This was a routine parliamentary session focused on ministerial statements rather than legislative debates. Ministers provided updates on various government programs and initiatives. The most significant discussions centered around the new electric bus fleet, which has saved the government $135,000 in fuel costs over nine months, and education reforms including the upcoming parish primary schools at Purvis and Francis Patton. The session also covered new employment guidelines to prevent worker misclassification and updates on services for children in the court system.
New guidelines to help distinguish between employees and independent contractorsProgress update on litigation guardian services to protect children in court casesAirport fire rescue services staffing and training updatesElectric bus program showing significant cost savings and environmental benefitsEducation reform updates on parish primary schools and signature learning programs
Bills & Motions
Fire Safety Amendment Act 2023 - tabled by the Minister of National Security (clarifies requirements for airport fire services)
No bills were debated or voted on during this session - it was primarily focused on ministerial statements and updates
Notable Moments
Minister Furbert announced that electric buses have reduced carbon emissions equivalent to removing 480 cars from Bermuda's roads
The government hired 11 new local firefighters who are currently training overseas in the UK to meet airport safety requirements
Opposition MP Scott Pearman questioned the Minister about litigation guardian cases, learning there were approximately 10 cases handled in 2022
Debate Transcript
460 speeches from 27 speakers
The SpeakerThe SpeakerGood morning, Members. Welcome back. Ms. Beale will now lead us in prayer. PRAYERS [ Prayers read by Ms. Kara Beale, Assistant Clerk ]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Good morning, Members . Our House is now in session. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES [Minutes of 9 December 2022]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMembers, the Minutes of the 9th of December have been circulated. Are there any amendments or adjustments required? There are none. The Minutes will be confirmed as printed. Thank you. [ Minutes of 9 December 2022 confirmed] MESSAGES FROM THE GOVERNOR
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThere are none. ANNOUNCE MENTS BY THE SPEAKER OR MEMBER PRESIDING APOLOGIES
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThis morning we have been informed that the following Members will be absent today: The Premier [Hon. E. David Burt]; MP Kim Swan ; the A ttorney General [Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons]; MP Scott Simmons and also MP [Jason] Wade. MESSAGES FROM THE SENATE
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThere are none. PAPERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS TO THE HOUSE
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThere are two this morning. The first is in the name of the Minister of Labour and Economy. Minister Hayward. INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR GUIDANCE PURSUANT TO THE EMPLOYMENT ACT Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerYes. Hon. Jason Hayward: I lay for the information of the House of Assembly the Independent Contractor Gui dance document.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. The second is in the name of the Minister of Works. Minister. CONTRACTING CATEGORIES FOR SPECIFIED GOODS AND SERVICES —ANNEX A
Lt. Col. Hon. David A. BurchMr. Speaker, this should have been attached to the Statement. But in any case, I table for the information of the House, Contracting Categories for Specified Goods and Serv ices.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThere are none. STATEMENTS BY MINISTERS AND JUNIOR MINISTERS
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThere are six such Statements this morning. The first is in the name of the Minister of Economy and Labour. Minister. Hon. Jason Hayward: Good morning, Mr. Speaker. 270 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Good morning. INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR GUIDANCE 2023 Hon. Jason Hayward: …
There are six such Statements this morning. The first is in the name of the Minister of Economy and Labour. Minister. Hon. Jason Hayward: Good morning, Mr. Speaker. 270 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Good morning.
INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR GUIDANCE 2023
Hon. Jason Hayward: I am pleased to rise today to provide to Members of this Honourable House an overview of the Independent Contractor Guidance document that has been published by the Ministry of Economy and Labour. Mr. Speaker, the Employment Act 2000 [the Act] was amended in 2021 to allow the Manager of the Labour Relations Section to publish guidance on whether a working relationship more closely resembles that of an employee than [ that] of an independent contractor. Mr. Speaker , while the improper use of independent contractor contracts has been practiced for some time, we have noticed that since the COVID - 19 pandemic employers are seeking creative ways to reduce the cost of doing business while employees are exploring work that allows them more [flexibility ] and customi sation. This is resulting in an increase of non-standard work. These practices require a dis tinction to be made between employees and independent contractors. Mr. Speaker , the Independent Contractor Guidance lists 12 indicators that are material to differ-entiate employees from independent contractors. This will significantly aid employers and em ployees in assessing their employment relationship, reducing the occurrence of employee benefits being compromised and lowering the occurrence of disputes between employers and employees brought before the Employment and Labour Relations Tribunal. Mr. Speaker, the Independent Contractor Guidance goes into depth on what each indicator means and how it can be applied when considering the appropriate employment rel ationship. The 12 indicators are as follows: 1. Continuity of Work 2. Tools and Equipment 3. Integration 4. Method of Payment 5. Training 6. Profit and Loss 7. Contract Type 8. Control over Work 9. Open Market Competition/Number of Clients 10. Benefit Responsibility 11. Business Registration 12. Termination Mr. Speaker , the misclassification of employees as independent contractors has ser ious economic implications and oftentimes finds those who are mi sclassified earning less than what they would earn in terms of pay and benefits than if they were properly classified. Mr. Speaker , employees who are misclass ified as independent contractors will lose their right to receive the statutory minimum hourly wage, which is due to take effect on the 1 st of June 2023, as well as their legal right to receive overtime pay, vacation and public holiday pay, maternity and paternity leave and the other various paid entitlements afforded to employees under the Employment Act 2000, or a collective bargaining agreement. Misclassified employees do not qualify for workers’ compensation if they are injured on the job, they are not eligible to bargain collectively and form a bargaining unit to better their working conditions , and they are fully responsible for their social insurance and health insurance payments, which are otherwise split evenly between employers and employees. Mr. S peaker , to put this into context , while taking into consideration the fact that wages and ben-efits vary between jurisdictions, the Economic Policy Institute in the United States conducted a review in 2022 of the 11 most misclassified categories of wor kers and found that a typical construction worker, classified as an independent contractor, would lose out on as much as $16,729 per year in income and job benefits compared with what they would have earned as an employee. And a typical home health aide classif ied as an independent contractor would lose out on as much as $9,529 per year in income and job benefits compared with what they would have earned as an employee. Mr. Speaker , the Independent Contractor Guidance will be referred to by the Labour Relations Section as part of their normal investigation and m ediation processes with the aim of helping parties to resolve matters amicably. Additionally, it will assist with the misclassification of employees so that persons who are entitled are afforded the necessary pr otections under the Act. The Independent Contractor Guidance may also be consulted by the Employment and Labour Relations Tribunal as a part of their dec ision making. Mr. Speaker, the Independent Contractor Guidance has been a collaborative effor t by the members of the Labour Advisory Council, which is a tripartite body chaired by the Minister of Economy and Labour and consisting of representatives for employers, employees, and the Government . Mr. Speaker, the Independent Contractor Guidance wil l come into effect on the 1 st of April 2023. The Independent Contractor Guidance builds on the Ministry’s mandate to promote labour standards and foster harmonious employment relations. Mr. Speaker, the Ministry would like to take this opportunity to thank the Labour Advisory Commi ttee for the work done to complete the Independent Contractor Guidance, as well as the Members of this Honourable House for the opportunity to address them in this regard. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Minist er. Bermuda House of Assembly Members, the next Statement this morning is in the name of the Minister of Social Development and Seniors. Minister Furbert. Hon. Tinee Furbert: Good morning, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerGood morning. LITIGATION GUARDIAN SERVICES UPDATE Hon. Tinee Furbert: Mr. Speaker, this morning I rise to share with my honourable colleagues the continued progress that is occurring for the provision of Litigation Guardian Services in Bermuda . As a reminder, in alignment with the Children Act 1998, litigation guardians are …
Good morning.
LITIGATION GUARDIAN SERVICES UPDATE
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Mr. Speaker, this morning I rise to share with my honourable colleagues the continued progress that is occurring for the provision of Litigation Guardian Services in Bermuda . As a reminder, in alignment with the Children Act 1998, litigation guardians are appointed by the c ourts to be the voice of the child and to safeguard the interest of children. Mr. Speaker, back in April 2022 and then again in July 2022, I informed the Members of this Honourable House about how Litigation Guardian Services were being established in Bermuda. Since then, much important and critical work has been undertaken to service our children who are in the highest level of s upport. The children to whom I refer have all experienced adverse childhood experiences such as damaging and undermining parental separation or direct abuse and neglect by those legally responsible for looking after and caring for them. These children, Mr. Speaker, are Bermuda’s responsibility, and so I am delighted to report on the work implemented to further develop and embed the Litigation Guardian Service into Bermuda and its judicial system. Mr. Speaker, three new litigation guardians were recently appointed and are actively taking on individual cases [for which] the family court has deemed a guardian is needed. This raises the total to five practicing litigation guardians to service our chi ldren. However, Mr. Speaker, a larger pool of litigation guardians is needed, which will not only enable more children to have the extra level of protection needed, but also will offer our courts additional qualified g uardians whom they can call upon to give a view about an issue for a child, at short notice. This s pacious avail ability is needed in particular when the Department of Child and Family Services is not the right agency to call upon for an independent view of what is in the best interests of a child. Mr. Speaker, It will take time to form a large enough pool of litigation guardians with the right qualifications and experience. Nonetheless, the Ministry of Social Development and Seniors will start the pr ocess , and in the upcoming months a further recrui tment campaign will be launched. During this round of recruitment, our ultimate aim is to establish a duty lit igation guardian system for the family court . Mr. Speaker, I will now share the additional building blocks the Ministry has been putting in place to strengthen the foundational work and to ensure a sustainable high- quality Litigation Guardian Service in the long term. These include the following: 1. a protocol for the administrative process; 2. identifying office space for litigation guardians ; 3. production of Litigation Guardian Practice 4. Guidance and Training; and 5. strengthening the working relationship with the judiciary. Mr. Speaker, first the Ministry has been advancing the service framework for litigation guardians by putting in place a protocol to be followed when the court decides that the appoi ntment of a litigation guardian is in the child’s best interests. This admini strative process will ensure the appointment of a g uardian in a timely manner that is without delay for the child and for the c ourt. Second, Mr. Speaker, t he Ministry is current ly identifying space within its office which will give litigation guardians access to secure storage for all litigation guardian files and provide a work area to review files and hold meetings and/or training sessions. This is an important development , as by law the Litigation Guardian Service should be independent. Also, advice given from the c onsultant assigned to lend support to Bermuda by the UK Foreign Commonwealth & Deve lopment Office is that the Ministry is the preferred safe space for the work of Litigation Guardian Services. Third, Mr. Speaker, the Ministry has developed comprehensive Litigation Guardian Practice Guidance which details how the Litigation Guardian Service will work, including what court practices are needed for the successful prov ision of guardian serv ices to children. Finally , Mr. Speaker, one significant development during the past year is the closer and deeper involvement of the judiciary in the work of the Litigation Guardian Steering Committee, which meets monthly and whose members are driving forward these developments. I believe we are now at the stage where the entire family justice system is working together with one voice, and that voice is the voice of the child, which is the overriding principle. Included in the practi ce guidance and in the committee’s monthly deliberations is how ensuring the court always hears and understands the voice of the child before a dec ision is made about a child, a decision which can have lifetime consequences. Mr. Speaker, in working closely with judges and magistrates on policy issues and making sure that the work does not compromise judicial independence on cases of individual children, the Ministry has been considering how to highlight the importance of the child’s timescale, the child’s chronology —which is di fferent from incident -based chronology —and the i mpact on the child both of what has happened and what is being planned for the child’s future. Mr. Speaker, this sounds fundamental , but it really represents a cultural shift toward a s ystem that truly puts the c hild first. 272 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, the Litigation Guardian Steering Committee members are overcoming the challenges and the obstacles and are also thinking about radical reform. The Children Act 1998 is 25 years old, and a lot has changed in our society in the last 25 years. So rapid change is needed just to catch up with the way we now live. Just last week, Consultant, Mr. Anthony Douglas, CBE, was in Bermuda and steered a series of information and training sessions for the litigation guardians , social workers and managers in the D epartment of Child and Family Services, in addition to magistrates, acting magistrates and Family Court Panel members. The sessions focused on analytical writing for case reporting, essential litigation guardian practice, the role of the litigation guardian, best practices in child protection, attachment theory, accelerated reunification, and how co- parenting can be supported in custody and access cases. Mr. Speaker, during the upcoming year, the steering committee intends to look at how cases are reviewed in court, to consider a new threshold for tri ggering a review and to carry out further training weeks to enhance and continuously improve practice standards. The committee will also continue to work closely with the judiciary to look at issues such as how child witnesses can be best supported in all types of hearings; the role of intermediaries in court cases , [is that intermediaries ] help vulnerable persons to navigate the complexity of an average court process ; and a stronger co- parenting programme for Bermuda. Mr. Speaker, allow me to thank everyone who has played a part in moving this vital service for our children forward. The checks and balances being i mplemented against the assessmen t of children’s needs ensure that the Litigation Guardian Service does not fall short of best practice globally and any plan pr oposed for our children is in their best interests. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Minister. Members, the next Statement this morning is in the name of the Minister of National Security. Minister Weeks. Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Good morning, Mr. Speaker. Good morning, colleagues.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerGood morning. AIRPORT FIRE RESCUE SERVICES Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Mr. Speaker, today I will table the Fire Safety Amendment Act 2023, which will address the minimum duty strength required at the airport. Mr. Speaker, this Bill will amend the Fire Saf ety Act 2014 to clarify that the National …
Good morning.
AIRPORT FIRE RESCUE SERVICES
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Mr. Speaker, today I will table the Fire Safety Amendment Act 2023, which will address the minimum duty strength required at the airport. Mr. Speaker, this Bill will amend the Fire Saf ety Act 2014 to clarify that the National Fire Protection Agency Codes [NFPA Codes] do not apply to airport operations and that the UK Air Navigation (Overseas Territories) Orders [OT Orders] and any Overseas Territories Aviation Requirements [OTARs] do apply to airport operations. This was always the intent of the Act, and this Bill will provide the clarity needed. This affects the resourcing requirements at the airport and in particular the minimum duty strength. Mr. Speaker, as I have previously advised this Honourable House, the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service operates the Airport Rescue Firefighting Servic es , which provides aircraft rescue and firefighting services for the L. F. Wade International Airport. This is an es sential service that enables the airport to serve commercial flights. I also advised of the i ncreased requirements in respect of the minimum duty strength and the need in the short term to bring in overseas firefighters to meet that revised requirement to ensure that airport operations continued uninterrupted. Mr. Speaker, since my last Statement to this Honourable House on this matter, I am pleased to report that we have advertised and recruited a further 11 local firefighters, 10 of whom are currently ove rseas in the UK receiving specialist training to be cert ified aircraft rescue firefighters.
[Desk thumping]
Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Thank you. I have met with them on a number of occ asions and was pleased to see them off at the airport. I am impressed with their calibr e, enthusiasm and the support and training they are receiving from the management team. Mr. Speaker, not all jurisdictions hire raw r ecruits and train them for the fire service. Some will only hire trained and qualified firefighters. Bermuda, however, hires raw recruits and trains them to be fir efighters. It typically takes 24 weeks for the foundation training, and then there is further specialist training. With this cohort, the intent is to have them certified aircraft rescue firefighters and on duty replacing some of the overseas firefighters by the 31st of March 2023. Mr. Speaker, we currently have 19 overseas firefighters , and this will leave us in March with the need to retain some of the overseas firefighters until further Bermudi ans can be hired and trained to r eplace them. I am pleased to advise that we are advertising to fill more posts within the service including firefighters, sergeants, crew commanders and substantively filling the fire chief’s post. Mr. Speaker, we are com mitted to ensuring that there are sufficient resources at the airport to maintain operations. We are also committed to recrui ting and retaining Bermudians in the service. This essential service provides a challenging and rewarding career , and I encourage people to apply to join. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I would like to thank the women and men of the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service for their service, and in particular to those who
Bermuda House of Assembly have stepped up at the airport. I would also like to thank the executive of the Fire Service Association for their support in ensuring that the a irport requirements were met. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Minister. Members, the next Statement this morning is in the name of the Minister of Transport. Minister Furbert. NEW ELECTRIC PUBLIC BUSES —PROGRESS UPDATE Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, 30 electric pink and blue public buses arrived on our shores …
Thank you, Minister. Members, the next Statement this morning is in the name of the Minister of Transport. Minister Furbert.
NEW ELECTRIC PUBLIC BUSES —PROGRESS UPDATE
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, 30 electric pink and blue public buses arrived on our shores last spring, marking a historic achievement for Bermuda in the protection of the natural resources from climate change and env ironmental issues. Launching the transition from fossil - fuelled to electric buses with the ambitious conversion of one-third of the public fleet of buses has propelled the Government toward the goal of operating an entire fleet of electric public buses by 2030. You may recall that in preparation for this bold move toward energy independence, the Bermuda Government partnered with Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) to research and pioneer the path to a sustainable future in transportation. It was anticipated that we would see remarkable benefits to going electric , and RMI remains a valuable resource for monitoring our progress and a keen eye on performance. I am quite pleased to provide you with an update on the state of the new electric buses. Mr. Speaker, for nine months we have seen the new electric buses glide from Somerset to St. George’ s with but a whisper. Passengers have enjoyed the smooth ride, comfortable air conditioning, sufficiently spaced seating, convenient USB charging on each row , reduced noise pollution, and more. Those travelling behind and near the electric buses have exper ienced no toxic fumes , no ambient sound, less intrusion of space, and more. These casual observations are commendable, but I wish to inform you of the exceeding benefits that the data have confirmed. Mr. Speaker, operating the electric buses has caused t he Government to reali se a 20 per cent savings in fuel cost, which translates to upward of $15,000 per month. In the past nine months, the Government has saved an estimated $135,000 in fuel costs. I repeat: That saved $135,000, enough to fund a brand- new electric bus. Mr. Speaker, the environment has greatly benefitted from the use of the electric buses. R esearch conducted by RMI indicates that during the first eight months of operation, the Government saved the same amount of fuel that is consumed on two eight -hour transatlantic flights. The reduced emissions to the environment, just by operating the 30 electric buses as opposed to the diesel buses, equates to r emoving 480 internal combustion engine passenger cars from Bermuda’s roads. In the past nine months, 45 per cent less carbon emissions has entered the local environment due to the change, an estimated reduction of 450 tons in the first year. Mr. Speaker, the diesel buses were designed specifically for the Bermuda market and have histor ically cost the Government $334,000 per bus —that is, the old buses, the combustible ones. The new electric buses procured from the Golden Dragon Bus Company are production vehicles , allowing for significant cost savings. With custom features, one Golden Dragon electric bus costs $132,000 landed, compared to $334,000 for the previous buses, a savings of 60 per cent [compared with] business as usual. Apart from the obvious savings in the purchase of the vehicles, considering the operating and maintenance costs , the total cost of ownership for the Government is 48 per cent lower than the diesel buses. The first 30 electric buses will save the government $10.6 million over the buses’ 12- year life span. Mr. Speaker, additional savings are anticipated when the new 60 -bus charging facility is commi ssioned at the Fort Langton depot later this year. Currently, four electric bus charging stations with dual connections are installed at the Department of Public Transportation [DPT] Dockyard depot, plus four at St. George’s depot and two at the Fort Langton Headquarters. You may have observed, Mr. Speaker, that the headquarters are under construction in tandem with the BELCO trenching along Palmetto Road. (Thanks to BELCO.) The Government has taken the opportunity to opti mise efficiencies by connecting with the BELCO substation at Frog Lane, providing the department with a tremendous boost in secure underground access to the electric transmission network. The purpose of the trenching onsite is the 30 additional dual charging stations that will be installed, powering 60 electric bus charging bays. The install ation of a new solar PV system on the roof of the bus garage and the use of programmable charging management software will make way for an efficient char ging strategy, which will effect even more energy cost savings. Mr. Speaker, the new buses are sufficiently smaller and more appropriately sized for Bermuda’s roads. In December 2022, the public was canvassed by way of an online survey on forum.gov.bm to capture the response to the new vehicles. The survey results indicated that 80 per cent of respondents approved of the new electric buses and the electrification program me. Comments and feedback from t he survey have been considered by DPT to inform improv ements for the next order of electric buses. Mr. Speaker, the staff are continually developed for the transition to a complete electric fleet of 274 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly buses. A full complement of DPT mechanics have completed electric vehicle maintenance training in the United Kingdom to the Institute of the [Motor ] Industry [IMI] Level 3 and Level 4 Standard with continuing technical support from the electric bus manufacturer. Mr. Speaker, at the onset of this initiative, our team focused on three main objectives: to decrease air pollution; to reduce costs; and to improve the [ suitability ] of the buses for Bermuda’s narrow roads. The advancements recorded to date due to the introduc-tion of the new public electric buses have exceeded our expectations. The Government will forge ahead to convert the entire fleet of public buses to electric buses to maximise the achievements shared today. By retiring 100 diesel buses, we will remove the equiv alent of 1,600 internal combustion engine cars off of Bermuda’s roads, avoiding harmful roadside emi ssions. Mr. Speaker, the Ministry of Transport recently confirmed a second order of 40 electric buses with Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus Company as part of the Government’s commitment to replenish the aged public bus fleet and convert it to 100 per cent electric. Based on experience and the survey conducted, the new buses are the same model electric buses; however, they will have a 40 per cent larger battery capacity which increases the operating range from 180 ki lometres to 250 kilometres per charge. This allows the buses to stay operational longer during the service times, hence there is less requirement for recharging. Additionally, one of the main concerns noted within the public survey was the l ack of buttons to alert the bus operator to make a stop. We will therefore double the number of alert buttons from four to eight in c apacity to ensure that passengers are able to comfor tably access the alert button while traveling on the buses. Mr. Speaker, an internal survey conducted for staff identified that a lower turning radius would i mprove the navigation component of the buses. DPT management is working with the manufacturers to determine how best to improve this feature. It is also important to note that it is intended for an inspection team, which will include DPT staff members, to travel to China to ensure the buses and all relevant changes are being implemented as agreed prior to completion of the production. Mr. Speaker, the first order of buses was completed when China was continuing to have chal-lenges with the COVID -19 numbers, and as a result an inspection team was hired to conduct the [final] checks before shipping the buses to Bermuda. As the concerns of COVID -19 subside, the DPT team are eager to make arrangements with Xiamen to visit the plant and inspect the new electric buses before they ship. Mr. Speaker, with the arrival of the 40 new buses this summer starting in July, Bermuda will have a total complement of 70 electric buses, achieving 70 per cent fleet conversion. This will facilitate retir ement of the aged diesel buses, improving performance and reliability of the public bus [service]. Mr. Speaker, Bermuda is leading the way for other island nations to take charge of the envir onmental health of their countries. By charting and staying on course, the world will justifiably identify Bermuda as a change agent for sustainable, self -sufficient and r esponsible living. I would like to thank the teams at the Depar tment of Public Trans portation, [the] Rocky Mountain Institute and the Golden Dragon Bus Company. I would also like to thank the former Minister of Transport, the Honourable Lawrence Scott, for pus hing this initiative. Thank you very much.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Minister. Members, the next Statement this morning is in the name of the Minister of Education. Minister. UPDATE ON THE PARISH PRIMARY SCHOOLS AT PURVIS PRIMARY AND FRANCIS PATTON PRIMARY Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Good morning, Mr. Speaker. Good morning, listening audience. Mr. Speaker, I rise today …
Thank you, Minister. Members, the next Statement this morning is in the name of the Minister of Education. Minister.
