March 4, 2022

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Will the Honourable Minister please inform
this Honourable House if the Education Ministry is providing additional support to teachers in reducing
the learning gaps of our students?
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
MP Jackson, the simple answer to that is yes,
we do supply support, but let me go into what those supports are. Because the question did not ask what the supports are, they only ask, do we do it?
But I just want to say that the Department of
Education supports teachers by assisting them in the
following: Collectively using reading assessment data,
both pre and post entry and at the end of the term to
support student learning. For example, te achers administer reading assessments, but they also assess
students during their formative assessment in the
short form of short sentences, multiple choice and
essays. Support online instruction with targeted faceto-face where teachers administer remote learning
and online learning.
Teachers also follow up with students face- toface once the COVID -19 restrictions lifted. Teachers
are also versed in applying the multi -tiered level of
support via the student services support process. This
involves academic , social -emotional learning support
that they are taught. Teachers are also equipped with
multiple strategies to assess students’ prior
knowledge in each class. This involves strategies such as discussions in small groups [such as] think -
pair-share [TPS], a collaborative teaching strategy
that is used to help students form individual ideas [and] discuss and share with others in groups. In addition, one- minute papers instructional tools, like clicker
questions and—

[Audio skip]

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: —curriculum pacing guides
also prepared by educational offices for curricular and provided to substitute teachers. In the math sphere, teachers are being trained
in Math Mastery pedagogy . This is a teaching and


Bermuda House of Assembly learning approach that aims for students to d evelop a
deeper understanding of math, rather than being able
to memorise key procedures or resort to rote learning.
As I mentioned earlier, a bespoke or custo mised, or made for individual curricula, curriculum development guid ance is given when schools are signif icantly behind schedule. The bespoke curricula conti nues to be developed [for] teacher resources . These
are teacher -customised resources individualised to
support delivery in a cultural ly relevant manner.
Development training for teachers on tra nsitioning middle school teachers ’ delivery to signature
school programme curriculum is currently in place.
Assessment of math prepared by teachers for st udents, analysis of the math results in us being able to ascertain teaching strengths and student strengths.
Also in place is guiding leadership for mathematics. This is for teacher leaders to develop teacher
leaders in mathematics and principa l. And last , but not
least, the coaching of teachers who have low -
performance classes compared to national compar isons. This coaching is provided by the education of-ficer for math and a math consultant who coach
stronger math teachers, teach our leaders to become
pair coaches. This is an approach being adopted and
being put in place with all subjects across the BPSS
[Bermuda Public School System] .

In all of the support that the
Minister has just provided, I am just wondering, given the restrictions on teachers in the past couple of
years, logistically, will teachers have the time, will they have the prep periods, will they be able to get back
into the school to be able to work in their classrooms after school hours in order to prepare? Logistically, will they be given more time on campus to prepare for
student learning?
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: As the COVID -19 r estrictions change . . . I know initially (if you go back to
2020), access to campus was limited. But as we fast
forward to this year, you will note that when we came
back from . . . when we broke for the mid- term break,
schools were —
[Audio ski p]
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: —and they were given the
option to attend the school or work from home. So,
yes, more access to schools is available for teachers.
As everyone well knows, we are currently in a very
uncomfortable place, right now with the Berm udian
Union of Teachers and the Department of Education,
but as we work through it I think some of those issues
will be finalised as well. But right now teachers have
access to their rooms, they have access to the IT i nfrastructure within the schools to do the things that
they feel that they have to do, whether they wish to do
them from class or do them from home.

—written questions. We will now move
on to questions from the Statements that were given
this morning.
The Statement this morni ng from the Deputy
Premier in reference to Bermuda’s climate changes,
you have a question from a Member.
MP Pearman, would you like to put your question now?

QUESTION 1: BERMUDA AND CLIMATE CHANGE:
A STUDY TO DETERMINE THE IMPACTS FROM
SEA LEVEL RISE AN D CHANGING
STORM ACTIVITY

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank
you, Honourable Minister.
Minister, when you previously spoke about the
Blue Shield/Blue Belt Programme before this Honour-able House, you confirmed that the programme was
being fully funded by the UK Government. Is this grant that you announced today part of the funding from that
programme or is this a separate grant that you have
sought and obtained for another channel?
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Walter H. Roban: Thank you for the question,
Honourable Member. This is separate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Second
supplementary.
Can you give us any information as to the
timeframe or [will you] announce those further antic ipated grants?

Hon. Walter H. Roban: We will be receiving additional funds to pay for the additional parts of the climate
study, around $219,000. These are additional monies
that we will be receiving. As it relates to other initi atives, we have a number of initiatives that we are di scussing with the UK Government and with other ent ities and as soon as we have more cognitive news to
give to the public and this House we will give it. But
we are discussing a number of different projects and
we are even collaborating with some of the Ministries
on possible grant opportunities. But principally for our
Ministry, that is what we are doing thus far, but we are
in discussions with a number of other opportunities
that can exist for grant funding.

Minister, on page 2 of your
Statement you referenced the solar farm on what is
colloquially known as the Finger, out there. Could you kindly update the House as to what is happening in
relation to the solar farm?

Hon. Walter H. Roban: I don’t actually believe that is
a subject of this actual Statement, the progress of the
solar farm, Honourable Member.

So you don’t wish to update this
House as to what is going on at the solar farm? You
would rather —

Hon. Walter H. Roban: I will happily update the
House in a formal Statement. But this is about the cl imate change study, not about the solar farm. The s olar farm is an individual project in itself, operated by a
private operator.

Minister, just a minute.
The paragraph in question here mentions the
infrastructure and it makes reference to how things in
our infrastructure impact our climate. So if there is a
question to be put, the question can be related to the
impact on the climate, not necessarily to that partic ular project. Because he mentions highways, so you
can’t ask a question about, Are the highways being
paved? So to speak. But if you can find a question
that says highways are being impacting on our climate
change, then you can put that question. Likewise with
the solar farm, you cannot necessarily ask, How is the
solar farm being operated? But if you can put a question that says, How is the solar farm impacting on our
climate change? That is accepted.

I am grateful for the direction, Mr.
Speaker, and I will follow it.
Minister, your Statement says that the solar
farm, among other things, is under threat. Could you


Bermuda House of Assembly kindly elaborate as to how the solar farm is under
threat?
Hon. Walter H. Roba n: As we are aware, there are
many parts of [our] infrastructure that sit at sea level
or below sea level and it is important that we . . . the
Smith Warner study, as I have outlined in great detail in the Statement, will address the issues and the possible short - and long- term impact on this infrastructure. As the solar [farm] sits in an area that we know is part of reclaimed land that the airport also sits on, which is also a part of the same paragraph that I referenced, all of these assets can potentiall y be at risk.

Again, I am going to speak to the fact
that the flooding of it and the financial side of recovery
from that, does not speak to the financial . . . the cl imate change which is the topic of this Statement. It is a valid question, but it does not fall under the guise of what this Statement was. If you want to put another
question under a different procedure to the Minister in
reference to if such an event happened, how is it paid
for, that’s different. Because that is operational cost and not necessarily the climate impact.

MP De Silva, put your supplementary.

SUPPLEMENTARY
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: My supplementary is , Minister, with regard to the questions that the Opposition
are trying to get to on the climate change, the former
450 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Minister Grant Gibbons, is the CEO of the company
that has the maintenance contract there—

Whoever manages or runs that facility,
that is operational. And under the guidance that has
been given on this from me thus far, we are not talking
about operational, we are talking about climate i mpact.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Okay, I got you, Mr.
Speaker. But what I was trying to get at is that the
former Minister, who is an OBA former Minister and
very friendly with the two questioners from the other
side, would certainly be able to answer any questions on climate change, I am sure.

That Member no longer sits in this
House, Member . So if a Member in this House has a
question to be addressed on this floor, it has to be
addressed to somebody sitting in this House. The member who sits outside of this House could have sat
here for 100 years, but no longer sits here now. So
they cannot answer on this floor.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I certainly understand that
one, Mr. Speaker.

The next Statement this morning that
has questions is the Statement by the Minister of E ducation.
Minister of Education, there are two Members
who have questions for you. The first is the Opposition
Leader.
Opposition Leader, would you like to put your
questions to the Minister?

QUESTION 1: UPDATE ON EDUCATION
REFORM —SIGNATURE SCHOOLS

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In
[one of] the paragraphs t he Minister said ––

Would you speak into the microphone
a little clearer? Your volume is coming through a little soft.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: In one of the paragraphs,
the Minister says, “ The current M3 students are engaged in this process as we speak in preparation for the registration process for Signature Schools .” Can
the Minister provide details on the registration process
for the M3 students?

Minister.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It is a curious question. The registration pr ocess is students make a request for the school that
they wish to attend and it is a process that evaluates the application. Previously, the application process
was done as they came in, one to one school and one
to another school, and we keep coming back and forth
because both schools were considered relatively
equal. But now that we have a Signature Programme and two different types of Signature Programmes at
either school, it is critically important for us to have
M3’s exposed to those signatures so they can make
more informed decisions of which school would best
suit their future career aspirations. So this is the re ason why we delayed registrations, to allow for those (what we call) taster programmes to take place. Once
those taster programmes are completed, students
along with their parents will simply apply to the school
that they wish to attend. The process will move for-ward from there.

Okay. Thank you.
Second question?

QUESTION 2: UPDATE ON EDUCATION
REFORM —SIGNATURE SCHOOLS

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: The Minister will know that
we have a number of students who are in or pursuing
careers in the arts, either fine arts or the performing
arts. Is it his intention to have a learning trek for the
performing arts and fine arts for our students? B ecause it is not mentioned in any of these learning
treks at this point.

Minister.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Mr. Speaker, I have
brought multiple Ministerial Statements to this House
describing the 10 signatures that have been selected
after extensive consultation. Members would be
aware that one of those signatures that is intended to


Bermuda House of Assembly be implemented is a cultural and arts signature, which
would include performing arts and the like.

Okay.
Supplementary?

SUPPLEMENTARY

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: And when will you plan to
deliver that?

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Again, Mr. Speaker, I have
brought multiple Ministerial Statements discussing the
forward- moving track of education reform. We have
these [first] two signatures. We will be introducing further signatures over the next three to five years.
And as a reminder, Mr. Speaker, to those li stening and to my honourable colleagues , we already
stated that it takes approximately 18 months to develop a signature.
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Thank you.

Yes, my first question just
refers to the second page where the Minister had just
made reference to the certifications. And I am just
wondering whether any thought had been given yet on
the kind of c ertification that we are looking at. Are we
looking at the potential for sort of overseas interna-tional certifications like City & Guilds, and the like, or are we thinking of creating our own certification pr ogramme?

Minister.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Perhaps I will reread the
last sentence. I understand what you are saying. It says, “c redentials recognised by industry and intern ationally recognised” which implies and that points out
that we are . . . that our credentials are also talking
about internationally recognised credentials.
As Members would know, we currently a lready do [as] part of the graduation requirements for
our public senior schools, a City & Guilds credential,
for example, that has to be completed prior to graduation. So we currently already have international accreditations; however, we talk about IGCSEs, those international accreditations, they are . . . we have always stated that we will move forward with that. But
the purpose of the signature schools is to not have
gener al accreditations, but also specific accreditations
to that particular topic. So that is probably where we
are moving forward even more so than what we have
done in the past.
I hope that does answer the question. The
short answer to the question is yes, both local and
overseas accreditations.

Given that our children will
graduate with a certification, potentially an internationally acclaimed certification, will that in any way
impact future employment of work permit holders who
may not be certified in their particular fields? And I am
thinking of, in particular, things like the trades, cosmetology, et cetera.

Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: The purpose of education
reform is to put our students in a position to enter the
Bermuda workforce fully accredited with the exper iences that allow them to either go on to tertiary education at the hospital or go directly into the workforce.
And so the whole purpose of everything that we are
doing is to ensure our students are prepared, that they
have the necessary experiences, that they have the
necessary understanding behind them that and they
have the necessary credentials to go directly into the workforce if that is what they choose to do.
So, I think the answer to that question will be
yes, we want to prepare our students to displace some of thos e positions that are occupied by work
permit holders currently, especially the ones who do not require much more than beyond a high school e ducation.

452 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Second supplementary?

My other question is around
the teachers. There w as mentioned on page 1 of the
teachers coming together and figuring out how this
curriculum will work for the signature schools, and I
am just curious whether the Ministry thinks that there
may be some, either secondment to, or transfer of,
students into t he signature programmes. Will teachers
become a sort of specialised team of pooled teachers
to teach the subjects in a signature curriculum way
versus sort of general instruction?

Minister.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you for that question, MP Jackson.
Part of the transformation process is not only
the curriculum but the way the approach to teaching is
done. As I talked throughout this and previous Stat ements, taking teachers and getting teachers to volunteer their time to talk about how teaching is done and
have different approaches is something that has star ted with a core group of teachers, but it is looked to
grow to more teachers as we look to transform our
system, not only from what the curriculum is, but how
it is actually being ta ught.
I mentioned within the Statement that we all
know that the greatest impact on learning is the approach that the teachers have in the classroom. And
so while there is initially a core group of teachers who are being positioned for this particular signature, as I
mentioned, we have now pulled in middle school and
primary school teaches to kind of get them into the rhythm of what it is to do these things slightly differently. So, at the end of the day, all of the teachers within
the system will be given the opportunities and the
learning of advancement opportunities to get to where we are trying to get to ensure that the Signature
Learning Programmes open in 2022 properly. So as we move forward, more and more teachers will be
involved in this process. We will on-board more
teachers and give them the necessary tools to upskill
them selves.
And so to directly answer your question, no,
there will not be this core group of teachers that will learn this stuff and everybody else will just continue on the way t hat they have done in the past. The idea
is to have all of our teachers ready and willing to teach this new style of imparting knowledge. Remember, it
is not just the signature schools we are revising; it is
also all the way down to the preschool. And so t hat is
why it is critically important for us to ensure that all
educators are involved in this process moving forward.

Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Speaker. Good morning,
Honourable Minister of Economy and Labour, and the
listening public.
My first question relat es to the Minister’s
Statement where he said, “ KPMG have identif ied four
critical initiatives deemed mostly likely to generate a
significant socioeconomic impact .” On page 2. My
question to the Honourable Minister is, did KPMG s elect these initiatives or d id the Government select
these four critical initiatives?

He indicated that KPMG suggested
topics and—

Hon. Jason Hayward: So to be specific, Mr. Speaker,
KPMG provided a recommendation. So after they did
their review, they provided a report that had recommendations. And the recommendations highlighted that those four key initiatives would yield the greatest
social economic impact in the short and medium term .
And those were the initiatives that I mentioned today.

Just a clarification on that. I
had asked when the key milestones, timelines and
actions will be shared with the public. And he said that
regular updates will be provided. Will those regular
updates be th e key milestones, timelines and action? I
am just trying to be very specific about what is going
to be provided. Or will it just be regular updates, generalised updates?

Hon. Jason Hayward: I think the updates moving
forward will be a bit more specific than general. If
KPMG is currently under engagement and is providing
recommendations, it is not necessarily that we will
publish the recommendations that KPMG provided
because the Government may not utilise those rec-ommendations. So what we will do is, whate ver plans
we determine that we will move forward with so that we can have the effective execution of the Economic
Recovery Plan, I will fully articulate that to Parliament.

MP Dunkley, you have a supplementary on this one?

SUPPLEMENTARIES

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Yes, thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
And to the Honourable Minister, can the Honourable Minister provide an estimated economic i mpact for each one of those four initiatives that they
mentioned individually?

Hon. Jason Hayward: So what the [Member] is looking for is a quantitative value of the economic impact
of each project. That study hasn’t [been] done. But what we can determine is how those items actually
feature into the Economic Recovery Plan. What the
team who initially designed the E conomic Recovery
Plan looked at what was cross jurisdictional status. So
they were able to look at the impacts of similar initi atives in other jurisdictions to determine whether or not it will yield higher GDP, whether it adds to the creation
of jobs, whet her it has increased investment into the
economy, [and] whether it has improved the Gover nment’s fiscal position with greater revenue. And so
those are the key factors that were considered. I do not believe the exercise actually quantify those key
factors.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Supplementary, Mr.
Speaker.

Supplementary.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I appreciate the Honour able Minister’s answer. Based on that answer though,
then it would be hard to be certain that the economic
impact from any one of those four initiatives would be
significant to Bermuda.

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, I would have to
disagree with that notion.
If we were able to start a new business which
would employ persons, which would generate income
we know this adds to the diversification of our economy and it also adds to a greater level of individuals
454 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly being employed and more money circulating in our
economy. Any investment in our economy will have a
positive impact on our economy. So I cannot support
the notion that we would have economic activity and
business creation that will not benefit our overall economy.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, for clarific ation, I just referred to the greatest economic benefit,
not the 31 points chosen, that was the question. But I
thank the Minister for the answer.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Honourable Minister mentioned in his
Statement about the vertical farming facilities being acted upon (it is at the bottom of page 4, Mr. Speaker)
with the potential location under review and financial details in development. Mr. Speak er, my question to
the Honourable Minister is that given that the ERP was launched early last year, why has it taken so long
to get to such an early stage with the vertical farming
facility?

Minister.

Hon. Jason Hayward: I believe that the i ndividual is
making an assumption that what is articulated in the
Statement indicates that the vertical farming initiative
is not at a more advanced stage. And so I would state
that we are . . . a full business plan has been deve loped. The team that is wor king on the vertical farming
is in well- advanced conversations with the potential
overseas partners, and I will leave it up to the Ministry responsible for the overall project of the vertical far ming to provide a greater level of detail. But what I would c aution is that we do not make an assumption
that this project is not at an advanced stage.

Minister.

Hon. Jason Hayward: I do not understa nd the nature
of the question. And so anybody who does a business plan looks at the financial viability of moving and o perating in a certain jurisdiction. The question som ewhat alludes to we have a business plan that does not
take into consideration the fi nancial aspects of the
project. And I cannot support that notion.

Yes.

SUPPLEMENTARIES

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: To the Honourable Mini ster, do the Board of Agriculture and the local Farmers
Asso ciation support the vertical farming project?

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, again the Mini stry of Economy and Labour is responsible for the
overall progress of the projects. The individual pr ojects themselves and the consultation required around
those particular projects are handled within the ind ividual Ministries, and I would ask the Member to put
that question to the respective Ministry that is responsible, and that is the Ministry of Cabinet Office, for
more elaborate details on consultation of the project,
and also firmer project details.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, does not
parliamentary questions allow the relevant Minister to
give an answer? Because it does refer to it in the
Statement and I think this is an important convers ation. I appreciate the Minister’s time and understanding.

But it has come as a supplementary, so
I am not sure the relevant Minister is available at this
moment. If it was a direct question, he would have
had to have been available. But —



Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Michae l H. Dunkley: Well, the Deputy Premier
is the Minister of the Department of Agriculture, so he
should be available, he was just on. But I will ask another supplementary.

If it is the Minister of a different Ministry
who is actually leading the project, that particular Mi nister that you mentioned may not be fully appraised of
it. I am not answering for anybody, I am just trying to
give . . . follow the direction that was given as to who
was responsible for it.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Okay, I w ill send a direct
message to the Minister.
But then a second supplementary, Mr.
Speaker.

Put your second supplementary.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Honourable Minister mentions overseas
partners. Have local part ners been selected as yet?
Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, we are still di scussing the specifics of particular projects that we
want to move forward with and so we . . . the overall
project is a vertical farming project. As I stated, the
Ministry respons ible for the economy and labour is
responsible for monitoring the progress of the partic ular project. As it pertains to the details of any project,
that will be for the respective Ministry. And so, again,
like the question that was previously asked about
consultation, I would ask the Member to put that to the
respective Minister.
But I would say that we do have laws that
govern business ownership in this country. And so any business that started up in Bermuda would have
to have a portion of local ownership and as a result
naturally there will be local business partners.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I am only asking because
he mentioned the overseas partners. So I would be
quite surprised if the Minister could not answer who
the local partners were, because obviously you want to create jobs for Bermudians. But I will ask —

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Honourable Minister, on the top of page 3
of his Statement, describes the lead initiatives, four
priority initiatives, one of which being the rehabilitation
of Tynes Bay infrastructure. So I would ask the Hon-ourable Minister to clarify. How did the Tynes Bay i nfrastructure get into the Economic Recovery Plan?
Because that Economic Recovery Plan precedes the
Tynes Bay issue.

Minister.

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, the Tynes Bay
redevelopment is a feature of the Economic R ecovery
Plan. The need for repurposing of Tynes Bay is not a
new issue. And so when developing the Economic Recovery Plan, we would have been well aware of the
need to have significant investment in Tynes Bay. In
addition to just revamping Tynes Bay, we al so have a
larger plan as it pertains to waste and water treatment
in the country. And so if you are developing a robust
plan, you take all of those factors into consideration,
and the Tynes Bay redevelopment or repurposing is a
key feature of the Economic Recovery Plan.

Thank you, Minister and Opposition
Whip for your participation.
Minister, that is the end of questions for you
and your Statement this morning.
The next Statement that has questions this
morning is that from the Minister of Transport. Minister
of Transport, you have Members who wish to put
questions to you. The first is from MP Jackson.
MP Jackson, would you like to put your question to the Minister now?

Minister.

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Yes. As we speak right
now, there are no financial impacts on the Bermuda
Civil Aviation Authority’s financial statement. If these
sanctions extend for an additional three months, it is
projected that there could be approximately a $5 mi llion impact. If these sanctions go on for 12 months, it
is projected that it is an approximate $25 million im-pact.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister, thank you for your Statement this
morning on the effect and impact of sanctions on the
Civil Aviation Aircraft Register. In your Statement you
say that you will aim to provide an update in the near
future. Can you give us a sort of timeframe on when
that further statement will be and whether that will cover the impact on ships on our register, EU, and US
sanctions as well?

Thank you. Thank you, Minister.
Just to my original question, Will that Stat ement deal with the EU sanctions? Because, obviously,
the vast majority of the aircraft are Irish- based or Irishleased. And Ireland being part of the EU, it is the EU
sanctions that are most relevant to that. Will y ou be
addressing that?

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Anything that impacts the
financial standing of the Bermuda Civil Aviation A uthority will be included in updated Statements. And
that would be inclusive of your first question, the Bermuda Shipping Registry.

Minister, you were at pains in
your Statement and said twice that you were only
speaking to financial issues and not foreign policy i ssues. Is there a reason that you are not stating whether our Government is supportive of these sanc-tions?



Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Minister.

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Yes, one must appreciate
that the relationship with the BCAA is directly between
the BCAA and the Governor. The UK represents and speaks to foreign policy on behalf of Bermuda. It
would be inappropriate and well outside of my remit to
speak to anything dealing with foreign policy, thus I
stressed that I am speaking solely to the financial i mpact to the BCAA which then has a financial impact to the Bermuda Government and the Bermuda people.

You have your three minutes.
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like for this House to
send congratulations to Ms. Pat Nesbitt. She will be
retiring as a teacher. As many would know, she is an
icon in the performing art world, Mr. Speaker, in Bermuda. Mr. Speaker, I know one of her aspirations, one
of her ambitions or her hopes was to have the Ruth
Seaton James [Centre] turned into a performance art centre, but that never happened. But she is the leader
for the Noire Youth Theatre Company.
Ms. Nesbitt has worked with young folks pursuing a dream of becoming a performing artist in the
. . . and technicians in the world, whether it be the
United States, UK or Canada, Mr. Speaker. She has
done a wonderful job and I think many of you have
experienced her work with the young folks. She just
basically took them off the street, I would say, respec tfully, and turned these young folks into something that
they probabl y did not think they could be.
But when I see her work, I am so proud of
what she has done [for] the young folks that I see.
And I think it makes everybody proud to see those
young folks perform. And I take my hat off to teacher,
Ms. Pat Nesbitt. Mr. Speaker, she has written a book
and I think when she retires she will become a freelance writer. And so my hope is that she is very successful as she was in the performing arts world. So I
congratulate her. We appreciate her and we thank her
for the service to this country and to our students in
Bermuda, and we wish her well.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Okay. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to start off by congratulating those recipients of the Founder’s and
Drum Major [Awards] for the Progressive Labour Party over the weekend. The Drum Major Awardees were
Michelle Khaldun, Aunt Betty Smith , Rose Douglas
from St. George’s , Ianthia Butler, and Glenn Woods ,
Jr. The Founder’s Awardees were my good friend Roderick Burchall, Cousin Valerie Dill, Ms. Sandi Gilbert,
Gregory Jacobs, Lynn Wade, and Ms. Ann Webb for
their outstanding service in the community and service to the Progressive Labour Party. We congratulate
them all, Mr. Speaker.
But, Mr. Spe aker, it is with profound sadness
that I recognise the contribution of a dearly departed
former Member of Parliament. It is with honour that I
recognise his contributions to my life and the many
other young people up there in the White Hill, Death
Valley a rea, during the six years in which he was the
golf professional at Fort Royal. I speak of no other than the late great Walter Eugene King. An outstand-ing sportsman, reserved in 1968 for St. George’s and
Cup Match, County Cup player for Bailey’s Bay and
Willow Cuts and great league player for Bailey’s Bay,
but also an outstanding golf pro. A trailblazer! The first
winner of the Bermuda Open in 1970. The first golf professional in Port Royal. But he was an inspirational
figure.
And whilst, Mr. Speaker, there is no one that
has been created perfect, otherwise than our good friend who died about 2,000- and-odd years ago, Mr.
Walter King was able to inspire many young people
like myself to follow his footsteps. I sit in Parliament
today because he got elected in 1976 for the Progressive Labour Party. I bring this condolence as a Pr ogressive Labour Party Member recognising the—

Okay , thank you, Mr.
Speaker. But no, Mr. Speaker, myself, Darren Woods,
the late Glen Simmons, Dwayne Pearman, Cornell
Bean, Bradley Johnson— many of the young people


Bermuda House of Assembly would never have been golfers of the calibre that we
are, or were, if it wasn’t for the inspi ration. Others
taught us; he inspired us. It takes an inspiration and it
takes an inspirational figure to inspire people so that
some 50 years later people could still —

Minister of Education, you have your
three minutes.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to be associated
with the comments by the Deputy Speaker for Ms.
Nesbitt. I do know her as a very passionate teacher in
the system for the performing arts. She is also a constituent of mine, as well, and so I would like to add in
my congratulations to her in wishing her [the] best.
I would also like to be associated with the
comments by MP Kim Swan about the Progressive Labour Party Founder’s Day luncheon and awards given this year. It was very special to see some of
those persons who had worked and toiled so hard
over the last few years to have victory in the last election. When you talk about persons like Rodney Bu rchall, who helped me canvass when I did run down
there in Sandys South, and who had his seven elections —

All right. I didn’t know about Sandys, I
thought I had missed something there.
Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: He ran seven elections
prior to tasting victory.
And also, of course, Mr. Speaker, you would
know that the venerable Ms . Ann Webb, another constituent of mine was recognised for her solid work that
she has done over the years.
Mr. Speaker, I would like for this Honourable
House to send a hearty congratulations, and I am sure I can add the entire House in with this, a heart y congratulations to one of our shining athletic stars, Ms. Sakari Famous who won gold in the Southland Conference Indoor Track and Field Championship in Al abama. In doing so, Mr. Speaker, she set a new school
record for the school that she participates for,
McNeese [State ] University . She said, I believe, it is a
personal best and also a new Bermuda indoor record
for the high jump with a jump of [ 5 feet 10.75 inches].
So a hearty congratulations to one of our shining at hletes, and I am sure we will see a l ot more from her in
the future. She also happens to be a cousin of mine
and of MP Chris Famous.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you.
I would like to associate with the remarks in
regard to the Founder’s Day awardees and the Drum
Major awardees. Specifically for my chair, Ianthia Butler, who has actually been, I will use the word, “partia lly” responsible for getting seven MPs in Warwick
North East.
I would also like to congratulate Port Royal
Primary for their Career Day. It was vi rtual Career
Day. It was opened by our Minister Hayward. [It was]
very, very successful in exposing our children to so
many different career paths that they could take. It
was an excellent presentation and many, many people participated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Premier, you have your three minutes.

Hon. E. David Burt: Thank you, very much, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker , I would like to certainly be ass ociated with the congratulatory remarks that were given
to Bermudian high jumper Sakari Famous. Certainly,
the Minister of Education recognised her accomplis hments. And so from that perspective, it certainly is
something t hat I wish to be associated with. And as
the Honourable Minister said he would associate the
whole House with that.
460 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly We have certainly seen some great athletic
achievements that have happened recently where that
. . . the triple jump of Jah-Nhai Perinchief who of
course is setting records at the indoor tracks this year and continuing to do works. I certainly want to make sure that he is recognised as well.
Mr. Speaker, on a sad note I wish to ask that
this Honourable House do send a letter of condolenc-es to the family of the late Mrs. Stephanie Sandra
Smith who passed away and was laid to rest last Fr iday. She was a constituent of mine and I certainly do remember seeing . . . she was one of the first persons
that I canvassed when I was selected to run for t he
seat in 2011 for the Progressive Labour Party. She was always very strenuous with her advice, but she
was always a woman of Christ and she would always
make sure to give me lessons from Christ and to
make to sure to say not to be distracted by near -term
troubles and to make sure to keep focused on looking
long-term. And so she was without question a consti tuent that I valued dearly and I want to ask that the
House send a letter of condolence to her family and
her children, Sandra, Sharon and Terry, and c ertainly
her extended family, her brothers, one of whom who
travelled from overseas so I could get to see. But I just wanted to ask the House to send a letter of condolences to them, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you.

All right.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: I would like to send condolences to the family of the late Rosemary Outerbridge.
She is from Smith’s Parish and her family actually used to own [ INAUDIBLE] years ago. She died at the
ripe old age of [95] and she was lucid and top of pol itics and everything else that is going on in Bermuda. I
used to visit her quite often and she was as sharp as
a tack and challenged me on a number of issues. But she was passionate about her community and pas-sionate about her church and passionate about her
family.
I would also like to send condolences to the
family of the late Gilbert Amaral , Jr. of Zuill’s Park. He
died suddenly overseas, and I send my prayers to the
family during this difficult time as he was a young gentleman. I would also like to associate my comments in
regard to the congratulations of Sakari Famous. She is doing well. She is representing well, and I wish her
all the best in her future career. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.

Okay. MP Dunkley, you have your
three minutes.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I too would like to be associated
with the congratulations by colleagues in regard to
young Ms. Famous and her outstanding achiev ements. It is certainly a delight to see young Bermudi-ans excel all over the world. We have so much talent
and for them to be given the opportunity is awesome to see that.
I would like to be associated with the condolences sent by the Opposition Leader to Gilbert A maral, Jr. who passed away recently overseas.
And I would like to add two sets of condolences to that, Mr. Speaker. I would like condolences be sent to the family of Mrs. [Barbara] Joan Petty, her
three children, her three sons, Steven, Kevin and Tim
at the passing of their mother just recently.
And condolences to a former Member of the
House of Assembly, Cyril Rance, and his four children
on the passing of his lov ely wife, Heather Rance, who
used to be a neighbour of mine growing up many years ago. She tragically passed away recently after
illness, Mr. Speaker.
And finally on the condolence . . . I don’t know
if it has been done yet, but sincere condolences to th e
family of Chalmers Talbot on his passing away recen tly. I certainly was always amazed at his skill and abi lity on the golf course—

Associate me, as well, MP
Dunkley.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Yes, all Members, and
certainly the Honourable Member from St. George’s,
the professional golfer, he would know the calibre of
Mr. Talbot. It was a joy to watch him and to listen to
him. He taught so much to so many people, so may
he rest in peace.

