a management systems officer, and technical and assistant technical officers. Mr. Chairman, the IT Section is accountable for
defining and delivering IT strategy and capabilities for
the Ministry [ MOE ], Department of Education [DOE ],
and the Bermuda Public School System [BPSS ]. This
includes data analytics and business intelligence, de-velopment and support, infrastructure, security , and
technical services to support and enhance user experiences. The IT Section is responsible for directing IT
and business leaders on strategy, standards, and opportunities for shared services and economies of
scale.
Mr. Chairman, the IT Section is responsible
for providing the following IT s ervices to the Ministry
and Department of Education and the BP SS as follows:
• design , plan, implement and maintain the
computing infrastructure supporting education
initiatives, student learning and instruction,
and business applications ;
• metrics for managing IT effectiveness and
measuring technology’s impact on learning
and instruction;
• ensurin g service levels and operational processes are in place to meet Key Performance Indices (KPIs) to ensure learning and instruction schedules ;
• maintaining oversight of all IT projects, ensuring that commitments are properly planned,
staffed, monitored and reported;
• comprehensive enterprise information security
program me to ensure the integrity, confidentiality and availability of relevant data;
• enterprise- wide disaster recovery and business continuity plan;
• enforcing IT policies and procedures ; and
• reviewing, recommending, and overseeing all
vendors and managing service agreements
for computing, telecommunications, IT services and equipment.


Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Chairman, the IT Section achieved the
following in the last fiscal year:
• BPSS primary school Chromebooks. As of
September 2022, all BPSS primary students
have been assigned a Chromebook. Efforts
continue to complete device assignments for
all middle school students ;
• The telephone system had major enhancements and improvements at Paget Primary
School that included high availability hardware
and software, and voicemail service upgrades ;
• Data Centre Server Environment. The entire
data centre server platform was upgraded in
August 2022. The result is an increase in the processing ability of all IT services by a mini-mum of 100 per cent. This upgraded computing environment provides a framework for additional education and learning services;
• Wi-Fi enhancements in pre-school s, primary
and middle schools were carried out with the
current Wi -Fi network installed within al l BPSS
pre-school s, primary, middle schools, the Education Reform Unit (ERU), Child Develop-ment Programme (CDP) and other Department of Education locations;
• Laptops were configured and distributed to
BPSS user communities;
• Signature Learning Programme Appl ication
[Project ] implementation; and
• Implementation of Enhanced IT security services and IT security and implementation of
online services.
Mr. Chairman, the IT priorities for 2023/24
include [the following] :
• continuing IT support for Education Reform
Unit (ERU), Parish Primary Schools and the
Signature Learning Programmes ;
• start up the transformation of IT s upport personnel from break /fix to providing education
solution support ;
• continue distributing Chromebooks to students and l aptops within the Ministry of Education, the Department of Education and the
BPSS communities to assign a device to every BPSS student and increase the posture of
a mobile workforce;
• mature IT o perations processes and monitoring tools with the continual improvement of servi ce delivery, IT security and service desk
processes. This also includes the introduction
of additional monitoring and alerting tools to
manage and monitor IT s ervices ;
• mature the use and configuration of PowerSchool Ecosystem. The BPSS must implement steps to fast track the total adaptation
and full integration of all purchased Pow-erSchool application modules. Training and internal business processes must be amended to work with and enforce PowerSchool da-ta;
• Upgrade of Data Centre core- switching platform. The enterprise network -switching environment will be upgraded to be compatible with the new and improved server and compu-ting environments. This will eliminate bottlenecks and delays in the delivery of [ DOE] IT
services;
• Upgrade of remote access services with the
implementation of an advanced remote access environment with updated security protocols .
Mr. Chairman, in summary , the Finance and
Corporate Section provides key services and support
to our public schools and has been allocated $6,937,000 for the 2023/24 fiscal year.

Programme 1704— Pre-Schools
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Chairman, I now turn to
page B -132, item line 1704, which is the programme
for our 10 pre- schools. The 2023/24 budget for all preschool s is $4,751,000, of which 93 per cent funds salaries. Seven per cent of the budget is used for resources, training and development , and operational
costs such as electricity, part -time cleaners, phones,
office equipment rental and drinking water.
Mr. Chairman, t his cohort of pre- school students have lived more of their life in the COVID -19
pandemic world with many regulations and restrictions that would not have been if not for the pandemic.
Much of the focus for pre- schoolers entering this year
has been on social –emotional development and self -
regulation now that they are free to play with each
other and engage in group learning. Preschool leaders and teachers have been working to re- create inquiry learning environments and learning experiences.
Pre-schoolers learn through inv estigation and exploration facilitated by studying various topics. Teachers
also balance student -led learning and teacher -
facilitated learning with intentional teaching in Math,
Literacy and Language. Teachers observe student
progress and document that progress across a continuum which is appropriate for their stage and age of
development.
Mr. Chairman, during the 2023/24 fiscal year,
the aim is to increase our students ’ access to early
interventions.

Programme 1705— Primary Schools

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Chairman, continuing
on page B -132, programme 1705, Primary Schools ,
has a budget allocation of $29,692,000 allocated for
the operational costs of our 18 primary schools. Mr.
Chairman, the increase of $1.5 million over the previous year is due to the anticipated increases in Francis
1058 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Patton of $918,000 and Purvis Primary [s chools ] of
$741,000, both of which will open in September 2023
as parish primary schools.
Mr. Chairman, I pause to thank and commend
the co- leads and members of the School Tr ansformation Teams for Francis Patton Primary and Purvis
Primary, Department of Education Officers and Education Reform Unit staff for all of their hard work in preparing for the opening of these two parish primary
schools.

Programme 1706— Special Schools
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Chairman, continuing
on page B -132, programme 1706 , business unit
27120, Dame Marjorie Bean Hope Academy ( or Dame
as we call her ) provides dedicated services to students who have severe to profound and multiple challenges , and therefore special needs. The main focus
of the programme at D ame is to provide students with
enriching education and development support, to increase student independence and to help them
achieve their ultimate potential. Mr. Chairman, a total
of $659,000 has been allocated for D ame, an increase
of $42,000 over the last fiscal year.

Programme 1707— Middle Schools

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Chairman, we now turn
to page B -133 for programme 1707, our Middle
Schools. T he total 2023/24 budget al location for the
operation of our four middle schools is $14,838,000
with a minor increase of $140,000.

Programme 1708— Senior Schools
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Chairman, continuing
on page B -133, programme 1708 refers to our two
senior secondary schools , the Berkeley Institute and
CedarBridge Academy. Mr. Chairman, each senior
school is provided with an annual grant for the operational management of their respective school and the
school curriculum. F or the fiscal year 2023/24 , the
CedarBridge Academy ’s funding increased by
$287,000 and the budget for Berkeley Institute re-mains the same as the previous year. Mr. Chairman,
students at the senior level continue to benefit from a
diverse local and international curricula and pro-grammes which prepare them for post -secondary education, training and careers. Students also have the opportunity to take advanced- level courses and participate in dual enrolment programmes at the Bermuda
College.
Mr. Chairman, I pause once again to extend
commendations and to applaud the b oards, teachers
and staff and School Transformation Teams of the
Berkeley Institute and CedarBridge Academy for their
commitment and dedicated efforts to ensure the open-ing of Bermuda’s first two senior schools with the Signature Learning Programme.
Mr. Chairman, the s ignature Learning Pathways include:
The Berkeley Institute—
• Health and Social Care Signature with the
learning programmes in General Health and
Social Care, Holistic and Allied Health Services, Medical Sciences and Services, Social
Sciences and Services ;
• Financial and Insurance Services Signature
includes Accountancy, Banking and Financial
Services, Business Administration and Management, FinTech and Insurance.
CedarBridge Academy —
• STEM signature, Animal/Vet Sciences , Computer Science, Creative Technologies, Engi-neering, and Environmental Sciences ;
• Trades and Professions Signature, Automotives, Carpentry, Cosmetology,
Culinary Arts and Hospitality, Electrical, Horticulture, Textiles and Design.

Programme 1709—Curriculum Assessment

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Chairman, staying on
page B -133, programme 1709, Curriculum Assessment funds Cambridge International Curriculum, City & Guilds, Penn Foster, System- Wide Reading Assessment, the Career Pathways, Dual Enro lment and
all curricular resource deliverables. The Department of
Education pays an annual fee to Cambridge International for the curriculum and for primary 6 and middle
3 students to sit the annual Checkpoint diagnostic assessment, along with the Internat ional General Certificate Secondary Education ( I have never actually seen
that spelled out, IGCSE) —
[Laughter]
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: International General Certificate Secondary Education —IGCSE is what we
normally say —examinations required to obtain the
Bermuda School Diploma ( or BSD). Mr. Chairman, we
are now in our 10
th year of administering Cambridge
assessments and examinations. All Cambridge assessments, inclusive of Reading assessments, are
funded from business unit 27020, Assessment &
Evaluation. The allocated budget for the continued
and effective delivery of assessment and evaluation is
the sum total of $350,000.
Mr. Chairman, curriculum resources, professional development/training for Mathematics interventions, Language Arts, Scienc e, Social Studies, Foreign Language, the Arts, ICT, and Physical Education
and Health curricular deliverables are funded from
business unit 27520, Design, Development & Implementation.


Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Chairman, the Education Officer for Foreign Languages laid the gr oundwork for presenting
foreign languages in p re-schools this year. An online
platform called “ Little Pim ” was selected, and the
teaching has started by teachers in three pre-schools:
Warwick, Southampton and Lagoon Park. Students
will be exposed to two languages: Spanish and Portuguese. The Foreign Language Officer is also working
with the curriculum team for P1 and P7 for the parish
primary schools. This entails attending the weekly
meetings at both Francis Patton and Purvis Primary
Schools and assisting with feedback and suggestions
as needed.
Mr. Chairman, the Acting Education Officer for
the Arts will continue to work with the STEM and Educational Services Signature Learning Programmes,
developing well -articulated fine arts pathways that are
culturally relevant, practical and meaningful. A key
priority for the arts will be to continue enhancing
teacher practice and system leadership through content-specific professional learning opportunities,
community partnerships and contracted curriculum
leader pos itions for music and visual arts.
The Acting Education Officer for Information
Computer Technology has delivered and/or organi sed
schools with Schoology Learning Management System professional development for P1 to senior school-teachers. Also, the Acting Education Officer is a
member of the Francis Patton Parish Primary School
Transformation Team, which meets bi -weekly and
works on designing and prototyping the Longtail
Academy. This prototype provides opportunities for
teachers and students to experience additional support in Reading and Math, and to engage in Art and
Sporting activities.
The Education Officer for Math has ensured
that all primary and senior school students have access to the Method Math site. This site provides ques-tions similar to Chec kpoint, which shows students
step- by-step how to solve problems. Professional development was conducted with primary school teachers around Bar Mode lling and Problem Solving, and
with middle school teachers with Algebra and Geometry being the focal areas. In September 2022 five primary schools, three middle schools and two senior
schools were given access to MyiMaths , a pilot programme . The rationale behind MyiMaths [is that it]
uses the new Cambridge c urriculum and embeds the
math mastery approach in its t eaching.
Mr. Chairman, the Education Officer for Reading is working with schools to implement a variety of
reading programmes. Mr. Chairman, the d epartment
continues to administer Gates -MacGinitie Reading
Tests twice per year for students from Pri mary 2
through to Senior 4. The department is also using the
Amplify mCLASS assessment tool and teacher training for use in a pilot project with the President of Liter-acy How, Dr. Margie Gillis, and the Bermuda College.
Pilot classes with access to the assessments and teaching resources available through Amplify are the
P1 and P2 classes at Dalton E. Tucker Primary, Paget
Primary and Elliot Primary. The department is also
exploring the potential implement ation of a systemwide Phonics Programme for all P1 through P3 clas-ses (possibly extending to P4 due to COVID -19 impacts on the foundational years for those students), using the UFLI Foundations programme, which pro-vides a phonics curriculum inclusive of t he daily lesson plans for teachers, similar in presentation to the established Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum now in use from our Bright Start classes in preschool through Primary 3 classrooms.
Mr. Chairman, t he implementation of access
to the online platforms Raz -Plus and Vocabulary A –Z
for all p rimary school students in the BPSS and for
use as an intervention tool in the middle schools. This
provides students with access to a digital library and
teachers with access to a tool to assist in readin g instruction and progress -monitoring through the use of
the comprehension quizzes available for each assigned text. Ongoing teacher training and parent
presentations are provided in support of these tools.
Mr. Chairman, the Education Officer for Reading and
the Education Officer Early Childhood and Special Education teamed up this year to offer a 10 -week
course to selected Primary 1 teachers.
Mr. Chairman, the Education Officer for Physical Education [PE] and Health has provided the following professional development for teachers:
1. Interactive Health System Fitness Assess-ment software functionality ;
2. The SPARK physical education assessment app;
3. Two-day cricket workshop for all PE teachers
run in conjunction with the BCB [Bermuda
Cricket Board];
4. Two-day golf workshop for all PE teachers in
conjunction with the BGA [Bermuda Golf Association];
5. Adaptive PE Awareness run by the Adaptive
PE teaching staff ; and
6. Assessment in physical education.
Mr. Chairman, the following PE initiatives are
underway in our schools:
• Pilot programme for SPARK PE ;
• Pilot programme using heartrate monitors ;
• IHT Spirit System (fitness assessment) ; and
• Digital Curriculum for HealthSmart and
SPARK PE Curriculum .
Mr. Chairman, our Acting Education Officer for
Social Studies introduced a project -based learning
initiative for two teacher certification cohorts and one leader (principal) certification cohort. This officer also
assisted P2 teachers with meeting the needs of stu-dents who transitioned from P1 CCK [Creative Curriculum for Kindergarten] classrooms using the following
activities:
1060 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly 1. Summer research for Primary 2 unit construction;
2. Delivered professional development to relevant P2 teach ers on inquiry -based instruction;
and
3. Organised the Early Years resources and
sourced relevant documents.
Mr. Chairman, the Education Officer for Social
Studies also contributed to education reform efforts by
helping to develop the curricula for Signature Learning
Programmes, helping to co- develop the BPSS pedagogical framework, attending school transformation
team meetings for Francis Patton Parish Primary
School and the Hospitality & Tourism and Education
Services Signature School.
Mr. Chairman, busines s unit 27524, College &
Career Pathway s, has been budgeted with $434, 000.
Mr. Chairman, this business unit funds the Employability Skills P rogramme, the Nursing C ertification and
the Dual Enrolment Programme at Bermuda College.
This cost centre is also fun ded to cover the cost of the
leadership management of two College and Career
Pathways Officers.
Mr. Chairman, in 2023/24 we will be supporting Student Services with the alternative education
path for the first Girl’s College and Career Pathways.
The Educ ation Officer for Certification and College
and Career Pathways has reported that the graduation rate for the 2021 /22 academic school year was
91 per cent. Additionally, nine students completed and
received the Penn Foster High School Diploma at the end of the 2021 /22 school year, and nine of twelve
students who enrolled in the Nursing Assistant Programme at Bermuda College achieved the Nursing Assistant Certificate. And 93 per cent , or 112 [sic] students out of the 1 29 [sic] who registered for the City &
Guilds employability skills course passed the class.

Thank you, Minister. If you would not
mind going back and repeating that for the benefit of
the Shadow Minister. Thank you.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you. And I said, additionally —I will read the whole paragraph again.
Mr. Chairman, in 2023/24 we will be supporting Student Services with the alternative education path for the first Girl’s College and Career Pathways.
The Education Officer for Certification and College and Career Pathways has reported that the graduation rate for the 2021 /22 academic school year was
91 per cent. Additionally, nine students completed and
received the Penn Foster High School Diploma at the end of the 2021 /22 school year, and nine of twelve
students who enrolled in the Nursing Assistant Programme at Bermuda College achieved the Nursing
Assistant Certificate. And 93 per cent , or 212 students
out of the 229, who registered for the City & Guilds
employability skills course passed the class.

Thank you, Minister. Please continue
when you are ready.

Programme 1712— Early Childhood Education

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Sure. Mr. Chairman, on
page B -133, this section includes Early Childhood Education (ECE), Early Childhood Special Education and
Early Childhood Education Quality Assurance. The
main focus is on the continued transformation of early
childhood education through closer alignment with developmentally appropriate practices and inquiry -
based learning. ECE is piloting the CCK (Creative
Curriculum for Kindergarten) in [ seven ] Primary 1
classes. Of particular note, the CCK curriculum, ped-agogy and assessment align with school redesign and
the Learning First vision for school transformation.
Both Purvis Primary and Francis Patton Primary, our
first designated parish primary schools engaged in
school transformation, have included CCK in their
school transformation design.
Mr. Chairman, when considering the transformation of the learning experience in P1, school re-design has led to one of the s chools prototyping class
“hubs .” These hubs support an ethos of joyful learning
through meeting students where they are in develop-ment and learning. This approach to early education reduces stress on the student and gives teachers
permission to think criti cally and creatively in regard to
planning and facilitating learning. Personalised learning experiences will result in building strong foundations and minimi sing gaps in learning across the P1 to


Bermuda House of Assembly P3 continuum of learning and development. Progress
is measur ed based on learners meeting objectives
based on ECE standards across the continuum. In
this way teachers and schools account for a year’s
worth of learning for a year’s work of schooling. Students are supported and enriched through being challenged within their personal zone for development. In
this way rigour and deeper learning are experienced
at every level for all learners.
Mr. Chairman, Special Education, in the form
of Early Intervention, has focused on providing learning support and other services identified through the
MTSS process for pre- school and early primary. The
education officer working in this section has been coaching preschool teacher leaders to fidelity in using
SEE- KS (Social Emotional Engagement —Knowledge
and Skills). This teacher -to-teacher coaching model
supports teacher leaders in coaching fellow teachers
in meeting individual pre-school er needs using SEE -
KS. The O fficer for ECE -Special Education and preschool teacher leaders have also worked system- wide
by training pre-school staff in MTSS best practices
including the updated recommendations on alignment
with Student Services. The SCERTS, a researchbased multidisciplinary framework for students requiring more intensive intervention, is working well for preschool ers in the Growing Connections class at Prospect Preschool.
Mr. Chairman, the outcomes are outstanding,
and we are seeing pre-school ers mainstreamed after
one term in the Growing Connections class. Preschooler gains are attributed to class size, teacher
training and expertise, and para support. In addition,
team members have training in implementing SCERTS along with using a multidisciplinary approach to intervention. And for the Honourable Member, Growing Connections refers to the—I spoke ear-lier about the function skills for ASE. We are seeing
more and more of that at the class at Prospect pre-school for pre- schoolers, the ASE class.
Mr. Chairman, given the transformation in
Early Childhood Education, the department is pleased
to have added a Quality Assurance Of ficer to first ensure that Safety and Health certifications are maintained in all pre- school s. Second, to ensure best practices across early childhood education beyond safety
and health, especially as it relates to COVID -19 protocols. Foundational to inqui ry education is the learning
environment, often referred to as the third teacher .
Preschools have been working to the learning environment to reflect the inquiry model. Hence, the Quality Assurance Officer has been working with preschool s to ensure the fi delity of learning environments
inclusive of indoor and outdoor learning spaces. Mr.
Chairman, at the P1 level the CCK classes have taken
on a fresh and inviting design including student -
focused Learning Centr es and class design supporting student collabor ation and communication. The
Quality Assurance Officer has been working with the International CCK Coach specifically to support CCK
P1 teacher s in implementing the CCK curriculum and
classroom design.
Mr. Chairman, Early Childhood Education has
launched the Basics Learning Network in partnership
with the Department of Health. The Early Childhood
Policy Paper: A Bright Start for a Brilliant Future advo-cates for cross -ministry and agency collaboration to
promote community messaging and resources around
what is proven to be essential for young children from
birth through age eight and to have a strong foundation in life. Strong foundations are built through nurturing relationships and meaningful experiences. The
Basics brings families and the community together to
give our children a strong start in life. We are using
the Five Basic Principles as a framework for birth to
five-year-old children for early education and care.
These principles are as follows:
1. Maximi se Love, Manage Stress ;
2. Talk, Sing and Point ;
3. Count, Group and Compare;
4. Explore through Movement and Play ; and
5. Read and Discuss Stories .
Mr. Chairman, business unit 27175, the Child
Development Programme [CDP ], currently funds the
salaries of the dedicated CDP staff and programmes.
This team works dilig ently to maintain its accreditation
status and engages in quarterly performance quality improvement sessions. Mr. Chairman, the Coordinator
for the Child Development Programme has been leading out in work for the Bermuda National Standards
Committee [BNSC ] Reaccreditation. The reaccreditation process has been similar to applying for first -time
accreditation.
Mr. Chairman, s ome of the highlights of the
Child Development Programme in 2022/23 have in-cluded cros s-ministry collaboration and community
partnersh ips. The Nurturing Our Nation campaign, led
by the Ministry for Social Development and Seniors, afforded the Child Development Programme the opportunity to participate in livestream ed panel discussions, focus groups and the Parenting Expo. The Parenting Expo allowed parents and carers to meet many
of the programme’s service providers and gain first -
hand knowledge about CDP services. Some parents
were even able to sign up their children for the universal developmental screening.
Mr. Chairman, the Child Dev elopment Programme responded to the increasing interest of fathers to access services and support by facilitating t he
Fathers ’ Focus Group. The curriculum for the six -week
series was created by CDP specifically for fathers.
The purpose of the group was for fathers to find mutual support amongst each other whilst gaining
knowledge of CDP as well as services offered to support them. The fathers reflect on their parenting relationship with their children while considering ways in
which to strengthen these rela tionships. The series
was well attended and is planned to be repeated. I
1062 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report
Ber muda House of Assembly must add, Mr. Chairman, I attended some of those
sessions as well just to have an insight and to partici-pate in the sessions.
Mr. Chairman, t he Early Childhood Specialists
have engaged in speciali sed training in the Parent
Stress Index. This index captures the joy as well as
the challenges parents may be experiencing while
parenting their child. The index helps inform parents
of other services and support that they can engage in
to address any concerns with stress -related matters.
Mr. Chairman, t he Child Development Programme has charted plans for the future through strategic planning with input from internal and external
stakeholders. During 2023/24, t he Child Development
Programme will be engaged in developing a one- year
action plan to underpin the strategic work required for moving forward. Essential to the p lan is that all vacant
posts are going to be filled.
Mr. Chairman, t he Child Development Programme anticipates engaging in onboarding new hires and the establishment of the Early Intervention [EI]
Service, formerly the Portage Programme. The Early
Intervention Service is designed for Bermuda’s using
a range of early intervention best practices. It will be
staffed by the Early Intervention Supervisor with three
Early Intervention Specialists. This EI team will engage in a whole child approach, and the service pro-vided will be unique to each child depending on their strengths and needs as well as th at of their family.
As a preventa tive service for parents, families
and carers of young children, the Child Development Programme plans to create a specific service to pro-vide parent and community education including gen-eral information on child development that is specific to the needs of families and their child in service. CDP
will also promote and connect families with t he Basics,
a cross -ministry and community -wide approach to
help every family, help every child reach their full po-tential. The Basics approach raises awareness about
early childhood development. It helps build capacity
throughout the community for engaging families around the Basics Principles. Basics Insights help
famil ies put the Basics Principles into action through
twice -weekly science -based facts and activities to do
with their child. Messag ing is not limited to English
only. The Basic s is a complement to the First 1,000
Days launched in 2023 by the Department of Health.
Th
e Chairman: Minister, if that is a convenient moment, unless you have only a few more comments on child development?
Ho
n. Diallo V. S. Rabain: I only have maybe two
pages left in this entire head.
Th
e Chairman: We should pause there if it is convenient for you. I am sorry to pause you in the middle of your r emarks. And unless the Minister of Health wants to
take us to lunch, perhaps, Minister, you could move us to lunch.
Ho
n. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Sure. I move that we convene for lunch.
Th
e Chairman: Is there any objection to the motion
that we convene for lunch, returning at 2:00 pm?
There being none, we will return at 2:00 pm
when the Minister will conclude his comments on Head 17 of the Ministry of Education.
Thank you, Minister.
Ho
n. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you.
How much time do we have left, Mr. Chairman?
Th
e Chairman: We have until 5:25, [which] is the
scheduled end to the debate.
Ho
n. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Okay. Thank you.
Th
e Chairman: Members, thank you.
Pr
oceedings in Committee suspended at 12:3 1 pm
Pr
oceedings in Committee resumed at 2:01 pm
[Mr.
Scott Pearman, Chairman]
COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY
ESTIMATES OF REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
FOR THE YEAR 2023/24
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
HEAD 1
7—DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[Continuation thereof]
Th
e Chairman: Good afternoon Honourable Members and members of the listening public. We are now in Committee of Supply for further consideration of the
Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the year
fiscal 2023/24. This is the debate on the Ministry of Education, and we are covering four heads: Heads 16, 17, 18, and 41. The Honourable Minister, Mr. Diallo V. S. Rabain is speaking at the moment to Head 17.
He was just finishing up Head 17 at page B -123 of the
Budget Book. I believe, Honourable Minister you were in the middle of business unit 27175, Child Development.
Minister, please proceed when you’re ready.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We
had wrapped up that business unit, but I
will read the last sentence.


Bermuda House of Assembly Basics Insights help families put t he Basics
Principles into action through twice weekly sciencebased facts and activities to do with their child. Messages are not limited to English only. The Basic is a
complement to the First 1,000 Days launched in 2023
by the Department of Health.
Mr. Chairman, I refer you to page B -134, the
Subjective Analysis of Current Account Estimates for
the Department of Education. This page provides an
aggregate of the detailed line item expenditures previously mentioned. The variances of significance for the
categories are as follows:
Salaries increased and wages decreased by
$4,287,000, or 6 per cent , and $1,101,000 , 23 per
cent, respectively , mainly due to the addition of substitutes and personnel for the signature learning schools of Francis Patton and Purvis . I should say salaries
increased and decreased. I do apologise. One went
down and one went up.
Other personnel costs increased by $215,000,
reflecting the actual expenditure for long service awards .
Training costs are negligi ble at $12[,000]
higher , while Transport increased [sic] by $10[ ,000]
over the prior fiscal.
Travel costs decreased negligibly by $2,000
over the pri or fiscal.
Communication costs decreased by $66,000,
in part reflecting the completion of a number of projects linked to Information Technology Support.
Professional services decreased by $943,000
due to a [ reallocation ] of funding for Education Reform
to the newly reform unit and expenditure efficiencies.
Rental costs increased by $75,000, for office
spaces for the IT, Faci lities and Student Services
teams to be located together, while repair and
maintenance costs decreased by $169,000 [sic] due
to a decrease in COVID -19-related expenses .
Energy costs decreased by $213,000 against
the prior fiscal [year] due to expected effi ciencies at
Clearwater Middle School and Heron B ay Primary .
Materials and Supplies expenditure is
$146,000 higher due to expenditures related to the
signature learning for Frances Patton and Purvis Primary.
Grants and Contributions increased by
$336,000, and those funds have been allocated to
support the school redesign and system transformation work for CedarBridge Academy.

Thank you, Minister. I am just pausing
you there. There was a differential on Transport. It
actually dropped. Accordi ng to the Budget Book it
dropped by $10,000. I think you said it went up by
$10,000 in your brief. So, I don’t know if the brief is
wrong or the Budget Book is wrong, but I just highlight that for the record.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Okay, I’m trying to find
that—

Thank you, Minister.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Chairman, pages B -
135 and B -136, show there are 1,070 FTE posts, an
additional 36 posts compared to 2022/23. The majority of these relate to increases in substitutes and for
the signature learning schools of . . . that should say
Parish primary schools of Francis Patton and Purvis
Primary. The department will continue to monitor and
review the number of FTEs ensuring both efficiency and effectiveness in staff resources.
Mr. Chairman, pages B -137 and B-140 list the
Performance Measures for the Department of Education. These measures reflect the priority areas which
will be monitored and for which staff at schools and
the department will be held accountable during the
year.
Mr. Chairman, I thank the Department of Education and school staff for all efforts undertaken for education reform and general operations over the past
year and look forward to the achievements and outcomes for education reform over the 2023/24 fiscal
year that will move us closer to our vision for learning for Bermuda’s children.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my presentation
on Head 17, the Department of Education. I will now move on to the Budget Estimates for Head 18.

Thank you, Minister.
As you do that, I will just remind the listening
public that this is a five- hour deb ate on the Ministry of
Education. It is scheduled to end at 5:25 pm. The
Honourable Minister Diallo Rabain is speaking now to the next Head. Please proceed.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you.