UPDATE ON THE PARISH PRIMARY SCHOOLS AT PURVIS PRIMARY AND FRANCIS PATTON PRIMARY
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Good morning, Mr. Speaker. Good morning, listening audience. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to update this Honourable House and the listening public on the exciting work that is progressing to transform public education in Bermuda. Mr. Speaker, dedicated teams of educators, businesses and community partners, parents and young people are working on behalf of our country to ensure that each and every child in Bermuda succeeds in an education worth having. In my Statement today, I will highlight progress being made in key ar eas of our reform agenda and provi de clarity for Members and the listening public about what they can ex-pect to see, hear and experience next. Mr. Speaker, let me begin with the work currently underway to bring the concept of parish primary schools to life. Our fundamental belief remains steadfast—parish primary schools will create learning hubs in each parish that mobilise the strengths and assets of our communities in support of our schools and our young people. We have consistently made statements about what the community can expect from the transformation we are undergoing. Through research of best practice globally and consultation with communities across the Island, we have developed a set of 10 principles that guide our work and that will feature in each parish primary school as they come online. Features that focus on putting learning, especially real -world learning, at the centre of everything we do. Features that position parish schools as the hub of their communities, schools that will have mean-ingful partnerships with families and are places of colBermuda House of Assembly laboration and learning for all in the community. Ult imately, parish primary schools are focused on the outcomes of equity, and cultural connection locally and globally. We are looking at creating schools that build legacies for years to come. But, Mr. Speaker, what does that really mean? On Tuesday night I had the pleasure of standing beside Mrs. Enid Furbert -Jacobs, Principal of Purvis Primary and co- lead of the Purvis Primary School Transformation Team as she described to members of the Warwick community what they could expect to be different for students entering P1 and P7 at Purvis Primary School in September of this year. Mr. Sp eaker, Principal Furbert -Jacobs el oquently brought to life what “ culturally and globally connected” means to the Warwick Parish community. It will come as no surprise that in today’s classrooms our teachers encounter students who come from a variety of cul tural and linguistic backgrounds. In r esponse to the needs of these diverse learners in our Island home, and to turn what might be perceived as cultural and linguistic barriers into opportunities and strengths, students entering P1 at the Purvis Primary School [model] will have access to dual language learning. Mr. Speaker, Principal Furbert -Jacobs conti nued to elaborate on what “ passion- led and real world learning” will mean at the Purvis Primary School. The ColLABoratory is a design- and technology -enabled makerspace where students are afforded greater agency over their learning. We are creating a 21st century learning environment where our learners are able to undertake investigations in their own areas of interest, as well as put their highly sought af ter STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) based mind- sets and skills to work as they attempt to solve real world problems. Mr. Speaker, Principal Furbert -Jacobs conti nued to help us understand what being the hub of the community really means for Warwick Parish. Begi nning in September 2023, Purvis Primary School will introduce the Cedar Room Cafe. The Cedar Room Cafe will be a vibrant community space, an opportuni-ty for chat and chews with parents and community members, and a plac e for those accessing the school’s wraparound services. These wraparound services will integrate services and resources that f ocus on the whole child and family. The Cedar Room Cafe will also be a learning space for students who want to be involved in running a cafe service. St udents will learn about hospitality, develop entrepr eneurial skills and gain foundational experiences to help them successfully transition into the Hospitality and Tourism Signature Learning [Programme] in senior school for those who wish to pursue that particular track. Mr. Speaker, these are but a few examples of the exciting work that we continue to test to advance our commitment to parish primary schools. Examples that can be matched by the innovative and impactful work underway at the Parish Primary School for Hamilton Parish, also scheduled to open in September 2023 at the Francis Patton Primary site. I look forward to being able to share more details about that site in future Statements to this House. Mr. Speaker, in my last Statement regarding education reform in the House in September 2022, I remarked on the exciting new chapter of learning in our country. As students had just entered S1 at the beginning of this school year to embark on their journey in Signature Learning Pr ogrammes, we are pleased to see them embracing this opportunity. Mr. Speaker, students at CedarBridge Academy are engaged in STEM and Trades and Professions Signature Learning Programmes. Students at the Berkeley Institute are engaged in Health and S ocial Care, and Financial and Insurance Services Si gnature Learning Programmes. Each of these signa-tures have seen our students experience learning that is more personalised, flexible, relevant, futurefocused, inspiring and authentically Bermudian than ever before. Learning that, despite the inevitable teething problems, shows promise in putting us on the pathway toward achieving our long- term goal of opening up further study and career opportunities in priority sectors of Bermuda’s economy and society. Mr. Speaker, transforming our senior schools will take us no less than four years from the moment we begin working on a site. While delivering our first year of Signature Learning Programmes, educators are now developing what is required for S2 and S3. Teams of teachers at both Signature [Senior] Schools are focused on redesigning the first two disciplines of the core curriculum: Mathematics and Science. Additionally, we will look at scaling a new model of advis ory which caters to the increasingly important area of social –emotional learning while continuing to grow their competence and confidence in these new models of teaching, learning and schooling. Mr. Speaker, we have much to celebrate. One area I would like to highlight is the learning partner-ships that we have developed within the business community, and with cultural and scientific partners across the Island. Businesses and community organisations large or small play a crucial role in supporting senior schools and their students to succeed. Signature Learning Partnerships help senior schools bring to life the vision for learning and connect what happens in the classroom with the real world. Mr. Speaker, two specific learning partnerships are worthy of note. The first is with the Bermuda Zoological Soci ety [BZS]. This partnership continues to strengthen with representatives from BZS engaged in the design, development and now the delivery of courses within the STEM Signature Learning Pr ogramme at CedarBridge Academy. Senior school st udents have the opport unity to learn from the best and 276 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly brightest scientists in this region, applying knowledge in real world learning experiences such as field investigations onsite at the Aquarium. Mr. Speaker, our learning partnerships also support our education workforce. N ext week more than 10 of our teachers from both senior schools and all four middle schools who are currently delivering or have the potential to deliver learning within the Financial & Insurance Services Signature Learning Pr ogramme will be engaged in high- quality professional learning to build their capability in insurance and i nternational business practices in Bermuda. This industry-credentialed course is fully sponsored by ABIC (Association of Bermuda International Companies) and will ensure our teacher s are on the cutting edge of developments in these crucial industries. Through the success of this partnership, teachers will be better equipped to provide instruction that prepares our st udents to be able to compete on a global level. Mr. Speaker, I am sure that you and Members of the House and the listening public will join me in thanking both BZS and ABIC, and all of the learning partners that are actively investing in the future of our country and our children. While rightly beginning with what we have to celebrate, it would be misleading to say that we have had everything 100 per cent right as we moved forward with our first year of implementation. As the Italian philosopher Voltaire is commonly credited with saying, we must not let the perfect be “t he enemy of the good.” The philosophy has significant merit in education systems globally. The highest -performing sy stems that nurture their students to achieve outstanding life and learning outcomes are intentionally designed as systems [from which] to learn as [students] develop. Mr. Speaker, this is what we are doing. We are learning in order to improve at each and every step of this phased and staged transformation pr ocess, which we knew right from the beginning would take us several years to complete. We will always look at what we are doing to improve our processes, how we can increase our efforts, and where possible accelerate the work. With this approach to sustainable change in mind, we are currently utilising everything we have learned to date to develop a revised traject ory to the opening of all parish and signature schools and the phasing out of middle schools —essentially, the plan to complete the transformation of the public school system that our Bermuda public has been as king for. Mr. Speak er, this task involves clearly identif ying the necessary trajectories to develop what is hap-pening inside the buildings, the development of the buildings themselves and the movement of students and staff. This is a complex undertaking that is being led by the Education Reform Unit and will be completed in the coming weeks. Once in place, we will be able to provide parents, teachers, students and the wider community with more details on future parish primary schools, when new signature schools will open, and when some of our existing primary schools will close and our middle schools phased out com-pletely. Mr. Speaker, as announced in November 2022, the Education Reform Unit, which resides in the Ministry of Education, reporting to the Office of the Minister of Education, has been established. A diverse group of experienced and skilled professionals from within and beyond education have joined the team to focus on our ambitious but critical agenda. Mr. Speaker, as the Premier and I have stated previously, the work of transforming outcomes for our children is not only unprecedented in education circles in Bermuda, but this level of whole- system change is unprecedented in the public service in Bermuda. This is why the Education Reform Unit will continue to be supported by our globally recognised education change partners, Innovation Unit. The contract extension granted to Innovation Unit, a not -for-profit charity, appropriately reflects the work they are undertaking to support this nationally significant work. Mr. Speaker, anyone involved in the process will tell you that this change has been built by us, for us, through engagement with teachers, students, parents, and business and community leaders. This Government looks forward to continuing the work to r eform our public school system, important work that will create the necessary opportunities for our children to follow their passions and interests, build on their talents and capabilities, and achieve their careers and further aspirations. Mr. Speaker, you will continue to hear me say in this very House and in any forum that I can, Bermuda’s children are Bermuda’s future. We have committed to learning from our past in order to identify the best way to move forward in the [best] interests of our children. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Minister. Members, the next Statement this morning is in the name of the Minister of Works. Minister.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerGood morning. VENDOR PREQUALIFICATION PROGRAMME
Lt. Col. Hon. David A. BurchMr. Speaker, I rise to report on the Government procurement methods and the Ministry of Public Works initiative to improve this process by reducing the excessive amounts of unnecessary bureaucracy and minutia that local businesses have to endure when placing bids on government conBermuda House of Assembly tracts. Mr. Speaker, …
Mr. Speaker, I rise to report on the Government procurement methods and the Ministry of Public Works initiative to improve this process by reducing the excessive amounts of unnecessary bureaucracy and minutia that local businesses have to endure when placing bids on government conBermuda House of Assembly tracts. Mr. Speaker, in 2017 this Administration pledged to increase efficiency within government and decrease the response time—a pledge I intend to keep. Mr. Speaker and Honourable Members of this House are familiar with how often government is r equired to obtain goods and services from external sources in order to fulfil the needs that cannot be met by government alone. Specifically, this Ministry [must ensure] that specialty services in trenching, excav ation, mould remediation, asphalting, landscaping, architecture, mechanical engineering, building maint enance, among others too numerous to mention but equally as important to public infrastructure are mai ntained at an adequate level. Now to be clear, Mr. Speaker, this Administr ation understands the necessity in protecting the public purse and ensuring value for money when attempting to acquire goods and services from external entities. [This] is why this PLP Administrati on implemented the Code of Practice for Project Management and Pr ocurement in 2018 upon our return to Government. Mr. Speaker, the code outlines how public officers procure goods and/or services on behalf of government departments, offices and public aut horities in accordance with their dollar threshold and pr ocurement method from the initial request through the closing of an activity. Since implementation, I am sure that the Ministry of Public Works is not the only government entity which has received feedback from technical officers and companies in the private sector stating that the new method to place a bid on gover nment contracts is too burdensome and enveloped in excessive amounts of unnecessary paperwork. Because of this, Mr. Speaker, over the years the Ministry of Public Works has seen a decrease in the number of local companies applying for Gover nment contracts, as (1) it costs money to place a bid on a contract through research and/or administrative time and personnel in order to compile the rel evant doc umentation; and (2) it takes time for the technical offi cers to delve into the submissions to ensure the gov-ernment is receiving the best value. Additionally, Mr. Speaker —and I have to chuckle at bureaucracy at its best —some of the documents that companies have to produce in order to bid on government contracts consist of the same i nformation over and over again. For example, if a com-pany applies for two contracts at the same time, the company would be required to give its business information twi ce (i.e., the name of the company, its address, payroll tax ID, Social Insurance ID, et cetera, which is standard information that does not change often). If the company accidently omits information from one of the bids, that company may be disqual ified ev en though they submitted the required information on the other. Is this fair? I think not, especially when the information is literally identical. Mr. Speaker, simply to enlighten the listening public, the approximate timeframe for awarding contracts can range from five weeks to thirteen weeks or more. This wide- ranging variation in response time is deemed unsatisfactory by the Ministry and those local companies (especially small to medium -sized bus inesses) who tend to operate on a monthly basis. Again, t his is unfair, as some small to medium -sized businesses may not have the capacity to hire additional administrative staff to keep on top of gover nment contracts and procurement notices, even though they have the technical ability and resources to complete the task required. Mr. Speaker, for these reasons the Ministry of Public Works is now launching a pilot programme known as the Vendor Prequalification Programme for the upcoming fiscal year, that being 2023/24. This prequalification programme is designed to reduce the paperwork and red tape and accelerate the response time for small to medium -sized business owners looking to bid on government contracts. The prequalific ation will identify contractors qualified to supply goods or services to government. How this works [is that] the company can apply by filling in the required paperwork only once, and upon review by technical officers the company will be prequalified with the Ministry and able to place bids on Public Works contracts for the entire fiscal year. Mr. Speaker, for this programme the Ministry has identified 32 different services in which there may be a necessity in the next fiscal year. The application for this programme and the list of categories were t abled this morning or can be found on the government procurement website. Mr. Speaker, it is anticipated that with this new procurement method, an expeditious bid submi ssion and review process can take place for gover nment contracts which will reduce the aforementioned timeframe from 13 weeks to a minimum of 21 days. While the Ministry cannot guarantee that a prequal ified vendor will ultimately win a bid for a contract, Mr. Speaker, we can assure t hat those approved vendors who meet the prequalification criteria will benefit from a faster and far less complex pr ocurement process. Since the announcement of this programme and release of the prequalification application several weeks ago on the government procurement site, the Ministry has hosted a number of information sessions in which representatives of 21 companies have learned more and received assistance in filling out forms for this programme. I would like to emphasise that these information ses sions are voluntary as a means for the Ministry to give small and medium - sized businesses increased opportunity to secure work that will sustain them in the long term. Mr. Speaker, Members of this Honourable House and the listening public, if you or someone you know owns a business and fits in one or more of the 278 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly categories listed on the Government procurement website, [at gov.bm/procurement -notices ], I encourage all companies, especially small to medium -sized business owners, to consider signing up for this prequalification programme and to not miss out on their chance to be awarded a government contract. The first application process opens Tuesday, Febr uary 7, 2023. But more importantly, the appli cation pr ocess is open all year, and I encourage all companies to participate in this programme. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Minister. Members, this brings us to a close for the Statements by Ministers and Junior Ministers this morni ng. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
The SpeakerThe SpeakerWe actually have two such reports this morning. The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee will present the reports this morning. REPORT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE ON THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS ON: THE A UDITOR GENERAL’S PUBLIC INTEREST REPORT ON THE BERMUDA GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE TO COVID -19: UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT ADMINISTRATION …
We actually have two such reports this morning. The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee will present the reports this morning.
REPORT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE ON THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS ON:
THE A UDITOR GENERAL’S PUBLIC INTEREST REPORT ON THE BERMUDA GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE TO COVID -19: UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT ADMINISTRATION
THE AUDITOR GENERAL’S PUBLIC INTEREST REPORTS ON THE BERMUDA GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE TO COVID -19
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, under the provisions of Standing Order 34(3) of the House of Assembly, I hereby submit for the information of the Honourable House of Assembly a report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts on the Auditor General’s Public Interest Report on the Government’s Response to COVID -19, Unemployment Benefit Administration; and a report on the Auditor General’s Public Interest Report on the Bermuda Government’s Response to COVID -19. The PAC [Public Accounts Committee] [r equires] t hat these reports be forwarded to the Ministry of Finance for consideration and response on the recommendations made by the committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. QUESTION PERIOD
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMembers, the next item on the Order Paper is the Question Period. The questions this morning are generated from the Statements that were given earlier. And we do have Members who have indicated that they wish to ask questions on those Statements. We will begin with the second Statement that …
Members, the next item on the Order Paper is the Question Period. The questions this morning are generated from the Statements that were given earlier. And we do have Members who have indicated that they wish to ask questions on those Statements. We will begin with the second Statement that was given this morning by the Minister of Social Development and Seniors. There are two Members who have indicated that they would like to put a question to you, Minister. The first is MP Pearman. MP Pearman, would you like to put your question? We will mark our clock now for the 60 minutes.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerGood morning. QUESTION 1: LITIGATION GUARDIAN SERVICES UPDATE
Mr. Scott PearmanHonourable Minister, thank you very much for your Statement for the House on the expansion of Litigation Guardian Services. This is something that the Opposition has been calling for since 2018, and so I think we can agree that the need for litigation guardians is a matter of bipart isan …
Honourable Minister, thank you very much for your Statement for the House on the expansion of Litigation Guardian Services. This is something that the Opposition has been calling for since 2018, and so I think we can agree that the need for litigation guardians is a matter of bipart isan consensus. And I commend the fact that it is being expanded. The question I have, Minister, is, Are you aware in 2022, so the last calendar year, roughly how many of the court cases will have seen litigation guardians appear on behalf of minors?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Tinee Furbert: Good morning, Mr. Speaker, and colleagues. As reported by the magistrates, there were approximately 10 cases.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerSupplementary? SUPPLEMENTARY
Mr. Scott PearmanYes, supplementary. That being the case, and as I understand it there are currently five practicing and three new litigation guardians, being a total of eight, how much further do you plan to expand the numbers of litigation guardians?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Tinee Furbert: Just for c larification, Mr. Speaker, there are only five litigation guardians. There are just three the other . . . there are just five. We have had in the past seven members, Mr. Speaker. We would like to expand to seven. But we would also …
Minister.
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Just for c larification, Mr. Speaker, there are only five litigation guardians. There are just three the other . . . there are just five. We have had in the past seven members, Mr. Speaker. We would like to expand to seven. But we would also like to have a pool of persons, qualified persons, from which we can pull.
Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Supplementary?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerSecond question. QUESTION 2: LITIGATION GUARDIAN SERVICES UPDATE
Mr. Scott PearmanThank you, Honourable Mi nister, for that answer and clarification as to the number of litigation guardians now standing at five. Does the Minister agree with me that really what this shows is that it is necessary for our family courts to see a commensurate amount of funding cons istent …
Thank you, Honourable Mi nister, for that answer and clarification as to the number of litigation guardians now standing at five. Does the Minister agree with me that really what this shows is that it is necessary for our family courts to see a commensurate amount of funding cons istent with the kind of funding that goes to our well-regarded commercial courts?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Tinee Furbert: Mr. Speaker, I am satisfied with the funding that is available to litigation guardians.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Minister, the second Member who wishes to put a question to you is MP Jackson. MP Jackson, would you like to put your question now? QUESTION 1: LITIGATION GUARDIAN SERVICES UPDATE
Ms. Susan E. JacksonGood morning, Mr. Speaker. I just have a couple of quick questions for the Minister. I am just wondering if the Minister would just describe to us a little more what the Duty Litigation Guardian System is that would be provided for family court.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Tinee Furbert: Sure. Mr. Speaker, the process with the litigation guardians, as I mentioned in my Statement . . . they are appointed by the courts. The litigation guardians who are currently in place are on a rota. There is a coordinator for litigation guardians who has the …
Minister.
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Sure. Mr. Speaker, the process with the litigation guardians, as I mentioned in my Statement . . . they are appointed by the courts. The litigation guardians who are currently in place are on a rota. There is a coordinator for litigation guardians who has the responsibility of assigning a litigation guardian and making sure that there are no conflicts of interest. Once that guardian is assigned, they will take on the case and will be required to make submi ssions and make analyses as required by the courts. That is a basic process in regard to litigation guardians. The court also determines the length of time that a litigation guardi an will be in place for a child.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerSupplementary? SUPPLEMENTARY
Ms. Susan E. JacksonYes, Mr. Speaker. So, is the Duty Litigation Guardian System a software programme? Or is the Minister just referring to “system” as a manual process? Hon. Tinee Furbert: It is the process.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerGo ahead. QUESTION 2: LITIGATION GUARDIAN SERVICES UPDATE
Ms. Susan E. JacksonThe Comprehensive Litigation Guardian Practice Guidance, is that a public doc-ument? And if so, where could we find it?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Tinee Furbert: Mr. Speaker, the document is not public at this time. If the Member would like to see it, I would have no problem with sharing it with that Member.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerOkay. No third question? [No audible response]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerOkay. Thank you, Members, for your questions to the Minister. Minister, those are all of the questions for you. 280 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly We will now move on to the next Statement. The next Statement that has questions this morning is the Minister …
Okay. Thank you, Members, for your questions to the Minister. Minister, those are all of the questions for you. 280 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly We will now move on to the next Statement. The next Statement that has questions this morning is the Minister for National Security. Minister, MP Jackson has questions for you. MP, would you like to put your questions?
QUESTION 1: AIRPORT FIRE RESCUE SERVICES
Ms. Susan E. JacksonYes. My first question to the Minister, Mr. Speaker, i s I am just curious that if we are going to be moving from the UK or moving to the UK Air Navigation Overseas Territories [standard], whether there is going to be any kind of conflict or any kind of …
Yes. My first question to the Minister, Mr. Speaker, i s I am just curious that if we are going to be moving from the UK or moving to the UK Air Navigation Overseas Territories [standard], whether there is going to be any kind of conflict or any kind of negotiation between what we have as a UK standard or an O verseas Territories standard and the US FAA?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The answer to that is no, there will not be any conflict between the two.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Supplementary? QUESTION 2: AIRPORT FIRE RESCUE SERVICES
Ms. Susan E. JacksonAnother question, Mr. Speaker. Because of the change in our codes, would this restrict us in any way from the size or the number, frequency of planes that would be coming to Berm uda? So, would we have to change the dynamic? In particular, I would imagine the size of …
Another question, Mr. Speaker. Because of the change in our codes, would this restrict us in any way from the size or the number, frequency of planes that would be coming to Berm uda? So, would we have to change the dynamic? In particular, I would imagine the size of the plane that could fly into Bermuda based on the support service that we could provide them.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There will be no change.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerOkay. Thank you. Minister, those were the only questions for you on that Statement. We now move on to the next Statement that indicates some questions , and that is from the Mini ster of Transport. Minister of Transport, you have questions from MP Jackson. Would you like to put …
Okay. Thank you. Minister, those were the only questions for you on that Statement. We now move on to the next Statement that indicates some questions , and that is from the Mini ster of Transport. Minister of Transport, you have questions from MP Jackson. Would you like to put your questions to the Minister? QUESTION 1: NEW ELECTRIC PUBLIC BUSES PROGRESS UPDATE
Ms. Susan E. JacksonYes. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, my first question with regard to the electric buses is that I am just curious if the Mini ster might be able to give us a comparison between the costs of gas and the now present cost of electricity in order to service the new …
Yes. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, my first question with regard to the electric buses is that I am just curious if the Mini ster might be able to give us a comparison between the costs of gas and the now present cost of electricity in order to service the new electric buses.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Speaker, I gave the costs of savings. The Honourable Members can work backwards. It is just simple math.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerSupplementary? SUPPLEMENTARY
Ms. Susan E. JacksonJust for clarity, Mr. Speaker, that is a comparison in gas. I am just curious what the electricity costs are now for the new fleet.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Speaker, I gave my answer. The Honourable Member can work backwards from the math I gave her.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerI am trying to follow that. I am trying to follow that. [Inaudible interjections and laughter ] Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Speaker, I gave the House an idea of what we are saving. I was just saying that the Honourable Member can work backwards from the savings if she …
The SpeakerThe SpeakerFor my own clarification, the question asks, What was the savings in electricity or the savings in gas?
Ms. Susan E. JacksonI would actually like to know what the cost of the electricity i s to service the buses. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Is that per kilowatt?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThat is what I thought the question was, around electricity, not gas. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I am not BELCO. I do not know what the cost is for BELCO.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerI just wanted clarification because I did hear electricity and not gas. What was provided in the Statement referred to gas, to fuel, diesel. The Minister is indicating that he does not have the information and Bermuda House of Assembly cannot provide the information as to electricity savings—electricity costs, rather. …
I just wanted clarification because I did hear electricity and not gas. What was provided in the Statement referred to gas, to fuel, diesel. The Minister is indicating that he does not have the information and
Bermuda House of Assembly cannot provide the information as to electricity savings—electricity costs, rather.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: That is why I asked the Honourable Member. She mentioned the kilowatt per hour? What are you asking?
Ms. Susan E. JacksonMr. Speaker, I would just like to know how much it is costing in electricity to service these buses, to get them running. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Speaker, I will get that information back to the Honourable Member and see if that will help her out.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerOkay. The Minister has indicated that he will see if he can provide an answer for you. It is not an answer that he was prepared for today. Do you have a further supplementary or a second question?
Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerGo right ahead. QUESTION 2: NEW ELECTRIC PUBLIC BUSES PROGRESS UPDATE
Ms. Susan E. JacksonJust given the maintenance efficiencies that the new electric fleet is providing, I am just wondering if the Minister might be able to give the public general information about how the electric buses are being able to stay in service longer and how that i s improving or not [improving] …
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Speaker, I clearly do not understand what the Honourable Member is asking.
Ms. Susan E. JacksonYes. It sounds [like] t here is less maintenance on the electric buses, which would say that the buses are in service more often or with less off -road servicing. So, I am just curious if this is having a positive impact on the bus schedule itself?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerOkay. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Yes.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThe answer is yes. Okay? Supplementary? [No audible response] The Speaker: No supplementary?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThird question? QUESTION 3: NEW ELECTRIC PUBLIC BUSES PROGRESS UPDATE
Ms. Susan E. JacksonThird question. The Minister on page 5 talked about the new buses coming onto the road, an additional fleet arri ving maybe this summer. And I am just curious how many of our existing [diesel] buses will be removed this year?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Speaker, I do not have that information in front of me. I can get it back for the individual.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerOkay. I appreciate that. Supplementary?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Okay, this brings us to an end of your questions. You have answered three. Minister, MP Pearman would like to put questions to you. MP. QUESTION 1: NEW ELECTRIC PUBLIC BUSES PROGRESS UPDATE
Mr. Scott PearmanThank you. And thank y ou, Honourable Minister, for your Statement. It is good to see Bermuda deploying electric buses. And I note that the Honourable Minister thanked the previous Minister of Transport for his efforts in getting these on our roads. Minister, roughly how old ar e the oldest …
Thank you. And thank y ou, Honourable Minister, for your Statement. It is good to see Bermuda deploying electric buses. And I note that the Honourable Minister thanked the previous Minister of Transport for his efforts in getting these on our roads. Minister, roughly how old ar e the oldest diesel buses that are still on the road? I know that they have on the licence plate the year that they were purchased. Are they sort of 25 years old? Or what are the oldest diesel buses?
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Again, Mr. Speaker, I do not have that information in front of me, myself. I can get that information to the Member.
Mr. Scott PearmanI was not looking for specifics. Could you assist with how many, roughly, diesel buses are left? Do you have that number? Or abouts? [Inaudible interjection]
Mr. Scott PearmanIt is a different question, to my learned friend behind me. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: So, we have 103 buses right now, 30 [are] electric. I suggest that you can subtract that and figure out how many are diesel.
Mr. Scott PearmanAnd what is the lifespan, roughly, of a diesel bus? Is it about 25 years?
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberHe is not a mechanic. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I agree with the Honourable Member; I am not a mechanic. Some buses just like cars last longer, depending on how you take care of them.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerGo ahead. QUESTION 2: NEW ELECTRIC PUBLIC BUSES PROGRESS UPDATE
Mr. Scott PearmanSo, when you give the figures of the cost of the buses, in order to compare apples to apples rather than apples to oranges, we should adjust the numbers based upon the competing lifespan of 12 years for an electric bus versus 25 for a diesel bus, yes? [Inaudible interjections …
The SpeakerThe SpeakerDid you put that in a question form?
Mr. Scott PearmanYes. My question is, If we are comparing appl es to apples, then we need to adjust the numbers that you gave in your Statement. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: We are really comparing apples to oranges because one is electric, one is di esel.
Mr. Scott PearmanThank you. I think we are agreeing. Third quest ion?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThird question. QUESTION 3: NEW ELECTRIC PUBLIC BUSES PROGRESS UPDATE
Mr. Scott PearmanI know that my Honourable Mi nister, he likes his maths. In terms of the new buses, there are 30, and you have ordered another 40, which takes us to 70. But you provided only for 60 electric bays to charge the 70 buses. Is that a space constraint?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: We will be putting some more in eventually.
Mr. Scott PearmanThank you. No supplementary. [Inaudible i nterjections and laughter ]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerOkay. Supplementary? Supplementary? [Crosstalk ]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMembers. Members! Members! We do have a supplementary. SUPPLEMENTARY
Ms. Susan E. JacksonThank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is supplementary to the electric charging stations. I am just wondering, with the electric charging stations and the solar panels, has a contractor been chosen? Was there an RFP? And if there is a contract for that?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Speaker , this is not part of the question . . . or the Statement. An RFP.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerBasically, you indicated that there would be additional charging stations going in. So that sort of opens the door as to the process of their being Bermuda House of Assembly put in. So, it is either you have got a contractor yet or you do not have a contractor. [Inaudible …
Basically, you indicated that there would be additional charging stations going in. So that sort of opens the door as to the process of their being
Bermuda House of Assembly put in. So, it is either you have got a contractor yet or you do not have a contractor.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I am not really. No, I am not.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: No, I did not.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerNo, no. The conversation flows this way. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerYes. Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Speaker, yes. I believe that is dealt [with] by the Honourable Minister of Public Works.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerFine. Hon. Zane J. S. De S ilva: Supplementary, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerSupplementary. SUPPLEMENTARY Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Mr. Minister, Minister Furbert, Minister Furbert. My supplementary, Mr. Speaker, is . . . Minister, with 60 stations being pr ovided at this time, do you charge all 60 buses at the same time every time they need charging? Hon. Wayne L. …
Supplementary.
SUPPLEMENTARY
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Mr. Minister, Minister Furbert, Minister Furbert. My supplementary, Mr. Speaker, is . . . Minister, with 60 stations being pr ovided at this time, do you charge all 60 buses at the same time every time they need charging?
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: No, Mr. Speaker. We have two, I think three fuel stations up at the depot. And we cannot fuel them all at the same time. It takes time. So maybe three the first time they come up, then the ot her three. And we will get out 103 . . . up to the 100 that we have.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. This brings to an end the questions for the Minister of Transport. We now move on to the next Statement that has questions. And Minister of Education, you have Members who have indicated they have questions for you. The first Member is MP Famous. Would you like to …
Mr. Christopher F amous—and good morning to the people of Bermuda. Mr. Speaker, sometimes people read stuff in the Royal Gazette, and it may or may not be true. R ecently, I read that — [Laughter]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerSpeak to the Chair. Speak to the Chair. Do not get sidetrack ed. Do not get sidetracked. [Laughter] QUESTION 1: UPDATE ON THE PARISH PRIMARY SCHOOLS AT PURVIS PRIMARY AND FRANCIS PATTON PRIMARY
Mr. Christopher FamousRecently, I read that the Department . . . the Ministry of Education had extended the contract to these consultants from Australia and New Zealand. So, I want to know first, Is it true? That is my first question.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for that question. As I announced in a press conferenc e in N ovember after the Throne Speech, that we intended to and were in the process of negotiating an extended contract with the Innovation Unit out of …
The SpeakerThe SpeakerSupplementary or new question?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you for that question. Mr. Speaker, when we had first announced educat ion reform, we always stated that it would take many, many years to bring it to fruition, the first two years of this. And for persons, for their edification, we have …
Minister.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you for that question. Mr. Speaker, when we had first announced educat ion reform, we always stated that it would take many, many years to bring it to fruition, the first two years of this. And for persons, for their edification, we have been working at this for just around four years now. The first two years were done for the necessary work that was needed to collect the data to inform what it is that we needed to do. The next part was putting in the Signature Learning Programmes at our senior schools. And then the following part of that was to get up and running our parish primary schools, the 284 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly first of which will enter into operation in September 2023. Mr. Speaker, we currently have 18 primary schools, four middle schools and two signature schools. At the end of the process, we will have 10 primary schools, 10 primary school s and four —no, five signature schools. So, the work is still ongoing, and the work is still many more years to come. So, the necessary work done by Innovation Unit is required at this time to continue to get our people skilled and up to speed so they can t ake over the work. The intention has always been that we will put persons in place who will be able to do this work that will continue for many, many years after the contract with Innovation Unit has completed.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Supplementary? We have a supplementary from MP Jackson. SUPPLEMENTARY
Ms. Susan E. JacksonThank you, Mr. Speaker. I am wondering if the Minister might be able to give us a view of any other projects or parts of the overall education reform that the Innovation Unit will be participating in in the future?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Speaker, Innovation Unit, as originally announced several years ago, is what we call our change partner . Their sole role is to not only guide us in best practices, but to help us de-velop the type of innovation that is required to change …
Minister.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Speaker, Innovation Unit, as originally announced several years ago, is what we call our change partner . Their sole role is to not only guide us in best practices, but to help us de-velop the type of innovation that is required to change not only the mind- set of our educators and our st udents, but also that of the public. So, what we find is, as we move forward in education reform, most of the resistance we get are pers ons who remember what happened to them when they were in school. So, the idea is to actually get them to understand that what we are doing is fundamentally different from what any of us has ever gone through. And that does take time. So, Innovation Unit’s reach within our educ ation reform not only is just with the Education Reform Unit, that is the Education Authority work that is going on, [but also] the PMO [Project and Programme Management Office] work that will be undertaken shortly in terms of what infrastructure changes are necessary within our system.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Do you have a supplementary, MP Famous, or a second question?
Mr. Christopher FamousCan the Minister assure the public that they are getting value for money? Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Speaker, the only way I can answer that question is, Absolutely.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerOkay. No further question? Minister, the next questions for you this mor ning are from MP Richardson. MP.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerYes. QUESTION 1: UPDATE ON THE PARISH PRIMARY SCHOOLS AT PURVIS PRIMARY AND FRANCIS PATTON PRIMARY
Mr. Anthony RichardsonMr. Minister, I had the opportunity to attend one of your information sessions down in the great [constituency] number 7. And my question to you, Mr. Minister, for all of us I guess, is going to be, you spoke quite a bit about what is happening and where we are …
Mr. Minister, I had the opportunity to attend one of your information sessions down in the great [constituency] number 7. And my question to you, Mr. Minister, for all of us I guess, is going to be, you spoke quite a bit about what is happening and where we are now. But can you talk some more about the curriculum and learning experiences, especially as they relate to the primary schools that are coming online which would be Purvis Primary and Francis Patton Primary? Thank you.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Richa rdson. The curriculum —one of the things that we often get asked is, What is happening with the curric ulum? The purpose of the transformation is to meet our children where they are and, as I spoke earlier, change the dynamic and how we think about educ ation especially within the public school where we have such a variety of learners at different skill levels. But I do want to assure persons that the Cambridge Curri culum that is currently in place, it is anticipated that it will remain in place. But we will look to do things di fferently around how that curriculum is implemented. We also have what is known as the CCK, or the Creative Curriculum ® for Kindergarten, that is currently in place for our preschools now. And that will continue to be in place and cont inue to be enhanced. What we will do differently is provide educational services for our children that are more personalised and more in taking of what it is that their particular skill sets are and what it is that they need in order to thrive, as we do now with our education system. And we are probably one of the few education systems in the world that still allocate resources based on the number of children within the school, versus allocating r esources based on what resources the children actually need t o thrive.