Ber muda House of Assembly And on a brighter note, Mr. Speaker, I would
like for this Honourable Chamber to send congratul ations to our new Puisne Judge, Juan Wolffe. The announcement was made this morning. I have deep r espect for Mr. Wolffe and I think he will do an excellent job. I wish him all the best in his new responsibility, a very important one, and well needed to have a man of
his quality in that position.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker .
Th
e Speaker: Thank you, MP
Does any other Member wish to make a contribution at this time?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I
won’t be t hat long.
Mr.
Speaker, I would just like to send some
congratulations out to some constituents of mine. Mr.
Calvin Borris of 17 Warwick Lane, on Tuesday he ce lebrated his 65th birthday. So I want to send congrat ulations to him.
And al so, Mr. Richard Campbell of Melissa
Lane, he celebrated his 40th birthday yes terday. So I
would like to send those some congratulations.
But also Mr. Speaker, I would also like to add
my name to the comments associated for Ms. Sakari
Famous. Also, Mr. Jah- Nhai Perinchief. And I would
like to add Ms. Madelyn Moore. She is swimmer rep-resenting Bermuda, but in collegiate competition last
week she won and finished first place. So I want to send congratulations also out to Ms. Madelyn Moore
and to all Bermudians who are participating in athletics and whether it is for Bermuda or their schools will
represent themselves and Bermuda well and show them Bermuda can compete and punch well above its weight in these competitions.
So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Th
e Speaker: Thank you, MP.
Does any other Member wish to make a contribution at this time?
Mr
. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, Mr. Speaker, Cannonier here.
Th
e Speaker: MP Cannonier. You have your three
minutes.
Mr
. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, thank you very much,
Mr. S peaker.
Just on the condolences, I will declare my
interest, Walter King was . . . actually, he would have
been my second cousin, my mother’s first cousin. My mother’s maiden name was King. And Walter had lived out of North Carolina for many, many years. But
he was always looked up to by us younger fellows coming along as a golfer and politician. Golf, when I didn’t even know what golf was all about as an eight -
and nine- year-old. It was all football and cricket for
me. But it was guys like him who paved the way for us to understand more about the golfing game. In fact, I
believe he was instrumental with my grandfather also.
He introduced him to the golf arena. So I echo the sentiments of yourself and to the PLP for the loss of that former Member. Our condolences go out to the whole family for that loss.
But on a congratulatory note, Mr. Speaker, I
would like to give [congratulations] to swim coach, Ben Smith, who took a female team away and com-peted in swimming there. They competed against 30 other teams and came in 13
th. So, Bermuda continues
in the swimming field to do extremely well on the world stage. Also, I had the opportunity last Saturday,
sorry, last Saturday gone, to go to see HindSight. And
I think that everyone, all 36 parliamentarians, would know Stefan and Rubert and Lauretta Hinds. It was so
good to be able to see live talent once again. And these guys have been around doing this, probably 50plus years.
These guys were young, young, young when
they were out performing, even as teenagers, to know
some of their history. So, I just want to congratulate
them. And one of the things that was key out of the concert was the cross -section of people who were
there. They have a great history of beautiful music, and they had this song that they wrote, a Bermuda
song, which highlights Bermuda in video. And I am encouraging the Premier and I will also take the op-portunity to try and get a hold of the Tourism Authority to encourage them to use this video. It is a fantastic
song about Bermuda. And I am hoping that as we go
forward with our tourism product that we will be able to use the gifts that we have locally here in advertising and getting us back on the mark. So I wanted to con-gratulate them.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Th
e Speaker: Thank you, MP.
Does any other Member wish to make a contribution?
Any other Member?
No other Member.
That brings us to a close of the congratulatory
and obituary speeches for this morning. We will now
move on.
MATTERS OF PRIVILEGE
Th
e Speaker: There are none.
PERSONAL E XPLANATIONS
Th
e Speaker: There are none.
462 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly NOTICE OF MOTIONS FOR THE
ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE
ON MATTERS OF URGENT
PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

There are two [Government] Bills to be
introduced this morning. The first is in the name of the
Deputy Premier, Minister of Home Affairs.
Minister, would you like to present your Bill?

Hon. Walter H. Roban: Yes, Mr. Speaker. I did not
get my recital . . . I don’t recall getting my recital fr om
the House on my Bill. . . . Just one second, Mr.
Speaker, give me a moment.

Okay. We will allow the Attorney G eneral to put hers while you sort yourself out there, Mi nister.
Attorney General.
Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning, Members.

FIRST READING

CANNABIS LICENSING ACT 2022

Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons:
Mr. Speaker, I am introduci ng the following
Bill for its first reading so that it may be placed on the Order Paper for the next day of meeting, namely, the
Cannabis Licensing Act 2022.

For the listening public, we are here
today to listen to the [Reply] from the Opposition to
the Budget Statement that was produced last week by the Minister of Finance. That will be done this morning
after which we will start the open Economic Debate on
the budget for this year.
Now, Members, I am looking at the clock and I
have 10 minutes after 12. I am certain that the Shadow Finance Minister’s Reply will be longer than 20
minutes before the 12:30 hour that we would tradi-tionally recess for lunch. Rather than having him start
and by the time he gets started we could probably
have about 15 minutes [left]. Rather than that, I am
going to suggest that we recess at this time and come
back so that he can have a full presentation without
interruption.

Hon. E. David Burt: Good morning, Mr. Speaker. If I
may?

Yes, you can actually do that so that
when we come back the Opposition Leader can just
go rig ht into the presentations.
I was actually going to call on you to do just
that so that we would not have to call on you again after lunch and just let the Opposition Leader just start
with a fresh run delivering his presentation.
So, Premier, would you like to move us into
that stage at this time?

MOTION

APPROVAL OF THE ESTIMATES OF REVENUE
AND EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR 20 22/23

Hon. E. David Burt: Sure. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I move that the Estimates of
Revenue and Expenditure for year 2022/23 be approved.

Any objections?
There are none.
We have now moved into that phase.
Opposition Leader, I trust you have been following my comments, which means that once we
come back from lunch at two o’clock you will be able
to do a full presentation without interruption.
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Okay. Yes, Mr. Speaker, I
was just walking back from my office to the communications room, so I missed your comments.

Basically, I said being the clock is tic king and we have g ot less than 20 minutes on the
clock, I am sure your presentation [is] more than 20
minutes. So rather than have you start, at this point
we will probably be down to about 15 minutes by the
time you start, and rather than have you start and then
have to be interrupted, we will break for lunch at this
point and return at two o’clock. And at two o’clock you
can have a full . . . be able to present your present ation in its full without any interruptions.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: No objections, sir.

The Speake r: Okay. I didn’t expect any. Thank you.
So, Mr. Premier, would you just move us to
lunch now, and we will return at two o’clock.
Hon. E. David Burt: Certainly, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I move this Honourable House
now adjourn until 2:00 pm.

It is now 2:00 pm and we will be able to
resume the debate for today. The House is now in session.
For the listening audience, this morning we
concluded the early phases of the [Orders of the Day ].
The main business for the remaining part of this day is
the Reply to the Budget Statement . [The Budget
Statement] was read by the Minister of Finance last
week. This week the Shadow Minister of Finance, the
Opposition Leader will present the Reply. And once
his Reply is finished we will then go into the open economic debate where any Member can participate
and have a general discussion on the economy, the
Budget Statement and the full Reply and next week
we will go through the individual department heads .
Today it is more of a general debate after the Oppos ition Leader ends his Reply this afternoon.
Opposition Leader, are you ready to present
your Reply?

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Yes, Mr. Speaker.

Opposition Leader, you now have the
floor.

THE OPPOSITION’S REPLY TO THE
BUDGET STATEMENT 2022/23
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, it is an understatement to say that we are living in unprecedented
times. A global contagion of fear, an endless parade of viruses, social and civil unrest, and economic crises
have simultaneously impacted every nation on this
planet. Indeed, the COVID -19 crisis and the knock -on
effects have caused catastrophic damage to economies the world over. In Bermuda, we witnessed bus inesses closing or contracting, over 120 COVID -19related deaths, and disturbing incidents of youth vi olence on an almost regular basis, with no end in sight.
Once again, lives were lost, and people’s livelihoods
were taken away. Investor confidence has been battered by the pandemic, and our econ omic prospects
were dealt a severe blow, especially in the retail, service, and tourism sectors.
On the world stage, as geopolitical tensions
rise across the globe, we are now witnessing the horror that is unfolding in Ukraine as the occupation and
invasi on by President Vladimir Putin of Russia is well
464 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly underway. We must brace ourselves for the knock -on
effect s of this war as even more challenges will be
added to energy supply chains as the increased cost
of fuel will result in an increase in BELCO bills. T he
conflict is also impacting the exportation of wheat
products, as Russia is known as the breadbasket of
Europe, producing, and exporting 40 per cent of the
world’s wheat.
Mr. Speaker, in 2021 societal disruption in
Bermuda was grave. We will continue to experience
disruption because we have yet to turn tourism around
which employs 14 per cent of Bermuda’s workforce.
Added to this is the unabated rise in inflation of approximately 7 per cent, the highest it has been in the
past 40 years. This increased inflation is a silent killer
and impacts our real purchasing power. Let’s face it;
we were just not prepared for this unexpected perfect
storm.
While Bermuda has a great history of managing our way through natural disasters like hurricanes, the pandemic proved to be more than overwhelming for us and we have yet to see the full effect of the war
in Ukraine. Mr. Speaker, opportunistically, we have
seen that the economic impact of disasters such as
pandemics, provide Bermuda with prospects for bold
new initiati ves. We must continue to capitalise on opportunities to work together towards a common end.
As a nation, we must chart our way together through
economic recovery and rehabilitation. Bermuda is
small and agile enough to do it.
Mr. Speaker, the Bermuda Econ omic Recovery Plan must be more than aspirational. The plan must be realistic with milestones and timelines that are measurable. We must see progress. Mr. Speaker,
we must rebuild a vibrant economy where jobs are
created with a focus on equity, diversity, fair trade,
and real opportunities for Bermudians. We must find
investors to support small businesses and our local
economy, and we all must “Buy Bermuda. ”
This rebuilding process must be supported by
a realistic blueprint. We cannot continue to listen to
the same old dusted- off budget promises year after
year, which now read like a familiar, yet boring bedtime story. The PLP’s 2022/23 Budget lacks courage
and quite frankly, is irresponsible. Premier Burt has
only kicked the proverbial can further down the road,
instead of making the hard decisions necessary to
improve Bermuda’s financial situation .
Bermuda needs a recovery plan that is reali stic, workable and addresses Bermuda’s fiscal fram ework and ever -growing debt, and infrastructure i nvestment strategies. The PLP Government must develop a bold prospectus for the country that will be
attractive to potential investors and attract human capital which will, in turn, create and bring jobs back to
Bermuda. This prospectus will build trust and a real
bond wit hin our business community, through the d eployment of taxes and business support, and through the prioritisation and delivery of green investments, strategic investments in tourism and hospitality, the
arts and creative sectors, seniors’ care, the philanthropic sector, and let’s not forget the critical support
of our students.
We must also identify and develop new skills
training for the labour market, and apprenticeships
jobs, as the pandemic seismically changed how we
work. New skill sets and training wi ll result in an ec onomic framework that will showcase and support
Bermuda’s assets. Mr. Speaker, there is a view that
there will be a better sense of normalcy by the middle of this year. It is thought that this will be realised
through discipline and through Bermuda’s herd i mmunity, medicine, and health sciences. Worldwide, we
can now see that there have been improvements in
the management of the risks associated with the virus
and its effects. As global citizens, we learned to better manage and live with C OVID -19, much like the flu and
the AIDS virus, which, unfortunately, have not been
eliminated.
Mr. Speaker, as Bermuda is a part of the
global economy, our fiscal health and success is dr amatically influenced by external influence. Therefore,
it would be remiss of me not to look at the overseas
jurisdictions which are very important to us because
they fuel our economy, and because we are dependent upon them.
Sanctions from the Russian and Ukrainian T heatre
Hits Bermuda

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, as we have all
recently seen in the news, international sanctions
have been served on the Russian Government, go vernment officials and the Russian oligarchs by the EU, the UN, the US and the UK. These sanctions have hit
Bermuda because we are home to the largest of fshore aircraft registry, and at one point we were also
home to the world’s 10
th largest aircraft registry. Mr.
Speaker, last year, Thomas Dunstan, the Director General of the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority, noted
that most of the aircraft registered with the organis ation are from Russia and the Commonwealth of Ind ependent States.
He added: “The offshore aspect of the” Bermuda Aircraft Registry “is extensive, with over 95 per
cent of BCAA safety oversight activity is located of fshore, mainly in the Russian Federation where 84 per
cent of Bermuda registered aircraft are located.”
It is my further understanding that approx imately 50 per cent of the revenue earned by our registry is realised from commercial passenger jets, cargo
jets and privat e jets which are owned by Russian ol igarchs and Russian institutions. Our records also i ndicate that 713 leased Russian aircrafts are registered
in Bermuda, and over 158 are owned by Russians, Russian institutions, and a few foreign banks. Given
the curren t conflict in Ukraine, for the time being,
Bermuda should discount most of the aircraft registry


Bermuda House of Assembly revenue expected for the 2022/23 fiscal year because
they may be uncollectible. These challenges are further exacerbated by the fact that Russia has been
expel led from the global SWIFT wire payment sy stems which move money around the world and, consequently, it is very unlikely that the Bermuda Government will be paid for their services.
Mr. Speaker, at the very least, there will be a
deficit of between $1 mill ion to $2 million in our economy in the coming year. And I said , Mr. Speaker, at
the very least. Further, Mr. Speaker, on another matter, the One Bermuda Alliance is interested in understanding whether the Government plans to do an ything about Russia tradi ng on Bermuda’s cryptocurrency exchanges.

Global Growth and Risks

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: As the global economic
recovery continues, the fault lines opened by COVID -
19 are looking more persistent. Near -term challenges
with inflation, labour shortages and supply chain di sruptions have begun to leave lasting imprints on m edium -term performance. Vaccine access and early
policy support are the principal drivers of the gaps.
Mr. Speaker, the global economy was pr ojected to grow by 5.9 per cent in 2021 and 4. 9 per
cent in [2022], 0.1 percentage point lower for 2021
than in the July forecast. The downward revision for
2021 reflects a downgrade for advanced economies,
due in part to supply chain disruptions and low -income
developing countries, largely due to wor sening pandemic dynamics. The rapid spread of the Delta variant
and the threat of new variants have increased uncertainty about how quickly the pandemic can be overcome. Moreover, policy choices have become more
difficult, with limited room to manoeuvre.

Impact of the US Economy
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, a leading
economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics stated that
the early part of 2022 will likely see another temporary slowdown in economic growth as rocketing COVID -
19, and Omicron cases hit the discretionary services
sector. However, looking beyond Omicron, we expect people to begin running down some of the $2.5 trillion
in-excess savings accumulated during the pandemic.
Solid growth in employment and hourly wages, coupled with falling inflation from Q2 onwards, means that
after-tax incomes will rise strongly and with the additional kick from a drawdown of savings, we expect $600 billion in savings in 2022, which should be
enough to drive a 4 per cent to 5 per cent full year
increase in real cons umption. GDP growth should be
even stronger, because business CapEx is on course
to rise twice as fast as consumption, and we expect to
see a sustained inventory rebuild across much of the
economy, as supply chain pressures ease. The headline unemployment rate likely will
soon return to the pre- pandemic lows, 3.5 per cent,
though the employment to population ratio will likely
remain depressed for much longer. Still, with unemployment so low in the US, the Federal Reserve is forced to now focus on inflation. These indicators will
bode well for Bermuda’s tourism and International
Business .

The EU Challenges

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, as stated in
my [Reply] to last year’s PLP Budget, the EU cha llenges are still with us and have crystallised even further. I noted that in “the 2013 report by the European
Parliament’s Directorate General for Internal Policies,
[titled] ‘European initiatives on eliminating tax havens
and offshore financial transactions and the impact of
these constructions on the union’s own resources and
budget,’ . . . the impact of tax havens, secrecy jurisdi ction, and similar structures on the EU were reviewed.
The report concludes that the availability of these structures constrains the EU budget and undermines
the fiscal recovery of EU member States. They distort
markets by conferring advantages on large companies
that engage in transfer pricing.
“The report notes that the ‘shadow economy
in the [EU] is estimated to amount to some [€]2 trillion, and that tax evasion is estimated t o be around [€]1
trillion annually.’ It further notes that ‘recent reports
suggest that the tens of billions of euros are held of fshore, are unreported, and untaxed.’”
The EU takes the view that tax havens have a
negative impact on EU revenues by reducing the
gross national income of its member States. Unfort unately, it appears that Bermuda is viewed with suspicion and is being challenged when conducting real
business. In the EU, they will continue to place hurdles in our economic lanes, given their perception of tax havens and their impact on the EU states. In fact,
as recently as last year, European Union politicians
were calling for any jurisdiction with a zero per cent
tax rate on corporate profits, including Bermuda, to be
included on the EU list of non -cooperative jurisdi ctions.
Mr. Speaker, as we recently witnessed, Bermuda was once again downgraded to the EU’s grey
list from its previous position on its whitelist, with no
hope of reversing our status for at least another three
to six months. You may ask, Why is that? Mr. Speaker, I have been advised that yet again Bermuda
missed a deadline for its commitments to the EU
Code of Conduct Council on matters of tax fraud or
evasion, illegal non- payment or underpayment of taxes, tax avoidance, and money laundering. Mr. Speaker, while Bermuda is competing globally for inward
investment capital, this downgraded status is very u nattractive to potential investors and detrimental to all
of our local and international partners, as well as our
466 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly local international reinsurance, insurance linked sec urities, and fund businesses which are domiciled in
Bermuda.

Bermuda’s 2022/23 Economy and Budget

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, the PLP Government should be doing everything they can to finish
the fight against CO VID-19 and continue to be there
for those who need help. Bermuda’s recovery plan should be to build a more resilient economy that ben efits the working class and middle class and everyone
working hard to join it. Unfortunately, Budget 2022/23
has not included a jobs and growth plan to increase
opportunities for women and young people, including investments in our early learning and childcare sy stem.
Mr. Speaker, in 2021 the Government of Canada had a plan to create one million new jobs and
drive economic gr owth. What is the PLP Gover nment’s plan for new jobs and economic growth for
Bermuda? How many new jobs do they plan to cr eate? Is it 1,000? Is it 2,000 or 5,000 new jobs? If they do not quantify, we cannot evaluate. The Government
is silent on these new j ob numbers. Is it because they
do not want to be held accountable?
Mr. Speaker, the 2022/23 Budget should support Bermudians by creating new opportunities in the
trades and by helping people to develop the skills
needed to succeed. The PLP Government should
continue to help businesses grow and innovate by
creating incentives to hire workers and by providing
access to financing to scale up businesses. We must continue to implement a healthy environment that mi tigates global warming and creates jobs in the c lean
energy and clean technology sectors.
In addition, more support must be provided to
our financial service industries, especially for reinsurance and insurance companies, mutual fund and fund
administration companies and trust companies. Add itional support must also be given to our retail, restaurant, healthcare, and tourism sectors. The continued
waiver of payroll taxes is not enough. What they need is access to capital, as most of these businesses have
depleted their savings or their retained earnings , and
[they] are all spent. They also need a more relaxed
and efficient employee recruitment programme which
is supported by our workforce development pr ogrammes, and our immigration policies for our guest
workers.
Mr. Speaker, while on the subject of pay roll
taxes, the Minister of Finance announced that there will be payroll tax reductions for workers making less
than $96,000 per year. But, Mr. Speaker, once again
this slippery -tongued Premier has misled the public,
as this is directly opposed to what he said previously,
that there would be zero payroll tax increases for em-ployees earning less than $96,000 per year. He was correct when he indicated that the
employee portion of the payroll tax was being reduced
to 1.5 per cent for employees making less than
$48,000 per year, and then misled us when in the Budget Book, Table XI shows that those employees earning $48,001 to $96,000 had an increase in their
payroll tax rate. It went from 8.5 per cent to 9.0 per
cent in this year’s budget. The Premier gives wit h one
hand and snatches with the other. You can be the judge of this deception. How does this reduction help
the unemployed?
Mr. Speaker, the other item to be highlighted
is that our 4,362 public sector employees will have a
salary increase this year, des pite the current economic challenges in which we find ourselves. What do we
tell people in the private sector who have not had a
salary increase in the past five to ten years? Are they expecting an increase now that the government has
set the standard? Giv en the huge deficit, where is the
funding coming from for these salary increases? Are these pay raises linked to employee output, or eff iciencies, as is the case in the private sector? It a ppears that the source of these pay raises will be real-ised from the efficiencies and savings from within their
various departments. Again, is this going to be a real ity or a pipe dream?
Mr. Speaker, the people of this country should
also pay close attention to their land tax bills. I have
been advised that there is an all- out assault on the
increase of annual rental values [ARV] of our homes
and commercial buildings by our land valuation team
members. This is concerning, because if our ARVs are adjusted upwards, land tax bills will increase, even
if the land tax rates remain unadjusted. This, again, is
a money grab by stealth. The same applies to most of
the cars on the road. When walking or driving around
Bermuda you will note that our car models are getting
larger and wider in size, and consequently they are
more expens ive to import from a wholesale perspective. Likewise with the continuing inflationary rise in
wholesale import costs, comes the rise in customs
duties, which will quite comfortably offset the 10 per
cent discount of our private vehicle registration fees.
Mr. Speaker, this theory also applies to other consumer staples which are imported into Bermuda,
which is another smokescreen. The Burt Government
gives with one hand and takes away with the other.
Mr. Speaker, the other issue raised in this
Budget is that the Government is allowing another raid
on our private pension plans. This vision is myopic. It
is for short -term gains. We are raiding our future sec urity because of the current cost of living in Bermuda,
and because the Government is not providing the r eal
support that our people need. To make matters worse,
the PLP Government is encouraging these same people to invest and provide capital to small businesses
which are also struggling, and into Bermuda’s first Digital Bank. Does this sound like a Government that
has its peoples’ business at heart? I think not.


Bermuda House of Assembly Is it not the role of most governments to pr otect their people and not just industry? Mr. Speaker,
many Bermuda residents see this budget as a “David
Burt election budget ” and one that lacks detail. He
tells us what we want to hear, but shows no way to deliver on his promises. Not only does this budget
provide very little hope, but it is also likely the most
nonspecific Budget Statement ever presented.
Mr. Speaker, economically, Bermuda must
place i ts economy on a path of higher productivity and
growth, while ensuring that benefits are shared evenly
and that our debt is manageable. This is not an easy
task, as other countries find it difficult to have tradeoffs between implementing measures to support ec onomic expansion and avoiding a further build- up of
debt. Some believe that investments in health, educ ation, and high- return infrastructure projects will also
help move the economy forward to a green economy.
Research spending can facilitate innovati on and tec hnology adoption, which are the primary drivers of longterm productivity growth. Others believe that we ca nnot spend or grow our economy without extending our
workforce or population.
Mr. Speaker, we believe that as Bermuda r eopens, the Governm ent must support the recovery by
gradually removing targeted support, facilitating the
reallocation of workers and resources to sectors less affected by social distancing, and providing stimulus
where needed to the extent possible. Some fiscal r esources fr eed from targeted support should be redeployed to public investment, including in renewable energy, improving the efficiency of power transmi ssion, and retrofitting buildings to reduce their carbon
footprint. Moreover, as lifelines are unwound, social
spending should be expanded to protect the most vulnerable. Additionally, where gaps exist in the safety
net, authorities could enhance paid family and sick
leave, expand eligibility for unemployment benefits,
and strengthen healthcare benefits coverage as
needed.

Inflation/Cost of Living

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, according to
the Governor of the Bank of England the rising cost of
living and the squeeze on living standards will not ease until next year, 2023. He also said that many
people in the U K faced a difficult period ahead. The
same comments apply to the people of Bermuda and
will come after the rise in interest rates. The expected
price increases are climbing faster than any pay i ncreases.
Mr. Speaker, in the United States, the Brookings Institute and the US labour statistics department confirmed that their rate of inflation for the year ending
October 31, 2021, came in at 6.2 per cent. Today it
hovers around 7.0 per cent to 7.5 percent. Across the
Atlantic in the UK, The Independent newspap er indicated that their inflation rate for 2021 was at its hig h-est in a decade at 7 .0 per cent. Just last month, the
World Bank indicated that inflation hit a 10- year high
in November, while globally prices are rising at the
fastest rate since 2008. As for the Eurozone, their i nflation rose to 4.1 per cent for October, hitting a new
13-year high according to the Euro department of st atistics and CNBC. As Bermuda is dependent on i mported goods, we can expect that our inflation figure
for the year will be around 6.0 per cent to 7.0 per cent
after shipping and local profit margins are factored in.
Mr. Speaker, the 1.0 per cent to 2 .0 per cent
inflation figure recently provided by the Government of
Bermuda is flawed and its recalculation should be r evisited by the government’s statistics team. What is
this PLP Government going to do about this cost of living? The previous Finance Minister recently insisted
that price controls were unlikely to be introduced to combat imported inflation. So, what’s next, as Berm uda’s fuel, electricity and food prices are almost crim inal and continue to rise? When looking at the price of
a gallon of fuel at gas pumps in Bermuda, you will find
that it hovers around $8.46 per gallon. In the US, gas is around $3.725 per gallon, and in the EU, it is
$3.315 per gallon as of last month. The U.S. Energy
and Information Administration projected gasoline
prices would average $3.13 per gallon in December
2021 and projected the price to be at $2.88 in 2022. This unabated escalation of inflation and the tremendously high cost of living in Bermuda must stop. It is
completely unsustainable.
Mr. Speaker, initially it was felt that this infl ation was transitory, but it is not. According to Sarah
House, an economist at Wells Fargo Bank, it is no
longer likely that inflation will fade naturally as the
pandemic abates, as she points to worker shortages, and wages which also have also been rising, though
not as fast as prices.
Mr. Speaker, the PLP Budget indicated that it
was going to review the taxes on oil and fuel imports
so that we can reduce the cost of our electricity bills.
Has BELCO agreed to this proposal? Have they
committed to passing on the benefits of reduced i mport taxes on fuel imports to our consumers? I hope
and wish that this is not another smokescreen.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance indicated
that “If our conservative revenue estimates are ex-ceeded and spending remains in line with estimates,
we will provide additional tax relief to residents.”
The Minister also went on to state that: “We
will return 50% of any additional surplus to the taxpayers of this country. This means if the projected deficit for 2021/22 comes in below estimates, 50% of
those funds will be used to reduce taxes on fuel i mports to reduce the cost of electrici ty in Bermuda.”
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance insults
the intelligence of the One Bermuda Alliance and the
people of Bermuda. We have all seen the contraction in businesses, jobs, and the economy, and we all
know that we are in serious trouble with debt. How
468 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly and when would this “Give back” happen? Mr. Speaker, this Budget Statement is part of a desperate move
by Premier Burt towards his re- election effort. It is a
crowd pleaser, a sweetheart budget, and it is not the budget of responsible economic policy. If the Go vernment has the highly unlikely occasion of having a
surplus, the financially prudent thing to do would be to
reduce the debt with it! Premier Burt’s “if” statement
shows where his real priorities lie first and foremost —
in his re -election as party leader.

Fiscal Responsibility Panel Assessment
of Bermuda’s Fiscal Strategy

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, the PLP Government has engaged the services of our pre- eminent,
world -class economist and professional Fiscal R esponsibility Panel for the past seven years to provide
direction regarding Bermuda’s challenging fiscal strategy, and yet very few recommendations have been
followed to help Bermuda rid itself of this economic
malaise.
It should be noted that the scope of this Panel’s mandate is very broad. They were asked to pr ovide Bermuda’s Parliament, Minister of Finance and
Financial Policy Council with an annual published assessment of the territory’s fiscal strategy, focusing on progress in meeting the territory’s medium -term objectives for public spending, taxation, borrowing and debt
reduction. Their recommendations cover those that
require attention now and the much- needed, structural
reforms that address long- term fiscal challenges (as
we have recommended in previous reports).
They should be viewed as a comprehensive
package. For example:
Fiscal targets: The estimates imply that there
is a fiscal gap of at least $50 million if the budget is to be balanced by 2023/24. They recommend that the
Government aim to at least restore revenues to the
pre-COVID -19 level of [$1,110] million by 2022/23,
with a further significant increase in 2023/24 to meet
the balanced budget target. Beyond budget balance in
2023/24, the Government should target a budget sur-plus of $50 million per annum, to be achieved in the
fiscal year 2026/27 and continued thereafter to pay
down the debt.
They went on to say that the Tax Reform
Commission [TRC] should have been re- embodied
and given a clear time- limited mandate to provide a
report to the Government by June 2021 to allow
measures to be implemented in 2022/23. The objec-tive of such measures should have been to achieve the medium -term revenue targets described above,
broaden the tax base, and move toward a more pr ogressive tax structure on personal income that taxes
earnings from assets as well as labour. They suggest, over the next two to three years, the introduction of:
1. a tax on dividend and interest receipts; 2. an annual rental tax on owners of large properties and multiple units (thus exempting all
but high earners);
3. an increase in taxes on sugar and other un-healthy products; and a carbon tax.
Mr. Speaker, the Tax Reform Commission
should also examine the case in the medium to longer
term, and the introduction of a corporate income tax at
a modest rate, as is the case in some other small i sland jurisdictions such as Jersey and Guernsey.
Public expenditure: The Government should
have imposed a tight budgetary regime in 2021/22, as
an across the board cut in most major spending d epartments and agencies is both justified and necessary. Over the medium term more fundamental r eforms are required.
Healthcare: While Bermuda’s healthcare sy stem has responded well to the crisis, it has long been
clear that its financing is both unsustainable and inequitable. They endorsed the Government’s programme
of reforms. These will require greater progression in
burden sharing. Risks are high, and sustained policy action over the next two years is required.
Pensions: The foundations of Bermuda’s s ocial insurance system have been undermined by d emographic developments and a lack of policy resolve,
now accentuated by measures taken to address the COVID -19 crisis. The PLP Government should, as
planned, restore contributions for the Public Service
Superannuation Fund (PSSF) and the Contributory
Pension Fund [CPF]. Fundamental reforms, including
increases in retirement age and income- related contributions to the CPF will also be necessary.
Immigration: COVID -19 presents a potential
opportunity. Bermuda should be an attractive place to
live and work. However, to take advantage of these
opportunities to grow the workforce and the economy,
radical reforms to the immigration system are needed.
The red tape must be eliminated. The PLP Gover nment needs to make it easier, not just for people to
come to work, but to stay and contribute to the Island
on an ongoing basis, and, eventually, to settle perm anently with appropriate rights, responsibilities, and
security for their families and children.
Climate Change: We encourage the PLP
Government to assess the physical, economic, and financial risks that climate change may pose to the
Island and, where necessary, invest further in
measures to improve its resilience. Furthermore, r esponsibility for assessing such risks should be vested in a designated government agency with clear lines of accountability.
FinTech and Bermuda’s reputational risks: Mr.
Speaker, a case in point is Bermuda’s own[a] FinTech company which issued and offered digital coins from
Bermuda and later resulted in two of its executives
being charged in a California, US, District Court with
conducting a fraudulent and unregistered digital asset
security offering. They defrauded more than 1,000


Bermuda House of Assembly investors of approximately $9 million through digital
asset securities. Mr. Speaker, that challenges us from
a reputational risk perspective.

Reliance on the One Bermuda Alliance Capital
Projects Helps t o Boost the Current Economy

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, over the past
three years there has been a reliance on several OBA
projec ts to materially boost Bermuda’s GDP and cr eate jobs. One has only to look at St. Regis and the
Azura Resort developments. Unfortunately, we have
not seen any meaningful action to manifest the promises made by the PLP. The reality is, the promises
made by the PLP have been broken, again.
In its 2020 election platform, the PLP pledged
to target a return to a balanced budget within three fiscal years when tourism has fully recovered following
the pandemic. They made repeated promises to balance the pre- pandemic budget and failed. In fact, the
PLP Government stated that they hoped to have a
balanced budget by 2023. Now they say they cannot
meet that date, but it will be deferred for another year.
Indeed, with the ongoing effects of COVID -19,
and with no detai led plan to resurrect our economy, it
appears that Bermuda is destined to further increase
the size of its national debt, which is well on its way to almost $4 billion. A debt of that size will undoubtedly
cripple our ability to put money where it is most needed, like into our social support networks, into stopping
violence, and into improving the healthcare and the
well-being of all Bermudians. Moreover, debt servicing
is costing Bermuda $127.8 million per year.
Mr. Speaker, the One Bermuda Alliance
stands by its economic policies. We know that it suits
the nay -sayers to play down our achievements, but
the OBA’s efforts were nothing short of an economic
miracle! On our watch world- class events came to the
Island, new hotels and a new airport created wealth
and new jobs for Bermudians, and the OBA also attracted $1 billion dollars of inward investment to Bermuda.

Tourism and Hospitality
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, we will continue to face more difficult times when it comes to tourism in Bermuda i n the coming year. Charles Jeffers II, the BTA’s Chief Executive Officer, indicated
that despite predictions from some in the industry the
Island would not see a recovery to pre- pandemic le vels until early 2023. Mr, Jeffers said: “The stark reality
is that a return to 2019 levels is not expected for the
next few years. And while the industry has endured a
challenging environment since 2020, there is reason
for optimism, particularly with news of changes to bor-der protocols and growth in the European market. Our
team has renewed our focus on generating group business opportunities. We’ve positioned ourselves as a smart choice for meeting planners from key markets
and have seen a spike in interest in group business
for 2022 and beyond.”
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Jeffers echoed the comments made last year by tourism economist and spe-cialist, Adam Sacks, who indicated that Bermuda’s
tourism sector will recover nearly fully from the impact
of the COVID -19 pandemic by 2023.
Mr. Speaker, when it comes to tourism, Bermuda s till has a way to go. Mr. Speaker, one of the
real challenges that we face is that due to COVID -19,
our targeted clients are from the US East Coast, the
UK and Europe and are flush with cash, and pent -up
demand for travel. However, Bermuda cannot capitalise on these ripe opportunities because we cannot
accommodate the tourists. The Island’s hotel room inventory is not up to scratch and is very limited. Con-sequently, Bermuda cannot meet the needs or the
demands of these clients and, therefore, we will lose
out as a jurisdiction. We must improve our domestic
tourism product if we are going to be competitive and
successful in the tourism industry.
Mr. Speaker, last year’s Bermuda Tourism
Authority [indicated] visitors to the Island increased
their length of st ay. Recent statistics indicated that:
1. total leisure air visitor arrivals were down
71.2 per cent, compared to 2019;
2. total air capacity was down 59.1 per cent
compared to 2019;
3. totals spent by air visitors was down to
$122.57 million or 69.3 per cent les s than
2019; and
4. cruise ship arrivals were 97.6 per cent down
from 2019.
Having presented these figures, it should be
noted that they were significantly higher than the 2020
year end statistics. Mr. Speaker, despite this information, there were green shoots of hope, as last
year’s visitors increased their stay by 27.7 per cent,
compared to 2019, and stayed 6.9 days. They also
spent 13.9 per cent more, and the superyacht calls
were up 6.5 per cent compared to 2020 when the
superyacht legislation came into play. The BTA was
not surprised, as they expected that these numbers
were not unreasonable given the global travel trends, international border restrictions, local COVID -19 sur ges and the CDC downgrades.
Another unexpected win was in the rebound
of the vacation rental category. In fact, this sector s ecured more momentum than our hotels. As for events, even though Bermuda had several commitments, several signature events had to be postponed. Mr.
Speaker, the SailGP event went ahead in April 2021.
But becaus e of the pandemic, hospitality events were
cancelled, and visitor arrival numbers were dramat ically reduced. Despite that, SailGP, a child of the One
Bermuda Alliance’s America’s Cup initiative, still had a
significant impact of $5.7 million on the local econ omy.
470 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly As for the World Triathlon Bermuda Series, it
had to be postponed on the heels of Dame Flora Duffy
winning Bermuda’s first Olympic Gold Medal. This
event is now scheduled for November 2022. We also
lost a substantive amount of our group business due to the presence of the Delta and Omicron variants.
Thankfully, we were still able to maintain limited flights
from Canada, the US, and the UK.