HEAD 18 —DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARIES
AND ARCHIVES

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: The Department of Libraries and Archives preserves and facilitates access to
information for research, inspiration, life learning and
recreation.
1064 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Chairman, the 2023 estimates of expenditure and revenue for the Department of Libraries and
Archives can be found on pages B -141 through B -146
in the Estimates Book. The department’s mission
statement and objectives are stated on page B -141,
along with a general summary of its expenditures.
Mr. Chairman, the 2023/24 budget allocation
for the Department of Libraries and Archives is set at
$3,085,000. This is an increase of $58,000. Mr.
Chairman, the 2023/24 budget allocation for business
unit 28000, collection management of $475,000 rep-resents an increase of $5,000 when compared with
the 2022/23. This budget represents a reallocation of
money from other business units to cover costs of
mandated salary increments and towards storage
rental costs. This business unit’s full -time equivalents,
or FTEs, count is four employees as shown on page
B-143,
Mr. Chairman, the 2023/24 budget allocation
shown on page B -141 for Adult Services, business
unit 28060 is $441,000, an increase of $52,000 over the 2022/23 budget. This business unit’s full -time
equivalent count is four employees, as shown on page
B-143. The increase in budget allocation and FTEs is
due in part to the department’s succession plan which
saw the trainee librarian promoted to the position of
Circulation Librarian and thus transferred f rom business unit 28130, Administration, to business unit
28060 Adult Services.
Mr. Chairman, page B -141 shows a 2023/24
budget allocation for business unit 28100, Archival Services of $317,000. There was an increase of
$16,000 in expenditure level when compared to 2022/23. The full -time equivalent count for this business unit is three, as shown on page B -143. The increase in budget allocation provides funding to con-tinue conservation and digitisation projects.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 28110, Youth
Servi ces, includes programming catering to the youth
that continue to be popular with families and children
younger than age 14. The 2023/24 budget allocation
as shown on page B -141 is $431,000 a decrease of
$18,000 compared to 2022/23. The full -time equivalent count for this business unit is four employees as
shown on page B -143. The decrease in budget allocation is due to the reallocation of funds.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 28120, Records
Management Services totals $820,000. This reflects
an increase of $22, 000 when compared to the
2022/23. The Government Record Centre, located in Southside, St. David’s provides storage for the Government’s non- current records. The full -time equivalent for this business unit is four employees as shown
on page B -143. The incre ase in budget allocation is
due to increased electricity, software maintenance and building maintenance costs, and mandated salary increases.
Mr. Chairman, the last line item in the general
summary table on page B -141 is $601,000 for busi-ness unit Administ ration 28130. This reflects a decrease of $19,000 compared to 2022/23. The full -time
equivalent for this business unit is a count of four employees as shown on page B -143. The decrease in
funding in FTEs is due to the promotion of the trainee
librarian to the post of [Circulation] Librarian.
Mr. Chairman, I will now present the subjective analysis of current account estimates for the De-partment of Libraries and Archives located on page B -
142. Salary -related expenses show an increase of
$7,000 due to mandat ed salary increments. There are
also increases in funding for professional services
($22,000), rentals ($3,000), maintenance ($7,000),
electricity ($11,000) and supplies ($8,000).
Mr. Chairman, page B -143 shows that the full -
time equivalent count for the Department of Libraries
and Archives will be 23 employees for the fiscal year 2023/24. The staff are all Bermudian.
Mr. Chairman, the Department of Libraries
and Archives operations are not a major revenue source for the government. Fees are charged for duplicating archival materials, library programme fees,
and computer and photocopy charges, and the revenue generated is minimal. As a result of the closures
during the pandemic, the revised 2022/23 revenue
total is $8,000. However, with the upcoming fiscal
year 2023/24, revenue is anticipated to increase to
$10,000 as stated on page B -142.
Mr. Chairman, in keeping with international
trends, the department has eliminated the fines for
overdue books. In conjunction with the increased use of e-books, this has reduced the number of books reported as lost.
Mr. Chairman, the Performance Measures for
the Department of Libraries and Archives are listed on
pages B -144 through B -146, showing the actual outcomes for the fiscal year 2021/22, the original and
revised forecasts for the fiscal year 2022/23, and the target outcomes for 2023/24.
Mr. Chairman, as seen on page C -12, the
Capital Acquisitions Budget for the Department of Li-braries and Arc hives for the fiscal year is $23,000.
These funds will be used to upgrade the security systems at the Government Record Centre. The allocation for 2022/23 was $4,000. Those funds were used to purchase a shredder for the Government Record
Centre.
Mr. Chairm an, during this past year, the staff
of the Bermuda National Library have provided support and guidance for job seekers by
• offering resume writing advice;
• offering printing and emailing services ;
• proofreading of documents ;
• assisting in filling out applic ation forms ;
• teaching how to format letters and other correspondence.
Other support offered to patrons applying for
unemployment benefits included
• how to access government forms ;


Bermuda House of Assembly • how to use a computer ;
• how to set up and access an email ;
• how to fill out forms ;
• how to save and print documents .
Mr. Chairman, in response to patron requests,
access to e -books and e -audiobooks via the Libby
App has been increased. This interest was evidenced
in the increased numbers of patrons bringing in devic-es for help uplo ading the app and checking out ematerials.
Mr. Chairman, the Library’s offerings has
been expanded to include [the following]:
• Movies (Kanopy) and classes (Universal
Class) modules, which were added to Overdrive/Libby and are free to patrons holding valid library membership.
• The Non- fiction collection was further developed to reflect community interest and usage, thus responding to patron consultation and input.
• The Library continues to support our local authors by providing a safe space for them to
launch and celebrate their written achievements.
• The Reading Challenges, both winter and
summer, are reading activities that patrons
look forward to. Feedback indicates that people are introduced to new authors that they
would otherwise not read, and they find i t fun
to challenge themselves to acquire knowledge and research skills.
Mr. Chairman, the department continues to
provide space to host various classes, clubs and book clubs. Some of our repeat clubs are
• The Bermuda Chess Association;
• Toastmasters ;
• Book mart Big Bowtie Bookclub; and
• Fluid Fitness book club.
Mr. Chairman, on Thursday, 23 February
2023, the Library partnered with Walk Together Ber-muda, CURB, the Department of Culture and the Human Rights Commission to host our first Human Library event. The Human Library® creates a safe
space for dialogue where topics are discussed openly
between our human books and their readers. The
human books are volunteers with personal experience with their topic. The Human Library® is a place where
difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered.
Mr. Chairman, the department continues to
serve our non- mobile community with home and nursing home deliveries. Outreach services will be expanded to include the City of Hamilton offices to support busy professionals in the upcoming year.
Mr. Chairman, the staff of the department also
participated in many community outreach opportuni-ties such as the Court Street Market, Pride Days, Library pop- ups and The Ag Show, et cetera. Mr. Chairman, the big win for t he year was the Christmas
window contest, which saw staff members Nikki Bow-ers and Lisa Martin create a wonderful Nutcracker -
based tableau that brought us the first prize in both categories.
Mr. Chairman, we are looking forward to updating our public computer equipment/workstations in the upcoming year. Once updated, we will be able to implement our plan to offer basic computer tutelage.
Through assisting our patrons, observed data shows
that there is a need to support the technology -timid as
we are finding a vulnerable segment of the populace
that is being left behind, evidenced by many patrons not knowing what a mouse is, how to get onto the In-ternet or that they must remember their passcodes.
Mr. Chairman, the department continues supporting various gover nment research requests to support good governance, historical archiving, and record
keeping. Mr. Chairman, our staff are dedicated to ensuring that members of the community receive the best access to knowledge and information resources,
technology support and customer care. To ensure that
our skills are relevant, all participate in webinars and
classes.
Mr. Chairman, we wish to note the commitment of several staff to upgrading their skills. Ms. K.
Bowers has completed her Masters of Library Science
degree and is now a qualified Librarian managing the
Circulation staff. Mr. R. York is in the midst of his Library Assistant certification course. Ms L. Martin is
pursuing her associate degree. Ms. A. Blakeney is
beginning her studies towards a Certificate in Rec ords
and Information Management.
Mr. Chairman, this ends my presentation on
the 2023/24 budget for Head 18, Department of Libraries and Archives. I now move to Head 41, Bermuda College.

Thank you, Honourable Minister.
For the benefit of the listening public this is a
five-hour debate on the Ministry of Education. There
are four heads that are being covered. We are now about to hear from the Minister on the fourth head,
which is Head 41, Bermuda College. And for those
looking at the Budget Bo ok, it is on page B -147.
Honourable Minister, when you are ready.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I
always enjoy doing the College because it is only one
page in the book! One line item.

HEAD 41 —BERMUDA COLLEGE

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Chairman, the Bermuda College’s mission is To provide the community with
innovative programmes, training, support services and
access to partnerships that lead to local and global success. This demons trates its commitment to the
success of its diverse student body by offering trans1066 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly fer programmes leading to success at the university
level; offering professional and technical training lead-ing to success in the workforce, and preparatory pro-grammes leading to the success in the classroom. As
the only post -secondary institution on the Island, Bermuda College also realises its significant role in the
economic recovery and growth agenda of the Government and the Island as a whole.
Mr. Chairman, as found on p age B -147, the
College receives an annual grant from the Ministry of Education and the allocation for the financial year 2023/24 is $14,653,901 which is the same amount
reported in last year’s budget brief. However, it should
be noted that the Ministry was able to provide an additional grant in the amount of $200,000 during the 2022/23 fiscal year to assist the Bermuda College.
The Ministry has also allocated a capital grant of $75,000 of the over $3,000,000 requested by the College for much- needed capital upgrades to its ageing
campus.
Mr. Chairman, Dr. Duranda Greene is the
President of the Bermuda College which is governed
by a Board of Governors. The Chair of the Board is

• Mr. Nasir Wade, Deputy Chair
• Ms. Whitney Butterfield
• Mrs. Cherie Dill
• Mr. Thomas Christopher Famous, JP, MP
• Mr. Frank “Chip” Gillis
• Mrs. Branwyn Smith- King, and
• Mrs. Charmaine Tucker.

Ex-officio Members are:
• The Honourable Randolph Horton (Chairman
of the Honorary Fellows)
• Ms. Jasmine Smith (Permanent Secretary for
Education)
• Ms. Karmeta Hendrickson (Support Staff representative)
• Miss Daque Davis (Student Representative)
• Ms. Necheeka Trott (Faculty Representative)

Mr. Chairman, Bermuda College, is an accredited i nstitution with the New England Commission
on Higher Education and continues to be the most
economical choice for Bermudians and residents on their journey to attain post -secondary education. It not
only offers great value for money when compared to
the fi rst two years of any four -year institution in the
United Kingdom, North America or the Caribbean, but
it also offers innovative education and training, quality
instruction and unparalleled student support.
Mr. Chairman, the major highlight for the College this [fiscal] year was the opening of its new Athene Career Development Centre in April 2022, repre-senting the first new development on the campus
since 1996. The Centre is home to the
• Aspen Innovation Lab • Athora Division of Professional & Career Education [APACE]
• Athora Computer Lab
• Catalina Classroom
Mr. Chairman, in the fall of 2022 the College
introduced several new courses to its offerings including Insurance Operations, Managing Evolving Risks, Business Analytics, Business Spanish and Intercultural Communication, Integrating Research into Evidenced- Based Practice in Healthcare, Integrated Marketing Best Practices, and Advanced Google Analytics. While new programmes offered by its Athora Professional and Continuing Education (APACE) division
included the Long- term Care Certification, Intellectual
Disabilities Aide Certificate, Google Analytics Certifi-cate, and the Coaching Foundation Certificate in part-nership with the International Coaching and Leadership Institute.
Mr. Chairman, the Dual Enrolment Pr ogramme, a partnership between Bermuda College and
the Department of Education, continues to be a success, with 56 participating in the programme during
this past year. It should also be noted that at its May
2022 Commencement, seven dual enrolment student s
graduated from Bermuda College before earning their
high school diplomas.
Mr. Chairman, as Bermuda College, fulfils its
mission of providing its student with access to partnerships that lead to local and global success, 12 students of excellence were acc epted into the Phi Theta
Kappa Honour Society College this past year. These students join 43 others who have been inducted since
2019 when the Bermuda College’s Beta Chi Upsilon
Chapter was established.
Mr. Chairman, Bermuda College continued to
do its par t to not only educate its students but also to
educate and inform the community at large through various events organised throughout the year. This year’s events included: a two- part lecture series entitled “Murder in Paradise” addressing the serious plight
of gun violence amongst our young Black males. In
partnership with BEST (Bermuda Environmental Sus-tainability Taskforce), Bermuda College hosted
monthly Eco Lunch and Learns. Additionally, as part
of the College’s Annual Roche Science Week, a public lect ure entitled “The Brain and Healthy Ageing” was
held with Bermudian Dr. Eve De Rosa, Dean of Faculty at Cornell University. During her very informative lecture, she explored her research into the cognitive
abilities of our brains as we age. In January, Ber muda
College partnered with the American Psychological
Association (APA), who held its Board Retreat in
Bermuda and offered three free workshops for local
psychologists and Bermuda College students. Bermu-da College also continues to offer its very popular
special topics in insurance course entitled Foundations of Bermuda’s International Re- Insurance Sector,
sponsored by ABIR.


Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Chairman, in June, Bermuda College, in
partnership with the Coco Reef Resort, hosted approximately [6 0] overseas guests for the a nnual Dyslexia Foundation (a US -based organisation) Conference in its newly renovated Athene Lecture Theatre. This was the first time the Foundation had partnered
with any college or university, and by all accounts, it
was a great success. The College is l ooking forward
to hosting similar conferences as a way to increase its
revenue.
Mr. Chairman, last month, the Bermuda College Company of Honorary Fellows inducted two new
Fellows, Mr. Peter Hardy and Mr. Larry Mussenden.
Both were honoured and celebrated for their significant contributions to this community and beyond in their respective fields.
Mr. Chairman, supporting output measures for
the College’s activities this past year are as follows:
In May 2022, Bermuda College held its first inperson graduation since the pandemic, graduating 93
students who received their associate degrees, diplo-mas and certificates, with one student earning two
associate degrees. The College also graduated its
first student with its Associate [in Science] in Pre-Med
(ironically, a dual enrolment student) and its first graduate with its Associate in Arts in Foreign Language.
The breakdown of graduates by Divisions was as fol-lows:
• Arts & Science —36 graduates
• Business —29 graduates
• Hospitality —6 graduates
• Technic al Education—16 graduates
• Nursing & Allied Health— 7 graduates
Additionally, another nine students graduated
from its partner institutions —six from Mount Saint Vincent University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and three from Miami University with a Master’s Degree in Special Education.
Mr. Chairman, in May 2022, the Athora Professional and Career Education Division awarded 250 professional designations and workforce development
certificates that included 10 public high school students wh o received their Certificate in Nursing Assistants as part of the Department of Education’s dual
enrolment programme with the College, and 72 high
school students who earned the City & Guilds Certifi-cate in Employability Skills.
The breakdown of the profes sional designations and workforce development certificates earned is as follows:
• American Management Association Certificate
in General Management —3
• AMA Certificate in Human Resources —4
• Association of Chartered Certified Account-ants (ACCA) Diploma in Financial and Management Accounting Level 2—2
• ACCA Diploma in Financial and Management
Accounting Level 4 —1
• ACCA Designation— 1 • Building Owners and Managers Institute (BOMI) —4
• Certificate in Basic Horticulture (Level 1) —29
• Certificate in Basic Horticulture (Leve l 2)—9
• Certificate in Bartending —30
• Certificate for Nursing Assistants —16
• Emergency Medical Technician— 12 [sic]
• Endeavour Maritime Springboard Programme—11
• International Compliance Association (ICA)
Certificate in Anti Money Laundering —1
• ICA Certificate in Compliance—3
• ICA Certificate in Financial Crime Prevention—1
• ICA International Advanced Certificate in
Regulatory Compliance —2
• ICA Advanced Certificate in Anti Money
Laundering— 2
• ICA Specialist Certificate in Anti -Corruption—
1
• ICA Specialist Certificate in Financial Crime
Risk and New Technology —1
• ICA Specialist Certificate in Money Laundering Risk in Correspondent Banking —1
• World Instructor Training School (WITS) Personal Training Certification —3
For the online programmes we have
• Bookkeeping Certificate —13
• Certificate in Accounting and Finance for Non-Financial Managers —4
• Certificate in Business Writing—3
• Certificate in Data Analysis —2
• Certificate in Mastering Microsoft Excel —1
• Certificate in Leadership Development —1
• Certificate in Online Teac hing—1
• Certificate in Project Management —1
• Certificate in Teaching Adults —3
• Certificate in Web Design —1
• Coding Certificate —1
• Entrepreneurship Certificate—1
• Grammar Refresher Certificate— 2
• Management Certificate—2
• Managing Remote Workers Certificate —1
• SQL C ertificate —3
• Supervisory and Leadership Certificate—1

While the Minister takes a very quick
break for a sip of water, let me first say that, Minister, I
was totally disappointed that MP Famous was not in
the Chamber when you elevated him to an honorary
doctor in your words.
Members of the listening public and Honourable Members, we are in Committee of Supply for fur-ther consideration of the Estimates of Revenue and
Expenditure for the year 2023/24. This is the debate
on the Ministry of Education which is scheduled as a
five-hour debate, and intended to conclude at
1068 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly 5:25 pm. It is a debate covering all four of the heads in
the Ministry of Education. We are on the fourth, and
final, head, which is Head 41 Bermuda College. You have been hearing f rom the Honourable Minister Diallo Rabain, and we are at page B -147 of the bundle if
you are following in the bundle.
Minister, you have the floor.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, in the fall of 2022 the Bermuda
College enrolled 583 students in its academic divi-sions. There were also 486 students serviced through
APACE during the same period.
Mr. Chairman, in 2022 Bermuda College received $14,903,900, or 78 per cent of its operating
budget from its Government gra nt. Bermuda College
also received a special grant in the amount of
$300,000 to assist students in financial need with their
tuition in both the academic and APACE Divisions
during the 2022/23 academic year. The Ministry also
provided an additional $200,000 for operating expenses and $175,000 in capital funding.
Mr. Chairman, Bermuda College’s budgeted
revenue of $4,633,636 from other sources included:
Student tuition and fees for credit courses;
• PACE revenue;
• bookstore revenue;
• testing centre revenue; and
• rental income, including the Coco Reef Resort.
This amount and the Government grant made
up a total revenue figure for the 2022/23 budget year
of $19,837,536.
Mr. Chairman, during this period, salaries and
benefits accounted for $13,234,917, or 69.0 per cent
of the budget. This represents a 0.75 [per cent] increase in salaries when compared to 2021/22.
Mr. Chairman, Bermuda College’s annual IT
expenditures included $20,710 on augmented reality
and virtual reality products to provide students with virtual hands -on experiences via simulation activities.
The College continues to replace high- priority hardware and infrastructure items identified as near the
end of their useful life, including switches, servers,
cabling, telephone systems and other computer hardware items. In addition to the Government grant, Bermuda College is thankful for the support of corporate
donors who donated $125,425 to the Bermuda College Foundation to assist in updating the College’s IT
infrastructure during the 2022/23 fiscal year.
In addition, Bermuda College also received
donations totalling $243,071 for equipment to support
its programmes: Chubb, for electric and hybrid trainers for its automotive programme; Oakley Capital Investments for its aquaponics lab; and Centennial
Foundation for additional simulators for its nursing lab.
Unfortunately, due to supply chain issues that have
delayed the equipment’s arrival on the island, the equipment will [not] be introduced into the programmes until the next academic year.
Mr. Chairman, as part of the College’s commitment to providing a safe and healthy environment for its students and employees, it spent $464,000 on improvements to its physical plant and routine cleaning and maintenance contracts. This included initial
deposits for repairs to i ts Library roof and refurbishing
the Faculty Centre elevator. These works will be completed during the next fiscal year.
Bermuda College is projected to spend
$395,000 on insurance and $1,031,000 on electricity
and other utilities during the 2022/23 fiscal year. To
decrease its electricity costs, the College replaced all
its interior lights with LED lights and installed panels
on two buildings on campus during this past year with
funding provided through the Bermuda College Foun-dation. The cost savings are due to be realised in the
next fiscal period.
Mr. Chairman, a total of $29,832 in financial
assistance was allocated to students enrolled in the
academic divisions who demonstrated a financial
need from the College operating budget. This amount
was supplemented with the additional $300,000 from
the Government mentioned previously and another $164,388 from donations received by the Bermuda
College Foundation. Additionally, students received
$113,848 of scholarships from private donors. A total of 455 awards were granted to 315 students over the
course of the 2022/23 academic year.
Mr. Chairman, later this month the College will
host a representative from the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing [ACEN] for an initial site
visit as the first step i n the accreditation process for its
nursing programme. The College has also established
a Planning Committee to organise a series of events
to form part of its 50
th anniversary celebrations that will
take place during the 2024/25 academic year.
Mr. Chairman, salaries continue to form the
majority of the College’s budgeted expenses, and the College continues to review its operations, seeking
ways to decrease its labour costs while still providing
quality education to its students.
Delivering Success, Bermuda College’s current strategic plan, is the blueprint to steer the College towards its 50
th anniversary in 2024. As the plan ends
in 2024, $50,000 will be set aside for the development
of the next five- year plan over the next fiscal year.
As part of the Government’s agenda, Bermuda College will utilise the $300,000 tuition grant to as-sist students with financial needs in the academic and
APACE divisions. A comparative number of students
is anticipated to be assisted with the 2023/24 grant.
Mr. Chairman, Bermuda College will continue
to work with the Department of Education to provide
college courses to qualified students through its Dual Enrolment programme as part of the new signature
learning programmes introduced into the Bermuda
Public School System curric ulum. The College will


Bermuda House of Assembly continue to forge alliances with professional credentialing and accrediting agencies for workforce devel-opment and professional certifications, such as the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Building Owners and Managers Institute (BOMI)
for building owners and managers; City & Guilds for
the applied sciences; Global Knowledge for information technology, International Compliance Associa-tion (ICA), Association of Certified Anti -Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) and KIXKO for compli-ance; and local professional bodies.
Mr. Chairman, during the upcoming year, the
College will implement a prior learning assessment
programme to allow students to earn college credit for
learning gained outside of a traditional academic environment. It will also develop an entrepreneurship
course as part of its associate in business programme and complement its technical education programmes.
Bermuda College will also continue to expand its articulation agreements with higher education institutions in the United Kingdom and throughout North America to ensure a seamless transition for Bermuda
College graduates who wish to pursue additional education at three- and four -year institutions.
Mr. Chairman, over the next year, Bermuda
College will continue to work on establishing a complete and accurate database of its alumni, including
those from its three previous institutions, the Bermuda
Technical Institute, the Academic Six Form Centre
and the Bermuda Hotel and Catering College as it
prepares for its 50
th anniversary celebrations.
Mr. Chairman, during the next fiscal year, the
College will review its per credit tuition rate which has not been reviewed since 2018. As part of the review, it will also seek ways to increase its financial aid to ensure that no student in Bermuda is denied access to
Bermuda College due to finances.
Mr. Chairman, as I close, I wish to thank the
Board, executive, administration, faculty, and staff of
Bermuda College for their work throughout this year,
and I look forw ard to working with them in the coming
year to help students of all ages pursue their career
and personal aspirations.
Thank you, Mr . Chairman. This concludes the
budget on Head 41, the Bermuda College, and my overall presentation of the 2023/24 Budget for the
Ministry of Education.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you to the Minister. That was a fulsome
[delivery] and to be honest with you I could have
heard a little bit more. But I understand that time is of
the essence, and he did give a substantial amount of
time to give an overview of the Ministry, of which I really appreciate. I did find it quite interesting. Thank
you.
So, I would like very much to start with Head
17, the Department of Education. This is located on page B -131. My focus for the Department of Education in particular is that in my opinion, and in some
circles, Education is the most important Min istry in this
country. So it is really important that we get as many
answers so that we all have a full understanding of the
scope of the Ministry of Education and are able to
have a greater understanding and appreciation for what the Ministry is doing.
I would actually like to start in the middle, if
you don’t mind, of the department. I’d like to start on page B -133, this is the General Summary of the Department of Education. And of course Clearwater is super topical right now having just received the announcement that it is closing. So I just wanted to ask
the Minister if he could give us a breakdown on the
$2,469,000 that has been allocated for the 2023/24
year, given that the school will be closing. I am sure
that there will be some overhead. But if he can give us
a breakdown of the costs that will be associated, or
what that funding is going to be allocated for given
that it is included in the budget even though the
school will be closed.
I would also just like to take a look at T. N.
Tatem. So, when T . N. Tatem (and this is page B -133,
27590) closed in the 2022/23 year, it was closed and
the funds were allocated away. But prior to that in
2021/22 there was $1,940,000 in the operating costs.
And we can clearly see how the allocation for the next
year, I am guessing some of the funding went into
Dellwood Middle School, which is line item 27560.

Thank you, MP Jackson.
Honourable Minister.
Oh, sorr y, would you prefer that she puts all of
her questions first? I am in your hands, Minister.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: I prefer a number of questions, but I can answer that.

1070 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: You’re on your feet, why don’t you —

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: I’m on my feet.
As I explained in the Ministerial Statement
when we talked about the closure of the school it is not a per se savings of funding immediately across
the board. Where we will find savings is a reduction of
electricity, a reduction of supplies f or the particular
school. The bulk of that, as we talked about, around
93 per cent are budgeted to represent salaries. So
those teachers will be redistributed throughout the
system and, as you saw with T. N. Tatem, as you correctly stated, it looked as if the money had been filtered into other schools. So, as those teachers are
moved to other schools, then that funding that follows
their salaries moves with them. So that is where the
funding comes.
And as we did state, no permanent teacher
will be made redundant from the closing of Clearwater
unless they retire, or they decide not to continue in the
system. All teachers will be placed. So, that is what the funding speaks to, for salaries.

[Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr. , Chairman]

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Which brings me to a very good point. So, on
page B -136, still Head 17, Department of Education, I
noticed that, again looking at Clearwater Middle
School, which is towards the bottom of the page, line
item 27530, there is an allocation for 2023/24 of 28
teachers. And it looks as though it has been consistent. There have consistently been 28 teachers at
Clearwater. So, again, I took a look to see if the
school is going to be closing in the 2023/24 season, I
am looking at the list of all of the teachers allocated to
all of the schools in Bermuda and I had a difficult time
finding where all the teachers would be redirected.
I did note, Mr. Chairman, that there are a
number of teachers allocated to other middle schools which include Whitney Institute, Dellwood Middle
School, The Berkeley Institute (another senior school),
and I am going to include that, and Sandys Secondary, Sandys Middle School. That adds up to 11 teachers. And so I would like to ask the Minister if he might be able to give an explanation of where, if the 28
Clearwater teachers, some of them, 11 of them, will
be allocated to other middle sc hools, there would still
be a remaining 17 teachers who would not be included in this fulsome list of all of the teachers in the system. So, can the Minister give us some indication of what, or why there would be 17 teachers who would
still need to be allocated to schools?

Minister.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I will attempt to answer this. The teachers
from Clearwater have not been reallocated yet. Those are listed as staff that we know that we need now, as
we know t he Budget Book was done . . . the announcement of Clearwater closing was done three
weeks ago. The Budget Book was done before that.
So, what schools do is identify missing or areas where
they need staff. Especially as we are talking about the development of our parish primary schools as well as
our signature schools, there is additional staff needed there. So that is [where] some of those numbers will [go].
If you also look at the parish primary school
column, you will see that there are additional teachers also needed for Purvis and Francis Patton as well.
The meetings between the Clearwater staff and Heron
Bay staff are taking place this week with the Depart-ment of Education with an idea of finding places
where they can fit in. So some of these additional staff
members that you currently see may not have to be
employed because they may already exist, but we still
may have to go out and find specialist persons for
that. But we will also be using the Clearwater staff and
the Heron Bay staff to fill areas that are in need but
we have been unable to fill. Either we cannot find them or we have not had the funding to find them.
So that is where those teachers from Clearwater and Heron Bay will eventually be reallocated to. The fact is that there are spaces with in the system.
They will be found spaces within the system. It is just a matter of having that conversation with them before that can be announced.
But, I wanted to explain what it means in the
book, because those are teachers that we do need, in the ones that you are saying show additional. But that
book was printed before the announcement about
Clearwater was made.

I really appreciate it.
So, my other question then, whi ch leads into
the teacher positions and allocations would be, Does
this mean that some of the teachers may be offered
positions that are not necessarily in their specialty? So teachers would have to make a choice about whether
to move, let’s say, from a cl assroom teacher into a


Bermuda House of Assembly library resource teacher, that sort of thing, and whether that will have any impact on the agreements that they have as far as their employment is concerned.
And my other question around the teachers is,
Will there be any . . . does the Minister feel that there
might be a need for retraining or professional development as these are Clearwater . . . well, we are using the Clearwater Middle School teachers which tend
to be more subject matter experts, versus classroom
teachers, where y ou have one teacher that teaches all
of the subjects all day to the one class. Will there be
any opportunities for training, retraining, and then how
that would affect the teacher and their relationship or
contract with the Education Ministry.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: In terms of teachers, as I
said, the department plans to meet with each teacher
on an individual basis to hopefully place them in a
place where they want to go. We will share with them
what existing openings currently exist within the system. And every year there are numerous positions that come up.
The Budget Book straddles the academic
year. So, it kind of gives a skewed view. But as we speak now, we have teachers who are nonBermudian who are on work permits that are expiring
at the end of the term that will need to be filled, whether they are renewals or another Bermudian
teacher can fill that post. Once we have the evaluation
of students which will determine how many paras will
be needed, whether additional or fewer para -
educators will be needed. So there are different things that go into that.
In terms of the teachers coming from Heron
Bay and Clearwater, they will be placed in the best
possible place that they can be, in the most . . . and I
am going to go out on a limb and say that in virtually
all of the cases they will get the position they are look-ing for. But I am not going to be naïve and say that there may not be some people who will not be able to
go to the school they desire, or perhaps even the situation that they desire. That is just how some of this
stuff does work. But the purpose of meeting with them
on an individual basis is to have that understanding
that we are going to get them to where they would like
to be.
In terms of subject matters at the primary
schools, as you know, we are moving to parish prima-ry schools. So removal of the middle school system and putting the M1 and M2 now at P7 and P8 will re-quire more subject matter teachers than what we have
ever had in the primary schools. So as that curriculum
is revealed we will see it start one way but end up in a
different way. So that is why when you look at Francis
Patton and Purvis in the Budget Book you will see that
there are additional teachers needed and those can be considered specialists that they have ident ified that
are going to be needed to do the particular curriculums that they have developed. The Chairman: Thank you, Minister.

Yes, I would like to . . . the
Minister brought up a good point about the
paraprofessional s. So I just want to turn to page B -
135, Head 17, Department of Education, and paraprofessionals is 27079. I have two questions: One is that I notice that every year we have the exact
same number of paraprofessionals at 111. So I am
just curious. What kind of aspirations, if any, can a
paraprofessional have? Is there an opportunity for a
paraprofessional to qualify, to aspire to becoming a
classroom teacher? What is the pathway for a career aspiration for paraprofessionals? And what is the Ministry doing to inspire and support paraprofessionals to
continue their professional educational experience so
that we can see . . . you know, we can talk about in
the brief how we have seen paraprofessionals promot-ing out and not as it looks on paper, creating a stag-nant situation.
Also under the paraprofessionals, I am curious, going back to Clearwater closing. I wonder if the
Minister can provide the number of paraprofessionals
who were at Clearwater and will those . . . if he can
give us the number of paraprofessionals, and then will
those paraprofessionals follow the students from Clearwater to their next assigned school? If the Minis-ter can explain how that experience will go, because
the paraprofessionals are either going to be, I would
imagine, assisting classroo ms that have now become
that much larger, so they are actually assisting the teachers with class management. Or they may be a
paraprofessional that is directly in a relationship with a particular student that needs specific support. So if the
Minister coul d just describe for us, and give some level of understanding and comfort for parents who are
still trying to figure this all out for September, what the paraprofessional journey will look like for those leaving Clearwater and moving into the next middle
school.

Minister.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Member, for that question. One of
the things that is of paramount importance to us is ensuring that our students have a continuity of the education that they ar e receiving. As mentioned in the
Ministerial Statement [when] I talked about Clearwa-ter, there are . . . and I am going from memory. There
are approximately, I think we said between 8 and 12
students on IEP [Individualised Education Programmes]. Those are students who actually have those. And we did mention that those students will
require special care and whatever services they are
receiving at Clearwater they would need to be receiv-ing at whatever school they are going to. So, that
1072 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly would mean that any ser vices that they are currently
getting would transfer with them.
In terms of persons in the paraprofessional
category being uplifted, I know personally of some
people who have gone from being paraprofessionals
to being teachers. The opportunities exist. It is a matter of retooling yourself and going off to school. And as you heard me talk about the Bermuda College, we provide funding for persons to attend Bermuda College. We provide grants to assist with tuition. We also
have scholarships that are specifically for teachers, persons looking to seek teacher certification. And we
have also introduced a bonded loan scheme for
teachers, or persons who wish to get into the teaching
field and require what we call a practicum which is a
process of being in the class room teaching, but you
are not paid for that time. I believe it is for 12 weeks.
So we have created an opportunity for them to
be able to borrow money from us, get that teaching certification, be employed as a teacher, and then pay
that back over the cour se of three to five years. So it
is a minimum amount and they can get different levels
of it because some people might need more than others. They may have a dual income household or that
sort of thing.
So they can borrow up to the maximum
amount of an entry level teacher. And then that gets paid back over the course of . . . I think if you borrow
the maximum, you have five years to pay back that
amount. But this is something that we put in place
over the last couple of years to assist persons who
wish to try to make that leap from whatever they are
doing and becoming a teacher, to give them that as-sistance to the acquiring of a bachelor’s degree which
is the minimum to become a teacher. There are funding sources, whether it is through the Bermuda College or through the Ministry of Education scholarship
programme, and, of course private sector as well. But
the acquiring of the bachelor’s degree, which is the
minimum to become a teacher.
So as I said, I have known of persons like you
are speaking of who have made their leap over into
teaching. So it is very possible to do that.