Bermuda House of Assembly So not to call any particular school out in this process that we are saying, but the cost or the budget that we give to a school that has the majority of the children who come from an area that we would consider affluent, both parents, there are none of those social issues that may or may not affect their learning, is the same way we allocate funds to a school that has children who may come from that environment , although children who come from one environment need much more resources and much more things in order for them to thrive than students who come from another place. So, when we look at world- class systems, even when children move from school to school, the funding follows the child because the child needs those resources. We do not do that here in Bermuda, and that is when we talk about fundamentally changing how we envision education in Bermuda, how it should work. And that is when we talk about creating equity. So, when we look at the curriculum, the curri culum is about creating the t hings that our children need to thrive, but also changing the way we operate overall to create equity across the board with our chi ldren.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Supplementary? SUPPLEMENTARIES
Mr. Anthony RichardsonMr. Minister, can you elaborate mor e or give an indication in terms of the degree to which parents have been receptive to this change and the degree to which they are involved in the process to ensure that their children do in fact benefit from this proposed change? Hon. …
Mr. Minister, can you elaborate mor e or give an indication in terms of the degree to which parents have been receptive to this change and the degree to which they are involved in the process to ensure that their children do in fact benefit from this proposed change?
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Member. As I stated in my Statement, our redesigned system is truly by Bermuda, for Bermuda. What we did is initially research to find out what it is that Bermuda needs within its economy for our children to thrive. Then you start with, what is the end result? We want our children to leave our system after 13 years with not only the Bermuda leaving- school diploma that says, I matriculated through school , but we want them to leave [the system] with skill sets. We want them to leave with micro- credentials. We want them to leave with international designations that allow them to go directly into the workforce or off to tertiary education and be that further ahead than their counterparts. In order for us to do that, it requires us to talk to the public to find out what it is that the public thinks that our children need. Now, some of these things are fantasy pr ojects. Some of them are actually really credible. And I think one of the most powerful statements I have seen in the hundreds of sessions that we have done was an educator saying, I see my idea up there on the board, because that means I have been listened to. So the idea is that we want people to have—the way we d eveloped these things is, there is an initial embryonic stage that educators at the particular schools are actually talking and saying, What is it that we want? Then that is what we call “ socialised” amongst the public, amongst the parents, amongst the other educators, amongst the students and community par tners. And they get their input to say, Well, I like this, but what can you do differently? Or, Hey, I didn’t think of that idea, but here’s something else that we could possibly do. And then thos e are incorporated into that idea, and it is gone and baked again and looked at. And then we go back and say, Hey, ever ything that we’ve talked about, are we hitting those marks? Once we get to that point, we then talk about how we conceptualise or how do we bring that into fruition. How do we actually action that to bring it into . . . and then we go back into the public and say, Now that we’ve got to the point we’re now saying this is how we envision it working within the school, this is how it can be put in, give us more input. And we continue that process until it is ready to be rolled out.
Mr. Anthony RichardsonThank you, Mr. Speaker. That is, to what degree have you incorporated . . . or will the different styles of learning be incorporated into the process? We think very often in terms of boys and girls learn differently, but there are other different styles. And so to what degree …
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is, to what degree have you incorporated . . . or will the different styles of learning be incorporated into the process? We think very often in terms of boys and girls learn differently, but there are other different styles. And so to what degree has that been incorporated or will that be incorporated into the pr ocess? Thank you, Mr. Minister. Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you. One of the working groups in the Education Reform Unit is looking at what we call “ personalised learning advocates .” And these are positions that will be put in place [where they] actually sit down and talk with students, talk with parents and come up with what it is that needs to be put in place for that student to thrive. So that is how we will address the individual student needs.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Minister, the next question this morni ng is from the Government Whip. Would you like to put your question, Honour able Member? QUESTION 1: UPDATE ON THE PARISH PRIMARY SCHOOLS AT PURVIS PRIMARY AND FRANCIS PATTON PRIMARY
Mr. Neville S. TyrrellThank you, Mr. Speaker, and good morning, colleagues. 286 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, often during my canvassing and obviously getting phone calls from persons, I hear from teachers and parents, When will my primary school be closed? Or, When will my primary …
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and good morning, colleagues. 286 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, often during my canvassing and obviously getting phone calls from persons, I hear from teachers and parents, When will my primary school be closed? Or, When will my primary school become a parish primary school? Can the Minister tell us when the plan that makes this clear will be avail able? Thank you, Minister.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerLet me remind Members that questions should centre around—and I think this Statement was directed at two specific sc hools. Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is not lost on me that this is probably one of the biggest questions we get when we …
Let me remind Members that questions should centre around—and I think this Statement was directed at two specific sc hools.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is not lost on me that this is probably one of the biggest questions we get when we have the engagement sessions with parents, with the public, is, When? When? When? And, Mr. Speaker, it is a massive undertaking that we have on our hands because we are not only transforming the system; we have to maintain the current system as well. So we have these two parallel things going on. So, it is an undertaking that I myself —and am disappointed that we have not been able to. But I can assure the public that we have set a target date of the end of February to actually have that plan [put] together. And we will be having additional updates on that plan as we put it forth. So, what we want to have is something that is put forth so persons can look and say, Okay. I see when my primary school is scheduled to be disconti nued. I see when the middle school will cease to operate. And I see when the parish primary school in the parish I live in is scheduled to come to fruition. So, we want to have that plan together, but it is an absolute monster of a task that we are doing right now. But it is something that we are committed to. We are finally starting to get all of the data that are necessary to put that together, given to the team. I have asked for that to be done by the end of February. So that is the date that we are aiming for.
Mr. Neville S. TyrrellI did have a supplementary, Mr. Speaker, but the Minister has explained it. Thank you.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. MP Jackson, would you like to still put your question? QUESTION 1: UPDATE ON THE PARISH PRIMARY SCHOOLS AT PURVIS PRIMARY AND FRANCIS PATTON PRIMARY
Ms. Susan E. JacksonYes, please, Mr. Speaker. My question to the Minister of Education is, Given all of the changes, all of the new programmes, all of the things that are going on in the evolution of this public school system, I am just curious if the Mi nister might be able to …
Yes, please, Mr. Speaker. My question to the Minister of Education is, Given all of the changes, all of the new programmes, all of the things that are going on in the evolution of this public school system, I am just curious if the Mi nister might be able to describe to us, how much autonomy, once all of the pieces of the puzzle have been put into place, how much autonomy will the pri ncipals then have over each one of their schools, in particular the parish primary schools, once all of this has been put into place?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I can speak on this without fear of recri mination or revealing anything because we have had public sessions that discuss what the Education A uthority would look like. And one of the ethos of the Education Authority is …
Minister.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I can speak on this without fear of recri mination or revealing anything because we have had public sessions that discuss what the Education A uthority would look like. And one of the ethos of the Education Authority is to provide autonomy at the school level for principals and for the boards that we intend to have in place for every single school. Boards will be responsible for the recruitment of principals and teachers within the system because w e want our schools to develop their own ethos. If we are talking about parish primary schools, the idea of the parish primary school is to have a school that becomes the hub of that community. Who else knows what the hub of that community is but the persons who live in that parish? So, we want them to have the input necessary in order to develop what that school should be like in terms of fitting into that parish. If you want to turn around the dynamic that often plagues —what we consider plagues government departments, that is a very top- down operation where you have someone at the top who is directing ever ybody at the bottom. If any of the Members opposite, when they do attend some of our sessions, they will see one of the very things that we talk about is a student-centred approach to the development of educ ation. That is where the students sit at the top of our [organisation] chart, not at the bottom. And everybody else works from the bottom up to make sure this st udent gets the benefit of what needs to be. And that includes autonomy to decide what goes on, to a cer-tain extent, within our school system.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerSupplementary? SUPPLEMENTARY
Ms. Susan E. JacksonYes. I completely got what the Minister just said. But in particular I am just interested that once the par-ish primary schools are up and running, how much autonomy the principal will actually have, whether that is in the bringing in of teachers, performance management, some of the administration that …
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Speaker, I will speak a little slower this time. I am often accused of speaking too fast. The point is that schools within their boards will have the autonomy over the recruitment of [the] principal and teachers to fit …
The SpeakerThe SpeakerSecond question. Continue. QUESTION 2: UPDATE ON THE PARISH PRIMARY SCHOOLS AT PURVIS PRIM ARY AND FRANCIS PATTON PRIMARY
Ms. Susan E. JacksonThank you. My second question to the Minister, Mr. Speaker, is, I am just curious what the enrolment numbers have been for 2022.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Speaker, I do not have that information with me. And that Member is free to submit a Parliamentary Question and I can get those data researched and submitted.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThird question. QUESTION 3: UPDATE ON THE PARISH PRIMARY SCHOOLS AT PURVIS PRIMARY AND FRANCIS PATTON PRIMARY
Ms. Susan E. JacksonThis is regarding the signature school, the signature programmes in the senior schools. I am just curious if the Minister might be able to give us any information on how all of the various professional programmes within the signature will be managed. You know, is there going to be a …
This is regarding the signature school, the signature programmes in the senior schools. I am just curious if the Minister might be able to give us any information on how all of the various professional programmes within the signature will be managed. You know, is there going to be a sort of project manager who will be in place to sort of oversee the STEM programme or to oversee the tourism programme, et cetera, to make sure that all of the various listed programmes, community outreach like the Bermuda Zoological Society, et cetera, are all managed? And we make sure that our programme stays relevant, and we make sure that the certification or the level of teaching and learning and testing, all of that, remains current. So, I am just curious whether there are project managers in place to manage that.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister. Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of the signature and learning pr ogrammes, they are managed by the schools. Each one of the programmes has someone over it at the particular school. I am not quite sure [about using] the term “project manager, ” …
Minister. Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of the signature and learning pr ogrammes, they are managed by the schools. Each one of the programmes has someone over it at the particular school. I am not quite sure [about using] the term “project manager, ” because the schools will be the ones responsible for that. There will be, of course they will be reporting to their particular board who will have the data. And part of this is data and metrics as well; I think that is probably what you are referring to. One of the work streams is data and metrics, and how do we measure the success of the programmes and how do we capture early on whether they are going in the direction they should be going, or they are not going in the direction. So that is part of the development of all of the programmes, both from preschool, parish primar y schools and the signature schools, that there will be robust data and metrics built into that and how those programmes are being adjudged to be providing the services that they need. I think that speaks to what it is you are talking about. But there will be no specific project manager person. But I cannot speak to the future of what the Education Authority wishes to put in place. But data and metrics are critically important because we need to be able to measure what we are doing right, what we may not be doing right and how to make those necessary corrections.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Minister, that brings an end to the questions for you this mor ning on your Statement. The last Statement this morning is from the Minister of Works. Minister, the MP Cannonier has questions for you. MP Cannonier . QUESTION 1: VENDOR PREQUALIFICATION PROGRAMME
Mr. L. Craig CannonierThank you, Mr. Speaker, and good morning, everyone. On page 2, the Honourable Minister mentions that there is a range between five weeks and thirteen weeks that he felt was unsatisfactory in the compl etion of awarding contracts. And I must say that the implementation of this new qualification process …
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and good morning, everyone. On page 2, the Honourable Minister mentions that there is a range between five weeks and thirteen weeks that he felt was unsatisfactory in the compl etion of awarding contracts. And I must say that the implementation of this new qualification process is a good thing to see. So, I am just curious as to whether or not he has set with the civil service any new target then with the process in place? Are there any new targets now? Will it be three to seven weeks? Have 288 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly they placed any targets so that they have something to go for with the new process?
Lt. Col. Hon. David A. BurchMr. Speaker, I included in my Statement that the minimum time is three weeks. Clearly, that will be dictated by the complexity of what is being sought, but that is the aim. And the technical officers have set and come up with those timeframes so it is something reasonable that …
The SpeakerThe SpeakerSecond question. Go ahead. QUESTION 2: VENDOR PREQUALIFICATION PROGRAMME
Mr. L. Craig CannonierYes, second question. And with this qualification process, I am just trying to understand it a little better. Will this allow for small and medium -sized businesses, will this allow for government to be able to better assess what kinds of projects they can take on? Sometimes you get these …
Yes, second question. And with this qualification process, I am just trying to understand it a little better. Will this allow for small and medium -sized businesses, will this allow for government to be able to better assess what kinds of projects they can take on? Sometimes you get these small businesses, and they are going for a project that they do not have the equipment for, or whatever the case may be, or resources, yes. So, will part of this qualification process kind of give a guideline with the contractors as to what kind of contracts they should be bidding for?
Lt. Col. Hon. David A. BurchMr. Speaker, yes. There is a list that was tabled this morning which lists 32 categories of things , from carpenter to plumber to whatever your expertise is , so that we can then sit with you and help you fill out the documentation that is required so that you …
Mr. Speaker, yes. There is a list that was tabled this morning which lists 32 categories of things , from carpenter to plumber to whatever your expertise is , so that we can then sit with you and help you fill out the documentation that is required so that you are able to bid on the contracts that come up in your area of expertise.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerSupplementary? Third question? No. Thank you. Members, that brings us to a close of the Question Period for this morning. We will now move on. CONGRATULATORY AND/OR OBITUARY SPEECHES
The SpeakerThe SpeakerI am going to acknowledge the Member from constituency 24 first.
Mr. W. Lawrence ScottThank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on a sad note to ask this House to send condolences to the Edness family in the passing of Ms. Edness, who was the matriarch of [constituency] 24, otherwise known as the Gold Coast of Berm uda. Persons and residents of the area have …
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on a sad note to ask this House to send condolences to the Edness family in the passing of Ms. Edness, who was the matriarch of [constituency] 24, otherwise known as the Gold Coast of Berm uda. Persons and residents of the area have sort of shared their memories and talking about how parents used to send children to her store to make purchases. And the store was called [A J] Edness [Grocery] . And even if they did not have the ability to cover the cost of the groceries, she still would just write a note on a little piece of brown paper bag and say, Hey, this is an IOU, letting the parent s know. Ms. Edness was an astute businesswoman. And even though after having the—
[Inaudible interjections ]
Mr. W. Lawrence ScottYes. And once again, I am going by the stories that the constituents have shared. And that she often forgave a lot of the debt. And the other thing is that the children, and I would say the resident Reid Furbert shared a personal memory of where whenever he would …
Yes. And once again, I am going by the stories that the constituents have shared. And that she often forgave a lot of the debt. And the other thing is that the children, and I would say the resident Reid Furbert shared a personal memory of where whenever he would go by, she would always have almost an endless supply of red and yellow pearl drops that she would share with the children on a regular basis. And then even going further back, and this was more memories from my f ather, where you had a place called Chili’s.
[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]
Mr. W. Lawrence ScottIf you go on South Shore, there is a yellow building right on the left side. On the back side of that was a patio called Chili’s. And my dad would say that he remembers horse and carriages would line the street with tourists going there. So, this was before …
If you go on South Shore, there is a yellow building right on the left side. On the back side of that was a patio called Chili’s. And my dad would say that he remembers horse and carriages would line the street with tourists going there. So, this was before taxis were even a thing. Line the street going there, and she was a central point of almost the Island’s tourism product at that time. So, she will be sorely missed. And once again, it is with deep sympathy that we share. And I will associate the MP for constituency 26 with that. Actually, I want to ass ociate the whole House with those messages. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Honourable Member.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberGood morning, Mr. Speaker. MOMENT OF SILENCE [In memory of Mr. Gary Pitman, former MP]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerBefore I acknowledge anyone, let me address an oversight. There was an oversight this morning that we should have done. It is traditional for when a Member of Parliament or a former Member of Parliament has passed. And there was an oversight this morning with the passing of a former …
Before I acknowledge anyone, let me address an oversight. There was an oversight this morning that we should have done. It is traditional for when a Member of Parliament or a former Member of Parliament has passed. And there was an oversight this morning with the passing of a former Member.
Bermuda House of Assembly I am going to seek the indulgence at this m oment if the House does not mind and take the customary moment of silence, which then would allow other Members to speak to the individual if they wi sh to speak to that matter so that we do not delay it. So, at this time, Members, I am going to ask that we just rise and have that moment of silence for the former Member Mr. Gary Pitman, who served in both this House and the other House. He passed away earlier this month and was funeralised recently, funeral ised last week in fact. So, we will start the m oment of silence at this point. [Members rose and observed a moment of silence.]
Mr. Wayne CainesMr. Speaker, I just would like to acknowledge some birthdays and passings in consti tuency 14. I would like to acknowledge the birthday of Mr. Mark Orchard, 60 years old; Mr. Gary Davis, 50 years old; Susan Gumbs ; Patricia Phillips; Adele D avis ; Helen Caesar; Judith Beach; Amos …
Mr. Speaker, I just would like to acknowledge some birthdays and passings in consti tuency 14. I would like to acknowledge the birthday of Mr. Mark Orchard, 60 years old; Mr. Gary Davis, 50 years old; Susan Gumbs ; Patricia Phillips; Adele D avis ; Helen Caesar; Judith Beach; Amos Evans ; Rosemarie Glynn—she was 85 years old, Mr. Speaker; Charlotte Warr en; Eugene Harvey; Stanley Hodgson; and Mr. Alec Easton was also 80 years old. In January, Mr. Speaker, I would like to say happy birt hday to Ms . Eleanor Casseron; Victoria Daulphin; N athan Aitken; Colin Paynter; Dennis Bean, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with reference to—and Justin Bento; Ms. Caro l-Ann DeShields; Elizabeth Stevenson; Mar ian James; Agnes Hewitt ; Gladwyn Goins; Tracy Ric hardson; Ted Tyrrell; John Clark e; John Hudson; Sandy Tucker -Scott; and Mr. Morris Rogers in January. Mr. Speaker, under the passings I would like to mourn with the families of Westmore Greaves, who has passed; Dena Estelle Ward; Simone Diane Woolridge. And I would like to acknowledge the passing of Mr. Vincent “Boxy” Caines. Mr. Speaker, that was my uncle, my dad’s brother, who passed earlier this week. Mr. Speaker, you might not remember, he worked at the BIU [Bermuda Industrial Union] gas st ation. And at 11:45 he would bring the chain across the line. He was gregarious. He spoke to everyone. If you could remember him at the BIU gas station for many years. He was also a driver for the Opportunity Wor kshop, where he drove the van [for those with special needs] and the people whom we love in our communi-ty. And he was just a delight. He was a member of the Evening Light Pentecos tal Church, where he was a member there. He leaves to mourn his wife, Ann Caines; N eville Caines, Mr. Speaker, who is this great saxophone player. He also works at the Bermuda Stock E xchange; and his son Vaughan Caines, who is a barri ster at law. I would like to acknowledge my father and my Aunt Liz, who are the remaining living siblings. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, MP. I now acknowledge the MP from constituency 28. MP Lister, you have the floor.
Mr. Dennis Lister IIIThank you, M r. Speaker. Good morning to the listening audience and to my fellow colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to start off with a sad note. I send condolences to the families of the two road traffic victims earlier this week. And it is personal to me …
Thank you, M r. Speaker. Good morning to the listening audience and to my fellow colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to start off with a sad note. I send condolences to the families of the two road traffic victims earlier this week. And it is personal to me bec ause I knew both of them, grew up with them over the last 20 years, Mr. Speaker. So, it is a very sad moment for the community of Somerset and for those families. I would like to send condolences to those families. And on a lighter note, Mr. Speaker, sinc e we last sat in this House in December, there have been many birthdays in my constituency. But if I read them all, I would not have enough time. So, I just highlighted two of them, and these are Ms. Edna Jones of Pearman’s Hill who celebrated her 99 th birthday on December 31. And then Ms. Cecily Stovell of 2 South Breeze Road celebrated her 90th birthday on December 18. So, while there are many birthdays, I just want to highlight those two as they are some of our senior members in the constituency. So, I want to send again belated congratulations to them for their birthdays. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Honourable Member. I recognise the Honourable Member, MP Simmons, there at the back of the room who sprung up very quickly that time. MP Simmons, you have your three minutes.
Mr. Jamahl S. SimmonsI rise on several sad notes today. I would first like to honour and pay tribute to my Branch Chairman’s father, Mr. Clarence Smith, who passed. I would like to associate all Members of the House. This gentleman spent 50- plus years in the construction industry, a master craftsman who …
I rise on several sad notes today. I would first like to honour and pay tribute to my Branch Chairman’s father, Mr. Clarence Smith, who passed. I would like to associate all Members of the House. This gentleman spent 50- plus years in the construction industry, a master craftsman who has moongates built throughout the Island. But on a signi f290 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly icant note––and I am going to lobby the Works and Engineering Minister for this ––the last time there were major upgrades done to the Somerset Bridge, he cut by hand the slate to put there.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerYes. Yes, he did. That is right.
Mr. Jamahl S. SimmonsSo that is a major accomplishment. He was a wonderful family man, a wonderful father. And you can see that by the fruits of all of the children that he has produced and the wonderful things that they are doing throughout the country. On a further sad note, the Sandys …
So that is a major accomplishment. He was a wonderful family man, a wonderful father. And you can see that by the fruits of all of the children that he has produced and the wonderful things that they are doing throughout the country. On a further sad note, the Sandys committee was rocked with the loss of Ms. Monica Doers. Those of you who are of a certain age would remember her from Boyle’s in Somerset or Trimmingham’s. She was one of the first people . . . I knew her for most of my life, but she was one of the first people I canvassed when I entered constituency 33 in 2014. She had just lost her daughter. And we became very close over the years just from talking and connecting on different issues. And she is truly, truly, truly missed by her community. I would like to join in condolences on the passing of Gary Pitman. In a previous life I succeeded him in Parliament in constituency 19. I remember him specifically because of the way he cared for his father in his father’s golden years. He was a man of kindness and generosity, and I hope that we will all r emember him fondly. On a positive note, finishing on a positive note, one of my mentors and teachers, the Most Hon-ourable Marcella Liburd, Dame Marcella Liburd, has been sworn in as the new Governor General of St. Kitts. She was a trailblazer and champion for women’s issues in St. Kitts, and I learned many, many things at her hand when she was campaigning in the 2014 general election in St. Kitts. So, I commend her and congratulate her. And with that, I tak e my seat, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, MP. Does any other Member wish to make a contribution at this time? MP De Silva, you have your three minutes. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like the House to send condolences to [the family of] Mr. …
Thank you, MP. Does any other Member wish to make a contribution at this time? MP De Silva, you have your three minutes.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like the House to send condolences to [the family of] Mr. Harold Moniz. He was a former Assistant Commissioner of Bermuda. He is also the father of my business partner, Mr. Stephen Moniz. Harold was an exceptional person, to say the least, Mr. Speaker. He was a man w hom many say broke many barriers during his time. And his time that I speak of, Mr. Speaker, is over 40 years serving the Bermuda Police Service. Mr. Speaker, he was the first and only police officer who was welcomed at the union at the time. He started his career with the service in 1959, Mr. Speaker. And at that time, you can imagine being a police officer in the decades —the two decades in particular that followed. How difficult that must have been, especially for him and especially being a little lighter than most folks at the time. But he was, like I say, the first police officer who was welcomed and went to the union. And he did not go to the union, Mr. Speaker, to give any orders, to reprimand anyone. His choice to go to the union and his acceptance w as, How can the Bermuda police and the union and many others work together in Bermuda? One other thing that many people may not know about Commissioner Harold Moniz was that he was the mastermind behind the Friendship Trophy that we all know today. That t rophy, he was the mastermind in creating to help, hopefully, solve some of the racial tensions we had at that time. So, he was a man who is sorely missed. And I would like to finish with him. He was a creature of habit, Mr. Speaker. Many people know that not only was he a creature of habit, but when he said he was going to do som ething, he did it. And when he had a habit of doing things, he was consistent. And as MP, Honourable former Premier, Michael Dunkley just said, his son is certainly a creature of habit like his father was.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes. And he is a good man, too. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to give condolences to the family of former PLP Member , [Dennis] “Danny” Farias. He was the grandfather of my daughter-in-law—
[Timer chimes]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: —and the great - grandfather of my granddaughter.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, MP. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Mr. Speaker, really quickly, really quickly if the House could indulge me—
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMP. MP. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: If the House could indulge me. I have to say this. Yvonne Judy Scott, whom you know very well, will celebrate 40 years working for Port Royal this March. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Thank you. Deputy Speaker, you have your three minutes. Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speak er, I want to be associated with the remarks concerning Gary Pitman. My little interaction with Mr. Pitman was I considered him to be …
Thank you. Thank you. Deputy Speaker, you have your three minutes.
Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speak er, I want to be associated with the remarks concerning Gary Pitman. My little interaction with Mr. Pitman was I considered him to be a very sincere person. When you talked to him, he listened to you. And you could see that he just was not listening for th e sake of listening, but he listened with concern for the problem. Also, Mr. Speaker, I would like to be associated with the remarks [concerning] Harold Moniz. Harold Moniz was an honorary, in my opinion, member of the Bermuda Industrial Union because he was the only fellow who could come there without even calling during a very difficult time in the history of his country, and come out of his office and assist us in our endeavours to do good things. Also, I think Harold was the leader of the (what do you call it?) Cycle Squad. He was the leader of that crowd there, Mr. Speaker. Also, Mr. Speaker, I want to be associated with the remarks concerning Mr. Caines, former employee of the Bermuda Industrial Union gas station. A giant. He and his wife had very, v ery close ties with Dr. Ball, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I also want to be associated with the remarks about Clarence Smith. I knew Mr. Smith. I was a little boy. Cricket used to be played on Thur sday afternoons. And so, after school we would rush up to Fl atts, particularly if they were playing the most exciting team in Bermuda, Cleveland County. [Laughter]
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: But Smith would hit those balls way down Flatts, down [by] the Aquarium.
[Laughter]
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: He hit some big sixes, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I also want the House to r emember Brian Morris. Brian Morris was the manager and golf pro at the Ocean View. Brian fought hard. And I want to associate the whole House. He fought hard. At one time I thought he was going to beat the dreadful disease of cancer. But he was upbeat every time you talked to him. He never wanted you to feel sorry for him. Brian was out there playing golf. And yes, he had the wrong team in soccer. But some people can make mistakes and be accepted, Mr. Speaker. But Brian will be a miss to many in this country because of his great, great personality. And, Mr. Speaker, Danny Farias. I want to be associated with those remarks. Danny Farias was a champion to the union, particularly the fishermen’s division. He was a walking encyclopaedia. You ask him anything about the fish, the sea, Danny would give it to you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Deputy Speaker. Does any other Member wish to make a contribution? Opposition Leader, you have your three minutes. Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to associate myself with the comments made by the Honourable Member from [constituency] 26 (I think), …
The SpeakerThe SpeakerTwenty -four. Tw enty-four. Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Twenty -four. In regard to Myrtle Edness. She is part, basically, of an extended family member. She basically was my neighbour all my life. And she in essence took me to Sunday School. That is how far back that went. [Laughter] …
Twenty -four. Tw enty-four. Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Twenty -four. In regard to Myrtle Edness. She is part, basically, of an extended family member. She basically was my neighbour all my life. And she in essence took me to Sunday School. That is how far back that went.
[Laughter]
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: There is a lot I can say, but I have so many other people I want to do. But that does not diminish the value that she has made. She was an ardent supporter of Christ Church Warwick. She was an ardent supporter of young people. She worked for the Bermuda Recorder in regard to the issue of Chili’s patio in Warwick. Chili, by the way, is my grandfather. And that was the place to go in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Outdoor dancing and so on and so forth. And I have resurrected that patio. So, it is still going, and it is still available for —
The SpeakerThe SpeakerDancing still taking place? Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Occasionally. [Laughter] Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: I would like to also assoc iate myself with the comments made in regard to Gary Pitman. He and I sat together in Parliament. He was committed to his people. He was a passionate …
Dancing still taking place?
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Occasionally.
[Laughter]
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: I would like to also assoc iate myself with the comments made in regard to Gary Pitman. He and I sat together in Parliament. He was committed to his people. He was a passionate person. And as my cousin [said], the Honourable Member Derrick Burgess, he was a true, kind spirit. He really went out of his way to help people. He was President of Chevron, and he was respected in the oil and gas industry then. And when you became a friend of Gary, you had a privileged person in your life. Harold Moniz, I would like to associate my comments in regard to Harold Moniz. He was Deputy Commissioner of Police, and he served with my f ather--in-law, the late Honourable Frederick “Penny” Bean. Danny Farias is special to me. When I was the Minister of the Environment, even though we were on different sides of the political fence, he always called me and gave me his wisdom and ideas about the fishing industry, and I would do the same and call 292 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly him if I had any questions. And he was always willing to help where he could. So, I salute Danny Farias for his contribution to the fishing industry. I would also like to send condolences to the family of Una Mae Bean of Smith’s Parish. She was another kind soul who left us way, way too soon. But she was ready to go. And I would like to send condolences to her family.
[Timer chimes]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank y ou, Member. Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerI recognise the Honourable Member at the back, MP Simmons -Wade.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerYes. Your eye caught me first. I was looking in that direction past the shoulder of the former Speaker.
Mrs. Ianthia Simmons -WadeOh, okay. I would like to associate myself with the r emarks concerning Monica Doers, whom I have actual-ly known all of my life, 60- plus years. She was a friend of the family, and she was a friend of many of our neighbours. She was a house that we …
Oh, okay. I would like to associate myself with the r emarks concerning Monica Doers, whom I have actual-ly known all of my life, 60- plus years. She was a friend of the family, and she was a friend of many of our neighbours. She was a house that we went to, and certainly she made a big difference in so many peo-ple’s lives. I would also like to associate myself with [the comments regarding] Gary Pitman. He was one of the first houses that I canvassed in constituency 25. And he gave me great encouragement, and I think maybe he gave me his vote; I am not sure. But possibly.