Caroline Bay
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, as Morgan’s
Point has raised its head again and has taken a prominent place in this Budget Statement, I will share some
history with the people of Bermuda on this matter.
Morgan’s Point was a poisoned chalice almost
from the start. How so? The ground was poisoned by the US Navy and the contract that was signed by the
previous PLP Government with Morgan’s Point Ltd. It
was poisoned by the obligation to clean up the entire
site to a Residential 1 standard, at the cost to the government and the Bermuda taxpayer. As that pr oject progressed, the developers threatened to sue the
then Government for $100 million if they did not comply with the Progressive Labour Party Government’s
development agreement.
Mr. Speaker, after long and difficult negoti ations, the Government agreed to clean up the sections of the site where clean -up was possible, and retain for
itself the areas where it was impossible. We did that at
a cost of about $33 million. Notwithstanding all of this,
it was still a brownfield site and, as such, investment
funding would not be forthcoming without the Go vernment’s guarantee. To lay the infrastructure for the
long-term future of our tourism industry, create opportunities for local businesses and jobs for Bermudians,
the decision was made to guarantee certain loans for
the project. Unfortunately, the projec t failed.
Nevertheless, due to the negative result of
this case, Government guarantees are generally r equired from overseas financiers to finance major pr ojects in Bermuda. As the property is now managed by the provisional liquidators, EY as the primary c reditor,
I would have thought that this Government would outline their plans for this project for the coming year. Mr.
Speaker, the obvious question is, What now? Again, the PLP Government has been very thrifty with these
details.

Fairmont Southampton Ho tel
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, as we all
know the Fairmont Southampton closed in September 2020, resulting in the loss of more than 700 jobs, and
cost the PLP Government $11 million in loans for r edundancy benefits which were later recovered.
It is our understanding that the property ow ners and the Government remain in discussions and
that the situation is very tense. Where does the Go v-ernment stand as far as getting Bermuda’s largest
hotel property back on line and our people back to
work —espec ially after the owner’s $180 million commitment to resurrect this hotel for Bermuda’s tourism industry.
Mr. Speaker, this PLP Government must
strike a deal with Gencom now. If not, the hotel deve lopment runs the risk of collapsing due to the lack of secur e financing. Like other projects of this nature, the
Government must come to grips with the fact that they should provide a sovereign guarantee to get this pr oject across the line, and yet there was no mention of a
guarantee in the 2022/23 Budget. We know that the
guarantee is inevitable, and we take the view that it
played a key role leading up to the former Finance
Minister’s hasty departure from his Ministry last
month.
Mr. Speaker, this project is crucial to Bermuda
because a PwC Impact report on this topic indicated
that in 2019 the hotel accounted for 25 per cent of
Bermuda’s hotel room inventory; 31 per cent of Bermuda’s hospitality industry workforce; and 35 per cent of air visitors staying in hotels.
In addition, going forward it will provide 716
new construction jobs and a $44 million net additional impact on our GDP in 2022. If the hotel remains
closed, it will have an $80 million negative impact on Bermuda’s GDP in 2022. The negative impact on GDP considers the loss of conferences due to limited
spaces for large conferences, thus the loss of visitors
to the Island. Mr. Speaker, the PwC report said that
based on the operator projections, if Gencom or any other investor does not proceed with the transaction
or renovation, and shuts down permanently , the opportunity cost is estimated to be $60 million in 2022, and up to $118.4 million in 2025, or an accumulated
opportunity cost of $404.1 million for four years from
2022 to 2025.
Back in November the former Minister of F inance indicated that blue- chip names were prepared
to invest in the redevelopment of the Island’s biggest
hotel. He went on to say that Gencom, the US -based
owners of the Fairmont [Southampton] Hotel, had met
government representatives with a group of investors
and a draft business pl an and that they were in town
with some investors who are interested in working
with them on the redevelopment. Where do we stand
with the financing of this $180 million project?

Gaming
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, there was no
mention of gaming in this Budget Statement. In the
past two or three years, the topic of gaming has been
very popular, as it is an amenity that can support our
ever-evolving tourism industry. Mr. Speaker, the Gaming Commission issued two provisional licences to two
world -class resorts. These resorts are unable to move
forward with their gaming offerings because the pro pBermuda House of Assembly er legislative and operational framework is not in
place. Moreover, the banking component of the structure has not been resolved, even though we are ma king progress in this space.
I have been advised that the delay in gaming
lies squarely at the feet of the Premier and that the
banking matter can be resolved if the Premier does
what is required.
Mr. Speaker, some who have vast experience
in the industry beli eve that gaming should be removed
from the Premier, who is now also the Minister of F inance. Senior international bankers also have indicated that they are not aware of any advanced nation
where the gaming industry is under the control of, or
under the pur view of a country’s head of state, Premier, Prime Minister or President. In addition, some
stakeholders believe that the overarching Gaming
Commission legislation must be amended so that the
Commission is independent of Government influence
and interferenc e. It should include the removal of the
requirement that a government representative sits on
the Board of the Commission. It was also noted that
the Gaming Commission should have the same type
of independence and autonomy as the Bermuda
Monetary Authority.
As most in our country are aware, the current
Government has indicated that operationally, Berm uda will be progressing with a cashless gaming sol ution. What does a cashless gaming solution mean?
Are we talking about credit cards only? Are they referring to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum, or tet her through blockchain solutions? Transparency is r equired, as potential operators who are prepared to
invest in this industry are not clear on the Gover nment's cashless gaming direction. This matter must be
resolved soon.
Considering the above, we must get it right,
as the Government has a responsibility to fulfil its obligations as prescribed under the various hotel development agreements which are in place in our tourism
industry.

International Busines s

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, like last year,
Bermuda’s International Business [IB] sector has continued to tick over well, despite COVID -19, and the
debacle in travel. It has been said that from chaos
comes opportunities. And all this chaos is h aving a
major turn in the right direction for the global property and casualty insurance underwriting market.
Despite the pandemic, IB registered an i ncrease of 171 jobs. This is impressive given the rise of
the videoconferencing economy where people do n ot
have to be in Bermuda to conduct business. Just i magine the catastrophe that would have befallen our
country if not for International Business. This is not a
supposition. This precise circumstance has befallen
some of our cousins to our south who have defaulted on external debt and rescheduled internal debt. This is
why it is particularly worrying that we are being placed
on the EU’s so- called grey list.
We know that the OECD and EU regulatory
environment towards Bermuda has become increas-ingly hostile. Despite the benefits our [IB] community
renders to the global economy, Bermuda has very
powerful enemies out there with whom we are playing
a game of bureaucratic whack -a-mole. No sooner do
we neutralise one threat, when another one pops up. It appears th at this latest EU “mole” has not been
properly whacked by our Ministry of Finance and we
are facing a period of being on a grey list. We know
this game is unfair. We know we have limited r esources with which to successfully play this game. But
play it we m ust; and we must play it well or the cons equences will be severe for us because IB is our only
properly functioning economic sector. We cannot afford any more of our “own goals”.
Furthermore, in this age of global social m edia, we cannot have local offici als, in this case, labour
officials, making ill- informed and destructive stat ements on the tax haven issue that are diametrically opposed to the Government’s stated position and diametrically opposed to Bermuda’s national interest.
That little video clip no doubt has already been noticed on social media and is now available to any whack -a-mole in Brussels, Paris, London, or Washington who googles Bermuda on the tax haven issue. Mr.
Speaker, the PLP Government must improve its own
performance and control its supporters who, unwittingly or otherwise, threaten the livelihoods of the many
Bermudians employed in the only private sector industry that hasn’t been crushed by the pandemic. There
is also the initiative to develop Bermuda as the world’s
climate risk finance capital centre of excellence, which
we in the Opposition fully support and endorse. In
fact, it is now time that Bermuda once again considers
hosting the second Ocean Risk Summit event for cl imate change risk, like the very successful one held in
2018.
Mr. Speaker, there is a thorny issue which
needs to be addressed by some of our local compa-nies who are outsourcing and exporting Bermudian
jobs. Many IB companies continue to increase their returns by outsourcing many of their back -office functions to more competitive jurisdictions outside of Bermuda. IT servers have been relocated overseas, em-ployees are working remotely from Canada, the UK,
the USA and Europe, and business analytic models
are being purchased off the shelves, thereby robbing our peopl e of job opportunities and employment.
Mr. Speaker, our job as parliamentarians is to
encourage such companies to fill these positions l ocally. This can be accomplished by making the imm igration process more accommodating and by remov-ing some of the burea ucratic red tape which stymies a
productive and welcoming business environment. We
cannot afford to lose this momentum, as it is the only
472 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly tailwind that we currently have. Mr. Speaker, we must
encourage the Government to get out of the way and
allow Bermuda to grow.

Digital Commerce

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, quite a lot is
also being said about the opportunities in Bermuda’s
digital commerce arena, and the One Bermuda All iance supports this discussion. With Bermuda’s legi slative, regulatory and telecommunications fram eworks, and digital communications infrastructure, we
stand ready to capitalise on this emerging and gro wing industry.
Mr. Speaker, like the Fiscal Responsibility
Panel, the One Bermuda Alliance does not support this Government’s i ntention to promote a digital bank
in Bermuda. This initiative should be driven by the private sector. Mr. Speaker, we recognise why the
Government is trying to do this. According to their
2020 platform they want to create the Bermuda N ational Digital Bank with ownership shares available to
all Bermudians to invest and create wealth for future generations. The bank will allow for long- stalled industries like gaming to commence, creating jobs and
economic growth while connecting Bermuda’s res idents and entre preneurs to the global world of digital
payments. This bank will ensure that more Bermudi-ans can benefit from lower mortgage rates to reduce
pressure on middle- class families, while lower rates
will increase the value of existing homes.
Mr. Speaker, the F iscal Responsibility Panel
in their most recent report said it succinctly. I quote: “A digital bank will not address all the factors responsible
for the lack of access to quality banking services experienced by many Bermudians.”
Other potential issues inc lude a lack of co mpetition between banks and barriers to entry in the retail banking market; banks’ access to retail customer
credit scoring and other data, and other barriers to
writing new business; strengthening consumer protection in financial services ; payment systems; and the
lack of liquidity in Bermudian residential real estate or
a secondary mortgage- backed securities market. Also
inhibiting access to finance is the absence of any r equirement for businesses to provide routine financial statements or accounts, and the absence of clear l egal procedures for handling company failures in the
nonfinancial sector. For small businesses this may
hinder their access to capital.
As the Fiscal Responsibility Panel said: “We
expect the provision of robust training and internship programs and the creation of new jobs for Bermudians.”
In addition, from a taxation perspective, the
digital sector will benefit from the traditional tax
schemes currently in place in Bermuda, such as company taxes, payroll taxes and land taxes. The PLP
Government should consider further examination of a negotiated value- added tax for the privilege of their
local and global Internet business earnings from Ber-muda. This approach is not new, and the industry is
familiar with it.
Mr. Speaker, the One Bermuda Alliance is also very concerned about some CEOs who have vi olated foreign corruption, trading, and international
sanctions laws locally and internationally. More KYC
and AML investigations need to be completed before
these senior people are granted permission to operate
in Bermuda by the Government and the Bermuda
Monetary Authority. Mr. Speaker, we have had more
than our share of investigations by the SEC, the US
Government, and other international agencies, Bermuda must not compromise i ts blue -chip reputation in
the Government’s zeal to secure new business for Bermuda at any cost. The reputational risk is too great.

Satellites and the Space Industry

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, as you know,
Bermuda has had an enduring relationship with the
United States NASA program for over 50 years and
we have played a supportive role in many US space
missions. We have also had a slot on one or two satellites which we have capitalised on.
Mr. Speaker, there is more we can do. There
are oppor tunities in the satellite infrastructure arena,
communications, earth observation, solar energy, r eusable rockets, asteroid mining, and space tourism. According to the Satellite Industry Association, during 2020 the global space industry generated revenue of
$371 billion, and there was record- breaking growth in
this arena. Recently Danielle Wood, Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and Director of Space
Enabled at MIT Media Lab, indicated that Bermuda
should not discount itself from space opportunities
because of its size.
She went on to say “In the 1960s, the United
Nations sent out a clear message that space is the
province of all humankind. Every country of any size
should be thinking about space as a potential opportunity for them.”
In this spirit of entrepreneurialism, the International Telecommunication Union, an agency within the UN, has granted radio spectrum and orbital allo tments —limited natural resources —to many different
countries. One of the two orbital slots to which Ber-muda has sol e rights came into use by two commercial satellite operators, SES and EchoStar, in 2013.
Bermuda also shares rights to two further orbital r esources with various Caribbean jurisdictions.
Mr. Speaker, Ms. Woods went on to say that
many of us enjoy space- based services every day,
without realising it. Satellites, acting as “cell towers in the sky,” provide broadband and wireless network coverage in places where the terrestrial network does
not reach. Global positioning satellite (GPS) technol oBermuda House of Assembly gy helps us wit h navigation systems in our cars and
mobile phones.
“Companies like Uber have built a business
model on satellite signals,” Professor Wood said.
“There are opportunities for entrepreneurs to find ways to utilise space- based environmental services,
positio ning information or education systems, for example.”
We must do more to promote Bermuda in this
ever-evolving industry. Bermuda has the opportunity
to build on its NASA connections and to attract new space business, through the extension of our regul atory experience in the industry and the global recognition earned. Bermuda should welcome innovators in insurance, trusts and asset management, and FinTech.
Mr. Speaker, Ms. Woods indicated that, and I
quote, “This is an interesting time in history, and I
think we’re going to see many proposals for space
companies doing things we’ve never seen before,
such as commercial space stations or ‘gas stations’ where space travellers can refuel. A government that
supports these novel companies, and provides smart
regulation and efficient processes, could attract space
businesses. Once a critical mass is reached, a cluster
of emerging space companies becomes a possibility.”
Come on Bermuda we can do it. Let’s make it
happen.

Immigration

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Immigra tion reform has
been a thorny and very emotional issue for successive
Governments of Bermuda and her people. It has been
a political football with the aid of successive PLP
Governments. But despite this, the Progressive Labour Party has begun to make progr ess in this space.
The Government is finally beginning to recognise that
Bermuda’s workforce and population must be expanded. Mr. Speaker, they are accepting the fact that
a good immigration policy is a good economic policy,
something that the OBA has been stating from its inception.
We need a minimum of 7,000 new residents
to bolster our economy. There are no ifs, ands or buts
about it. We need thousands of bodies on our Island who will bring jobs or create local jobs.
The Ministry of Immigration introduced the
Economic Investment Certificate and the Residential Certificate Policy which enables investors to apply for
the right to live in Bermuda indefinitely on the cond ition that they invest a minimum of $2.5 million into the
economic well -being of Bermuda which will add value
to our economy. Mr. Speaker, Bermuda has approved
applications for hundreds of digital nomads, who are
all welcome, but how many have moved to the Island under this residential programme? We are seeing the
promotion of several reform s that the One Bermuda
Alliance recommended, especially with mixed- status families, as well as the idea of commercial immigr ation, which was initially presented by former OBA I mmigration Minister, the Hon. Michael Fahy, JP, MP.
Quite frankly Mr. Speaker, we also assert that
a full review of the Immigration and Protection Act of
1956 is a must. The current Act is draconian and outdated and well over 60 years old. Its original purposes
and features are no longer relevant to the Bermuda
we enjoy today and do not support our 21
st century
economy with all its nuances and challenges. The
PLP Government must grab the proverbial mettle,
stop the political sophistry, and embark upon an i mmigration review which will help to expand Bermuda’s
workforce and, in turn, wi ll form the foundation for
Bermuda’s economic growth. It will also create a
pathway to residency and citizenship, while at the same time, protecting the interests of Bermudians and
Bermudian jobs.
Based on Ruchir Sharma’s 10 Rules of Successful Nations , increasing populations have accounted for roughly half of the economic growth, and if the
population is shrinking it is close to impossible to generate strong economic growth. As the European
Commission stated in 2005, “Never in history has
there been economic growth without population
growth.” I repeat, the European Commission stated in
2005, “Never in history has there been economic
growth without population growth.”
Mr. Speaker, for the edification of our co mmunity, let me explain why the expansion of our wor kforce is so crucial. Having more working people in Bermuda means greater payroll tax collection and
more local consumption which increases customs du-ty revenues. A greater residential population creates a multiplier effect on several of our biggest buckets of
tax.
• Healthcare costs: Guest workers are generally
younger and healthier than our average res ident. Increasing the number of guest workers
massively improves the sustainability of our
healthcare system.
• Ageing population: Increasing the workingage population, with all else staying the same,
directly reduces our maintenance ratio. Total
healthcare costs and an ageing population are
closely intertwined.
• Global compliance requirements: Many companies are going to have to do more to justify
their presence in Bermuda under the new tax
regimes. We are competing with other juri sdictions on this front and must present a we lcoming attitude.
• Narrow economy: More working- age people
on the Island decreases the tax load per per-son.
Mr. Speaker, keeping it real, our economy,
social wellness and security are inextricably linked with immigration, more so than nearly any other juri sdiction. We are a service economy with no physical
474 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly exports and only two pillar industries, one of which
produces much of our forei gn exchange, employment
and tax revenues, i.e., International Business. The
time has been long spent. This immigration review
must start now. Mr. Speaker, Immigration Reform just makes good business sense.

Pension Funds for Investment

Hon. N. H. Cole Sim ons: Mr. Speaker, government
actuaries have indicated that the public sector pension
fund is due to be depleted by 2044. Imagine what that
sounds like to a young person at the beginning of their
career. This simply cannot happen. If we stay on this
traject ory we will see even more young Bermudians
emigrating. We must do everything we can to keep
them here and attract talent back to Bermuda. They
will need to see and believe that they are returning to
something that will offer them real opportunities.
Mr. S peaker, once again the PLP Government
is silent when it comes to the unfunded liability for our
Public Service Superannuation Fund, the Government
Health Insurance Fund and the Members of the Legi slature and the [Pension] Fund. For the record, it
stands at approximately $1.74 billion, based on the
latest Auditor General’s report and the latest gover nment actuarial report. Imagine, our pensions underfunded by $1.74 billion.
Will government employees have a pension
that they can draw on when they retire in the years to
come? Mr. Speaker, this question is not unreasonable, given that the total liability due to our pension plan
participants, and government’s noteholders, now stands at approximately $4.6 billion. Mr. Speaker, if
we are going to be truly transpare nt, we should note
that this Government funded some of their stimulus
packages on the back of pension funds and the pe nsion holiday, which only kicked the can further down
the road. Here it should also be noted that Superannuation fund shortfalls are, of c ourse, funded through
the Consolidated Fund and will need to be addressed
at some point.

Accounts Receivable Due to Government
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, earlier this
year the former Minister of Finance confirmed that the Government was owed more than $197 million in taxes and fees, with $84 million in recoveries over the
last year. We commend them on this action, as the
balance last year was approximately $357 million.
We understand that Oarrs Inc and PwC were
hired to address and recover thes e funds. PwC was
paid approximately $4.2 million for their services. How much has the Government paid Oarrs Inc, an una uthorised debt collection agency, for their services? As
the Minister indicated back in March of last year, by
not collecting these funds , the Government cannot
address or deliver the services that the people of Bermuda voted to receive, such as the development
of infrastructure projects like schools and road repairs
or issues associated with healthcare, pensions, youth
programmes and many other social initiatives.
Interestingly, on another note, in July 2021 the
Government overpaid $3.5 million in unemployment benefits during the COVID -19 lockdowns, the Minister
of Finance admitted. About 2,500 people (one in four
people) were overpaid an average of $1,300 via unauthorised payments by senior civil servants because
the applicants did not inform the government when they returned to work and continued to receive the
money. Who is being held accountable? When will
these receivables be cleared?

Additional Capital Development Spending
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: The Throne Speech ind icates that under normal circumstances governments the world over increase their capital expenditure to
stimulate the economy and create work projects to
help to get th eir citizens back to work after natural
disasters or dramatic economic downturns. But Mr.
Speaker, these are not normal times. The Gover nment’s debt ceiling is at $3.5 billion with no surplus
budget possibilities in the immediate future.
The OBA Government created an enviro nment that incentivised foreign investment, such as St. Regis and the Azura Bermuda hotels. We engineered
innovative public/private schemes such as the airport
and promoted international events, such as America’s
Cup, which alone brought $350 million dollars to our
economy and stimulated jobs and commerce. This
represented a sizeable return on the public purse
spending. This PLP Government has not demonstrated that same type of ingenuity and prowess.
Is capital development spending neede d now
to upgrade our infrastructure and stimulate a stagnant
economy? The answer is, yes. Does this Government have the ability to make this happen while adequately
servicing its debt, while not going into further debt and
maintaining its present service l evels while trimming
the fat off government spending? Past performance
by this administration and the contents of its most r ecent Budget Statement does not convince us that it
can.
Mr. Speaker, while on the topic of capital developments, where does the Fortress Bermuda Infr astructure Fund currently stand? This was the brai nchild of Brian Duperreault, and the Hon. E. T. Bob Richards. The idea was to create a for -profit inves tment fund to improve the infrastructure in Bermuda,
funded by the reinsurance indus try that has assets of
two-thirds of a trillion dollars (yes that’s a trillion do llars) invested in Bermuda. In the final analysis, in
March 2017 the proposal realised firm commitments
for $66 million. Where do we stand today and how were these funds utili sed?



Bermuda House of Assembly Update Taxation System

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, the 2021
Throne Speech proposed that the Tax Reform Co mmission of 2018 should update its recommendations
in light of the new economic realities created by the
pandemic. If you are wondering why this has not ha ppened, it is because this is not a government priority.
It is another difficult decision that they refuse to make.

Revised Tax Structure

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: According to the Fiscal R esponsibility Panel, Bermuda should consider restru cturing its tax structure to ensure that our tax system is
more appropriate for the 21st century and not the ’70s
and ’80s. Our tax structure should be fit for its time and purpose. With our sovereign debt level close to
$4 billion, Bermuda’s tax str ucture appears to be i nadequate. Alarmingly, the 20 years of the PLP’s un-bridled deficit budgets fed the escalation of our country’s national debt and unfunded liability, which is now approximated at $4.6 billion.
We cannot continue to burden our children
and grandchildren with this tsunami of debt that they will not be able to manage. We have a responsibility to future generations to ensure that Bermuda’s f inances are managed prudently and with discipline for the benefit of all of Bermuda. In so doing, we should
also move forward hand in hand with ABIC, ABIR, the
Bermuda Hotel Association, and Bermuda’s construction association to resolve this matter.
Mr. Speaker, Bermuda is a global player and
must act like one. If the OECD and its 130 member countries c an agree to overhaul the global tax system,
to ensure that big companies pay their fair share
wherever they operate, we can at least review and
assess the adequacy of Bermuda’s tax structure. In
July of last year the then Minister of Finance indicated that the Government would soon reconstitute the Tax
Reform Commission to consider Bermuda’s domestic
issues of taxation and to consider and analyse the
OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project. The
One Bermuda Alliance wants to know where we stand
with this as there has been no evidence that the Tax
Reform Commission has been reconstituted.
The Fiscal Responsibility Panel also recommends that the country should brace itself for a r evised tax structure. The Panel feels that the current structure is unsus tainable in addressing Bermuda’s
current economy. In real terms, this may mean more taxes for the people of Bermuda, as they believe that
reasonable tax revenue, as a percentage of GDP,
should be around 19 per cent to 20 per cent. That
would be an increase of approximately $190 million
over three years.
It should also be noted, that with the imminent
embodiment of the Tax Reform [Commission], a more
fair and equitable tax structure is being examined, which would result in an increase in all our personal
tax liabilities. Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is that we
need enough taxes to run the government and not a
penny more. Without taxes, we cannot effectively pr ovide government services.
Bermuda’s debt continues to rise unabated.
As I mentioned earlier this y ear, Bermuda can expect
that our national debt will hover around $4 billion during the next fiscal year. The Fiscal Responsibility
Panel said in their 2020 report that an adverse but far from inconceivable scenario would see government
debt on an unsustainable trajectory, leading to a credit
rating downgrade, higher interest rates on new debt,
and the risk of a large emergency tax increase and
spending cuts, and the possibility of capital flight and
a foreign exchange crisis.
The Fiscal Responsibility Pane l also indicated
that given the fiscal position, and the limited progress
of the Government acting on their earlier recommendations, they are concerned that Bermuda will have
little fiscal or macroeconomic policy bandwidth to ad-dress any crystallisation of these risks.
Over the longer period their key concern is
still domestic, i.e., the Island’s shrinking workforce and
ageing population. This challenge will put ever -
increasing pressure on both taxes and spending. Mr.
Speaker, according to the Fiscal Respo nsibility Panel,
the issue is not whether action is needed, or even
what actions are needed. There is already a high degree of consensus, in both their reports and those of
other independent bodies, indeed even within Go vernment that action is needed now. This action i ncludes immigration reform, tax reforms, and changes
to the structure of healthcare and pensions, which are all necessary.

Debt Service

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, Bermuda’s
annual debt service is completely out of control. This
money is paid to our local and international bondhol ders. For the year ending March 31, 2022, this annual
expense will total approximately $127 million, or ap-proximately 11.4 per cent of the estimated expend itures. This expense is projected to increase to $1 29.8
million for the 2022/23 fiscal year and is the thirdlargest government expense after the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Health. It is almost larger
than the ministries of Youth, Sports and Community
Affairs, Social Development and Seniors , Home A ffairs and Transport combined. And Mr. Speaker, most
of this money leaves Bermuda. It does not circulate in
our economy for further use by our people.

The Sinking Fund

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, the Royal G azette stated that the Sinking Fund was devised by the
late David Saul for a rainy day, just like this one. For
476 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly clarity, Bermuda should note that the Sinking Fund
was set up specifically to provide for the retirement of
debt. In fact, the annual contribution was earmarked
at 2.5 per c ent of the outstanding debt for the expiring
fiscal year. What will be the PLP Government’s policy
going forward? Will the Sinking Fund contributions be
made in times of plenty when we have current account surpluses? Will the suspension of our contrib utions to the Sinking Fund be permanently on the table,
or will the suspension be temporary? How are we going to establish a reserve to retire the growing debt that Bermuda faces as a result of Progressive Labour
Party Government?
As for this year’s budget, the Minister of F inance indicated that the balance of the contributions
in the Sinking Fund stands at $161.01 million. Why is
the PLP Government raiding the Sinking Fund? It
went from $231.61 million in 2021/22 to $161.01 mi llion, estimated for 2022/23. This is a reduction of $70
million or 30 per cent. Why raid the Sinking Fund
when Bermuda’s outstanding debt stands at $3.35 billion, and there is no plan or road map to manage or
halt the unabated growth of our national debt?

Yearly Deficit in Millions

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, during the
Budget Statement presentation, the Minister of F inance gave a historic rendition of the country’s fiscal
management. Again, he misled this House and the
people of Bermuda by rewriting history when he ind icated t hat the OBA doubled Bermuda's debt from
2012 to 2017.
Mr. Speaker, I can recall back in 2012 when
the OBA became the Government, they had to borrow
money to meet their first payroll payments and other ongoing government expenses. Money had to be borrowed as there was a massive inherited deficit, while
they managed a stimulus programme.
Government spending was reduced gradually
to avoid mass redundancies of civil servants. The
OBA determined that a hike in the debt ceiling was
required to clean up the mess and set it at $2.5 billion.
The OBA inherited a broken machine that was running
an operational deficit of $101 million and an overall
deficit of $299 million in 2012/13.
When the PLP came to Government in 2017,
the OBA handed over an operational surplus . . . I will
repeat. When the PLP came back to Government in 2017, the One Bermuda Alliance handed over an o perational surplus of $166 million and an overall deficit of only $8 million (excluding the Sinking Fund contr ibution). Thanks to the OBA Government , the debt was
significantly addressed.
Mr. Speaker, for those Honourable Members
wishing to make political points with the debt, it is worth noting that during the last fiscal years of the
PLP Government (i.e., 2008 to 2012), the debt grew
by 320 per cent, from $335 million to $1.408 billion. From the start of the times of plenty in 2001 until the
year of the OBA election in 2012/13, the debt had
grown by an astounding 1,045 per cent, or eleven
times over!
Mr. Speaker, it would be remiss of me, if I did
not acknowledge the comments made by the Auditor
General about Bermuda’s national debt. She underscored her concern by stating that, as in her previous
annual reports, the Government continues to make
decisions without knowing the combined financial position of all the organisations that make up the gov-ernment reporting entity. She further added that there
are no effective, comprehensive long- term plans for
reducing the annual and accumulated deficits or the
associated debt, the unfunded liabilities of its major
pension plans, or the size of taxpayer indebtedness, all of which continue to grow unsustainably.
This continued behaviour must stop, and fi scal prudence should and must be addressed if we are
going to bring our national debt in check. As questioned last year, is it time to introduce fiscal respons ibility legislation that places a ceiling on the annual
expenditure growth? Do we also add an extra feature
that places a ceiling on our debt to GDP ratio? This
should not be dismissed, as our debt is close to
60 per cent of our GDP.
Mr. Speaker, for a bit of trivia, each Bermudian worker is carrying $133,000 of the government’s
debt.

Healthcare

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, please allow
me once again to applaud and thank Bermuda’s
healthcare work ers for the work that they have accomplished over the past 18 months for the management and mitigation of COVID -19 and the Delta and
Omicron variants which plagued this Island. It nearly
brought the country to its knees economically and medically.
Special recognition should also be exten ded
to Dr. Carika Weldon, the staff at Bermuda Molec ular
Diagnostic Lab, the healthcare workers who parti cipated in the national immunisation and vaccination programme, the PCR and antigen testing site staff
across the Island and the Bermuda Regiment who
provided additional support.
Mr. Speaker, just last month, the Minister of
Health presented the Bermuda Health Strategy 2022 –
2027. This strategy formed the foundation of an aspirational plan which would ensure that all peopl e have
equitable access to the needed informative, prevent ative, curative, rehabilitative and palliative essential
health services, of sufficient quality to be effective
while also ensuring that people do not suffer financial
hardship when paying for these services and critical
medicines.
Mr. Speaker, the strategy for this aspirational
plan is to be based on seven strategic principles:


Bermuda House of Assembly 1. promoting healthy living and preventative
care;
2. focusing on person- centred care;
3. understanding our population’s health needs;
4. providing access to healthcare coverage;
5. strengthening our healthcare workforce;
6. harnessing healthcare technology; and
7. partnership and collaborative working.
Mr. Speaker, we understand that the new n ational health plan will be crafted and final ised through
a graduated phased process. When will Bermuda’s
revised national health plan be delivered? How much
will the implementation of this plan cost and how
much has been allotted to it for the 2023 fiscal year?
Mr. Speaker, we look forward to receiv ing this plan as
it will address some of the healthcare weaknesses,
financial hardships and healthcare access challenges
that presented themselves during the COVID -19 pandemic.
Mr. Speaker, the One Bermuda Alliance believes that all Bermudians should have access to a ffordable, high- quality healthcare. Through true and
transparent consultation, the OBA believes that the
Government must work with all sectors involved in the
delivery and financing of healthcare in Bermuda to
reduce the cost of healthcare, tac kle chronic illness,
and ensure equal access to care.
Every Bermudian has the right to health i nsurance coverage that is evidence- based and managed by independent professionals and not by the
Government. The legislation surrounding healthcare is
fragmented and we recommend that the laws are
brought up to date and unified to reduce the confusion surrounding our healthcare regulations.
The supplemental benefit for mental health
needs to be regulated and protected to ensure that
insureds are being covered at the same level as for
medical benefits. All our people need more access to
information about their healthcare policies, to have
transparency regarding the specifics of their coverage.
We also recommend that the PLP implement
a Unique Patient Identifier for everyone in Bermuda. This will ensure that everyone has coverage, reduce duplication of services, and drive down the cost of
healthcare for all. It will assist in services being
streamlined and produce a true number of those who are uninsured [or] underi nsured, to assist in developing solutions to reduce this subset of the population.
But, Mr. Speaker, we must do more to tackle
the root causes of poor health, so the One Bermuda
Alliance recommends a National Physical Fitness
Programme to encourage well -being, sound health,
exercise, and healthy diets, from primary school
throughout life. We would also recommend the intr oduction of a programme that specifically targets noncommunicable diseases, underpinned with food cost reductions for healthy living.