I am st ill on the paraprofessionals, 27079, on page B -135. So eight paraprofessionals accompanying students from Clearwater into
other middle schools, so that is a manageable num-ber. My question to the Minister is, How is the Ministry
going to manage if we do find ourselves in the situation where there may be a teacher in a class that might have, at this point with the Clearwater students
moving in, two or three paraprofessionals in the class-room in addition to the students? So just the class
management side of the possibility that there could be
more paraprofessionals assisting students in one class or in a number of classes once we set ourselves
up for September. And how is the Ministry managing
class schedules of children with paraprofessionals to make sure that it is not overwhelming for the classroom teacher?
I have one other question around the
paraprofessionals. I am wondering if the Minister at
some point in this debate might be able to just give us
the number of paraprofessionals within even the last five or ten years who have moved from the
paraprofessional role into a teaching profession? I think that this would be helpful if for no other reason than [being an] aspirational [goal] for those who may
be considering pursuing their accreditation or their
credentials to become a classroom teacher or other specialist.
I can move on for a little bit. Thank you very
much for the information on Clearwater for the moment. I would like to go back to page B -132, Head 17,
Department of Education. And I would like to j ust
spend a minute looking at the primary schools. So we
have got Heron Bay at 27450. Again, I am looking at
the school as it is closing. And that has a 2023/24 al-location of $1,148,000. Again, the Minister did mention that with Clearwater [this amount] would be allocated to other middle schools. But with Heron Bay,
that school is closing, like, absolutely. It is not going to
become a signature school, to my knowledge. There
has not been any tag on that.
And I will give the Minister, I understand that
this Budget Book may have been printed before the
notice was sent out that Heron Bay school would be closing. But if he could give us a breakdown of where those funds are being absorbed into the budget and
where they will be going?
And similarly, still on page B -132, when I look
at Francis Patton, 27350, there is an allocation of
$2,475,000, which makes sense. And I am noticing
that this is an increase of $918,000. And again, Francis Patton is about to become a parish primary school. But I am just curious if the Minister could please give
us a breakdown of the costs of what that $918,000 additional funds for Francis Patton school will be used for?
While I am on that page and having this conversation, I am curious if the Minister can also look at line item 27440, Purvis Primary School. And again, it
has an increased allocation of $741,000 for the 2023/24 school year, which is a total allocation of $2,701,000. And again, if the Minister can give a
breakdown on the cost of where that additional
$741,000 is goi ng? Do you want to answer that now?

Minister.


Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Susan, [Honourable Member]. I am just
going back. I do have some additional information here. I just had 11 para- educators have the opportunity to receive an intellectual disabilities certification at Bermuda College th is past school year. In terms of
finding out exactly who has perhaps moved from that into teaching would take a little bit more digging to actually do that.
It said there are also two para- educators at
Clearwater Middle School, and para- educators do
move with their students. As far as I know, even if
they are going from primary to middle school, they
tend to move with them. So this would be no different
doing that.
You mentioned about the additional budget at
Clearwater —not Clearwater. Francis Patton and—

Purvis.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: —Purvis. Again, I had spoken briefly to that. If you look at page B -136, you will
see that there are additional employees for both of
those schools, I believe eight in one and six in the
other one that acc ount for some of that. The other part
of that increase was the additional supplies, additional things that are needed in order to upgrade the school. When you look at the school budget line item, this includes the salary and it also includes the money
need ed to operate the school as well. So that would
be supplies. That would be additional desks. It might
be additional schoolbooks, buying curriculum and that
sort of thing. When we talk about our capital grants, that is the part when you are talking about what is
needed to actually build and do anything along those
lines. So that additional funding would be for what has
been identified as additional teachers.
And you mentioned that earlier when we
talked about specialised teachers at the primary school and s uch. So that would be whatever teachers
are needed. Because I cannot speak to exactly what
those teachers are. But whatever personnel has been
submitted for, we have made allocations for it in that. And that is where you see the increase. So it would be
employees plus operational expenses to run the parish primary schools. I think that was it.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Oh, the breakdown of the
costs. Again, this is the same. This would be the same
with Clearwater. That would be the cost of the employees. And you will see where there is a deduction.
That would be the operational costs. That is what they
are. But what is left is all salary. So all of those teachers will be reallocated throughout the system. So there is no per se savings along those lines except for
the fact we are now able to fill positions that we may
not have been able to fill because we had additional schools and we did not have funding to fill those. So
the money you see there is salaries.

Thank you, Minister.
So now I am just turning, flipping over to page
B-136 to the employee numbers. So 27350, Francis
Patton, is getting an additional eight teachers. And
Purvis Primary (line item 27440 for Purvis) is getting an additional six teachers. But for the parish primary
schools it is just one class. So there will just be the
P7, which will be the P6 children who are just going to be moving into P7. So we have got eight teachers
joining Francis Patton, and we have got six teachers
joining Purvis Primary School. But there is just one
additional class in the school. So I am just curious if
the Minister might just give us an explanation of where
the other seven and the other five teachers would go within the school that is already populated with the
teachers?

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: This one feels like we are
going round and round in circles for this one. As you correctly stated, in primary school there typically is
one class, and the students stay in the class and that
[teacher] is a specialist. A nd that teacher will be the
only one there. As we are moving to parish primary
schools and introducing additional encore subjects and different things for our students, we need different teachers to be able to teach these things. It is interesting to go back to the Clearwater model, where despite
the fact that we had 71 students, we still needed
teachers to ensure that they taught all of these different modules that had to be taught. Whether there
were two people in the class or whether there were 10 people in the class, you still have to teach them.
That would be the same at the primary school.
As they develop these different models of learning and modules of learning, they will require different teachers who can teach different things. So that is
where that comes from. So the numbers that have
been submitted are coming from the System Transformation Teams to say, These are the topics that will
be taught. These are the things that we will need, personnel, in order to make this effective and make it actually work. So that is where those numbers come
from.
I cannot tell you exactly what each one of
them will be doing because I just do not have that lev-el of documentation here with me. But rest assured
that we have to replicate something that is similar.
And i t is actually one of the questions that gets asked
by parents. If my child goes to middle school or goes
into P7, how will they be different? And the answer we
give is, while we cannot compare them apples to ap-ples, the experience will be comparable. Because we
are preparing them whether they are going to M1 or
P7 for senior school. So the things that will happen—so a lot of parents ask, Well, my child is in middle
school. They have to do shop. They get to do —they
1074 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly move around to different classes. They have different
content specialists and those sorts of things. Will that
happen at the primary schools?
The short answer to that is yes! But it will look
different. So in order for us to do that, we need the additional bodies on campus. But yes. So the additional bodies will be there, and they are needed in the
primary schools. So there will not be just one class
and that child stays in that class and there is one
teacher who teaches them all. That will not happen at
the P7 level. And also remember, we are not only preparing for P7, we are preparing for P8 as well. So
we have to have these things in [place]. So the way
these people go, they will not only just be doing P7,
they will probably be doing P8. And although we are
doing P1 and P7, parts of this have to trickle down or
trickle up through the rest of the school as well. So we
will slowly introduce different classes into what this
new process of learning will be, which will be slightly
different from what it is that we currently see with the
one teacher/one class all day.

Thank you, Minister. So I
believe that I understand that. And just sort of to
summarise, it sounds as though, which is a great idea
if we can get this working, would be that we may have
in the early stages, let us say , a math teacher who
may be teaching maths to maybe P6, P7, P8 eventually. But that they also may right now double up and
do another course subject or something else until
there is a full complement of students in the school.
So I understand that. And maybe there are even opportunities for the subject matter ... or teacher to even expand out and take on a couple of other functions or
activities within the school. So that makes a lot of
sense, and I understand. Thank you, Minister.
I would now like to move on to page B -138.

So page B -138. These are
the performance measures. So as we are embarking
on a new model for our parish primary schools and with Clearwater closing and the like, I just wanted to
spend a little time and ask a few questions around the performance measures. So I am going to go to the
programme 1707, Middle Schools. And again, I am
going to just backstep a little bit to the Clearwater model again. And one of the questions that have
come up, and our colleague, MP Famous, actually
had brought it up during a parliamentary question.
And that is the argument or the assertion —
[Mr. Christopher Famous, Chairman]

Good afternoon. Yes.
And MP Famous had brought up during the
parliamentary Question Period with the announce-ment of the closure of the Clearwater Middle School
that smaller sizes, smaller classroom sizes with f ewer
students, at least in the past there has been an argument that would say that children who are in smaller
class sizes get more attention and so their performance is better. And we were assured that the larger class sizes would not have a negative impact on our
children.
But I just wanted to go over and ask, under
the Middle School [line item] under Performance
Measures if the Minister might be able to give us an
indication as a starting place of where the Clearwater reading, math and writing scores were in 2022/23 so
that we can at least have some foundation for the
children who were in smaller class sizes. Because
Clearwater Middle School [presently] has about 79 students. So I would imagine their attention to academics has been quite personal. So if we could get
from the Minister the reading, math and writing scores
that the Clearwater students have achieved for 2022/23?
One of my concerns here or observations (let
us put it as an observation/concern) is that on page B -
138 under 1707, Middle Schools, we have got the M1
to M3 students achieving targeted growth for reading. Now, this is a new measure. So, I am not sure what the testing apparatus is for this targeted growth for
reading. But in the middle schools we are seeing that
we have got about 55 per cent of the students in M1
to M3 achieving a 55 per cent targeted growth for
reading. And that means that we have got 45 per cent
who are not achieving the target. And as much as we can draw attention to those who need what it will take
to get to that targeted growth, this is an opportunity for
us to focus on that because for many students, whether they are welcoming new students into their
classroom from Clearwater or whether they are


Bermuda House of Assembly Clearwater students who are going in and starting
fresh in the new mid dle school, whether we can at this
point really focus on how we are going to improve the academic achievement scores of our children.
Because in the next row we also have a
55 per cent success rates for M1 to M3 students scoring 3 or higher on Math assess ments. And the following line item is M1 to M3 students achieving 3 or high-er on their Writing assessments, which came in at
50 per cent. So if we can work to improve or learn
more, if the Minister might be able to also give us an
indication of what those assessments actually are,
then it gives us at least somewhere to start. And to be
honest it is a little worrying to see that the target outcome for 2023/24 is to just hold steady with 55 per
cent in Reading, increasing 5 per cent to 60 per cent
of M1 to M3 students achieving 3 or higher in Math,
and then keeping only a 5 per cent increase in M1 to
M3 students achieving 3 or higher in Writing assessments.
So there seems to be that we are just holding
our own at a time when it is so important in a child’s education to really get to strengthen their skills in
reading, writing and mathematics. And we are in a
holding pattern with almost half of our children not
even able to meet the standard assessment. So if the
Minister can give us an indication of what those assessments actually are? And why are we just hovering
and accepting that 50 [per cent] to 55 [per cent] to
maybe 60 per cent of our children achieving the sort
of basic requirement versus having a much higher percentage? Because of course it should, in my opinion, be in the 90 percentile. And I know how challeng-ing that can be and the rest. But if the Minister can
please give us some indication or hope that work and
focus is being done in this area to improve our Reading, Math and Writing scores?

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, “Dr.” Chairman.

[Laughter]

One minute, Minister.
For the benefit of the listening audience and
our honourable colleagues, we are now in Committee of Supply for further consideration of the Estimates of
Revenue and Expenditure for the year 2023/24, Ministry of Education. The Honourable Minister Diallo Rabain has given his presentation from Heads 16, 17, 18 and 41. And he is answering some robust questions from MP Susan Jackson.
You have the floor, Minister.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
MP Jackson, I absolutely cannot at this point
get the scores. My team is telling me that this is some-thing that is still being compiled. But what I will agree
with you is that this is not good enough. And what I
also will thank you for is making the point for educa-tion reform and why it is we are doing what we are
doing, because we have to give our children the op-portunity to succeed, period. And putting things in
place that meets them where they are and making
their education journey more personalised for them is exactly where we are moving toward. We have been
doing this now, as we talked about in the brief, we
have been doing these Cambridge assessments for 10 years now. And I am not saying that it is absolutely
wrong. But we have to tweak it. And we are in the
process of doing that.
So when we are standing here as old people
a couple of years from now, if we look at these scores, if we look at these data metrics, we should be see-ing—as the things that we put in place begin to take
hold and begin to work and get to the students where they need to be gotten to —we will see them improve.
And they should improve and they will improve. But
right now this is what we have. And we can only repor t
what we have.

Thank you, Minister.
And if we do, I can understand that getting the
scores might be difficult right today, right now. But
also if we might be able to just get an idea of the kinds of assessments, the tools that are being used to assess the children at this stage? And maybe it would be interesting to find out a little bit more about any of the formal assessments that will be introduced once
the reform takes place.
But we can appreciate the fact that there are
parents , in particular, who are desperate to see their
children improve their academic scores. And although
there is quite a bit of movement in the system right now and there are traumas, I am sure, and anxieties
associated with these moves, but there is that appreciation that we have got a population of children who
are scoring at the 55 percentile and less who are real-ly struggling in the existing system.
So, I am asking the Minister, you know (and
this might be just a philosophical question), b ut we still
have t hese children who are performing at this level.
And regardless of the fact that we are introducing
something different or something new, these children
are still in the system. And we cannot just leave it there because all of our attention is on something
new. These are children, and they are living beings.
And we have only got one shot at this. They are grow-ing every day. So my question and my concern to the
Minister is, What are we doing? We have to do something with the children who are in the existing, tradi-tional system now whether we like it or not. Because
maybe the Minister can remind us how long it could
potentially take for the complete overhaul or the com-plete introduction of the entire education reform? It
clearly is not going to happen that ever ybody is going
to wake up tomorrow morning and everything is new
and different.
1076 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly So we are going to have an entire generation
of children who are going to go through our traditional
system whether we like it or not. And we have to pay attention to them and their achievement at the same
time that we are looking to figure out how a new mod-el is going to show improved results. So my question
to the Minister is really, What are we doing? What assessments are we using now in the existing model? And what if anything can we do with the children who
are testing in the traditional model now so that we can
improve our scores beyond 50 [per cent] and 55 [per
cent] and possibly 60 per cent achievement in the
basic Reading, Math and Writing assessments?
Moving on . . . yes, no.

Go right ahead, Minister. We have
another two hours.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: I will reach back into my
brief. And I know sometimes we miss some of this
stuff when we are reading it. And with your permission—I stated, “Mr. Chairman, the Educati on Officer
for Reading is working with schools to implement a
variety of reading programmes. Mr. Chairman, the
department continues to administer Gates -MacGinitie
Reading Test s twice per year for students from Pri mary 2 through to Senior 4. The department is also using
the Amplify mCLASS assessment tool and teacher
training for use in a pilot project with the President of
Literacy How, Dr. Margie Gillis, and the Bermuda College. Pilot classes with access to the assessments and teaching resources available t hrough Amplify are
the P1 and P2 classes at Dalton E. Tucker Primary,
Paget Primary and Elliot Primary. The department is
also exploring the potential implementation of a system-wide Phonics Programme for all P1 through P3
classes (possibly extending to P4 due to COVID -19
impacts on the foundational years for those students), using the UFLI Foundations programme, which provides a phonics curriculum inclusive of the daily lesson plans for teachers, similar in presentation to the
established Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum now in use from our Bright Start classes in preschool through Primary 3 classrooms. ”
And it also says here, “ The implementation of
access to the online platforms Raz -Plus and Vocabulary A –Z for all primary students in the BPSS, and for
use as an intervention tool in the middle schools. This
provides students with access to a digital library, and teachers with access to a tool to assist in Reading
instruction and progress -monitoring through the use of the comprehension quizzes available for each assigned text.
“Ongoing teacher training and parent presentations are provided in support of these tools. Mr .
Chairman, the Education Officer for Reading and the Education Officer Early Childhood and Special Education teamed up this year t o offer a 10-week course to
selected Primary 1 teachers. ”
So, I really read that to show that there is a
way they exercise the testing, twice a year, through
the Gates - MacGinitie Reading Test, and there is progress on how we can do things differently within the
department. You are exactly right. As we are transforming there is a responsibility to the persons who
remain in the current system until it is converted over.
So it is a balancing act of doing this important work
over here, but also doing this important work over
here. So, these are some of the things that are being
put in place.
And if you have an opportunity to look up Ms.
Margie Gillis, this is someone who approached us
some time ago about —as it says, she is the President
of Literacy How, and this is a reading programme that
is showing tremendous success in the US in the areas
that she is implementing this. And you will be happy to know that she is the wife of Bermuda College Board
Chairman Chip Gillis. So she is very, very interested
in helping out the public school system just as Chip Gillis is by joining the Bermuda College Board. So I
am looking forward to seeing these processes go from
the pilot programme to being fully implemented because no doubt that we will see some improv ements,
especially in those areas of reading that you have highlighted which we all want to see.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am going to stay with the performance
measures, so we are tossing between page B -138
and I just want to move over to page B -139. Again it is
not so much that I am trying to harp on the performance scores, but I believe that it is super -necessary
for us to have a baseline and to understand where o ur
challenges lie. Because as we move from the middle
school scores over to the secondary school scores,
we are seeing that under business unit 1708, Senior Secondary Schools, our children go with their writing
skill assessments from M1 to M3 with 50 per c ent
achievement in middle schools. And by the time they
are in the senior secondary schools, students scoring
3 or higher in writing assessments have dropped to
45 per cent. So whatever we are doing, it seems as
though somehow we are losing our children as they
get older and as they progress academically. I want that baseline to at least be recorded, especially given that we are having a comprehensive conversation
here about the performance scores.


Bermuda House of Assembly And I would like to also just bring to the attention again in the senior secondary school that our students achieving targeted growth in reading are also at
45 per cent. And so whatever we can do, because
these children are already graduating. And the Minister of Labour has sort of chirped in the background
that I may be trying to be nefarious about this. But he
is going to have to look at these children—

[Inaudible interjections]

Thank you.
Who are coming out of senior secondary
school with 45 per cent —only 45 per cent of the full
class are achieving writing and reading. So we h ave
got an issue, and if we are having more than half of
our children graduating from senior secondary schools
without achieving the assessment in writing and read-ing, we are going to have a further struggle and challenge as they move into the working worl d.
I have one question for the Minister on page
B-139. And there is a performance measure here,
Students gaining college acceptance. And that is at
80 per cent, which is great. If the Minister might be
able to just tell us, is that for the Bermuda College ? Or
can he give us a breakdown of what the 80 per cent
acceptance into college would be? Whether he has a list of some of the overseas colleges that the children
are gaining acceptance to or whether that is Bermuda
College?
And then I was also curious about the students passing the City & Guilds assessment in English and math. Are all of the children in the senior secondary schools sitting the City & Guilds assessment in English and math? Or if the Minister can let me know
how many children/students do take that assessment?
And then I am also curious (and then we can move off
of the performance measures) if the Minister might be
able to just explain what the City & Guilds employability skills certification is? What is that? If he might just explain what em ployability skills certification is.
And then the next one down, I am still in business unit 1708, Senior Secondary Schools on page B -
139, the IGCSEs for English, Math and Science. If he also may be able to give me an indication of how
many students sit t hose examinations. And again, we
are seeing relatively low scores here for the IGCSEs.
We have got in science 30 per cent are achieving a
passing rate in science, in math 45 per cent, in English 55 per cent. If the Minister might be able to give an indicat ion of how many students take the IGCSEs?
And maybe if he could also give us some sort of breakdown of the results? If he could explain how that
works to understand what those 30 per cent, 45 per
cent and 55 per cent achievements break down to
mean.

One other question. One
other question on performance measures and then we
can move.
Just on page B -138, and I am going over to
the Primary Schools now. There is a second line item
under business unit 1705, Primary Schools. There is a
line here that says, Percentage of schools achieving their school improvement objective for mathematics.
Again, at the primary school level in mathematics we
are seeing a 55 per cent forecast and a target outcome remaining at the 55 per cent. I am just wondering if the Minister might give an explanation as to what do we do with that? So they are in primary school, and
only 55 per cent of the schools are achieving the improvement in mat hematics. So if he could just give us
an explanation about why this would be happening
that there are 45 per cent of the schools not achieving
the scores and the achievements and the objectives in
mathematics?
And will the lack of performance be any criteria for the selection at which primary schools might be closed? Is the Minister considering the performance of
schools themselves when it comes to which ones may
transition more quickly into either being closed or con-verted into parish primary schools?

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
That was a lot for this particular one. Let me see what
my team has come up with.
The employability skills prepare students for
the workplace. This was something that was intro-duced several years ago. And i t is also a requirement
for graduation as well. It is designed to support students in developing skills and attitudes valued by employers today. The aim is to help students to success-fully prepare for and get a job and provide them with
the tools they need to succeed in advancement of
their roles. Some people would say soft skills. It also
teaches soft skills about how to behave and react in
the actual workforce.
The City & Guilds programme is, as we talk
about . . . you have heard me talking about giving additional pathways to success. So you have City &
Guilds. You have the IGCSE, or Cambridge and the Penn Foster programme. So there are different pathways for students to succeed within school depending
on what their individual plan is. So not all students do
City & Guilds. Not all students do IGCSE. So what you
are seeing is that this is a portion of students. That is
1078 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly an interesting one that you have there. Perhaps
something should be added there that says number of students, that is it, versus just the percentage.
It was interesting when looking at the performance appraisals . I went back and I was looking at
the one middle school, and it had students passing
IGCSEs, and it had 85 per cent. But I know not all
students in middle school si t IGCSEs, only a select
few of them who are ready to sit it at that early age.
So sometimes the numbers, you know, depending on
how you look at them, can be a little odd there.
You also asked about math intervention. So
some of the ideas, some of the things with math intervention I did mention in the brief. If I may again, Mr.
Chairman, where I said, “ The Education Officer for
Math has ensured that all Primary to Senior School students have access to the Method Math site. This site provides questions simil ar to Checkpoint, which
shows students step- by-step how to solve problems.
Professional development was conducted with Prima-ry School teachers around Bar Model ling and Problem
Solving and with middle school teachers with Algebra
and Geometry being the focal areas. In September
2022, five primary schools, three middle schools and
two senior schools were given access to MyiMaths for
a pilot program me. The rationale behind it is that
MyiMaths uses the new Cambridge Curriculum and
embeds the Math mastery approach in its teaching. ”
So what we are saying here is that we have
identified that these things need to be done, and we are putting in the various programmes. But as we do
with all of the things that we are doing, we need to
learn from the fact of seeing something, saying, Let’s
just get it and put it in place. These things are going
through pilots to ensure that they will achieve the
things that we need them to achieve.
You have heard me mention in here also
about the math intervention programme with [Mr. A dam] Unwin- Berry from the UK who was working with
all of our primary school teachers to give them different ways of teaching math and creating a math mastery. And the results of that were phenomenal. In one
case a primary school went from whatever they wer e
measuring to three times better in the course of just
over one year. So it is taking hold, some of the things
that we are doing. And we just need to continue to
nibble at it until we get to where we need to get. I understand the concern that these are st udents who are
in place now. But we are still doing everything that we
can do to get them to where they are.
You asked about the performance of primary
schools as being a consideration of whether they are
going to transition into parish primary schools or transition into closing. The master plan is being worked
on. But we are looking at that. I can say that this is not
a consideration because whether we transition a school or close it, for those instructors, those teachers, those students who will stay ins ide of our systems, we have to improve the way that we deliver ed-ucation. And that transcends closing a school, creating a parish primary school —or not. Those children
still are there. And so even if one school closes and
one school opens and another schoo l is going to stay
for two years, we have to improve the teaching, we
have to improve the results, we have to give our children better outcomes and a better opportunity for better outcomes regardless. So the interventions have to be in place, period, acros s the board. And that is what
the Department of Education will continue to do, put the interventions in place and get to the point of things that are working and continue to work those.
And as we move into parish primary schools,
because we are talking ab out the primary school level,
these things can be easily implemented into what the
revised curriculum is, moving forward. Remember, the
purpose of parish primary schools is to create a school in which the parish can rally around that fits
into the ethos of the community. However, the basic
curriculum does not change. You know, math, science, English and social studies still have to be taught
regardless of whether there is a parish primary school
or not. The parish primary school concept will introduce things on top of that that fits into the community,
but whether it is a school that is going to stay open for a couple of years or a school that is going to close
tomorrow, we still need to have those interventions.

I know. Sorry. Not yet. You
created another question.
But I still am asking the Minister if we have a
primary school that may be falling below the perfor-mance measures for a school that is achieving their objectives in reading, mathematics or writing, an d that
school is the school that is being chosen as the parish primary school and we are closing primary schools that may be scoring higher and asking the students to
transfer into a school that is scoring lower, how are
you going to sell that? How are you going to sell that
to convince the student and the parent that with the
same teachers and the same curriculum, moving from
a higher -scoring higher -performing school into what
would be a lower -scoring school academically in reading, writing and mathematics is going to be okay?
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: I would love to answer that
question, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, all studies show that the building does not equate to the outcome of the students. It is the quality of the teaching and the
performance of t he parents within the school system.


Bermuda House of Assembly Yes, different schools produce different results. But as
I answered the question when we were doing the par-ish primary school, what would you say if we took all of the teachers from a (quote/unquote) “highperforming sc hool” and put them in another building?
Would they still perform? Would they still perform?
You would believe that they would. And you
are saying yes. But the answer we got back was, We
don’t think they would. Because it’s the building. I do
not know why everyone is caught on the actual building itself. We want all of our teachers to be highperforming. We want all of our students to be highperforming. And we want all of our parents to be highperforming. So there is no such thing as convincing
someone go ing into a [different] building, they will not
have the same amount of high performance as they would have in another building. We have to revamp our system. And we are in the process of doing that.
And by that way we are introducing newer things within ou r system that have parental involvement, as well
as we keep saying the system by Bermuda designed
by Bermuda by Bermuda.
We also have a problem in Bermuda that our
schools are simply not equitable. The way we fund
them is not equitable. A school in one ar ea is funded
by the simple fact that there are “X” number of stu-dents and they need “X” number of teachers. There is a school in another area that is funded by “X” number
of students with “X” number of teachers. That does
not take into account the fact that in one area there
may be different external forces that require more resources for that school versus the other school. We
have to take all of this into account. We cannot con-tinue to pigeonhole ourselves into thinking just because it is one location there will be better outcomes
without actually looking at it from a holistic point of
view. We are looking at this from a holistic point of
view, and we will continue to revamp the system so
that all of our students —and that is the key to this —
our students get the resources that they need to succeed.
And when I say “ resources, ” I am not just talking about pens and pencils. I am talking about everything that they need. So when we say resources, people automatically think pens and pencils, and those types of things. Resources —psychologists, education
therapists, paraprofessionals, you know, those are the
types of things that we need and we are going to
make sure that our students —that is the purpose of
education reform, to make sure our students get the individu alised attention that they need to succeed.
We also need to stop thinking about education
in terms of, this is a box. Everybody who fits into the box is successful. Public education cannot work that
way. It cannot continue that way. That is the philosophy of our private school system. And this is where we
say the comparison of private and public is apples to
oranges. Private schools —and this is not a knock on
private schools, and I do not have anything against what people do to ensure the success of their children. But private schools tend to have a platform, and the persons whom they admit can fit inside of that
platform. Because they know they are going to excel
inside of that platform.
We cannot. You heard me give my presentation about our hard- of-heari ng programme, our visual
programme, our ASD programmes, our special schools, our MTSS [multi -tiered systems of support]
programme we have to have in place for tier 1, tier 2, tier 3 kids. There is a wide variety of kids. And if we think that we are going t o battle our way out of education, battle our way toward education reform in the public school system by saying, Here’s the box. Everybody needs to fit in, or if they don’t, what are we going to do?, then we are just repeating what we have
done in the past . We have to create a system that
says, Do away with the box! Let’s find out what each
one of these children needs to succeed and provide that so that they can succeed.

[Inaudible interjections]

Yes, please, Mr. Chairman.
That was a nice segue to page B -131, Head
17, Department of Education, the General Summary. I
was just taking some notes during the briefing. And
line item 27095, School Attendance. And it has zero.
So there is no cost allocated to this. But if I remember
correctly, you said that this had transferred to the Educational Standards and Acc ounts which is the line
item ahead of it, 27090. But my question is generally
around school attendance. And if the Minister could
just please give us an indication of what our attendance figures are looking like? How many children are truant? How many chil dren have we lost in the system, whether they have moved overseas or they have just stopped coming to school? I do not know. But if we might get some indication from the Minister about,
where are we as far as how many students may have
been in the system? I mean maybe if we started, I do
not know, 2021/22 and where we were at 2022/23
even, just to see those who may have been lost from
the system.
The next line item down, 27160, Substitutes.
So this has been an interesting area for some time. I am on page B -131, line item 27160, Substitutes. In
2021/22 the actual amount of money that we spent on
substitutes was $5,330,000. Now, I completely understand that we were coming out of COVID -19. It was
just a very different time. And so I can understand why
we had or needed the substitute support in the class1080 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly rooms completely. So in 2022, the cost of substitute
teachers went down substantially. It went down, and the actual amount that we spent for substitutes went down to $2,776,000. My question to the Minister is
kind of, Why are we going back up in our allocation for
substitute teachers in 2023/24? I am not saying it is
. . . I have no judgment over this; it is an objective
question.
So this year we are going to be spending
$3,640,000. So are we anticipating that we are going
to need more substitutes in 2023/24? Or was it that in
2022/23 we did not have enough substitute teachers,
but we knew that we had to add more for this year?
Yes?
[Inaudible interjection]

And then sort of my final
question on this line item is, Do we feel that this
$3,640,000 may still not be enough? And that we are
actually building up our allocation of substitute teach-ers incrementally year over year until we can get to a
population of s ubstitutes that is a healthy balance in
order to support our teachers as they need to manoeuvre through the system for one reason or the
other?
So my question really is, Are we there yet
when it comes to substitute teachers? Have we hired as many as we ne ed to support the system without
feeling a strain? Or are we just taking gentle steps
until we can invest enough into the substitute line item
so that we can afford to have the full complement?
And I guess ultimately, Would the full complement be the $5,33 0,000? I do not know. But I was wondering if
the Minister might address that.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you for the [questions on] substitutes. And as you would know, the amounts that we are talking about, the $5 million, we did a supplemental on Fr iday specifically for that. And
I can unequivocally tell you that the $2.7 million was
not enough for last year. So we are trying to get to the
sweet point where it is enough. As we continue to do education reform and teachers are out of the classroom and we need substitutes, the Department of Education is also looking at better ways to utilise the
substitutes, so they work more efficiently within the
system. We are also looking at how we can alter what
we are doing with education reform so there is not such a blow where you need someone in or perhaps
doing it in such a way where someone can be there
and, if multiple teachers are out or teachers are out for
this time, substitute cover and a teacher comes out at
another time, the same substitute cover versus having
to have two in the same school for a couple of hours
at a time.
So the increase in budget was needed. And to
be perfectly honest, the Commissioner had asked for
more. But we do have budget constraints. So we are looking to work around what we do have. And I think it
is an extra 35 or so (I cannot remember the exact number) on page B -135.
[Inaudible interjections ]

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: For some reason I cannot
see it. I still cannot find it on here. But we are going
up. We are adding . . . oh, there we are, 41 additional
substitutes this year. We are going up to 41 according to this with an additional 8. So, we are working on how we can figure that out and how it can work more efficiently. But yes, we had to increase that, and we will
probably have to increase it again next year as we
look to providing adequate coverage as we bring more
and more school transformation teams online.