[Laughter]
Mrs. Ianthia Simmons -WadeI would also lik e to acknowledge only the individuals who turned past their 90 th year in my constituency: Leonard Wade (no relative); Ann Wade, who is 93; Ann Wade, who is 99; Myrtle McCloud, who is 90; and Sheena Darrell , who is 93. I would also like …
I would also lik e to acknowledge only the individuals who turned past their 90 th year in my constituency: Leonard Wade (no relative); Ann Wade, who is 93; Ann Wade, who is 99; Myrtle McCloud, who is 90; and Sheena Darrell , who is 93. I would also like to congratulate the E very Praise team Worship Experience that was on [January] the 29th. They came to Warwick, and that is under the One Body of Christ movement and evangelist N ikita Robinson. They said they came to Warwick be-cause they find that the most exciting, interesti ng and religious parish in the Island. Thank you. [Inaudible interjections and laughter ]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerAll right. MP Ming, you have your three minutes. Mrs. Renee Ming: Good morning, Mr. Speaker.
Mrs. Renee MingI come with a heavy heart on a sad note today. My constituency is mourning the death of three—if you would call them stalwarts to the parish, then they would definitely be that. One would be Deborah Williams [Bean]. She did not have a husband, but her chi ldren were …
I come with a heavy heart on a sad note today. My constituency is mourning the death of three—if you would call them stalwarts to the parish, then they would definitely be that. One would be Deborah Williams [Bean]. She did not have a husband, but her chi ldren were Jamal and Michelle. These are people whom I have grown up with and played with all of my life in St. George’s. I want them to know that they are in our thoughts and prayers. Also, Albert “Pioneer” Francis. He had five “byes” as he referred to t hem, but they are actually all girls.
[Laughter]
Mrs. Renee MingSo, Scherene, Zina, Tanya, and Paula and Pam, the twins. We want you to know as well that you are in our thoughts and prayers. Mr. Francis, because I never, ever called the gentleman “Pi oneer,” was one of the first truckers in St. George’s. So, everybody in St. George’s …
So, Scherene, Zina, Tanya, and Paula and Pam, the twins. We want you to know as well that you are in our thoughts and prayers. Mr. Francis, because I never, ever called the gentleman “Pi oneer,” was one of the first truckers in St. George’s. So, everybody in St. George’s who was either moving a piece of furniture or getting something new or whatever back in the day, you called Pioneer. So, he was well named for his trucking industry. And i t is funny because at his funeral, in his obituary, the notes, they said he really did not truck outside of St. George’s. He had to really know you to go outside of St. George’s. So, I thought that was funny that he actually maintained the business for those many, many years off of just the resident s in St. George’s. Also on a very sad note, Ann Thompson, Aunt Ann to me, who passed away last week. And I would like for Sherrie, April, Shabrae, Brayanna, Cap and Cierra to know that they are in our thoughts and prayers. She was one of those babysitters, Mr. Speaker, from back in the day, the old- time ones who did not move anything for the children. They taught the chi ldren that you just do not touch.
Mrs. Renee MingThere was nothing ev er moved. And maybe a good third of the St. George’s children passed through her when they came up. On another sad note, Mr. Speaker, and he was not from St. George’s, but he thought he was. And that would be Michael Paynter, who was the …
There was nothing ev er moved. And maybe a good third of the St. George’s children passed through her when they came up. On another sad note, Mr. Speaker, and he was not from St. George’s, but he thought he was. And that would be Michael Paynter, who was the owner of Pedego C ycles, the electric bikes. He died at a very young age. It was obviously devastating to us because he spent a lot of time in St. George’s. He pushed his cycles. He was truly an entrepreneur and a salesman. My walking group have rented the elec-tric bikes on several occasions, and so I am sure that his family are grieving still at this time. And I just want
Bermuda House of Assembly them to know that they are in our thoughts and prayers as well. And I would like to be associated with the comments for Danny Farias and also for Harold Moniz, who —actually it was funny. I just celebrated 27 years of marriage. But when I was dating my husband, he was my husband’s inspector at that time. And he said, Are you sure you want to go out with this bye-bye? So, I guess maybe we made a right choice.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. MP Jackson, you have your three minutes.
Ms. Susan E. JacksonThank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to be associated with the passing of Gary Pitman as well. He was certai nly someone who provided advice and guidance along the way. He was very much there to provide any kind of support. And I really appreciated his insights as I …
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to be associated with the passing of Gary Pitman as well. He was certai nly someone who provided advice and guidance along the way. He was very much there to provide any kind of support. And I really appreciated his insights as I entered into the political arena many years ago . . . well, what I consider to be many years ago. I also would like to send condolences to the family of Sylvia Spearing. She was my centenary, and I associate the Opposition Leader as well in those messages. She was absolutely a delight. And al though I did not have an opportunity to visit with her in person very much due to her age, and here comes COVID -19, but I certainly loved talking to her on the phone. Her voice was just always so youthful, and I really appreciated her spirit. And I would imagine that her grandchildren and great grandchildren who ar e following in her footsteps hopefully will have similar longevity of life. She was a bright spark. I would also like to send condolences in particular to [a] son, Charles, on the death of his mother, Judy Doyle. She was a teacher at the Bermuda high school for many years. She, again, had the lightest spirit. She was always welcoming. Her home was open. She was very supportive of her community there on Woodbourne Crescent. She will be greatly, greatly missed. I would also like to send condolences to the family of George Donald Scott. He was a man who impressed me so much with the legacy of family that he has raised on this Island. The family have done very well. They are many successful children who have done great things for this community. He and his wife certainly extended their home and their support to such a broader community. That was certainly a place where I spent many of my years socialising and getting to know his sons and daughters. And so, I just really feel for the family, but I can take comf ort and give comfort that he has certainly left a legacy within the community that will have a positive impact on Bermuda for a very, very long time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMinister Burch, you have your three minutes.
Lt. Col. Hon. David A. BurchThank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to be associated with the condolences for Mrs. Myrtle Edness, Harold Moniz, Danny Farias, and Mr. George Donald Scott who was a constituent of mine. I would also like to be associated with the condolences [for] Mr. Brian Morris. And I think the …
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to be associated with the condolences for Mrs. Myrtle Edness, Harold Moniz, Danny Farias, and Mr. George Donald Scott who was a constituent of mine. I would also like to be associated with the condolences [for] Mr. Brian Morris. And I think the Deputy Speaker got it exactly right. He never was negative. He was entirely positive, and you could see that he was suffering, but he never shared any of that with anybody who came into his space. We had a session on Monday morning at Ocean View with his family and staff, which is something traditionally done in the Ministry, that was really uplifting and moving. I woul d also like to offer condolences [due] to the road traffic fatality on Tuesday night, Mr. Jason Simmons.
[Inaudible interjection]
Lt. Col. Hon. David A. BurchMinister Weeks wants to be associated. He worked for us in Waste Management. And so, I extend condolences to his family. I would also like to extend condolences across the water to the United Kingdom on the pas sing of Lady Felicity Langley who was the widow of our former …
Minister Weeks wants to be associated. He worked for us in Waste Management. And so, I extend condolences to his family. I would also like to extend condolences across the water to the United Kingdom on the pas sing of Lady Felicity Langley who was the widow of our former Governor Major General Sir [Henry] Desmond [Allen] Langley, who, in my opinion, was the last real Governor we have had. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to now turn to some congratulations. Two Members of the Ministry of Public Works have recently qualified with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors [RICS]. In November, it was Daniel Woods who was one of our trainee estate surveyors. We have two. And Robert Richardson, who qualified last month, who has been working in the Department of Works and Engineering helping us with the projects. The challenge now, Mr. Speaker, for us, and I have said this to the staff, is whether we can retain them. We train them . . . and I did not want to advertise the fact that they had qualified because as soon as we do that it is like an advertisement to those people waiting in the community to come and pick them off. And I have had that conversation with both of them. Let’s talk b efore you walk.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerYes. 294 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly Lt. Col. Hon. David A. Burch: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Minister. Does any other Member wish to . . . MP Pearman, you were blocking the young lady jumping very quickly behind you that time. [Laughter]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMP Caesar. Ms . Crys tal Caes ar: Yes, thank you, Mr. Pearman, for deferring to me. I appreciate that.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerYou have your three minutes. Ms . Crys tal Caes ar: I come with heavy heart this morning to give condolences to the f amily of a Ms. Marietta Forbes who was in my constituency. She was in her 79 th year. Ms. Forbes, although she was not quite as …
You have your three minutes.
Ms . Crys tal Caes ar: I come with heavy heart this morning to give condolences to the f amily of a Ms. Marietta Forbes who was in my constituency. She was in her 79 th year. Ms. Forbes, although she was not quite as mobile as she once was, was a very spirited woman. Very opinionated, as she told me and as she would agree. Whenever I went to vi sit Ms. Forbes she was not able to come to the door, but she always either would have conversation through the door or when we were allowed to enter people’s homes before COVID -19, would have me come in and sit down and have a conversation with her. She was quite astute in public affairs and political affairs, and she was quite strong in her opinions. And so, she will be a miss when I am out doing my canvassing because it was quite refreshing to have that interchange with her. And so I wish condolences to her only son, Mr. Andrew Forbes. He happens to be overseas but has given me permission to give the family my condolences today. On a lighter note, I also would like to recognise one of my constituents who turned 94 . . . last month, Mr. Robert Alger, who was 94. You would know, we are in the year of our Lord, 2023, and all those who were born in 1973 will now be having their half innings. Half -century innings, I should say. And so, I would like to recognise those people in particular today who have just cel ebrated their 50 th birthdays in the month of January who are in the constituency of 31, Southampton West Central. And those three people today would be Benjamin Lucas, Nneka Jackson, and Steven Gardner. I will be doing this every month because they are all my co ntemporaries and I think I need to recognise them all this year. And then, of course, I would like to extend my congratulations to my daughter’s great aunt, Coralie Trott, who also celebrated her birthday in January. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Sp eaker: Thank you. Does any other Member wish to make a . . . MP Pearman, you have your three minutes. Mr. Scott Pearman: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to be associated with the remarks that have been made from both sides of the House in honour and tribute to Gary Pitman, the former Member of Parliament and former Senator. It is interesting, Mr. Speaker, that when people die, people try to encapsulate their lives in a few brief words, often completely separate from each other, and yet a consensus of opinion emerges even though we are expressing disparate views not connected to each other. When we get together, the same words seem to come out. And they have come out today in relation to MP Pi tman from both sides of the House: sincere, generous of spi rit, kind spirit, committed to helping people, a gentle giant. I had intended to say this: I knew him to be a very kind man. He had a quick wit, but it was a kind wit. Most importantly, in my opinion, he did a great deal of good behind the scenes without ever seeking credit for it and without ever crowing about it. And the world would benefit more if there were more people like him who behaved in that such a way, rather than seeking praise for deeds that really need to be done. He also loved politics. I am not sure he loved the House, I am told. I was not with him here in the House. I am not sure he loved the House. I am not sure he loved speaking in the House. But he certainly loved politics and it was a passion of his. If you bumped into him on the street , or wherever it may be, he wanted to know what was going on and what was the latest matter that was happening. I would just like to offer my sincere and hear tfelt condolences to his family, some of whom are my neighbours, my immediate neighbours, and indeed, constituents of mine. May he rest in peace. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Does any other Member . . . Minister Furbert, you have your three minutes. Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won’t use all of my three minutes, but I also want to be associated with the condolence remarks for Mr. Donald Scott. His daughter, Michelle, is …
Thank you. Does any other Member . . . Minister Furbert, you have your three minutes.
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won’t use all of my three minutes, but I also want to be associated with the condolence remarks for Mr. Donald Scott. His daughter, Michelle, is my constituent. I know the family of Mr. Donald Scott took really good care of their father. As well as Ms. Myrtle Edness, Gary Pitman, and Marietta Forbes. Mr. Speaker, I am also wanting to send condolences to the families of Mr. Barry Hanson, as well as Mr. Stanley Ingham and Mr. Tony Cordeiro. Mr. Stanley Ingham and Mr. Tony Cordeiro, . . . I admired how they took great care of their spouses and I just want to acknowledge the family and offer my sincerest condolences and support. I just have great admiration for the care that Mr. Stanley Ingham and Mr. Tony Cordeiro gave for their spouses. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Thank you, Minister. Does any other Member . . . MP Dunkley, you have your three minutes.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and good afternoon to the listening public and colleagues here. Mr. Speaker, I want to start off on a bright note and wish my mother a happy birthday today.
Some Hon. Members Some Hon. MembersHappy birthday. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Across all the House, I guess. [Laughter] Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, my mother, obviously, is a tremendous lady, as all our mothers are. But my father passed very young, and she got right on it and took care of four children. Three …
Happy birthday.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Across all the House, I guess. [Laughter]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, my mother, obviously, is a tremendous lady, as all our mothers are. But my father passed very young, and she got right on it and took care of four children. Three of them were tough to deal with; one of them was an angel and was no problem.
[Laughter]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: You can figure out who that was.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerIt wasn’t one in our company, was it? Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: But happy birthday, Momma. I hope to see you later today. Mr. Speaker, on a sadder note, I would like to be associated with the condolences to various people. First, let me start with former MP Gary Pitman. …
It wasn’t one in our company, was it?
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: But happy birthday, Momma. I hope to see you later today. Mr. Speaker, on a sadder note, I would like to be associated with the condolences to various people. First, let me start with former MP Gary Pitman. As colleagues have said, he was a reluctant Member of Parliament. But he was a person who was involved with the party for many, many years, and political parties need a soldier like Mr. Pitman. One of the things that I remember about him, he w as reluctant to speak, but every time he spoke, he must have had some quarters or nickels or dimes in his pocket and he rattled them.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerJingled them. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: And it was hard to listen to him because he was always rattling his coins and I think one of the Speakers at the time actually made him take his hands out of his pocket for a very brief period, it did not last …
Jingled them.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: And it was hard to listen to him because he was always rattling his coins and I think one of the Speakers at the time actually made him take his hands out of his pocket for a very brief period, it did not last long. But to his family, condolences on the passing of Gary who was a hell of a gentleman. Mr. Speaker, to my constituent, Tony Cordeiro, condolences to his family. And I echo what the Honourable Minister said—and Member of the House Susan Jackson wants to be associated as well. We know him for what he did publicly but what he did pr i-vately for his wife and his family certainly is something that I was proud to see, and certainly I enjoyed going around and having conversations with them on their patio. Condolences echoed to [the family of] former assistant commissioner, Harold Moniz. Member Zane De Silva mentioned that he started in 1959, and he was a constituent of mine for a number of years, and I was afraid to go visit him because I held him in such awe for who he was. Even though he was a police officer, you did not really want to knock on his door, but you had to knock on his door. And I enjoyed my time and the conversations with him. Condolences to [the family of] Danny Farias who I ran against in a primary. One thing I remember about Danny, how passionate he was, but the strength of his handshake! You better be ready. It was coming, because you would lose your wrist down with his handshake. And finally, Mr. Speaker, I end it on this note on purpose [with] Brian Morris, his passing. He joined us in our Saturday golf group occasionally, and I r emember one day he came out, not too long ago, and he only played seven holes because he struggled. But you would never know that he was struggling that day. His attitude and his approach to humans is something that I will never forget, Mr. Speaker. And to Brian, I know you are watching us, and I know you are singing for us, and may you rest in peace.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Any other Member? Opposition Whip, you have three minutes.
Mr. Jarion Richard sonThank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to join my voice with the chorus to the sad passing of Tony Cordeiro. I knew him as a young reporter in the newsroom. I am sure every journalist in Bermuda, both present and past, not only admired Tony for his f orthrightness, …
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to join my voice with the chorus to the sad passing of Tony Cordeiro. I knew him as a young reporter in the newsroom. I am sure every journalist in Bermuda, both present and past, not only admired Tony for his f orthrightness, his clarity, his stewardship. He always took us young journalists under his wing. He was always fulsome in his critique. And when you were working with him on a story you knew you had to dot your i’s and cross your t’s. He was very detailed. And he told more stories in those quick snapshots than I could in 500 words. He was a storyteller. He was a chronicler, and he will be missed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Government Whip, Mr. Tyrrell, you have your three minutes.
Mr. Neville S. TyrrellThank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it would be very remiss of me if I did not associate myself with some condolences that have already been expressed. I received a WhatsApp from one of my persons saying that I would get licks if I don’t, so I don’t think I …
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it would be very remiss of me if I did not associate myself with some condolences that have already been expressed. I received a WhatsApp from one of my persons saying that I would get licks if I don’t, so I don’t think I want to do that. 296 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly But I certainly want to associate myself with, firstly, Mr. Vincent Caines. I knew him as “Boxy.” I never knew his first name. He was my Sunday School teacher at the Evening Light Pentecostal Church, so he obviously guided me in a way that you can see what is standing here in front of you today. He was a friend of the family and I . . . you always heard him before you actually saw him. So he was that sort of gregarious type person who certainly will be missed. The next one is Mr. Gary Pitman. I had a short time with Mr. Pitman on the Hotel Pension Plan Board. Having met him earlier than when I went on the board, when I was Senator, he actually approached me a couple of times to give me some ad-vice on how I should conduct myself in the Senate. So, I found him to be a very good person. And certai nly, knowledgeable on the pension side, which is som ething that I did in my other life as well. And finally, certainly, I want to give condolences to the family of Brian Morr is. There is some inlaw relationship in my family with him. I was actually the Chair of the Government golf courses so I ran into Brian on many occasions on my visits to Ocean View. I always found him to be a very relaxed sort of person. And like every ot her speaker has said, I did not know for the longest while that he had been sick. I did not know because he was the sort of guy who just went about life and enjoyed life. I would certainly like condolences to all three families for those three persons who surely will be missed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Honourable Member. Is there any other Member? MP Richardson, you have your three minutes.
Mr. Anthony RichardsonGood afternoon, Mr. Speaker. [It] is always [with] a heavy heart when you come to recognise those persons who are deceased. But in a strange way, there is also an element of joy knowing that they celebrated full lives. And in that r egard, I will say that I was …
Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker. [It] is always [with] a heavy heart when you come to recognise those persons who are deceased. But in a strange way, there is also an element of joy knowing that they celebrated full lives. And in that r egard, I will say that I was saddened to attend the ser-vice for Ms. Wanda Paynter and her daughter, Shondelle. It was interesting in terms of you never do that. You know, how often do you go to a [service] when it is both mother and daughter being recognised and celebrated at the same time. And as I said earlier, the beauty is that they each l ed lives that were very, very giving. And so, yes, it was a sad time but certai nly on the other hand it was a joyous time. I will go to, actually I think it is number 24, when I speak of joy, because earlier this week also Ms. Joy Warner, who is my aunt, she died. Her husband is James, Uncle James. Another one who lived a very, very full life, she was one of 12 siblings altogether. And I smile because for me it is all the aunts and uncles, right, and how you get together on those special occasions. And so her daughter actually works in the Premier’s office. And so we certainly extend condolences to the entire family. What is a bit strange to me actually is that also with Brian Morris, I did not know him. But he came back to the Island on Sunday and what was amazing is that at first at the airport there were three people, and they came inside and asked a few questions and before you knew it that group expanded to about 20, easily. All there were wanting to have an opportunity to see him. And when he came off the ai rcraft, notwithstanding his discomfort, he was still r esponsive. And his wife, all credit to her. Truly, truly amazing. On a sombre but truly celebratory note, there is another lady, Ms. Almeria Burch. She died in her 102 nd year. She was actuall y a family member, my wife’s great aunt. And she was in the constituency of the Deputy [Premier], Walter Roban. She died in her 102nd year. What was amazing though is that through all the time that I saw her you would never see her dishevelled.
[Timer chi mes]
Mr. Anthony RichardsonWhat I mean by that is if I went to her house early or late, in my mind she was dressed, well dressed. And so, I just want to say thank you—
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you for your contribution, Member.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Does any other Member . . . MP Adams, you have your three minutes. Let . . . Yes. MP Adams, you have your three minutes. And, that’s right . . . okay.
Mr. Jache AdamsYes. The Speake r: Now you have your three minutes.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerYou have your three minutes now, yes. [Laughter]
Mr. Jache AdamsMr. Speaker, I will be . . . no need to run the clock for me this morning. I will be quite brief. The first thing I want to do is be associated with the comments of the passing of Mr. Gary Pitman. As the current representative of constituency 19, …
Mr. Speaker, I will be . . . no need to run the clock for me this morning. I will be quite brief. The first thing I want to do is be associated with the comments of the passing of Mr. Gary Pitman. As the current representative of constituency 19, I can
Bermuda House of Assembly speak to the fact that he was a former running mate of my grandfather, out in constituency 19. And I can r emember him —and even constituents today continuously speaking quite highly of him —and I can remember even as a young boy going with my grandfather and going to his office up in Chev ron [International] when they would strategise and talk politics and things that they had planned to do within the community. [Inaudible interjection]
Mr. Jache AdamsYes, yes. Exactly. But I certainly want to join the Deputy Speaker in, sort of, his words of how genuine and sincere he was as a man. Mr. Speaker, I would also to be associated with the comments and condolences to the family of Mr. Michael Paynter. He was a …
Yes, yes. Exactly. But I certainly want to join the Deputy Speaker in, sort of, his words of how genuine and sincere he was as a man. Mr. Speaker, I would also to be associated with the comments and condolences to the family of Mr. Michael Paynter. He was a colleague of mi ne at the bank for a number of years and I knew him to really be an entrepreneur and [one who held] that entr epreneurial spirit. In the many conversations that I had with Mike it was not just on the status of his current business, but it was always what he planned to do next. And he really represented that entrepreneurial spirit. And so certainly I wanted to send all my condolences to his family. And then finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to end it on a more positive note and send congratulations to Ms. Kendaree Burgess on her new role as the COO of BDA. I want to associate myself with MP Jackson and MP Richardson. Ms. Kendaree Burgess is certainly a prime example of female leadership in this country, and I certainly wish her all the best in her new pos ition. Thank you.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, MP. Does any other Member wish to make . . . Deputy Premier. You have your three minutes. Hon. Walter H. Roban: Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Many persons were recognised this morning that I would like to be as sociated with, but there are few …
Thank you, MP. Does any other Member wish to make . . . Deputy Premier. You have your three minutes.
Hon. Walter H. Roban: Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Many persons were recognised this morning that I would like to be as sociated with, but there are few that I would like to particularly mention, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, Ms. Myrtle Edness. But first I would to speak about Ms. Almeria Burch who was a constituent of mine. Although she ended her wonderful years in another part of the Island, she spent much of her . . . all of her life was in the North Village area, and she was a pillar of that community. And her family remains a solid pillar of that community and certainly her passing was something that I could not not give recognition to. And I was honoured to be made aware that she had passed and I was able to attend her f uneral. Ms. Myrtle Edness. I grew up on South Shore, Warwick. And as a young boy I remember when she was still running the store right by the roadside. She was still . . . which is now a cycle livery that has gone through a couple of renditions since. But I remember her actually still working in those years when I was a very young person. So always a continuous figure within the Warwick community. She is the aunt of former Premier Dame Jennifer Smith, in case some people did not know. So, I did have many chances to meet with her and visit her at her home. Her passing … [she] will be missed by many, particularly in the Warwick community, without a doubt. I mu st mention Danny Farias. Danny was a friend, and perhaps some of my appreciation and un-derstanding of Bermuda’s environment and fisheries and certainly conservation, all three topics that Danny was extremely passionate about. As a younger member of the PLP , was fed by his extreme advocacy in that area. So, Danny, along with another person that we have already mentioned, Linwood Outerbridge, were pillars of the fishing community of Bermuda. And [they were] gentlemen who were advocates for their industry in t he strongest ways. So, I am going to miss Danny a quite bit. And all the accolades that have been mentioned by others about him and his strong grip and his strong personality and warmness but courage were all things that were representative of Danny in so many ways. So, we will miss him. Mr. Stanley Grant in my district —
[Timer chimes]
Hon. Walter H. Roban: —also passed recently. I would like to recognise him as well. Thank you very much.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Deputy Premier. Does any other Member wish to make a contribution?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMP Famous, you have your three minutes.
Mr. Christopher FamousI would like to associate [with the comments] for Mr. Brian Morris, Mr. Harold Moniz, Mr. Danny Farias. A ll of these gentlemen come from Devonshire—Mr. [Henry] Llewelyn Phipps, Green Acres. Vincent “Boxy” Caines, Happy Valley, Shane Furbert, Friswell’s Hill —all from Devonshire. And Ms. Ismay Steede, she lived in …
I would like to associate [with the comments] for Mr. Brian Morris, Mr. Harold Moniz, Mr. Danny Farias. A ll of these gentlemen come from Devonshire—Mr. [Henry] Llewelyn Phipps, Green Acres. Vincent “Boxy” Caines, Happy Valley, Shane Furbert, Friswell’s Hill —all from Devonshire. And Ms. Ismay Steede, she lived in Wellington Back Road, but she originally came f rom town, Mr. Speaker, I want to give congratulations to the staff at the Bermuda Housing Corporation for the completion of a few projects that the public should soon hear about. 298 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly Congratulations to Mr. Richard Winchell of ABIC on his retirement and servi ce to Bermuda. Congratulations to my cousins, Nekesha Tyrrell and Camryn Tyrrell. And Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Gorham’s. They recently made a very large tool donation (let me put it that way), not cash, tools, to the Parish Pride Project for the young people to go about doing their part to beautify our parishes of Devonshire and Smith’s. So, I just want to ensure that everybody understands that when you give to Gorham’s, they do give back. Also, I want to thank S.A.L. [Trading] who has donated generousl y as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Honourable Member. Does any other Honourable Member wish to make a contribution at this time? Any other Member? None. Before we move on I would just like to add my name to some of the remark s this morning. And I am going to start with a remark …
Thank you, Honourable Member. Does any other Honourable Member wish to make a contribution at this time? Any other Member? None. Before we move on I would just like to add my name to some of the remark s this morning. And I am going to start with a remark that was made by MP Caines this morning when he got on his feet and was recognising some of the birthdays that were in his constituency. One that he named was actually my godmother, Ms . Victoria Daulphi n. So I would like to associate my name to his comments in regard to her birthday wishes. And then, on a sadder note, I would like to be associated with the condolences that have been ex-pressed to the family of Mr. Clarence Smith. And for those comments that have been expressed already, particularly to the outstanding work that he did on the Somerset Bridge. His family is very well known in the Sandy’s Parish and close to many of us who have been involved in the Sandy’s community and we know how loving and endearing they were with him and we feel their loss. Also, to the comments expressed for Mr. Danny Farias and much has already been said, and I was one of those who had interacted with Mr. Farias on many occasions in different settings that I have had to s erve in, and he was always very forthright and sincere about his view on fishing and [he] did Berm uda well. I would like to— [Timer chimes]
[Laughter and i naudible interjections ]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerI had to restart it. That was for the last person, see. I would like to be associated with the condolences expressed to the Doers family on the passing of Ms. Doers , another strong Somerset family. And to those remarks that were expressed to the loss of Mr. Gary …
I had to restart it. That was for the last person, see. I would like to be associated with the condolences expressed to the Doers family on the passing of Ms. Doers , another strong Somerset family. And to those remarks that were expressed to the loss of Mr. Gary Pitman. Yes, I remember Mr. Pi tman having served in this House. He was very genuine and sincere about his time here. And to the young men, both from the West End, who lost their lives in a recent tragic road acc ident, I would like to be associated with the remarks to those families. And in closing I would like to add condolences to the family on the passing of Mr. Ellsworth “Tom” Wainwright. A very strong Southampton gentleman and a family member of mine as well. I would like to have his passing acknowledged here. And lastly, to the passing of Mr. Dudley Swan, [Sr.] a former police officer. We mentioned the pas sing of, acknowledged Harold Moniz, but there was also Mr. Dudley Swan, [Sr.] who served in the police force for many years, and he was funeralised recently and I would like to express condolences [to his family] as well. His wife is family to us; my mother and her grew up together as first cousins. So, we are very close to the family, and we share in their loss. Thank you. That brings us to a close of the obituary and congratulations this morning. We will now move on.
MATTERS OF PRIVILEGE
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThere are none. PERSONAL EXPLANATIONS
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThere are none. NOTICE OF MOTIONS FOR THE ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE ON MATTERS OF URGENT PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThere are none. INTRODUCTION OF BILLS GOVERNMENT BILLS
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThere are two Bills to be introduced this morning. Both are in the name of the Minister of National Security. Minister. FIRST READINGS FIRE SAFETY AMENDMENT ACT 2023 POLICE (AMENDMENT AND VALIDATION) ACT 2023 Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am introducing the following Bills …
There are two Bills to be introduced this morning. Both are in the name of the Minister of National Security. Minister.
FIRST READINGS
FIRE SAFETY AMENDMENT ACT 2023
POLICE (AMENDMENT AND VALIDATION) ACT 2023 Hon. Michael A. Weeks: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am introducing the following Bills for their first reading so that they may be placed on the Order Paper for the next day of meeting.
Bermuda House of Assembly The first one is the Fire Safety Amendment Act 2023, and the second one is the Police (Amendment and Validation) Act 2023. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Minister. NOTICE OF MOTIONS
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThere are none. ORDERS OF THE DAY
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThat takes us to the Orders of the Day. And you will see there is a clean sheet which now leads us to— [Inaudible interjection and laughter]
The SpeakerThe Speaker—which now leads us to acknowledging one of two things. Deputy Premier, we can acknowledge that we c an go to motion to adjourn from here or we can take a lunch break at this time. Would you like to go directly to motion to adjourn or would you like …
—which now leads us to acknowledging one of two things. Deputy Premier, we can acknowledge that we c an go to motion to adjourn from here or we can take a lunch break at this time. Would you like to go directly to motion to adjourn or would you like to take a lunch break at this time? It is now 12:30.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Walter H. Roban: I do not want to seem like I am dictating what the House should do. What is the view of the House?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerWell, I am prepared— Hon. Walter H. Roban: If Members wish to go over — [Crosstalk] Hon. Walter H. Roban: We can go all the way through. I did not want to give the impression as if I was singularly dictating what the House should do,
Mr. Speaker .