The Ageing Population and its Impact on Bermuda

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, according to
Bermuda’s department of statistics, Bermuda Popul ation Projections 2016– 2026, as Baby Boomers age
over the coming years more persons will be reaching
retirement age than in the past. Due to declining fertil ity levels, it may be difficult for employers to secure
enough qualified Bermudians to fill these vacant pos itions. Also, as indicated by the increasing old- age dependency ratio there will be a greater propor tion of
elderly dependents who may need to be supported by
the working population.
One possible option to address this projected
issue is to increase the mandatory retirement age of 65 in some industries or to eliminate it altogether as
an earlier retirem ent age diminishes the labour pool.
Aside from substantial immigration, another way to
increase the labour supply immediately will be to keep
or bring more of the elderly into the workforce.
In the future, the needs of the elderly will likely
shift public policy and the provision of services. Fin ding affordable care providers for seniors could b ecome more challenging than finding childcare provi ders. More or larger retirement facilities, senior citizen
day care programmes and in- home care services will
also be required. As a result, Bermuda’s “greying”
population will mean added challenges in upcoming years.
Again, Mr. Speaker, to remedy this challenge,
we need to expand our workforce. We need more l ocal jobs so that we can collect the revenue to fund our pensions and care for our seniors.

Support for our Seniors

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, [Bermuda’s]
Population Projections report also states that of all
residents, 7.2 per cent of the population were 75
years and older in 2016. By 2026, this pr oportion is
anticipated to increase to 10.8 per cent. The increase
in the proportion of older seniors will likely increase the demand for purpose- built residential facilities with
trained staff. This is inevitable as with increasing age, seniors are more l ikely to have chronic health cha llenges that may require the assistance of another
person or permanent care in an institution. According
to the 2010 Census, 77 per cent of seniors had a
long-term health condition compared with 35 per cent
of persons under the age of 65. Also, 14 per cent of
seniors had a disabling long- term health condition in
comparison to 4 per cent of the population under 65
years of age.
The 2014 Health Survey of Adults in Bermuda
indicated that seniors were more likely to have hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. (This
was taken from the Bermuda [Ministry of] Health, Seniors and Environment, 2016.)
478 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, please also note that the One
Bermuda Alliance is very supportive of the $60,000
grant provided to in- house caregivers who support
families who need home caregivers to help their loved ones in the comfort of their family homes. Having said that, though, this does not go far enough. Our seniors
need more support when it comes to adaptive equi pment. We also need res pite care for our caregivers.

Extended Care Unit

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, Government
should, where possible (and I say “where possible”) transfer our family members who need daily
healthcare hygiene and mobility support from the E xtended Car e Unit of the KEMH to private care homes,
where possible, as private care homes will provide those seniors with a warmer family -focused environment. It would be more efficient and supportive from a
patient perspective, and it would be more cost -
effective f or the Government and people of Bermuda.

Rising Healthcare Costs Outpace Inflation

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, in 2004, each
Bermuda household spent an average of $7,000 a
year on healthcare, a 156 per cent increase from the
amount spent in 1993. This represents a greater i ncrease in healthcare expenditure than the 32 per cent
rate of inflation during this period. The amount each
household spent on healthcare was roughly $10,300
on average in 2013, a 47 per cent increase from 2004.
This was also a greater increase than the 30 per cent
rate of inflation during this period.
In 2013 households headed by seniors spent
$10,919 per year on healthcare, up from $6,000 in
2004. Seventy -six per cent of that expenditure was
health insurance. The report indicates that Bermuda’s
health system share of Gross Domestic Product is the
third highest out of the OECD countries. This is of
concern as, although this may reflect the prioritisation
of health in an economy, it can also highlight the need
for improvement in health system efficiency (Bermuda
Health Council).
Mr. Speaker, you may recall that the latest
employment survey report was issued in September 2021 by the Cabinet Office, under the then leadership
of the Hon. Wayne Furbert JP, MP, and that the report
referenced the week of August 30 to September 5,
2020. The report showed a decline in filled jobs of 32,427 jobs in 2020, down from 34,378 in 2019. The
annual employment survey is a census of all bus inesses on the Island and serves the purpose of
providing a broad count of all filled jobs in the Berm uda labour market.
That said, our economic review indicated that
1,951 filled jobs were lost in 2020, which is a 5 per
cent decrease. There was a decline of 9,535 jobs for
Bermuda’s young people who fell within the age range of 25– 39 years old. The decline in filled jobs for
Blacks decreased by 5 per cent or 17,714 jobs. Does
one wonder why Bermuda has the great migration to
the US, UK, and Canada?
Mr. Speaker, Bermuda’s young people have
been hit particularly hard by the labour market fallout from the coronavirus, with workers aged under 24 accounting for nearly half of the total fall in employment
during the economic crisis. At the same time, there is
strong evidence that more people are chasing fewer
jobs, so young people are struggling to enter the employment market. Significantly, young people account
for 46 per cent of the overall fall in employment during
the pandemic, even though they account for just one
in nine of the workforce. That is just over 10 per cent
of the workforce.
What strategies and programmes will this PLP
Government establish to address this job loss glide
path? Is it [time] to provide more resources to foster
and support entrepreneurial opportunities? As a senior economist at Bermuda College said, we need to
support more young people who are working in the gig economy, which would be a significant part of the engine to drive our economy.

Education and Bermuda College

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, the One Bermuda Alliance has long stated that the way forward for
education is to have it overseen by an independent
education authority. An education authority is not the
cure, Mr. Speaker, but it is the first and necessary step towards establishing a system that provides the
foundation f or our young people to succeed.
We are very concerned about the fractured
and toxic relationship that exists between the leadership of the Ministry of Education, the Bermuda Union
of Teachers and the hundreds of teachers who are
doing their best to ensure that our students get the
best education. The recent vote of no confidence
against the Minister of Education, the Permanent Secretary of Education and the Commissioner of Educ ation by the members of the Bermuda Union of Teac hers set a new low. The concerns of the army of our
dedicated teachers and the delivery and quality of ed-ucation in Bermuda must be addressed.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Education has his
work cut out for himself. He must rebuild the trust that was lost between the members of the BUT and the
Leadership of the Ministry and establish clear lines of communications. This is especially critical given the fact that this is not the first time this [has] happened
and it was not addressed. The Bermuda Union of
Teachers had a similar vote of no confidence in the
Permanent Secretary of Education and the Commi ssioner of Education in 2019.
Mr. Speaker, as stated last year, the One
Bermuda Alliance recommends that Bermuda should
establish a continuing professional [development] cenBermuda House of Assembly tre for our teachers so that they can enhance their
teaching skills and maintain high standards with continuous training and support. As said so many times
before, our teachers should also be provided with eff icient systems that will support them with the necessary tools and supplies required for the day -to-day
delivery of education at all levels in our school system.
The Ministry should establish a proper state- of-the-art
equipment inventory and a centralised supplies centre, which should be well managed, and user -friendly
for our teachers.
Mr. Speaker, the other disturbing trend noticed in this 2022/23 Budget is the 157 per cent or a
$1.695 million increase in the substitute teacher all ocation budgetary line item. What is this all about? It
was also very disturbing to see a $729,000 reduced
allocation for Bermuda College. Government must continue to support them from the financial impact of
the current health and geopolitical crisis, and the ever -
increasing operational cost.
Mr. Speaker, as is the current case, the college must continue to align its teaching and learning
provisions to meet the economic and professional
needs of Bermuda and our people. Mr. Speaker, it is
sad to state, but this Budget Statement, ironically, has
said very little about the educational structur ing and
the reconfiguration and redevelopment of our school
campuses. We look forward to an explanation for this.

Public Works

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, the current
economic model used by the Department of Public
Works is unsustainable during these economically
challenging times. The Government has an infrastructure that is dated and unaffordable during these times.
This is idle real estate that the Government can ill afford to keep and maintain. Government must better
manage the returns of it s property portfolio and it
should continue the journey embarked upon by the One Bermuda Alliance by selling its properties that
bring no value to Bermuda’s economy and are currently not in use.
Mr. Speaker, when it comes to Bermuda’s
roads, they often resemble the roads found in third world or developing countries. Road work and trenc hes are everywhere and when the trenching work is
completed, proper resurfacing does not routinely occur. Mr. Speaker, this dire situation will not change
given that Bermuda’ s road works are not a priority to
this Government. This is clear when the road works line item in the Budget went from $2.636 million in the fiscal year 2021/22 to just $500,000 in the 2022/23
fiscal year.
The same story applies to our private roads
main tenance fund, which has not been funded for the
past 5 to 10 years. Mr. Speaker, it has also come to
my attention that the Public Works Department has
some of the highest numbers of employees within the government’s entire workforce. So, the management
of those resources is crucial, especially overtime
payments, which have been at very high levels. The
same applies to unused vacation. In fact, just recently
I ran into an employee who indicated to me that he had somewhere between three to four months of accumulated vacation.
Mr. Speaker, the other issue which needs to
be addressed is Bermuda’s garbage collection. The collection of garbage just one day a week is not acceptable. It is a health hazard in our homes and along the roadsides. Why not privatise some of these services? If businesses within the private sector are pr epared to help in this space, they should be given the chance to do so without shutting them down. It will
help stimulate employment in the private sector as
well.
Mr. Speaker, I am concerned about this Mini stry because in his speech the Minister of Finance ind icated that we were going to see a significant cut in our
public services to meet our budgetary models.

Local Retail Sales

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, when looking
at the r etail sales index it is very clear that consumer
demand is stronger than ever. The demand straddles
across all business sectors. This, we believe, is direc tly attributed to the coronavirus lockdown and the dr amatic decline in nonessential overseas travel b y our
residents. People had more discretionary income and shopped locally. They spent much less on travel and vacations overseas, and more was spent in Bermuda.
We shopped locally; we made minor renovations to
our homes, purchased new furniture and vehicles, and
stocked up on essentials, like groceries, toiletries, and
beverages.
Mr. Speaker, according to the Government’s
Department of Statistics, sales volume increased 7.9
per cent, after adjusting for the retail sales rate of i nflation, which was measured at 0.8 per cent in Oct ober. The overall volume of retail sales increased 7.9 per cent when compared to October 2019. This confirmed that the growth was attributed mostly to i ncreased spending on Island by residents.
In value terms, retail sales rose 8.8 per cent to
an estimated $99.5 million. Six of the seven retail sectors recorded higher sales volumes, with motor vehicle sales recording the largest volume increase of
21.2 per cent. Building materials were up by 5.15 per
cent; service stations were up b y 0.1 per cent; apparel
stores were down by 11.9 per cent; food was up by
7.[2] per cent and Liquor sales were up by 17.7 per
cent.

Bermuda’s Real Estate Industry

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: As for Bermuda’s real estate industry, according to the industry l eaders the
480 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Bermuda property market rebounded strongly in 2021,
thanks to a renewed focus on home renovations.
There was an increase in the average selling
price of homes across the board. Non- luxury residential prices saw a rise of approximately 17 per cent,
with an average selling price of $1.023 million, while
condominiums saw an increase of 30 per cent with an
average price of $322,000.
The average sales price for land increased to
more than $1 million, compared to $331,000 in 2020.
There was also resurgence in demand for one-bedroom apartments for both long- and short -term
rentals. This resurgence pushed the prices up for the
average rental property dramatically. While this looks
very positive for the industry it places home purchases and rentals out of reach of average Bermudians, and
this must be addressed.
Our young people must feel that there is a f uture for them here in Bermuda, and not in the UK, US,
or Canada where housing is far more affordable. As
for commercial properties, there was a continu ed demand for class A properties like the Waterfront Complex, which is dominated by International Business
and insurance, reinsurance companies, and hedge
fund managers. Inventory rentals for the class B market remain largely available, with rentals on the market for upwards of one year. These are the older
commercial buildings that may not have all the amenities and may not be in the central business district in
Hamilton. This sector normally services the local bus iness firms who are not interested in West Hamilton,
Par La Ville Road or Front Street. There were six commercial sales in 2020 with an average selling price of $1.3 million. On the tourism property side, last
year this sector remained very active with the sale of
villas at The Loren, Azura Resort , and the St. Regis
Hotel to the international buyers, thanks to the sterling
work performed by the last One Bermuda Alliance
Government, Mr. Speaker, a Government which has a
track -record of success in securing and attracting
partners to enhance our touri sm product with new
world -class hotels.

Sports

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, there was no
mention of sports in this Budget [Statement] and the further development of our young people. It was noted
that the Ministry of Youth, Cultural Affairs and Sports
Headquarters ––I had a typo here, Mr. Speaker, the
Headquarters had a 7 per cent reduction in allocation,
not a 38 per cent. A correction; they had a 7 per cent
reduction in allocation. Is this department not valued?
We all know that education and s ports provide
discipline, self -respect, responsibility, and growth to
our young people. They are our future, and more
should have been included in the budget to address
their development. Yet, this Government can spend more time and resources on the development of the
cannabis industry.

The Arts and Creative Sector
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Given the significant contr ibution of the arts, culture, and creative industries to Bermuda’s economy, and to our social fabric, the
Government should take steps to protect this sector
and look for ways to increase public and private i nvestment in the arts in Bermuda.

The Philanthropic Sector

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Mr. Speaker, the One Bermuda Alliance believes that the Government should
take action to protect the capacity and financial sus-tainability of the third sector in recognition of its i mportant role in building and supporting Bermuda’s s ocial fabric. We should examine the scope for longer -
term funding arrangements for social services which support our families , seniors, and the development of
young people. There should be new initiatives to i ncentivise private investments in this sector.
In closing, the One Bermuda Alliance’s assessment of this 2022/23 Budget is that it is a rehash
of the Government’s election budget. The Burt go vernment has not given Bermuda a realistic view of where we will be fiscally next year. Mr. Speaker, let’s
face it, the Progressive Labour Party has been in
Government for over 20 years and the people of Bermuda are tired of having the One Bermuda Alliance blamed for the current Government’s inadequacies
and woes. The time has come for the Government to
acknowledge that it played a significant role in where
the Island is today.
It’s time for them to create a better future for
Bermuda once and for all and find real solutions. It is
time for a Government where the value of its service is greater than the cost of the services delivered.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Minister Hayward, you have the floor. It
is 4:17.



Bermuda House of Assembly DEBATE ON THE BUDGET STATEMENT
AND REPLY TO THE BUDGET

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker, all of Bermuda
should be disturbed by what they heard just now, b ecause they heard the Opposition rehash information
that is in the public domain or speak to the “Gover nment needs to do” a number of things that it has already committed to doing.
Mr. Speaker, I did not intend to respond to the
Reply on the Budget , but it is important that a few
things are clarified. The Opposition Leader said that
the inflation rate is approximately at 7 per cent. Mr.
Speaker, that is not correct. In 2019, the annual rate
of inflation was 1 per cent. In 2020, the annual rate of
inflation was 0 per cent, as price increases and price
decreases offset each other. And in November 2021,
the rate of inflation was measured at 2.8 per cent.
Mr. Speaker, the Opposition Leader may not
like our current rate of inflation as stated by the D epartment of Statistics but he certainly cannot make up
his own.
Mr. Speaker, we were then told that the Bermuda Government failed on its reporting, as a result
we are on the UK grey list. Mr. Speaker, that is
100 per cent inaccurate. He then went on to talk about
a recovery plan for jobs, growth and resilience. And
the Opposition Leader wants the Government to commit to putting out an estimated number of jobs
that our Economic Recovery Plan will create. Mr.
Speaker, we have learned a lesson from the Oppos ition as it pertains to promising jobs. And the last time a Government, which was the One Bermuda Alliance Government, promised jobs, they promised 2,000
jobs, while they lost 2,000 jobs. And that is giving up
4,000 jobs in the Bermuda economy.
We heard inappropriate or unparliamentary
language today, Mr. Speaker. The Premier was accused of having a “slippery tongue.” But the fact r emains that individuals who make $96,000 and less
within our economy will pay less.
The Opposition Leader also stated that pub lic
sector employees will have a salary increase this
year. The Government Budget Statement, on page
28, makes it absolutely clear that the first budgeted salary increases will be in the year 2024/25, and that if
efficiencies are found prior to then, that is when increases in salaries could be considered, if the parties are able to work together.
Mr. Speaker, I can go on and on as it pertains
to inaccuracies in this particular document, things that were stated that are not true, statements that allude to
work we should be doing that we have already put out
public statements about which indicate that we are
doing. Somehow this casual, prettying up of the Car oline Bay debacle the Opposition Leader almost paints the picture as if the OBA Government was forced to
give a guarantee on the Morgan Points deal based on a development agreement. The OBA Government in
the past has had a track record of voiding contracts.
The Opposition Leader then stated that unfortunately the project had failed. I would argue that i f
proper due diligence was done it would have identified
that this project was deemed to fail from its inception,
and that the guarantee on that project should have
never been given.
We heard the two hours of rhetoric. We heard
two hours of no new ideas. We heard an inability to
address the direct items in the Budget, but [he] put out
almost a Throne Speech Reply. Mr. Speaker, what I
am going to attempt to do is lay out the facts because
it is important that the public understands where we
are, where we are going, and how we are going to get
there as a Government. Because if you listened to the
Budget Reply, it seems like we are in a bad place with no way of moving forward. And that [could not] be further from the truth.
Despite the fact that we highlight plans, despite the fact that we highlight initiatives, it seems as
though [they] paint the picture that this Government is incapable of leading us through economic recovery,
increasing economic development, increasing jobs.
That is the picture that wants to be painted. So, here
are the facts, Mr. Speaker.
The economic performance of the Gover nment prior to the pandemic in Bermuda was trending
in a positive direction. Visitor arrivals were up in 2019.
Government revenues were up. Government rev enues actua lly peaked over a billion dollars. Imports
were up. And they were not just up, they were at a 10year high, and they exceeded $1.1 billion. Construction activity was at a 10- year high, Mr. Speaker. E mployment income exceeded $3.5 billion. And it is i mportant to note that those were the highest emplo yment income levels ever recorded in Bermuda’s hist ory.
Mr. Speaker, the overall GDP of the country
was up. The gross domestic product [GDP] is the off icial economic performance indicator, and that was up.
But, Mr. Speaker, something happened that changed
the trajectory. In 2020 the global economy was rocked
by a healthcare crisis that transferred into an economic crisis. Mr. Speaker, not just in Bermuda but many countries around the world experienced the exact
same thing. Their economies in 2020 contracted as a
result of travel restrictions, as a result of restrictions to
our business activity.
Mr. Speaker, the IMF [the International Monetary Fund, looking at] the world’s economic outlook, projected that advanced economies would contract by
4.5 per cent in 2020. Bermuda’s economic contraction
in 2020 was mirrored by contractions in the rest of the
world. The economic growth that we are going
through now is a direct result of us coming out of
those contractions. It is not a result of Government’s
fiscal mismanagement. It is not because the Gover n482 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ment lacked any ideas. It is not because the Gover nment does not have a plan.
COVID -19 has taken a heavy toll on the
world, which includes this Island. We have seen a loss
of life. We have seen a contraction of economic activ ity which resulted in a loss of livelihood. We have seen
an impact on the global supply chain, and the combined results of all of that would be a natural contraction of economic activity. And as a res ult of the contraction of economic activity, we should see a corr esponding impact to Government’s fiscal position.
It is no secret that the Government’s fiscal
position experienced fiscal stress as a direct result of
the pandemic. So when the Minister of Finance, the
Honourable David Burt, says that he is pushing back
the projection of a balanced budget a year, it should
be reasonable and understandable. And our fiscal
position has been under stress because over the last
two years, Mr. Speaker, this Gover nment has spent in
excess of $100 million in direct assistance to our cit izens and businesses, over $80 million in direct assi stance to the people of Bermuda and those who work and reside in Bermuda.
The response that this Government has had
to the pandem ic as it pertains to providing income r eplacement, as it pertains to the access that it provided
for healthcare services and vaccinations, the support that we provided to businesses is something that we
should all be proud of, Mr. Speaker. Bermuda, in my
estimation, is rated among the top countries in the
world as it pertains to the level of support that we pr ovided to the citizens of this country.
This Government prioritised the health and
economic welfare of our people over a balanced
budget, and rightfully so, Mr. Speaker. But the ec onomic growth of 2020 did not remain. In 2021 this
Government and the rest of the world began an earnest transition to live with the realities of the virus. In
2021, we saw our first signs of economic growth. We
saw improved quarterly GDP numbers. We saw pos itive economic performance which was fuelled by new
International Business registration, increases in visitor
spending, greater levels of household consumption,
increases in construction activity, Mr. Speaker. All of
that c ollectively indicated a gradual shift towards ec onomic recovery.
Mr. Speaker, an economic fact is that there
are three main industries in Bermuda. There is Inte rnational Business , real estate and renting, and financial intermediation. Together those three industrial
sectors provide over 50 per cent of the Bermudian
economy. As highlighted by the Opposition Leader we
can see growth in International Business —a 27.4 per
cent increase in new registration, a 4 per cent i ncrease in jobs with over 171 new positions being cr eated. That sector now employs approximately 4,411 individuals. The growth in that sector, Mr. Speaker,
signifies confidence in Bermuda. It signifies conf idence in our economy. It signifies confidence that Bermuda remains a first -class, well -regulated bus iness jurisdiction. It signifies that Bermuda remains a
desirable place to do business, to live and to work. IB
remains the current bedrock of the Bermudian eco nomy and that sector will continue to grow, Mr. Speaker.
As we currently see expansion in the longterm reinsurance sector, we see expansion as it per-tains to FinTech companies; we see new emerging
initiatives, like climate risk financing and also an effort
to expand services we provide to individuals of high net worth.
So where we have seen employment expa nsion in that particular sector, Mr. Speaker, we have
seen contractions in others. And the two main industries where we saw employment contraction were in
terms of hotel and accommodations. There is no s ecret that as a result of the closures of Elbow Beach
and the Fairmont Hamilton Princess we saw signif icant loss of jobs. But the other sector where we saw significant loss of jobs is financial intermediation. The
Member rose and highlighted IB shifting jobs off -
Island, when in actual fac t, the data suggests that
there is an expansion of jobs in that industry. But [he]
failed to speak to an industry in which he is employed,
which is our banking sector which continues to contract in terms of our level of employment. They conti nue with the practice of shifting jobs off this Island.
We must be factual when we speak in this
House, Mr. Speaker, and when we speak to members
of the public.
As also indicated by the Opposition Leader,
Bermuda’s real estate sector showed positive signs in
2021 as well. And I would say that it performed better
than expected. Those are not my words, Mr. Speaker.
That was a quote from the Bermuda Real Estate Market 2021 Review highlights, from real estate professionals. But what the Opposition Leader failed to do
was associate the Government’s initiative to allow i ndividuals to work from Bermuda. He failed to include
that as a contributing factor as to why the real estate
industry had seen better -than- expected results. And it
is important to note, because when we say we are
putting policies in place, it is important that we tie
those policies to the outcomes that they generate.
I publicly stated on a number of occasions the
number of individuals who have been granted permi ssion, [and] I am now pleased to say, well ov er 1,000
individuals have been given permission to work and
reside in Bermuda. And I have also stated publicly the
number of individuals who actually have had or have a physical presence in Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, another industry that has been
doing well is our construction industry. We see a
much greater improvement in the number of planning applications. The value of work, as it pertains to new
construction projects has increased from $47.1 million in 2020 to $57.5 million in 2021. And those were fi gures up until the last quarter of 2021. There is a reality


Bermuda House of Assembly of hardship within our community, but the economic
woes that one aims to paint are not supported by the
data. They are not factual, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, you and I know that we face a
demographic challenge in Bermuda. We face a shrinking workforce and an ageing population. In our Budget
Statement we indicated that the population growth is a
necessity for survival. We indicated that we understand that we need economic growth that leads to an
expansi on of jobs, which leads to an expansion of the
residential population. We understand that we need
new residents, new business investment, and highskilled in -demand workers. That is all a given, Mr.
Speaker. And we will move forward with policies that
actually support us having a more sustainable future. And I want to make it clear, that welcoming policies do
not mean we are eroding opportunities for Bermudians or that we are putting things in place that are detrimental to the best interests of Bermudians.
The data makes it absolutely clear that we
cannot continue with the trends where we have more
persons dying than our reproduction rate. Our birth
rate is the lowest in 20 years. So something needs to
be done. But I would argue, Mr. Speaker, that much is
being done. We have been extremely aggressive as it
pertains to changes in immigration, the ability for persons to reside on an annual basis, the ability for per-sons to work from Bermuda, the ability for persons to
attain Economic Investment Certificates, progressing
mixed -status family legislation, extending residency
for long- term residents. These are all policy changes
that the Progressive Labour Party made.
To create this notion that somehow we are
adverse to immigration policies that support a larger
residential population is highly misleading. We have
done more in terms of progressing immigration reform
than the previous Government. But I heard that more
needs to be done.
Mr. Speaker, I came to this House and I highlighted that we will be focusing on earnest immigration
reform. I focused on four priority areas. 1) reviewing,
simplifying and revising the Bermuda Immigration and
Protection Act; 2) digitisation; 3) increasing compl iance functions; and 4) using immigration as a tool to
support economic gro wth and development. I indica ted this on several occasions, Mr. Speaker. But it
seems as though the Opposition wants to continue
down the road where they create alternative narr atives on our current reality.
Mr. Speaker, the economic contraction in our
economy has caused a contraction in jobs. There is
no doubt about it. The job losses in our economy are a direct result of the healthcare crisis, which caused
an economic crisis, which has now caused a labour
market crisis. But the Ministry of Economy and Labour
was designed specifically for economic growth, ec onomic diversification, economic development and the
expansion of jobs. Combining Immigration, Labour, Workforce Development, Economic Development will
allow us to strategically achieve that.
Also, under the remit of the Ministry of Economy and Labour is the Bermuda Economic Develo pment Corporation [BEDC], the Bermuda Business D evelopment Agency [BDA] , International Business, and
the oversight of the Economic Recovery Plan. Collec-tively the departments and entities under the Ministry
of Economy and Labour will be working together to
ensure that we secure a sustainable future for Berm uda.
We remain focused on the implementation of
our Economic Recovery Plan. Part of that Economic
Recovery Plan is a national jobs strategy. Mr. Speaker, I have been to this House on a number of occ asions and highlighted the awesome work that the D epartment of Workforce Development has been doing as it pertains to our re- employment strategy, the number of Bermudians that we have trained, the number
of Bermudians that have found employment, the number of Bermudians who utilise the Job Board referral
process who are gainfully employed. But in addition to that, Mr. Speaker, in this year’s Throne Speech the
Ministry was tasked wit h producing a youth emplo yment strategy. I will be in a position, Mr. Speaker, to
roll out that strategy in earnest in a couple of weeks.
But this is to directly target our young adults, our youth unemployment.
The Government does not need the Oppos ition to tell us that one in three of our young people are
unemployed. We produce those statistics. We under-stand the data. And as a direct response to that need, we will be rolling out a youth employment strategy.
We want to increase local training and development
opportunities for our young people. We need to extend career support for those individuals. We want to
support and promote science, technology, engineering
and arts, career advisement, and training pr ogrammes. We are going to make an earnest effort to
extend the number of apprenticeship and training pr ogrammes within our community.
We want to improve public access to relevant
labour market information. Persons should know what
experience is required for an occupation, what the
education requirements are, the salary, how many of those jobs are held by Bermudians, how many of
those jobs are held by non- Bermudians, so that they
can better position themselves for opportunities that
do exist within our economy.
We will support and promote youth entrepr eneurship. We want to promote support for our at -risk
youth. It is not good enough to just watch what is ha ppening to some of our young people as it pertains to
antisocial behaviour and not have policies in place
that assist those individuals to get them bac k on the
right track. We also want to increase the social protec-tions in place for our young people. So that is a key feature of the Economic Recovery Plan [ERP], but a
feature that the Ministry will be working hard to ex e484 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly cute. But the ERP is the plan that is designed to foster
economic growth and development and the expansion
of jobs.
The Economic Recovery Plan has six main
themes, [which are] economic diversification, making
financial markets work better; infrastructure inves tment; expanding our residential population; labour
market reform; healthcare reform; and developing a
supportive legal and regulatory framework.
Mr. Speaker, within those themes are 31
items that Ministers are tasked with to execute on. For example, ensuring we have a successful c asino i ndustry; introducing a medical tourism facility into our
economy; introducing largescale vertical farming; providing additional marketplace support for small and medium size businesses; implementing an national
space strategy; introducing and establ ishing a fram ework for subsea cables; and in the case of our fina ncial markets, we are going to work hard to see if we
can lower interest rates; continue to supply the necessary support to our business community. We will be moving forward implementing a st atutory minimum
wage rate so that people in Bermuda can have a bet-ter level of purchasing power, better quality of life, r educing the occurrences where people make starvation
wages.
Mr. Speaker, we will be moving forward with
the healthcare strategy, one that aims to make
healthcare accessible and affordable to all.
All of the things that the [Opposition Leader]
spent two hours telling us what we need to do, we
already have a plan to do. Yes, it’s time we execute
on the items within that plan and we wil l focus on the
execution of those items. But what we heard earlier
was no new ideas. It was a regurgitation of the ideas
that we already have.
Mr. Speaker, the Budget was described as
electioneering. I really wish that in this House we would turn down the political rhetoric. What the Government attempted to do with the Budget was no form of electioneering. The Government has heard the
concerns and the struggles of the people of this cou ntry. We understand that hardship exists, and we have
responded by prov iding relief. All the supporting pe ople who are asking for help because of electioneering. Is it not our responsibility as a Government to be r esponsive to the members within our society?
So, we recognise the hardship, relief has
been asked for, and reli ef will be provided. We will
provide relief to those making under $96,000 in the
form of payroll tax relief. We will provide relief as it
pertains to the fees one has to pay to license a car. We will provide business relief for large businesses
who employ new employees. We will continue to pr ovide relief to the hotel and restaurant sectors. The
Budget has us providing relief to charities. The Budget has provided relief to nursing homes. We are allowing
people to have access to their pension funds. And we
will continue with the social protection of the suppl e-mental unemployment benefit to provide further i ncome relief to individuals. The relief that it will provide is not electioneering, Mr. Speaker. This is what a human- centred budget and a human- centred rec overy
looks like; one that puts the people first.
In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, the Gover nment is committed to living up to its obligation to the
people of Bermuda as it pertains to holding up our end
of what I consider to be a social contract. Be as sured
that the necessary funding is in place to fund core government services. And while we are funding our core government services, outside of the Economic
Recovery Plan we have key initiatives that we will f ocus on, such as, education reform, ensuring t hat our
young people have the tools needed so that they can have a bright future. We will do tax reform in earnest,
ensuring that those who have the ability to pay more do pay more, but those with less of an ability to pay
taxes pay less.
Mr. Speaker, the Attorney General will be
moving forward with law reform. As highlighted, I will
be moving forward with immigration reform. The Gov-ernment is doing a lot, Mr. Speaker. When one asks,
What is the Government doing?, Mr. Speaker, they
must have their head in the sand. We come to this
House, we make Ministerial Statements in terms of
what we do. We talk about the progress that is being made. We get grilled week after week with parliamen-tary questions. And then we see in our Budget Reply
questions as they pertai n to what we will do.
Now I hope my intervention into today’s ec onomic and fiscal debate sheds some light on what we
have been doing and what we will be doing moving
forward. And if they are unclear why we are in the
economic mess that we are in, as it pertains to our
labour market, I will just now clarify that we had a
booming economy in 2019, the trajectory was that we
would have an even better 2020, [but then] we were in
the midst of a global healthcare crisis, which led to an economic crisis, which tra nslated into a local job cr isis. Despite that, we have done extremely well in
2021, we have rebounded (as it pertains to our economy) and now we have a full robust plan as to how we
will move forward.
Mr. Speaker, the Government is here to work
for the people of Bermuda. We understand [this], and what we are ultimately trying to achieve is a sustainable quality of life, which means a sustainable cost of
living. We will ensure that our economy is working for
our population. We will ensure that it is fair and equ itable. We will ensure that we are reducing income
inequalities. We want to ensure that we maintain f inancial prudence.
In the Economic Recovery Plan—the blu eprint—Mr. Speaker, it had a clear fiscal path. It had
guardrails that would allow us to remai n on a responsible trajectory. Nothing in this Budget has demon-strated that we have moved away from that particular
trajectory. Nothing. We are not off -track as it pertains


Bermuda House of Assembly to the plan that we set out and the alignment of this
Budget. One can look back at the report that was actually delivered to this House by the former Minister of
Finance as it pertains to our fiscal strategy and the
fiscal guiderails that we have been utilising.
And despite the fiscal stress that was caused
by the pandemic and the stimul us that we had to
pump into the economy to support our people and to support businesses, we still remain on track.
Mr. Speaker, as a Government there is a re ason why “labour” is in our name. I am a proud member of the Progressive Labour Party. We will not yield to
any calls to cut employment levels within the public
sector. We will not do it. As a trade union leader, I
have fought hard to preserve public service jobs. As an MP for the Progressive Labour Party, I will conti nue to fight hard to preserve those jobs. And as the
Minister of Economy and Labour, it is my obligation to
ensure that we continue with the expansion of jobs in
our economy —not further contractions. And, as a r esult, we will not yield to the calls to cut public sector
jobs. For some of us, those are our mothers and f athers, those are our brothers and sisters, and mai ntaining their employment is equally as important as
maintaining employment in the private sector. It
should also be noted that it is through some of these
sacrifices that publi c servants made—including us in
this House of Assembly —why we were able to provide
some of the stimulus support to the workers of the private sector when they were displaced from the
workforce. It is the reason why we were able to pr ovide some of the business relief that we did.
We cannot cut our way out of this problem; we
want to grow our way out. We have a plan to grow out
way out and we will be steadfast on the execution of
that plan.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