[Pause]

My next questio n, I am still
on page B -131, General Summary, Department of
Education, Head 17. And I would like to look at 1702,
Student Services, in particular 20061, Behaviour
Management. The operating cost under Behaviour
Management is $1,292,000. And this year it has been
decreased by $156,000. I am wondering if the Minister
might be able to give us an explanation as to why we
are having less money in the Behaviour Management
Programme this year.
And the reason, Mr. Chairman, that I am asking this is that we have had quite public and visible
student school fights, use of weapons, videos, and gang and criminal behaviour of our students. And it
seems to me that behaviour management would be an area that we would like to give as much support as
we possibly can, given the fact that our children are
coming through the traumas of COVID -19. We are
clearly aware of some of the emotional and social
risks and vulnerabilities that our young people have
been through in the past few years.
So if the Minister might be able to just give an
explanation as to why we did have to reduce the allo-cation for Behaviour Management by $156,000. And if you do not mind, there are a couple of others that kind
of fall in [similarly]. If we go all the way down to the
bottom of the section, line item 27084, Alternative Ed-ucation Programme, that too has seen a decrease in
operating expenditure of $170,000. And I am wondering if the Minister might be able to give us some in-formation or explanation as to why we are taking
money out of a programme that may be needed, esBermuda House of Assembly pecially at this particular time. And if maybe there are
some data, I do not know? Maybe there are fewer children in the Alternative Education Programme?
And again, it is not to criticise. But all I can
look at are the numbers. But if we do not know what our school attendance is, then it could be that the
children who may be at highest risk are not even in
the school to go to the Alternative Education Pro-gramme or to receive behaviour management. So if
the Minister might have some data? Bec ause although it does not solve the problem, at least we would
have a clear view as to why we are reducing the operating costs in these very important support areas.
And if there are fewer children, then we have another
question and another issue that we n eed to address.
And that is, where are the children going to show up? I believe anybody’s fear is that the children will then show up somewhere in the system at some later date
down the road, and then it is even more costly. So if
we can get our children, give them the support that
they need while they are in the education system
while they are younger, we have just a greater chance
of having a positive, successful outcome for the children once they mature out of the school system. Do
you want to address it a bit? Thanks.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: It will give you a chance to
look for something else to ask.

[Laughter]

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you.
Interesting that you saw it, and I was actually
going to mention 28084 as well, as being reduced. When we had conversations around that, the explanation given to me is that those are funds that would
have been scheduled for consultants who are not
needed. And the consultancy would be the placement
of children in alternative settings. So what we are looking to do is —previously there used to be a different model. There used to be a model with these other
agencies that we would place children in. As we decreased the number of children who went into those models, it became a per person cost. Before it was a
bulk—one cost and we get “X” number of people in
there. Then as we decreased, that became not as efficient as then just paying for the one or two children
who need to go versus multiple [children].
Now we have gotten to a point where we are
going to go bac k and look and see if we can go back
to that model where we pay one amount and we get “X” number of children. So the idea along that was to
reduce that amount because we are going to go back
to a different model of that. So this is not taking away
from any of the things that are done. This was specifically—and when I sat down with the officer to go over
this, it was specifically the amount of money that we paid to external consultancies to take children on. So
the services are still there. From Student Serv ices, it is the external services. And you heard me in my brief
talk about we have children placed at Impact Mentor-ing Academy, Adult Education and different alternative
learning situations. So that is where that comes from.
We are anticipating we will not have to pay as much
money for those services as we have had to do in the
past.
The other question I do want to reiterate is we
do not have the enrolment figures readily at our fingertips. That is information that has to be compiled, and I
have given an i ndication that I will provide that information. I can tell you that from the data that we did
collect several weeks ago at the beginning of February 2023, there were just over 4,000 children in the public school system. I do remember that. But the data you are asking for us to go back to—and I wrote it
down, back to 2021—that is something we will have to
pull together.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
So I am just still going to stay on this train of
thought, on page B -131 under General Summary and
still looking at the Alternative Education programmes
and if it applies to the Behaviour Management as well.
But we will stay on 27084, Alternative Education Pro-gramme.
And I am not sure, Minister, whether you addressed this or not. But have we engaged in any part-nerships, community groups in some way, whether it
is financial support to be able to continue to pay for
the programmes, the external consultants? Maybe if
you could just give us a little bit of an explanation or
description of what you m ean by an external consultant? But my question is whether we are extending out
to the community in any way to see if we can develop
partnerships to make these programmes work?
My other question is, How are students actually referred to the Alternative Education Programme?
Is that an in- school referral or is there some other
pathway that the child is referred through to get to the
Alternative Education Programme? And you had mentioned with the external programmes or consultants that support the Alternative Education Programme,
and you talked about a cost per person. And I am just curious if you might be able to give us an indication of what the cost of one child, one- on-one, let us say, with
an external consultant, what that cost looks like ver-sus if we were able to pay one price and have a group
of children involved in the Alternative Education Programme or the consultations with an external body?
Thank you.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you. Thank you, MP
Jackson.
I will answer the last question first. I absolutely
do not have that data on the individual cost per student. It is something again I can look to get, but we actually do not have that [here].
1082 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly In terms of partnering with external, when we
talked about external programmes, we used to have a
programme with Adult Education. As you know, they kind of went in a different direction. So we did not
have [a partnership] with them anymore. But now that
they have reopened, which I did mention in my brief,
we will be having an association with them again. O ur
CARE [Learning Centre] computers, we do not have
an association with them anymore.
I spoke about Impact Mentoring Academy,
Christian Lighthouse Academy and TLC. I also spoke about how we are strengthening partnerships with
supporting services such as D CFS [Child and Family
Services], Child and Adolescent Services, Probation
Services, the Department of Health, the weekly meetings that are held with the various ministries of the
High-Risk Intervention Committee (or THRIC as we
like to refer to it) where w e talk about mutual clients.
But they may have clients who are students. So it
makes sense for us to all sit around and talk about —
makes sense for not me, but the team to sit around
and talk about how we can do those interventions and
what needs to happen along that.
And I am talking specifically about the Alternative Education Programme on how they are imple-menting and incorporating different assessments and
how we can assess children with the functional behav-iour assessments and the behavioural intervent ion
plans and training that they are giving to our people
who actually identify this. So when we ask who does
the identification, that is done through the multi -tiered
system of support [MTSS] that I talked about quite extensively in the brief. And we have the tier 1, tier 2
and tier 3. Once you get to the tier 3, that is when you
have to start thinking about what alternative placements could be. So when you ask, who [does the referring?] The multi -tier, or MTSS, is throughout the
system. All teachers are t rained in it.
And you also heard me talk about the school
psychologists. And they have weekly sessions in the
schools to talk about all of the students who are within
the MTSS system and talk about the various interventions that need to be put in place. S chools also have
educational therapists, educational therapist assistants to assist with that. So those are the types of
things that are in place to identify these students and
give them the resources that they can to kind of correct whatever is going on w ith them.
You mentioned something about, you know,
we see this stuff in the public eye. It is unfortunate that
these things are captured and they are broadcast all
over Bermuda. I am not going to be one of those people who say, Well, it happens in the private schools
too, because I am here to be concerned about what
happens in our public schools. And yes, like with all
instances, there are the minority of persons who do cause these things. But we are trying to put things in
place to actually have them in alternative locations so
we can work on them with some more intensive ther-apy or interventions that are needed to prevent that.
And the idea is to do that and [then] put them back into the mainstream so they can continue on for re gular educational [instruction] with that.
But as I said, we have the team in Student
Services, the psychologists, also the teachers who are
on the ground there. And those are the ways that
people are identified. The MTSS does the same. We go through the different tiers. Once you get to tier 3,
then you look at what different alternative interventions can be put in place. And some of them are with some of the partners that we have discussed. And
costs, that is something I would have to see if my
team could come up with. But I do not believe we
have the cost per student at this time. But again, it is
something that I could endeavour to get to you offline.

One minute, MP.
For the benefit of the listening public and the
Honourable Members, we are now in Committee of
Supply for further consideration of the Estimates of
Revenue and Expenditure for the year 2023/24. Honourable, Minister of Education, Diallo Rabain, is discussing Heads 16, 17, 18 and 41. This debate is
technically due t o end at 5:25 pm.
I now call upon MP Jackson to resume her
robust —
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: I have one more answer to
the questions.

Before we move off of page
B-131, General Summary, still the Department of Education, Head 17, line item 27083. And this is the Au-tism Programme. We have $685,000 that we spent
last year on the programmes. I was just wondering if
the Minister could please give us a bit of a breakdown
of what that $685,000 goes toward, what the programmes are. And also another question is, Are we in
the education system actually giving any support to early identification of autistic characteristics i n our
students? If the Minister might be able to just give us a little bit more information on how that programme is developing and how we are managing the support for


Bermuda House of Assembly children who are living with autism in our education
system?
I know that it is marginal in the scheme of
things. So this year we are just reducing the operating
costs for autism programmes from $685,000 down to
$681,000. But again if we might be able to find out as
much as we want. And I guess really I am just sort of
feeding into what the Minister had mentioned, that in the public system we serve all children no matter
what. So some of the programmes that I have highlighted and brought to the Minister’s attention today —
and of course he is well aware of them —it is just that
these are the programmes that we as the public
school system can provide to our children, our students who are in the system.
And so it is just worth understanding when it is
being decreased, when any of the prices and the op-erating costs are being decreased, to know why t hat is
and what it is. Because it is part of our service to the
community to make sure that we do have substantive
programmes to support any children who are experi-encing or needing additional support and student services within the system.
So if the Mini ster could just maybe on line
item 27083, Autism, just give a breakdown of the $681,000. Is that meeting our need for this particular
programme? And then what support are we using to identify any autistic characteristics in children at an
earlier age?

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you. May I speak,
Doc?

Is there a problem?

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: For business unit 27083,
Autism, $611,087 is teacher salary and $70,000 is for
consultant services. In terms of early intervention,
again I will refer, with your permission, Mr. Chairman,
back to the brief. And in the brief we talked about the
CDP [Child Development Programme], which facilitates early interventions. And we also talked about the
budget this year being affording to fill positions that have not been filled. Those positions being the
onboarding of new hires and the establishment of the
Early I ntervention Service, formerly known as the Portage Programme.
The Early Intervention [EI] Service is designed
for Bermuda using a range of early intervention best
practices. This will be staffed by an early intervention
supervisor with three early intervention specialists.
The EI team will engage in a whole- child approach, and the service provided will be unique to each child
depending on their strengths and needs, as well as the family. As a preventative service for parents, families and carers of young c hildren, the Child Development Programme plans to create specific services to
provide parents and community education including
general information on child development that is specific to the needs of the family and the child in service.
So the early int erventions are done through
CDP. One of the things, and I am sure my colleague who sits just behind me will attest, is that all children are provided with testing free of charge. Not every
parent avails themselves of that testing, unfortunately.

Thank you, Minister.
I am going to move on from the General
Summary to page B -133, Department of Education. I
just wanted to ask a couple of questions around Early
Childhood Education, which is under General Summary, 1712, I believe [business unit] 27175, which is
the Child Development. And then that has the programmes, et cetera. I am curious if the Minister might
be able to give us an indication of the size of the classes, the groups of people and children who are part of
the programme withi n the Child Development? If he
might have the statistic for the number of children/infants who are served?
Then I just wanted to switch over to page B -
140, which is Performance Measures. If we go down
to the Early Childhood, 1712, I highlighted children
from 18 to 48 months who receive a developmental
screening. Now, this is a new measure. But I just notice that we had an . . . I guess we cannot really include 2021/22. But there did not seem to have been
that many young children screened. And it looks as
though our original forecast was that 55 per cent of
the children between the ages of 18 and 48 months
would be screened, and that was revised last year down to 30 per cent. And this year the target outcome,
we are only looking at a target outcome of 30 per
cent. So it just raised a flag for me that if we are una-ble to attract parents to bring children in at this age for an initial developmental screening, then it does not
give us a real opportunity to begin to establish that
relationship with the parent and the child at that early
stage.
So my question is, What is the Ministry doing?
What can we do to fix this? And if the Minister might be able to give some reaction to 30 per cent of our
infant population being screened and what that indi-cates or means for him as he is now preparing —
because these are the children who will be in the new
education reform in a couple of years, a few years.
And if we do not know who these children are or where they are in their development at a younger
stage, how is that going t o affect getting off on a really
good foot once they reach the formal primary education?

1084 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you for that. Also,
MP Jackson, I wanted to point out that while I did talk
about CDP, I did not mention the autism programme that we do have at Prospect Primary. I did mention it
in my brief. And that is known as the Growing Con-nections Programme at Prospect Primary.
In terms of CDP and the early interventions,
when I previously stood to my feet I talked about the filling -up of posts at CDP, and that we have an early
intervention supervisor and three early intervention workers. The purpose of that is to try and do what we can with these numbers. As I did mention, this is a
free service, but it is voluntary. And I have actually
asked, no t with the department, but in another place I
said, What can we do to actually make parents do
this? And we simply cannot. We can provide the services, and we can continue to provide the services.
And what we probably need to do is figure out how to
make i t more attractive. But we cannot force them to
come.
But that does not mean we will give up. And
as I said, the CDP will be filling those posts with the
early intervention supervisor and three early intervention workers to create the programme. As I mentioned, previously it was called the Portage Programme. But this time they are going to be implement-ing a programme that my notes are saying is specifi-cally designed for Bermuda. So hopefully we will get
better take- up for that.
You also heard me mention in the brief that
through Minister Furbert’s Ministry, CDP had partici-pated in the parenting online courses. And they managed to get people to sign up by just participating in that. So perhaps that is a different —you know, there
are different ways that they are looking to try and
reach these parents so that they can come and get this early intervention testing. And it provides them
with some parenting tips at the same time.
But I recognise and I acknowledge 30 per
cent—you know, something free, it should be 100 per
cent. You know? Who would not want to have their child tested at the earliest possible time to see if there
are any concerns that they should be worried about? But we will continue to do what we can do to get persons to do that test.

Thank you, Minister.
Just as a follow -on for that, I have asked this
question before, maybe not to you but over the years.
And I am going back a bit. But why did we cancel out the idea of members of staff from Child Development
actually going to the hospital and recording, or maybe
nowadays you do not physically have to go to the
hospital. But actually recording the births and then in
18 months, 12 maybe, 12 months –18 months, they
actually proactively started calling out and sending a
letter to parents to get them to come in. And when I
was having children, the Child Development actually even came to the house versus my having to take the
child to the Child Development Project.
So I do not know. But I just always ask. I do
not know whether new pri vacy laws, you know, there
may be some things that have evolved that have made that restrictive. But [I am] just curious. Even recording the births and knowing who has had a baby
so we at least know where the child is.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you for that.
That is something I will have to check into. I
thought it still happened. My colleague is informing me
that parents can still go to CDP and do that and can
pick up that information. I know when I had my child, they proactively contacted me. But she is 13 now, so
. . . .
But again, this goes back to something I said.
The success of our children hinges on two things:
(1) when we are talking about schooling, the instruction they get in schooling; and (2) the quality of the
parenting they get. And I know we can go to [them],
but people also need to come to us. You know, I can
ask and find out what is going on with that. Perhaps
with these new interventions, intervention specialists
who are coming, something like that could be re-enacted. But the simp le fact is, you know, it is a service that is being offered. And anyone can walk in or call up and say, I want the service, and they will get the service. So the service is not restricted for anyone.
But I understand what you are asking is, why
cannot we go out and find them? There could be ra-tionale behind that. There could be reasons behind
that. But parents need to come to us as well. Because
it is in the best interest of their kids, their children, to come and get this thing done. So I implor e parents
who are having children, you know, check into it.

Thank you, Minister.
This is my last comment on that. Oftentimes
we find that the parents who do come are the parents
who are proactively and actively involved in their
child’s development and may feel much more secure
and confident to reach out. And it is the ones who are
quiet and reserved who maybe need our support the
most.
Thank you so much for that.
Minister, I would just like to move—
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Point of clarification?

Proceed, please, Minister.

POINT OF CLARIFICATION

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Yes. Just on that portion, I
have just gotten some additional information. And I
have been made to understand that they call every


Bermuda House of Assembly parent. The stays in the hospital are much shorter,
and parents are less likely to want to actually be able to be seen at the hospital. But every parent who has a child is called by CDP to let them know about the services that are there.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Yes.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to
move to Head 16, Ministry of Education Headquarters.
I just had a couple of questions. There are not that
many line items here. And as I work through this I may
find that the Minister has already addressed some of
these quest ions.
So, I am on page B -127, Head 16, Ministry of
Education Headquarters. I just wanted to confirm. So
it looks as though we have had some shifting around.
And the Minister did give an explanation. This year on
page B -127, this year for the first time we have introduced a line item, 26140, Education Reform Unit. The
Minister gave a fulsome and detailed brief on that new
line item and was clear about the operating expenses
of the $4,412,000 and what that money would be used
for. And the Minister . . . I am just sliding up that General Summary to General Administration, 26000,
where there has been a decrease of $2,503,000. So
we can see that money has clearly flown into the Education Reform Unit.
But I am wondering if the Minister might be
able to just give us a bit of an explanation of . . . there
is $815,000 left in the General Administration, which is
line item 26000. And if I remember correctly, on page
B-128 under Employee Numbers there are six members of staff in the General Administration cost centre.
So six staff, and there is $815,000 left in there. And if I remember clearly, the Minister mentioned that some
of this will go to Learning First and some technology, things like that. But the Minister also mentioned consultants and mentioned communications consultant.
And I was wondering if the Minister might give us just
a brief description of what that role is. And is that go-ing to be one of the six on the following page of the
employee numbers? Or is this an external firm or person outside of the six? N ot to confuse it, but it sort of
blends in together.
Switching back down to 26140, the Education
Reform Unit, Ms. Lisa De Silva was mentioned and the 26 working groups were mentioned. But are there any other staff members? Is there going to be an employee line item for the Education Reform Unit other
than the one person who is listed there right now as
Ms. De Silva?
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, MP Jackson.
MP Jackson, the six employees listed under
General Administration all work in the Ministry Head-quarters. There is no line item for the Education Re-form Unit FTEs because they are either members who have been seconded from other government departments or they are external persons who have been
hired on via consultancy contracts. So the numbers of persons within that unit would appear in other . . . . it
would appear in the department . . . Some of them
would appear in the Education Department numbers, and some of them would appear, obviously, in other
ministry numbers beca use they are seconded employees. But they would be paid out of the monies that
have been allocated to that. So it is a bit of a kind of
weird little operation there when you point it out that
way.
So [turning to] Ms. Lisa De Silva. We always
talk about her because she is the Lead of the Education Reform Unit. But if I count correctly, and I am go-ing through my head because I was at a meeting
there on Friday, so I am going to count around the
table as I envision it. There were one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight —I believe nine persons who
have been allocated to that unit. And they have come from different areas. Whether they have come from
outside of the classroom and been there permanently.
There is an administrator who came from one of our schools, ironically, Clearwater, who was positioned
over there. There are persons who have come under the department who are positioned in there, and so forth.
In terms of the communications consultant,
that actually was talked about under the Department of Education. And that person works out of the Commissioner’s Office. So the Department of Education
has a comms consultant who does the work that they need to do. And we talked about, I had a little brief . . .
They were developing newsletters to go out and Facebook pages and different things like that. Within the
Ministry our communications person is DC, the De-partment of Communications. All ministries have a
person assigned from DCI [Department of Communication and Information] that handles their communication.
I am not sure. I cannot remember if there
were any other questions on that. Okay.

Then I just had one other
question, Minister. On page B -128 of the Ministry of
Education Headquarters, Head 16, Subjective Analy-sis. Under the expenditure, there are the Professional
Services. And that is at $4 million this year, which is up $1,394,000 from last year. Please, I apologise if I missed it. But I did not hear in the brief what that allocation is for, in particular the increase of the
$1,394,000. So if the Minister could explain what
those operating costs will be that total the $4 million
for 2023/24, please.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you for that, MP
Jackson.
1086 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The $4 million, the bulk of it has to do with the
Education Reform Unit. As you look on page B -127 it
has individual numbers for each one of the business
units. Within those numbers would be Professional
Services. So when you look at page B -128 that would
be Professional Services for the Education Reform
Unit and Professional Services for the Ministry of Education. Now in terms of what the individual break-down is, I do not have that with me. But the bulk of
that would actually be for the Education Reform Unit.
In the brief we talked about the money that we
needed for t he Innovation Unit, which totals —I am
sure I can find it here, which is a sum of that. I believe . . . I want to say around $700,000 of that was Innovation Unit. And as the unit has been set up, as the per-sons have been seconded from other ministries, but
we are paying their salaries, it would all fall into that lump sum. There are other things that we talked about
in here. We have got setting up meetings, we have
got renting venues. They have got to rent venues,
they have got to buy different stuff, they have got to utilise different services to set up to meet with persons. So it is all lumped inside there. But again, I can
endeavour to find a complete breakout of what that is
if that is so desired.

Thank you. That was a good
enough explanation for me. Thank you.
I just have like a couple of trivial questions.
We have the time so I can ask. I am so sorry, Mr. Chairman, but I am going to switch over to Head 17,
Department of Education, on page B -134.
What are pre- school vouchers?
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: What are pre- school
vouchers?

Yes. It is under revenue. I
just could not figure it out.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: I will have to endeavour to
find that out. I am thinking that is for the After School
Programme where persons pay for after school. I believe that is where the vouchers come from because
you buy these vouchers and then you submit them. It
is a voucher system, and that is for the After School
Programme with Youth and Sport as well. But the preschool ones are run by the department. So I am assuming that is where that would come from. What is it,
108?

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Okay. The pre- school After
School Programme.

So just two others while we
are on page B -134. Repair and Maintenance. I noticed
that Repai r and Maintenance has actually gone down
this year, $164,000. I do not know if this is directly
associated with, let us say, Clearwater closing. But
with the costs going down, but like construction costs going up, I was just wondering why we are getting th at
savings. Okay?
And then my other question was further up the
page. I am still on page B -134, Head 17, Department
of Education, Subjective Analysis, Other Personnel Costs within the Department of Education. I was just
curious . . . oh, you said it was f or long- service
awards. Okay. So I am done with that.
Now I would like to move on. And I have some
questions under the Bermuda College. As you said,
this is a more difficult head, Head 41, page B -147,
because it is just one page with a large grant amount.
So I just have a couple of questions that maybe the
Minister might be able to answer. I guess I will start
with, Where does the Minister see the Bermuda College moving with the next generation? There has
been an announcement that the President, Dr. Duran-da Greene, will be retiring soon.
So I do not know if maybe the Minister could
confirm whether there is a strategic plan or whether there is a vision for what will be the next generation of the Bermuda College? Do we see it moving more?
You know, it could be that we are going to stay the
same, very balanced. Whether we are going to see
more on the academics or whether we will see more in the professional skills and certifications? So I would
just like to ask the Minister if he might be able to share
with us what the future vision of the Bermuda College
might be?
Also if we might be able to understand a little
bit more about how or where the grant money is used and how the Bermuda College might be able to use
some of that grant money in order to move the phy sical plant as well as the enrolment of the students and
the support of the students into the next phase of the
Bermuda College? And clearly, one of the answers is
going to be that a large amount of the grant and any money that is coming into the Bermuda C ollege would
go to salaries, as I would imagine that the faculty there are all subject -matter experts. So I would imagine that some of the salaries may be substantial. So is


Bermuda House of Assembly there going to be, is this grant enough in order for us
to see that vision move in to the next generation?
And if you do not mind, I am just going to ask.
I do not have that many questions for Bermuda College, so I will just wrap it all into one. But if we are
looking at most of the grant money for the Bermuda
College going toward the f aculty, the staff and the
employees at the Bermuda College, what kind of professional development or what kind of support and
training do we have in place in order to keep their
skills and their excitement and their enthusiasm alive? And with that sort of professional development are we
also looking at the succession? Are we looking at the
next generation of teachers and instructors at the college? Because, you know, certainly my experience,
and this is a kind of a positive sign, is that you find
that you have got long- term employees. I mean, that
is good! That means they are okay there. But at the
same time, we reach a stage at which we are looking
for that next generation. And whether the college and
as part of the grant, if an investment is being made into how we are going to bring in the next generation
of faculty, instructors and staff?
And then my other question is around where
we would find the next generation of staff and whether
we are having an opportunity, whether we have
sourced any staff and ins tructors through Workforce
Development? Because there are so many talented
tradesmen and skilled folk who might be interested in
teaching. And I know that this can be difficult. It is one
thing if you are showing a couple of people on the
side how to do something, but then when you are
standing up in front of a classroom of 10 or 15 people and teaching them carpentry skills or how to work on
an engine and that sort of thing, it is a different can of
worms. So I am just wondering if there is any partnership not so much about just the raw talent, but being
able to pivot, maybe someone who is mature in there or not? Somebody may be young in their trade or their profession. It could be insurance. It could be anything.
But making that ability and that pivot to be able to
teach and not just be about being a good professional,
but also having the teaching skills.
Then of course if we did find the professionals
who wanted to teach and we had this succession plan in place, would we be able to afford to hire more instructors, especially given that there may be a bit of a
handover timeframe when we would have new instructors coming on, but you would still have your seasoned instructors who would be doing physical shadowing or the training, the handover and such?
Do you mind if —do you want to address some
of those now?

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Again, thank you, MP Jackson.
The Bermuda College, as I started off at the
brief, is an important institution in Bermuda. It provides the most economic al way, [compared to travel-ing abroad], for students to gain an education and
move on to higher heights. I always tell the story of being at the graduation ceremony last year and having a parent of a dual enrolment student come up to
me and say, You’ve sav ed me $70,000. The school
my child wants to go to costs $35,000 a year. He’s
done two years here. He’s graduated and he’s been
accepted for the third year at the school he wants to go to. That is a practical example of the type of things
that the Bermuda C ollege can do.
In terms of, what is the forward planning? And
I know it has been a while since—I believe I did this
Ministerial Statement back in 2019 or 2020 where I
submitted for the House’s consideration the Delivering Success, the five -year strategic plan that the Bermuda
College was working toward there. And in that plan it talks about everything such as, how do we make the college more viable? How do we attract more students? How do we have more interesting teaching
models, et cetera? And how do we grow the college?
Out of that strategic plan came things like the Bermuda College Foundation, the rebranding that you now
see, the blue- and-white versus the old red. But those
of you who have seen the logo, you will see it actual-ly—while it says Bermuda Col lege, if you look at it, it
has the number 3 in there that you can see which
talks about the previous institutions that came to get . . . that word dismantled, some would say. Some
would say consolidated depending on what side of the
fence you sit. The Six th Form, the Technical Institute
and Hotel College came together back in 1974 to pro-duce the Bermuda College.
As the Bermuda College marches on to their
50
th anniversary, the strategic plan was specifically put
in place to get them to that point. As I mentioned in
the brief, they are already working on what the plan is
going to be after 2024, the next five years. So it is crit-ically important for the Bermuda College to have these
types of forward- moving plans because their accreditation depends on it. They have to be able to show
how they plan to grow. So that is there. While I do not
have all of the particulars here, rest assured that it is
something that is taken into account and something
that they think about on a regular, regular basis.
You have menti oned partnerships, MP Jackson. As I mentioned in the brief, the Bermuda College
is partnering with the signature programmes that we
are introducing so that we ensure that the dual enrolment programme still stays in effect. But also, they are
going to be partners with one of the things you just spoke about, well, kind of spoke about. It is that the
next signature school that we want to have in place is
hospitality and tourism, a perfect fit for the Bermuda
College, and educational services, a perfect fit for the
Bermuda College. One of the things I know I have asked for and said during a visit in one of my visits to
other jurisdictions is this growing trend for local colleges to offer a sort of intro to teaching diploma,
where you are not actually required to have the
1088 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly bachelor’s degree. You may have a diploma that is
strictly teaching. And you are an expert in teaching, but you might not be an expert subject -matter sort of
thing. So that is something that even when I talk with
the Bermuda College, I say, Hey, is there any way
that we could actually look into something along those
lines?
The partnership with the signature schools is
important because it helps to develop the pipeline of
students, especially education services to develop the
pipeline of the next cadre of educators who need to
come. What better way to grow your resources than
having students at the high school level interested in
that and then being able to participate? Whether it is
shadowing teachers, whether it is at the Bermuda College shadowi ng and creating that sort of pipeline as
you talk about?
My hat goes off to Dr. Greene, who will be
retiring. She has been at the Bermuda College for quite some time now and seen it grow from level to
level to level. She expressed an interest in having someone, the new person, in place for the 50
th anniversary, and it makes sense. It does not make sense
to do the 50th anniversary and then have someone
new come in. So that is what they are doing there.
In terms of the grant and being able to fund all
of th e things that need to be done at the Bermuda
College, the simple answer to that is no. We find ourselves in a position to have to balance what we can
provide and what we cannot provide. But the Bermuda
College has not stopped. As I talked about earlier, the new Athene Career Development Centre, that is a
result of fundraising to the tune of I believe around
$3.8 million with Athene, Catalina, Athora and the like. So those are other ways of going out there and finding
funding.
We are in the process of talki ng about potential funding options for the Bermuda College that have
not reached the stage where they are for public consumption yet. But we talking about that and we are in
the process of preparing something to go to Cabinet
to have this discussion on how the Bermuda College
can approach fundraising and the like. They will be reviewing their tuition this year because it has not been increased, I believe the brief said, in maybe
about four or five years.
The last time we did anything with tuition was
to regularise it and put it on what most universities and colleges do. And it is on a per -credit -hour price
now. Previously it was a very convoluted system that,
you know, the more credits you took . . . Somehow it
was not on a per -credit system. Like one person
would take a class with three credits, another person
would take a class with three credits. But for some
reason this class was more expensive than that class
over there. And it was really odd the way it had been
set up. So they are on a regular system where it allows them to actually be able to budget more properly.
Because you know if you get “X” number of students, there are “X” number of classes, this is how much
money you will generate. Whereas before you would
not know what sort of money you would generate until everyone was registered and paid off. And then you
could say, Okay, that’s how much we’ve got. So, they
have gone to that [system]. And the next thing is to
look at how can they regula rise tuition, potential tuition
increases on a sustained basis, but incrementally so,
so it does not make education that much less affordable, you know, out of the reach for people.
As I said, the Bermuda College, there is some
work that needs to be done on the infrastructure. And
that is a conversation that will continue between the
Ministry and the Bermuda College as we look to pro-vide more funding. As they said, they have put in a
request for, I believe it was $2 million this year. And
we will not be ab le to give them anywhere near that
amount. But the Bermuda College is critically important to the success of Bermuda, to the success of
our economy and it is something that we have to rally around and make sure we do what needs to be done
in order for it t o become the institution you said, that it
continues to advance, continues to evolve and continues to provide updated courses and certifications for
our population.
In the brief we talked about the various new
subjects that are coming on board. I do not t hink a lot
of people really know. We talked about the student who graduated last year, the first pre- med student,
who happens to be a dual enrolment student. We also have Allied Health, a division that has been opened
up [at the College]. And they are look ing to get the
nursing programme certified. So those are the types
of forward- moving things that are consistently coming
out of the strategic plan that they continue to do to
make the Bermuda College as great as it can be.
I hope that answers most of your questions or
all of them.