The SpeakerOkay. Mr. Deputy Premier, with that said, can you move the motion for the motion to adjourn? [Inaudible interjection] Hon. Walter H. Roban: Tell the Honourable Member to be quiet, please. [Laughter] Hon. Walter H. Roban: He is no longer in this Chair. [Laughter] Hon. Walter H. Roban: Mr. Speaker, …
Okay. Mr. Deputy Premier, with that said, can you move the motion for the motion to adjourn? [Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Walter H. Roban: Tell the Honourable Member to be quiet, please. [Laughter]
Hon. Walter H. Roban: He is no longer in this Chair.
[Laughter] Hon. Walter H. Roban: Mr. Speaker, I wish to move that the House do adjourn until the 17 th of February [2023].
ADJOURNMENT
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Minister. Does any Member wish to make a contribution on the motion to adjourn? The Deputy Speaker, you have your 20 minutes. CIVIL SERVANTS ABUSING POWER Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this Government prides itself in removing the red tape …
Thank you, Minister. Does any Member wish to make a contribution on the motion to adjourn? The Deputy Speaker, you have your 20 minutes.
CIVIL SERVANTS ABUSING POWER
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this Government prides itself in removing the red tape for businesses setting up in Bermuda which should include local businesses. I believe we have taken the tape off the box, but inside the box are still those old moving parts and they move as they want to, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think when we decided to r emove the red tape and make it friendly for business, I think we fell short in some aspects. Because I believe that any person going into the business, whether it be young or old, for the first time there should be a tolerance period. A tolerance period for things that this entrepreneur may unintentionally do, or inadvertently, and they should not be penalised, but they should be assisted to get it right. These things will happen. We have to make it friendly for them to operate in Berm uda. Not to say that we will remove the red tape, but all the bureaucracy is still there, and they are penali sed because they have not followed the regulations. So, I am calling for this Government to consider a tolerance period for new people in business, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am aware of businesses having problems. I know one businessperson who has had t heir goods detained for over three months by Customs and were not even told what Act or Regul ations that they supposedly violated. Eventually they released the goods. But now there is another one and they have had these goods for a month so far. When Cus toms does such things, they should let that person know why these goods are being held and the law under which they are being held. Because one of the dangerous practices worldwide is, I have a hunch. It is almost like the “thought” department. They have a hunch that so- and-so received $10 (or whatever it is) so they start an investigation. To me that is dangerous. It is almost right now what is in law (and we put it in) that if a policeman thinks that I have drugs on me—that’s the thought now—they can search me. That is dangerous, Mr. Speaker, because some abuse that law. The law was not intended to do that, but they do it and they can get away it and that poor person is facing legal bills in order to prove that they are innocent, Mr. Speaker. 300 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker , I am disturbed by even Mr. Thomas in St. George’s. I do not know him personally. And earlier last year he had some problems with some [exhaust] fan. I thought that the Planning [D epartment] should have told him because of the site, the Heritage Site, what particular [exhaust] fan you need, the specification, and where you can get it. Well, I thought it was sorted out by my Minister, and I know the Minister wants these things to go away and let these guys operate. But we have some who think they are in charge even above the Minister. Because even in December [there was] this same problem with him, Mr. Speaker. And consequently, he was not able to open his business at Christmastime. And there went jobs —jobs for those who want to work. And the place is still closed in a town that is crying for new businesses, Mr. Speaker. This should not happen, regardless of the political affiliation, race, nationality [or where] they are from. No one should be faced with those types of problems that they are having, Mr. Speaker. Those things appal me, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, further to that, one that touches home to me, even clearly, how a young lady is being penalised by civil servants, I would s ay. Mr. Speaker, they went as far as to put it in writing, threatening this lady that if she did not pay these funds by today, they would hold up her shipment. Putting her livelihood at risk. Having to take her child . . . not only that, some staff members . They did not care! But they put it in writing. Civil servant! This is not right! We should not be threatening our people. But that same fellow, bus inessman, whoever they may be, may owe this Government hundreds of thousands of dollars and no penalty, no requirements are put on them, Mr. Speaker. And then they complain how the young folk react. They have a right to react like that, Mr. Speaker, when you treat them like they have been doing. And Mr. Speaker, that is not the only instance. This same partic ular person, trying to get a vehicle, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that has happened for a first time, other people have the same vehicle and asked for the same, what they had. They put her through pure hell, H -E-L-L.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: That is not unparli amentary. You look in the Oxford Dictionary, you will see it. And, Mr. Speaker, they are still putting her through that. Not the wishes of the Minister, civil ser vants. One civil servant even called her fat her. That is the power they think they have. They think they are above the Ministry and the Government. You know, Mr. Speaker, when you threaten a person . . . because I am not going to let this rest, because it touc hes me, my blood. I will not let it rest . And they think they are right. Then they blackball them throughout the country. Oh, that is so- and-so. That is so- and-so and so- and-so. Well, all you did was put fire in her, more fire than she had. And certainly, my fire never goes out, Mr. Speaker. Civil servants making policies as they go. You will not find anywhere in the Code of Conduct where you can threaten a taxpayer, a businessperson, Mr. Speaker. Just like they will go after Mr. Jones, who owes $111. He is a truck owner. And they say you cannot get your truck licensed until you pay this $111. But my rich cousin, my affluent cousin who owes a million dollars, he gets his trucks and vehicles l icensed with no penalties, no requirements or any-thing.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Derrick V. Burges s, Sr.: This is shameful, as my colleague said. Very shameful, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we will not tolerate it! We will never, ever tolerate being treated other than the norm. Then you get one person who says, Oh, those vehicles are illegal. How could a vehicle be illegal, and they have a licence? The Minister of Transport, as you know, Mr. Speaker, by the law, has the authority to pass and give persons a licence, and you have a learned person talking that foolishness! Mr. Speaker, I could write more and say more but I won’t get this time.
BANK OF BUTTERFIELD — DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: But, Mr. Speaker, let me take you to another area. Mr. Speaker, the Bank of Butterfield, the bank that we, the Government, the Progressive Labour Party Government, bailed out to the tune of BMD$200 million. They are now kicking people out of the bank and sending them letters, You have until February to get out. And they really do not give a reason, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this i s not right. Because, Mr. Speaker, if you read their banking code, if I may, . . . if I can read it, just part of it?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerGo right ahead. Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: It says , “We understand that trust is critical to our customer relations. We need to do the right thing in order to earn and mai ntain that trust.” (It goes on to say ) “We are committed to continuously improvi ng …
Go right ahead.
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: It says , “We understand that trust is critical to our customer relations. We need to do the right thing in order to earn and mai ntain that trust.” (It goes on to say ) “We are committed to continuously improvi ng and being held account able.” Mr. Speaker, that same bank, when we had the PGA Championship in Bermuda late last year, prior to that had invited Zane DeSilva to the Courtesy Camp and he appeared in court on a frivolous charge (that will be dealt with later) and they uninvited him. What they really were telling him was that he was
Bermuda House of Assembly guilty! Prove yourself innocent. How could a bank do such stuff, Mr. Speaker? And Mr. Speaker, those four people who I know of include two Premiers of this country! That is not right! And I am talking about Premiers in the Progressive Labour Party. I do not know if this has affected others on the other side. But my feelings are the same, it should not be allowed, this company coming in here and doing that. Mr. Speaker, one thing about those old White boys who owned—and I say “White boys” respectfully, because that is what they were, they were White— who owned the Bank of Butterfield and the Bank of Bermuda, they knew politics. And regardless, they played their cards basically right. Now we have banks here . . . and I welcome them because we want foreign investment —because that is what we earn our dollar s on, foreign investment —to come to this country. And to come in here . . . I don’t know if they are getting orders from the FCO [ Foreign and Commonwealth Office] or from the largest house on Langton Hill. But why would they pick certain people to get kicked out of [their] bank when they are not proving to be criminals? They are born just like you and me. That should not happen, Mr. Speaker. You know, I am urging this Government to do something about that. That [when] you come into this country, you respec t us. Because it is bad enough when somebody comes out of Westgate . . . or Cas emates or . . . you know what I mean, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerYes. Go ahead. Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr : They cannot get a bank account in Bermuda. How do you want these fellows to rehabilitate themselves when they cannot get a bank account in these institutions? The only place they can get some banking service is to go around to …
Yes. Go ahead.
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr : They cannot get a bank account in Bermuda. How do you want these fellows to rehabilitate themselves when they cannot get a bank account in these institutions? The only place they can get some banking service is to go around to Union Square, at the Bermuda Credit U nion. That is the only place that will accommodate them, Mr. Speaker. This is not right. We should not have any business in this country that discriminates against our people. Yes, they went to prison; they served their time. A lot of people go to prison, and they are not even guilty because they have been set up by author ities. Yes, we do have bad policemen too—and good ones! And I would think that most of our policemen are good ones. But a lot of our people went to prison not guilty. They did not have the money to have a defence to prove their innocence, Mr. S peaker. And we should not have banks coming here, after [our people] have been released and continuing [their] sentence. You come out and you cannot get a bank account . . . I might as well go back to prison. Because at least any money I earn in the bank, they keep it for you and they give it to you when you come out. That is really what they are doing. That are saying, No, go back to prison. That is where you belong. So, Mr. Speaker, I am asking that this Government, we must do something. They kicked four people out. They uninvited an MP to their Camp because of what appeared in the papers. You cannot be the judge, jury and prosecution. And I think the bank is being run by a Bermudian, Mr. Speaker. And we cannot . . . and I shall not rest on this one. I do not care who you are. If it is wrong; it is wrong! And I will fight you to the end. And I am hoping that others will join in the fight because this should not happen to any of our citizens, Mr. Speaker. With that, Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the time.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Deputy Speaker. Does any other Member wish to make a contribution at this time? Any other Member? MP Richardson, you have your 20 minutes. UNRELIABLE MEDIA REPORTS
Mr. Anthony RichardsonGood afternoon, again, to you, Mr. S peaker, to my colleagues and those in the listening audience. Mr. Speaker, I am going to do my best to be very careful and deliberate in what I say. But I do want Members to respectfully listen because, Mr. Speaker, I do rise …
Good afternoon, again, to you, Mr. S peaker, to my colleagues and those in the listening audience. Mr. Speaker, I am going to do my best to be very careful and deliberate in what I say. But I do want Members to respectfully listen because, Mr. Speaker, I do rise today to notify this Honourable House of my disappointment with the Premier and Minister of F inance and my political colleague, the Honourable D avid Burt. Now, why would I say such a thing? I see people turning now, but I will say to you, Mr. Speaker, I believe, and obviously I am part of the PLP team, and I believe that when requests are made, they should be honoured. But the Honourable Premier and Minister of Finance, in his own decision told me, No. He noticed that I am very disappointed, not happy, but I will soldier on. Correct. The issue is: What in the world is MP Ric hardson talking about? Now listen carefully. I did the unthinkable. I asked the Premier for a personal loan. A $2 million loan. Why? Mr. Speaker, I was informed by a video clip that the net worth of the Premier exceeds $40 million.
[Inaudible interjection]
Mr. Anthony RichardsonGet in line is right. But, Mr. Speaker, my disquiet was only am eliorated this morning when I saw that [the Premier] had issued a clarification that, clearly, that information was not correct. Mr. Speaker, of course, I am being facetious. What was interesting was that [the Premier] did go …
Get in line is right. But, Mr. Speaker, my disquiet was only am eliorated this morning when I saw that [the Premier] had issued a clarification that, clearly, that information was not correct. Mr. Speaker, of course, I am being facetious. What was interesting was that [the Premier] did go to the said website and he wrote to them and asked them for a correction. And they did give a correction; however, you have to read through detail to under302 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly stand where the actual apology and correction is. Now, realistically, everybody, where am I going with this? Mr. Speaker, there was an article . . . and I did speak during the last session by the way about media bias. There was an article, Mr. Speak er, that said that 83 per cent oppose becoming independent in Berm uda. And if I may, Mr. Speaker, part of the comments read thus —
Mr. Anthony Richardson1“Recently, David Burt has made numerous public comments about the possibilit y of Bermuda becoming a sovereign state. When asked if residents support or oppose Bermuda securing their sovereignty from the United Kingdom, a strong major ity of residents [83%] were in opposition, while only ten percent were in support …
1“Recently, David Burt has made numerous public comments about the possibilit y of Bermuda becoming a sovereign state. When asked if residents support or oppose Bermuda securing their sovereignty from the United Kingdom, a strong major ity of residents [83%] were in opposition, while only ten percent were in support and seven percent were unsure in this regard.” Big headline! And what made it worse is that other reporters picked up on that and carried it through to the point that now many of us believe that 83 per cent of the population oppose independence. Mr. Speaker, if I said to everybody that, based upon the recent leaderships campaign within the PLP, 63 per cent of Bermudians believe that David Burt should remain as Premier, many would be up in arms. Now where am I going with that? In the same article that was in the paper, tow ard the bottom of it, the exact same thing, what it read . . . and again, Mr. Speaker, if you would indulge me.
Mr. Anthony RichardsonIt says at the very bottom, “The results presented in this document were collec ted from Narrati ve Research Bermuda’s proprietary online panel of adult residents, Bermuda Voice. Per industry standards, a margin of error cannot be ascribed to online survey results.” What does that mean?
Mr. Anthony RichardsonBut what happens? We have a blazing headline, and we all think that this is now correct, not realizing that . . . guess what? At the very bottom it says it cannot be relied upon. And so, what we have now, again, is an example whereby the media (in …
But what happens? We have a blazing headline, and we all think that this is now correct, not realizing that . . . guess what? At the very bottom it says it cannot be relied upon. And so, what we have now, again, is an example whereby the media (in this case) chose to report information that was not accurate.
1 Bernews 12 January 2023 Mr. Speaker, you may know that I am an accountant by prof ession for many, many years now. We have this concept that is called “ representational faithfulness. ” What that means is when you convey information it should accurately represent or show or provide information about what is intended. In this i nstance this is clearly not the case. Because, yes, the information that they had did show 83 per cent, and all those kinds of things, but they know that it is not being representationally faithful because the results themselves cannot be relied upon. And I use the comparison again because if we look at the PLP leadership results, guess what? Yes, David Burt did get 63 per cent of the votes. But it is based upon the PLP delegates, and it is not correct to then take that and say, Guess what? Based upon the delegates’ vote, Bermuda is in the same sense. And what happens, of course, is that people would easily say, Well, Anthony knows that David Burt is not wanted by 63 per cent. But they will not take the same energy and time to realise that what is being reported in the paper is not actually accurate. I did say also at the last sitting that this whole idea around independence (right?) is not being handled appropriately, correctly, or any of those positive words. We will still say that even in 1995, when we had the Independence Referendum, that those results represent Bermuda. And they do not! And this why: The UBP were the proponents of the referendum (if you will), but Sir John Swan himself has said publicly that even he did not support the referendum, but he did it to honour others who had joined the UBP at that time. On the PLP side, similarly for various reasons, and I think you be aware of some of those details, there was not the support . . . not so much not for i ndependence, but not support for the referendum at that time because of how it was being proposed and the potential, [if successful], that Sir John Swan and the UBP would not be able to properly represent Bermuda in that context. So, therefore, we still do not have a genuine representation of the degree to whi ch Bermudians will or will not support independence. But more fundamentally, when it was laid in the House by both the . . . well, by Attorney General Kathy Simmons, but also spoken to by the Premier, the idea now is to get us to a point whereby we can have a proper conversation, an informed convers ation, so we can make better decisions. But guess what, Mr. Speaker? This is not about independence. This is not about the Premier or Attorney General or any individual person. It is about having good, genuine i nformation in the media and also encouraging all of us to take more time to understand the context of the information that is being pr esented and what the intended narrative is. It is very important. We . . . not we, but I will speak to the Mini ster as it is now moving through to change or to adjust our education system. One of the things that we have to teach our children is critical thinking. When we
Bermuda House of Assembly read, go further to understand the context of the i nformation. And sometimes it is as simple as understanding who wrote it and what is the intent. Mr. Speaker, I am smiling now in my mind because when it came to this whole idea of this report (if you will) the comment was that they chose it from their own panel. And I think the number was 219 people who they used, but there is no indication as to who they are, if they are definitely Independent . And so it almost comes to a stage now , whereby all the work done by this company is discredited. It is like anybody . . . if someone continuously (quote/unquote) “lies, ” it is difficult then to believe them when they are telling the truth. And so that, in my mind, is the challenge with this article now and this company because we cannot rely upon their so- called research, Mr. Speaker. And I am mindful that . . . I believ e there is a Royal Gazette reporter in the room. But it also speaks to what happens sometimes in the daily paper wher eby they would have a (quote/unquote) “survey” and then they will report the survey results. And I would say again that what they report is accurate, but they know again it is not representationally faithful. B ecause that is not in any way, shape or form an indic ation of the general population. But yet, they do it r epeatedly. And then, again, we and the general public feed off of that and say , Yes, this is what it is. And we know, we know, we know that it is not correct. So, Mr. Speaker, let me go back a bit because even in this context of the Premier having this (quote/unquote) “significant personal worth,” let us assume that it was correct. So what? So what? I would look at you, Mr. Speaker, and intentionally not look around the room because even if he was wealthy, I would venture to guess that he would not be the most wealthy Member in the Chamber.
[Inaudible interjection]
Mr. Anthony R ichardsonHe would not be the most wealthy Member in the Chamber. And so, again, we have to think through what is this narrative? What is the intent? And so, I say to all of us to be mindful. And I accept that right now the body language of some of …
He would not be the most wealthy Member in the Chamber. And so, again, we have to think through what is this narrative? What is the intent? And so, I say to all of us to be mindful. And I accept that right now the body language of some of those opposite is som ewhat sceptical. But guess what? It is the Premier now, but it could be anybody next, even for those on the opposite bench. And right now, only because you are in my direct eyesight, MP Richardson—
[Laughter]
Mr. Anthony RichardsonI am not referring to you for sure. But I am just saying to you that we have to be very mindful of all of these things. And so, Mr. Speaker, the idea of this continuous negative narr a-tive is dangerous for a lot of different reasons. One of which …
I am not referring to you for sure. But I am just saying to you that we have to be very mindful of all of these things. And so, Mr. Speaker, the idea of this continuous negative narr a-tive is dangerous for a lot of different reasons. One of which is that i t causes us to not focus on what is. Mr. Speaker, I will briefly now refer to my honourable colleague, MP Jason Hayward, who does an incredible job, in my opinion, in terms of putting out lots of financial -related data about Bermuda. One of those things was a regular reporting, obviously not collected by him, but a regular reporting of the CPI (cost of living in Bermuda). And there is an intent, I believe, to muddy the waters in terms of what he pr esents. And so, I want to commend you, Minister, to keep on pressing with what you do and to encourage the general public to listen to what the facts are, obv iously ask questions to clarify, but let us make sure that we avoid the narrative. One of those things that causes me some significant concern, to be honest, is that Bermuda’s economy is different from what is in the US, both in terms of size and what we do and all of those kinds of things. And it is not correct to say that Bermuda’s i nflation should mirror what is in the US or elsewhere. Yes, there may be a tr ajectory, if you will, in terms of movements and direction, but it does not mirror. And in my mind, what I am remembering is that even in the daily paper, right, there was an article some time ago that said that the cost of bringing a container to Bermuda had risen to $25,000. That is not correct as a general statement. But I was surprised because nobody challenged that. Now, yes, there is a significant increase in the cost of a container coming from Europe across to the US and then to Bermuda. Yes, that is correct. But there is no way that a container is going to cost you $25,000 to come from the US (from where the majority of our goods come) to Bermuda. But we tend not to challenge these things. And I think it is important right now in the context of a budget that is going to be delivered in the next, I think, two weeks now —February 17. And so, hopefully we are going to be at a point whereby we are prepared to ask questions, ask questions, and ask more questions so that it can be clarified. But let us not get caught up in the unnecessary narrative. Now, Mr. Speaker, I think I will tread on somewhat dangerous ground, as I conclude in this whole idea of narrative, and I will say this . There was a meeting held last week, Thursday. And I woke up in the morning and I said, Oh, wow! It is about tourism . And my honest comment was, Oh no! Why was I not invited? So, I respectfully crashed the event. But I crashed it in terms of, Mr. Minister, is it okay for me to come? Obviously, I went through the process, and the answer was yes. It was intended, in my mind—well, it was advertised actually —as a closed- door meeting. And so, to my honourable colleagues, you can imagine my surprise when I saw an article . . . I believe today is . . . maybe on Wednesday , that spoke about what was believed to be the intent or the real theme of what happened that day. 304 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly So Mr. Speaker, I am like, what is happening? Because thankfully I was there. And so, because there was that article, there was a report on the news yesterday. I will say this , one of the great takeaways from the meeting was the fact that the hotels are r eporting a broad occupancy in the 75 per cent range. And yet, many visitors when coming to Bermuda are told there are no rooms available. Therefore, they do not come. And what was remarkable . . . and the president of the Hotel Association talked about this last time on the TV, that there is actually a move to better coordinate notification of available rooms. This seems to me, Mr. Speaker, to be a tremendous benefit because we know that airline lift is tied to available rooms. So, if that group concluded that it is necessary to work together, then that is something that should be highlighted. So, Mr. Speaker, as I conclude, I will go back to where I started. And that is that I wanted a loan, and the Premier told me no. But the beauty of it, of course, is that this idea, this narrative of trying to pull down the leadership (and I mean leadership broadly) is ridiculous. And yes, I understand that we are polit icians and things will be intended. But, Mr. Speaker, this is absolutely atrocious for us if we understand where we are. [So] m y very last comments, which people have heard me say before . . . we can be collectively in a small boat off a Devonshire dock. It can be me, Honourabl e [Craig] Cannonier, Honourable [Cole] Simons, anybody. And guess what ? The boat springs a leak. At that point in time, we are not going to fight. We are going to make a decision that is going to be one person bail and one person row , because at that point in time, we have to get back to shore. And that is where we are. Bermuda has sprung a leak—however you want to define it. And we in this Chamber collectively need to realise that it is all about us together. So my appeal is: Let’s get it together especial ly as we approach this financial discussion that will take place over the next several weeks about the national budget, the national finances, and how we are going to collectively move together. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Honourable Member. Does any other Honourable Member wish to make a contribution? Any other Member? MP Dunkley, you have your 20 minutes. UNRELIABLE MEDIA REPORTS Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, I would like to make an interjection in this debate tonight because for the first 19 minutes …
Thank you, Honourable Member. Does any other Honourable Member wish to make a contribution? Any other Member? MP Dunkley, you have your 20 minutes.
UNRELIABLE MEDIA REPORTS
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, I would like to make an interjection in this debate tonight because for the first 19 minutes [of listening to] the Honourable Member who just spoke before me, I believe from constituency 7, he kind of lost me. And for the last minute he got me, because we do need to come t o-gether and row in the right direction. But we need to decide what that direction is going to be. But, Mr. Speaker, I was sent that video that the Honourable Member spoke about when he star ted. I was sent that video, I don’t k now, Wednesday night or whatever. And when I first pushed play, I looked at how long it ran for. And I thought I am not going to waste this amount of time in my life looking at it. But then I was intrigued because I have seen these types of videos before. They happen quite frequently in the political world. And Lord knows I have not fi gured out what the intent or what the goal is. So, I listened to this one to see who might come up. And after I listened to it and watched it, I replied back to the person, if you cannot see that this is BS (abbreviation), then I cannot help you. The video came back over and over again to people. Have you seen this? H ave you seen this? And you know, I could have done the political thing and I could have gone back and said, God, that is unbelievable. But I kept going back and saying, Come on; it is not real. This is as false as you can get for many reasons. One, they provided no wherewithal of how they came to those numbers. I know all 10 of those people in the video from my bei ng blessed to be in politics and circulate. I sat on a panel with one of those persons. I have met all 10 of those people. They provided no background of how they came to that. They provided no evidence of where they got their information from. And it just stunk to me, Mr. Speaker. I am speaking for two reasons here this afternoon, disappointed that we even got onto this, but mostly disappointed that there would be people in our community who would actually believe that type of stuff. It shows you the serious challenges we have as a community, Mr. Speaker. And I am not trying to make any enemies of this but, Mr. Speaker, the pol itics of the PLP I do not always agree with. And I think people have known that through my political career. But when we stoop this low, and we just want to go somewhere with saying what somebody is worth whether it is good or bad . . . this video was not a good video. So, it was [made with] a poor intent. Mr. Speaker, that is one of the reasons why we find it so difficult (the royal we in politics ) getting people involved because they do not want to put up with that. They say to me, and I am sure all colleagues on both sides of the House quite often, I don’t know how you do it. I don’t know why you do it. But we do it because we love our country. I did it and I do it because I was not going to be an armchair quarterback —ever. If I am going to speak, I am going to try to do something about it , especially in a small community where you know one end of the Island to the other and you see s o many people that you know and you love and you like and you feel you can make a contr ibution. But for this type of stuff . . . we have to do better, Mr. Speaker.
Bermuda House of Assembly So, I am glad that that video has been amended but that trash should be taken down. A nd I believe we have an oversight committee that deals with something like this, a public committee. We should find out the root of where it came from and stop it because, as I said, this is not the first time. And Lord knows we have enough differences between us in finding the direction we want to go. We do not need to put something else there. So, Mr. Speaker, on the m otion to adjourn this afternoon, the Honourable Member lost me for 19 minutes because I would not even have raised it. But then I started to think, wait a second, maybe we have more people than I ever believed who would believe this stuff and talk about it and think something about it.
[Inaudible interjections ]
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberUnbelievable. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Unbelievable. And when s omebody questioned me on the street today, he said, Well, so and so, if he doesn’t have that much type of money, I would like to know how much he has. But what difference does it make to you? Our lives …
Unbelievable. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Unbelievable. And when s omebody questioned me on the street today, he said, Well, so and so, if he doesn’t have that much type of money, I would like to know how much he has. But what difference does it make to you? Our lives are public. Yes , we can do better with the Register of Members’ Interest and stuff like that. But our lives are public. You can ask these types of questions. You can get an answer . But really , what people want to know is . . . they want to try to find something bad on each and every one of us to pull us down. And we need to be able to answer the questions that are legitimate. And we need to face up to the challenges that we currently face as individuals, Mr. Speaker, because we are being counted on to make very difficult decisions in a country that is going in a very poor direction right now with the lack of strength of our economy, the lack of airlift in our economy, the lack of —
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberYou lost me now. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: And I would expect the Government to say that you lost me now. But if y ou are going to listen to me quietly for six minutes, you also have to listen to the reality we are in. Our economy is struggling. …
You lost me now. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: And I would expect the Government to say that you lost me now. But if y ou are going to listen to me quietly for six minutes, you also have to listen to the reality we are in. Our economy is struggling. And if Members on the other side are going to say that we are doing okay . . . well, then we have another problem. Mr. Speaker.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Point of o rder, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerPoint of o rder. POINT OF ORDER [Misleading] Hon. Jason Hayward: If the Member is going to rise to the floor and say our economy is struggling, he needs to present the facts that support that.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberLook around you! Look around you! [Inaudible interjections ] Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, will I ask the general public? We can do a poll right now. We can do a legitimate poll right now of 50,000 people. [If] w e could get them . Mr. Speaker, those people …
Look around you! Look around you!
[Inaudible interjections ]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, will I ask the general public? We can do a poll right now. We can do a legitimate poll right now of 50,000 people. [If] w e could get them . Mr. Speaker, those people would say our economy is struggling: youth unemployment, the high cost of living, the rising cost of goods in this I sland, the rising cost of inflation in this Island, the lack of tourists in this Island, the lack of air capacity in this Island, the failed promises of opening the Southam pton Princess, which is our biggest hotel, Mr. Speaker.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberThat’s all negative. Another Hon. Member: It’s reality. ECONOMIC CHALLENGES IN BERMUDA Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Now, Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Member want s me to talk about the pos itives. And the Honourable Member is probably a little bit touchy because he is probably getting pressure every day . …
That’s all negative.
Another Hon. Member: It’s reality.
ECONOMIC CHALLENGES IN BERMUDA Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Now, Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Member want s me to talk about the pos itives. And the Honourable Member is probably a little bit touchy because he is probably getting pressure every day . And I understand, and I accept that, with the challenges that we face, M r. Speaker. But if we are going to row in the same direction, we need to know how hard we have to row, Mr. Speaker. And the country is struggling. More people are leaving Berm uda than I have ever seen in my lifetime. If you just go listen to people—
An Ho n. Member: Where are the facts?
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: You go listen to people talk about it. Mr. Speaker, if these guys want the facts, their heads are in the sand. Honourable Members ’ heads are in the sand. This country is not going in a positive direction, Mr. Speaker. And that is why I stand to speak this afternoon, Mr. Speaker, because we waste our time.
Hon. Jason Hayward: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerPoint of order. POINT OF ORDER [Misleading] Hon. Jason Hayward: The Member is misleading the House. The Government has met with international business. The Government has met with local bus iness through the Chamber of Commerce. We collec306 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly tively agree …
Point of order.