You have your 30 minutes.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I appreciate the Honour able Premier’s attentive eye to this debate tonight.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We face a very critical time in our history and
we cannot underestimate the impact of what has tak-en place over the last two years as far as COVID -19
goes and now, with war raging in Europe, it will have a
big impact on our Island home and, certainly,
throughout the world. But before I deal with that, Mr .
Speaker, let me just remark shortly for a brief moment
on the Honourable Member who just spoke before
me, Minister Hayward.
Mr. Speaker, I wrote it down clearly. Minister
Hayward said “economic woes are not supported by the data.” And then he went on to give information
about the economic woes.
So, clearly, Mr. Speaker, the Government
needs to face the reality of the position we are in and
not try to cover it up. They have admitted that they
have supported workers with over $80 million of supplementary employment benefits, and the Opposition
supports that wholly. They have admitted that unem-ployment is high and underemployment is high and
they have admitted that the cost of living is high. So,
Minister Hayward, our economic woes are reality and
it is a dire situation.
The Honourable Minister did start his comments out by referring to our rate of inflation and sa ying that the Opposition Leader was incorrect in his
assessment of it. Well, Mr. Speaker, I find our rate of
inflation number at 2.5 per cent (I believe the Minister
said) off -base as well when you consider that our m ajor trading partners, the United States, had a 7 per
cent rate in December and the UK was, I believe, just
over 5 per cent in December. But I am sure, in time,
we will see the reality of the number coming out.
Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Member said
that it was like the Opposition believed we are in a bad place and there was no moving forward. I think it
is important for me to give some clarity to where we
feel on that comment. Yes, we are in a very bad
place —a difficult place —but we have never said that
there is no moving forward. We have always stated
that there are challenges and there are opportunities for us to grasp. The Honourable Minister stated that in
2019 economic activity was up. And I remind the
Honourable Minister that in 2019 we had the airport
being built, we had St. Regis being built, and so, of
course, economic activity would be up. Something
happened, the Honourable Minister said, to change that trajectory. Yes! COVID -19 did take place in 2020.
But also, those two jobs wound down and those properties were opened, Mr. Speaker. And to this date, we
have seen very little investment by the PLP, [or] attraction of investment by the PLP, in the economy.
So, Mr. Speaker, I start my comments today
in the economic debate in advance of the Budget E stimates, which will take place over the next two
weeks, to mention not only COVID -19, but the large
cloud that is hanging over our heads in regard to the
invasion by Russia of Ukraine. And I applaud the O pposition Leader for providing some detail about that. It
is shocking and very disturbing, Mr. Speaker, that in
2022 any country would launch an all -out war on a
486 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly peaceful neighbour. It is certainly unfortunate, Mr.
Speaker, but that is the reality that the world faces
and that is the reality that we will face in Bermuda. It is
very clear that a dictator has shattered peace and
puts all of the people in Ukraine in danger. And we can see from the coverage of it that innocent people
have been killed —men, women and children —with
this irrational carnage.
Mr. Speaker, the world, in every corner, is
very uneasy to say the least. It goes to say, Mr.
Speaker, that we all support and pray for Ukraine and we must do all we can for a speedy end to this unpr ovoked war. It is against this backdrop––a certain
change from what the Government anticipated two
weeks ago with the resignation of the Minister of F inance and then the start of the war in Ukraine–– that
we now have to have an economic debate. It is cl ear
that we had a poor economy under the PLP before
COVID -19, we have had two years of COVID -19, and
now we have some uncertainty with the war taking
place in Ukraine.
Mr. Speaker, time will clearly show the impact,
but it is very clear to me and many peop le who have
looked closely at the situation that the impact of the
war will be drastic on the world and, certainly, in Bermuda. I had done a little bit of research into Ukraine,
Mr. Speaker, because while I was well aware that it was one of the largest cou ntries in Europe— it is act ually the second largest county in Europe— it is, ce rtainly, a very important part of the European economy
and the world economy. And just some facts, to take a
look at it, Mr. Speaker, and we can see clearly the
impact that we could have as we traverse this time in the war (and we never know when it will end), not forgetting the importance of Russia to the world economy. But Ukraine is first in Europe for recoverable r eserves of uranium. It is second in Europe in reserves
of titani um. It has the second largest iron ore reserves
in the world, Mr. Speaker. It is third place in Europe in its shale gas reserves. It is fourth in the world in total
value of natural resources. This is significant. There is
a lot of economic production that comes out of there.
Seventh in the world in coal.
In addition, Mr. Speaker, it is not only those
resources it has, but in Europe and in the world,
Ukraine holds a very strong position agriculturally. There are only about 40 [million] to 44 million people
there, but it is a vast country, as I have said. And it is
first in Europe in terms of arable land, Mr. Speaker;
third place in the world in terms of black soil (used for
farming terms) —25 per cent of the world’s volume. It
is first in the world in exports of sunflower and su nflower oil; second in production for barley; third in pr oduction of corn; fourth largest producer in the world of potatoes; fifth largest producer of rye.
Mr. Speaker, the list goes on. Ukraine is an
important part of the European and the world economy. Mr. Speaker, economists say that Ukraine can
meet the food needs of 600 million people. Now, Mr. Speaker, just reflect on that for a
moment. If that economy is disrupted at the same time the Russian economy is disrupted because of the war,
we are certainly going to feel some impacts here, not only in the energy of side of things where we have seen the cost of oil and futures skyrocket over the
past week. In fact, I have not been paying much attention to the markets today, Mr. Speaker, because I
have been paying attention to the House, but the price
of oil reached about $120 a barrel yesterday. Commodity markets have had their biggest weekly gains since 1960— 1960, Mr. Speaker. That is [over] 60
years ago. So, it is very clear, Mr. Speaker , that the
challenges that are faced in the world because of the war are not only significant as far as the humanitarian
costs and what is happening to the people of Ukraine,
but the economic cost to every corner of the world—with energy, with chain of supply, and with food costs.
And it brings back the reality, as we wrestle
with the problems that we face, Mr. Speaker, that life
is very fragile. Life can be very fleeting. And this conflict certainly underscores that stability is not guaran-teed at any time, Mr. Speaker.
So, it is against this backdrop that we have a
Budget Debate, similar to some extent, Mr. Speaker, to two years ago when we realised during the budget
debate that COVID -19 was here and that COVID -19
could have a big impact on our economy. And I remember at that time the Honourable Member who no
longer sits in this place, the former Honourable Member Pat Gordon Pamplin, said it is probably time to
rethink the budget.
Well, Mr. Speaker, it is certainly time to r ethink this Budget because the war has blown a big
hole in the projections for the year.
Now, Mr. Speaker, before I get back to speci fics in the Budget, I want to remark just for a few m oments on some of the comments that were written in the Budget. Early in the Budget, I believe it was on
page 1, the Honourable Premier, in presenting the
Budget, said that moving beyond the pandemic will be
done by the most progressive platform ever, and the
budget will support the delivery.
Well, Mr. Speaker, that always remains to be
seen if the budget wi ll support the delivery. These
words [that] come from the Honourable Premier, in my
view, echo very hollow for many Bermudians at this
time. Because, Mr. Speaker, the actions have not
matched the words for many Bermudians.
Mr. Speaker, in the Budget there was a great
deal of talk about political rhetoric and also, the former . . . the Member who just spoke before me, Minister
Hayward, mentioned political rhetoric. And Mr.
Speaker, political rhetoric allows politicians to talk
about progress they have made and spin it any way
they want. But Mr. Speaker, the reality is that our
growth has been severely stunted, COVID -19 has i mpacted it drastically, world affairs will have a bigger
impact going forward, and the Economic [Recovery]


Bermuda House of Assembly Plan that the Government has presented has not really moved forward to the extent that the people of Bermuda would like.
Now, Mr. Speaker, you do not have to take
that from me, but you can ask men and women—fellow Bermudians in the street —what they know
about the Economic [Recovery] Pl an and they cannot
tell you much, Mr. Speaker.
Another thing of concern, Mr. Speaker, is that
on page 1 the Honourable Premier praises the now resigned former Finance Minister, the Honourable Curtis Dickinson —and I hope he has an opportunity to
speak in t his Economic Debate —saying, he brought to
this role “a unique acumen that served the country well.” Yes, Mr. Speaker, I agree and I am sure the Opposition agrees, but he has resigned. And, as I
have said previously, the most respected Member
now has resigned and sits on the backbench—he sits
on the bench. He did serve us well. Of course, we had
our disagreements, but we discussed them in a r espectful manner, with a respected approach in the
proper [way].
But Mr. Speaker, what is of concern is that in
reading this Budget it lacks the approach and the acumen that the former Finance Minister brought to the
table. It fails to address the serious economic challenges that we have. It is like kicking the can down the road. It fails to address the size and sustainability of
Government. It fails to address our serious debt i ssues. And based on that, it provides very little hope
that we are going to get out of this position.
Mr. Speaker, in my view, this has got to be
very concerning and very sad.
Mr. Speaker, the PLP lost a good Minister.
And in spite of the supposed talents on the benches,
now the Premier holds three portfolios.
Now, Mr. Speaker, the Premier also wrote and
read, in the last paragraph on page 1, “due to political
rhetoric, issues can often be distorted.” Yes, they can,
Mr. Speaker. Quite often issues can be distorted. And
I consider the conversation on this in the Budget to be
the height of hypocrisy. And why do I say that, Mr.
Speaker? Because Premier Burt himself, the Honour-able Member, is a master of political rhetoric. He cannot blame the Opposition for the current mess and he should be very careful in claiming political rhetoric. Why do I say that, Mr. Speaker? Well, let us just pick
one item from the Budget: Immigration Reform. While
the OBA was the Government, the PLP through polit ical rhetoric and
amping people up, fought against i mmigration reform.
Mr. Speaker, I can remember very clearly the
first meeting that was held at Cathedral Hall to discuss
and consult on immigration reform (and I was at a nother function and was told about the challenges then)
were disrupted and had to be closed down by PLP
Members. I can recall very clearly, Mr. Speaker, when an Immigration Bill was being discussed in the Senate
and the Senate was stormed by PLP Members. Mr. Speaker, I can recall when the House of
Assembly was surrounded and one of the doors of the
House of Assembly was nailed shut. So, do not tell
me about political rhetoric. The Premier himself is a
master of political rhetoric.
But now, Mr. Speaker, the shoe is on the ot her foot. The Honourable Premier quotes, “Mr. Speaker, population growth is not simply an option for Bermuda, it is a necessity for our survival. ”
Mr. Speaker, I say, only now ? Five, six years
later? Only now? The Honourable Member goes on to
say, “ immigration policy may be controversial, but
economic and demographic realities should not be. ”
Mr. Speaker, only now —five years on.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, in my view, the words of
Premier Burt, the same person along with the PLP who actually sabotag ed immigration consultation r eform while in Opposition.

Hon. E. David Burt: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

Point of order

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, the Honourable
Member is misleading the House when he says “only
now” and then “issue of sabotage” in the past. The
Progressive Labour Party’s position in Opposition, Mr.
Speaker, is the position which they hold now. And if
the Honourable Member wishes, I do not want to take
up too much of his time, but I am happ y to refer to
statements that were made in response to the Budget
Reply were the exact same things that were said in
this Statement were made back then when were in
Opposition responding to the Budget.
So, I do not want to take up too much of his
time, but he is misleading the House when he says
this is five years or six years later.

Honourable Member, just be mindful
that there are records in the past that could verify
what was said.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I am sure, Mr. Speaker, I
have looked at those records. But when you disrupt
the first meeting, a public meeting, that is disrupting progress from here.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I will give the PLP some
credit because th e former Minister Caines worked assiduously to try to progress immigration reform, but
there appeared to be some party headwinds. But we
are pleased that now the Government is showing that there they are serious to deal with the situation—
488 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. E. David B urt: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: —Mr. Speaker, and I was
hoping that we could make some progress, Mr.
Speaker.

Point of order.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, the Honourable
Member is misleading the House, again, when he said he would like to give credit to former Minister Caines’
and party headwinds. There was a bipartisan commi ttee and the objections came from his Members on
that committee, Mr. Speaker, and we are holding true
to our matter to make sure that we consulted and had
bipartisan progress. The matters have progressed, but
it is incorrect for him to say that it was party r esistance, Mr. Speaker.

Okay.
Member.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, we will have
to disagree on that because information from my party
Members, my colleagues, shows that to be different.
But I just make that point and we do not need to debate that now because it is he said and I said. So, I
will move forward from there, Mr. Speaker. I ha ve
made the point.

Please do, thank you.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Mr. Speaker, also in r eflecting on the Budget that the Honourable Premier
delivered last Friday, another item that stood out to
me is this approach to blame the OBA.
Mr. Speaker, the record clearly shows that the
PLP has been the Government for 20 of the past 25
years. I think it is feeble and weak to blame the OBA.
The OBA governed for 5 of 25 years and actually turned the economy around, as the Opposition Leader
has said.
But you know, Mr. Speaker, I recall listening
to a speech by the 44
th President of the United States,
Barack Obama, in 2012, and he said something that I
wrote down at that time because I thought it was very
poignant and pertinent. He said, when in the thro es of
an election, “if you don’t have a record to run on, then
you paint your opponent as someone people should
run from.” I have never forgotten that, Mr. Speaker, I
wrote it down, I have kept it here on my desk, and I say Amen, Mr. President .
So, all of us, as Members of Parliament, let us
just remember, if we criticise one side, we need to
offer solutions. And we have done that today in the
One Bermuda Alliance, Mr. Speaker. The Honourable Opposition Leader has offered many solutions, along
with his critique. And the first speaker in this debate
seemed to trash those before we have even had time
to discuss those, Mr. Speaker.
And so, while we want to criticise the OBA, I
would like to remind the Honourable Premier (as he is under a great deal of pressur e at the current time) that
they are the Government. They have significant support, significant majority, of 30 people. But you are
losing trust, you are losing support, and people are
losing hope, so govern. Govern for all the people. Show people you actu ally listen and care. Speak with
humility, speak with understanding, and stay focused
on what is best for Bermuda and stay away from the
speaking points that we hear over and over and over again that people get tired of. Let us not blame the
OBA. The OBA i s not the Government. We governed
for five years and we will defend our record. We made mistakes along the way, like everyone will, but you
cannot blame the OBA for debt, Mr. Speaker. You
cannot blame the OBA for all the debt when the O pposition Leader clearly showed the challenges the
PLP have with debt and that we inherited a $300 mi llion budget deficit and had to borrow money to pay the
civil servants that the Government, the PLP Gover nment, talk so highly of all the time, Mr. Speaker. That
is not accept able.
Mr. Speaker, I find it interesting and I look
forward to an Economic Debate where the Honour able Premier and colleagues put some more meat on
this bone. As the Honourable Premier says, “If our
conservative review estimates are exceeded and
spending remains in line with estimates, we will pr ovide additional tax relief to residents.”
But Mr. Speaker, he further goes on to say,
“we will return 50 per cent of any additional surplus to
the taxpayers of this country .”
Well, Mr. Speaker, a couple of quest ions arise
from this. How can we give back when we have a def-icit? And how can we give back when we are in debt,
Mr. Speaker? It is a great idea, but I am not sure it is
one that has been thought through very clearly, Mr.
Speaker. The economy is in a very difficult position. It
is very weak, inflation is high, cost of living is high,
retail is struggling, hospitality is awful. Tourism, Mr.
Speaker, is really struggling, our economy is too small for the support structure we have around us. And I
think everyo ne understands that, certainly, the Government understands that. And [we are] thankful, Mr.
Speaker, to International Business for their commi tment and support in Bermuda. They have carried Bermuda over the past couple of years and records clearly show tha t, where now, International Business,
if you look at the National Economic Report in Table
3, you see that International Business is the largest
employer in Bermuda. Within two short years it has risen from the third largest employer to the first largest
employer.


Bermuda House of Assembly We have also seen, Mr. Speaker, that in two
short years accommodation and food service activities
(which would be hospitality) has moved from the lar gest employer to the fourth largest employer, with the loss of almost 1,800 jobs. The job loss numbers are certainly eye -opening, Mr. Speaker, when you see
wholesale and retail trade has also lost 281 jobs. F inancial and insurance activities, 235 jobs, Mr. Speak-er. And what is even more concerning is human
health and social work, if these numbers are correct,
in two years have lost 470 jobs. That is where we need to [turn] our attention to, Mr. Speaker, to rebuil ding tourism. And I support the Honourable Premier
100 per cent in looking at the concession framework
for the [tourism] industry in Bermuda.
We are losing out to our competition. Through
the pandemic we have seen competitive areas to us
open hotels at an alarming rate. We have seen i nvestment in those properties, whether it be Turks and
Cacaos, whether it be Cayman, whether it be the
Dominica, whether it be Jamaica, Costa Rica. We see
investment in those properties in those islands, Mr.
Speaker, opening up hotels at the end of a pandemic
that are being built, Mr. Speaker.
And so, while looking at the concession
framework is important, getting o n top of the guara ntees, Mr. Speaker, is important as well. And I think the Premier needs to provide some understanding. Is
there really an agreement for a $50 million guarantee?
And we understand that sometimes guarantees are important and critical, but let us have the
truth. Let us have some certainty on what is actually
going to take place in this deal so we can discuss it entirely and get behind it, because 700 people are out
of work up there and we need to put some people
back to work up there. We hav e talked about it long
enough. I can remember when the former Tourism
Minister came to the House of Assembly a couple of
years ago when we were still meeting in the Honour able Chamber and with great pride jumped up and a nnounced the sale. Now, Mr. Speaker, a lot gets in the
way, but here we are now and it is unlikely that we will
see that place open up until at the end of 2023 at best.
So, we need to have investment in Bermuda
because without investment in this country . . . and the
PLP has found it diffic ult to get investment. It is going
to be very difficult for us to have the job growth we
need.
And sticking with tourism, I would like to hear
from the Honourable Minister of Tourism what we are
going to do about airlift and how he is going to work with th e Airport Authority and people like that to ensure that we get some reasonable airlift back, Mr.
Speaker. And, at the same time, we need to revisit the
travel authorisation form. It is going to stay in place until April of 2023, with the fee attached. Mr. Speaker,
in these times now there is no need for that form and certainly no need for that fee. That is a money grab, and I can see why, with $3.5 million or $4.5 million
budgeted this year and it is going to raise about $14
million, scheduled to raise $20 million next year. Mr.
Speaker, I can see it is about raising money to fund
the deficit.
How much time do I have left, Mr. Speaker?

You have four minutes.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
So, with tourism it is important that we have
some progress there. And it is also important with
tourism, Mr. Speaker, that the BTA earns its keep. It
seems like they have been neutered under the current
Minister, and the BTA have a mammoth job to do and
they need to earn their keep, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, let me turn my last couple of
minutes just to the area of healthcare and national security. There are a couple of major issues to deal
with healthcare. And first off, I thank all the healthcare
professionals for their work (and I will de al with that
more on that Monday). But the National Health Plan,
to date, is one that has been stalled. Now, we can
blame COVID -19 for two years, but if you look back at
the record in 2010/11 the PLP first talked about the
National Health Plan. And now, we see a new doc ument which seems to have gone backwards, not for-wards.
And the other big elephant, Mr. Speaker, is
with the Bermuda Hospital. Where I support the qual ity of care and the work they do, Mr. Speaker, but if you read in the Budget Book —and I hope it is a typo,
Mr. Speaker —but see now a guarantee for $787.7
million, when last year there was a guarantee for $276.8 million. So, I look for clarity there, Mr. Speaker.
In regard to national security, I am pleased to
see some increases in budget there because we have
a real challenge facing us and we need to support our security services in dealing with gangs, guns, and now, the trend for very young people to carry knives.
But it is not all about enforcement, Mr. Speaker. It is a
lot to do with us, as a community, stepping forward
and bringing values back into our communities and
values back into our families, where we were raised in
an appropriate way.
Mr. Speaker, I cannot imagine my children or
your children walking out of the house with a knife and
you not being able to figure out what is going on. It is totally unacceptable.
So, as my time runs down, Mr. Speaker, Bermuda is counting on this Government to get it right. And how about we embrace a new way of politics and
actually work together a bit t o get things moving forward? Let us stop the fighting over red and green, let
us fight for Bermuda. We must focus on the people
because our people are suffering like we have not
seen for years. So, PLP, the OBA is willing to work with you. We are willing t o reach across the aisle. We
need to work together because we face unprecedent490 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ed challenges now, as the Opposition Leader said.
We are at the tail end of COVID -19, but the world just
got [to be] a much nastier place. And if we do not take
care of each other out here, Mr. Speaker, we will all
perish together. We are willing to work with the Go vernment, Mr. Speaker. We will be firm, we will be fair.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

—you have the floor.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Honourable Member who just finished
speaking talks about political rhetoric. And I thought I would look up that word. It says, “language designed
to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience.” And when I heard the Honourable Member Cole Simons read his Statement today, it was trying to
persuade or impress and have an effect on his audience.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that I at
least touch on some of those things that the Honour able Member spoke to. But before I get into that part , I
agree with one thing with the Opposition, that our
prayers go out to the leaders and the people of
Ukraine. There is no doubt that they will go through
probably a tough time, and that we stand with them.
Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Member said,
and I quote, “Mr Speaker, the One Bermuda Alliance
stands by its economic policies. We know that it suits
the nay -sayers to play down our achievements, but
the OBA’s efforts were nothing short of an economic
miracle!”
Mr. Speaker, my honourable colleague, the
Honourab le Jason Hayward, said earlier that the Ho nourable Member Bob Richards (a former Member of this Honourable House) said the OBA turnaround plan
would create 2,000 jobs. It is what they said in, I believe it was, 2011 or 2012. Over the next five years
. . . I must emphasise that part —over the next five
years, right, by implementing pro- growth economic
policies these 2,000 jobs would come in a range of sectors, including construction, hospitality, retail, f inancial services and International Business.
Mr. Sp eaker, individuals like myself who love
numbers, decided to look back at what they were tal king about. So, in 2012 . . . and this is really the polit ical rhetoric that they speak about comes into effect. In
2012 when they took over there were 35,443 jobs. In 2013, Mr. Speaker, they went down to 34,277. I said,
Oh well, first year, they have got four more years to go
before they get to the 2,000 jobs .
In 2014, Mr. Speaker, it dropped down to
3,475 [sic] jobs and I said, Well, okay, they are going
through to three years. Maybe, Mr. Speaker, we have
got two more years to get to the 2,000 jobs.
Mr. Speaker, I can say, based on the statistics
that I have acquired, that when they left office in 2017
the number of jobs that were in place were 33,659.
Now, Mr. S peaker, at the start it was 35,443
and, being a mathematician, it should have been 37,443, or at least in that range, Mr. Speaker. But it
went down by 1,784 jobs that were lost during that
period under the OBA. And now, as I said, Mr. Speaker, they said ov er the next five years this is what is
going to happen.
Mr. Speaker, here is another aspect when we
talk about political rhetoric that the One Bermuda [A lliance] speaks to. He says here on page 5, “Mr Speaker, while on the subject of payroll taxes, the
Minister of Finance announced that there will be pa yroll tax reductions.”
Mr. Speaker, that is absolutely true! There is
no ducking and weaving based on that. There will be payroll tax reductions for workers making less than
$96,000. And the emphasis is on the words “less than $96,000.”
And Mr. Speaker, I do not know whether the
Honourable Members know how to work the system
or how it actually works, but let me just say this to you.
Currently an individual who makes $48,000 pays $960 in payroll tax. When the increase . . . sorry, when the
reduction takes place by 0.5 per cent, Mr. Speaker,
that individual will pay $720 in payroll tax.
Well, Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier I was, and
am still, very good at mathematics. So, $960 minus $720 comes to a savings of $240. I would love to r emind the Honourable Member, Mr. Speaker, when
they were Government those individuals paid $2,280
in payroll tax. This Government, Mr. Speaker, recognised that and in its platform said that it hopes to r educe—and it will —so that t hose (I believe it was
$48,000) will pay zero. It is heading that way, Mr.
Speaker, it is heading that way. So, if they understand that payroll tax for $48,000 is currently $960 and after
the reduction to 1.5 [per cent] they will pay $720.
Now, now, Mr. S peaker, I can understand,
they said, Well, okay, $48,000. .
So, let me look at another number for you, Mr.
Speaker. Let us look at a person who is earning i ncome of $70,000. I will pick that number for you, just off the top of my head, Mr. Speaker. Currentl y that
individual is paying $2,830 in payroll tax. Now, r emember what the Honourable Member said that an ybody making over . . . we are making them pay a
higher tax. And as I said, I am willing to come and
teach or train those individuals in how it works, because right now, or when the 1.5 [per cent] kicks in


Bermuda House of Assembly place, Mr. Speaker, that person who is now paying
$2,830 in payroll tax will pay . . . and listen to this one,
Mr. Speaker —$2,700. A savings of $130.
Mr. Speaker, so I thought I would go back and
work out basically what they were paying under the
One Bermuda Alliance.
Mr. Speaker, as I said, right now [with] the
1.5 [per cent] they will pay payroll tax of $2,700. U nder the One Bermuda Alliance they were paying
$3,545.
And Mr. Speaker, I think it is very important
that we be clear on that. The Honourable Premier, the Minister of Finance, said payroll tax reduction will take
place. But they have put this information in their
Budget Reply with political rhetoric trying to impress
on others . . . but someone called me. Wayne, Wayne,
Wayne.
I said, L isten (this is true ), don’t listen to those
gentlemen.
And I challenge any one of them, Mr. Speaker. I challenge any one of them, their best mathemat ician, to come up with that they are paying more with a
decrease of 1.5 per cent. I challenge anyone, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, here is the other aspect which
caught my attention. So, the Progressive Labour Party
has reduced payroll tax from the time of the One Ber-muda Alliance they had 4.75 per cent under $48,000.
We reduced it to 4 per cent, we reduced it to 2 per
cent, we have now reduced it to 1.5 per cent. And Mr.
Speaker, I am sure as God has given me life, it will go
down sometime in the future. Is it next year? I cannot
tell. But it will go down again.
This Gov ernment is committed that those who
are making less will pay less. That is the commitment
that the Premier has made, and that is the commi tment that the current Finance Minister has made, and that is the commitment that this Government will
commit to the people of Bermuda, that their payroll tax
will go down. And as I said, Mr. Speaker, my challenge is still there for the Honourable Member (or
whoever wrote his brief for him) to say that the Premier . . . what did he say? Has a slippery tongue. I was
not sure he meant that the payroll tax is being slipped
down or going down, it may be that is what he is tal king about and I will not, I will not, go there.
Mr. Speaker, here is the other aspect. Mr. Speaker,
he talks about land tax. And this is what he says, “Mr.
Speaker, the people of this country should also pay
close attention to their land tax bills.” Mr. Speaker, I
pay very close attention to my land tax bill. “I have
been advised” . . . Mr. Speaker, by who? Mr. Speaker,
who has that Honourable Member been advised by?
“That there is an all -out assault” (he has been watc hing the war in Ukraine and Russia) “there is an all -out
assault on the increase of annual rental values of our
homes and commercial buildings by our land valuation
team members.” Where did th e Honourable Member,
Mr. Speaker, hear that? Mr. Speaker, it is political rhetoric. And I do
not want to say he is lying, Mr. Speaker. But I will say
he is misleading this Honourable House and he is
misleading the country to go out and put that out
there. He heard it . Was it in the Budget, Mr. Speaker,
that we are increasing our land tax? Because if you increase the land tax —now, they are quite familiar
with how they played around with the ARV, Mr.
Speaker, when they got in power in 2012. We can go
back to that where they tried to fiddle with it to try to
make something happen and they were all out of pr oportion, all out of sync. Maybe that is what they were talking about, Mr. Speaker. But they are not talking
about this Government.
Mr. Speaker, this Governm ent has not said
that there will be an increase in your rental value and
commercial buildings. You know what that puts out there in our community? It is absolutely wrong, and
the Honourable Member needs to apologise, as a
matter of fact, on the three things I have just mentioned— the land tax, the payroll taxes not going down,
and about the employment. It is unfortunate, Mr.
Speaker.
And then the Honourable Member says, Mr.
Speaker, “ When walking or driving around Bermuda
you will note that our car models ar e getting larger .”
Mr. Speaker, there is a fixed size of cars. That
fixed size car has been there for a while and you have a class A, class B, class C, class D and whatever —
different classes. If you decide to buy a larger car, Mr.
Speaker, yes, you will pa y a higher annual licence fee.
If you buy a smaller car, Mr. Speaker, you will pay a
less licence fee. I do not know where the Honourable
Cole Simons is getting his information, but someone is
misleading him and now he has come to this Honourable House, and be very clear that I talk about the
“Honourable House,” Mr. Speaker, and then misleads
this Honourable House and the country. I do not have
time . he took two hours to say what he had to say and most of it, Mr. Speaker, was misleading. It is unfortunate that he would come to this House and say
what he said.
So, those are four things, Mr. Speaker, I expect the Honourable Member to be apologising. When
he finally gets his facts, he can come to this House.
Now the Honourable Member said—the
Premier said, the Minister of Finance said—that this
honourable . . . Mr. Speaker, we have put in for a def icit of $70 million. And if the Government is able to get
a deficit of $60 million, it is $10 million difference.
What is wrong, Mr. Speaker, as the Honourable Prem-ier said that we believe that we should give back to
this country and to those individuals who are hurting
during this time? What is wrong, Mr. Speaker? It tells
me that if they were in Government they would not
give anything back. And I will explain what I mean, Mr.
Speaker.
So, Mr. Speaker, if the Honourable Premier
and the Honourable Member Michael Dunkley talking
492 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly about the cost of foods going [up], what is wrong with
if we are able to reduce some other duty on cost of
food through that and so people can b enefit and cost
of living? What is wrong with that, Mr. Speaker? What is wrong in reducing some of the fuel tax charges, Mr. Speaker?
Mr. Speaker, when the One Bermuda Alliance
took office, fuel, light oils and preparations were at 0.57. Do you know what t hey did, Mr. Speaker, in
2015? They increased it to 0.62. Do you know what they did in 2018, Mr. Speaker? They increased it to 0.70. Do you know what they did, Mr. Speaker, in
2017? They increased it to 0.75.
Mr. Speaker, gas oils under the PLP were at
0.37. Do you know what they increased it to 2017, Mr.
Speaker? [They increased it to] 0.55. And the list goes on, Mr. Speaker. So, I can understand when they talk
about us not giving back because they had no choice,
but they did not want to give back. They w ere char ging more and charging more.
There is nothing wrong, Mr. Speaker, that this
Government meets its requirement. And we said to the country we were preparing for a budget of $70
[million]. There is nothing wrong with giving back
something more. Peopl e are sacrificing and taking
chances. I do not see anything wrong with that, Mr.
Speaker. This Government has made a commitment that it will have a balanced budget or surplus budget
in 2024, I think, 2024/25 (I am trying to get the number) . . . 2024/25 of $8 million. There is nothing wrong
with living with the commitment of what we promised.
And if we get more, what is wrong with giving back to
our people?
Now I understand why, Mr. Speaker, the One
Bermuda [Alliance] is at six. They believe in taking,
Mr. Speaker, but they never believe in giving back.
This Government, Mr. Speaker, recognises
the challenge that we have had over the last two
years. Yes, we could have probably had a surplus or
broken even under what the former Minister of F inance had planned. Anybody in their right mind, Mr.
Speaker, recognising the specific things that we lost during our time was our revenue. You cannot have a reduction in so many jobs —Southampton Princess
and other hospitality jobs —and not have a reduction
in the payroll tax .
Thank God, Mr. Speaker, thank God for the
International Business. It has supported and put a
foundation in. But if we had those increases as we
have under the . . . International Business and have
those jobs in place, Mr. Speaker, we would not be in the position that we are in. We are spending $50 mi llion on COVID -19, reduction in revenue and taxes,
reduction in customs duty because less goods are
coming in. Anybody in their right mind, Mr. Speaker,
would recognise that with those impacts it has to go some different. And Mr. Speaker, if they were in Go vernment, it would have been no different, Mr. Speak-er. There would have been no difference. So, Mr. Speaker, this Government is commi tted. This Government is committed to getting a conclusion with working with Southampton Princess. I say
working with Southampton Princess, whatever name
they call it afterward. I am not sure that it will still be Southampton Princess. But you know what I am tal king about. We recognise that we need several hu ndred or 800 jobs, whatever it is up there. We recognise that. We recognise that the impact of not having
those jobs up there impacts GDP, impacts retail sales,
impacts our taxi drivers, Mr. Speaker. We recognise that.
And so, Mr. Speaker, we will do all we can to
make it work. There are no ifs, ands, [or] buts about it, we have got to make it work.
Mr. Speaker, you know I like walking around
town. I love walking around town. I have not met one
person, Mr. Speaker, who has said to me, You can’t
open Southampton Princess. You shouldn’t open it
up. All right, so we agree to that point. We all agree.
How we get there? We may disagree on some aspect
of it, but we have got to get that hotel open. And this Government, Mr. Speaker, is committed to making it
happen. How soon? That i s up to the Government and
the Ministers, the Premier and the Minister of Finance.
It is up to them. They are working on an arrangement
and groups are now working together.
But Mr. Speaker, every day we must be getting a step closer. We are closer than we were two
years ago, Mr. Speaker, in making that place the real ity that we want it. We know that has an impact on our airlines. What airlines are going to come here when there were 1,000 beds, a thousand rooms, I should
say or 1,200 rooms? If it was 5,000 or 10,000 rooms,
they realised they could fill up their planes and bring people here. But what is . . . because if it is 1,000
rooms, Mr. Speaker, the airlines . . . we Bermudians
take up half of them. We are flying anyway. So, there
will be . . . we accept those challenges. So, we must
find a way to make Southampton Princess work the
way it should.
Mr. Speaker , this Government cares. And you
could not convince me or anybody else. The amount of money that we spent over the last two years . . . the
Honourable Curtis Dickinson, the Honourable Kim
Wilson and the Premier [were] working hard to recog-nise the importance—. . . and the Honourable Jason
Hayward who was responsible for Financial Assi stance and those type of things. We know that it took . . . the Government gave the BEDC $12 million to
help out our small business. We gave $80 million of
direct assistance to individuals, $100 million to assist
our citizens. We gave money to the taxi drivers, we
gave . . .
Mr. Speaker, what I am saying, is if everything
was normal, if everything was going right, we would
have had more of a larger . . . either a reduced deficit
or a larger surplus.