Thank you. I like to ask questions and get answers that meet all levels of under-standing.


Bermuda House of Assembly Minister, I just wanted to go back to the instruction and mix it in a bit with the accreditation that
you mentioned in your answer. So when we are look-ing at the accreditation, and I do not know the ins and
outs of it. But w hen it comes to the staffing, the faculty
and the like, is there a certain number of courses that
are required or programmes that are needed in order
to maintain the certification? And the second half of that question is, If we were not able to find professionals on the Island who wanted to teach, would we
have to go overseas to look for instructors in order to keep certain programmes open in order to keep our
accreditation where it needs to be?
And the other question that arose out of accreditation. You h ad mentioned the facilities and the
buildings. And we have got the new Athene building,
which is absolutely wonderful. But we also have some ageing plants. And whether that is going to jeopardise
or threaten our accreditation in any way? I know that it
has been years, even my time providing service at the
Bermuda College, when the cafeteria just could not
get off the ground. And I am not convinced that this
space within the Bermuda College has been renovated and brought back into a working cafeteria. And certainly the nursing programmes, some of the carpentry
programmes, some of the more traditional courses
and programmes that are offered at the Bermuda Col-lege, the physical plant where they are working, where
the students are, is ageing.
And what can we do as a country? How can
we maybe shift the grant or established partnerships in some way as we have with CHUB and Athene to try
to get those going? Because in particular nursing has just really blossomed at the Bermuda College. And
the idea that the nursing students may be in the under-the-ground- level learning when maybe they could
be in more of an open and purpose- built space, especially since we know we have got the demand there.
We know that there is interest. And I am not neces-sarily advocating for the nurses and the allied services, but in general we do have parts of the plant that
are absolutely ageing and what we might be able to
do to bring them up to scratch. Of course, if we are not able to bring them up to scratch, my question is, Is
that going to jeopardise our accreditation going forward?
My other question and sort of I think final bulk
of questions around the Bermuda College, which is
Head 41 on page B -147, are the students. If the Minister might be able to let us know, Are the students who go to the Bermuda College being tracked throughout
their time at the Bermuda College? And although this
might not get me any brownie points in the House today, but do we find that children, young adults, students enrol in the Bermuda College and then for
whatever reason —and gain scholarship, are part of a
paid programme, so they are attending without having
to pay any fees. But do we know if they stay? Or are
some of them leaving and we do not know? So if the Minister might be able to just give us any indicat ion of
how we might be tracking students so that we know
how many have enrolled and whether we are actually
seeing them through the entirety of their courses. Or
are we finding that a couple of years into the pro-grammes, for whatever reasons, we are finding that
people are dropping out?
Then my final question, if the Minister has it. It
may have been in his brief and I missed it. He did give
us a big breakdown of student graduates, the number
of people in the PACE programme, et cetera. But it we might get an idea of the total enrolment at the Bermuda College for 2022/23. Thanks.

You may proceed and answer her
final questions.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you. I am just waiting for my team to give me some points here.
I do want to go bac k just a little bit, MP Jackson, and some answers have come from the Bermuda
College [BC] on some questions that you asked earlier. The Bermuda College advertises [job openings] on
their website regularly —at the moment, the VP Finance and Operations, Psychologist and Nursing Lecturer. We have done a faculty recruitment drive for
those who are interested in becoming faculty mem-bers at BC over the next few years as we will have several faculty members retiring. They are already
looking for persons [to replace persons] who are retiring. The Bermuda College also sets aside funds every
year for professional development as per their union
agreement. So their CBA [collective bargaining
agreement] requires them to set aside funding for pro-fessional development on a yearly basis. So they [are
doing] that for their staff. But they can always use
more professional development.
They also stated here, yes, we will have to
look overseas as faculty members must have master’s degrees in their discipline. They currently have two
non-Bermudian faculty members on staff. So they are
not opposed to looking overseas.
I just wanted a little more information on the
question you asked about tracking students. You said
the ones whom we are paying for. Were you talking specifically ab out, say, the College Promise students
who actually get to attend Bermuda College tuition-free simply because they have graduated with a 3.0 average? I want to say yes, we do track them because we have to pay for them. So, we do track them.
And I am going from memory now that since the programme has been put in place there may have been
between two and four who had their GPAs drop below
the requirement to be at the Bermuda College. So, they have not been there. But I could get those exact
numbers. But it is something that we do keep track of.
And I know last year we had the first graduates graduating from that programme because it only
began two years before that. So we do have students
1090 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly graduating out of that programme from the Bermuda
College. [For] the ex act numbers, you can go back to
the Ministerial Statement I did last year and we would probably be able to find that.
Total enrolment of the Bermuda College, I
know I spoke to enrolment as of last year. If you would
just give me a quick second to look for that. I know
that would not be the most up- to-date enrolment, but it
did mention the year.
[Pause]

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Ah! It said in fall 2022, the
college enrolled 583 students in its academic divisions
and 486 students in PACE.

Just since we have a few
more minutes, I am just wondering if the Minister
might be able to speak a little bit about the actual
building and the facilities and what we might be able
to consider in future grant money or partnerships or something to address some of the ageing parts of the
Bermuda College.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Okay. Thank you.
The answer about the challenges with facilities here is that facilities are a part of accreditation. But it is more concerned about the functionality of the
facilities to meet teaching needs, not the age of the
facility. So yes, there are places that do require some
infrastructure upgrades at the Bermuda College. And
as I said, it is an institution that we cannot afford not to
have accredited, not afford to have in place doing the
things that it needs to do. So we will endeavour to do
as much as we can to provide as much money as we
can. But at the same time we also have to be practical
and understand the budgetary constraints that we do
operate under. But we will continue to provide [what]
we can with the Bermuda College. And as I did men-tion earlier, we are in discussions about different funding models and the like. And when those discussions
are more fulsome and complete, I will be able to come
back to this Honourable House and update Members on the things that the Bermuda College will be doing
to raise capital.

Yes. Thank you.
So one of my final questions to the Minister is
around campus life. I am still sticking with the facilities part and campus life. Whether the Minister feels that
there may be a threat of lowering enrolment and participation in the Bermuda College. I know the Minister is going to have to say no, they are going to come for
the courses, they are going to come for the skills. But
there is also that side of social campus life. And again, cafeterias, good restrooms, being able to have space
to gather and socialise that is comfortable and is not ageing are all part of the college experience. And I
believe that anybody in Bermuda who wants to attend
the Bermuda College deserves to have that feeling of community in their post -secondary educational experience.
And so whether this again becomes part of
the next generation and the strategic plan of the future, the next President of the Bermuda College, but
can the Minister give me any idea of how much of a priority this is for the Ministry of Education and for you
as a Minister to s ee us do what we can to evolve that
aspect, which I think is a very important aspect of
providing genuine and fulsome campus life on the college in Bermuda so that our young people do get that
real college experience?
Because all of the nuts and bolts are all there.
Everything is right there at the Bermuda College. The way it is laid out, it is a protected area. It has got great facilities for art and creativity, as well as for sports and
probably many other things that young people would
be interested in. But I just sometimes feel as though
there is just something that is just not quite drawing in that campus life and that social [life]. And I just would like the Minister, if he would not mind, just giving the
last couple of minutes to giving us a feel for what we
might be able to do, whether there is a vision for really
developing that campus life at the Bermuda College.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you.
Bermuda College. I mentioned the strategic
plan, and part of that strategic plan is student life a nd
student comfort on the campus. I know I have had the
opportunity to be at the Bermuda College over the last
couple of weeks for meetings that we have held at the
Bermuda College. And it has certainly been a joy to
see students walking around, students j oking, sitting
around and doing that sort of thing that you would
normally see on campus life. So I am unsure how often you get up there and actually see it. Now that we
are coming out of COVID -19 and stuff, we actually
see students walking around and joki ng with each
other and laughing and having fun. Because I see it. I have been there and I have seen it.
So I am kind of struggling with, you know,
what do we need to do to improve that? We can al-ways improve, but I get the impression that it is being noted that there might not be that camaraderie there,
and I do say that yes, there is. I just want the listening public to know that there is that camaraderie at the Bermuda College. I do not know if you have ever been
to the library and just seen students han ging out.
You are referring to the cafeteria that used to
be up there. And there used to be a student lounge in
there. And as you would know —well, you may not
know that it was converted into a testing centre for
COVID -19 during the time. So now that that has been
moved out, I know that the Bermuda College has


Bermuda House of Assembly plans for that section and things that they plan to do in
there. Exactly what it is I cannot speak to (unless they have sent me something). So, I know that they are looking at that and they are lookin g to how they can
improve that. And I have here that student life is im-portant to the Bermuda College and the Student Centre is available to students. So, it still available to students. Bermuda College also has a student activities coordinator who works w ith the Student Government
Council to arrange student activities on campus.
The challenge is not having a residential
component, but this a challenge for most community
colleges. I know that there have been years and years
they have talked about what a dorm facility looked like
when we talk about the residential [facility] at Bermuda College. And who knows? It could be something in
the future. It could be something that people would actually gravitate toward with that. However, the food
services has been m oved to the bookstore, as the
college has had more than six vendors operate the
cafeteria and it was not successful. The Student Cen-tre is available, and the testing centre has returned to
being a study lounge. So they do have areas where
they can gather and do the things they need to do.
And yes, I do remember going up there and having to
go to the bookstore and getting food, versus at first it
was a cafeteria.
But I do know the culinary programme offers
lunches up there if you can get in, because they go
very quickly. But it is a very delicious lunch for maybe 30 bucks and you pay for a five- course meal. And it
helps the students practice serving and preparing and things like that. So that is one place that does offers a home- cooked meal at the Bermuda College. Thank
you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I just have a couple of questions on Head 18,
Libraries and Archives. I would like to start on the last page, B -146. It is a performance measure. It is Head
18, Libraries and Archives. Ther e was information
about getting some —well, let me start with business
unit 28130, Administration. And I just wanted to focus in on the decrease in the number of security incidents.
This is a new measure, and this is at the Bermuda
Library. And here it has an actual outcome and revised of about three security incidents. I believe that I
read whether it was last year or I heard it this year that
we are looking at if we have not already gotten securi-ty cameras at the adult library to help to protect. If not, I am going to ask the Minister if you might be able to
give us any update or explanation on whether we
would be getting any security cameras at the Bermuda Library just to provide an extra layer of security
system for the library?
And also under this same security incidents
performance measure, is the library experiencing a greater number of people who may be more vulnerable, may have some behavioural, bad behaviour in public places who may be frequenting the library that
would be causing a greater need over the years for security systems? Now I am not basing this necessarily on the Bermuda Adult Library in particular. But does
this seem to be a trend amongst libraries in general? That it is a place where you can go. It is dry, it is
warm. It is well lit. There are computers and Internet
access. So it has a tendency to attract the more vul-nerable who do not have a place to go during the day.
So there is a desire to gravitate in public libraries in
general.
And I ask the Minister, Are we experiencing a
growing trend in this way? And whether we are needing any additional security in order to make sure that the place, that the library is safe and we are able to
monitor those who are coming in and out of the library?
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you for that question. I will say, and it is not noted in here, that the
Bermuda Public Library, located in Par -la-ville Park,
has a security guard. So the incidents, and as the Minister of Education for the last five years and sevenplus months, I have only had t o approve once the
banning of a person from coming into the library. So I
would not say that the incidents are going up.
Yes, there are persons who will come and be
unruly at different times. But I would say that the inci-dences at the library are no more so than any other
business around town. They may get that occasional
person who comes in, you know, raises their voice or
whatever. As we spoke in the brief, the community
library is a place that offers respite for persons who
may not be able to find it el sewhere. We talked about
some of the things that they are able to do and all of
the things that they help persons to do, such as filling
out job applications, giving them advice on r ésumés,
teaching them how to type on the computer. A place
where they can come and sit and read a book, and
perhaps get (as you would say) out of the rain, you
know. So what I find at the Bermuda Library is the
staff are very, very accommodating. And I will tell you that the one incident where I approved a letter to actually ban someone, it was in there that the person
had been coming in there multiple, multiple, multiple
times. And they were trying and trying and trying to
work with them. So they are not going to—that is not
the place they go to automatically. They are a caring group of individuals down there who really want to
help anyone who wants to be helped by the things
that they offer.
So in terms of video surveillance, I would
have to find out about that. But I do not think it is nec-essary with the library because it is one door in, one
door out. And there is a security guard who is there to
assist them with that.

Thank you.
I would like to go to page B -145, Head 18,
Libraries and Archives. And this is the Youth Services,
page B -145, and it is business unit 28110, Youth Services. I am just wondering if the Minister mig ht be able
to provide an average number of participants who are
attending the programme. I am going to disclose my
interest. I have had generational interest in the Ber-muda Library. My mother absolutely loved it and
served on the board for years and years and years.
And I have had an opportunity to serve on the Bermuda Library’s Board as well. So I commend the team.
They do a phenomenal job, Youth, Archive and Adult
Library.
Under the Youth Services, business unit
28110 on page B -144, if I might get an average number of the participants who attend the programmes at the Youth Services. And we have got the number of programmes at 145 for 2022/23. It will stay the same
for next year. We have got the number of persons attending programmes, a total of 2,200 at t he Youth Library. And of course, the Internet users at 4,500. I
notice that this has been deleted from 2022/23 onward. So there is no longer any number for Internet users at the Youth Library. I was just wondering if the
Minister might be able to tell us w hy?

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you for that.
[This is] the first time I have noticed that delete–delete for the number of Internet users. Again, I
will find out more information about that. But that
could be the fact that the Youth Library goes up to the
age of 14. And if you are a public school student, you
would have your own device. And they could possibly
be coming there with the device and utilising the Internet. There is no need to actually have stations, or it could be that the stations have been removed, but we
have to mention that. I notice it says number of persons attending programmes. It says 2,500. But I am
not sure—

Yes. That is right.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Well, I could quickly pull
out my calculator and say what is 2,500 divided by 175? And that will give yo u the average of numbers.
But I am encouraged where it says the Youth Library
use per annum is 1,200. And the total membership is
7,800 which is really, really fantastic when you really think about it, if the membership age is up to the age
of 14. And when we think of public primary schools,
the number of students in public primary schools totals just under 1,900. So when you are talking about a
7,800 membership, I have to wonder, where do the rest of these children come from? Because we definitely do not have that many primary -aged children in
our private schools as well. So it could be some other
ones.
But the number of programmes divided by the
number of persons attending the programmes will give us the average.

I just have one fin al question.
Do I have time for one final question?
This is on page B -141, which is Head 18, Libraries and Archives. Just curious why there is just a little less money for operating the Youth Services, line
28110? We have got $431,000, which is down
$18,000 this year. I was just wondering what the re-duction was for.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: I do apologise. I am looking
at that. Okay, it says the decrease in budget allocation is due to reallocation of funds. As we talked about throughout the brief, we did have a trainee librarian
who has moved up to a regular librarian, and we had to reallocate funds. There are also some different things where minor bits and pieces were moved
around at the library. But overall, they did have an
increase in their budget, which is a good thing for the
Bermuda Library.

For the benefit of the listening audience and my Honourable Members in the Chamber,
we are in Committee of Supply for further consideration of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for
the y ear 2023/24. The Minister of Education gave his
robust answers to Heads 16, 17, 18 and 41 from MP
Jackson. We have now concluded.
And I now call upon the next Chair.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: I have got to move my
heads first.

Yes.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: I move that Heads 16, 17,
18 and 41 be approved as printed.


Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: Are there any objections?
None.
Moved.

[Motion carried: Ministry of Education, Heads 16, 17,
18 and 41 were approved and will stand as part of the
Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for fiscal year
2023/24.]

[Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr., Chairman ]

Honourable Members, we will now do
the non- ministry heads, Heads 1 through 5, 56, 63,
85, 92, 98 and 101. The Honourable Premier David Burt will do Heads 1 through 5 and 92.
Premier/Finance Minister, you have the floor.
Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you very much, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I move that the following
heads, Head 1, Governor and Staff; Head 2, Legisla-ture; Head 5, Office of the Auditor General; Head 56,
Human Rights Commission; Head 63, Parliamentary
Registrar; Head 85, Ombudsman’s Office; Head 92,
Internal Audit; Head 98, Information Commissioner’s
Office; and Head 101, Privacy Commissioner’s Office
be now taken under consideration.

Continue, Minister.

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As
you were so gracious in your introduction to say that I
will be doing Heads 1 through 5 and 92, the Minister responsible for the Human Right Commission, the
Honourable Minister of Social Development and Seniors, will be doing Head 56. And the Minister for the
Cabinet Office will be doing Head 63, Head 85, Head
98 and Head 101.
Mr. Chairman, I will begin with Head 1, if I
may, which is Governor and Staff.

My favourite location.

[Laughter]

NON -MINIST RY HEADS

HEAD 1 —GOVERNOR AND STAFF

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, I would like to
present the brief for the Governor and Staff, Head 1,
which can be found on pages B -7 through B -9 of the
Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure.
Mr. Chairman, the mission of the Governor
and staff, which is on page B -7, is To enable the Gov-ernor in exercise of his or her functions set out in the
Constitution and to work in harmony with the commu-nity for a stable, prosperous and well -governed Bermuda.
Mr. Chairman, the Governor and Commander -
in-Chief of Bermuda is appointed by His Majesty the
King by commission under his sign manual and signet and shall hold office during His Majesty’s pleasure. This office is in accordance with the Bermuda Constitution Order 1968, and the s pecial responsibilities for
the Governor underneath our Constitution are external
affairs, defence including the armed forces, internal
security and the police.
Part of the objectives of the Governor and
staff include maintaining law and order, maintaining
stable governance and providing the protection of the
independence of the judiciary and the offices appointed by the Governor at his or her discretion, impartiality
of the public service and integrity in the administration
of justice. Mr. Chair man, the department consists of a
total of 13 full -time staff who assist the Governor in
discharging her responsibilities for the well -being of
Bermuda. As shown on page B -8 of the Budget Book,
three of those staff are allocated to the Deputy Governor’s of fice.
During the 2022/23 financial year , ceremonial
functions and parades returned as Bermuda moved beyond the pandemic. On the 2
nd of June 2022 Her
Excellency the Governor hosted the Garden Party at
Government House in celebration of Queen Elizabeth
II Platinum Jubilee. This marked the first time in history that a British monarch has achieved the milestone
of a Platinum Jubilee. The Queen’s Birthday Parade
was held in full format on 4 June 2022.
On a sombre note, just 96 days later, on 8
September 2022, Queen Elizabeth II passed away
peacefully at Balmoral Castle at age 96 years and 140 days. The Queen’s reign spanned 70 years and 240
days, the longest British monarch in history. The
Queen first visited Bermuda on 24 November 1953,
five months after her c oronation. She would go on to
call on our shores a further four times during her
reign, with her last visit taking place on 24 November
2009, exactly 56 years to the day after her first arrival.
On Sunday, September 11, at 9:00 am at the
flagpole on Front Street, Her Excellency the Governor
proclaimed the ascension of His Majesty King Charles
III.
Mr. Chairman, the Popcorn Ceremony returned in full form on 12 October 2022. The Deputy Governor attended a meeting at the convening of Par-liament on 4 November 2022, at which he read the
Throne Speech for the Government on behalf of the
Governor who was unable to attend due to COVID -19.
Her Excellency the Governor laid a wreath in
the Remembrance Day Ceremony at the Cenotaph in remembrance of those who have mad e the ultimate
sacrifice in the line of duty.
1094 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Chairman, I now turn my attention to the
subjective analysis of current account estimates for
Government House for the 2023/24 financial year, which are shown on page B -8.
Mr. Chairman, the total budget allocation for
the Department of Governor and Staff in respect of
fiscal year 2023/24, as shown on page B -7 of the
Budget Book, is $1,361,880 which represents an increase of $8,800, or 0.65 per cent over the allocated
budget for 2022/23.

Governor’s House—Cost Centre 11000

Hon. E. David Burt: The proposed budget for the
Governor’s Office section of the Department of Gov-ernor and Staff for 2022/23 is $1,067,000, an increase
of $8,800, or 0.83 per cent when compared to the
budget allocation of the previous f iscal year.
Mr. Chairman, the slight increase is due to an
increase in the operational maintenance land and building allocation for the period, an increase in rental for mobile equipment funding for the period, an increase in airfare and subsistence fundi ng to permit the
Governor to attend the Royal Bermuda Regiment
overseas training exercise currently anticipated to
take place in July 2023.
The Governor’s Office experienced an increase in operational expenses for 2022/23 as Ber-muda moved beyond the pandem ic. As the resultant
increase in the number of ceremonial functions, social
functions and other official engagements stabilised, so
too has the Governor’s Office budget.

Deputy Governor’s Office— Cost Centre 11010

Hon. E. David Burt: The proposed budget for the
Deputy Governor’s Office for 2023/24 is $294,000, which represents parity with the allocated budget for
the current fiscal year. The Deputy Governor’s Office maintains a staff of three who perform the functions of
the Deputy Governor as stipulated in the Constitution.
There are no other operational expenses associated with this cost centre. As per the MOU between the Bermuda Government and the Foreign and
Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), other
operational costs are funded by the FCDO and therefore the budget allocation for this office remains relatively stable.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to turn Honourable
Members’ attention to page B -8, for the subjective
analysis of current account estimates.
Travel increased by $3,000. The projected increase of $4,300 for the financial year is to fund the
Governor’s and the ADC’s [aide- de-camp] attendance
at the Royal Bermuda Regiment’s annual Overseas
Training Exercise anticipated to be held in Guyana in June 2023.
Rentals increased by $1,500. The projected
increase of $1,500, or 13 per cent, for this financial year in line item 8 on page B -8, is in anticipation of the
King’s Birthday Garden Party to be held at Govern-ment House in June of 2023, and the increase in associated rental fees. The allocation w ithin this budget
line for the ceremonial l and allowance used on ceremonial parades remains stable.
Moving on, Mr. Chairman, repair and maintenance increased by $17,000. There is a 36 per cent
increase in the Government House maintenance budget which goes up from $48,000 to $65,000. The
operational maintenance associated with the building is largely retroactive, and in 2022/23 this budget has
been developed to better anticipate maintenance requests using previous years’ trends. Government House remains dili gent in ensuring that equipment is
regularly maintained and replaced when necessary, in an effort to have repairs made early before costly ex-penditures are incurred.
Mr. Chairman, it should be noted that Government House was initially constructed in 1871 and has a deteriorating infrastructure which requires substantial capital investment to provide a safe working
environment for staff and a safe residence for Her Excellency [the Governor] and Government of Bermuda
staff who reside at Government House. The source of
deterioration of the House is primarily water ingress
through the roof and the dated windows. In 2017 a
tender package to replace the windows was issued and bids ranging up to $1,900,000 were submitted by
local contracting companies. More recentl y a condition
survey has estimated the cost of $450,000 for roof
replacement.
Moving on to energy, which was decreased by
$5,000. The proposed decrease of $5,000, or 6 per
cent for the financial year was due to a continued
cost-conscious effort to reduce costs within Government House which follow along from an energy audit
commissioned by Government House in financial year 2021/22 with the local firm BE Solar. The energy audit
and its recommendations have enabled the department to realise significant savings and it the completed capital project phase 1 solar installation of the Government House water -catchment has further reduced the annual energy consumption of Government House in the financial year 2022/23.

Capital Expenditure
Hon. E. David Burt: Moving on to capital expenditure.
Mr. Chairman, the capital expenditure for
Government House is listed on page C -4 of the Budget Book, and the allocation for the fiscal year period
2023/24 is $380,000. These funds have been allocated to fund the ongoing m aintenance of the House. It is
predicted that deterioration due to water ingress will
increase until the major capital projects of the roof
replacement and window replacement, and associat-ed operational costs related to these two major projects, rental fees and relocation can be funded.


Bermuda House of Assembly Output Measures

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, the output
measures for Government House are listed on page
B-9 of the Budget Book.
In closing, Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank
the staff of Government House for their continued and
dedicated service. Their support allows the Governor to fulfil her Constitutional mandate under the Bermuda
Constitution Order of Bermuda.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, that concludes the
presentation for Head 1. And, with your permission, I
would like to move to Head 2.

Continue, Premier.

HEAD 2 —THE LEGISLATURE

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (Just
a small joke, Mr. Chairman, I am surprised the
Speaker is not trying to take his seat to read this.) You
remember that, right?
Mr. Chairman, I am proud to present the
Budget for Head 2, the Legislature, as found on pages B-10 through B-13 of the Estimates of Revenue and
Expenditure for [2023/24]. The Legislature plays an important role in subjecting the policies and actions of the Government to scrutiny during parliamentary debates in dis cussing legislation or examining, as in this
instance, the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure.

Mission Statement

Hon. E. David Burt: To facilitate parliamentary oversight and support a parliament that is responsive to
the people of Bermuda. That is th e mission statement
of the Legislature.
Mr. Chairman, the total expenditure, as shown
on page B -10 is estimated at $5,374,000, an increase
of $86,000 when compared to the current year’s
budget, fiscal year 2022/23.
Mr. Chairman, as seen on page B -11 there
are six full -time equivalents (FTEs) in administration,
47 Members of the Legislature, and one full -time
equivalent in the Opposition Leader’s office. In the
Office of the Legislature, parliamentary staff provide
administrative and professional services f or both
Houses of the Legislature. This includes providing
impartial advice and support, research and technical assistance and procedural advice. Legal advice is al-so sought for the Speaker, the President of the Senate, Members of the Legislature and parli amentary
committees as needed.
Who are our Members, Mr. Chairman? As of 1
April 2022, the House of Assembly remain composed
of 8 women (22 .0 per cent), and 28 men (78.0 per
cent). To date, for the first time in history, not a single
parliament in the worl d is male only. Over the last six
years, the rate of women’s representation in parlia-ments globally has incrementally increased from
0.4 per cent standing at 26.5 per cent as of January
2023. The situation is better reflected in the Senate
where there are seven female Senators (64.0 per
cent), and four male Senators (36.0 per cent).
Mr. Chairman, the Parliamentary Staff include:
Clerk to the Legislature, Mrs. Shernette Wolffe, who
assists the Speaker with ensuring the proper function and operation of the L egislature and its committees.
The Clerk provides procedural advice to the Speaker, Members, Government Ministries and the public on the interpretation and application of Standing Orders.
The Clerk’s Office also oversees and approves the
preparation of proceedings, Orders of the Day, and the overall legislative process in the Legislature while
ensuring effective leadership in support of innovation.
The Clerk also provides parliamentary education via
internal and external communication to enhance public trus t and appreciation of the Legislature.
The Clerk oversees inter -parliamentary relations
with other jurisdictions by attending conferences and
parliamentary seminars. The Clerk is responsible for
the overall financial management of the Legislature’s
budget , including the provision of Members’ salaries,
staff salaries, support services, and other related
costs. Six positions in the Legislature staff report directly to the Clerk.
• Deputy Clerk and Clerk to the Senate, Mr.
Clark Somner, provides procedural advice
and research to the President and Senators
and also oversees the preparation of meet-ings for parliamentary committees, oversees
the process of approved legislation for submission, receives and vets all parliamentary
questions received wit h the President of the
Senate, and assists the Clerk with the overall
management, processes and procedures of
the Office of the Legislature.
• Assistant Clerk, Mrs. Kara Beale, assists both
the Clerk and the Deputy Clerk on procedural
and administrative dut ies while overseeing the
preparation of the Order Paper for both Houses.
• Sergeant -at-Arms, Mr. Arnold Allen, is responsible for maintenance, security and cer-emonial duties, including the convening of the
Legislature.
• Administrative Officer, Mrs. Nadine P lace,
provides administrative and secretarial support to the Speaker and is responsible for doing the payroll for Members of the Legislature and parliamentary staff. Additionally, her duties include accounts payable, Human Resource matters and the procurement of office
supplies, furnishings and equipment.
• Administrative Assistant, Ms. Andrina Smith,
provides administrative and secretarial sup-port for the Clerk and Deputy Clerk to the Legislature.
1096 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly • Parliamentary Information Officer, Mr. Derek
Lamb, is respo nsible for Hansard production,
research and IT services in conjunction with
our IT consultant, Mr. Terrence Bean from
Quest Ltd.
• Aide to the Opposition Leader, Mrs. Judy
Benevides, provides administrative and secretarial support to the Opposition Leader.

Mr. Chairman, if I may move to Capital Expenditure.

Yes.

Hon. E. David Burt: During the 2022/23 fiscal year ,
there was no renovation work carried out at the Sessions House. The capital account estimate for
2022/23, as seen on page C -4 of the Budget Book is
$1,290,000; $184,000 is for Veritas Place rent support
for both the third and fourth floors, $570,000 has been
allocated to the Dame Lois Browne- Evans Court Consolidation Project whereby Supreme Court 1 will be
relocated to the Dame Loi s Browne -Evans building.
Additionally, $550,000 has been appropriated
for Sessions House preliminary refurbishment work.
The Parliament Building Refurbishment project includes the maintenance and repair of the facilities of the House and its precincts fall under the remit of the
Parliamentary House and Grounds Committee,
chaired by the Honourable Derrick Burgess, JP (I
think you might know that person, Mr. Chairman).

Vaguely .

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, Bermuda is considered world cl ass for the reinsurance industry and
the legislation amplifying our financial services industry has been passed in the Legislature. Sessions
House including the Chamber will require urgent attention.
Mr. Chairman, I now turn my attention to the
specific E stimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the
four cost centres of the Legislature. The total budget allocation for the Legislature for fiscal year 2023/24 as
shown on page B -10 of the Budget Book is
$5,374,000, which represents an increase of $86,000
when c ompared with fiscal year 2022/23.

Administration— Cost Centre 12000

Hon. E. David Burt: The objectives of the Administration cost centre (Legislature Office) for fiscal year
2022/23 include the following:
• Provide reliable advice on a range of parliament ary procedures to support Presiding Officers and Members of the Legislature.
• Improve the public’s understanding of the im-portance and work of the Legislature. • Inform and educate the public service and Members about the legislative process and
the Rules of Procedure. [Standing Orders.]
• Provide legal advice to Members on constitutional and other myriad of matters , including
questions on rules and procedures.
• Ensu re that both Houses of the Legislature
and parliamentary committees have adequate
and sufficient resources to support their operation and fulfil their responsibilities.
To this end, Administration, cost centre
12000, found on page B -10, has a budget of
$1,278,000, which represents an increase of $69,000 compared to the current budget year. This budget covers administrative staff salaries, office supplies, data
line for Members’ tablets, software maintenance for both Internet and Hansard systems, along with overseas Hansard transcribers.
Additionally, provision of funding is allocated
for Speakers and Members of Parliament for legal
services. And, Mr. Chairman, specifically under this
particular matter, the increase that was requested and
has been funded is to support the provision of support
services for parliamentary committees so that the
aforementioned (and named in our Standing Orders )
oversight committees can actually advance and the
Government can hopefully tick off an election pledge
that was made in 2017, a course for recommendation
[by] the SAGE Commission which published a report in 2013 to ensure that our oversight committees can
be set up so that there can be more active work in matters related to oversight for Members of the Legislature here in this House.