POINT OF ORDER [Misleading] Hon. Jason Hayward: The Member is misleading the House. The Government has met with international business. The Government has met with local bus iness through the Chamber of Commerce. We collec306 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly tively agree that the economy is on a good trajectory and that we are not heading in a recession.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerPoint taken. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Well, Mr. Speaker, therein lies part of the problem. The Honourable Minister who just spoke . . . I give the Honourable Mister full credit because he is very energetic. The Honourable Member has met wit h the bodies that he mentioned, and I …
Point taken.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Well, Mr. Speaker, therein lies part of the problem. The Honourable Minister who just spoke . . . I give the Honourable Mister full credit because he is very energetic. The Honourable Member has met wit h the bodies that he mentioned, and I give him credit for that. But I tell you right now, Mr. Speaker, I would like to know more about those meetings. What are the concerns raised? Is the international business comfortable with the changes that have been mooted as far as payroll tax goes, Mr. Speaker?
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberThat has nothing to do with the economy. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: It has nothing to do with the economy . Mr. Speaker , but herein lies the problem. The strength of Bermuda right now is international bus iness. I think we can both agree on that.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberCorrect. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: The Honourable Member says correct . If the strength is international business and that entity —that broad entity —has a challenge with something going f orward , and that entity is hiring people all over the world and that entity has the opportuni-ty to hire …
Correct.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: The Honourable Member says correct . If the strength is international business and that entity —that broad entity —has a challenge with something going f orward , and that entity is hiring people all over the world and that entity has the opportuni-ty to hire people in the multiple jurisdictions where they have businesses, because quite often in the i nternational business here, they have offices all over the world . If they are uncomfortable in one place, it is likely they will hire in other places, Mr. Speaker. One of the challenges we face is immigration. And the Honourable Minister knows the challenges we face. We need more mass in Bermuda. At the same time . . . and it is quiet, so I assume there is agreement there. At the same time, with the more mass, we need to be more efficient in Bermuda. The Honour able Member from c onstituency 6 talked about efficiencies, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I am frustrated t o listen this afternoon that the debate in the most important Chamber in Bermuda has to deal with the video that did nothing but try to move people apart when we have a challenge coming back together all the time. Mr. Speaker, our debate should be talking about the big issues that face us. And we are going to have ample time over the next couple of weeks. And I know Members on the Government side are quite upset at what I am saying [this afternoon].
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberBecause it isn’t true. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: They say it isn’t true. And all those M embers . . . I will print out the Hansard when it becomes available here and I will publish it in the Royal Gazette to show members of public what Government thinks. They …
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberAnd facts. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: And facts —their own facts, which are not truthful, Mr. Speaker. It cannot be because we face real challenges in Bermuda. How can we be comfortable with the direction that we go in when you have a hard time getting a flight to and …
And facts.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: And facts —their own facts, which are not truthful, Mr. Speaker. It cannot be because we face real challenges in Bermuda. How can we be comfortable with the direction that we go in when you have a hard time getting a flight to and from Bermuda, Mr. Speaker?
Hon. Jason Hayward: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: How can we be comf ortable?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerPoint of order. POINT OF ORDER [Misleading] Hon. Jason Hayward: Just for one practical example, the Member is misleading the House. One of the leading realtors was on TV this week talking about how robust the real estate industry has been. The real estate industry is our second largest sector …
Point of order.
POINT OF ORDER [Misleading]
Hon. Jason Hayward: Just for one practical example, the Member is misleading the House. One of the leading realtors was on TV this week talking about how robust the real estate industry has been. The real estate industry is our second largest sector within our economy. The international business sector is the largest sector within our economy. The international business sector had the largest growth in 15 years.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberKill them with the facts. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Yes, Mr. Speaker. Every time the Honourable Minister interjects, he gives me another opportunity, Mr. Speaker. And what about the opportunity for Bermudians to buy a first home? Yes, the Government has tried to mak e some inroads there, and there …
Kill them with the facts.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Yes, Mr. Speaker. Every time the Honourable Minister interjects, he gives me another opportunity, Mr. Speaker. And what about the opportunity for Bermudians to buy a first home? Yes, the Government has tried to mak e some inroads there, and there are some policies that have some hope. But, Mr. Speaker, the price of real estate in Bermuda is going up and up and up and up—
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberSo are the interest rates. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: —and it is becoming less and less affordable. The Honourable Member says and so are the interest rates . Well, that is a factor of the times, Mr. Speaker. And when all of this comes in, interest rates going up does …
So are the interest rates.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: —and it is becoming less and less affordable. The Honourable Member says and so are the interest rates . Well, that is a factor of the times, Mr. Speaker. And when all of this comes in, interest rates going up does not bode well for Bermuda, Mr. Speaker, because what about the alarm ing level of Gover nment debt that we have? And we are going to have to pay more to furnish that.
Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, I have spoken this afternoon and what has it highlighted? It has highlighted that the fact that—
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberThat you do not know economics. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: The Honourable Member says —
The SpeakerThe SpeakerTalk to the Chair. Just talk to the C hair. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: The Honourable Member says that i t has highlighted the fact , Mr. Speaker —
The SpeakerThe SpeakerTalk to the Chair. Hon. Micha el H. Dunkley: —that I don’ t know ec onomics. Well, you know what, that comment from the Honourable Minister is like water off a duck’s back because he is speaking from frustration. My record will speak for itself, and I will not talk …
Talk to the Chair.
Hon. Micha el H. Dunkley: —that I don’ t know ec onomics. Well, you know what, that comment from the Honourable Minister is like water off a duck’s back because he is speaking from frustration. My record will speak for itself, and I will not talk about it to anyone els e. I do not blow my own trumpet, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerJust talk here. Just speak this way. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I serve for the people. And if I do not know economics, Mr. Speaker, then Berm uda should just invest in crypto and get out of all our problems, Mr. Speaker. [Laughter]
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberThere you go! Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Now, who wants to support that? Who wants to support that, Mr. Speaker? B ecause it has been a bust, Mr. Speaker. I stand here more concerned than when I rose 13 m inutes ago, Mr. Speaker, because the Government thinks that we …
There you go! Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Now, who wants to support that? Who wants to support that, Mr. Speaker? B ecause it has been a bust, Mr. Speaker. I stand here more concerned than when I rose 13 m inutes ago, Mr. Speaker, because the Government thinks that we are going in the right direction and our economy is moving forward. An. Hon Member: Is it not?
Another Hon. Member: No, it is not.
TOURISM —THE NEED TO BOOST AIR CAPACITY TO BERMUDA
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Member [asks] is it not ? And I will say a resounding no, Mr. Speaker. I f we do not boost air capacity, if we do not build friendships with the—
Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Point of order, Mr. Speaker. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: —change of community,
Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerPoint of order. POINT OF ORDER [Misleading]
Mr. W. Lawrence ScottThe Honourable Member is misleading the House. He is making it seem as though the air service development challenges that are being faced by Bermuda are unique to Bermuda and Bermuda alone. You have airlines that are pulling out of key destinations in the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin …
The Honourable Member is misleading the House. He is making it seem as though the air service development challenges that are being faced by Bermuda are unique to Bermuda and Bermuda alone. You have airlines that are pulling out of key destinations in the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, South America, all over the world. And they are all having chall enges. So, do not sit here and say that the air challenges and the air service challenges that we are facing are solely Bermuda’s to face and solely the responsibility of the Government of Bermuda—
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker .
Mr. W. Lawrence Scott—because I have to remind them that they also put air service development . . . the OBA put air service development responsibility in the hands of Skyport when they signed over our ai rport and privatised our airport. And in that same year, we lost more seats in that …
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberA bad economic decision. Another Hon. Member: Kill them with the facts. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, obviously another interruption and frustration that has no m erit. I never said that we are the only jurisdiction facing struggling airlifts . But we are one jurisdiction with struggling airlift, Mr. …
A bad economic decision.
Another Hon. Member: Kill them with the facts.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, obviously another interruption and frustration that has no m erit. I never said that we are the only jurisdiction facing struggling airlifts . But we are one jurisdiction with struggling airlift, Mr. Speaker. We do not even have a direct flight to Boston.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberOr Miami. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: One of the most important markets for Bermuda where we launched a lunch truck earlier in the year —a pink lunch truck —to try to bring Bermuda—
Mr. W. Lawrence ScottPoint of order, Mr. Speaker. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Perhaps we should drive that lunch truck t o New York and see if we can get some business, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerPoint of order. 308 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly POINT OF ORDER [Misleading]
Mr. W. Lawrence ScottThe Honourable Member is misleading the House. Between 2012 and 2017, we did not have annual direct service to Boston, and that was under the OBA.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberOh my. Another Hon. Member: State the facts. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, the former Transport Minister is trying to offset my flow. But I stand here now . . . I stand here now to say that the air service to Bermuda is very poor. And I know …
Oh my.
Another Hon. Member: State the facts.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, the former Transport Minister is trying to offset my flow. But I stand here now . . . I stand here now to say that the air service to Bermuda is very poor. And I know that if the Minister of Transport was here he would speak and he would agree and he would say that we need to do better. Now we are losing an American flight through the summertime period, Mr. Speaker. We are losing the American flight through the summertime period, Mr. Speaker. And what is interesting about it is we face a tourism crisis because the Honourable Premier (who, unfortunately is not here today) has made so many promises about Fairmount Southampton and none of them to this point have come to reality, Mr. Speaker. Just in the last session the Honourable Premier said that it would open up (I’m questioning; I believe it was our last day in the House) that it would open up in the first quarter of 2024. Well, it would open up as a How-ard Johnson, if it is going to get open that quickly , because it would be a lick of [paint] and clean the wi ndows. It’s the only thing that is going to happen. But we need to stop promising and start delivering because until we change that hotel and get those beds opened up again, air service is going to be difficult for us, Mr. Speaker. And the airlines are not pulling out, as it was said by the Minister , [because] they have had to r estructure their roots because of staffing and things like that. No, Mr. Speaker. Money goes — [Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Yes, but they are just tr ying to be nice to us, Mr. Speaker. Money goes where there is the path of least resistance. Those flights are flying full to the Caribbean. Those flights are flying full to Mexico. Those flights are flying full to Cabo [San Lucas] . Those flights are not flying to Bermuda.
[Inaudible interjections ]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I have never heard so many silly interjections in my time in Parliament, Mr. Speaker. We face a real challenge. We face a real challenge and Members are trying to say that it is not there. Until M embers step back a little bit . . . because I appreciate the job they are trying to do in very diff icult circumstances, Mr. Speaker. But until we understand what we are facing—that our airlift is terrible . . . and here we are going to restructure the BTA. In the middle of a tourism challenge, we are goi ng to restructure the BTA. Maybe that is why we have part of the problem. How many CEOs have we gone through under the PLP? Four or five, Mr. Speaker? We are looking for our fourth or fifth CEO on the BTA. Hon. Vance Campbell: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, that is their job.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerPoint of order. POINT OF ORDER [Misleading] Hon. Vance Campbell: The Member is intentionally misleading the House, because there is no restructure going on at the BTA. They are in a search for a CEO. That is not a restructure.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerPoint taken. Member. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Well, you are entitled to your opinion. I disagree. We are looking for a new advertising agency too, Mr. Speaker. I think we are looking for a new advertising agency. So, Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of change right there, Mr. Speaker. …
Point taken. Member. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Well, you are entitled to your opinion. I disagree. We are looking for a new advertising agency too, Mr. Speaker. I think we are looking for a new advertising agency. So, Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of change right there, Mr. Speaker. That interjection [was] from the Tourism Minister, who, you know, better keep working hard because things are real difficult now, Mr. Speaker. But when Bermudians step back and they look at all these facts, they are going to listen to what the Government says.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberTalking foolishness. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: As the Honourable Member says, talking foolishness . If he thinks the general public will believe that, well, then I’m sorry, Mr. Speaker. We face a real challenge. And the reality is that Bermuda is not going in the right direction. And if we …
Talking foolishness. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: As the Honourable Member says, talking foolishness . If he thinks the general public will believe that, well, then I’m sorry, Mr. Speaker. We face a real challenge. And the reality is that Bermuda is not going in the right direction. And if we are going in the right direction, as Government believes we are, we need to pick it up, Mr. Speaker, because y outh unemployment is [high] . There are concerns about the economy in broad sections across it. Our major support base in international business has some challenges with some changes Government is talking about, Mr. Speaker, and we need to do better. Now t he Honourable Minister says we will continue to talk. And I am pleased to see that. I have
Bermuda House of Assembly given the Minister credit for that. But the reality is, Mr. Speaker, it is not all rose- tinted glasses as this Government says. Thank you.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Member. Does any other Member . . . Honourable Member De Silva, you have your 20 minutes. ECONOMIC CHALLENGES IN BERMUDA Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now, Mr. Speaker, I had a few things I wanted to talk about to this House and …
Thank you, Member. Does any other Member . . . Honourable Member De Silva, you have your 20 minutes.
ECONOMIC CHALLENGES IN BERMUDA
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now, Mr. Speaker, I had a few things I wanted to talk about to this House and the people of this country today. But I feel that I have to respond to some of the comments made by the Member who just took his seat. He finished off by saying we better stop looking through rose- coloured glasses. Let’s remind the Members in this House and that Honourable Member in particular [that] we have just come through two and a half years of COVID -19, and we will have challenges. Yes, we will. Like many countries are hav ing challenges , so we are no exception. And he can talk about airlift. He can talk about the lack of hotels. It is nothing new. We know we need more lift. We know we need more development in this country just like they knew they needed development in this country. That is why they put Bermuda taxpayers in the country . . . they put the taxpayers into $210 million worth of debt with Morgan’s Point.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberSilence. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes, crickets.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberWhat are your solutions? Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: The Honourable Member Dunkley just [asked] where are the solutions ? He stood up for 20 minutes. He stood up for 20 minutes, Mr. Speaker. POINT OF ORDER Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Point of order, Mr. Speaker. I did not …
What are your solutions?
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: The Honourable Member Dunkley just [asked] where are the solutions ? He stood up for 20 minutes. He stood up for 20 minutes, Mr. Speaker.
POINT OF ORDER
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Point of order, Mr. Speaker. I did not make that interjection. Somebody else made it. So, get your facts correct. I never made that. But you do need solutions. There is no doubt about that, Mr. Speaker. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Mr. Speaker, he was telling us just now how Minister Hayward gets touchy. Look how touchy he got. The Honourable Member Dunkley, former Premier, did a great job.
[Laughter] Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: That’s why they removed you.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, could he r epeat that?
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Excuse me, is that a point of order? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, you see, Mr. Speaker, I listened to the Honourable Member for 20 minutes talking about airlift and hotels, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I have not heard a solution yet. I thought that Honourable Mem-ber said that he liked the way that MP Richardson talked about us rowing the boat together. And he got up and chastised us for 15 out of his 20 minutes. But I did not hear one solution about let’s row together and let’s do this together. Not one. Not one.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Put me in C abinet.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Put him in Cabinet, he says. He had five years. The country had enough of you and threw you out.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I’m still here.
[Crosstalk]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: So, you will not be going back in Cabinet in a hurry. Trust me. Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I’m still here. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: You are not in Cabinet though.
Ms. Susan E. JacksonNeither are you. [Laughter] Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Now, Mr. Speaker — [Crosstalk and laughter ] Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: The Honourable Member Jackson says neither am I . Well, neither are you, sweetheart.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerLet your comments flow this way, Members. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I am not in Cabinet because of choi ce. Let’s get that straight.
Some Hon. Members Some Hon. MembersOoh! Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: For choice. 310 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly [Inaudible interjections ] Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: That’s right. So, now, Mr. Speaker, let me just finish a couple of things the Honourable Member said. See, this is …
Ooh!
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: For choice.
310 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly [Inaudible interjections ]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: That’s right. So, now, Mr. Speaker, let me just finish a couple of things the Honourable Member said. See, this is how stuff happens in this country. This is why . . . you talk about negativity ! He is saying no hotels, no airlift. But he talks about negativity. [He says] t he BTA is in (my words) a shambles. The y are restructu ring. Mr. Speaker, he should make an apology to the Minister and to the Government and the people of this country for making that statement. Because you know what ? Sometimes this news hits international papers and international people. But he said the BTA is totally restructuring, because we place an ad for an advertising agency. Really? Do Dunkley’s [have an] advertising agent? Do they do any advertising? Do they use the same person week in and week out, year after year after year? For that matter, does my company do it? No! Now and then we have to look at other avenues. Sometimes contracts run out. If an advertising agency’s contract runs out, does that mean all of a sudden we are in shambles and we are restructuring?
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberCan’t keep the top guy. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Cannot keep the top guy. Now there is another point he talks about. Cannot keep him? Who said we wanted him? Sometimes top guys leave, and sometimes top guys are made to leave. [Inaudible interjection] Hon. Zane J. S. …
Can’t keep the top guy.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Cannot keep the top guy. Now there is another point he talks about. Cannot keep him? Who said we wanted him? Sometimes top guys leave, and sometimes top guys are made to leave. [Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Well, look at the top guy. You had your top guy, Mr. Cannonier. You made him leave.
Some Hon. Members Some Hon. MembersOh! Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Let’s talk about that!
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberThat’s not true. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: It’s not true? [Inaudible interjec tions] Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: He is not the Premier anymore. He is not the Premier anymore. He is the one who had a full -page front -page article saying how he was conned. …
That’s not true.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: It’s not true?
[Inaudible interjec tions]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: He is not the Premier anymore. He is not the Premier anymore. He is the one who had a full -page front -page article saying how he was conned. The PLP did not con him into resigning. Let us not forget that. Oh, I am not m aking it up. I will bring it in and show it to you. I have got the clippings. If I had known we were going here today, I would have brought that article. In fact, wait a minute; I might even have it. But I am not going to spend time . . . I am going to bri ng it, Honourable Member. And I am going to read it to you in particular. And the Honourable former Premier Cannonier knows because I am sure he remembers that interview where he said that, No! He won’t point -of-order me because he knows I am correct. And I am going to show you the article. I will bring it next week. I just did not bring that file with me today. But I will bring it next . . . I will bring it in two weeks. [Inaudible interjection] Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: See, see, the Honourable Member Richardson, I thank you for bringing that t oday. And the Honourable Member Dunkley said, You know, I’m wondering where we’re going with . . . why are we wasting time talking about it? Actually, it is not a waste of time. Because you see, what people are trying to do is paint our Premier maybe as being crooked. How could a 40- year-old accumulate $47 million, $47 million in his lifetime? That is the indic ation. Or did he steal it? You see, that is the thing. And that is the story that continuously gets paint ed. You all might remember there was another one going around about our Premier, that he owns a house in Tucker’s Town. There was another one about a former Premier, cedar beams in his house! The list goes on and on and on. And that is why I am glad you brought it, MP Richardson, because the Premier is not here to defend himself. But that is the thing. It may seem small to former Premier Dunkley, but it is the continuous pi cture that is painted in this country against those who sit on this side of the House. And it has been happening long before I came into politics, and I would suggest it is going to happen long after for those who wear green and white. Now, one of the things that Minister Jason Hayward said during that little debate was that we have been having meetings with the Chamber of Commerce and international business. The Honour able Member Dunkley said, Well, I’d like to know more about those meetings. Well, you know why that does not happen sometimes, Mr. Speaker? We invited two Members of the O pposition to go to a meeting last week. Rowing the boat together, let us send them an invite. What happens a day or two later? Articles in the newspaper talking about we do not know what the heck we are doing! Right?
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: So get up and point -oforder me or speak to it in motion to adjourn and say that you did not say that. But what was disappointing is that the Members opposite get invited to a meeting, and then the
Bermuda House of Assembly first thing they do the next chance they get is run to the press.
Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerPoint of order. POINT OF ORDER [Misleading]
Ms. Susan E. JacksonYes. The Member is misleading the House. The Government released a press r elease with our names printed in bold—in bold! And this secret meeting then became public. And so people would come and ask us questions, and we gave as fair an answer as we could. So do not …
Yes. The Member is misleading the House. The Government released a press r elease with our names printed in bold—in bold! And this secret meeting then became public. And so people would come and ask us questions, and we gave as fair an answer as we could. So do not even begin to think that that was some secret meeting and then they release a press release with our names on it.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I want the Honourable Members . . . I want the Honourable Members to deny the fact that they said that we do not have a plan.
Some Hon. Members Some Hon. MembersWhat’s the plan? What is it? Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: No, no. The Honourable Members who attended that meeting, the opposite Members, said that the Ministers do not have a plan. So I do not hear a point of order on that. That is what I am saying. …
The SpeakerThe SpeakerPoint of order. POINT OF ORDER
Mr. L. Craig CannonierI will correct the Member. Point of order. The purpose of the meeting was to try and put a plan together. They do not have a plan! No plan!
The SpeakerThe SpeakerYou have a point of order? POINT OF ORDER
Mr. W. Lawrence ScottPoint of order, Mr. Speaker. The Government and the country have a plan. It is called the National Tourism Plan. That is the plan for tourism, and there is also an Air Service Development Plan. Both are currently in train. Both are currently being acted on. And both currently have …
Point of order, Mr. Speaker. The Government and the country have a plan. It is called the National Tourism Plan. That is the plan for tourism, and there is also an Air Service Development Plan. Both are currently in train. Both are currently being acted on. And both currently have different phased approaches. So there is a plan, and it is public knowledge.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerOkay. Continue, MP De Silva. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now, Mr. Speaker, whilst I am on my feet, and with your indulgence, I will read the article. The article is dated November the 18 th, 2017. And Mr. Cannonier [says], “I was ‘tricked’ over …
Okay. Continue, MP De Silva. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now, Mr. Speaker, whilst I am on my feet, and with your indulgence, I will read the article. The article is dated November the 18 th, 2017. And Mr. Cannonier [says], “I was ‘tricked’ over Jetgate.’” So there is your evidence. Do you want me to read the rest of it? B ecause I can go through it, you know. So do not say that it did not happen. You said . . . the Honourable Member Cannonier said he was tricked. So I will rest that case.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerPoint of order. POINT OF ORDER 312 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. L. Craig Cannonier: Let us get this clear. The Honourable Member had his Members colluding with OBA Members to do a completely wrong thing with no facts, no facts. [Inaudible interjection]
Mr. L. Craig CannonierWhat? What Members? Li sten. I am not in the business of destroying families. All right? They might want to try and go and destroy my family. But I am not in the business of giving out i nformation to destroy families. If they want to go there, believe me, …
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMembers. Members. Members. We have been away from this — [Inaudible interjections]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMembers, we have been out of this Chamber for a period of time. It’s our first day back. And there is no need for us to let this deteriorate to a level—Members —to let it deteriorate to a level where it becomes a personal exchange back and forth the floor. …
Members, we have been out of this Chamber for a period of time. It’s our first day back. And there is no need for us to let this deteriorate to a level—Members —to let it deteriorate to a level where it becomes a personal exchange back and forth the floor. We are here in the best interests of this country whichever side you sit on. And I ask that you raise the level of conversation to reflect that, because those who elected you to be here are not interested in personal to- and-fros back and forth on this floor. They are interested in hearing a meaningful debate that will raise the country to where we need to be going. And I ask all M embers to be reflective of that in their conversations because you are not talking to yourselves. You are talking to a public who is listening and a public who expects to hear an adult convers ation that is addressing how we improve the lives of those who elected us to be here. Personal attacks do not address that. Personal attacks do not take the country forward. Personal attacks are not what we were sent here to do. Debate as those who elected you to come here expect you to. And that is in the interest of the country first, foremost and always. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I could not agree with you more. Now, Mr. Speaker, now that we have clarified that, I am going to go right here. I have got seven minutes left; maybe I have eight. Maybe the Speaker will give me that minute.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThe clock is ticking. RESIGNATION OF FORMER COMMISSIONER OF POLICE —LACK OF TRANSPARENCY Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Okay. Right. All right. Mr. Speaker, there was an article in the Royal Gazette this morning about the former Commissioner, Police Commissioner Stephen Corbishley. And I told a couple of my …
The clock is ticking.
RESIGNATION OF FORMER COMMISSIONER OF POLICE —LACK OF TRANSPARENCY
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Okay. Right. All right. Mr. Speaker, there was an article in the Royal Gazette this morning about the former Commissioner, Police Commissioner Stephen Corbishley. And I told a couple of my colleagues this morning that someone must have been reading my mind because I was go-ing to talk about it today. I would like to know, and of cour se the Public Information Officer, right, has said that she is not go-ing to be giving up any information on this as per a PATI request. How can a position as high as that of Commissioner of Police resign as quickly as he did, abruptly as he did, and there has not been a peep? Why is that? Something is drastically wrong. And his boss was the one who dropped the inquiry into the alleged gross misconduct by this former police commissioner. My question is, Who is the one deciding that this is not in the greater public interest? We in this House should all be concerned and we should all have answers to the question of why the former Commissioner of Police, who had an inquiry ongoing about gross misconduct, abruptly leaves the Island and the inquiry stops? Not a peep. We in this House should all be concerned. Not a dicky bird, not a dicky bird. So, Mr. Speaker, I will watch that space. And I think that every Member in this House should be cal ling for some answers. Now, Mr. Speaker, there is another article in the Royal Gazette.
[Inaudible interjection and laughter ]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I know. It is bad for you, isn't it?
ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS NEED TO SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Mr. Speaker, there is another article that the three chief objectors to development in this country were quoted in. And that is BEST (Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce), Bermuda National Trust and Bermuda Audubon Soc iety. Every time there seems to be a developer or a Bermudian who wants to do something in this country that just must might help the economy of the country, it seems like they poke their head up above the hedge and say no. And I am referring in particular to the South Shore project next to the Bermudiana Hotel where there is a propos ed 56- unit residential hotel. The Honourable Member Dunkley just talked about, What are we doing? Well, if I was the planning officer, I would say, Get cracking. Get it up right now. Go ahead. Get started. That is what I would do. And of course, they are going to have some commercial space in this building. But you read art icles like this, and it really makes you wonder. Stuart
Bermuda House of Assembly Hayward and I hooked many times before he passed, Mr. Speaker, about this very same thing. You might remember there was a huge obj ection to St. Regis! And it goes all the way back on this particular proper-ty. Some will remember Ritz -Carlton, right? We have to stop saying no in this country, Mr. Speaker. And I have said it many times before, and I will say it again. If you ask me to choose between a tree and a job, I am taking the job for my people. And every time I give them a job, I will plant four trees somewhere. We have to stop saying no in this country! And one of the things they say on here . . . look at the headline, Mr. Speak er. And I could table it. Building project will lead to cliff erosion. Seriously? Ask Grant Gibbons that. He has got a house right on South Shore. I went down and did some work for him a couple of years ago.
[Inaudible interjections ]
Hon. Zane J. S. D e Silva: That’s right. You know why? Because we are good at what we do, that’s why. That’s right. But what I am saying is if you go from Somerset all the way down to Tucker’s Town, Mr. Speaker, you will see houses all along the coastline. And those that are eroded, they are from natural causes. And guess what? And I will declare my interest. I have done a lot of that foreshore work, and I am sure I will do much more. But the fact of the matter is, Mr. Speaker, South Shore is made up of formations that will be subject to erosion because of our water and our weather and our hurricanes. What you have to do is you have to deal with it. But let’s stop saying no to development every time we turn around. Every time we turn around there is an objection. White Sands is another one. I saw that today or yesterday. Another one! The place is sitting up there falling to pieces. You have a group of people who want to develop it, and we are saying no.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I have not heard that about Azura. I have not heard anything about The Reefs. I have not heard folks speak about The Reefs. Now, do not go there with me. That is right. It used to be my constituency, right? He built all along that cliff face! And not only that, he had a crane in the road (not mine). He had a crane in the middle of the road, onelane traffic, for about a year. I tell you what. If it had been somebody who looked like us, we would not have been able to get that crane in the road for a year.
[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: So, Mr. Speaker — [Inaudible interjections and general uproar ]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerSpeak this way. Speak to the Chair. [Inaudible interjections] Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Oh, trust me. People look at me.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerSpeak to the Chair. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: People look at me. People look at me. I am darker than you. [Laughter] Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Right?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMembers. Members. Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: But, Mr. Speaker , I am g oing to finish in about 10 seconds. I would just encourage not only these three environmental companies, but the people of this country: Let us try and support development so that we can move this …
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you. Does any other Member wish to make a contribution? MP Famous, you have your 20 minutes.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerNo. You are on your feet. You have the floor. OBA FALSE NARRATIVE
Mr. Christopher FamousOkay. Mr. Speaker, let’s go back to some numbers here. Let’s talk numbers. The OBA is talking about, Oh, there’s nothing going on in the country and this and that. Mr. Speaker, I started off today earlier saying thank you to the Bermuda Housing Corporation because they are building units …
Okay. Mr. Speaker, let’s go back to some numbers here. Let’s talk numbers. The OBA is talking about, Oh, there’s nothing going on in the country and this and that. Mr. Speaker, I started off today earlier saying thank you to the Bermuda Housing Corporation because they are building units for Bermudians, affordable units for Bermudians. Let me name off some. Rip pon Road down in St. George’s, Aunt Jinny’s Lane down in St. David’s , Salvation Army, Marsh Lane. Some more [are] coming online up the country and so on. They are building them because there is a lack of affordable housing in Bermuda for Bermudians. Why is that, Mr. Speaker? Because there is an influx of people coming in to work in the IB [international busines s] sector. And you know IB is flush with cash. So they are snatching up a lot of apartments. So this is the narrative, you know, playing off of the word of MP Richardson. This is the narrative 314 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly from the OBA and some of their candidates that the PLP is unfr iendly to IB. So I asked one of those candidates, How are they unfriendly if the most IB wor kers were under the PLP? They said, Oh, well, that’s only because of the World Trade Tower bombing. They came here b ecause we were safe. I said, Which year was that? [It was] 2001. I said, That was under the PLP, right? Then he said, Oh! It was only because of Katrina. I said, What year was that? [It was] 2005. Under the PLP, right? Right. Now we have another influx, which is ev idenced not just by anecdotal evidence, but by the fact that we have no houses. All under who? PLP. So this is the narrative, the false narrative, that the PLP is unfriendly to IB. Mr. Speaker, I spoke earlier about a gentl eman, Mr. Richard Winchell. He and I do not agree on Cup Match (let me put it that way). But over the last 10 years he has introduced me to quite a number of people in IB. And they shared their concerns, and they shared their wishes, and so on and so forth. But most of all they shared that they are very comfortable in Bermuda under the PLP, Mr. Speaker. So let’s di smiss that narrative. The Honourable Minister Hayward takes his time to meet with ABIC, ABIR, all of the ot her alphabet groups. Mr. Speaker, there is another narrative that, Oh, the PLP won in 2020 with a reduc ed majority and blah- blah- blah. I said, okay, let me go to the . . . can I read what this says?