Bermuda House of Assembly But we care, Mr. Speaker. I am confident
about the future. I do not wake up in the morning and
say What’s going to happen? Do you know why, Mr.
Speaker, I am so confident? Because, Mr. Speaker,
there are individuals in the Progressive Labour Party I know work day and night. I have got a granddaughter
eight years old, Mr. Speaker. If you do not think I am
working to make sure that her future is bright, if I am
not working to make sure, Mr. Speaker, that your
grandchildren’s (when they come) [future] is bright,
then get rid of us. I will be the first, Mr. Speaker, to lay down my weapon and resign.
But I am committed, Mr. Speaker, I am committed. I have got 1,200 people in Hamilton Parish that
I know said, Wayne, I am sending you to Parliament
to represent us . There are people who are working—
taxi drivers and former hotel workers and retail. And
Mr. Speaker, I am working to make sure that their
lives are better.
So, do not accuse us, Mr. Speaker (I am not
talking to you, Mr. Speaker, but the One Bermuda A lliance) for saying that we do not care about this country. I am so optimistic, Mr. Speaker, I wish I could tell
you everything.
And yes, Mr. Speaker, we will, at the right
time, disclose to this country about vertical farming. But as I said before, Mr. Speaker, every “i” will be dot-ted and every “t” will be crossed. And we will, Mr.
Speaker, bring down the cost of leafy greens, as thi s
party has promised, the cost of some things will come
down. That is a commitment, Mr. Speaker, to you and
to the people of this country.
Mr. Speaker, there are other things that the
Government is working on. I know it because I am in those rooms. But whe n the time is right, Mr. Speaker,
we will shock this country. We will shock you.
Mr. Speaker, I believe what the Premier said
and what the Honourable Jason Hayward has said, and I think all of us are now saying that we agree that
we must reverse these tren ds as far as the population
decline. Many of our people have left and gone to the
UK. Our death rate is much higher than our birth rate.
The average person now wants one child. You have got two people —a mother and a father or girlfriend,
whatever it is —with just one [child]. You are not r eplacing yourselves. So, we have a decrease in popu-lation. And so, we must find a way, Mr. Speaker, but
we will not leave those Bermudians out who want to
and have the ability to get to do the work.
[Leaving Bermudians out ] is not going to happen. So, in due time, when the time is right, the Honourable Jason Hayward will come forward with what-ever situation and announce how we are going to
make this happen. But we have got to have inward
investment, we have got to have it s o our people can
get greater jobs and grow and grow. And that tax burden that we talk about, the deficit, will be history. The thing about it, Mr. Speaker, we are encouraged about the future. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have left?

Not supported, not after the effort was
made to get the Rules where they are now.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Mr. Speaker, this Gover nment is committed to keep our debt ceiling at $3.5
[billion]. And, Mr. Speaker, some extraordinary thing
could happen again. If we would start increasing the debt under the cost or the due or the commitment up
at Morgan’s Point —200 or 100 or whatever it is (it is
about $200- something million) —and then we had to
borrow more money to make sure this country and our
people are taken care of, because that is the respon-sible of a government.
But Mr. Speaker, we recognise where we are,
and if we maintain the growth pattern, the structure that we want to go into, Mr. Speaker, I believe that this
country is in good hands with the Progressive Labour Party.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I dou bt I will take that much time. My points
are fairly condensed.
Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to contribute
to the Debate as it relates to the Government’s Budg-et for 2022/23.
Mr. Speaker, before I go too far down that
road, I would like to echo my col league’s, Honourable
Michael Dunkley, comments about Ukraine because
we are seeing a new calamity taking place— a global
calamity which will, undoubtedly, affect Bermuda.
Least of which would be impacts to food and fuel pri ces. But I think it behoves us as legislators and elected
officials to make sure that we stay abreast of what is
happening globally and ascertain how it may impact
the people of Bermuda. Undoubtedly, we are looking
at significant impacts.
And it is timely, Mr. Speaker, because as we
go into this Budget Debate, we have a world that is
fundamentally changing. The world change was
changing by way of the OA crisis and we had to fight
our way through that —Bermuda, as a country. It then
has further impacts, COVID -19 not being the least,
and huge parts of the world have changed and huge
parts of Bermuda have changed, Mr. Speaker.
So, as we are going into this Budget, we are
going in with a lot of people feeling a lot of pain. And
when we say that, Mr. Speaker, we are not talking
about just one segment or one grouping in Bermuda,
we are talking about everyone. It goes without saying
that we all grocery shop, and anyone who is walking out of a grocery shop these days is, undoubtedly, fee ling the pinch. Fortunately enough, our grocers were
responsibl e enough and let us know ahead of time,
but that does not stop the pain nonetheless.
As a number of us have decided to decamp
from Bermuda and go overseas for better economic opportunities, whether it be the United Kingdom,
whether it be the US or Canada. We have to be mindful that as more and more and more leave, the prices
for those of us who remain go higher and higher. So, we are seeing significant changes in Bermuda that we
have to navigate. And this Budget, one hopes, is part
of a roadmap for how to get there.
I will just start, Mr. Speaker, with a quote. If I
can read from the Budget Statement, Mr. Speaker?
That we restore some—

Okay, great.
The Budget aims to “ restore some measure of
hope to the people of Bermuda. ” And I could not
agree more, Mr. Speaker. We are in desperate need
of hope, now more than ever. As I was saying, the calamity that is COVID -19 has radically changed our
country and it looks as if it is not going to be getting
any easier insofar as the glo bal economy and its i mpacts in Bermuda.
So, one of the more disconcerting parts of the
Budget Statement that concerned me was it fixating
on the One Bermuda Alliance. Mr. Speaker, as those
who have picked up a copy and read it know, it is
some 33 pages. And on page 1 it puts the spotlight on
the Opposition and then on page 3 it starts apportioning blame pretty quickly. And to that end, I was going
to raise the question, Mr. Speaker, of how much does the Government need the One Bermuda Alliance?
Because ever y other word seems to be OBA this,
OBA that.
But I saw that quote, or rather I had the quote
from my honourable colleague Michael Dunkley about
Barack Obama. I am actually reading his book right
now. I want to say it is called [ A] Promised Land. And
it such a fascinating book to read. It is fascinating to
see someone who faced significant headwinds in his
presidency and, to my mind, did significant good. I
think that that is . . . if we were looking for examples,
that would be a good one, Mr. Speaker.
My c oncern with this Budget is that it seems
to rely on the reader to hate the One Bermuda All iance more than they love Bermuda. It very much wants us to take a position or take a side. And when it
comes to the economy, borrowing from the Budget,
Mr. Speaker, it comes down to a matter of facts. Paul
Krugman, a distinguished economics professor, made
a point about how politics sets up power but it does
not set up the truth. And it is good to see in the Budget Statement what we saw in the final confession of our demographic problem —a problem that was ident ified a long time ago, Mr. Speaker, and has been the
subject of strenuous and combative discourse, not just
within the community, but also here in this Honourable
House.
It would take a person blinded by a kind of
possessed mind, or even hatred, to not see the boarded- up shops in Bermuda or the poor condition of
the roads, or to not notice the increased cost of living,
or that their friends and family are moving overseas.
That is the reality and we cannot hide from it.
Well, as we go forward, this Budget calls to attention the past quite frequently. There is actually a table in the Budget that says “Ongoing Cost of the
OBA Government,” which has been gone for five years. And you just think, how much effort are we going to spend talking about that? Because the only
thing that is going to happen is we are going to argue
about it instead of arguing about the ideas that are


Bermuda House of Assembly going to take us forward, or certainly debating the ideas that are going to take us forward.
It seems like the Budget is some form of unresolved resentment, and to that end, Mr. Speaker, I
just think that if we continue to try to apportion blame or who did what when, I do not think we are going to
have the kind of clarity of thought and deliberations
needed, as the Budget Statement says, “to restore
some measure of hope.”
One of the things I think is important that we
deal with is that hard decisions are going to have to be made. And it appears as if those hard decisions
keep getting kicked down the road. Right now, we are
in a very delicate position and it is going to be hard
enough to come out of this all together —to come out
of this economic position with a Bermuda that is better, not worse off. But I just do not think that we are
dealing with the hard questions today.
What is actually going to happen with imm igration reform? We keep hearing about it and we keep hearing that there is going to be something done, but we all know that that is actually one of our
problems, [INAUDIBLE ]. But if we all know that this a
core problem, then it has to get dealt with yesterday.
And we all know that we tried to do it yesterday and
that did not work and we are dealing with the cons equences of that today.
Mr. Speaker, the same goes for tax reform.
There is no one who disagrees that we need a divers ified tax base—

Okay, that is it.
And we all know that tax reform . . . that our
tax base needs to be diversified. And you know, this is
unarguable. And yet, somehow, we are still saying what we are going to do about it, not what we have
done about it. And the details we have are sketchy,
that it is going to get better, we are going to talk about it, wait until we do this and then you will see. And,
again, another hard decision. Whatever comes out of
the tax reform process, Mr. Speaker, will undoubtedly
be unpleasant. So I feel like we have to pull the bandaid off and just get on with it.
Also, Mr. Speaker, we do have to reduce the
cost of Government. There really is no two ways
about that. We have a very expensive Government
and we have to figure out ho w to balance that with the
services that are needed in our community. Those
hard decisions are not going to get easier the more
we delay them. And we are not talking about that. We
are not actually . . . sorry. When we talk about these hard decisions, we t alk about them using (to borrow a
phrase from my honourable colleague the Opposition
Leader) . . . we are using slippery language. It is very
airy and imprecise. We use qualifying language all the time; something is virtually happening or it could happen or it may happen.
For example, when the Budget Statement
says, work has commenced . . . or rather, when we
talk about the Economic Recovery Plan, we talk about
all the things that are potentially happening, that could
be happening, that have started happeni ng. I was
conferring with some of my honourable colleagues
earlier about the Shoreside fishing plan, which seems
to have gone through various stages of has ha ppened, is happening, will happen, new place happening, and you just cannot get a fix on what exac tly is
the status of this. And I have raised this with my honourable colleagues on the Government benches as
well.
My only point, Mr. Speaker, is that let us be
exceptionally clear and precise. Much earlier, Mr.
Speaker, I had asked the question of the Honourable Member, the Honourable Minister of Economy and
Labour about some key milestones for the Economic
Recovery Plan and he had committed to making reg ular updates to this Honourable House. But Mr. Speaker, I do not think that this is the quality of information
that Bermuda needs right now. I think that the Ec onomic Recovery Plan . . . I think that anyone who is
working on new issues, whether it be Fairmont Sout hampton, no matter what is happening on the Island, what needs to happen, the way that we talk about it has to be exceptionally clear. And we do not need
to—

Yes, so we need transparent
language and we need to be abso lutely crystal clear
and precise on what exactly it is that we are doing, how we are doing it, who is involved, and when we
expect deliverables. This is project management 101.
We simply cannot be esoteric and obscure in our language anymore. No matter how favourable that language is to us, we know that, ultimately, it does not
pan out well.
496 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly So, to that end, Mr. Speaker, I think that we
have to be . . . not just the Government, but in this
Honourable House, anytime someone is speaking we
are talking about who, what, why, where, when and
how absolutely precisely. We have to get out of the
habit, Mr. Speaker, of talking like attorneys (sorry) and
talking more like engineers, as if everything we are
doing is launching a space shuttle into space, because we ha ve to be just that clear.
Everything is at risk now, Mr. Speaker. We
are in a position where the country simply cannot withstand much more economic damage. When we
have as many people emigrating as we do right now
. . . and FYI, it is not like we actually know what that
number is, Mr. Speaker. We just only have an impres-sion because more and more of us are able to say, I
know someone who did it . So, we have to get to grips
with those basic data numbers. A point in case, Mr.
Speaker, is immigration numbers. We need to know
who is leaving and why they are leaving and where
they are going, because if we are going to stem the
tide, we have got to know why. We have got to know
what exactly is causing them to go overseas. It cannot
be anecdotal.
But equally to that point, Mr. Speaker, right
now we have different people in our community talking about what the inflation rate is. And how can we have different inflation? Or rather, how can one community
have different people thinking what an inflation rate
is? It is actually a measurement. There is no need for
any kind of ambiguity about it. And right now, we have
some fairly prominent Members amongst us saying
that our basket of goods and services is inappropriate for the purposes of a real economic measurement.
So, let us change it. Or could the Government at least
tell us that person is dead wrong? I just think it is so
important that we just be absolutely clear about what
is actually happening right now, Mr. Speaker.
To that end, Mr. Speaker, I just want to go on
to the Economic Recovery Plan, which has been
hailed as the saving mechanism for Bermuda. And I
want to reiterate that what we need from that plan is
not more Ministerial Statements. What we need is a ctual documentation generated so that people, investors of foreign capital, can follow along and actually
make sure that when they consider coming into Bermuda and bringing foreign capital into Bermuda, that it
is very clear about what is happening in Bermuda.
Like I said, Mr. Speaker, our next steps
should be to make the hard decisions, not to flop
around on the edges, but to deal with the actual core
issues.
Mr. Speaker, most of all I would say we need
hope. And I am glad that the Budget Statement star ted with that. Martin Luther King, Jr. said “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
So, to the Bermudians who are listening to our
debate tonight, I hope that they . . . my goal would be that they walk away going, The House of Assembly is
dealing with our adverse circumstances seriously, they are taking it seriously, and they are getting on
with fixing things. I am not sure to what extent that is
going to be their conclusion, but one hopes that will be
it. The hard decisions that have to be made, Mr.
Speaker, are going to be based on trust. People will
have to trust the Government. They will have to believe that the Government is not being hypocritical or
cynical. They are going to have to have faith in the
Government when those hard decisions get made and that only comes through full transparency, Mr. Speaker.
So, what I would say is, in all of our affairs on
a going- forward basis, if we are to never lose infinite
hope in our circumstances then we must have . . . we
do not need to have airy language, imprecise la nguage, or (again, to borrow from my honourable colleague) slippery -tongued language. We need to be
absolutely clear on a moving- forward basis because
sooner or later we are going to have to make those
hard decisions. I would prefer we do it sooner. But if we are going to wait a couple of years, it will be that
much harder.
With that being said, thank you, Mr. Speaker,
and I thank the honourable colleagues.

Good evening, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.
I just want to piggy -back on one of the comments that the previous speaker spoke about when he
asked about, you know, within the Budget [Statement]
and even the comments today, constantly refer to the
One Bermuda Alliance. So, I want to make it crystal


Bermuda House of Assembly clear from my perspective that the reason we are rai sing or bringing up the One Bermuda Alliance as we do
is because we have not forgotten the damage they
have done. And we are in the predicament we are in
largely because of them. And so we will not forget. We
have to continue to do the best we can with the r esources that they have left us with, the limited r esources that they have left us with.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, from t he onset I would
like to commend the Premier, the Ministry of Finance, in fact all Government Ministries —Government colleagues and local stakeholders for their roles and co ntributions to the 2022/23 National Budget. This was a
total team effort and is cert ainly something we can be
proud of. As a Government we were asked or tasked
with striking the difficult balance between understan ding our financial targets and their importance whilst carving out capacity to provide relief for many Berm udians at a time when they need it the most.
So, Mr. Deputy Speaker, it is encouraging to
see that many of our economic indicators detailed in the National Economic Report show that Government
policies have resulted in gradual improvements in our
economy throughout 2021. And, as a Government I
can assure the public that we will continue to build on
this momentum. GDP is estimated to have grown
4 per cent. IB jobs have gone up 4 per cent, with a
majority of those increased jobs in IB going and filled
by Bermudians. Visitor spending is up 78 per cent.
New planning applications increased by 66 per cent. I
have given you IB, tourism, construction all showing improvements. We will build on that momentum.
Again, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I am encouraged
to see that progress is happening, albeit the Gover nment would be the first to admit that more must be
done. With employment levels as they are, more work
must be done, which is one of the reasons why the
Fairmont Southampton project is considered such a
national priority. That is why we i ncluded the national
jobs and youth employment strategies in our Econom-ic Recovery Plan. The Government is committed to
moving beyond the pandemic. It recognises that in
order to do so, we must get our people back to work.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, it is commendable to see
that, despite the impact of the pandemic lasting longer than originally anticipated, despite the closure of our largest hotel, despite the end of the 10 per cent pay
cut by the civil service, revised estimates indicate the
Government will out -perform expectations and come
$7 million under budget. Fiscal prudence, Mr. Deputy Speaker, does not happen by luck. It does not happen
by any single individual. The Progressive Labour Par-ty collectively continues to demonstrate fiscal pr udence and out -performs expectations.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, right now I want to take
an opportunity to address some absolute falsehoods the Opposition Leader mentioned in his Reply. The
first one is, and I just want to quote it: “Why is the PLP
Government raiding the Sinking Fund? It went from $231.61 million in 2021/22 to $161.01 million, est imated for 2022/23. This is a reduction of $70 million or 30 percent.”
Mr. Speaker, this is astounding to me because the Opposition Leader knows our deficits are funded by the Sinking F und. And so, the upcoming
estimate deficit of $70 million will come from the Sinking Fund. That is why the balance of the Sinking Fund
is projected to decline by $70 million. This is not a
new concept for anyone.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Educate him, Jac he, educate him.

Come on, Zane, I’m here.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, another incorrect comment by the Opposition Leader is when he went on to
say that “I have been advised that, yet again, Berm uda has missed a deadline for its commitment to the
EU Code of Conduct Council.” This is an egregious
and reckless statement.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, public officers within the
Ministry of Finance told the Opposition Leader that
was not correct and explained the circumstance. After
being provided with a full briefing, it is shameful that
the Opposition Leader would mislead this House and
the people of Bermuda.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, the Opposition Leader
then asks, Has BELCO agreed to the proposed reduction in the cost of electricity? He wanted to know if
BELCO has committed to passing on the benefits of
reduced import taxes on fuel imports to their consumers. Those are his words.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I ask, is the OBA aware
that electricity prices are regulated in Bermuda? I
mean, who writes these Replies? Any cuts made in
gas taxes will be immediately passed on to consum-ers by the RA. Mr. Deputy Speaker, the people of
Bermuda deserve an Opposition that, at the very least, has a basic level of knowledge of the laws in
this country. What we have is a difference in ideology
from the OBA. When they were in Government, they
raised taxes on electricity by 110 per cent. The PLP is
looking to reduce those taxes. It has become quite clear that they do not want us to return money to tax-payers, but that is what the PLP was elected to do.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, last Friday there was an
OBA press conference applying to the Budget. The Opposition Leader said that the Budget lacked courage. So, courage is the operative word. I would invite
those listening to ask themselves, has the OBA had
the courage to admit that the national debt significantly increased under their watch? Does the OBA have
the courage to admit, in hindsight, the airport minimum revenue guarantee, which has cost this country more than $41 million, was a mistake?
In fact, I would say the only courageous one
was the former Minister Bob Richards because after
knowing taxpayers had to pay $200 million to honour
498 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly an obligation he left to this country, he had the courage to tell the public that he would do it all agai n. The
same man that told our seniors that money does not
grow on trees followed it up by telling the public that
he knows he has cost this country over $200 million and he would do it all again. That is the One Bermuda
Alliance in a nutshell.

MP, can I just interrupt you for
a second to pass over to MP Lovitta Foggo, who will
take the Chair.

[Ms. Lovitta F. Foggo, Acting Speaker, in the Chair]
The Acting Sp eaker: Mr. Deputy Speaker, yes, I
have heard you.
So, I am taking over, and Mr. Adams, just so
that you know, you finish your speech at about 6:52,
so you still have ample time to continue with your debate.

Madam Acting Speaker, in the
Reply to the Opposition they continue to ask for details and they ask for the Plan. I want to focus correc tly [on what they said], that this is the most non -
specific Budget Statement ever presented.
The reason they keep saying this, the reason
they keep bringing this up is just because of the t agline. It is a comment with no substance because the Premier clearly stated in the Budget the Government
remains focused on implementing Bermuda’s Ec onomic Recovery Plan and executing on its initiatives.
Madam Acting Speaker, it is the very same
Economic Recovery Plan that w as tabled in this
House by the former Finance Minister. And judging by
the OBA’s sudden infatuation I am shocked to hear them today, all of a sudden, speak negatively about
some of the work that the former Finance Minister has put forward. The Economic Rec overy Plan speaks of
31 priority initiatives, specific initiatives, guardrails,
speaking to how this Government will diversify the
economy, invest in our infrastructure. It speaks to i ncreasing the resident population, healthcare reform
and labour market r eform. We talk about creating an
environment that encourages innovation. So, if you were looking for the details in the
Budget Statement, I would say to the Opposition you
were looking in the wrong direction. It is in the Ec onomic Recovery Plan where we r emain focused: medical tourism, aimed to create jobs and sustain year -
round visitors ; vertical farming, as my colleague Mini ster Furbert said, designed to reduce the cost of pr oduce in this country ; digital bank, designed to reduce
the cost of banking in t his country ; the launch of a c asino that will bring jobs and enhance our tourism product. The Opposition keeps asking about a plan, only to show me, at the very least, how far behind
they really are.
Madam Acting Speaker, the One Bermuda
Alliance then proceeds to go on speaking about def icits. Last week the Opposition Leader said to manage
the debt we must first reduce the deficits. Throughout the Opposition’s Reply today they continue to bring up
deficits, which baffles my mind because the two lar gest def icits in Bermuda’s history were under the OBA.
Those are the facts. A $299 million deficit in
2013/14 —that was the first full year the OBA was in
Government. And how did they follow that up? With a
$265 million deficit the very next year. So, the audac ity of the OBA to even bring up deficits knowing their
track record. It is absolutely ridiculous.
Madam Acting Speaker, they were only in
Government for four -and-some- change years and two
of those years were the two largest deficits in Berm uda’s history. So, to the speaker who went before me
and asked why do we keep bringing up the OBA, it is
because I am reiterating they are the reason we are in
this position. Two largest deficits!
Madam Acting Speaker, this is before a global
pandemic! Before any airport mi nimum revenue guarantee, before the Morgan’s Point debacle, before any
of it, the largest —two largest —deficits in Bermuda’s
history were under the OBA.
If I could flip that a bit, I would say to you that
the Progressive Labour Party performed better in th e
peak of a global pandemic than the OBA ever did.
Hey, those could just be my words. So, I draw the
public’s attention, Madam Acting Speaker, to April
2015, years under the OBA Government [when] Bermuda was downgraded by S&P. They go on to state that in t heir review that the downgrade reflects their
assessment of Bermuda’s continuing weak economic
performance, persistent Government deficits, and i ncreases in their debt burden. It went on to say that
they expect it will continue throughout their forecast
horizon. That is how bad . . . Those are not my words.
Those are the words of a respected, sound, unbiased
credit rating agency.
Madam Acting Speaker, I move on smiling
whilst noting all of the wonderful things the Opposition had to say about our former Minister of Finance. One
thing they could never say is that MP Dickinson crossed the floor. Do you want to know why, Madam
Acting Speaker? It is because all of my colleagues —


Bermuda House of Assembly each and every single one of them —would agree their
worst day under the Progressive L abour Party is 10
times better than any day under the OBA.
Madam Acting Speaker, let us move on. Let
us now change the narrative. I only went as deep and
as hard as I did because I take offence to the narr ative that somehow we are incapable, we are fiscal ly
incapable, and they are somehow the model of how to manage the public purse. I take offence to that. So,
sometimes it needs to be said and remind them of the
track record they have.
You see, Madam Acting Speaker, we would
love to provide our senior cit izens with more assi stance during these unprecedented times. We would love to provide more scholarships to our students, enhance our ageing infrastructure. We would love to
allow this country to be more wheelchair accessible.
We would love to invest more i n our local entertainers,
athletes and artists. We would love to invest more in
renewable energy in the third sector. [Unfortunately],
we had to pay the Morgan’s Point lenders. We are still paying the Skyport airport revenue guarantee. We are
still left co vering the loan for Cross Island.
But Madam Acting Speaker, all is not lost.
Despite the domestic challenges we face economical-ly and the global threats we have, it was a priority of
the Government to find capacity for the relief for our people. Remember, I am speaking about difference of
ideologies. We recognise the importance of meeting our financial targets, but equally as important in these
times, we must find capacity to find relief for our people. So, I do not have to go through them, but we
know [ab out] the reduction of car fees and the payroll
tax. And speaking of payroll tax, like my colleague
Minister Furbert I certainly look forward to the retraction or correction by the Opposition to suggest that
between $48,000 and $96,000 there is no payroll i ncrease. I certainly would welcome them to go back to
the table and do further research before they come
back and make another incorrect statement.
But most importantly, Madam Acting Speaker,
the true testament of the grassroots thinking the Pr ogressive Labour Party is demonstrated when we said
if we out -perform our estimates in six months, we will
provide additional relief to Bermudians in the form of
reduced costs of electricity. We continue to find ways
to provide relief for our people.
Now, Madam Acti ng Speaker, as I begin to
close I just want to identify two key things that were
mentioned in the Budget that may have gone under
the radar. But they are important to me. That is the
fact that FinTech companies in this country are ex-pected to double by the end of the year and that our
anticipated increase in revenue is largely brought on
by our projected increase in tourism. And so, I say to
Bermudians, now is the time to prepare yourselves. Government has said that FinTech is expected to
double by the end of this year. So, I would encourage
Bermudians to reach out to our Workforce Develop-ment and see what courses in FinTech are available.
There are some. Read up on the FinTech news and
the latest developments, prepare yourselves. Do not
wait for someone to do it for you or for someone to
give you something. We have said at the top of the year FinTech companies are expected to double.
Also, we expect tourism to increase as well.
So, again, persons who have goods and services, whether they be T -shirts, hats, or have guided services, maybe you are interested in putting on a co ncert, start preparing now.
So, Madam Acting Speaker, as I close, the
budget is based on projections and estimates. Whilst I
am proud of the budget the Government has put forth,
we must k eep our head down and focused on [the]
Economic Recovery Plan to continue to deliver [to the] people of Bermuda.
Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Acting
Speaker.
Madam Acting Speaker, I am going to take a
little different tack on this debate this evening, and I
am going to accept the challenge of the Premier when
he said that we need to look at some solutions. So, I
am going to take a more solutions -based approach to
this Budget Debate this evening.
One my first pieces (I am going to jump right
in) is that in the Economic Recovery Plan and then,
again, it was reinforced by KPMG’s suggestion of taking some priorities from the Economic Recovery Plan,
and one of them was environmentally based. It was
the vertical farming. So, I am going to begin this debate by just mentioning and exploring the idea of how
the people of Bermuda may be able to find, not only
economic relief, but environmental sustainability and
also some independence as far as being able to pr ovide for ourselves. I am, again, looking at the broader picture of environmental sustainability, but focusing a little bit on the vertical farming side of it.
The solution that comes to mind is that I
would very much like to see how we might be able to craft . . . and, of course, there would have to be some
legislative changes that would need to come about. And I just want to add that at this time if there were any new legislative changes to come about, whether it
is around our environmental sustainability or other
500 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly solutions that may come out of the economic debate,
this is our opportunity as a Government to really embrace equity. That when we are looking at any future
legislation this is our time to frame it in a way that it
provides this community with a level playing field for all. And there are three pieces that came up under the
environmental sustainability that I thought may help
Bermuda with its economic woes.
One of them is the vertical farming. And I also
understand that there is als o the concept of hydroponics. And this is an opportunity for Bermudians to, one,
get involved in a new industry. It also, sort of removes
some of the historical, out -in-the-heat traditional far ming methods, and it also is a situation where I believe
there is entrepreneurial spirit. And certainly, the Go vernment has spoken about larger projects of which the
Government may get involved. And that is fine. But I
do believe that this is an opportunity where we, as a
community, would have an entrepreneurial oppor tunity
as well.
I am sorry I cannot give a source, but I have
actually heard that through vertical farming and h ydroponics that we could actually create enough vegetation, all the vegetables that this Island would need to
sustain itself.
And so, you know , I am throwing that out
there, supporting the idea that we look to develop this
industry. But I certainly would underscore the signif icance and importance of also introducing the entr epreneurial spirit, the attraction of inward investment to
the Island in the development of this farming environment.
The other is solar development. We have an
opportunity —

An. Hon. Member: Point of order, Madam Acting
Speaker.