Youth Parliament —Cost Centre 12002

Hon. E. David Burt: Moving on to Youth Parliament,
cost centre 12002, this cost centre is found on page
B-10. The total budget is $6,000 which is an increase
of $1,000 compared to the prior fiscal year.

Ministers and Members —Cost Centre 12010

Hon. E. David Burt: Moving on to Ministers and
Members, the responsibility of the Legislature is to
enact laws, Government financial initiatives, and to
hold the Government to account. In order for Members to carry out their legislative and constitutional duties, legislators must be fairly remunerated. The
total budget for cost centre 12010 found on page B -
10, is $3,969,100, representing an increase of $6,000.

Opposition Leader’s Office —Cost Centre 12015

Hon. E. D avid Burt: Moving on to the Opposition
Leader’s Office, the role of the constitutionally ap-pointed Opposition Leader’s Office is an important
one, and non- partisan staff is required to support its
operations. (Non- partisan, oh my ? I don’t know if that


Bermuda House of Assembly is exactly correct; but we will move on. ) Currently,
there is one part -time administrative assistant working
in the office. The Opposition Leader’s Office’s grant
for the 2023/24 fiscal year is $75,000 which represents an increase of $10,000 when compared to the
fiscal year. A $10,000 increase, Mr. Opposition Leader? Oh my. The difference of $46,000 covers the salary of the administrative assistant.

Subjective Analysis
Hon. E. David Burt: Moving on to subjective analysis,
Mr. Chairman, I would l ike to turn your attention to
page B -11, Subjective Analysis of Current Account
Estimates.
Salaries decreased by $112,000. The salaries
estimate for [2023/24] is $4,414,000 versus $4,536,000 for fiscal year [2022/23]. The $122,000
decrease in salaries is due to the reduction in Cabinet
from 12 to 11 Ministers.
Professional Services increased by $213,000.
This is due to the funding increase in areas such as legal services, transcription of the Hansard, local consultancy, catering, and for the establishment of oversight committees.
Mr. Chairman, you may be aware that this
Government pledged in the 2017 Throne Speech that
it would establish a parliamentary oversight committee
to reduce waste and improve governance and increase efficiencies. As such, it has b een suggested
that one committee be established in the Ministry specific. Parliamentary oversight committees are essential to the legislative scrutiny and representation role in parliament. The committees have the ability to effect
change in Government’s a genda and priorities, Government policy, spending and legislative proposals.
Other personnel costs increased by $28,000.
This increase is largely due to the provision of meal catering services for Members and parliamentary staff at a cost of $15,000 now t hat we have returned to inHouse sittings.

Performance Measures

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, legislatures are
one of the principal institutions of a functioning democracy and are continually evolving and are under
intense scrutiny by the public and the media, including
social media platforms. Simultaneously, it is important for the Legislature to promote the public’s understand-ing of the work of the Legislature. Unfortunately, during the past years our school tours and visits to the
Chamber did not occur due to the pandemic. In- House
meetings resumed in September 2022 along with
tours of the Chamber conducted by the Sergeant -atArms, Mr. Allen. The total number of visits to our Facebook and Instagram pages remain consistent with
8,000 visit s in the current fiscal year 2022/23. The Parliament website has seen a decline in 2022/23 due
to shared audio links via authorised websites.
The [2023/24] plans are in progress to
livestream House proceedings via Facebook. And I believe that is the video, not just the audio.
Mr. Chairman, the Legislature continues to
receive positive feedback concerning the parliament website www.parliament.bm
and the Hansard. As you
would be aware, Mr. Chairman, Members use the
Hansard as a research tool (certainly the Opposition
does) to gather information for debates. Mr. Cole has his printouts from last year. I can see them right there.
As you are aware, Mr. Chairman, the streaming of our
parliamentary debates is also useful and can be found
on our website.
The Legislature Office procured an automatic
speech recognition system [ASR] to automatically transcribe all legislature meetings on a one- year trial
basis. It was envisioned that the implementation of the ASR would reduce our cost for the production of Han-sard Reports and provide a highly efficient transcription process. However, it increased costs for transcribing as the ASR could not understand when you were
speaking, Mr. Chairman. It say s here could not understand the Bermuda dialect, determine proper Hansard
formatting, and there were numerous spelling errors.
As a result , the ASR contract was cancelled for
2023/24.
Mr. Chairman, performance measures focusing on professional development opportunities and
certification of parliamentary practice and procedures are encouraged for both Members and parliamentary staff. This past year, two of our Clerks attended the
United Kingdom Oversight of Public Finance forums
and have participated in th e Clerks of Overseas Territories forums and workshops focusing on public ac-counts. The Clerk of the Legislature and the Deputy
Clerk of the Legislature also attended virtual training
sessions on understanding Standing Orders and the
legislative process for both government directors and
heads of departments.
Members, Ms. Susan E. Jackson, Mr. Jamahl
Simmons and the Clerk to the Legislature attended the 65
th Commonwealth Parliamentary [Association]
conference held in Halifax, Nova Scotia in August of 2022. The theme of the conference, the legis —
What happened Cole?
[No audible response]

Hon. E. David Burt: No problem; you just interrupted
me for a second, threw off my train of thought.
The Legislature will continue to inform and
educate the public and p ublic service about the legislative process and implement a number of educational
initiatives for performance measures listed on page B -
12.
Mr. Chairman, in closing, I take the opportunity to recognise the hard work, dedication and profes1098 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly sionalism of the Legislature staff, by which comparison is very small in relation to other smaller parlia-ments internationally. Their commitment to ensuring that both Houses are run efficiently in a very fast -
paced environment during our parliamentary calendar, such as thi s Budget Debate and the convening of parliament is to be commended.
And I ask all Members of the Committee to
show their appreciation.
[Desk thumping]

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Mr. Somner.
Mr. Chairman, with your permission, I would
like to move on to Head 5. I know that the former
Premier, the MP for constituency 12, said that the
person for Head 1 was your favourite person but, you
know . . . we’re on to Head 5 so there may be competition.

HEAD 5 —OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL

Hon. E. David B urt: Mr. Chairman, Head 5 for the
Office of the Auditor General.
The Auditor General follows the standard
budget process, as is the case with all ministries and
departments using ZBB approach [zero based budget-ing]. Once the Budget Office numbers are determined
internally and inputted in the ZBB, the Office seeks
formal approval of their budget from the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on the Office of the Auditor General. This Committee is appointed for the duration of
the life of Parliament by Standi ng Order 34(4) of the
House of Assembly and according to section 45 of the
Bermuda Constitution Order.
This Committee has the responsibility of ensuring that the Office has the tools and the funding to carry out its responsibilities and to ensure that the independence of the Office is not compromised. A detailed budget submission is presented to the Committee each year by the Auditor General at a formal
meeting set aside for this purpose, wherein the Auditor General highlights the performance of the office for
the current year and justifies the funding requirements
of the Office for the upcoming year. This meeting was
held on 6 December 2022.
Once the Committee is in final agreement with
the budget request, a formal submission is sent to the Ministry of Finance by the Committee Chair, noting the bipartisan support of the Committee. The Ministry of Finance will then officially acknowledge and indicate whether it approves the budget request supported by the Committee.
The mandated mission under the [Bermuda]
Constitution Order 1968 and the Audit Act 1990 provide the legislative mandate for the Office of the Audi-tor General. The Office of the Auditor General’s primary responsibility is to assist the House of Assembly in
carrying out its oversight responsibilit ies relating to government spending and accountability for the use of
public money. The mission of the Office of the Auditor General, which is derived from its legislative mandate,
is to add credibility to the Government’s financial reporting and to promot e improvement in the financial
administration of all Government ministries, departments and all other entities for which the Government
is accountable to Parliament.
Moving on, Mr. Chairman, to the Expenditure
Overview.

Expenditure Overview

Hon. E. Dav id Burt: The Committee reviewed the
proposed Office budget of $4,341,929 at the December 2022 meeting. The Ministry of Finance did not distribute any budget ceiling for the area of request for budget reductions made by the Ministry of Finance
subsequent to the Committee meeting and a new
budget figure for 2023/24 was provided. The total current expenditure for Head 5 is now estimated to be
$4,196,179 for 2023/24, and represents an increase
of $113,918, or approximately 3 per cent from the prior year’s approved expenditure.
There has been movement of funds amongst
the various operating line items as follows: Salaries
are $3,217,000, an increase of $281,000 from last
year, or 9 per cent. The increase over the prior year is
for the officer’s filled posts that were made vacant in
the prior year. However, as a result of subsequent
reduced funding noted above, the Office will not fill the
administrative assistant post for the full 2023/24 fiscal
year. Thus, those administrative tasks will continue to
be absorbed by senior management, hence taking time away from more strategic matters.
Eighty per cent of the office of audit practitioners are contract officers on work permits of three years. A challenge for the Office over the last few years has been the ability to attract and retain a full
complement of qualified professional audit staff. This
problem has been made worse due to the shortage of
professional accountants and an extremely competi-tive market for recruitment, both in Bermuda and
worldwide.
The market for professional accountants is
quite competitive. The Office salary ranges are comparable with similar positions in government but remain uncompetitive with the salaries in the private
sector. This challenge has become a reality as more
of our experienced staff have departed in the prior
year. Consequently, the Office has been recruiting qualified professional staff. At 31 March 2023 the Office will have approximately two open posts in comparison with 11 open posts at the end of the last fiscal year in 31 March 2022. The Office strives to provide a
supportive and collaborative workplace for our students to thrive and grow. Now the Office employs three Bermudian students pursuing professional and
academic designations.


Bermuda House of Assembly Professional Services are $474,000, a decrease of $196,000 from last year, or 29 per cent. This
is the next most significant expense of the Office and
includes services for our contracted audits and expert
advice as needed. This represents a decrease in
funding for services provided by professional accounting firms. We expect to continue to use contracted
firms to aid us in meeting the legislative commitments and aid the Office during peak workloads during the
summer months and for unexpected separations. Any
decision to outsource or co- source an audit is not taken lightly. There are many considerations including
internal capacity, costs and development opportunities. The most important is an entity’s audit readiness.
Mr. Chairman, Travel is $11,000, which is an
increase of $5,000 over the previous year. Staff auditors pursuing professional designation may travel to attend training and development courses in pursuit of
their professional designations as face- to-face tr aining
will be resumed. Additionally, the Auditor General and
team members may attend training for the long- term
sustainability of the Office as it is critical to keep
abreast of emergent auditing trends and participating
in the roundtable discussions to s upport and influence
matters impacting our jurisdiction from the development of the auditing methodology and practices of
professional development with standard setters, such as the Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB).
Mr. Chairman, the Office also takes an active
role in Canadian Council of Legislative Auditors and the Caribbean Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (CAROSAI) and the Auditor General is a member of CAROSAI’s executive committee.
Moving on to Revenue, if I can, Mr. Chairman.

The Ch airman: Mm-hmm.

Hon. E. David Burt: The revenue estimate for the
Office of the Auditor General is $827,000, a decrease
of $297,000 from last year, or 26 per cent, which represents audit fees charged to certain auditees, such
as government -controlled organ isations and public
funds. It is anticipated that revenue will be collected
from 24 entities for both current year accounts and
accounts that may be in arrears.
Employee numbers: The estimate for the Office of the Auditor General is 30 full -time posts. Of the
30 full -time employees, Bermudians fill 10 posts. Of
the 10 Bermudian staff, three are students, four professionals and three support staff.
Capital Expenditure: The Office of the Auditor
General has a capital budget of $11,025 for seven
laptops that have surpassed their lifespan and are no
longer running efficiently.
Output Measures: To continue to support the
House of Assembly to hold the Government to account and to improve the public service, the Office
intends to do so by fulfilling the constitut ional mandate
by completing the following: • 59 financial statement audits;
• 13 financial statement reviews;
• 2 non- financial audits; and
• release annual reports as per the legislation.
The above measures may be hampered by
accounts that may not be presented to the Office of
the Auditor General in a timely fashion.
The Office of the Auditor General completed
20 financial statement audits and reviews (this is on
current year achievements). Financial statements, or
attest audits, are examinations of an auditee’s financial statements. Mr. Chairman, I certainly note that
there were 20 completed last year, expected 59 last
year, but of course there were 11 vacancies last year
and two vacancies this year. So maybe the Office will
accelerate the pace of the auditor and not, of course,
blame everything on the Government.
In these examinations, the auditor expresses
an opinion on whether the financial statements present information on the auditee’s [operation] and
whether the financial position is presented fai rly and
complies with auditing standards generally accepted
in Bermuda and Canada. Every year the Office of the
Auditor General audits the financial statements of the
accounts of the Senate, the House of Assembly, all government departments and offices, including the
Public Service Commission, and all courts of Bermuda, as per the Bermuda Constitution Order 1968 and
the Audit Act 1990.
In addition to the completion of financial
statement audits and reviews, the Office also releases public interest reports, attends virtual training with the
Office of the Auditor General of Ontario and the Caribbean Association of Supreme Audit Institutions, and
the UK National Audit Office to carry out training in public sector accounting and auditing standards to
ensure that all staff are kept abreast of the new and
evolving statements and standards to meet continuing
professional requirements.
The quality of Office fieldwork and opinion appended to the accounts audited remain the Office’s priority. Hence, the Office continues to use targeted training, coaching and mentoring to build and
strengthen the capacity of staff. The Office also provided a minimum of 20 hours of continued profession-al training to team members on auditing and accounting pronouncements to ensure adherence to accounting and assurance standards and methodology for our financial and non- financial audits.

Plans for the U pcoming Year

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, the Office of the
Auditor General reports to me ( as I am sharing with
the House) that the Office will be rolling out a new risk
assessment and system of quality management which requires the Office to revisit their supporting forms,
check lists, communication letters and evaluation
forms in this upcoming year and will result in newer
1100 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ways of working that will further strengthen the quality
of the work of the Office.
The government’s risk landscape continues to
change , and the Office is building in agility to respond
to the emergent risks. Presently there is no national risk register for the government , and the Office continues to work with various stakeholders across gov-ernment and industry partners, such as CPA, CARO-SAI and CCOLA. I am not entirely certain that statement is accurate, because I know there is a risk register that is maintained that serves inside of the Ministry
of Finance. So maybe we are going to have to update
the Auditor General on that.
The following continue to have impact on the
Office’s audit assessment and strategies:
• environment hazards from coastal erosion from hurricane frequency;
• malicious attacks from cyberattacks to infrastructure;
• areas of significant judgment, such as impairment and obsolescence of tangible capital
assets and other assets and additional disclosure requirements;
• internal control environments of audi tees because of different ways of working due to the
impact of the COVID -19 pandemic; and
• increased number of fraud risk factors in terms of pressures and opportunities due to
changing landscapes and conditions.
The Office will build on work that they h ave
done so far and provide the Public Accounts Committee, the House of Assembly , and the Parliamentary
Standing Committee the same high quality financial
and non- financial audits to support continued accountability.
The staff of the Auditor General are i ndependent of the Government. This independence ena-bles the Office to conduct its auditing and reporting
responsibilities fairly and objectively. As the Consolidated Fund is one of the Office’s priority audits with an annual November deadline, the Office w ill continue to
work with the Accountant General’s Department to ensure that the deadline may be met, the debt cove-nant requirements complied with, and penalties
avoided.
In closing, the Auditor General would like to
acknowledge her exemplary staff for their hard work,
dedication and commitment to the Office mandate.
The Office will continue to support the House of As-sembly and the Public Accounts Committee in holding
the Government to account and to help to improve financial reporting in public services t hrough their high
quality audits for the benefit of Bermuda’s residents.
That completes Head 5, if I may move to my
final head, Mr. Chairman.

Yes.

Hon. E. David Burt: Head 92. HEAD 92 —DEPARTMENT OF INTERNAL AUDIT

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to
present the budget for Head 92, the Department of Internal Audit, found on pages B -27 through B -29 of
the Budget Book.
Mr. Chairman, the mission of the Department
of Internal Audit is , To provide independent, objective
assurance and advisory services to improve operations and internal control systems.

Expenditure Overview

Hon. E. David Burt: Expenditure overview, including
analysis by cost centre is seen on page B -28. The
total current expenditure is estimated to be $1,170,000, which represents a decrease of $150,000, or 11 per cent less than the estimates for
the original estimate for 2022/23. However, we will see that it is broadly similar to the revised figure. This
decrease is due primarily to the reduction in salaries.
The department has delayed approval for four vacant
positions until the second quarter of 2022/23 (line item
1) and the decrease in repairs and maintenance related to the office scanner /photo copier (line item 11,
materials and supplies).
Mr. Chairman, there is no Capital Expenditure
that is applicable to this department.
Manpower: The total estimates of FTEs [full -
time equivalents] or funded positions for the department is 12, representing 11 prof essional staff and one
administrative assistant. The department’s funded posts are comprised of one director, one assistant
director, one administrative assistant, two internal au-dit managers, one IT audit manager; two senior auditors, one IT audit senior; and three internal audit officers who are working towards obtaining the professional internal auditor qualification.
The internal audit officer positions are Bermudian-only trainee positions to encourage and train
Bermudians in the internal auditing prof ession. The
assistant director , internal audit manager , IT audit
manager , and one senior auditor vacant post were not
filled during the 2022/23 year, resulting in a revised FTE of eight. However, these four posts are expected to be filled by August 2023.
Performance Measures: The department’s
performance measures can be found on page B -29 of
the Budget Book and the results are as follows:
• The department achieved all of its engagement activity and reporting, staff utilisation, and continuing professional development outcomes during the year.
• The number of recommendations issued from
audit projects totalled 26 and related to remediating identified weaknesses in internal control, governance or risk management activi-ties.


Bermuda House of Assembly • As a result of follow -up procedures performed,
the department recorded nine management
actions which were implemented by the
agreed upon date.
• Despite some delays in audit projects due to
the pandemic and reduced manpower, the
department issued two audit reports covering
operations, financial and IT systems, and five
surprise compliance audit reports, for a total
of seven audit reports issued during the year
2021/22. It is anticipated that the department will issue three audit project reports and five
compliance reports by the end of 2023.

Plans for the Upcoming Year
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Chairman, the plans are to
execute the department’s 2023/24 approved audit plan to
• conduct approximately six audit projects and
five compliance reviews; and
• to continue to train and develop staff, espe-cially our three Bermudian internal audit officers as they work towards attaining their Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
and/or Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) professional qualifications whilst gaining work experience in the internal audit fi eld.
Mr. Chairman, in closing, I would like to thank
the Department of Internal Audit staff for their com-mitment and dedication to their duties over the past
fiscal year.
Those will be the four heads that I am doing,
Mr. Chairman, and I will yield to whi chever Minister
the Government wishes to —

Mr. Cole Hadley Simons.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First of all, I would like to thank the Premier
for his comments and taking on these ministries. I would like to go [Head 1] Governor and Staff. I am quite comfortable with what has been sai d about the
operation of the Governor’s Office and the Deputy
Governor’s Office.
My question is this: It comes back to Government House. We know that that building was built in
1857, something along that time.

I thought it was 1871.
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Okay, well in the 1800s.
And it is an asset of this country , and I am just wondering if the Minister of Finance can share with this House whether there is a master refurbishing plan for that House on the Hi ll, as you would call it. I know,
and he confirmed, that there are issues with water leakage and ingress from the roof and the windows, and that they have had various quotes. I think we
need to invest more money in the building so that we
can preserve our asset, because it is an asset of
Bermuda. So, I would like to get more details on the
master plan. Just tell us how we are going to move
forward because these annual payments for the repairs are like Band- Aids—

Page C -4? Okay, thank you.
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: So, we are positioning ourselves, in essence, to have a larger bill going forward
because at the end of the day looks like if we don’t get
this property fixed properly it will collapse around the
Governor when they come next time.
Okay, I think that is the only question that I
had on Government House. I would like to move now to the Legislature. Again, I want to commend the staff
of the Le gislature. They are very supportive, they are
willing to extend a helping hand, and they are committed to excellence and doing the best that they can with
the resources that they have.
The first thing I would like to raise is (I have
raised it before, and I am going to raise it again) we
have in a democracy the executive—

Cost centre 12000, page C -11?

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Yes; Administration.
As you know, in a democracy we have the
Judiciary, the Legislature and the Executive. And each
of those arms of democracy basically provide checks
1102 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly and balances for a sound democracy. As you will recall, Mr. Chairman, back in 2015 thi s Parliament approved the appointment of a parliamentary commis-sion, an independent parliamentary commission that
will manage Parliament. That commission would be
bipartisan Members of the House and it would ensure
our independence and that the Parliament will not
have to go glove in hand to get money from the Ministry of Finance which at the end of day compromises
the independence and integrity of Parliament.

Yes. What is your question?

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: My question is simple. I am
framing it. I know that a couple of years ago the PLP
Government had in its Throne Speech a commitment
to progress this independent parliamentary commis-sion. I know the legislation is ready. That has been
ready for a number of years. And if we are to be the
world -class jurisdiction that we are, we need to ensure
that our Parliament is independent and operates in a
fashion that is required for a democracy of our sophistication, supposedly.
So, Mr. Chairman, my question is this: When
is the PLP Government going to make a commitment
to progress this initiative so that we are not only world
class when it comes to a financial centre, but we are also world class when it comes to practicing democracy in our country?
I am delighted to see that the oversight committe e has been given some support. Again, the
Speaker has been promoting this, and the PLP Gov-ernment is promoting that. So, we have made some strides in oversight. But when it comes to the real
oversight committee—

Continue, Mr. Simons.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: So, my other issue is the
oversight committee, which is known as the Public
Accounts Committee.
Mr. Chairman, the Public Accounts Committee
[PAC] is the ultimate oversight committee. And my question to the Minister of Finance is, When will we be
positio ned to get additional financial resources and
human capital to ensure the success and oversight of
this committee? As you all know, many people on this
Island are saying that we need more oversight from
Parliament, and that committee is the one. We work closely with the Auditor General. And, as you know,
many of us have been to Wales on an exploration trip
and they have about 15 people just supporting PAC.
So, for us to be effective, I would like to ask the Minister of Finance—

[Page] C -4.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: [Page] C -4.
—$500,000 to Dame Lois Browne- Evans,
which is the Judiciary; $500,000 [sic] to Sessions
House; and $180,000 to Veritas. Can the Minister
provide more details on how these funds will be ex-pended? What will we do with the $550,000 [sic] for
Sessions House? What are we doing for the $180,000
for Veritas [Place], and the $500,000 for the Dame
Lois Browne[ -Evans]?
I put a question mark, why is the Judiciary
capital expense coming under us with the $500,000, when, as far as I am concerned, it is a judicial issue? I
just ask for clarification as to why Parliament has to
pay $500,000 capital expenditure for the Judiciary. That is for my information because I am not clear as to why that is the case.
The Premier made a comment about an increase of $10,000 for the Oppositio n Leader’s Office. I
would like to make it clear that the $10,000 is for the
increase in rent. We had to move. We were moved
because the property was sold, and we had to move somewhere [else]. So, I just wanted the Committee to
know, as I am the Opposition Leader.
My other question when it comes to the Parliament is under performance measures. The Parlia-ment used to give school tours and visits to the
Chamber. It was suspended last year. Can the Minis-ter confirm whether our school tours and school visits
have been reinstated? To me it is crucial for our
young people in helping them to understand democ-racy in Bermuda.
Okay, going on to the Auditor General. Yes?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and
thank you to the Honourable Opposition Leader for
yielding. Just a couple of quick questions for the Hon-ourable Premier on Head 2, Legislat ure.
At [page] B -11, this is under 12000, Administration, and then on page B-11 at the top is current
account estimates. There is a line item there for rentals, which shows $99,000/$99,000/$99,000, and then
says zero. I think that rental must be, if you l ook at
[page] C -26 of the Budget Book , the rental value for
this space here that we stand in today, because that is
98980. So, I am wondering why that is zero. Is that a typo? Because, presumably we are not giving it up
this year. That is my first of three questions.
[Page] B -11, as read with [page] C -26, and it
is the rentals line item which goes to zero. So, I am
assuming that is just a typo and that should actually say [$]99[,000].
Second question is as to professional services, it is the line just above, $416,000 and it in-creases some $213,000. Can the Honourable Premier
kindly indicate why there is a spike in professional
services for the Legislature? Third and final, when he was delivering his
brief, the Honourable Premier indicated that there would be a cancellation of the ASR contract. I didn’t
quite hear that statement, but I think that was the contract in relation to the Hansard that works here. I was
just wondering if the contract is being cancelled alto-gether, or if ASR is simply being replaced as the service provider so that Hansard will continue with another provider. I wasn’t quite sure; I didn’t really follow the Premier. So perhaps he would just repeat that for
my edification.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Go ahead.
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: —80 per cent of the Audit
Office practitioners are contract officers on work permits for three years. My question is this: Recently the
Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration has instituted new regulations in regard to contract workers. Will that new regulation force the Auditor General to convert th ese contract workers to full -time employees?
Right now we are amending the length of time that
contract workers are allowed to be employed at the institute. So my question is, Will they have to be converted to new employees and go through immigration
like any other guest worker?

Mm-hmm.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Okay, the other issue that I
like for the Minister to address is the issue of out-sourcing the production of audited financial state-ments. The Minister has made it clear from year to
year that . . . sorry, the Auditor General has made it
clear that from year to year they outsource the production of audited financial statement s. Can the Minister of Finance provide us with details on the procure-ment process that takes place for the appointment of those audit firms in securing a contract to provide audit services for the Government of Bermuda? And that
1104 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly is under the professional services section of the
budget.
The other issue that I would like to address is
. . . and I will just ask the Premier to repeat it. He said
the Office completed 53 or 54 sets of financial state-ment audits last year and . . . no, completed 20. And I
think they will have 54 this coming year. Is that what you said? Fifty -nine. So, hopefully that resource is
enough to get it done.
The other issue that I would like for the Premier to address, because I was following him, is the cur-rent status of the financial statements that needed to
be produced by our government agencies. If you will
recall, last year we had 31 public authorities that were in arrears in the production of their financial state-ments. And in total, if you added up all of the years, it was 116 years of financial statements in arrears and outstanding. I noted that the Premier did not provide
that s tatistic this year . So, if he can provide us with a
roadmap on how the Auditor General and the public
authorities are going to clear the many outstanding financials, because if we cannot provide the financial statements, how are we going to assure ourselves
that money granted to these agents are well used and
spent in accordance with the mandate provided? There will be no accountability if you cannot.

Page B -29. Got you.
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: I only have one question on
page B -29—two questions, sorry. The first question is
this: And I am qualifying it, so just give me a bit of lati-tude. I worked in Internal Audit in my banking career. And while in Internal Audit, we had to ensure that all outstanding items and recommendations produced by
the external audit are cleared. So my question to the Premier/Finance Minister is, Does the Internal Audit
provide a report that addresses the recommendations, the infractions on procedures and internal controls
and shows how their departments clear these items? And if they have a report that shows how these out-standing items, these outstanding infractions are ad-dressed, can the Internal Auditor send that report to this House and to the department heads?
I have never seen or heard that the Internal
Auditor is helping ensure that the outstanding recommendations produced by the Auditor General for the various departments are managed and addressed so that the company or the department can have a clean audit for next time.
And the Internal Audit also indicated that they
were working on many projects. Can the Premier pro-vide details on the projects that they are working on in this coming year? And which areas will they be exam-ining in the coming year?
And on those brief c omments, I w ill take my
seat so that I can hear the Finance Minister’s answers
to my questions.

To members of the public, we are
now debating the heads for the non-ministries. When
the Premier/Minister of Finance is ready, he will attempt to answer the questions for the Opposition
Leader.
Mr. Premier, you have the floor.
Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
For the benefit of the listening audience, because I know that you know yourself and I know that the Opposition Leader knows himself, I present the non-ministries to this House as they wish to be debated. But I assure you that I know none of the answers because I am not responsible for the administ ration of
Government House, nor am I responsible for the ad-ministration of the Legislature, nor am I responsible for the administration of the Office of the Auditor Gen-eral, nor am I responsible for Department of Internal Audit.
[
Laughter]
Hon. E. David Burt: However, I will do my best to
provide the answers that I can provide.
So on the first one, the question that was
raised [about] Government House, and if I understand
it clearly, the Opposition Leader had asked, Is there a
master plan for fixing the particular work? The Department of Public Works continues to work with Gov-ernment House and the Foreign and Commonwealth and Development Office, as it is the workplace that houses FCDO staff as well as others to ascertain the


Bermuda House of Assembly best way forward on this part icularly sizable capital
project and capital expenditure.
It will go without noting, Madam Chairman,
that it is like the Opposition who says, Spend more
money here, spend more money here, spend more
money here, spend more money here, and will then
put out videos saying, They’re spending too much
money. So consistency would be welcome.