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberParliamentary Register.
Mr. Christopher FamousParliamentary Register. PLP in 2017 had 20,000 votes. In 2020 [the PLP had] 16,000 votes. So 4,000 votes less. I said, Wow, 4,000 fewer people voted for PLP? Then I r emembered. Oh! The OBA could not find enough can-didates. So in at least three of those seats, there was …
Mr. Christopher FamousWork with me, work wit h me. In three seats, there was no contest.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberNone at all.
Mr. Christopher FamousConstituency 17, constit uency 26 and constituency16. [Inaudible interjections]
Mr. Christopher FamousCan anyone tell me how many registered voters per seat, roughly? About 1,200, 1,300 or something. It depends. So three times 1,250 is how many? Okay. Okay. Let us round it off to 4,000. Four thousand people in pro- PLP seats, where [on] average 95 per cent votes go to …
Can anyone tell me how many registered voters per seat, roughly? About 1,200, 1,300 or something. It depends. So three times 1,250 is how many? Okay. Okay. Let us round it off to 4,000. Four thousand people in pro- PLP seats, where [on] average 95 per cent votes go to PLP. Let us times that by three. That gives us like 3,000 people who could not vote because you all could not come up with candidates. So what happened? The numbers dropped. I remember, Mr. Speaker. I was leaving the polling station. And there was a certain then-Opposition Leader on the radio saying, Oh, there’s a low turnout! And oh, it’s this and that! I am saying, Hmm. Let me do the numbers. Our numbers stayed the same apar t from those seats that they could not find candidates. Our numbers stayed the same. [Inaudible interjections]
Mr. Christopher FamousWhen I did a line- by-lineitem in each seat, bar one, the PLP percentages went up. I will get to that in a minute. [Inaudible interjections]
Mr. Christopher FamousMr. Speaker, to his credit, there is only one OBA candidate who increased his margin. That was in constituency 10. The only one. Everybody else’s went down. Mr. Speaker, let me move on. [Inaudible interjections and laughter ] Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Christopher Famous: Well, some will call that …
Mr. Speaker, to his credit, there is only one OBA candidate who increased his margin. That was in constituency 10. The only one. Everybody else’s went down. Mr. Speaker, let me move on. [Inaudible interjections and laughter ]
Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Christopher Famous: Well, some will call that bribery. But anyway. Mr. Speaker, there was a question posed on Facebook the other day.
[Inaudible interjections]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMP, direct your comments this way.
Mr. Christopher FamousMr. Speaker, it is more parliamentary than BS, right? You said that. Did you not say that? Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Member used the word “bribery.” I do not think that is a word we should use here when we are talking about colleagues.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerI am going to remind Members that we should always keep our tone and our language on a parliamentary level. Because if it is said in one direction and it comes back, either side is going to get offended by it. Just keep the language above board, please.
Mr. Christopher FamousMr. Speaker, thank you for that direction. Mr. Speaker, there was a question posed on Facebook the other day about, Why are the airline prices so high to Bermuda? You know, people anecdotally say things, and you are like, Let’s drill down on this. Let’s drill down on this. Then …
Mr. Speaker, thank you for that direction. Mr. Speaker, there was a question posed on Facebook the other day about, Why are the airline prices so high to Bermuda? You know, people anecdotally say things, and you are like, Let’s drill down on this. Let’s drill down on this. Then I drilled down and I realised . . . I asked questions and got two different independent answers. And it all came down to taxes , not where the Dallas Cowboys come from, but taxes, T-A-X-E-S. Mr. Speaker, here is a breakdown of the taxes that are charged to everybody’s plane ticket attempt-ing to come to Bermuda.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberHow much?
Mr. Christopher FamousTerminal improvement fee, $37.50; aviation security fee, $18.07; and departure tax, $62.92. Anybody remember [when] the departure tax was $20?
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberThat’s right.
Mr. Christopher FamousPassenger charge, $7.51. Line item to Bermuda Government , zero. All this money, $110 going to Skyport. Anybody know Skyport? [Inaudible interjection]
Mr. Christopher FamousI did say aviation security fee, did I not? The Speaker: Continue. Continue this way, MP.
Mr. Christopher FamousMr. Speaker, here is the thing. Whether it is unintended or intended cons equences, in 2017 the OBA signed a secret deal that gave control of our airport for 30- plus years to Skyport. We are now paying the price for that. Part of that deal was that Skyport was …
Mr. Speaker, here is the thing. Whether it is unintended or intended cons equences, in 2017 the OBA signed a secret deal that gave control of our airport for 30- plus years to Skyport. We are now paying the price for that. Part of that deal was that Skyport was supposed to help i ncrease air traffic to Bermuda. Have they done that, anyone?
The SpeakerThe SpeakerDirect your comments this way, Member.
Mr. Christopher FamousMr. Speaker — Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, I need to correct the Honourable Member.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerIs this a point of order? Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: A point of order, yes, Mr. Speaker. POINT OF ORDER Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: The Honourable Member said a secret deal was signed. It was passed in the House of Assembly. So it can hardly be secr et. Hon. Zane …
Mr. Speaker.
POINT OF ORDER
Hon. Zane J. S. De SilvaThe Honourable Member, I do not know if he is intentionally misleading this House. But he just misled this House. You will r emember, Mr. Speaker. The OBA, I believe under his premiership, had a Throne Speech, Mr. Speaker, and the airport was not mentioned. Bob Richards, the former Minister, …
The Honourable Member, I do not know if he is intentionally misleading this House. But he just misled this House. You will r emember, Mr. Speaker. The OBA, I believe under his premiership, had a Throne Speech, Mr. Speaker, and the airport was not mentioned. Bob Richards, the former Minister, the Honourable Minister of Finance, 316 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly came to the House two weeks later and announced the airport deal.
Mr. Christopher FamousSo, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker. Part of that deal in which the public did not see because the then Finance Minister said, Yeah, I’ll let you see. He said it on the Shirley Dill show. Then he says, No, I can’t let you see it. Mr. Speaker, part of that …
So, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker. Part of that deal in which the public did not see because the then Finance Minister said, Yeah, I’ll let you see. He said it on the Shirley Dill show. Then he says, No, I can’t let you see it. Mr. Speaker, part of that deal is that Skyport can increase those fees every year based on inflation. Imagine what they can do this year. Anyone want to point -of-order me?
[Inaudible interjection]
Mr. Christopher FamousMr. Speaker, let me move on. So when we talk about loss of air travel and so on and so forth, let us drill down. Let us look at what it is all about.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberWell, let’s solve the problem.
Mr. Christopher FamousIn our sister island, Ant igua, the place where Viv Richards comes from, they had a general election a couple of weeks ago. The then- Government, the Antigua Barbuda Labour Party, had 15 seats, 15 out of 17. The Opposition, the UPP, had one seat. The Barbuda Party had one …
In our sister island, Ant igua, the place where Viv Richards comes from, they had a general election a couple of weeks ago. The then- Government, the Antigua Barbuda Labour Party, had 15 seats, 15 out of 17. The Opposition, the UPP, had one seat. The Barbuda Party had one seat. That is 17. Aft er the election, the Labour Party had nine. They lost six seats. The UPP increased and had six seats. The BP had one, and an independent person got one. What is the point, Mr. Speaker? The point is to all of our MPs in here. Stay connected to the people. If we do not stay connected to the people . . . they don’t worry about these big- ticket items. They worry about, Did cousin come to my funeral? Well, not my funeral, but my auntie’s funeral. I have been to five funerals in the last week. And three of them, cousins have been there. Mr. Speaker, in Dominica they had an election in December. The ruling party, the Dominica Labour Party, had 18 out of 21 seats. After the dust was settled, they had 19 seats. Why? Because they were connected. Also because the Opposition was not ready —sound familiar?—and decided, Hey, we’re not going to run. We’re just going to boycott the election. But more important to my point, Mr. Speaker, out of the 21 seats, 10 are occupied by women. Let me repeat that. Out of the 21 seats, 10 are occupied by women, including the Opposition Leader. So, the point to the people in this country, we need to have more gender parity in Parliament. Would you agree with me, MP C aesar and MP Jackson? So—
[Inaudible interjections]
Mr. Christopher FamousI am working my way . . . Work with me. Mr. Speaker, let me clear this up here. I failed to give congratulations to Ms. Olga Brangman. One hundred years [old] this week. She is the mother of someone who was very dear to anyone who has ever entered …
I am working my way . . . Work with me. Mr. Speaker, let me clear this up here. I failed to give congratulations to Ms. Olga Brangman. One hundred years [old] this week. She is the mother of someone who was very dear to anyone who has ever entered into Cabinet Office, Ms. Beunice Crockwell. She made it 100 years. She now lives down the east at Sylvia Richardson, but she is originally a Pond Dog. Also, Mr. Stanley Grant, a proud dock worker, a union member, father of Kevin Grant of the BPSU. Mr. Leonard Grant a foreman at BELCO. Mr. Lawrence Grant , an IT specialist at AIG. And Ms. Stacy Grant, proud resident of Orchard Grove in Pembrok e. Mr. Vincent “Boxy” Caines . Anyone who ever nearly ran out of gas before 24/7 gas stations went to BIU. If you arrived there at 11:45, you were not getting any gas. Mr. [Henry] Llewellyn Phipp s of Devonshire, born in Locker bie, a mechanic, a taxi man, a bartender, most of all a loving father and grandfather. Mr. Speaker, it would be remiss of me, as a BELCO employee, as a Bermudian, and as a proud union member , not to remember the BELCO riots of 1965 where people had to stand up because [of] unfair working conditions. Some people got laid down. Some were police officers. Some were union workers . Some went to jail. But the point is, Mr. Speaker, some people seem to forget that where we are now is because people stood up. And the same people now adays are saying, No, no. J ust lay low. If we had laid low 50 years ago, we would not be where we are now. So, I want to say thank you to those people. Dr. BarBermuda House of Assembly bara Ball, Mr. Kenny Paul . Anyone else I want to say? Anyone else, Bishop?
[Inaudible interjections ]
Mr. Christopher Famou sYes. Yes. Mr. Speaker, as you said earlier , the people of Bermuda do not want to hear personal attacks. R ight? There is a lady sitting in this House where . . . I will not call her name, but her father was one of those that stood up …
Yes. Yes. Mr. Speaker, as you said earlier , the people of Bermuda do not want to hear personal attacks. R ight? There is a lady sitting in this House where . . . I will not call her name, but her father was one of those that stood up for the people of Bermuda, the workers of Bermuda. All right? I am proud to say I can call him . . . I would have to had called him uncle—Mr. Peni ston. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Member. Does any other M ember wish to make a contribution at this time? Mr. Hayward, you have your 20 minutes. Hon. Jason Hayward: Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerGood afternoon. BERMUDA’S ECONOMIC STRATEGY Hon. Jason Hayward: And let me thank you for allowing me to make an intervention in today’s motion to adjourn dialogue. I recogni se that this is a political environment , and so it is never going to be in the Opposition’s best interests to …
Good afternoon.
BERMUDA’S ECONOMIC STRATEGY
Hon. Jason Hayward: And let me thank you for allowing me to make an intervention in today’s motion to adjourn dialogue. I recogni se that this is a political environment , and so it is never going to be in the Opposition’s best interests to share the positive aspects of what we are doing just by the nature of their role. Outside of being critical, they want to win the next election. And we want to retain power. So, we are naturally conflicted in our positions. T he conflict also crosses over into when we are having dialogue. The fact is , the global economy is expected to grow in 2023. There are significant economic headwinds that every global economy will experience. Inflation is the number one challenge being experienced by most economists worldwide. There are other geopolitical concerns. There are supply chain concerns. There are workforce [concerns] and the conc erns about ensuring that countries have the skilled labour that they require so that they can be productive and effective. And often it is said in terms of, Well, how does that translate into our local economy? The economic reality is that our local economy has been a bit more resilient than the global economy. On the back half of the pandemic, after we had contraction, we had a year of growth. I will put out quar-terly GDP numbers that will show that our economy has continued to expand in 2023. The Mi nistry of Finance is projecting that our economy will expand between 2.5 per cent and 4.0 per cent in 2023. And this is positive news. Notwit hstanding that, outside of economic growth there are significant things that are impacting individuals and business es within our local economy. And for that we can all accept that to be a reality. What I cannot accept to be a reality [is] that our economy is not heading in the right direction or that our economy is not expanding. That simply is not supported by the dat a that we have. One of the major and concerning impacts would be the impact of inflation on households. This is extremely important because what it is actually doing is eroding the purchasing power of residents within our community. Households are buying fewer goods but spending more money, especially when they are going to the grocery shop. Those large, double- digit increases in our food prices are not sustainable but are accurately reflected when you look at the consumer price index on a year -over-year basis or a month- to-month basis. I think we do a good job at highlighting that this level of price inflation exists. And we know the challenges it causes for households, especially lower income households within our comm unity. The ILO [International Labour Organization] has put out a global wage report and it highlights the reduction in workers’ purchasing power and has asked the Government to look at a number of factors to support workers and their families during this time. They asked to look at macroeconomic policy, labour market and wage policy, how we can put policies in place to directly support households and the most vulnerable, and also how we have gender -sensitive policies because the gender gap—the disparity between men and women in society —has al so been exacerbated based off of some of the realities that economists are experiencing. Bermuda has less control over macroeconomic policies because we do not set monetary policy. We do have control of fiscal policy. I think it is important to also note that there is not a direct correlation between a government’s fiscal position and the economic performance of that particular country. A government can have rising debt while the economy continues to grow. [A government] can have shrinking debt while the economy continues to grow. They are not directly correlated. Government spending is a significant portion of GDP.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Jason Hayward: And so, it is mindful when we talk about being critical in areas and actually being fiscally prudent. Fiscally prudent is something that this Government intends to remain. And I say remain because this Government has put out a fiscal policy glide path, and we have remained within those parameters. I think that when the Premier has the opportunity to speak . . . when he releases the budget in two weeks, I think he will clearly demonstrate that we are adher318 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly ing to the guardrails that have been set because we want to be fiscally prudent. But more importantly, you have to balance fiscal prudence with ensuring that you are providing the goods and services that the economy needs in order for it to continue to run and that households need in order for them to be c ontinuously supported. So, when I look at the four parameters that the ILO has set and what the Government has done in comparison—and I will walk through—when we look at the labour market policy, this is why we are putting in place a minimum wage, to impr ove the purchasing power of households. This is why we ensure that we are putting in place policies that ensure that workers retain tips, gratuities, and service charges so that they are adequately compensated. This is why the Government put in place the s upplemental unemployment benefit for those persons who were not eligible for financial assistance but still needed relief. This is why we ensure that adequate social protections [are] in place, because we know the challenges that the infl ation is causing on households. Mr. Speaker, this is one of the reasons why we are embarking in earnest on financial assistance reform, to ensure that more individuals are eligible and that we improve the benefits that we provide to households. We are also reforming the chi ld day care allowance to expand the number of households that can take advantage of child day care allowance. All of these measures improve the purchasing power of households and act as a buffer to the inflation that individuals are experiencing. But the G overnment went above that. The Government also provided relief in terms of providing $150 per child when school started. There are a number of other relief things that are taking place in terms of if you look at the prebudget report and reduction of payrol l tax to low -income earners, when we look at tax rebates that we have provided. This is the Government remaining fiscally r esponsible but also providing necessary relief to our community. This is how we are putting people first. This is how when they say, What is the difference b etween the Progressive Labour Party and the other party ?, we can look at our track record in terms of how we have had a human- centred approach. These things that we rolled out in direct support of hous eholds demonstrate that when w e move forward, we move forward with the people in our hearts and minds. As the Minister responsible for economy and labour, I am able to look at both sides of the coin. I am able to look at the macro side of the coin in terms of how the overall Bermuda economy is doing and wor king on ensuring that there is necessary growth and development but [I] also look at it on the other side of the coin from a workforce development standpoint, from a labour standpoint, from a social protection standpoint for financial assistance to ensure that we are providing necessary support to those persons who actually need it within our community. Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt that the community will benefit from the Government who has fr ozen fuel prices. Fuel price volatilit y is one of the things impacting global economies worldwide. Most gover nments have not been as aggressive as we have in terms of freezing fuel prices within their economies. Most governments have not. Most governments have not been [as] aggressive as we have in terms of providing relief to households. We continue to extend duty relief on a number of items. We continue to extend duty relief to support small business. We have provided payroll tax relief to a number of industries within the economy, whether i t be hotels, whether it be restaurants, small businesses, and even companies that fall outside that scope. They can make an appeal to the Ministry of Finance—companies that are making a decision to move into the EEZ so they can take advantage of r elief that is found within the EEZ. I think it is important for us to understand that we have been laser -focused on helping the Bermuda population as best as we properly can while ensuring that we continue with . . . economic development strategy to continue to i mprove the economy. We do say that we need more workers. We do not need more workers just solely to fill the economy. But there are economic considerations that have to be made when we are talking about our rapidly ageing population. Other jurisdictions hav e gone through this exact same challenge, and if we do not try to be pr oactive in terms of addressing it, we will find ourselves where we do not have a sustainable economy. And so, increasing our working population is more about us having a sustainable economy than just trying to support and fuel economic growth. A phenomenon is going to take place over the next 10 years in terms of the amount of talent that will leave Bermuda’s workforce and go into retirement. The baby boomer generation is a . . . it is called the boomers for a real reason. There were expanded births during that period of time at [an] accelerated rate. Way before my time. I do not fall into that gener-ation, but a number of individuals in this room do. They have worked their entire career, and they would like to have a retirement as well. And they deserve one. And so, in the next 10 to 15 years, you are going to see a huge portion of our workforce exiting the workforce. And then some of those persons may have health challenges and they may need other social support and social protections. We need to ensure that we have the capacity to provide those for those individuals, and the best way to ensure that we have the capacity is if we have able- bodied individuals working within our economy. So, there are a number of reasons why we are seeking to increase our working population. I have put out a consultation document for all members of
Bermuda House of Assembly the public to weigh in on some of the suggestions. I have sent a direct letter to the Opposition. I do want the Opposition’s feedback on this particular matter. It is something that is going to impact us all. I have made it clear to my political colleagues that I do not intend on being in politics for a long period of time. So, while I am here, I am going to try to do the best I can to improve the world that I live in. But this particular problem will transcend my time in office, and we need to ensure we have [an] appropriate strategy in place to address that particular problem. I will be laser -focused in ensuring t hat we have a strategy in place that ensures that we are row-ing in the right direction. We are always accused of not having a plan. But as it pertains to economic development, you will see that we wrote out a complete economic development strategy, and it will give ev erybody a clear indication of where we are trending from our economy. As it pertains to growing our wor king population, we would have a strategy for that as well so that it is clear for everybody to understand. And we want input [from the entir e community] on these particular matters because this will impact the entire community. The entire community will be i mpacted by the challenges that our ageing population is going to have on our overall country and our economy moving forward.
BELCO —ALARM ING EMISSIONS OF
Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, you know, another part of my role is being a representative to a constituency. The number -one issue in my constit uency that I represent is the pollution that these indi-viduals experience by BELCO, our power company. It is wholly unacceptable. And I think the recent news reports have just shed more light on the egregious situation that residents within constituencies 17 and 18 find themselves in. I have been vocal on this particular issue, but I can only do so much. I have talked to the Department of Environment. I have talked to my Government colleagues. I have talked to the CEO of BELCO. I have urged all parties to collectively work together to find a solution for these residents. [He] who feels it, knows i t. And when you cannot rely on your water to drink or get a bath in because you are not sure it is safe . . . If you have in your mind that the power plant has impacted the lives of your loved ones who have passed away from cancer or some unexplainable di sease and you link that to that power plant, there is no level of satisfaction I can provide you as an MP. They want to see a change, and a change needs to come immediately. The residents are fed up. As the area MP, I am fed up. It is my responsibility to come to this House and raise their issues, and I will continue to do so on their behalf. But it is a solution that the power company and the Government need to continue to work on. It is simply unacceptable what those indivi duals are experiencing. And let me say this: the video that BELCO sent out after the news report was completely tone deaf. It was completely tone deaf. You cannot say you are meeting environmental standards when we can see rust running down the hill, when we can look on somebody’s roof and see how dirty the gutters are, when we can see the rust in their water filters. That water is not safe for anybody. It is a matter of time until the residents of that community say, Enough is enough! , and then we are going to see something more starti ng. We are going to start to see mass action. But at least they should be compensated. Not just with washing my roof every time I call you every other month, but I should not be . . . those residents should not be paying BELCO bills while this problem last s. And I am prepared to rise on the floor of this House to ask BELCO to consider for-going the BELCO bills for the residents of Pembroke constituency 17 who are impacted by their pollution. Persons should not be paying a company to pollute their very residence. And it is not just the pollution that comes down as it pertains to what you can physically see. It is a vapour as well and a smell, where persons cannot open their windows during the summertime. It is horr ible. I am going to email where the residents continue to complain, complain, complain. As long as those residents complain, I will use my time here in the House of Assembly and my power as a Minister and MP to try to get a resolution for those residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Honourable Minister. Does any other Member wish to make a contribution at this time? Opposition Whip, you have your 20 minutes. BUREAUCRACY, RED TAPE AND WASTE
Mr. Jarion RichardsonThank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this de-bate this afternoon. Mr. Speaker, when we were not sitting and we were all on break, I had occasion to go by a gas st ation [to buy] some gas and there were some guys si tting …
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this de-bate this afternoon. Mr. Speaker, when we were not sitting and we were all on break, I had occasion to go by a gas st ation [to buy] some gas and there were some guys si tting outside the gas station just chatting away. And they were talking about Bermudians living overseas and how well they were getting on and things like that. I have a cousin who moved to the United Kingdom, and so I just joined in the conversation and was tal king. But one of the things that made an abrupt change to the conversation, Mr. Speaker, was someone turned around and said, You know those politicians. They always talk about the wrong thing. And I thought, I think I will let this conversation go for a litt le bit longer and see where this is going. And they gave me an earful before I finally said, You 320 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly know, I am one of those politicians who is always tal king about the wrong thing. And the conversation got even deeper, and I mean I was there for a little bit b efore I managed to get away. But one of the things that today’s debate reminded me of was that conversation at the gas station. I am wondering (if those guys were listening) how much of what we were talking about they thought was the right thing. One way or the other, Mr. Speaker, we are going to have to thread that needle, because those are ultimately the people who are affected. And I thank the Honourable Minister of Economy and Labour for persistently talking about . . . I will give him credit when he focuses on their issues. One of the things I want to talk to you [about] today, Mr. Speaker, is what the Honourable Deputy Speaker was talking about —the bureaucracy and the red tape. The Honourable Minister of Works and Engineering spoke to it a couple si ttings ago as well. It is som ething I have brought up from time to time, and I will always bring it up because it is just something in what I do for a living. And that is . . . this is fundamentally . . . where there is red tape there is waste. As much as we are talking about rejuvenating the economy, recovering the economy, and strategies, and we are talking about financial assistance reform and other reforms, the reform we are not talking about, Mr. Speaker, is reducing the red tape. That comes about really because there is a lack of innov ation and development. And we are all very, very fami liar with all of those different departments and quangos where you walk in and you see super outdated com-puters, you see a form that has been photocopied seven times f rom the original. It is clearly from the 1980s or was on typeface. We face a genuine epidemic in this country, Mr. Speaker, because we are in 2023 with a very s ophisticated economy and a huge government budget, and yet a number of the public services that we utilise seem to be stuck in 1980. They are stuck in 1980 not only because of the systems they use, but really just everything that when you deal with them you feel like you are going back in time. I bring that up, Mr. Speaker, because it is one of thos e things that we can actually do something about. I am not sure where this lack of commitment to innovation and development has come from. I am not sure why it is littered across so many different places, but if this were anywhere else in the world, Mr. Speaker, I would think that we would be in . . . well, to be fair, Mr. Speaker, I think we are special enough that we can get on with this. Once I raised it under the banner of civil service reform, and I recall some honourable colleagues had an objection to that point because they advanced the argument that I was talking about cutting jobs. I go back to my original point that I am making right now that I am talking about cutting waste, Mr. Speaker. If Members of the governing party in this Honourable House c an speak to it, can see it, have to deal with it, then surely it is out there and it should be dealt with. There is a kind of dictatorial attitude that comes about when we do not engage in innovation and development. That is [when] persons in superv isory roles, in management roles, seem to take on an authority unto themselves that was not given to them by this Honourable House or by any act that passes through this Honourable House. We then wind up with very dictatorial approaches to running all of the aspects of our country. That squelches the economy. That makes it harder for . . . the Honourable Deputy Speaker was talking to someone with Customs. But that surely is not the only person in that circumstance. So, to that end, Mr. Speaker, what I would recommend this Government do in all of these affairs that it is addressing that the Honourable Minister of Economy and Labour just spoke of, that it focus also on not just the money that it is spending but the money it is wasting. Just like any organisation, t here is bound to be that. I take the point, Mr. Speaker, also, when my honourable colleague earlier was talking there was a lot of shouting, and you had to remind us about the conduct up here. I think about those guys outside the gas station that said, You politicians always talk about the wrong thing. I am wondering how much of that shouting was something that actually made their lives better or made it worse. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Honourable Member. Does any other Honourable Member wish to make a contribution at this time? None? Minister of Transport, you have your 20 minutes . . . Minister of Tourism, rather, Tourism, yes. TOURISM SUMMIT Hon. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank …
Thank you, Honourable Member. Does any other Honourable Member wish to make a contribution at this time? None? Minister of Transport, you have your 20 minutes . . . Minister of Tourism, rather, Tourism, yes.
TOURISM SUMMIT Hon. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Honourable Member from [constituency] 10 for the way that he started when he spoke earlier. He spoke about the two parties working together, rowing in the same direction, echoing something that was mentioned by MP Richardson earlier. That would be quite lovely, and would be what the voting public would want. Yes, the discussion deteriorated as it often does when one side or the other speaks about working together. I have only been here a short time and I have seen that happen at least three or four times. I s it an ideal that we can actually achieve? That is not for today. But I do want to go back to comments that were made about the meeting to discuss airlift and other issues around tourism that happened on the 25 th of January. And there was reference to an article in a certain daily where comments were made by Members on the other side—or allegedly made. And with
Bermuda House of Assembly your leeway, Mr. Speaker, I would like to just highlight what those are, and I will address those afterwards. I don’t hear any objection from you, Mr. Speaker, so I will assume —
The SpeakerThe SpeakerGo ahead. Continue. Hon. Vance Campbell: —I have your blessing.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerYes. Hon. Vance Campbell: 2“It exposed rifts between the Government and other stakeholders.” We (we being the Government) were accused of simply paying lip service. “We know what needs to be done to improve tourism so let’s get on with it. But this doesn’t seem to have a plan.” . …
Yes.
Hon. Vance Campbell: 2“It exposed rifts between the Government and other stakeholders.” We (we being the Government) were accused of simply paying lip service. “We know what needs to be done to improve tourism so let’s get on with it. But this doesn’t seem to have a plan.” . . . “There were some frank exchanges. It was evident that there were some conflict s between the Government and hoteliers and the BTA. . . .” I do agree with one comment that was alleged to have been made, that a forum like that should have happened sooner; a forum like that not only should happened sooner, it should happen on a regular basis. Mr. Speaker , I would like to go back to N ovember 18 of last year [2022]. While we were sitting here in this House there was a Tourism Summit going on at the Hamilton Princess. All key stakeholders, hoteliers, the Bermuda Tourism Authority, all of the key stakeholders were present, the majority. And the r eports . . . yes, I got to say some opening comments but then I had to make my way here. But by all r eports, and I did request a report as to how things [went], there were good exchanges, panel discussions, and coming out of that Summit meeting, lots of optimism toward the 2023 tourism season. We have Minister Furbert organising the airlift meeting on the 25th, again, inviting all of the key individuals and entities who needed to be there. The objective was to discuss the issues around airlift and to come up with potential ways to get the most out of what was not an ideal circumstance. And I will pause right here, Mr. Speaker, because there is no one in this room who would disagree with the comment that without the largest hotel on this Island being opened it is extremely difficult to move the needle in a meaningful way within the hospitality industry, extremely diff icult. Not impossible; but extremely difficult. So, we can acknowledge that without that hotel open and operating we have a mammoth task on our hands. So, we had a Tourism Summit on November 18, and we had another meeting with stakeholders on January 25th. From the time I became Minister of Tourism, I made it a point to travel up and down the Island meeting with hoteliers at their place so that I can meet them and their staff, and not just be a name
2 Royal Gazette, 1 Febr uary 2023 but a face that they can call on whenever they needed to. I can also walk through their plant, understand what their plans might be, if any —their future plans, that is, for their physical plant. I was joined by MP Caesar and members of my technical staff. That continued for all of last year and we will start up again this year because we have not visited everyone. So, I ask, Mr. Speaker, does that sound like a Government who isn’t listening? Does that sound like a Government who is only paying lip service to wanting to improve hospitality on this Island? I say not. And I will say it again, I say not. We hear quite often of a confidence in Bermuda, but yet, in thos e discussions we were advised of plans to upgrade. We were advised of plans to expand. Confidence in the hospitality industry. Conf idence in Bermuda. Some of those plans to upgrade are out in the public domain. Some of those plans to upgrade and expand hav e not reached the public domain as yet. So there is activity going on to improve the physical plants on the Island when it comes to hospitality. The Government does not have a plan for tourism. As was pointed out by MP Scott, we have a National Tourism P lan. Some of the goals and objectives under that were modified because of COVID -19. We have seven pillars to that National Tourism Plan . . . relevance to become a greener product, infrastructure, local involvement, utilising innovation, focus on teams and groups, and becoming a year -round dest ination. Awareness and relevance. We must in our marketing—that is the goal —inspire people with what Bermuda has to offer, the allure of Bermuda. We must focus. And the plan is to focus —coming out of the first year in a long time where we do not have any r estrictions related to a worldwide pandemic —our r esources on those targeted audiences and putting Bermuda uppermost in their minds once again, where we used to be when it comes to their thoughts around where they are going for vacation. We are not just pink sand and blue water. We do care about our environment and we can utilise that from an ecotourism perspective. We must continue to work on a frictionless experience for our visitors when they come here. We know w hat the challenges are. Yes, we do. And they are being worked on. But our problems in tourism did not begin in 2020 when COVID -19 significantly affected this I sland. Our problems began because we were on top in the tourism world, in these parts, but we failed to work to stay there. Even an athlete knows they must work to stay number one, Mr. Speaker. Somerset was number one for quite some time.