Member, continue.
[Crosstalk] Ms. Susan E. Jackson: The other is solar development. So, we have a couple of companies that have
already started on the Island. And if we had an opportunity to have legislation that would allow for more
homes to have installed on their roof and within any open areas solar panels, which would allow for the
ability for locals to not only feed into the grid and possibly use the savings from the generation of that solar
power to pay off any loans so that there would not be
any up- front cash, is something else that I believe that
we should explore in greater detail.
The other [piece] is the transition from gas to
electric. The idea that in the future if we are able to
slowly transition so that more of our vehicles are less
dependent on gas and more dependent on electricity
as a solution. So, I just felt like I would like to begin
with a solution- based piece.
But no man is an island. And we definitely
need to have more visitors, and those in the International Business environment travelling to Bermuda.
And we have a bit of a situation with our airline and
our airlift. In particular, the one thing that was not rea lly mentioned at all in the Budget [Statement] or really
even the Reply is the minimum revenue guarantee or
the guaranteed minimum revenue. And now this has been a sore spot for all. We have spent an awful lot of
time pointing fingers and saying that, you know, it is not our fault and this is horrible. And it is. Nobody
wants to have to pay debt. But in order to have any
kind of loan, if there is not enough money in the pot to
pay off that loan, then they are going to have to go out
there and, you know, if it is in a layman, one- on-one
personal situation, if we have to get a second job in
order to pay that loan off, then we get the second job
to pay that loan off.
In this case, with the airport and the airlift having been devastated by the COVID -19 pandemic and
the closing of the airport, we can solve our problem. And one of those solutions is to have more passengers traveling to Bermuda. And how are we going to
do that? What solution can we do to get more people
here? Well, the airlines have further sort of challenged
us because now we are looking at airfares that are
going to be higher. I am going to acknowledge the fact
that, yes, you know, Skyport has come on board and
said in order to help us to pay these coming debts, if
they are going to be short, then we are going to have
to charge an extra 6 per cent on folks’ airl ine tickets.
And we still have the travel authorisation form, which
is the Bermuda Government saying, yes, we are going
to add an additional $40 to the traveller who comes to Bermuda.
So, the cost to get to Bermuda is becoming
higher and higher. And because of that we are going to have to up our game. And trying to get more passengers on planes to get to Bermuda is going to be a
challenge. And it is a challenge because there are other jurisdictions that are in direct competition with
us. And right now, Mad am Acting Speaker, they are


Bermuda House of Assembly eating our lunch. They are getting more folks coming
to their islands, going into their jurisdictions, and we
are challenged with the fact that we are going to have
to work to get those passengers back to Bermuda.
So, what can w e do to get them here? Well, if
we are looking at the fact that people are paying a lot of money to get to Bermuda, then when they get to
Bermuda there is an expectation that they are going to
want to receive a fair balance or a fair reflection of the
amount of money that they have paid for. So, you
know, it is almost as if I am paying an A price, I would like to get an A product. And no one wants to pay an
A price and get a C product. And right now, I am feeling as though the perception out there is that f olks are
going to other jurisdictions because there is an expectation that whatever they are spending to get there,
[there is a good product] they are going to get.
I am not sure that right now Bermuda is in a
position, due to its high costs, to really de liver the
same [good product] for the prices that we are char ging to be here. And so, we have to take a look at how
we might be able to up our game because we are,
clearly, in this international state, not going to be able
to adjust our prices and our cost s in Bermuda in the
near future.
We have so many external headwinds (as my
colleague said earlier) that it is going to be difficult to curtail those, and we are going to have to fight
through them. And one way to do that is to be able to
provide a really g ood quality product of good exper ience when they get to Bermuda. Part of the way that
we can provide that really good experience or that
really good product is to make sure that we are putting full value into everything that we are doing here on the
Island as far as the economy is concerned.
Now, in addition to the COVID -19 pandemic
we are being faced with the crisis between Russia and
Ukraine. And that is already having an impact on
Bermuda. And we realise that we face reputational
risk as far as the airc raft [on our aircraft registry and
the ships on] our maritime registry, a population of
direct and indirect Russian association with both ships
and aircraft. So, we have to navigate through that. And I am not quite sure, but I would like to present the
idea that it is time for us to maybe explore other markets, other countries, other areas and markets or ai rcrafts that may want to register in Bermuda as well as
ships.
I know that we have some superyachts that
are on our registry because that has been highl ighted
through the sanctions that have been announced. So,
we know that we are exposed a bit in that space. But how we might be able to attract more superyachts
onto our maritime registry and build that up, because
it has been a lucrative area for us in the past and I
believe that there is potential for it in the future.
Transitioning now into the local charter yachting industry, I see some great potential there. When I was out on the water over the Christmas holiday I no-ticed that there were a large number, an increased
number, of charter yachts that were in Bermuda. And I
realised that we really have the potential here to d evelop that sector much greater. I am not sure what the legislation is around that, what more we can do to make sure that we have good licensing, that we are
fair and equitable in being able to provide the ability
for many of these charters to have fair pricing around
their licences and whether there is ability to, you
know, moor and store their boats, whether it is around
licensing for alcohol and liquor and that sort of thing when they are in the social environments. But I just
see where there are a number of people, Bermudians,
that are interested in this.
People enjoy being out on the water. In the
summer we are seeing much more busi ness activity
there and how the Government may be able to formalise that so that, one, the charter yachts are being able
to conduct their business safely and also that it pr ovides a revenue stream for Government in the future.
In further transportation, and certainly the Minister of Transport has made the announcement, we
have seen and experienced the electric buses that are on the Island. I certainly would encourage the idea,
the concept, that we move toward less gas vehicles
and more electrification. I believe that we have an o pportunity there to restructure our regulations policies and maybe even legislation to encourage, as much as we can, to see people transitioning away from the
larger vehicles.
Of course, I always would love to see people
moving aw ay from riding bikes. I know that this is a
tricky subject. But if we were able to get them into smaller electric cars this at some point would also be
something that I believe would not only would provide
relief financially from the very high gas prices t hat I
believe that we are going to see for some time but would also be environmentally friendly. Because ,
Madam Acti ng Speaker, we are dealing with a very
high cost of living and we are going to have to find some way for everyone who lives in Bermuda to find
alternative ways to the very high prices that we are
facing in Bermuda.
Although we have seen a reduction— a small
reduction— in vehicle licensing, on the same side we
are seeing gas prices hike. Bermuda is absolutely going to be a part of that whether w e like it or not. There
will be a reflection at the gas pump and people need to have an alternative because it is not sustainable for
us to continue to pay the prices that we are paying at
the gas pump.
In addition, I am seeing that with the . . . you
know, I have had a couple of people come up to me
and say, I would trade that discount in my vehicle l icensing and contribute that 10 per cent to, you know,
road repaving. And I just noticed, it is not my Ministry,
but I noticed the decrease in the budget thi s coming
year for road paving and the road system. There has
been so much noise around the conditions of our
502 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly roads in Bermuda. And I do not understand why there
would be such a significant decrease in the budget for
road paving. I call on the Government that if there is
some alternative, less expensive way that the road paving can take place–– [and the high cost of paving]
is why there is a decrease [in the budget] ––then I
would love to hear that. Otherwise, if this means that
there will be no attention to w hat I could consider to
be very quickly deteriorating roads, then I just question the logic behind so little money being dedicated
towards something that the people of Bermuda have
been asking for, for so long.
Madam Acting Speaker, there was another
initiative request to let people withdraw from their
pensions. I am going to be honest with you; I have
had to do it myself. And I think the biggest concern
that I have is that if we continue to withdraw from our
pensions there is going to be so little leftov er. And the
real issue for me is that oftentimes, especially in this
very, very inflated economy that we are living in on a
day-to-day basis, that the money that we are wit hdrawing is going to just simply fall through our hands
like sand. If we are withdra wing now and the money is
just disappearing so quickly because it is so expensive to live right now . . . and it is not just Bermuda,
this is global. We are really going to suffer further
down the road. And it is almost unfair if people do not really under stand the significance of what they are
giving up now for the short term in order to keep the economy going, versus being able to maintain and
sustain oneself upon retirement.
So, I just urge the Government to be sympathetic to the fact that there are a n umber of people
that are really going to need that money further down
the road. If there are not any other ideas, any other
solutions, if the Government can consider especially
for those that are already relatively close to retirement
that are making these withdrawals and seeing that
money disappear so quickly, that if there could be some alternative put in place besides withdrawing
from our pension plans, then I believe that this will
help the economy and the people of Bermuda.
What are we good at when it comes to the
development of our economy, getting things rolling
again? We know that special events here in Bermuda
have worked well for us and we have . . . and you
know we can all feel proud of the SailGP, which was
something that evolved out of the One Bermuda All iance’s introduction of the America’s Cup. We have the
Butterfield Championship. We have done very well
with golf and the PLP Government continues to pr ogress in that space. I believe that there is a lot of potential there. And I have heard very little on solutions
that would provide or lend themselves for us to continue to develop and have a real portfolio of special
events to help to bring in our passengers, get that i nward investment as well as provide at least within a
finite piece of time opportunities for people to get i n-volved and an additional amount of money for themselves.
I believe, Madam Acting Speaker, that we
really do need to do what we are good at. We need to
keep building cottage industries. We need to continue to support and enc ourage entrepreneurial support.
And I certainly am aware that with our ageing popul ation there is a growing need for caregiving so that people are able to age at home. The Minister of
Health had mentioned that there is as much as, you know, $60,000 a year in insurance coverage that is allotted for caregivers. I believe that the Government
can certainly go further to develop and formalise and
structure what could become much more of a cottage
industry around the caring of those who wish to age at
home.
We m ay find that there are a number of Bermudians who have a natural capacity so that it may not just be a family member that they are caring for
but it becomes a full -time position where they have a
number of clients and can create an entrepreneurial
business around caregiving. I would like to see much
more of that. I believe that it certainly provides an opportunity for employment. It helps support our seniors
and it generates good income.
So, Madam Acting Speaker, I am just going to
end by sharing the conc ern that I am receiving in the
community. People are afraid; people are very concerned about the future economic condition of our I sland. I believe that we have gotten very close to an
economic cliff, and I certainly would not like to see
Bermuda fall.
We are a very proud people. We have got a
beautiful culture and we have got much potential. It bothers me to hear that so much is somebody else’s
fault. And, yes, there is not much we can do about the
external risks of things like war and plague, and these
are challenges that are going to come no matter what.
That is part of the human experience. But it is not our
place as parliamentarians to always put the fault on
something else and then sit back and just give up.
We have to keep fighting. We have to keep
raising the game and certainly on the eve of Interna-tional Women's Day ––as I see, there are three women
on the screen right now —we really have to look at that
balanced method. We have to be able to look at things from all sides and I believe that women bri ng a
different perspective to the table and I certainly call on
all of us as we are about to, we are in the middle of
some real struggle, that we are all able to work t ogether; that we are able to come up with solutions that
will put our economy on a more even keel.
With that, I thank you, Madam Acting Speaker. Good night.

Yes, you are up.
Hon. Walter H. Roban: Yes, you are up now. We can
see you.

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Yes, my concern is
about the heinous acts of aggression toward the people of Ukraine. I am concerned about that and I am
incensed by it because there is never a good reason
to attack peaceful people.
Also, I am concerned about the reports I hear
about racism in Ukraine, both of them, I am incensed
by that, and I am jus t hoping these things . . . I just
hope they can get better. But as it was said by an O pposition Member, they are a leading country insofar as
production of goods, food and the like. This will affect
Bermuda. To what extent, I do not know. But I would
say that anytime that there is a shortage of any item,
whether it be food or anything else, the price of that
good will go up.
We, at this time, do not need any more i ncreases. But food has gone up at least 10 per cent
this year alone. The cost of bringing food in via co ntainers has increased at least 10 per cent, and we
have no control over it. Yes, inflation, we import infl ation against our wishes. But that is what happens.
Probably one of the ways that we can help our costs
is we probably need to look at ge tting our own cargo
ship because for a country that brings in, I would say, about 95 per cent of what we need, we should have
our own cargo ship and we should have had it over 60
or 70 years ago. But be that as it may, those are some
of the things we are dealing with.
Now, I heard the Opposition attack our Pre mier when they said that he gives with one hand and
takes back with the other. I want to remind the OBA
that they take with both hands and give nothing back
and if you want me to expound on it, I wil l. I will e xpound on it. You increase the healthcare of seniors by 10 per cent; you did not give civil servants an i ncrease. You froze the pension increases of seniors —
need I say any more?
So, when you make statements like that, ser ious statements attack ing our Premier, then I certainly
will come to his defence because you have taken with both hands and not given anything back.
I see the Opposition were investigating a r eport of a guarantee of over $50 million for South P [Fairmount Southampton Princess ]. Let me say, I
support whatever guarantee the Government is going
to give South P, because I think we need it. Because when we heard this morning that the OBA stated that
things were so bad that the condition of land and ev erything at Morgan’s Point, yet they knew that and they
still gave the Morgan’s Point crowd $150 million guarantee . . . it makes no sense! Why would you give a
guarantee when you state all these things were wrong
and you give them a guarantee, $150 million, and they
spent all this mone y up here and we do not even have
a product that is nearly finished. And they have not
called for an investigation.
504 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly And this Government has spent probably
about $200 million because of that guarantee by the
OBA Government . Add onto that when they redid the
airport. They said to the people of Bermuda, the ta xpayers, that this airport would not cost us a dime. Well, so far, up until the end of September 2021, we
have paid over $3 million a month in minimum guarantee. How would a G overnment do such a minimum
guarantee revenue based on arrivals when the G overnment does not even own a plane? It makes no
sense! And they paid over $4 million, wasted money,
to have lawyers to draw up a contract like that. No
variances in that contract.
On top of that, we have got to pay for the
electricity and everything else down there. When you
add all this money up, it is money that we could have spent. I guess it is almost a quarter of a billion dollars,
$250 million—money that we could have used to e nhance the lives of our seniors and other citizens of this
country. So, do not come attacking us when things
that you, that they , have done and they do not want to
acknowledge . . . and I know a lot of folks in Bermuda
do not like history. And that is fine. But you know, they do not like their history (some of them), but they bask
in the inheritance that they had.
If you do not like your history, give back what
you inherited. But you have benefitted handsomely
from the heritage. So, let us not, you know . . . and so
when they got t he Government in 2012, we were $1.2
billion in debt. When they finished, it was $2.4 billion.
You know, the press and all the supporters of their
crowd, they do not like it like that. They continue to
blame the PLP Government for the debt we are in t oday—including the debt that the former OBA Gover nment incurred while they were in Government . They
blame us for that too, said they had to borrow money,
whatever.
We are not complaining about it. That is what
we inherited, and we will go about trying to fix this.
That is what we will do. But we have to tell you and
remind you when you attack us, we do remember
things.
One Member of the OBA asked, Why are we
giving money back to people ? Well, that, you know
. . . just because you are in a bad situation [does] that
mean you are not going to try to help people because
they are in a bad situation also? That is one of the
responsibilities of a Government. And what this Go vernment has done over the years, they have taken
care of the low -income earner by decreasing, by decreasing, the payroll tax. That is what they are supposed to do. You are supposed to take care of the poor first. If you take care of the poor first, and their
lives are enhanced a little bit, everybody else will be
enhanced. But you must never, ever forget the poor
because as the Bible said they are always amongst us.
When we come back to the guarantee at
Southampton Princess, as I said earlier, I will support any guarantee that this Government gives South P.
When you try to figure out the money that we are losing by that hotel being closed, I would venture to say,
and I using a conservative figure, that we are probably
losing about $2 million a week that could be circulated in the community. There were 750 workers up there.
Not only that, you have the taxi drivers, the wholesalers in Bermuda and all the entertainers. All those folks
are losing. And then, I support if the Government is
going to increase the extension on hotel concessions. When you look at our competitors, one such I think I read in thi s book, their concession is for 25 years.
Now, in some countries, they would give developers, hotel developers, land to build hotels to i nvest in their countries and many other things. We do
not have that type of land and we do not have that
much land to give anyone. So, when an investor
comes in here, we have to treat them proper, treat
them right. One asked us, What are we doing as a
stimulus package to create more jobs? Well, we are
trying to get the hotels [to] open. We are trying to get
Southampton P rincess. We are trying to get Elbow
[Beach Hotel], Ariel Sands. And he continued, I f
Southampton is able to get started I think it would give
an encouragement to other investors to come in and
probably purchase Elbow.
Elbow Beach is probably one of the best
properties for a hotel in Bermuda. It has always been
the most popular one because, years ago, how you
found out if a hotel was doing well you always called
Elbow Beach —[INAUDIBLE] —Elbow and Southam pton Princess, how are they doing? If they were full,
then most other people were doing pretty good.
One thing about this company that is dealing
with (the [people who] have purchased Southampton
Princess) is [they have] set their standard [to] at least
five stars, Madam Acting Speaker. I have said it b efore. To operate in Bermuda, I believe it is important
that 90 per cent of our hotel accommodations must be
at least five stars because Bermuda is a very expensive place to visit. So, you need high earners to come
to this country because if they go in our groc ery shops
or whatever they will really see what we pay. They
have committed because look at what they have done
to Tucker’s Point, and that is their intent. I think five star has to be the minimum standard for our hotels in
Bermuda.
So, I am encouraged by their commitment,
what they have done at Tucker’s Point will continue to upgrade that and also with Hamilton Princess. Hami lton Princess is a gem right now. They are at least five
stars —they are probably six stars. And they do it right.
That is what you need in Bermuda. There is clientele
that would pay that price. But the service must be commensurate with the rates you are paying. You
need five- star staff, and I think we have always had
some, and some have to be trained up, but that is
what we have to do.


Bermuda House of Assembly Now, Madam Acting Speaker, I heard one
Member of the Opposition talk about the police, national security, they need more assistance. Yes, they
need more money. Let me say this here, Madam Ac ting Speaker, the police are controlled by, governed
by, the ch ief occupant of Government House. As
much violence has been going on in this country —
gangs and antisocial behaviour —we have not seen a
programme come out from Government House that
will try to deal with this antisocial behaviour. Nothing!
All they want to do is put more police on the
streets to lock our young men up. That is not the a nswer, to lock them up. We got to train them up. But the police are not under the authority of the National Security Minister. The National Security Minister only
provides t he funding through the taxpayer, and we
should be asking Government House, What are you
doing to eradicate the gang violence in this country?
What are you doing?
Literally nothing!
Don’t always blame the Minister of National
Security. I said it the other day. The Minister of N ational Security does not control [any] policemen—
maybe one; but, you know, she does not control the
police. She can make suggestions, but they do not
have to pay attention to her. The questions need to go to Government House. That i s where they need . . .
they are in charge, you know, of the police. We only do their budget.
Now, we said we were criticised earlier about
giving back when we are in debt. Well, are the OBA criticising the tax relief we have given to employers, because w e think that was necessary? That was part
of a stimulus package that most countries will do in
times like these. Look, you do not sit back and say,
Well, we are in debt so we cannot try to stimulate the
economy , because if you didn’t, these workers . . . not
only the business. But if you lose the business, you
lose the workers. So, the Government has done the
right thing to give in spite of what we owe. But if you
do not give, that does not help anything. That call
about quit your giving because you should not be gi ving because you are debt . . . no, it does not work like
that. You are in debt at home. What? Do you give your children nothing? Keep them locked up?
Now, let us talk about our roads. You know
back in . . . I think the last time we got new roads in
this country was probably in the ’60s, the late ’60s, mid ’60s. And we will not get any more new roads because we do not have any land for it. Through BELCO
we are trying to improve our infrastructure. It has been stated by MP Caines that those underground cables
have not been replaced in 60 years and they are not
placed in any conduit. So, we are trying to get infr astructure improvements.
Yes, there are going to be some inconveniences. And people got to understand —we have no
new roads. There are not many roads in this country. I am sure since the ’60s up to now, the amount of veh icles on the roads has probably doubled— with the
same roads. And so we had to slow down a bit be-cause right now some people cannot even get out
their driveways [because] there is so much traffic going so quick. We might have to do some things that
we did not do before—put speed bumps in areas to
slow down traffic so people can move in and out of
estate roads and other roads. Those are some of the
things that I am sure the Minis ter of Public Works is
grappling with now.
As far as getting back our tourists, getting
tourism to the levels it was in 2019, it is going to take
some time because we do not have the beds. We are
hoping that the Princess situation will sort itself out
like yesterday so they can get some shovels in the
ground and start work on that situation up there.
I am a proponent of immigration reform. Yes,
we have to increase our population. But it comes with
a caveat, in my opinion. And I think that we have to
protect Bermudian jobs. Right now, there are only
government jobs that are protected— the civil servants
are protected by the . . . what do they call it? They call
it the Public Service Commission Regulations 2001.
And I am just hoping that we would look to . . . because immigration, as we all know, is a very difficult
situation and can become very emotive because the
only people in Bermuda that are unemployed are
Bermudians, and they have a valid point to say that
we are bringing people in and they are still une mployed. So, we must ensure that Bermudian jobs are
protected. You know, they need to come first just like
the civil servants come first. That is what we should
be doing. We need to look at that, and I say that to my
colleagues.
We heard the Opposition talk about privatise
some of our jobs. No; that makes no sense. Privatise
them to whom? The private sector? We still got to pay
for it. So, if you privatise out, let us say the garbage collection, we still have to give them a grant. So the
attack I guess t hey are they are saying, very subtly
and discretely, is that they think the workers are not
performing at their best. But when you take our sanit ation workers, when it is raining, they are out there picking up garbage. They do not stop— in any cond itions. W e should be applauding and clapping for them
every day for the work they are doing and how they do
it. They do not stop work because it is raining, and
now we got a call that we should be privatising our
jobs? That is nonsense! I have never heard such no nsense in my life.
And again, back to the guarantees. You know,
it is amazing that some years ago the Government
gave a $200 million guarantee to the Bank of Butterfield. There was not a word from the Opposition. I
guess because a lot of them had their money there,
so it secured their fortunes in the bank so they did not say anything. And we did not even get a dime of it.
We did not even get a dime out of that. So, when you
506 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly start trying to criticise this Government , think of your
past. Think of your past.
And the other thing is that you, the Oppos ition, you do not set the agenda for the Premier or the
Government of this country. Yes, the Premier is hol ding three positions. But you do not set that agenda.
Let me be clear: that agenda is set by the leader of
the Progressive Labour Party.
Before I close, Madam Acting Speaker, I want
to thank . . . because it is never, and I have said it b efore, you know, it is never . . . you know, it is always
good to thank the people. Sometimes we do not thank
them enough. I want to thank the IB [ International
Business], Piggly Wiggl y/MarketPlace, the Supermarket. I have done it before and I am going to do it
again. Lindo’s, all these folks that helped us out, not only with food; IB with equipment and medicine during
COVID -19. So, we thank them and we will always
thank them and continue to thank them because I
think it is . . . it is never . . . you know, you should
never be short of thanks.
With that, Madam Acting Speaker, I thank you
for giving me this time.

The Acting Sp eaker: Thank you, Member . Are there
any other Member s who wish to speak?
I understand that it takes a while to get online
so I will give a little leeway so that any persons who
are wishing to speak [can] open their microphones
and turn on their cameras.
Members? I certainly . . . I do not think . . .
Members, are there any Members who wish to speak?
I know it takes a while to click on.
Is that you, Member Campbell?

Yes, yes.
Thank you, Member Campbell, for pointing
that out, but he was not coming through.
Member De Silva, you have the floor.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Okay, let us make sure that
the clock does not continue from MP Burgess , that
would be great. Madam Acting Speaker, I would like to start
off by congratulating the Premier, the Cabinet, my fel-low backbenchers. They all had a hand in producing
this Budget. I would also like to thank the civil ser vants that helped our Minister s who undoubtedly, as
any of us who have been a Minister will know, that
producing the Budget takes an enormous amount of
time and energy, so I am always thankful to my Premier and Minister s who I know spend an inordinate
amount of time producing the budgets and time away from family. So, I do thank all of you for producing our Budget in this particular year, in one of the most trying
times that I think we have ever faced in our history, to
actually produce a Budget when tourism worldwide
has been decimated, economies have been shattered.
So, I think just to produce it was something of a feat
and I give them my heartfelt thank you for that.
One of the Opposition Member s, I think it
might have been the Opposition Leader, said that this
Budget by our Premier was nothing but an election
budget, sort of side- dooring, back -dooring by hint that
because it is party election this year that this was what
he was trying to do —produce a Budget, an election
budget. Well, let me reassure the Opposition Leader
and his col leagues and everybody else in Bermuda
that Premier David Burt is going nowhere —nowhere
in a hurry. So, you can try as much as you like, but the
old saying is grumble you may, go you must . Our
Premier is not going anywhere.
Now, with that being said, let me start off by
saying I am disappointed with the OBA and how they
attacked certain factions, certain pieces, certain things that we have included in our Budget. And they attacked the licence reductions, the payroll tax reductions, and the reduction in energy taxes. By the way,
the same energy taxes that the OBA raised
110 per cent during their period.
Now, these may be small in the eyes of the
Opposition. They may be small incentives , small
amounts of money that they are trying to insinuate
that we are doing nothing for those who need it most.
Well, we all know that the grocery stores in this Island
are packed on Wednesdays. To give you a little example, Madam Acting Speaker, if one spends $500 on
groceries on a Wednesday and they get 5 per cent,
we know that that is $25. And you might say, Well,
$25 ain’t that much (it is [per] week ). But why are the
grocery stores jam packed on Wednesdays? Because
if one spends $500 it is $25 they save. Four times $25
in a month is $100. And if their grocery bill is $1,000
[each week], it is $200 [in a month]. You see?
So whilst they may ridicule us for giving some
small concessions or tax breaks to our people, those
tax breaks may be small to them but they are large to
our people. And we know —we know —how much they
appreciate these things, because when you add them up at the end of the year, they are very significant —
$100, $200 a month to some people is very significant
in this country. So, whilst it may be small, I think the


Bermuda House of Assembly people in this country will appreciate in thes e very
tough economic times, unprecedented times, I think
they will appreciate that we have given enough time
and thought to say, Well, let us give a little bit where
we can.
And it has not been easy. And we know inside
our caucus how much we fought over some of these
tax concessions and what they would mean and what
they would not mean. And while some people may
take that small concession and throw it against the
wall, we know a lot of people will appreciate it. So, you know, it is sort of . . . then [when] they attack these tax
reductions, these three in particular that I mentioned,
it reminds me of their former Finance Minister Bob
Richards when he told our seniors money does not grow on trees. And they said, Listen , we are going to
shut down Lamb Foggo. You remember that, Madam
Acting Speaker? They said they are going to shut
down Lamb Foggo Clinic —

I definitely remember that.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I am sure you do. And they
told our people to take furlough days. And they cut out
the exhibition, you know, that was our people’s event.
They told people to take pay cuts, all these things.
Well, we know from last week when they left a
microphone on that Bob Richards is still . . . is still . . .
he is still obviously at the helm gi ving them coaching
lessons. Well, you think they would have learned by
now that, you know what, you got to have heart if you
are going to be in this game, you got to have heart for
our people and mean it.
So, Madam Acting Speaker, it is clear by their
Reply to our Budget that they struggle. They had no
substance. They struggle. But what they continue to
try and do is rewrite history. Then they say things like
they have said in their Budget Reply and they try to
rewrite history. Just as the former speaker before me
the Honourable Derrick Burgess brought out a few things, I will do the same. And as long as I sit in this
House I will not let them forget history. I will not. You
will not rewrite history as long as MP De Silva is in the House.
Let me remind folks that when the OBA became the Government —Bermuda’s first one- term
Government by the way —the debt was at $1.2 billion.
But look what Bermuda received for that [$1.2 billion].
And it is important that we keep reminding our people. We got childcare, $800 per —you remember that very
clearly, I am sure, Madam Acting Speaker —$800 per
month.

Yes, I do, Member.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes. FutureCare, never
before seen in our history. Now we have got all segments of our society using FutureCare. All segments
of our society. We had the docks for the cruise ships that
were built. Lord knows where this country would have been if we did not build those docks. We had tons of
social programmes that were long overdue that this
PLP Government deve loped between 1998 and 2008.
We bought ferries for our people. We bought
buses, new buses, and air -conditioned buses, Madam
Acting Speaker —air -conditioned buses which we
never had before. Little things like that which mean so
much. But people seem to forget. And we cannot let
them forget.
Hotel concessions brought by the late great
David Allen. It attracted millions and millions and mi llions of dollars of reinvestment in hotels in this coun-try. And put hundreds . . . in fact, during that period,
Madam Act ing Speaker, we had no unemployment!
And I would think that David Allen, the late great D avid Allen, was the mastermind behind that. And I will
throw in real quickly between 1998 and 2008 was the
greatest period, the greatest gain of our GDP which
doubled during that period. Doubled during that per iod! See? We have to remind them, Madam Acting
Speaker. We have to remind them about our history.
Now, let us not forget they were there for one
term. The only one- term Government in our history.
When they were there, they doubled our debt —
doubled it. So, in their term, they took our debt from $1.2 [billion] to $2.4 billion. So, I cannot and will not sit by and let them try to rewrite history.
Now, Madam Acting Speaker, let me remind
[everyone] yet again, when they came in they borrowed $800 million. And that was supposed to last for three years. In two years, it was gone. At the end of
that two years they borrowed another $200 million.
They found money for the America’s Cup, another
$100 million. Morgan’s Point . . . well, we will talk
about that more in a minute. Corporation of Hamilton, $18 million. Cross Island, $40 million. The airport . . .
remember, the airport was one of the few government
departments that created a surplus every year —$14
million. That is gone for the next 30 years at least. We
just threw away $14 million. And of course, now we
have got a $1 million a month electricity bill that the
taxpayers have to pay.
We have paid out $40 million in minimum revenue guaranteed payments to Skyport so f ar—$40
million. And the thing is, as my colleague MP Jache
Adams said earlier, Bob Richards said he would do it
all over again. If he had to do that airport, he would do
it all over again. And he still advises the OBA today.
So, we know he would. And [we k now] the mind- set
he is passing on and they are carrying through as
seen in their Budget Reply today.
The Commission of Inquiry. You will reme mber, Madam Acting Speaker, that they spent $1.5 mi llion on the Commission of Inquiry. We asked for a
Commission of Inquiry into the land grab, but they had
no money. They had no money for the land grab, but
508 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly they found $1.5 million for a Commission of Inquiry.
You see, so we cannot . . . we cannot let them forget.
Now, whilst I am talking about the OBA and
the great deals that they made for the taxpayers of
this country, let us not forget that old airport. A lot of us think, O h well, at least we have got that . We can do
something [there] . No, no, no! I am here to remind
everybody that the old airport and that whole s ite, all
that land . . . that is [under] Skyport’s control. So, if we
think we can put a hotel over there close to the airport
or do some kind of development, some kind of tourist attraction . . . no, you do not! You go and ask Skyport
permission. Remember , that does not belong to us,
either.
Now, a couple of the Opposition Member s
talked about , Oh, we were the brainchild behind St.
Regis and the airport and that injected so much money in the economy . And I say, Yes, it injected money
in the economy . But at what cost? I am talking about
the airport. At what cost? And where did most of that
money go? It weren’t to people who look like you and me . . . well, you know what I mean, Ms. Acting
[Speaker] —

I think I understand that expression.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes, now the other thing is
they always say that they spearheaded and got St.
Regis started. Well, that is not quite true because Derrick Burgess when he was the Minister of Works was
the one that demolished that hotel. That hot el stood
here for 30 years. So, the one who spearheaded that
was Derrick Burgess. Would St. Regis have taken that
site without the building [being removed]? I do not
know. I do not know, because that was a huge task.
And I will say this, by the way, because ev erybody says how, you know, we cannot manage and we cannot run things, I remember Minister Burgess
telling Cabinet at the time that this technical officer received a quote for like $18 million to demolish it.
And if I remember correctly, he said look, let’s do
some more work on it and got it demolished for $11
[million], saving the taxpayer $8 million. And that is not
the only place he saved money when he was Minister .
Now, Madam Acting [Speaker], I would like to
talk about Fairmount Southampton for a moment. And
I am just looking at my time, I think I have got . . . how
much time I have left?

[No audible response]
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: I cannot hear you.

Hon. E. David Burt: You are on mute, Madam Acting
Speaker.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: You ar e on mute.

I am sorry, Member! You have
about 15 minutes left.
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Okay, beautiful.
Fairmount Southampton. Now, let me say this
. . . let me talk about Morgan’s Point first, because
then I can dovetail into Fair mount afterwards.
The Opposition’s comments on page 13 were
astounding and shocking to me. And I would like to go
through it point by point because I am not so sure if
this has resonated just yet. But it caught my eye like a flashlight.
So, first of all, the Opposition Leader says
Morgan’s Point was a poisoned chalice. He then went on to say [it was] because of the obligation to clean up
the entire site to R1, Residential 1, at the G overnment
cost. Okay, that was the obligation to clean it up,
make the entire site to Residential 1 zoning at the
Government’s cost. He then says Government was
threatened to be sued for $100 million if the G overnment did not clean it up and make it R1 zoning. Okay,
you got those two.
Next point, he then says that the clean- up to
reach the R1 status was done at a cost of $33 million. Hmm, okay. We got those first three points. Then he
shockingly states, “Notwithstanding all of this,” [all]
that was done, “it was still a ‘Brownfield Site.’” So, let me see if I can work this out . So, the developer was
going to sue if the site was not cleaned to an R1 st atus. We spent $33 million, and the zoning did not
change. So, why didn’t the developer sue Government
for not producing the R1 zoning? Or was this a lie?
See, the other thing that boggled my mind
was this, and I am sure when colleagues take a little
time to think about it they will get it. The Government
was threatened with a $100 million lawsuit over a $33
million cost. Hmm —the Government was sued . . .
was threatened to be sued for $100 million, but you
had a $33 million cost. So why was the lawsuit going
to be three times the actual amount of the cost of the
clean up? One has to think about this.
Then, if you think those mismatched numbers
are not mind boggling, why did we guarantee $160 million? You see, this just does not add up to me. It
just does not add up to me. Maybe one of the other Opposition Members can come on and explain that to
me.
And last but not least, while we are on Morgan’s Point, Madam Acting Speaker, I want people to picture Morgan’s Point as the National Sports Centre.
[With] that $160 million we did not —and I repeat, we
did not —take control of the entire Morgan’s Point
property. And the reason I mention National Sports
Centre . . . you know what it is li ke us taking? [It is like
taking] one of the 18- yard boxes on a football field. All
the rest of the stadium still belongs to Morgan’s Point.
We got the 18- yard box in front of one of the goals.
Okay? So, let us be mindful of that. We paid $160 mi llion, but they still own 95 per cent of that site.


Bermuda House of Assembly Now, Madam Acting Speaker, I want to talk
about Fairmount Southampton for just a minute because the Opposition mentioned on page 14, and I will
quote, “. . . Government must strike a deal with Gencom now. If not, the hotel development runs the risk of
collapsing . . . .” I am going to keep this, and I am going to frame it. The other thing he went on to say was
they should provide a sovereign guarantee.
But what disappointed me was when he said
[there was] no menti on of a guarantee in the Budget.
Well, it has not been mentioned because it has not
been done yet! But let me say this. Let me say this: If
we have to guarantee the redevelopment of that hotel
for $160 million—just to pick a number that people are
familiar with—I say let us get on with it. We are spending millions and millions of dollars a month on financial
assistance and benefits for our people that are out of
work. And that number is going to grow if we do not
get this economy going. It is going to grow.
And as Minister Burgess said and reminded
people . . . I do not know if he has been looking at my
notes, but one of the examples that I was going to bring up was Butterfield Bank. This PLP Government
supported the Butterfield Bank to the tune of $200
million. I was in the room that day, and I think you
were too, Madam Acting Speaker, right? And the main
reason for that support was what? We had 800 em-ployees that would be out of work. Businesses would
be turned upside down. People would lose busines ses. An d we made the decision that that was what we
were going to do. We were going to support Butter-field Bank.
And in regard to Fairmount Southampton . . .
hey, listen, I know we are in some unprecedented times, we have got some unprecedented debt ahead
of us . But we must do what we have to do to get that
hotel up and running as soon as we possibly can. We
absolutely have to. And I think that the Premier has
probably got COVID -19 because he has been running
himself ragged trying to get this deal done.
So, I am going to say that we have to do ev erything we can to support Gencom in this deal. They
have already proven themselves. They have invested millions and millions of dollars down at the East End
and they have committed millions more to buy the
property and they are committing millions more to r edevelop the property. They need the help and a push
from us, it should be forthcoming like that. It should be
no question. And I am so glad that the Opposition are
in support. They better not back down from it now; w e
have it in writing.
So, Madam Acting Speaker, before I take my
seat, I would like to thank the Premier and the Mini sters once again for producing a budget in the most
trying times in our history. I would like to thank them
and I would like to let the people of this country know that they have a very large backbench because they
put us in there, you have a Cabinet and you have a
Premier, and let me assure the people of one thing . . . and you will know. We all know that inside that
caucus room we have so me very heated exchanges
at times. But I tell you what, it is all for the betterment
of our country and for the well -being of our people.
And we will continue to do that. Rest assured, people
of Bermuda that we are working for you, and we always will.
Thank you, Madam Acting Speaker.