Okay. Take your seat, Member. Take
your seat.
Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you. So that is the answer
to the first one. So the work is continuing. They are
recessing. Between the Ministry of Public Works is a
department between Government House and also
between the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. So we will st art with that. That is all that I
think there was for Government House.
Moving on to the Legislature. The first question was matters related to parliamentary reform. The answer that I can give to the Opposition Leader is that
it is in progress. And I know that the Attorney General
continues to work with the Office of the Legislature to
advance that particular initiative.
On to the matter of oversight committees. I
am happy the Opposition Leader is pleased that those things are progressing, as I particular ly believe that
they are important, especially for members of the Legislature who are not members of the executive to scrutinise and understand, to provide recommendations
and to provide a wider range of activities, not just Public Accounts, which of cours e only deals with financial
matters, but other matters which may deal with policy
and looking at certain things in the past. It is certainly something that I want to see happen, and I think that it
is important that we attempted to put more resources
there. And I am hopeful that this could be advanced to
the kind Offices of the Speaker and the Offices of the
Clerk of the Legislature.
I will, however, segue that into the next question because the next question, of course, came from the Opposition Leader who says, Can we have more
resources for the Public Accounts Committee? Now, here is the challenge. We cannot continue to ask for
more resources, especially when the Government has provided an increase in funding to non- ministry departments in line overall, with the total increase that happened in government departments, whether it be Legislature, whether it be Government House, whether it be the Auditor General, the Information Comm issioner, the Human Rights Commission. Whether it be
all of those particular items, while at the same point in
time saying that your public policy is to reduce the
size of the public service via attrition and other types of things.
And we will recall on t he 24
th of February in
this Honourable Chamber there were 12 things that were put forward by the Opposition. They now have
taken two off of their website so now there are only
10. But the top line of them said, To reduce the size of the public service via attrition. Now, you and I both
know —
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. E. David Burt: Oh, here we are. See? But [the
Honourable Member] says now, he pipes up and says the commission will be independent. So he does not
really mean everyone; he just means some persons
and not others. But here is the fact: The Opposition
Leader had stated inside of this whole thing about,
you know, wants details and should not be responsible. The money all comes from the same place. It
comes from the taxpayer. That money all co mes from
the same place. How it is appropriated is a different matter. But it all comes from the taxpayers. It is not our money. It is the taxpayers’ fund.
So in this particular case and instance, what I
can tell the Honourable Opposition Leader in response to his particular question is that the executive
has provided additional funding to the Legislature this
year in excess of the funding of which they had last year, and in addition to the fact that there is a reduced
salaries budget, there are additional funds that the
Legislature . . . And I would certainly ask that during
the times that we have the Rules and Standing Privileges Committee or others, we can advance those
discussions with the Speaker as we move those things forward. Because I am happy for those funds to
be expended in the best way possible to ensure that
there is support. But as you would know, Madam
Chairman, I do not control the Legislature’s budget as that would be completely out of bounds, as I am the
member of the Executive.
Moving on to the question of which the Honourable Opposition Leader had raised, and he ques-tioned why the Dame Lois Browne- Evans [Building] in
the Court Street location was part of the capital budget of which we presented here. The Sessions House
refurbishment, that capital project is located under the
Legislature. It is not located under other things. And in
order for us to get to the refurbishment of Sessions
1106 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly House to what is seen as desired, we have to make
sure that we move persons out of Sessions House because the state of Sessions House, doing the work
that is required for that to be sustainable, people have
to come out. So that is the reason why the relocations
of the Supreme Court persons who are still in that
building is inside of this particular line item because it
is all part of the project which is the Sessions House refurbishment. So that is on that particular [question].
Of course, the Opposition Leader asked, you
know, why are the parliamentary things judiciary, et cetera? And I will just repeat the s ame answer. I will
repeat the same. The money comes from the taxpayer. It is not from one or the other.
He went on to ask the question regarding,
Have school tours been reinstated? And all I will
say—

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. E. David Burt: See, they are over there talking.
When I read the brief, if they were not over there talking they would have heard some of the answers to the
questions. I am going to get to that in a little bit. I am
going to get there in a little bit. Because they are still
over there talking.

Do not let them distract you.

Hon. E. David Burt: Well, it is kind of hard, Madam
Chairman. I cannot hear myself think. I mean, I must
say, the five of them are making quite a bit of noise
today. It is okay.
Moving on to, Have school tours been reinstated? I will refer the Honourable Member, the Honourable Opposition Leader to page B -12 of the Budget
Book, Output Measures, which do indicate the school
tours in 2022/23.
Moving on to the question from the Honourable Member who represents constituency 22, I do not
yet have an answer for rentals for you, so I cannot provide those. In regard to professional services, I do
not yet have an answer to that so I cannot provide that. In regard to the ASR —oh, I might have an answer now. It might be coming through the door.

[Laughter]

Hon. E. David Burt: In regard to the ASR contract,
the only thing that I will say, Madam Chairman, is, as I just indicated, they were too busy talking so they were
not able to listen to the answer whi ch I gave. I said
that—
[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you very much. Thank
you. What I did say was that the Hansard is continuing. They did put in a project which was thought to make the Hansard easier, Automated Speech Recognition . It could not pick up our Bermudian dialect, and
it led to more work instead of less work. That project
was cancelled, and all of those things (guess what?)
will be able to be found in the Hansard twice. Because
I said that when I read my brief, when they were too
busy talking to listen, and then asked the question of
which I had covered during the item. So that is the
matter on the ASR contract, Madam Chairman.
If you just give me a second, I will try to look
. . . Is this the difference or just the total?
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. E. David Burt: Okay. Got it, thank you.
The total under professional services for the
information of the Honourable Member f rom constituency 22—Oh boy. You are going to test my math here
right now.

While the Premier is checking the
figures, I just want to let the House know and the lis-tening public we have approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes remaining, I believe, approximate.
[Pause]

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you.
To provide the breakdown of professional services, if I may, Madam Chairman, Consultant Local is
$20,000. Consultant Overseas is $70,000. Legal Consulting is $18,546. Security Services is $4,500, and support for our committees is $100,000. Hopefully that
answers the breakdown of the questions.
Moving on to the Office of the Auditor General. The first question that was asked by the person
from the Auditor General, Mr. Simons, though the
work is on three- year contracts, they are not like contract workers. They are full -time employees. But in the
public service you are only on a contract. So they are
full-time employees, so they would not qualify under,
you know, external vendor.
[Inaudible i nterjection]
Hon. E. David Burt: I have read what was provided,
but I am just making sure you understand underneath
that matter.
You asked, What is the procurement process
to get audit services? I will do my best to not be too
facetious in my answer, but I would sincerely hope
that the Office of the Auditor General is following fi-nancial instructions in whatever audit process they do
make. But certainly as I do not know the internal workings of the office, I would certainly ask the Honourable Leader of t he Opposition to either address that when
he meets through PAC [Public Accounts Committee]


Bermuda House of Assembly or also through the Office of the Standing Committee
of the Auditor. I would assume they follow financial instructions. I can only imagine. But I do not know the process of which they go to do outstanding audits.
However, conflict of interest statements are part of the
assessment and the firms are invited to declare any
such conflicts when requests for proposals are sent,
so they do use requests for proposals.
In regard to the next question, where he said,
Is it a roadmap for clearing outstanding financials? I
will answer this question in this way: First it starts with additional resources on both sides, not only additional
resources to the Office of the Auditor Gener al. As it
could be seen, the executive has provided additional
funding to the Office of the Auditor General, despite
the fact that the Opposition Leader says that we
should reduce the size of the public service by attrition and offering people early retire ment which will not enable the work that needs [to be done] to get done for
government. The Government recognises that you
must have resources if you wish to make progress on certain matters. And that is the number -one way in
which you do it.
So I think that the Honourable Members listening can see the difference in approach. If you want
to have the progress and you have an Office of the
Auditor General who are saying they need more re-sources, you cannot go with, We’re going to reduce
the size by attritio n and offering early retirement and
then expect for the work to be done. It is not possible. But we do it on both sides. We also increase the resources on the government side, as we know that
there are understaffing resources specifically. Under-staffing, a s I said in the brief that I covered on Friday
inside of the Office of the Accountant General as well.
So those are things which are necessary.
And another way in which we do it is streamlining a department, such as Parish Councils and oth-ers, where these are statutorily mandated reports that
have to go to the Auditor General that add to a backlog where there may be a Parish Council. There is a
whole bunch of ten thousand dollars for a particular
year and where those things may be not be neces-sary. Those are streamlining matters of which we
passed in this House, and we will continue to progress
on them.
Very specifically in regard to the work that is
taking place on certain funds, the discussions contin-ue between the Office of the Auditor General and the Ministry of Finance. And there is a tentative plan to
address the following funds in the upcoming year: the
Government Reserve Fund, 2022; the Ministers and
Members of the Legislature Fund, 2016; and the Government Borrowing Sinking Fund from 2016. And then
once those funds are completed, subsequent ac-counts will be sent to the OAG [Office of the Auditor General] for audit. And as I said, matters continue between the amazing Acting Financial Secretary and our
very competent Auditor General. I will move on t o Internal Audit. The question
was, Does Internal Audit present a report that shows
the progress on various things? Can the Internal Auditor send a report to the House? I do not have a copy
of the Internal Audit legislation. But I know the Internal Audit legislation, by the very nature of internal audit, is
private, I do believe. Because I think there are rules
on disclosure. I am not even sure how that disclosure would get to me. I think it can only go to the Cabinet
Secretary by my recollection of the Int ernal Audit Act.
However, I would recommend that the Opposition
Leader certainly request his items via his role as
Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. I am
certain he could have that conversation with the Direc-tor of Internal Audit as to those quest ions.
I know [from] my time serving on the Public
Accounts Committee, I think it was you, Madam Chairman, as well. I note there was always this thing
about the outstanding recommendations from the Office of the Auditor General of whether or not those form part of Internal Audit reports. And it is my view
the answer to that is yes .

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. E. David Burt: In my view to that, the answer to
that question is yes. But I do not have a specific answer yet from the Department of Internal A udit. So I
would ask the Opposition Leader to possibly address
his questions there. But it is my understanding, especially from that time and work going forward, that that
answer is yes.
And the Honourable Opposition Leader also
asked, Internal Audit says they are working on many projects. What are the areas? I cannot answer that. I
do not have a response. If I do get a response, I will
be happy to provide it. (I also need to get you the response from Friday, Cole. I do have those as well.) So I will a im to get that if I do get it. Or I will pass it to one
of the other Ministers who may be able to answer
those questions.

Thank you, Premier.
Are there any other Members who wish to
speak?
There are no further questions.
Premier.
Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you very much, Madam
Chairman. As we are dividing and spreading this out, and given that the former Chair had said that we should just do a few and then move to adding it as
standing part of the Bill, I am very pleased and grateful.

We now have approximately —and I
did misquote the time earlier. We have approximately
1 hour and 35 minutes. Yes.
We are now going to hear from the Minister of
Social Development and Seniors.
Minister, you have the floor.

HEAD 56— HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
I am pleased to present the budget brief for
Head 56 on behalf of the Human Rights Commission, a non- ministry office, found on pages B -17, B -18 and
B-19 of the Budget Book.
Madam Chairman, can I get a podium?

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Yes.
[Pause]

[Crosstalk]

Minister, just reminding you that we
have approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes.
And the Minister is debating on the Human
Rights Commission.
Thank you, Minister, Head 56.
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
The Commission is Bermuda’s National Human Rights Institution and the statutory body charged
with the promotion and protection of human rights in
Bermuda. The Human Rights Act 1981 was enacted
by the Bermuda Legislature in December 1981, and
shortly thereafter in early 1982 the Commission was
established to administer the Act.
Madam Chairman, the Human Rights Commission comprises seven public officers together with
five to twelve independently appointed Human Rights Commissioners. The head of the public office is the
executive officer who also serves as the Commission’s accounting officer and whose responsibilities
include maintaining a sound system of internal control
that safeguards the public funds and assets.
The Commission receives a budget allocation
from the Legislature and is admin istratively accountable to the Minister with responsibility for Human Rights, the Minister of Social Development and Seniors. Madam Chairman, in 2022 the Selection and Appointment Committee, who are established by way of section 13A of the Act appointed a panel of 13 members to the Human Rights Tribunal. This followed amendments to the Act in the previous year which marked an important step in ensuring that Bermuda
has an independent Human Rights Tribunal that can
efficiently and expertly adjudicate human r ights cases.
The establishment of the independent tribunal served
in creating another important pillar in Bermuda’s human rights framework. The amendment created a clear separation between the role and functions of the
tribunal and the Commission, as the p anel members
are independently appointed by the Selection and Appointment Committee.
Madam Chairman, the Commission’s vision is
a community that honours and protects human rights
for all. Its mission is found on page B -17. As it relates
to the provision o f services to the public, the Commission’s objectives are
• to inquire into and investigate human rights -
related complaints of discrimination and harassment;
• to resolve human rights complaints through
conciliation and mediation;
• to promote efficiency in the administration of human rights tribunals;
• to educate the community on the principles of human rights, inclusion and equality;
• to work with stakeholders to promote the protections afforded under the Act and uphold the
principles of human rights for all;
• to inform the government of human rights
matters inclusive of those that require the development of policies designed to expand
human rights protections;
• to influence and support the development of
Bermuda’s human rights laws and policies;
• to maintain a team of highly competent pro-fessionals to manage the daily operations of
the Commission; and
• to act independently in accordance within the
Commission’s statutory duties and to continue
to strengthen the Commission’s ability to function with such independence.
Madam Chairman, I would like to now draw
your attention to page B -17 of the Estimates Book
where you will note that the Commission’s original budget for financial year 2022/23 was $1,216,000.
The budget for financial year 2023/24 is $1,347,000,


Bermuda House of Assembly which re presents an increase of $131,000, or 11 per
cent. These funds are required to adequately fund
matters previously referred to the tribunal for adjudica-tion, inclusive of mediation services, applications for
assistance by [complainants], administrative supports
for tribunals and a remuneration for panel members.
Madam Chairman, the Human Rights Commission comprises three business units: business unit 66020, Office of the Commission; business unit
66030, Appointment Committee; business unit 66040,
Tribunals. I will speak to the allocated expenditures for
each.
Business unit 66020, Office of the Commission. The Office of the Commission provides the fol-lowing:
• strategic operational management of the
Commission;
• complaint management and dispute resolution
services;
• coordination of education and outreach initiatives to the community on principles of human
rights; and
• provision of policy recommendations to the
government on local and international human
rights matters.
The budget allocation for the financial year
2023/24 for business unit 66020 is $1,158,000, an
increase of $46,000. This is due to an increase in services provided resulting from a high number of cases
being adjudicated by the tribunal.
Business unit 66030, Appointment Committee, the budget allocat ion for financial year 2023/24
for business unit 66030 is $1,000. The decline of $21,000 reflects the completion of the recruitment and
appointment process of the Human Rights Tribunal
panel members that was undertaken during the
2022/23 budget year.
Business unit 66040, Tribunals. The budget
allocation for financial year 2023/24 for business unit 66040 is $188,000. Expenditures will be for the pur-pose of administering the adjudication processes, to
resolve human rights complaints referred to the tribunal. The increase of $106,000 is representative of 11
cases due to the adjudicated [cases] during the upcoming fiscal year. Under normal circumstances there
are on average no more than five cases per year.
Madam Chairman, the subjective analysis for
Head 56 c an be found on page B -18. Salaries, line
item 1, the full -time employee head count for the Office of the commission is seven. And the budget allo-cation for Salaries for the financial year 2022/23 was
$772,000. The budget for the financial year 2023/24 is
$711,000, a reduction of $61,000, or by 8 per cent.
The lower salary cost reflects a vacant post that we
filled within the fourth quarter of the fiscal period.
Training, line item 3, the decrease of $4,000
reflects a reduction in training for staff.
Profe ssional services, line item 6, a total of
$446,000 has been budgeted showing an increase of $198,000. A total of $446,000 has been budgeted
showing an increase of $198,000. This increase is
comprised of consultant services. The estimate for
financial year 2023/24 is $27,000, including the implementation of strategic planning, reporting, and the
commission’s education and communication strategy
to increase the public’s knowledge of their human
rights.
The human rights framework in Bermuda and
services provid ed by the Commission: The allocation
for court costs [is] $46,000 in financial year 2023/24. This is a representation of costs relating to funding
successful applicants for assistance filed by complainants in accordance with section 18(1A) of the Human Rights Act 1981, in circumstances where legal
counsel is conflicted, or due to capacity challenges.
Again, we are still under Professional Services.
And then Boards and Committees: The allocation for board and committee fees within business unit 66040, [is] $ 125,000 in financial year 2023/24. This is
representative of cost associated with funding 11 empanelled Tribunals referred to the Human Rights Tribunal for adjudication.
Materials and Supplies, line item 9: The decrease of $4,000 reflects a reduction in monies that will be spent on office supplies. Madam Chairman, the
remaining line items are minimum changes. Employee numbers, page B -18, Madam Chairman, you will note
that there are seven full -time equivalent positions for
the Human Rights Commission for fi scal year
2023/24. This is one less than 2022/23 as explained previously for line item 1, in the subjective analysis.
Madam Chairman, the department’s performance measures can be found on page B -19 of the
Estimates Book. Madam Chairman, the Human Rights
Commission is statutorily responsible to try to resolve
complaints that arise out of allegations of discrimination or harassment. As well, the Commission provides education and guidance on the protections afforded
under the Human Rights Act 1981.
Madam Chairman, the complaints management and dispute resolution processes involve several
stages which I will briefly outline. Ahead of sharing the
key statistics for the 2022/23 financial year the executive officer performs a screening function of all com-plaints filed with the Commission and has statutory
powers to investigate complaints, collect evidence and determine whether a complaint appears to have merit. Throughout the complaint -handling process efforts are
made to facilitate the resolution of the complaint s.
Madam Chairman, following an investigation
where a complaint appears to have merit, and it appears unlikely that the parties are able to resolve the
complaint, the executive officer shall refer the com-plaint to the Human Rights Tribunal for adjudication in
accordance with section 18(1) of the Act. After hearing
a complaint, the Tribunal shall determine whether the
Act has been contravened and may order any party to
do any act or thing that constitutes full compliance
1110 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly with the Act or order any party to r ectify any injury
causing the complainant any form of financial restitution. An order made by the Tribunal under section 20
of the Act shall be made an order of the Supreme
Court and is enforceable in the same manner as an
order of that court.
Madam Chairman, the Human Rights Tribunal
has empanelled 11 matters which were referred to the Tribunal and the panel members will adjudicate these
matters in accordance with the Act. Historically, there
have been about five matters referred on an annual basis; however, the current status is reflective of matters referred for adjudication but remained pending
while the Act was amended to establish an independent Tribunal. During the 2022 calendar year, there
were 108 new intakes received by the Office of the
Human Rights Commission within the 2022 calendar year. Sixty -three per cent of the intakes received were
closed during the calendar year with 37 per cent of
intakes remaining active.
Madam Chairman, the Commission provides
a robust triage and referral process to assist the public
in finding a resolution to their query or complaint in the
event the matter does not appear to fall under the jurisdiction of the Human Rights Act of 1981. During the
period many intakes, once screened, were referred to
the Labour Relations Office. Other referral agencies included the unions, the Department of Health, the
Ombudsman of Bermuda, the Bermuda Health Council, the Bermuda Police Service, Age Concern, advocacy groups and non- profit organisations such as the
Women’s Res ource Centre and CURB.
Madam Chairman, as referenced, the Commission has a statutory duty to assist all parties to resolve complaints filed with the organisation. When a
matter is referred to an investigation, in the first instance parties are offered the opportunity to engage in
the Commission’s Voluntary Mediation Programme.
Where parties agree to participate, efforts are aimed at assisting the parties to resolve their complaints
without the intervention of a Tribunal.
The budget allocation for financia l year
2023/24 for business units 66020 and 66040 have
resulted in funding reductions of some of the services
provided. Primarily, these reductions have impacted
the ability to adequately fund mediation services
which are designed to assist parties in reac hing a mutual resolution to complaints, and future matters are
expected to be referred to the Human Rights Tribunal for adjudication.
Madam Chairman, the Commission’s educational engagement remained influenced by the pandemic but transitioned into intern ational engagement
with UN Women, a joint project steering committee
and the Universal Periodic Review. UN Women is the
United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. It was established to
accelerate progress on meeting th e needs of women
worldwide. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender
equality, and works with the government in civil socie-ty to design laws, policies, programmes and services
needed to ensure that the standards are effectively
implemented.
The Universal Periodic Review is a statedriven peer review process conducted by the UN Hu-man Rights Council to assess the human rights situa-tion in every UN Member State. This occurs every four
to five years and allows human rights violations to be
highlighted wherever they occur and provides the
state under review with the opportunity to declare
what actions they have taken to improve human rights
situations in their country. The Human Rights Com-mission as Bermuda’s national human rights institution highlighted observations made during the reporting period on human rights violations as well as com-menting on progression within the human rights landscape locally.
Madam Chairman, the Commission has submitted policy recommendations aimed at bringing forth
legislative amendments to the Act. This involved the
Commission reaching out and engaging with various
stakeholders such as government departments, regulatory bodies, public authorities, housing facilities, non-profit organisatio ns, parish councils, mental
health providers, alcohol and drug dependency ser-vice providers, and community organisations.
In the fiscal year 2023/24 the Commission will
be focused on implementation of the organisations
strategic plan which incorporates an education plan
aimed at increasing engagement with various stake-holders throughout the community to empower the
public in understanding their rights and responsibili-ties, to increase the public’s knowledge of their human
rights, the human rights framework in Bermuda, and
the full scope of services provided. The advancement
of policy recommendations remain at the forefront of the Commission’s focus to fully modernise and align
the organisation with the requirements of human
rights institutions and ensuring that adequate resources and support remain available for the Human Rights Tribunal to fulfil their statutory mandate to adjudicate complaints.
Madam Chairman, the work of the Commission is necessarily dynamic and it is committed to ensuring that the proc esses, procedures and governing
legislation remain relevant and responsive to meet the
needs of our evolving society. As the Island’s National
Human Rights Institution, the Commission remains at
the forefront of efforts to uphold the protections and aspirational spirit of the Human Rights Act 1981.
Madam Chairman, in closing, I wish to take
this opportunity to thank the Human Rights Commis-sion for its dedication to the advancement of human
rights in Bermuda and for stewarding the Commission’s statutory man date with integrity and excellence.
I also extend thanks to the Selection and Appointment


Bermuda House of Assembly Committee for the rigorous work they undertook during the year and to the Human Rights Tribunal.
Madam Chairman, this concludes my presentation on the financial year 2023/24 budgetary allocation for Head 56, the Human Rights Commission.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Thank you, Minister.
Are there any persons who wish to speak to
Head 56, Human Rights Commission?
I recognise the Opposition Leader. Member ,
you have the floor.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: First of all, I would like to
commend the Human Rights team for a job well done. Their brief was thorough and informative, and historically I followed them very closely and I am . . . people
on my side, the Opposition, support their endeavours
and the quality of work that they present.
In light of that, I just have two simple questions and I will be done as far as the questions are
concerned in regard to the Human Rights Commission. My question is in regard t o the Office of the Human Rights Commission, line item 66020, on page B -
17. Madam Chairman, if you will allow me to read . . .
or repeat what was said earlier.

As long as it is brief.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: It is very brief. One sentence.
“The Commission receives a budget allocation
from the Legislature and is administratively accountable to the Minister with responsibility for Human
Rights, the Minister of Social Development and Seniors.”
We are here today debating non- ministries.
My qu estion to the Minister is simple: How is it that we
are here debating non- ministries when the Human
Rights Commission is administratively accountable to
the Minister of Social Development and Seniors? That
undermines the independence of the Commission. So
I would like for her to speak to the anomaly in that it is the only independent agency that reports to a Ministry,
and we are doing non- ministries today. So it is a real
problem.
The other question that I have is, as you
know, the Commission’s vision is t o basically honour
and protect human rights for all in Bermuda. In light of
this, we also take complaints from the public on issues of human rights and infractions of one’s human rights.
My question to the Minister is simple. Can the Human
Rights Commission themselves trigger an investigation and not just wait until an infraction is reported by
a member of the public? If they see a violation, an
infraction, can they go ahead and investigate it them-selves? If that is the case, can the Minister tell us how
many cases the Human Rights Commission has in-vestigated on their own initiative and not as a result of a public inquiry?
Thank you. Those are my two questions.

Thank you, Member.
Is there any other Member who wishes to
speak?
There being none, Minister, you have the
floor.
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
So . . .
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Yes, I will have to come back
with the [answer to t he] second question. I am waiting
for the answer to come through, but the first question
. . .
The Human Rights Commission falls under
non-ministries. And the Opposition chose Head 56 to
be debated today. And so the Minister has responsibility for any changes to legislation that would have to
[be brought] to the House and so I don’t really understand where that question is coming from. The Human Rights Commission makes it perfectly plain every time
that they are an independent commission and that they are . . . that there is no ministerial influence within
the Human Rights Commission.

Opposition Leader, you have the
floor.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
And let me go back and I will just read it
again. It says, Madam Chairman, and this i s their
brief: “The Commission receives . . . is administratively accountable to the Minister with responsibility for Human Rights, the Minister of Social Development
and Seniors.” Now, it doesn’t say what the Minister has said.
I understand what the Minister said. They will chaper-one legislation to the House. So they would be a vehi-cle to chaperone legislation through the House, but it
is clear when it says, “the Human Rights Commission
is administratively accountable to the Minister.” And
that is my poi nt; that it is not independent.

1112 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: Thank you, Member.
Minister.

[Pause]

I now call on the Minister of Tourism
and Cabinet Office to take the floor.
Thank you, Minister. You have the floor.

HEAD 63 —PARLIAMENTARY REGISTRAR

Hon. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Madam Chairman, I would now like to present
the brief for the Parliamentary Registrar, Head 63, that
is found on pages B -20 through B -22 of the Estimates
of Revenue and Expenditure.
Madam Chairman, the mandate of the Parliamentary Registrar is, To independently manage elections and promote voter awareness in Bermuda to
facilitate free and fair elections.
Madam Chairman, the Parliamentary Registrar is appointed by the Governor under the provisions
of the Parliamentary Election Act 1978, and, as such,
is required to discharge the duties conferred or imposed under the Act. The Parliamentary Registrar is
subject to the general direction of the Governor in the
exercise of her statutory duties and is assisted by
such number of public officers as may from t ime to
time be authorised to be employed. The Parliamentary
Election Act 1978 (as amended), the Municipalities
(Election) Order 2011 and the Bermuda Constitution
Order 1968 are the instruments by which the activities of the Parliamentary Registry are gover ned.
Madam Chairman, the staff of the Parliamentary Registry consists of five full -time positions under
the direction of the Parliamentary Registrar, Miss Tenia Woolridge. Madam Chairman, the Parliamentary
Registry continues to make strides in improving our processes and procedures for registration of voters
and general maintenance of the Parliamentary Register. We continue to look at the quality of our service
delivery and have committed to allow staff to take the necessary training in order to ensure cont inued quality
of service. As always, we are committed to maintaining the Parliamentary Register to ensure it is accurate
in accordance with the Parliamentary Election Act 1978.
In January of 2022, the department introduced
a cash receipting system in order to ensure accurate
reporting of revenue created by the issuing of apostilles, parliamentary registers, and JP stamps. This
new system is also more convenient to our customers as they will no longer need to make payments at the
government cashiers before c oming to our office to
receive the service.
Madam Chairman, the Parliamentary Registry
is committed to continued dialogue with all stakeholders of the democratic process with a view to ensuring the integrity of the process and identifying areas for
improve ment. Furthermore, the department will continue to review our election processes and procedures, with the intention to improve upon any areas
identified during our post -mortem of the 2020 general


Bermuda House of Assembly election. This will ensure that the appropriate amendments are made to the Parliamentary Election Act 1978 allowing all voters adequate access to the elec-toral process and enhancing the efficiency of the
democratic process.
Madam Chairman, I now turn my attention to
the specific estimates of expenditure and revenue in
the five cost centres of the Parliamentary Registrar’s
Office.
The total budget allocation for the Parliamentary Registrar’s Office in respect of fiscal year 2023/24, as shown on page B -20 of the Budget Book,
is $1,255,000, an increase of $233,000 from the original budget for 2022/23.
Madam Chairman, Administration, cost centre
73000. The proposed budget for the Administration of the Parliamentary Registry for 2023/24 is $770,650, a decrease of $96,565, or 11 per cent, over the original
budget for 2022/ 23. This decrease is mainly due to
the necessary budget cuts required to be within the budget ceiling as set out by the Ministry of Finance. This budget allows the department to run efficiently
while carrying out its daily operations. In accordance
with th e Parliamentary Election Act 1978, the department is charged with maintaining the Parliamentary
Register, issuing voter identification cards, and providing voters with proof of registration. Furthermore, the department is responsible for issuing apostille certificates on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Governor.
Madam Chairman, moving on to the Boundaries Commission, cost centre 73005. The proposed budget for the Boundaries Commission for 2023/24 is
$231,500, an increase of $227,000 over the original
budget in 2022/23.
Madam Chairman, September 2023 will mark
six years since the Constituency Boundaries Commis-sion submitted its last report to the House of Assembly. In accordance with the Bermuda Constitution, a
new commission should b e appointed not less than
three [years] nor more than seven years from the last
report. Ideally, the boundaries would be reviewed and
a report suggesting revisions or not should be completed prior to the next general election to ensure that the constituenc y boundaries are as even as practicably possible.
The previous Boundaries Commission was
appointed in 2015 and completed its work in 2017.
This budget includes funds to allow for the appointment and work of the Commission should that process start during the next fiscal period.
Madam Chairman, moving on to General and
Bye-Elections, cost centre 73010. The proposed
budget for the General and Bye- Elections cost centre
for year 2023/24 is $160, 000 which represents an increase of $60,000, or 60 per cent from the original
budget in 2022/23. This increase is mainly due to the increased cost of general services used during election periods, such as catering, printing, rentals, security services, ele ction rooms, stationery and supplies. The proposed budget will serve to cover the
cost of at least by three bye- elections should the need
arise over the 2023/24 fiscal period.
Madam Chairman, moving on to Municipality
Elections, cost centre 73015. A proposed budget allocation for Municipality Elections of $81,000 has been
allocated to this cost centre. This is an increase of
$55,000 from the original budget year 2022/23.
This budget includes funds to support an ordinary municipal election for both corporat ions. These
elections were previously deferred to allow for legal proceedings to take place, notwithstanding the fact
that such proceedings continue to be ongoing, an ordinary municipal elections will take place in May 2023, per the Municipalities Act 1923. The funds allocated to
this budget for the municipalities will also cover any
subsequent extraordinary municipal election should they arise out of the current circumstances.
Madam Chairman, moving to Electoral Reform Research, cost centre 73017. A proposed budget allocation of $11,000 has been allocated to this cost
centre for electoral reform research and development,
which is a decrease of $13,000 over the original
budget of 2022/23.
Madam Chairman, I would like to turn your attention to page B -21, the subjective analysis of current
account estimates. Under professional services, there
is an increase of $68,000. The increase in profession-al services is largely due to the expectation of ordinary
municipal elections and the possibility of the appointment of a Constituency Boundaries Commission.
Madam Chairman, the IT Consultants account
estimate for 2023/24 is $50,000. This cost centre was
previously unfunded. These funds have been budget-ed to cover the services of a geographical information
systems consul tant to work along with the Constituency Boundaries Commission. The local consultant’s
budget is $102,269 in 2023/24 which represents a decrease of $2,831 over the 2022/23 budget. If the
Constituency Boundaries Commission is appointed
during this period a large portion of these funds would
be used to compensate the members of the Commission who are paid a set fee for each meeting. Additional funds have been budgeted for any legal advice
needed during the Municipal Elections and Bounda-ries Commission meetings.
Advertising and Promotion. There was an increase by $57,000. The Advertising and Promotion budget is $119,000 in 2023/24, which represents an
increase of $56,800 over 2022/23. The department
uses a variety of media outlets and out -of-home advertising v ehicles to ensure coverage of all demographics of the electorate. These specific channels of advertising are used for bye- elections or extraordinary municipal elections. The additional funds for the
year will be used to promote the work of the Bounda-ries C ommission should it be required.
Madam Chairman, the budget for travel has
increased by the $39,000. That budget is shown as
1114 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly $53,000 in 2023/24 which represents an increase of
$39,000 over the 2022/23 budget. This increase is mainly due to anticipated travel and accommodation expenses for the two independent commissioners who
would sit on the Constituency Boundaries Commission.
Madam Chairman, Materials and Supplies
shows an increase of $23,000. The printing budget is $33,500 in 2023/24, which represents an increase of
$18,500 over 2022/23. This account budget includes printing across all five cost centres. The increase is mainly contributed to the additional funds allocated for
printing for the Boundaries Commission work as well
as printing for the ordin ary municipal elections due to
take place in May of 2023. Additional funds have also been allocated to
replenish stationery and office supplies for both the
Boundaries Commission and the ordinary municipal
elections.
The budget for Repairs and Maintenance has
increased by $34,000. This increase is again related
to the municipal elections to be held in May 2023.
These funds are also used for weekly cleaning of the
office and cleaning of premises used during the election periods. This includes halls rented during the municipal elections and bye- elections where additional
cleaning costs are incurred. These funds will be used
to cover software maintenance for the parliamentary
and municipal registers. Additionally, any software
subscriptions will be paid from these cost centres.
Madam Chairman, moving to Other Expenses, which the budget has increased by $35,000. The
budget for Other Expenses is $48,000 in 2023/24 which is an increase of $35,000, as I just mentioned.
Included in these expenses are bank charg es and
credit/debit card commissions introduced along with
the new cash receiving system. Also included are
funds for occasional courier services and replenishment of uniforms for election workers. The remainder of the funds will be spent between the munic ipal elections and any bye- elections that might take place in
the next fiscal year to pay for returning officers and presiding officers.
Madam Chairman, [moving] on to Revenue,
Revenue is generated from the issuing of the apos-tilles. Total revenues for th e 2023/24 fiscal year is estimated to be $250,000, which is unchanged from the
approved budget for 2022/23. The Parliamentary Registrar’s Office continues to provide prompt and timely issuance of apostille certificates to our international and private sect or clients and has made improvements to our processes and procedures to allow for
more accurate financial reporting of revenue collected
by the department.
Madam Chairman, in closing, I would like to
thank all of the staff of the Parliamentary Registry, le d
by Miss Tenia Woolridge for their commitment and
dedication to their duties over the past fiscal year.
Thank you, Madam Chairman. HEAD 85 —OMBUDSMAN