An Hon. Member An Hon. MemberIt took a long time to come, too. 322 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Vance Campbell: Not as long as St. George’s in cricket, but . . . [Inaudible interjections]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerWe hold the Cup longer than St. George’s. Hon. Vance Campbell: So we must work on things such as transportation. It is one thing to get visitors interested here. Yes, we must work on airlift. It is one thing to get them here. But once they are here we must …
We hold the Cup longer than St. George’s.
Hon. Vance Campbell: So we must work on things such as transportation. It is one thing to get visitors interested here. Yes, we must work on airlift. It is one thing to get them here. But once they are here we must be able to move them about the Island so that they can enjoy what we have to offer. Our tourism industry in many ways was built on our people. We must convince more of our people that they have a role to play, directly in the industry and indirectly. Sometimes that friendly smile and greeting as you are walking down the streets of Hami lton, or wherever, offering directions in a pleasant manner. That all plays a part in our tourism product. Our people are one of our greatest resources. We must use innovation, technology. We must think like a visitor. We cannot say, This is what you want. This is what we have for you, like it or not. We must provide those things that our visitor s are looking for. You know, they can get an expensive di nner at home. What is different about the meal that they are going to have in Bermuda? We have been known to work wonders with ketchup. And I go back —teams and groups. And that brings me right back to the Fairmont Southampton. The needle is extremely difficult to move in a substantial way without that hotel back online. Year -round destination. Why not? Sports are playing a significant role in extending our season, but that is not the only thing that we can utilise. Our weather still, while temperate, is much better than much in our target offers. So I will look to conclude, Mr. Speaker, with two things. This Government does have a plan, as I have just outlined, and that is a very brief outline. It is quite detailed. I would invite those on the other side to actually read it. Is there work to be done? Yes, Mr. Speaker. In some instances, will that work take some time? Yes. But as far as there being a rift between Government and the BTA, as far as there being a rift between the Government and hoteliers, that is rubbish, Mr. Speaker, and there cannot be anything further from the truth than that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerThank you, Honourable Minister. Does any other Member wish to make a contribution at this time? MP Caines, you have the floor.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerContinue. BELCO —ALARMING EMISSIONS
Mr. Wayne CainesMr. Speaker, I am going to thread the needle and ask for your indulgence. I wi ll declare my interest at the start of this. I am the president of BELCO Bermuda and the subsidiary. I want to declare that upfront, Mr. Speaker. I am aware and I will thread …
Mr. Speaker, I am going to thread the needle and ask for your indulgence. I wi ll declare my interest at the start of this. I am the president of BELCO Bermuda and the subsidiary. I want to declare that upfront, Mr. Speaker. I am aware and I will thread the needle and be cautious and careful, understanding the rules that govern this most Honourable House.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerMy only guidance that I will offer is that if it is in response to comments that were made earl ier, the comments were made from a political perspective as the Member spoke in respect to representing his constituency. In your response, try not to be r esponding as a …
My only guidance that I will offer is that if it is in response to comments that were made earl ier, the comments were made from a political perspective as the Member spoke in respect to representing his constituency. In your response, try not to be r esponding as a business because that business does not have the right to speak on this floor. So, be guided on how you respond.
Mr. Wayne CainesI am guided, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that we have the opportunity to share and to talk with each other’s colleagues and to always give the opportunity to each other to share the concerns of the people with whom we represent. I would like to …
I am guided, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that we have the opportunity to share and to talk with each other’s colleagues and to always give the opportunity to each other to share the concerns of the people with whom we represent. I would like to thank MP Susan Jackson [and] I would like to thank MP Scott Pearman for meeting with me this week to share the concerns of their constituents. They came to our office. They outlined the concerns that they had. They shared with us a litany of concerns from their constituents. The conversation was difficult at times for all involved, but what I was able to get from the Oppos ition Members who understood the significance of it, the accountability piece, but them understanding the correct place for which they should make thei r concerns known and they did so in the appropriate forum. We were able to hear them. We were able to take their concerns. We were able to document them and we were able to do things to the betterment of the constituents. I thank them for understanding the importance of making the right comments, in the right place, at the right time. That is how we should adv ocate on behalf of our constituents.
TOURISM AND TRANSPORTATION
Mr. Wayne CainesMr. Speaker, I would like to talk about tourism. I think tourism is something that we all can be proud of. Something that is in the DNA of our country. Something that is in the fabric of our comm unity. I listened to the Minister with responsibility for Tourism. It …
Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk about tourism. I think tourism is something that we all can be proud of. Something that is in the DNA of our country. Something that is in the fabric of our comm unity. I listened to the Minister with responsibility for Tourism. It is a privilege to be in the room with him. We give eac h other the glance. We are able to understand the direction of tourism and things that are i mportant to Bermuda. And we are able to talk and work
Bermuda House of Assembly in tandem when we talk politically about things that we think that the country should do. Mr. Speaker, I hav e the responsibility of being the chairman of the BTA. Most recently, the Bermuda Tourism Authority launched their campaign, “Lost Yet Found.” Mr. Speaker, this campaign has had critical acclaim across the Caribbean [and] across the United States of Americ a.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerYou excited the Minister that time, see that?
Mr. Wayne CainesThe Minister . . . and that, I am sure, was one of the Tourism commercials that he was pulling up on his laptop to share some tourism facts and figures. Mr. Speaker, I saw the campaign and the campaign represented some clear positions of Bermuda. And it showcased jumping …
The Minister . . . and that, I am sure, was one of the Tourism commercials that he was pulling up on his laptop to share some tourism facts and figures. Mr. Speaker, I saw the campaign and the campaign represented some clear positions of Bermuda. And it showcased jumping off the rocks, and our tourists, and it was really some local flora and fauna. I have talked with some business owners and some hoteliers and they said to me, Wayne, while the campaign showed awesome clips and snippets of Bermuda, there w ere times that we thought that we could do something different. And I asked the hoteliers and I asked some of the people in the business community, they made it clear. They said, Mr. Caines, we need to highlight two things. We need to highlight our beaches and we need to highlight Bermuda’s proximity to the north—to Boston, to New York, to our breadbasket. And I shared with them, I said, The Lost Yet Found campaign is an overarching campaign. But there are going to be micro campaigns that talk about our pr oximity to the United States of America. There will be campaigns that talk about our beaches, about golf, about our yacht strategy. The team is systematically unfurrowing, or unrolling, a campaign. You have seen the first part of it. And what you will see is a systematic rollout of micro campaigns that talk about our connected, or our close proximity to the United States of America. The beauty of our beaches. The beauty of our golf courses. And I get that. But the importance of this is to understand that w e are not all homogenous in thought. So some people are going to see an i mportance for us to highlight the flora, the fauna, the Bermudiana. Some people are going to think it is very important for us to highlight our proximity to the United States of Ameri ca. The BTA has a plan. And they have the ability to walk and chew gum at the same time. What we have to understand is that we have a department that . . . we have the BTA, the Bermuda Tourism Authority, that is fit for purpose. It has disc i-plined professi onals, both in New York and in Berm uda. And they are working hard, they are working dil igently to unfold, to unroll, to show to this public that Bermuda is indeed the jewel in the Atlantic. And, Mr. Speaker, [as was] stated by the Member of constituency 10 and then echoed by the Minister of Tourism, something that we need to be doing is, we need to continue the theme of working together. I think when we look at tourism from, It’s the Government’s responsibility; it is the BTA’s respons ibility, we bifurcate the responsibility and we do not realise that we need to be working at Skyport. And the ethos of tourism working and thriving is everyone working together. It is very easy to go out and say, You know, these are the things that the Government is doing wrong. These are the things that the BTA need to do. These are the things that the Bermuda Hotelier Ass ociation need to do. And that is not the case. The Mi nister of Transport brings everyone together, he gets everyone into the room, he gets all the stakeholders in the room and what is the emphasis? The emphasis is giving all the stakeholders the opportunity to be at the table and together to work on a fix, an answer, a sol ution of working together. Now, guess what? Sometimes when you are doing something initi ally things happen, and things work, and sometimes the next time you do it you iron out all the kinks and things work better. But the Mini ster has to be given . . . Jack has to be given his jacket. He brought everyone together. He had the stakehol ders in t he room, the hoteliers, the BTA, Transport, Tourism, the Ministers, the people who are investing. That is a significant movement for us getting together. Why can’t you give the Government the credit for doing something in the right direction to bring touri sm together, to bring the stakeholders together? That is something that should be lauded. And if there are things that we need to do better, the responsibility of you is to go right back to the Minister who is trying to put these together, to the team, and offer your advice, your guidance, your criticism constructively. Again, to what we are talking about, is Bermuda incorporated doing things better. And in that vein, Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about how . . . because we want to say, if we had lovely hotels people would come. Guess what? Our hotel occupancy is going up. No, we are not pre Southampton Princess levels, but we see Cambridge Beaches, we see Azura, we see the St. George’s Club, we see hotels coming back online at numbers that we have not seen before. So if you are going to give the criticism for the things that are not going well, surely . . . surely, Mr. Speaker, you must give credit for things that are under the Government’s control that are going in the right direction. So, yes, if we understand that if I were to coin a phrase, I see this is the time that we are seeing more investment. Where people are investing in the 324 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly tourism product. They are now investing in hotels. And we see that this could be an opportunity, looking at Elbow Beach and Southampton Princess, if we continue to go in this direction, we see something that we need in Bermuda and that is more beds. Guess what, Mr. Speaker? We polled a number—when I say “we” [I mean] the BTA polled a number—of tourists in B ermuda. When they arrived and after they left. And what do you think their biggest concern was? Mr. Speaker, it was not an airlift. Mr. Speaker, it was not restaurants. Mr. Speaker, it was not the fact that our beaches are overcrowded. Mr. Speaker, the thi ng that caused the most concern, on record, documented, put in writing to the BTA was transportation. It was local transportation. They l amented that once on Island it was difficult, if not i mpossible, for them to be collected from the airport to go to the hotels, to come back from the hotels, to go to events, to go out to dinner and to come home. Now, remember what we are seeing now. My twin brother made his life going to university as a taxi driver. My next -door neighbour is a taxi driver. I have brother s in the PLP who are taxi drivers. You will never be able to tell your grandchildren that I spoke negatively about taxi drivers, taxi owners, and taxi oper ators in Bermuda. But what we must discuss is that we now have an opportunity to hold each other acc ountable. Why? The call goes out to hold Skyport accountable. The call goes out to hold the Minister of Tourism accountable. The call goes out to hold the interim CEO of the Tourism Authority accountable. Now, if this accountability train is on the tracks, we must now talk to our taxi owners and our taxi operators, understanding that these men and women have kept this country on their shoulders for years. So we are not trying to hold them up as a scapegoat. But what we can say is that there is a requirement in law for taxis to be on the road for a specific amount of hours, now they must be held to account for that. We must now say to taxi dri vers, You cannot . . . I’ll tell you a quick story, Mr. Speaker. I am looking at the clock and I am managing the time.
Mr. Wayne CainesSomerset, the little draw bridge, they have a little sport . . . they have a little place where you go diving and jet skiing, and the name escapes me, I apologise—
Mr. Wayne CainesAnd the taxi is called. A gentl eman has gone out on a Jet ski and he has gotten i njured. He comes back, he and his wife, they are dishevelled, they are upset. He is hurt. The taxi driver comes and he notices that the tourist is soaking wet. …
And the taxi is called. A gentl eman has gone out on a Jet ski and he has gotten i njured. He comes back, he and his wife, they are dishevelled, they are upset. He is hurt. The taxi driver comes and he notices that the tourist is soaking wet. His first words were, You cannot get in my taxi wet. [The tourist] says, Listen, my leg, look at it. It is going to the side. Clearly, my leg is broken. I cannot get an ambulance because I am not insured, and in Bermuda it will cost hundreds of thousands. All I need is to get in the taxi. I can go back inside, change my — [The taxi driver said] Listen, I cannot put you in my taxi wet. The people come from out of the local store. They come over. They say, Listen, what can we do? We don’t have our cars. Please, this man’s leg is br oken; he is in pain. The taxi driver says, Listen, this [watch this, he is not being difficult] this is my bread and butter. I cannot put him wet in my taxi. This man is writhing in pain. The taxi driver says, The only thing I can do as a compromise is put you in the trunk. He takes the tourist, and two workers [help] him. He opens up the trunk, he takes out the WD-40, he takes out the ArmorAll, and he takes the tourist and he places the tourist in the hatchback of the car and he goes down the street. Now, here is the thing. I do not want to highlight this as an anomaly, because I know that as I say this there are taxi drivers that are sitting in the cab rank at the Hamilton Princess, sitting in the cab rank at the airport that by the sweat of their brow make their living ev ery day. They are honourable, they are noble, they work hard. Yes? So I will never in this room, from this podium, decry the men and women who drive and own taxis in Bermuda. I give that example to say that we have to have an honest conver-sation about the night -time economy. When people are saying we have pushed— and we have pushed! —that you cannot drink and drive, that if you are going to [drink] leave your cars at home, then what does that mean? We must have taxis on the road to get people backwards and f orwards. Ask the restaurateurs what is the thing that they want to see most done in Bermuda. Ask the ho-teliers what is the thing that they want to see most in Bermuda. If we do not have these honest convers ations without guile, without fear, honest conver sations . . . we must now all come to the table on the transportation issue in this country. And guess what. I will not decry my brothers, the Minister of Tourism, the Mini ster of Transport, but we have to get the buses on the
Bermuda House of Assembly South Shore (this is for tour ism) on a different schedule. Have you been outside at six o’clock in the summer and seen 300 tourists lining the side of the street?
Mr. Wayne CainesHow outrageous! This is our r esponsibility. And guess what. Just like I will not crit icise taxi drivers you are not going to see me criticise my brother Minister, or the men and women who drive the PTB [Pubic Transportation Board]. We are talking about collective responsibility. If we …
How outrageous! This is our r esponsibility. And guess what. Just like I will not crit icise taxi drivers you are not going to see me criticise my brother Minister, or the men and women who drive the PTB [Pubic Transportation Board]. We are talking about collective responsibility. If we are talking about what we need to do differentl y, let’s speak truth to power.
TOURISM AND SERVICE
Mr. Wayne CainesThis is our tourism product! We find ourselves easily not realising that, guess what . . . can I go a little bit further, Mr. Speaker? We have to understand that service does not mean servitude. So, people are saying when they come to Bermuda, they are going to a …
This is our tourism product! We find ourselves easily not realising that, guess what . . . can I go a little bit further, Mr. Speaker? We have to understand that service does not mean servitude. So, people are saying when they come to Bermuda, they are going to a hotel and spending $700 per night and people are not nice, they are not friendly, that our people, whether it is customer service on the tel ephones, whether it is customer serv ice when we go into one of our utility companies, people are saying that we have confused service with servitude. Now, here’s the thing, because this is going around in equal measure. We have to pay people properly. We have to understand the pay paradigm and that we have to make sure that people have the ability to rise. Dr. Ewart Brown used to often say that we want a people with the tray in their hand, but they do not see an access to management. So, if a guy comes in as a busboy, he does not take touri sm, the hotel industry, seriously because, guess what. It is seen as a side hustle. They do not say to a young man coming into the hotel that one day he could become the general manager. So the hotel association . . . just like they want to see the taxi dr ivers do better, guess what. They too have a responsibility, Mr. Speaker. Their responsibility is to show the young people in this country that it is an opportunity for them to go from just being an entry -level person directly to a general manager. When you go to the hotels, look at the senior posts. We have to have a conversation that transcends what we find ourselves [doing] —picking each other apart because of our affiliations, not supporting the BTA because we want our person to get in. It is a time wh ere we are fighting for our lives and our people have to see that tourism has to get better. But tourism is not going to get better by talking. It is going to get better by introspection, allowing people to come in and see the best of who we are, the best in service, people going above and beyond. I heard a story one time. I was at a meeting, a tourism meeting, and they said, Can you name a Bermuda drink? I am thinking, Mr. Speaker. You know my limited experience in such things.
Mr. Wayne CainesThank you for acknowledging that, Mr. Speaker. And I am thinking a Dark ‘n’ Stormy, or a Rum Swizzle. I only know — [Inaudible interjection]
Mr. Wayne CainesThank you for that my brother in Christ. Right? And I was thinking one of those heavily spirited drinks. And somebody, said A chicken salad sandwich. Right? I said to myself (I’m angry now), These guys don’t know anything about tourism. There’s no such thing called a chicken salad sandwich, …
Thank you for that my brother in Christ. Right? And I was thinking one of those heavily spirited drinks. And somebody, said A chicken salad sandwich. Right? I said to myself (I’m angry now), These guys don’t know anything about tourism. There’s no such thing called a chicken salad sandwich, or a chicken salad. Right? I left the room. And you know how these little things needle at you? I said to myself, That’s made up; there’s no such thing. And an old gentleman came to me and said, Absolutely, that is a thing. Back in the day we could not drink when we were on the job so the code word was, ‘Let me get a chicken salad sandwich.’ And over the years amongst a certain . . . so, if you are in the Bermuda Regiment, you can’t drink in the Bermuda Regiment. So guess what it was called? A sherbet. So when the guy said, Casey, get me a sherbet, guess what that was a code word for. That’s for get me some spirits , which cousin Derrick partakes of from time to time, Mr. Speaker. [Inaudible interjection]
Mr. Wayne CainesAnd, see that? I have lost my line and length. We have to—
Mr. Wayne CainesWe have to . . . and, Mr. Speaker, when somebody says, Bermudianise it, I do not accept that. It is arrogant. It is haughty. We have got-ten so full of ourselves that we think it is enough just to be Bermudian. That word “Bermudian” comes with a standard. It …
We have to . . . and, Mr. Speaker, when somebody says, Bermudianise it, I do not accept that. It is arrogant. It is haughty. We have got-ten so full of ourselves that we think it is enough just to be Bermudian. That word “Bermudian” comes with a standard. It comes with ethics. It comes with being humble. It comes with understanding who you are and with whom you are. That is what being a Bermudian is. Everybody wants to stand proud and get the best salary and become a manager. To whom much is gi ven, much is required.
The SpeakerThe SpeakerRoll up your sleeves. 326 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Wayne Caines : Our tourism product requires the best of who we are. It requires us to stand up and stand out. Guess what. Everybody cannot go out on the weekend. Somebody has to …
Roll up your sleeves.
326 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Wayne Caines : Our tourism product requires the best of who we are. It requires us to stand up and stand out. Guess what. Everybody cannot go out on the weekend. Somebody has to be on their tools. Ever ybody can’t get Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Grandparent’s Day off. Why? Because we are always working from the ideal that I am doing this as a means to an end, so that my children can go to school, to buy my house, to go off to university. We saw this as a means to an end. So when we were working it wasn’t enslavement, it wasn’t servitude; it was making ourselves proud of who we were and what we do. We need to go back to understanding that our tourism product is more than just the edifice, the beach, the golf course. It is a proud, proud set of people who work hard, who love each other, who go into this community and work hard. That is what I want this room to stand up for. I want us to work together as an Opposition. I want us to work together as the BTA, the Hotel Association. I want us to work together as the Minister of Transport, all together for Bermuda incorporated. And let me tell you something. When we do that we will see tourists flocking to this Isl and, Mr. Speaker.
Some Hon. Members Some Hon. MembersHear, hear! [Desk thumping]
The SpeakerThe SpeakerDoes any other Member wish to make a contribution at this time? MP Lister, constituency 28, you have the floor. You have 20 minutes. SAFE DRIVING —PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL BERMUDA ROAD USERS
Mr. Dennis Lister IIIThank you, Mr. Speaker, and good afternoon to the listening audience and my fellow colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I hope I can be as passionate in my comments as the previous speaker. Earlier this morning I gave condolences to two families. And as I said, Mr. Speaker, I knew both of …
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and good afternoon to the listening audience and my fellow colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I hope I can be as passionate in my comments as the previous speaker. Earlier this morning I gave condolences to two families. And as I said, Mr. Speaker, I knew both of those victims personally. They were friends of mine for 20 years. So, just for that I know how I feel. You know, friends that I won’t see any more, someone that you just think of them, Let me hit up my friend . . . these people are gone. But I cannot even imagine how their families feel, Mr. Speaker. These are not just one single man; they are sons, they are fathers, they are brothers, nephews, uncles. They are a part of a family, Mr. Speaker. So, as I said, I cannot imagine the pain and suffering that those families are going through. I just, again, send my condolences. Mr. Speaker, it is not just about numbers and figures. Each fatality is a person. So my plea today, Mr. Speaker, is t hat each person on our roads, whether riding a bike, driving a car, whether you are even a passenger in one of those modes of transportation, Mr. Speaker, we all play our part. The [Member] before me spoke about collective responsibility. On our roads we all share those roads. You cannot get from your house to your job, you cannot get from your house to school, you cannot get anywhere wit hout travelling on our roads. So it is collectively that we all have to do our part. I will go even a bit further, Mr. Speaker, and say that it is personal responsibility. As the chairman of the Roads Safety Council, each month I am on the radio. We do our different campaigns. We raise awareness about road traffic issues. We give the correct instructions when it comes to dr iving and riding on our roads. But, Mr. Speaker, all of that is for naught if those whom we are speaking to do not heed those instructions. That is where the personal responsibility comes in. As I said, I can talk until I am blue in the face but that does not mean anything because a person can take what is said and they have to make their own decision, their own choices. But I ask, I implore, and, again this is a passionate plea, Mr. Speaker, that each road user make good decisions. As I said, we share this Island. We share our roads. We are all impacted. And as one of the fatalities earlier this week, we saw how that impacted. One of them was a trash collection driver. And the day after that accident the trash collection was suspended for that day. So, that is how it i mpacted. It is not a single event. Even the roads . . . when there is a serious accident roads have to be blocked off. Traffic has to be diverted. People have to be impacted if they are on their way to work. An acc ident will hold them up. So, Mr. Speaker, every action we do on our roads impacts not just you in that car or on that bike, but every other person on the roads. Mr. Speaker, families are torn, as I said. And I am not speaking specifically to the road fatalities this week, but generally. These are men and women . . . when they are gone their families are torn apart. The worst thing to do is to have to tell a young child that their father or their mother is gone, that they are not coming back. Again, for me, it is passionate, Mr. Speak er. Losing our young men and women . . . we have a rise in violent crime that we are losing our young people to. There are always accidents, Mr. Speaker, but we have to now knock down, reduce, those numbers. We can’t be losing our young men and women to vi olence and to road fatalities, Mr. Speaker. If we keep losing them who will be our leaders and our people of tomorrow? So, it impacts ever yone. As I said, the community of Somerset has lost two community members. I don’t know when funerals will be held, but I can assume that when those funerals are held the community will come out to show support for those families, that they are not alone in their suffering for their sons, their loved ones. The
Bermuda House of Assembly community shares in that pain. And, again, Mr. Speaker, not s peaking specifically about any road traffic accident, but the leading cause of accidents on our Island, the top three are speeding, impaired driving and distracted driving. We know what speeding is. The speed limit is 35 km/h. And we all know that it may s eem slow, but that speed limit is there for a reason—to keep us safe. As the slogan goes, 35 keeps you alive. It is not, 35, you can speed as fast as you want. No. Thirty -five keeps you alive, so that you can get from where you [are] to where you need to go and back home safely. Mr. Speaker, distracted driving comes in many forms. Phones . . . I hear cousin Derrick. I know he is used to his scrolls, but he has caught up at times with his phone. Phones, Mr. Speaker. It is commonplace nowadays to drive around . . . and we see people on bikes and in cars, trucks, on their phones. A pet peeve of mine, Mr. Speaker, is that when I am driving . . . and you know when you look up and you can see in the rearview mirror of the car in front of you, or maybe the dr iver’s side mirror, the person [is] head up, head down, maybe holding the phone down here. Mr. Speaker, sometimes I wish I had a loudspeaker on my horn so I could say, Put your phone down! because I can see it. It impacts their driving behaviour. Some people drive slower so they can . . . some people might not even slow their speed. And that is even more dangerous because you are driving at a faster rate and thinking you can do two things at once. Mr. Speaker, again, I call on and implore people to put your phones down. There was a road safety campaign in another jurisdiction. They have a slogan (and I hope I can quote it correctly), You can send that text and your friend sees it, but . . . and that’s it because they get in an accident. So they receive the text, but [their friend] is gone. Or they look down to answer that phone call and that can cause an accident. They’re gone. It is not worth it, Mr. Speaker. Either pull over to send that text . . . like the MP from constituency 24 likes to say, the gold coast of South Shore. And I will state my interest; I have some of that in my constituency, the gold coast. But there are enough lay -bys so that you can pull over, send that text, make that call, and then you can go on your way. There are options to do saf er things than just driving and using your phone. Other’s phones are distracted driving and, you know, everyone does it. You might have a passenger in your car and get caught up in a conversation. But, if anything takes your focus and your attention away from your driving, that is causing you to be distracted. So it is about limiting those distractions. Impaired driving. Many are used to DUI, dri ving while under the influence, but I say impaired dri ving because impaired driving covers alcohol, drugs and other substances. Anything that alters your mind from a sober state is impairing your ability. So, Mr. Speaker, impaired driving, whether it is alcohol or any other drug, yes, we know it is wrong. There are laws against it. The Road Safety Council campaigns against it —don’t drink and drive. But people still choose to do it. We have the BPS [Bermuda Police Service], which I commend for roadside sobriety check points. They have been effective in changing that culture, that driving behaviour culture of just goi ng out to drink, getting in the car and driving home. So I commend them for the job that they do. But again, this goes back to personal responsibility. You know that if you are going out to happy hour on a Friday night, on the weekend, and you are going t o consume alcohol, plan how you will get home safely. We heard the Member before me speak about the lack of transportation options in the Island. And we get that. But again, as the Member before me said we call for taxi drivers and minibus operators to off er their services at those hours so that there are more options for persons to choose to get home safely than just drinking, getting on the bike or getting in their car and taking that risk. They might not plan to do that, but they go out and there is no r eliable transportation. Some people do not have anyone that they can call at 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning to come and give them a ride home, and they take that risk. So we do not want people to have to take that risk. So, again, I call on the taxi and minibus drivers to offer their services at later hours for people to have options to choose to get home safely. Mr. Speaker, I end my comments reiterating personal responsibility. Each one of us has a respon-sibility while they are on our roads to follow the rules of the roads and to adhere to all standards of driving while they are on the roads. And it is not about doing it because it is the law ; it is about doing it because it keeps you and all of us safe. I sort of joke and say that when you drive, drive like the police are behind you, because when you know the police are behind you, you sit up straight, hands on, you know, at nine and three or nine and two.
Mr. Dennis Lister IIITen and two, there you go. It is a different approach when the police are behind you. So, I ask people to have that mentality every time. Be your own policeman. When you look at that speedometer and you are approaching up 50, bring back to your mind I’m a …
Ten and two, there you go. It is a different approach when the police are behind you. So, I ask people to have that mentality every time. Be your own policeman. When you look at that speedometer and you are approaching up 50, bring back to your mind I’m a policeman; I have to go back down to 45, 40, 35. If you feel like overtaking . . . and I understand it. Some people do get road rage. You know you are behind a car . . . I know we used to call them Sunday divers. No disrespect to those Sunday drivers, but they are just out for a nice little joyride. And I understand that people might have time to make. But this also goes back to planning ahead. If you know that you have to make som ewhere at a certain time, don’t leave with just enough time to get there, because you know you are going to 328 3 February 2023 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda House of Assembly have to race or s peed. Give yourself five or ten actual minutes so that you don’t have to race or speed if there are any detours , or maybe you are stuck behind a slow driver . That would not make you late for wherever you are going. So my plea and my call for all road users — [Abrupt end due to Island- wide power outage; the House resumed on 17 February 2023. ]