Hon. Vance Campbell: Madam Chairman, I am
pleased to present the budget for Head 85, the Office of the Ombudsman for Bermuda, found on pages B -
23 through B -28, and page C -9 of the Budget Book.
Madam Chairman, the Ombudsman is an independent non- governmental official who investigates
complaints from the public about the administrative
actions of public aut horities. The role of the Ombudsman is to strengthen governance through the promotion of fairness, accountability and transparency. The
Office works for the good of the public and those who
work for the public. The Office provides an impartial form of alternative dispute resolution which is flexible,
accessible and less costly than adjudication through
the courts.
Anyone who feels they have been unjustly
treated by an administrative action of a public authori-ty may bring their complaint to the Ombudsman. A
family member or [another] suitable person may make
the complaint if the person is unable to do so. Services are free, confidential and available to everyone.
Even if a complaint is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction, the Office can assist by providing information
or making a referral to anybody who can look into the
issue raised. The Ombudsman’s aim is to put things
right if they have gone wrong.
Madam Chairman, the Ombudsman’s mission
is, To protect the interest of the public by providing
independent resources and interventions for individuals with complaints about public services, while influencing improvement in standards of those services to
ensure people are treated fairly. To achieve its mission, the aims of the Ombudsman’s Office are to:
• deliver a more efficient, accessible and responsive service that effectively resolves complaints;
• inform the Public Service of developments in
principles and practices of good administration, facilitate improvement of public authori-ties’ complaint handling processes, improve
stakeholder satisfaction about the quality and
impact of its service;
• remain aware of administrative best practices,
emerging trends and issues both locally and
through its international networks; and finally
• strengthen best practices and internal processes for enhanced team performance and
development. The Office’s core values include
fairness, impartiality, confidentiality and inde-pendence.
Madam Chairman, the mandate of the Office
of the Ombudsman is to receive complaints and investigate any administrative action of an authority for the
purpose of deciding whether there is evidence of maladministration on the part of the authority. Where an
investigation is conducted, the Ombudsman makes
recommendations to the authority concerning any


Bermuda House of Assembly administrative actions that formed the subject of the
investigation and more generally about ways of im-proving its administrative practices and procedures.
Madam Chairman, the Ombudsman advocates alternative dispute resolution and is addressing more compla ints with informal resolution wherever it is
suitable to do so. The Office encourages the preser-vation of relationships between government authori-ties and persons with complaints. In addition, as an
office of last resort the Ombudsman assists complainants by directing them for assistance to a more appropriate authority. The Office always aims to assist
whenever possible those who do not know where else
to go for help.
Madam Chairman, the Office of the Ombudsman was established in Bermuda by the 2001
amendment to the Bermuda Constitution Order and is governed by the Ombudsman Act 2004. The Office
was opened on the 1
st of August 2005. Section 93B(2)
of the Constitution protects the fundamental characteristics of the Ombudsman Office, which is its independence, by stipulating that “In the exercise of his
functions and jurisdiction, the Ombudsman shall not
be subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority.” The Ombudsman submits an annual report of his operations to the Speaker of the House of
Assembly with copies to the Governor and the President of the Senate.
The accounts of the Office of the Ombudsman
are audited annually and reported on by the Auditor
General. Madam Chairman, the Office continues to be
highly regarded by regional and int ernational ombudsman institutions and colleagues. It’s memberships include the Caribbean Ombudsman Association, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada as
well as the African Ombudsman Research Centre and
the International Ombudsman Institute. Suc h relationships provide the Bermuda Office with valuable assistance and access to the best available information on
current practices and procedures.
Madam Chairman, I now turn my attention to
the specific Estimates of Expenditures which can be
found on page B -24. It is worth noting that at the beginning of fiscal year 2022/23 the former Ombudsman agreed to transfer $30,000 from her own budget to assist another non- ministry department to fund its operations without placing any further burden on the overal l government budget. This led the Office to
make adjustments to its allocation of funds in line with
operational exigencies , the revised budget therefore
was $960,000. The estimated budget for 2023/24 is
$1,017,000, an overall net increase of $57,000 when
compared to the revised budget for 2022/23. [This
was] a net increase of $27,000 when compared to the original budget.
Madam Chairman, variances between
2022/23 original estimates and 2023/24 estimates for amounts with a net change of $10,000 and over ar e
as follows: The estimate for salaries increased by $15,000 as a result of an increase of budgeting for acting pay. In keeping with the practice of continuous professional development, the Ombudsman intends to provide staff members with opportunities for acting
positions as Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsman. Such acting periods will expand staff skills, increase
management experience and ensure that investigations and operations are not interrupted when the
Ombudsman or the Deputy [Ombudsman] are away
from th e office.
The estimate for travel increased by $26,000
in order to take advantage of overseas training and
development opportunities, particularly in light of the lifting of COVID -19 travel restrictions. The work performed at the Ombudsman’s Office is un ique and
specialised and it required that staff are appropriately trained and regularly updated on international ombudsman’s standards and practices.
Professional services decreased by $18,000.
This is largely due to the reduction of services in three accounts: IT consultants, overseas consultants and
contractors. The account for the IT Consultants reduced due to a change in the office case management
system. In order to meet this fiscal year’s budget ceiling, the Office suspended its case management system and opted to utilise a spreadsheet -based system
for the time being.

And Minister, the Office realised a
savings of $18,000.
Hon. Vance Campbell: Yes, that is correct.
Madam Chairman, the account for the overseas consultants and local contractors decreased as a result of less frequent use of external professional
services to assist with investigations and other operations. Currently, these functions are being adequately performed by full -time staff and the need for consultants or contractors has been reduced.
Madam Chairman, the allocated budget for six
full-time employees, all of whom are Bermudian, is
shown on page B -24, and that amount is $709,000.
The positions are: Ombudsman, Deputy Ombudsman, two investigation officers, a manager of finance and
administration and an executive administrative assistant. The ombudsman also engages service providers
and technical and professional advisors as required.
Madam Chairman, moving on to Capital Expenditure for 2023/24 fiscal year. There have been no
approvals for capital purchases.
This brings me to the end of the Office of the
Ombudsman’s budget information. Madam Chairman,
in closing, I would like to thank the Ombudsman and
staff for their commitment and dedication to their duties on behalf of the people of Bermuda. Thank you,

Okay. Thank you, Minister.

HEAD 98—OFFICE OF THE INFORMATION
COMMISSIONER
Hon. Vance Campbell: Madam Chairman, it gives me
great pleasure to present the budget for Head 98, the Office of the Information Commissioner, found on pages B -32 through B -37 of the Budget Book.
The Information Commissioner is an independent public office established in 2015 and man-dated to promote public access to information and
oversees compliance with the Public Access to Information Act 2010, or the PATI Act. For clarity, the In-formation Commissioner is a separate office from the
Office of the Privacy Commissioner, which was established in 2020 and has a remit for oversight of the
Personal Information Protection Act 2016.
Madam Chairman, the PATI Act affords Bermudians and residents the right to make a PATI request for records held by the government and other public authorities. It also requires the government and
public authorities to make certain information available
without the need to make a PATI request. The pur-poses of the PATI Act, enshrined in secti on 2, include
to increase transparency and eliminate unnecessary
secrecy to the greatest extent possible within the provisions of the Act, that is, to increase the accountability of public authorities and inform the public about the
activities and decision -making process of public authorities.
According to the most recent annual public
awareness survey conducted by the Office of the In-formation Commissioner in 2021, Madam Chairman,
80 per cent of the respondents believe that creating
and enforcing the PAT I Act represents an important
public investment and 81 per cent believe that the
right of access to public records is important to them.
The institution of the Information Commissioner is a keystone of the PATI framework. The Information Commissioner’s mandate is set forth in Part
6 and 7 of the PATI Act. The Information Commissioner promotes public access to information by engaging in public awareness and outreach activities
concerning the rights afforded to Bermudians and residents by the PATI Act. The Information Commissioner also provides guidance for and oversight and en-forcement of public authority’s compliance with their
obligation under the PATI Act. Finally, the Information
Commissioner conducts reviews on decisions taken
by public authorities under this Act in response to
PATI requests and she issues legally binding decisions when necessary. The mandate of the Infor-mation Commissioner is singularly focused on the
compliance of the Government and public authorities
with the requirements of the PATI Act. To safeguard the institution’s necessary independence, the Information Commissioner is not subject to the direction or control of any other person or
authority by virtue of section 50(4) of the PATI Act.
The Information Commissioner is, however, su bject to
accountability through similarly independent institutions, namely, the accounts of the Office of the Information Commissioner are subject to annual audits by the Auditor General, and the decisions by the Information Commissioner are subject to jud icial review by
the Supreme Court. The audit of the Information
Commissioner’s 2021 accounts is currently in progress and the Office is currently preparing the file for
the 2021/22 accounts.
The Information Commissioner also remains
accountable to both Houses of the Legislature through the filing of her annual report. The Information Com-missioner’s annual report highlights the work of Information Commissioner’s Office, or ICO, during the
budget year, as well as provides figures from the cal-endar year for t he PATI requests received by public
authorities and the disposition of those requests. The Information Commissioner’s 2022 annual
report was tabled in the House of Assembly this morn-ing, the 13
th of March 2023.
Madam Chairman, the total current expenditure is anticipated to be $1,077,733 for 2023/24. It represents no change from the revised 2022/23 budg-et. The Information Commissioner’s revised 2022/23
budget includes a virement of $30,000 for legal fees
moved from the original 2022/23 budget of the Off ice
of the Ombudsman. The Information Commissioner
does not receive any revenue from any fees related to
the PATI Act set forth in Head 59 of the Government Fees Regulations 1976. Although the total current expenditure of the Office of the Information Comm issioner for 2023/24 represents no change from the revised 2022/23 budget, the amounts for salaries increased by a total of $89,000, from $771,000 in the
revised 2022/23 budget to $860,000 in the total current expenditure for 2023/24.
Madam Chairman, as seen on page B -34
there has been an increase of one additional full -time
equivalent in the employee numbers in 2023/24. The
Office of the Information Commissioner currently has
seven employees consisting of the Information Commissioner, Acting Deputy Infor mation Commissioner,
three investigation officers, a project officer, and an
office manager. The increase in 2023/24 represents
the hiring of an additional investigation officer to sup-port the Information Commissioner’s investigations
and reviews of public authorities decisions on PATI
requests. The additional investigation officer will also
assist with enforcement of other requirements under the PATI Act, such as the obligation for public authorities to publish the details of all contracts for goods or
services with a value of $50,000 or more.
Madam Chairman, importantly, the additional
investigation officer also increases the capacity of the


Bermuda House of Assembly Information Commissioner to provide corrective guidance to public authorities to understand and meet their obligat ions under the PATI Act. The Information
Commissioner achieves this through the publication of
formal guidance, quarterly briefings for public authorities and responding to inquiries via email and phone
calls. These efforts can increase the administrative
efficiency, substantive accuracy and service delivery by public authorities regarding their handling of PATI
requests and fulfilment of the rights of Bermudians
and residents under the PATI Act.
Overall, the variation between the original
2022/23 budget estimate and the revised 2022/23
budget estimate are due primarily to adjustments
made in the beginning of the 2022/23 budget year to
accurately reflect the anticipated expenses for salaries
and rent as well as adjustments for legal fees. When compared to t he revised 2022/23 estimate of
$153,000, the decrease in professional services reflects the conclusion of the Court of Appeal hearing in
a pending matter and the reduction in legal fees for 2023/24.
The current total expenditure estimate for
2023/24 does not include any monies for future judi-cial reviews that may be brought against a decision by
the Information Commissioner for which a supplemental estimate may be sought. The increase in train-ing from zero dollars to $5,000 reflects professional
training f or officers hired in 2021/22 and 2022/23
when the Information Commissioner’s Office did not
have funds for training.
Madam Chairman, the performance measures
developed for the Office of the Information Commis-sioner are found on pages B -35 through B -37. As noted, the Information Commissioner’s 2022 Annual Report was tabled this morning in the House of Assem-bly. The Information Commissioner’s 2022 Annual
Report highlights the performance achievements of
the Office of the Information Commissioner and pre-sents a summary of plans for the 2023/24 upcoming
year. As required by section 58( [2])(e) of the PATI Act,
the Information Commissioner’s review figures are reported in her 2022 Annual Report for the calendar year from the 1
st of January 2022 to the 31st of December 2022. For the purposes of the Budget Debate,
in the 2022/23 budget year the Information Commissioner received 32 new applications for an independent review and anticipates the issuance of approximately 32 formal decisions by the Information Commissio ner by the 31st of March 2023.
As stated in the Information Commissioner’s
2022 Annual Report, in January 2022 a milestone was
reached when the Information Commissioner issued
her 100th independent review decision since the PATI
Act went into effect. The I nformation Commissioner’s
first 100 decisions have significantly contributed to ensuring that Bermudians and residents have access to public records and to guiding public authorities on
how to apply the PATI Act. The Honourable Members are invited to read the Information Commissioner’s
2022 Annual Report to learn more about the highlights
and impact of the Information Commissioner’s deci-sion notes in 2022.
Madam Chairman, with respect to judicial review, the Information Commissioner currently awaits
the decision in Information Commissioner v The Attorney-General which was heard before the Court of Appeal in November 2022. The case involves a challenge to a summons issued by the Information Commissioner in a pending review of an internal review
decision by t he Ministry of Health Headquarters. The
Information Commissioner has challenged the Supreme Court’s judgment finding that the PATI Act creates a right and duty by the Information Commissioner
to review a public authority’s refusal of public access
but does not permit the Information Commissioner to
examine records for which a public authority claims
fall outside the scope of the application of the PATI
Act by virtue of section 4 of the Act.
To date, no public authority has brought a judicial review challen ge to a decision note by the Information Commissioner ordering the public authority
to provide access to records. In other words, to date,
public authorities have complied with the Information
Commissioner’s decision notes ordering the release of
public re cords.
Madam Chairman, the Information Commissioner has also completed the 2022 ICO Annual Return process consisting of an annual review of nearly
200 public authorities compliance with all requirements of the PATI Act. The Information Commissioner’s 2022 Annual Report provides both Houses of the
Legislature with information on the number of PATI
requests reported by public authorities as well as the
disposition of these PATI requests. In the 2022 calendar year, public authorities reported receiving approximately 150 PATI requests from Bermudians and residents. This reflects and increase of approximately 10 per cent from the number of PATI requests received in the 2021 calendar year, which was 135 PATI
requests.
Madam Chairman, additional highlights that
have been achieved or will be achieved by the 31
st of
March 2023, include the publication of nine issues of
the ICO’s Monthly Roundup, a summary of the decisions issued by the Information Commissioner and
public education programmes offered, as well as highlights of other ICO work and PATI practice tips for the public and public authorities, accomplishing over
14,500 views of the ICO’s website and over 80,000
reaches for social media campaigns, and conducting
four Information Commissioner’s quarterly briefings for
public authorities. The Information Commissioner has
engaged in public education programmes such as presentations to the Rotary Club of Sandys, and the
Future Leaders Programme 2022 summer course.
Madam Chairman, in July 2022 the Information Commi ssioner’s Office also published its rede1118 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly signed website, ico.bm, to model the idea of transparency by design. The idea of transparency by design encourages public authorities to create their records with the aim of making government held information
freely available to the public as much as possible. The
redesigned website improves access to the ICO’s existing information and publishes more information
about the ICO and its work. The ICO continues to publish all of the Information Commissioner’s decisions, t he ICO’s Monthly Roundup, or reports and
press releases, educational videos, the ICO guidance
on the PATI Act provisions, Information Commissioner’s presentations and more. Enhancements included
improved searches for the Information Commissioner’s decision notices and the list of public authorities,
as well as clearer instructions on how to make a PATI request.
The redesigned website also includes more
records to show how the Information Commissioner
manages its public funds and carries out its work. The
ICO website now includes the ICO’s PATI requests and disclosure log without requestors’ identifying information, staff meeting minutes, business credit card
statements, unaudited quarterly ex pense reports, salary scales and other finance, governance an d administrative records. Finally, the Information Commissioner continues to offer and is available to offer consulta-tion and expertise for legislative amendments impacting the rights under the PATI Act, including the harmonising amendments for the PATI Ac t and Personal
Information Protection Act 2016, and consideration of
approaches to improve the efficiency of the administration of the PATI Act.
On an ongoing basis the Information Commissioner consults with public authorities on the development of polic ies, practices and procedures to
support their PATI compliance. For the upcoming
2023/24 budget year, the Information Commissioner
has prioritised closing the gap on the remaining back-log reviews and will continue to oversee compliance
with the requirement s of the PATI Act. The ICO will
also promote awareness of the rights under the PATI
Act, particularly for individuals who may be less famil-iar with their rights through its events, publications and
outreach.
Finally, the past and future accomplishments
of the ICO are only achieved through the efforts and
dedication of the accomplished public officers within
the office. In 2023/24, the Information Commissioner will focus on the retention, training and professional growth of its public officers’ training through internal
professional development opportunities and external
technical training.
With that, Madam Chairman, I would like to
conclude and thank the Information Commissioner
and her staff for the work that they have done on be-half of the people of Bermuda throughout this past
year.

Continue, Minister.

HEAD 101 —OFFICE OF THE PRIVACY
COMMISSIONER

Hon. Vance Campbell: Madam Chairman, I am
pleased to present the budget for Head 101, the Of-fice of the Privacy Commissioner for Bermuda, found on pages B -38 through B -41 of the Budget Book.
The mission of the Privacy Commissioner is,
To protect the rights of individuals in relation to their personal information. The mandate of the Privacy
Commissioner is to take responsibility for monitoring
how the Personal Information Protection Act 2016 is administered to ensure its purposes are achieved.
The Commissioner is empowered to regulate the use
of personal information by organisations so that such
use is in the manner which recognises both the need
to protect the rights of individuals in relation to their personal information and the need for organ isations to
use personal information for legitimate purposes.
Madam Chairman, the Personal Information
Protection Act 2016 was assented on July 27, 2016.
Sections related to the appointment of the Privacy
Commissioner were enacted on December 2, 2016,
including the creation of the Office as well as those
duties and powers relevant to its operation in the period leading up to the implementation of the whole Act. The Act will apply to every organisation that uses personal information in Bermuda where that personal
information is used wholly or partly to form a part of a
structural filing system, whether that system is auto-mated or manual.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner began active set -up on July 20, 2020, with the hiring of
Bermuda's first Privacy Commissioner, Alexander White. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is an
independent, non- ministry office, and the Act requires
that in the exercise of his functions the Commissioner
shall not be subject to the direction or control of any
other person or authority. The Act will require the
Commissioner to submit an annual report of operations to each House of the Legislature. The accounts
of the Commissioner’s office shall be audited annually, independently of the Consolidated Fund, and re-ported on by the Auditor General of Bermuda. These
are some of the reports which hold the Privacy Com-missioner accountable without another person or au-thority exercising influence on the office’s operations.
Madam Chairman, Bermuda’s Personal Information Protection Act [2 016] empowers individuals
to control what is done with their personal information
and to protect themselves and their families from


Bermuda House of Assembly cyber risk and harm. The Act and the work of the Privacy Commissioner bolster Bermuda’s international reputation as a trusted regulatory environment con-sistent with international standards and encourage
businesses to place faith in Bermuda as a safe harbour for modern digital commerce.
The legal and regulatory framework of the
Personal Information Protection Act is essential to
enable innovation to thrive in Bermuda. Throughout
the past year the Commissioner has held over 25
workshops or events to educate the public and the business community on the rights and responsibilities
of the Act, both virtually and in person. A focused Data Privacy Week in January provided “Privacy Hour”
teaching materials for every Bermudian school child
as well as community discussions with our seniors,
charities and the business community. The Commis-sioner has actively released guidance for organisations to better understand the obligations that the Act
imposes as well as awareness publications for individuals to better understand their rights under the Act. More details, including releases, announcements and
reports may be found at the Commissioner’s website
www.privacy.bm
.
Madam Chairman, the Privacy Commissioner
has engaged with international counterparts to enhance Bermuda’s standing on the international stage
as a regulatory le ader. In addition to successfully attaining accreditation for Bermuda as a full member of
the Global Privacy Assembly [GPA] of data privacy
regulators, Commissioner White has, since January 2022, served on the body’s seven- member executive
committee to gui de the strategic direction of privacy
regulators around the world and support enforcement cooperation across borders. The Privacy Commissioner’s work will ensure that his offices, guidance and
actions are consistent with international standards and best pr actices and will increase Bermuda’s voice in
setting those global standards.
In addition, the Privacy Commissioner has secured Bermuda’s selection to host the 2023 Global Privacy Assembly summit of data privacy regulators.
This event is anticipated to draw hundreds of regulatory leaders and technology executives from over 130 countries. Regarding this event, Her Excellency the
Governor of Bermuda, Ms. Rena Lalgie, stated that
“Hosting the Global Privacy Assembly in 2023 is a
welcome symbol of Bermuda’s commitment to personal data privacy and its place at the heart of data
protection modernisation critical to so many aspects of
our lives. I congratulate Privacy Commissioner Alexander White in securing this important event in Bermuda so soon after Bermuda joi ning the GPA in 2020,
demonstrating commitment and continued progress to
the highest international standards . . . .”
Regarding the news that Bermuda has been
chosen as the venue for this prestigious event, the
Premier of Bermuda, the Honourable E. David Burt,
JP, MP, stated, “ This is a significant opportunity for Bermuda to showcase to the world how committed we
are to privacy and data protection and that we are determined to be a world leader in this realm. I would
also like to commend [our Privacy Commissioner] Mr.
[Alexander] White and his team for their efforts in securing Bermuda as the venue for this event.”
Madam Chairman, as shown on page B -38 of
the Budget Book, the office has been allocated a
budget for 2023/24 of $1,861,497, for an overall net
increase of $871,889 when compared to the original
budget for 2022/23. The Department of Public Works
has signed a lease for office space, a nongovernmental building for the Privacy Commissioner
for a rental expense for 2023/24 of $76,000. The
Commis sioner has made a request to the Department
of Public Works to modify or enter into a new lease in
a non- governmental building to support the allocated
staff, and the office has been allocated a budget of
$31,500 for this purpose.

Minister, you have just under 20
minutes remaining.

Hon. Vance Campbell: So with the total amount of
$107,000 to be used for office space, which is shown
as line item 7, on page B -39, the office will use
$17,000 for its information communications technology infras tructure, an amount that is unchanged from
the original budget for 2022/23.
The allocated budget for full -time staff, shown
on page B -39 of the Budget Book, is 14 full -time
equivalent positions. This number remains unchanged
from 2022/23. The total salar y allocated for these positions is $1,598,379, an increase of $778,379, or
49 per cent over the original estimate for 2022/23.
This increase in funding is allocated to fund a full fiscal year’s salary for positions that were assigned to
the Privacy Commiss ioner in the budget for 2022/23
and were filled on a staggered basis over the previous
fiscal year. Senior positions established for 2023/24 in
the office are the commissioner, deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner for operations, assistant
commissioner for policy and engagement, and the
assistant commissioner for investigations.
The Commissioner will continue to evaluate
the most efficient use of full -time employees to fully
meet the office’s statutory mandate and to serve the
people of Bermuda. It is expected that the office will
need legal advice as the Act shall be harmonised with
other pieces of legislation.
Madam Chairman, the analysis of current account estimate is found in the Budget Book on page
B-39. The allocated budget estimate for the Privacy
Commissioner to complete his mandate is $1,861,497
for fiscal year 2023/24. After the expenses for rent,
ICT and staffing (as described previously) the budget
allocates $120,118 for operations to accomplish the
purposes of:
1120 13 March 2023 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly 1. Support for the community as a whole, including compliance support for businesses and
Government organisations, particularly to
support small and medium -sized enterprises.
The Commissioner will continue to develop
policy guidance, codes of practice, templates
and other materials and will host educational
forums and undertake other expenses as
deemed necessary.
2. Additional support for individual Bermudians
who w ish to economically empower themselves through skills training to become a privacy officer. The Commissioner will work with
schools and community groups to provide
guidance to job seekers , boosting their employment prospects and providing the business comm unity with a talented Bermudian
workforce to meet their privacy goals.
3. Further helping Bermudians to understand
their privacy rights under the Act. The Commissioner will educate individuals on privacy
as a human right and investigate complaints
those indiv iduals may have about how organisations use their data.
Madam Chairman, the operational expenses
totalling $121,118 include the following:
• staff professional fees, development, and certifications —$15,868, as shown on lines 2 and
3 on page B -39;
• ICT, securi ty, and other professional services—$57,000;
• repairs and maintenance —$36,000, an increase of $29,000 from the original budget for
2022/23. This increase is due to the annual
maintenance cost of procured software such a
Complaint Management System, as well as
an increase in costs associated with cleaning an increased number of workstations; and
• energy needs —$12,000.
Madam Chairman, the Privacy Commissioner
is committed to responsible use of public funds. Throughout the fiscal year 2022/23, the Commissioner
will assess the needs of the Office and make any additional funds requested to the Ministry of Finance to
ensure that the mandate of the office will be met.

Minister, you have 10 minutes.

Hon. Vance Campbell: I don’t have that many pages
left, Madam Chairman. Hopefully, we will get through
them.
Madam Chairman, capital expenditure allocation for the office is found on page C -9 of the Budget
Book, and $46,000 has been allotted for the fiscal
year 2023/24. These funds have been allocated to
purchase office and technological equipment for staff.
Madam Chairman, the Performance
Measures for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner are found in the Budget Book on pages B -40 through B-41. In 2023/24, the Privacy Commissioner will engage in new init iatives related to implementing the
Act, enabling human rights and supporting innovation
and safe technological practices in the business
community.
Madam Chairman, the Office’s operations
business unit will engage in initiatives to develop the
operational maturity of the office, enhancing compli-ance functions and processes regarding various statutory requirements relating to finances, annual reports,
access to information, and other business operations. This unit will implement a mediation and an alternat ive
dispute resolution process for resolving, both formally and informally, issues related to complaints and po-tential violations of the Act and will manage an advisory board that provides input into office strategic goals
and advice on data privacy issues and technologies.
Madam Chairman, the Office’s Engagement
unit will undertake initiatives related to community
awareness and education and to creating guidance on
compliance with the Act. This unit will continue the
work of the Privacy Innovation and Know ledge sharing
(or, “Pink”) Sandbox to support businesses engaged
in innovation uses of data and personal information.
Additionally, the Commissioner’s office will publish 12
guidance publications and conduct 25 workshops or
events to educate the public on the Act. The public will be given specific guidance on how to implement various sections of the Act.
The Office’s Investigation unit will engage in
initiatives related to constructive, proactive regulation. With the anticipated implementation of the Act, t his
unit will respond to individual complaints, generate
own- initiative actions, draft compliance orders, and
undertake sectoral and/or industry surveys.
Madam Chairman, in October 2023, Bermuda
will welcome the world to our country as technology
and digit al leaders attend the Global Privacy Assembly summit of data privacy regulators. The Office will
engage in various tasks to prepare for and support
this event. We will be able to show the world the
beauty and suitability of Bermuda as a jurisdiction for
technological and business success while protecting
human rights. The Commissioner will continue to advise Government on the Act and provide recommendations as to how its provisions will become operational over the course of the year in a phased approach wit h enforcement to follow once the Act has
been fully implemented.
Bringing the Personal Information Protection
Act into operation is of vital importance to protect
Bermuda and her people from a variety of online, financial, or even physical harms. We, as a community,
must each ask hard questions, such as whether the
use or misuse of personal information could lead to:
• stalking, harassment, or physical assault;
• identity theft or financial hardship;
• discrimination or disadvantage or loss of opportunity, lib erty, or other social detriment.


Bermuda House of Assembly In the meantime, Madam Chairman, the Privacy Commissioner would like to encourage all companies and other organisations that use personal in-formation to start the process of evaluating their responsibilities and adherence to the Act. They should
consider the harm that could affect individuals, and
ask simple questions to map out their use of information systems such as:
• What data are we storing?
• For what purpose is the data used?
• Do we even need the information w e hold to
accomplish our business purposes?
By cataloguing their data assets and eliminating unnecessary data, organisations will reduce the risk of harm to individuals and make their compliance with the Act even easier.
Madam Chairman, the Privacy Commiss ioner
is inspired to bring the Act into full bloom for Bermuda and her people, to ensure that personal information is
appropriately protected and used legitimately .
Madam Chairman, I hasten to commend the
Privacy Commissioner and his team for the work they
are tirelessly doing to bring to fruition a fully implemented privacy regime that I am certain will be a ma-jor benefit to business, government and every citizen
of this country.
Madam Chairman, this brings me to the end
of the Office of the Privacy Commi ssioner’s budget
presentation. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
And this brings me to the end, to a close on
the presentations for Head 63, 85, 98 and 101.

You will have to, Member.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: I understand that, believ e
me.
Okay. As it pertains to the Parliamentary Registrar, my question under Research is, Can the Minister give us an update on the research done to date on
absentee ballots and mail -in ballots? I think that was
the only question that I had on the Parliamentary Registrar.
When it comes to the Ombudsman, I would
like to refer the Minister to page B -24 and line item
950, which is the main office. Has the Ombudsman
proactively initiated an investigation that was not triggered by the public? Because they have a mandate to investigate investigations that are driven by the public and they also have the authority to trigger their own investigation if they see some type of malfeasance
within Government. So, my question is, How many
Ombudsman investigations were tr iggered proactively
by that department and what was the resolution? And
that is all I have for the —