Okay, Minister Furbert you
have the floor.
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Deputy Speaker.
I want to start off this evening, Deputy Speaker, with something that has been bothering me. It
came from earlier, Deputy Speaker, and it was . . . I
have heard it said in this House before, and I have
heard this comment over and over again, and som ebody needs to say something to this. And it is when
our PLP Members, Mr. Deputy Speaker, are being
constantly blamed for the disagreements as it has to
do with the immigration march, disagreements in r egard to the airport deal that was done under the OBA, and they are constantly being blamed for setting this up. What we have to recognise, Deputy Speaker, is
that we are here to govern all, okay? So, to specifical510 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ly call out PLP Members, and I am going to throw our
supporters out there as well, it is vengeful, Mr. [Dep uty] Speaker .
I hope that that Member would stop doing
that. We are a G overnment . We govern for all. And to
call out our PLP Members on the floor, makes me
think who is the OBA really for? Are they not for our
PLP Members? Are they not for our PLP supporters?
The PLP has made a commitment to govern
for all, and that is evident through our Budget Stat ement as well. I remember, Deputy Speaker, when the
Premier finished his Budget Statement on Friday. I do
not know if any other Members saw what happened
after the Budget Statement was put out. I know that I
when I went to my WhatsApp status , I saw lots of
comments on statuses and social media bytes in r egard to how happy they were to have continued relief and added relief by way of the car licencing relief, by
way of the pension extension and by way of the pa yroll tax relief. And actually, l istening to the news when
the BBC went around and asked people in the community about the relief, they were commenting that
they were quite happy because they thought that it
would be much worse.
I know a lot of people, Mr. Deputy Speaker,
benefitted from the pension. Actually, I need to grab my book here, my Budget Statement book because we could all recognise on page 20, that over 21,000
persons benefitted from the pension withdrawal, the
first pension withdrawal. And then 7,065 persons be nefitted from the pension withdrawal, and then seniors,
25 per cent of the lump sum senior withdrawal, 848
persons benefitted from that. While there has been talk about what the outcomes of that may be, our people needed access to
those funds. And if they did not, who knows for whatever reason they may have used it for, it could have been some sort of bill they wanted to pay off and
clear. It could have been they wanted to . . . I have
heard people say they wanted to make renovations to their home. I have heard people say they wanted to
use it to assist them with buying transportation, whatever reason. Or they may have needed it for medic ation. The fact of the matter is, particularly some of our
seniors, having access to those funds was very i mportant. It was very impor tant.
I remember meeting with a constituent prior to
this pension being available, you know, very dishear tened and upset that she could not have access to her
funds because she was actually really unwell and she
had bills coming. You know, she was worried about
her bills and she could not have funds; she did not
have funds to be able to access the medication that
she needed. And so, I am sure this has helped many
of our seniors to have some relief. And so that is what
I saw, Deputy Speaker. I saw all of those messages come through WhatsApp, on Facebook, people cal ling, thankful for that relief. As little as some may think it is, it can be huge for many. We still continue, Mr. [Deputy] Speaker, like
my colleagues have spoken about in regard to the supplementary unemployment benefit and we are
looking to extend that further to provide further relief
for our people. We continue to have financial assi stance access. And actually, I just want to point out,
you know, financial assistance plays a huge role in
helping our seniors, particularly those persons who
are in rest homes and nursing homes. From April
2021, Deputy Speaker, to February of 2022, financial
assistance have paid over $9 million towards rest homes and nursing homes. So, if you are questioning
our c ommitment to our people and our seniors, I
would beg to differ.
What does relief look like from the OBA?
From what I remember, it looked like decreases in
grants to charities. It looked like furlough days. It looked like staff freezes within government and staff
cuts. All I remember, Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, was cuts,
cuts, cuts! That is what I remember! So, if people want to choose OBA as a relief, I would say they have a nother thing coming. PLP is your relief.
The PLP Government is your relief, Bermuda.
Please understand and recognise that we will do all
that we can to assist our people with the means in
which we have.
I want to take this time, Deputy Speaker, I am
not going to use all of my time, but I do want to take this time to speak to the third sector, because they
have made an enormous contribution to assist the
people in Bermuda who are in need by supplying,
having food supplies, by assisting persons with food
vouchers, electricity paid, BELCO bills, with the ele ctricity vouchers, with helping pe ople with maybe they
need clothing. And even the pop- up charities, Mr.
[Deputy ] Speaker, who are assisting the homeless.
I want to praise the Transitional Living Centre
who is helping mothers, women and their children. I
want to praise the charity home that is assisting the rock sleepers on our streets. And I want to praise Di gnity House. That is a new residential home and pr ogramme for persons with mental illnesses. Actually today, Deputy Speaker, I was with another charity,
Friends of Hospice, who have j ust opened up a consignment and thrift store to help expectant mothers and children to have access to more affordable goods
and items.
So, I want to congratulate all of our third sector for all that they do, all that they give to our families, our childr en, our seniors, our people and I want to
congratulate the third sector who is coming out new to
assist the areas in Bermuda which we find to be most
challenged.
Deputy Speaker, again, I am not going to talk
long but I just wanted to point out those things in r egard to what this PLP Government is doing for our
people. And we must not forget what PLP relief looks like and what OBA relief looks like.
Thank you, Deputy Speaker.


Bermuda House of Assembly The Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Minister Furbert —
Minister Tinee Furbert.
Are t here any further speakers?

Thank you. I will quote. It was
on page 1 and it says, and I am reading it, “If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by chan ging the organization.”
Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, I had planned to speak
this evening on two main points. However, after
spending . . . most of my colleagues [said] two hours.
It was actually two hours and 15 minutes, listening to
the Opposition Leader basic ally “regurgitating,” and I
will use the word one of my colleagues used, “regurgitating” many of the PLP ideas. I basically would characterise that presentation as a poor Reply to the
Budget. I had intended, as I said, to address many of the misspeaks made by the Opposition Leader. Ho wever, again, those misspeaks have been addressed
by many of my colleagues who have spoken before
me. So I am not going to, you know, repeat but move on. I will not repeat and I will just go on to the second
point of my present ation this evening. Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, I deliberately started
with that quote from the recent Throne Speech. I did it
deliberately because I interpreted that quote to mean
that those things that previously worked may now
need some tweaking to get a bet ter or more accept able result to fit in with the current times, which is what
I believe we have done. It cannot be denied, Mr. Deputy Speaker . The last two years under this [coron avirus] pandemic has played havoc with our plans for the economic recovery. T herefore, changes were r equired to now benefit the needs of our people —
especially those most affected by the pandemic —
which you understand we have done.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, we have already heard
today statements made by Minister s indicating our
need to c ut our cloth to suit the purse. And as the
chairman of WEDCO, I would like to speak a few
things to show what we have done up there over the
last two years during this pandemic. And I can speak
to how we have actually had to adjust at the West End
Developm ent Corporation, WEDCO.
Mr. Deputy [ Speaker ], like every home, bus iness and government agency, the pandemic did have a major impact on what was then the normal (and I
say the norm). And despite all the negatives that transpired during the pandemic this w as a time up at
WEDCO for us to do teambuilding, look out for each other and some self -reflection.
So, throughout the last two years, we at
WEDCO have been supportive of our employees and
our tenants —because we own property there that we
rent out, both commercial and residential. And let me
say that we offered a reduction in rent on our commercial persons over that period. And over the last
year this cost us something like $1.2 million. So,
again, it shows the caring attitude that we have.
Mr. Deputy Spe aker, the employees were also
prepared and willing to work with the corporation (I
say WEDCO, I call it the corporation) to reduce payroll costs to enable all staff to remain employed, which I
thought was, you know, something that should be
mentioned. So, I certainly thank the staff for doing
that.
Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, WEDCO did not just
stop there. We took the same shared approach and
worked with companies who have contracted services
and they themselves reduced with their contracted
billings which assis ted in lowering WEDCO’s overall
expenses and negated the need for us to reduce or
suspend any of our services up at WEDCO.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, WEDCO throughout this
period ensured that all protocol on infrastructure was maintained. And in preparation for the return of what I
am now going to call “normal business volumes,”
based on the Government ’s Economic Recovery Plan,
I am pleased to support all of our efforts contained in this budget to make this calendar year, tourism sea-son 2022, the year for what I am going to call an ec onomic recovery. WEDCO will be a part of the engine
512 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly that assists the Island in this recovery. Not just in the
west, but every part of the Island that will be meeting,
greeting and providing goods and services to our
cruise and air vis itors.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, the cruise schedule for
2022 looks very promising, as we have heard from the Minister of Transport. We are planning, I understand,
for the arrival of approximately 177 cruise ship calls
bringing approximately 278 passengers . I understand
in financial terms this cruise traffic is expected to have an economic impact of about $103 million. Let me al-so say, Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, that these numbers are
nowhere near our record numbers. However, it does
lead us, as I said, on to the road of economic recovery.
Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, also in discussions with
the Minister, the Government is anticipating that
cruise lines will have a strong future growth in Berm uda. So work is being done on that. So, we at WEDCO
appreciate the limited homeporting that we had this
season and look forward to its future. But what I will say is that there was a noticeable increase in foot traffic during the homeporting that gave some additional
help to concessionaries up at WEDCO. However, I
understand that we may not have homeporting this
year, but it is something that we are looking for in the
future.
Let me also say that the Minister is looking at
plans to pursue for the future by targeting boutique cruise lines, with ships that will benefit not only WE DCO, but also Hamilton and St. George’s in addition to
the necessary infrastructure operations that will also look to providing a selection of entertainment for our visitors, including our well -supported historical kit and
walking tour.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, let me say that our vis itors will be invited with these new additions out there to what we call “Meet at the Moongate” where they will
be treated to some charming and amusing banter with
our costumed actors before being chaperoned around
Dockyard, visiting places of historical interest.
Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, our entrepreneurs and
WEDCO stand ready to service the visitors’ shopping
needs, and refresh their palates because there are
lots of good restaurants up there as well with amazing
cuisine, or experience the many tours or onsite experiences like Snorkel Park, the fun golf that we have up
there on Vista View. So, Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, let me
say that it is all promising that I see for this coming
tourism season.
Now, all Bermuda by now would have heard
the Minister of Transport use his famous tagline, there
is no tourism without transport . So, in this regard there
are plans entrain for the modernisation of the use of public service vehicles.

[Inaudible interjections]

Okay, I will go on.
As I was saying, there is some modernisation
of the use of our public service vehicles which will provide an environment for job creation and entrepr eneurship in the transport industry. I will leave the full details to the Minister to share that in Committee to
expand on, but these things are coming. With this
modernisation which will prepare us for the anticipated
increase in numbers in cruise and air arrivals, I am
going to make a clarion call to the public service veh icle operators to get ready and be prepared.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, let me move on to som ething else. I am convinced that the Bermuda economic
recovery is on the way an d WEDCO will be doing its
part to ensure that transportation operators, tour o perators and the businesses located in the west end are, as well as other businesses around the Island, will be able to benefit in [2022] .
As I said, I wanted to have a different tack. As
I said, I had a two- prong . . I was going to take on the
misspeak of the Opposition Leader. But I will leave
that and give what I would hope will be better good news. But also let me say that the feedback that I have received from my constituent s on this budget
has been positive. In fact, one of the lines, and the
speaker before me just talked about it, was the pension withdrawals. They were very happy to hear that there is going to be another opportunity because pe ople are hurting out there and it can be a benefit to us.
So, let me wind up, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and
say that I am very supportive of this Government ’s
Economic Recovery Plan as it is people- centred. Ev eryone should notice that we have centred our activ ities, our actions, on the people —especially the people
who need it most.
Finally, let me say that this Government will
deliver and will not let the preachers of doom detract
us from what is it we intend to do under this next
budget, and we are prepared (as I heard the term) for
that perfect storm if it comes, because we have the
opportunity to walk and chew gum at the same time.
So, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I will end there by
saying that I am happy to have supported the budget and I thank the Minister of Finance, who is the Premier, and his technical officers for what they have done. And let me just end with that quote that I started with, and I will probably just add three words. And the quote
actually said, “ If you want to change the culture, you
will have to start by changing the organ ization. ” And I
am adding and the mind- set.
Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker .

Good evening, [Deputy]
Speaker.
I am going to go back to my previous analogy
in terms of a small boat off of Devonshire dock. And it
speaks to the idea that you are off the dock and the boat springs a leak and you are with somebody, if you
like them or do not like them, it does not matter, at
that stage you must now work towards getting to the
shore. And that is where, again, I think Bermuda is
with our current situation. The leak, if you will, is our
current debt situation. And if we are honest about it, it is nobody’s fault, per se. It is what it is. And we now
need to move forward. And so have to reall y, really
get ourselves sorted out so that we can actually get to
the shore —which is Bermuda’s economic development. We have to get back to where we are supposed
to be.
I will also say, though, that the Bermuda leak
was not sudden. It grew over a period of time. And sometimes I think we forget that it came because we
built the pier up in Dockyard, for example. We built the
new court building and those things when we built
them needed money. And as everybody knows now, when you get a mortgage, a mortgage is for a period
of time. It does not like drop off the next day. And so
we are currently having the benefit of other’s capital
projects, but they came at a cost at a point in time
when we had to borrow money. And so it is what it is.
And so we are where we are now today.
I must admit that when the Opposition Leader
started out today with his reading, I thought that he
had actually gotten the message and that he was going to be constructive because, if you allow me to read from his first page—

The Deputy Spe aker: Continue.

He said, “We must conti nue to capitalise on opportunities to work together t owards a common end. As a nation, we must chart our
way together through economic recovery and rehabil itation. Bermuda is small and agile enough to do it.”
I was like, okay, this is a good start for him.
But then, unfortunately, we had a litany of criticism. Incidentally, when the [Opposition] Leader was reading his Reply, a colleague came by and he comment-ed that it is too bad that there has to be so much negativity because the report and the Reply would be bet-ter received if it was more constructive. And so, my
comment is not, you know, in a vacuum, per se.
While I was a little bit discouraged with the
balance of his Reply, I became a litt le bit more encouraged when MP Dunkley and MP Richardson
spoke because they seemed to understand also that
we have got to get this thing together, because they
both spoke about the idea of working together. Then
they did go on to make some other comments w hich
made me think they do not quite get it. But at least there seems to be some hope, some glimmer of hope that the other side are now getting the idea that we
are in this together and we must all work together to
get to where we need to be.
Finally, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I want to say that
there was a comment earlier that the Premier, as Mi nister of Finance, mentioned the OBA quite a bit in his
[Statement]. I want to say that repetition is good in the
sense that it helps our memory. And in this context, it
helps us to remember that the PLP did not just wake up one day and have all these things setting up the
debt. It came as a consequence of different activities, and everybody should really realise that at the end of
the day, [both] the PLP and the OBA grew the debt to
what it is right now —almost one- half PLP and one- half
OBA. And so, it is not about blaming one or the other,
it is about remembering that, okay, right now, we are
at about $3 billion in debt. It came based upon some realistic activity by both parties and now, as I learned
when I went to Bermuda College by the way of playing
euchre, you have to work the hand that you are dealt in a game of cards. And so, we are where we are. So, Bermuda, let us now stop all this blaming and pushing
and whatever the case may be, and let us now move
forward.
Now, let me try and do this. The economy
when it comes to the Budget for sure, it is really, or it can be somewhat simple in terms of you have your
revenue, you have the expenses, and whatever else is leftover which is going to be either used for capital
expenditure or it can be used to pay down debt or
whatever the case may be.
Your revenue side is going to come from
Government , of course, raising taxes —because that is
how . . . Government does not have a business per
se. And Government does levy taxes instead. For this
year, what is interesting is notwithstanding all these complaints and stuff from people in the general public
but also from the OBA, the Government has the actual
fact to show that in some ins tances the economy did
struggle, but in other areas the economy did very well. And we have it as the evidence in the Budget Stat ement on page 35.
If I refer to at least customs duties were pro bably about $20 million more than anticipated. That
means that people are spending money. In this case,
unfortunately, a lot of it is spent overseas. But it does
mean that goods are being imported into Bermuda.
We have the stamp duty which looks to have outper514 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly formed expectations by about $7 million. And then we
have t he payroll tax which outperformed expectations
by about $2 million.
I will focus on those two for a minute, especially stamp duties. One of the large components of
stamp duties is actually the amounts that are paid as
a result of real estate transactions . I said a few times
before that if you drive around the Island you do see
houses under construction which means that som ebody is spending some money. And there has also been I guess a real estate industry report that says that they have also been pleasant ly surprised by the
number of houses that are being sold across the
spec trum.
Equally, we have had the comments that,
based upon the demand for housing, even rent prices
have been impacted by strong demand. And I believe
I have heard also that some of the houses that are
normally available are now in such short supply that
they are getting rents higher than previously anticipated. So, that goes to show that notwithstanding all the naysayers, people that do have funds to buy houses
are doing so. And then once they buy them, they are
doing construction which then does have impact on all
the trades.
The last one that I will comment on right now
is in fact the payroll tax which shows that despite the
fact that there are some reductions in employment,
the payr oll tax receipts show that overall the emplo yment levels have actually been sustained to the extent
whereby the payroll tax which comes from emplo yment levels is paid to the Government .
Now, before I go too far with that, that is a
good thing in that obv iously employment income is
higher and therefore the Government is able to get
higher employment tax . . . I am sorry, payroll tax. The
challenge with that, though, is that we do have to be
careful going forward in terms of this press for a signi ficant inc rease purely in the IB sector, because to do
so may have a negative impact on the balance of employment.
What I mean by that is at some level it does
not make sense to hire one person in IB, for example,
and pay them $250,000, as opposed to paying five
people, possibly in the hospitality sector, at $50,000
each because those five persons will take the $50,000 and spread it more widely in the community than the
one person who has $250,000 and spreads theirs in
restaurants or whatever. That is where I think going
forward we are going to have to work towards ensuring that we have a good balance.
On that note, also, the Premier clarified in the
public arena, I think it was last week, that the PLP obviously understands the economy and fully supports
the fact that we need to have more people in Bermuda
to start to grow the economy because by growing the economy, of course, we are going to be able to then
grow the revenue numbers. The difference, though,
for the PLP is that we want to make sure that any i n-crease i n the resident population in Bermuda does not
come at the expense of Bermudians. And that is why I used the example earlier in terms of it is a careful balance between hiring one IB worker at $250,000 as
opposed to, say (and I am just using numbers as an example), having five people in the hospitality sector
at $50,000.
That comment about the hospitality sector
brings me to a quick discussion about the . . . I want to
say the media frenzy, almost, around the Southam pton Princess —or the Fairmont Southampton negoti ations. I do not know any more than anybody else in
terms of those negotiations, because of course they
are being undertaken by the current Minister of Finance and also the previous Minister of Finance and
others who have that to do.
However, I w ill be honest, and I must admit
that I never really understood the distinctions in terms
of the Morgan’s Point guarantee and what has been
talked about, and I guess it is going to happen at
some level in terms of the Fairmont Southampton
guarantee. And as simple as it is, it really came home
again to me last week when I was talking about it and
thinking about it and doing some more work around
that, in that for Morgan’s Point the proposed developers did borrow some money. But the Government of
the day issue d a guarantee on the entire project. So,
almost a 100 per cent guarantee. As opposed to what
is being discussed in the media, for Southampton
Princess the guarantee no matter how high, even if
numbers that are in the public arena are correct, it is
going t o be about 20 per cent. So, I am waiting for the
Opposition to give a clear comment to distinguish between a 100 per cent guarantee and what might be a
20 per cent guarantee. Notwithstanding the actual
value, but just to know that the current discussions
based upon what has been printed in media is in no
way a comparison to what happened at Morgan’s
Point. So, I like everyone else wait almost with bated breath to see what is going to happen and what is g oing to be reported when the deal gets done.
The Pre mier, as Minister of Finance, has spoken to it several times now in that the project is critical
to Bermuda. I do not know the exact numbers, but if
we think about the fact that the renovation gets started
and creates 600, 700, 800 jobs, that is going to be a
massive injection into the economy because it means
that each of those persons will then be able to have
their own funds to go and do what they do. They buy
groceries, they buy gas, they go out, all those kinds of
things, and the direct spending that t hey will get i nvolved in will have a significant impact because it then
is able to be spread throughout the economy.
After that, of course, once the hotel opens up
we are able to invite more guests. We are able to have a significant impact on all of those persons who
service the hotel sector, or the hospitality sector, and
if we go back to the comment that was just made by
MP Tyrrell a few minutes ago in terms of his role wit hBermuda House of Assembly in the TCD and the Vehicle Licensing Board to encourage taxi drivers to get ready , I have had comments already in terms of some guests do not mind
paying whatever they have to pay.
What they are concerned about, though, is the
quality of what is being received. And you said the same thing, Deputy, in terms of we have to get to a
stage whereby we are at a much higher level, a fivestar level, because we are asking for five- star prices.
And as we all know, if you perceive you are getting a
five-star value, you are not worried about the price.
You will pay what you need to pay. The evidence we
see now, for example, is even more people drive, but
you know, but they buy purses and shoes or whatever. It is a question of value and so we have to make sure that we are prepared to do what is necessary to
provide a level of service that meets our prices and
then we will be okay. I think more so than people actually realise.
To extend that comment also in terms of the
hotel guarantees, we have to remember Hamilton
Princess got a guarantee. Tucker’s Point got a guarantee—or concession— because the p eople are i nvesting significant amounts of money and they need
to make a return. What I am looking forward to,
though, is to see if we are at a stage whereby there is
some level of profit sharing because if you come to
me and you say, Anthony, I have a bus iness propos ition and I want you to either provide some of the
money or provide a guarantee, I want something
back. And what I want back is going to be some sort of participation of when you make money and so I am
looking to see how creative we are going t o be when it
comes to these guarantees that are being given to the
various hotels.
I, like you, do not object to it. I think it makes
sense. It is just a question of what is going to be the
value, how do we see what we are giving up and what
do we get bac k in return in addition to obviously the
increase in employment. So, I look forward with ex-citement actually and the Premier again has spoken
about the fact that he is going to extend the concession period and so that will come to the House of course and w e will have a chance to have another
debate about that and I hope to be able to add more comments in terms of how I perceive that.
More so, I think, to ensure that the public fully
understands that . . . like, forget the noise. Understand
that Bermuda does need to have these developments
and the way to get the developments is to offer more
concessions. And it is not like, okay fine, you give up
anything. You do it in a sensible fashion and we have to then I think have the confidence in both the Premier
or the Minister of Finance and all the civil servants
and the rest, advisors and others that are part of this
process. It is not as if just because the PLP are the Government that everything falls apart. No, it is a sensible process you go through, and you m ake sure that
you end up with a good perk. So, that is what I am looking forward to do . . . I am looking forward to see,
sorry.
So, again, just to emphasise the fact that we
need to make sure that we do our homework and get beyond just what are sometimes the sound bites. In that regard, I also commend MP Jache Adams who
spoke a little bit earlier. He actually did what I think . . .
I think he did what I was going to do, which is to go
back over the past probably . . . I went over the past
29 years and lo oked at the Government ’s top -line re venue, the expenses and the net interest on debt and those sorts of things to try to get a sense as to how it
has really been.
What was surprising to me, pleasantly surpri sing to me, was that over the past or the most recent 10 years the average current account expenditure has
been about $920 million. And of that, about 50 per cent is directly related to salaries, wages and
overhead. If you add to that the grants and contributions, for example, which is what the Governm ent
does to assist in the broader community, you get to
about 90 per cent. What that means is that of the
$920 million that the Government spends every year,
about 90 per cent is actually going to go towards sal aries and helping out the community.
So, if the general community and the OBA are
saying, Okay fine, you must now reduce those expenses , we have to fully understand that this means
either having fewer employees, i.e., the public sector
which is going to be civil servants, police, fire , prisons
and the rest of them, being made redundant, or cutting out the service that we need . . . I am sorry, the
grants and contributions that we need to go to the third sector. So, in my mind, the OBA would have to
be very, very clear in saying exactly what they wou ld
do to reduce those expenses and then for the public
servants to know that what they are really saying is,
We think that you should be made redundant .
I will also say, as a former civil servant, Mr.
Deputy [Speaker ], that we have to appreciate this:
Generally speaking, a public servant will probably
earn more when they first start their job in comparison
to a private sector employee. When they get into, I
want to call middle management, they might earn
about the same. But when they get to a senior level in
the Government, they earn substantially less than
what they would earn in the same job in the private
sector. The pension was actually meant to balance it
off. So, as a public servant you may not earn as much
as you would in the private sector, but you will get a
good pension.
So now, while I understand that there is a deficit in the pension, we have to be careful because a lot
of public servants have worked for 20 and 30 years on
the basis that it is [part of] their total compensation. It
is not just what they get paid. It is what they get paid,
right, plus their pension and then in totality it may help
them to equate to the private sector.
516 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly I do get concerned when persons who are not
familiar with the real salary structure of the public service just make blatant comments in terms of O kay
fine, just cut their pension away , because that is def initely not going to be a good thing for those that work
in the public service.
I want the public to understand that the PLP
does appreciate the impact of any red uctions in the
salaries or the overall compensation of those who are
in the public sector and therefore we are very, very
mindful of what we are doing. Despite the fact that
people are saying, O h, there is no plan going forward,
yes, there is a plan. And t he plan is that right now we
are going to do our best to make sure the hospitality
sector is working well because that is going to provide the greatest immediate employment. And [in the]
longer term we are going to grow the business community —whether it be IB, whether it be FinTech or
others which take a little bit longer, but that is a twostep plan. So, short term it is hospitality, and in this
case it will be Southampton Princess, for example, in terms of right away they are creating 600 jobs. When
it opens, another 600 jobs as opposed to if a company
comes, a company might hire say, I do not know, five
people to start with and grow to 10. But that does not
compare to a hotel facility that needs to be construc ted and then opens up. So, I hope that we bett er appreciate the fact that . . . forget the noise, but understand fundamentally how the hospitality sector does
have a greater impact on numbers of employees than
the International Business sector.
Yes, they are both important in different ways
and the IB is more like increasing the employment by
say 200 in IB, [it] is a longer -term prospect than i ncreasing the hospitality sector by 200. So, that is what
we have to be careful of and make sure that we understand. Let us not listen to all the noise.
Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, before I close, I want to
give a message also to parents. And that is, let us be
more responsible with our children, because I find that
many children now are actually going to school wit hout the intention to learn. I do not mean that ever ybody goes to school and gets A’s and B’s, that is not
my point. My point is that at least everybody [should]
go with the intention to learn. And it is only going to
happen if your parents shape your mind towards learning. As we all know, the reality is t hat education
is the gateway to freedom and flexibility as you get
older. And so it cannot be that Anthony went to
school, did not do his best and then he gets out of
school and then complains about his lack of emplo yment. And that is not to blame anybody; it is just to
say that as parents we can do this.
The Minister spoke earlier about the plans to
change and restructure the education system and all
those kinds of things, which is a good thing. But the parents have to play their part. Otherwise, we will end
up in a situation whereby the IB sector, hospitality and others are looking for employees, but will not able to have the Bermudians that are necessary to fill those
jobs and then we get into the cycle of blame game because they are going to have to bri ng in people
from outside and they are going to complain about the
fact that, Oh, there are too many foreigners , when the
reality is, in some cases, we have not prepared ourselves for those jobs.
I will end by saying this, Mr. Deputy Speaker,
we need to do all that we can. We need to get our-selves together and we need to understand, as I said
at the beginning, that we are in a small boat off of Devonshire dock, it has sprung a leak. We now need
to make sure that we get together and focus on ge tting back t o shore. When we get back to shore, that is
a different ball game. But right now, we are not on the shore and so let us really, really work together to get
back to shore.
Thank you, Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker .

Thank you, Deputy Speaker.
Good evening, Deputy Speaker, good evening
to the listening audience and good evening to my fel-low colleagues.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, tonight I will speak on
the Budget presented for 2022/23. We have heard
much said t onight in support of the Budget noting the
many good initiatives and benefits presented to the
public of Bermuda. Tonight, I will speak more specif ically to road safety and the impact of the Budget and
how it will affect road safety.
Road safety is a key factor to a safe, thriving
and prosperous economy. We can have the top bus inesses and the best employees, but without transportation whether public or private, there will be limited


Bermuda House of Assembly economic activity —from the food and alcohol delivery
trucks, water trucks, heavy construction vehicles, gas
delivery trucks, government vehicles, emergency services, and taxi and minibuses and even food delivery
agents. Mr. Deputy Speaker, these are a few of many
differing industries that utilise our road network daily.
Add to that, office personnel heading to and
from work, parents carrying children to school and other activities. It is clear, Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, that
our transportation system is key to being the lifeblood of our economy.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, the importance of road
safety cannot be [overstated] and as the chairman of
the Road Safety Council, the Bermuda Road Safety
Council, I hold my head up high for the work that the
Council has done during my tenure. With declining
road traffic collisions and road traffic f atality numbers
in 2018, 2019 and 2020, the Road Safety Council in partnership with all stakeholders must double our efforts to address the record number of fatalities in
2021. And to this end, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I look on
with optimism for the 2022/23 Budget.
First, I would like to speak to Project Ride.
While statistics show that 16- to 21- year-olds, which
are our new road users, are not the highest ranked
demographic for road traffic collisions or fatalities,
they are our next generation of road users . With that
in mind we must ensure that they are given the best
opportunities to be the best road users that they can
be. In this upcoming year, the Project Ride pr ogramme will be allocated a budget of $90,000. Project
Ride is and has been very successful but there is always a chance to improve and expand on it. In this
upcoming year, legislation for Project Ride will be
amended to include actual on- road experience prior to
getting a licence.
As an example: At present, at 15- and-a-halfyears old a person can do Project Ride. And if they are successful they get their licence. But only once
they get their licence at 16 can they actually get on
the road. So, you do not get that first -hand exper ience. So, what is being proposed to be amended, Mr.
Deputy Speaker, is that at 15 years and 9 months for a bike and at 17 years and 9 months for a car, a person with a driving instructor can get on- road training.
Let me correct myself, Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, for the
bikes it is 16 years and 9 months, not 15. With an i nstructor, they can get on- road training so that when
they finally get their licence that is not the first time a
new road user gets that experience on the road. So,
we have heard the calls of the public for an enhanced
Project Ride and driving training and w e listened.
Operation Caution, Mr. Deputy Speaker . That
is the mandate of the Bermuda Road Safety Council
and I am glad to say that it will be extended for an ad-ditional year. Under Operation Caution, our road saf ety plan Operation Caution, was from 2018 to 2023. As
I said, it will now be extended for a further year to 2024. This year, a budget of $60,000 will be provided to the Road Safety Council to carry out our mandate
for promoting road safety and education of road safety
in Bermuda. And just to highlight our vision and mi ssion statement, the mission statement of the Road Safety Council, “To educate the public with effective tools to reduce collisions and road fatalities,” and our
vision statement, “To create a safer road culture that
promotes positiv e riding or driving practices creating
smarter road users and saving lives.”
Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, the introduction of stoplight cameras by 2023 is an objective of Operation
Caution. However, I can note that the funding for that
has been reallocated. But the Council is glad to hear
that $1 million has been budgeted to the Ministry of
National Security for the improvement of our CCTV
network. This improvement will not only help the BPS
in criminal investigations, but also in enforcing road traffic laws and catching offenders.
Road safety has two components: education
and enforcement. The Bermuda Road Safety Council
promotes the education and improvements of road
safety while the BPS enforces the law on those that choose to break the law. And the punishment of the
BPS is a strong one as we support each other in our
efforts. The Road Safety Council endorses the BPS in
their Operation Vega and the success it has had in it,
catching offenders and also in helping to change our road behaviour.
This endorsement is reciprocated by the BPS
towards the Bermuda Road Safety Council in our O peration Caution. Changing our driving behaviour is key to changing the driving culture in Bermuda and roa dside sobriety checkpoints are a frontline initiative to
addressing that.
Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, there have been comments made about the effectiveness of gazetting the
public notice of roadside sobriety checkpoints befor ehand. My response to that, Mr. Deputy Speaker, is the
best way to break bad habits is through conscious
decis ion-making. And I say that because through putting the notice out there, that way if a person does go
out to drink and then they make that decision to get in
the car and drive, they are consciously making that
decision and that is the habit and culture that we want
to break versus if we do not advertise and put that notice out there and if a person does get caught, it is
more of their attitude would be Oh, you know, maybe I
should have done this different. So it is how they can
beat the law. So, by putting it out there, notifying it,
bringing the public notice, again, it is how we can best
break the bad habits and change the culture.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, there can be no successful tourism in Bermuda without an efficient and
accessible transportation system. Safer roads, effec-tive public transport networks and thriving private
transport industry all play a hand to make Bermuda a
successful tourist destination. And as I say safer
roads, Mr. Deputy Speaker, not only is it about behaviour but it is also about the conditions. I just want to
518 4 March 2022 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly mention that as we continue to develop our Island t ogether, and I want to thank the community for the patience they have had with the conditions of our roads.
Yes, they are a hazard for our road safety . But there is
a reason and there is a plan for these road works . And
I can assume that the Minister responsible will expand
more on it in due time. But there is a plan, and so we
are not leaving the motoring public out there.
Also, Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, a key phrase
serving the [ underserved ], that is those that are dis abled, physically challenged or our seniors. With the
current upcoming harmonisation and modernisation of
the public service vehicles, this is to help make our
transportation more effective and reach more people—thos e who are not being able to be reached now
with our system.
So, my comments are brief, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, because there is a lot else to be said, and as
we have already mentioned there is more to come
and there is a lot that this Budget and this Gover nment is bringing forward that we can support.
In conclusion, Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, the Bermuda Government , through the Ministry of Transport,
is striving to make transport an environment where job creation and entrepreneurship in the transportation
indust ry are favourable for Bermudians. So, I want to
commend the Minister and his team at the Ministry of
Transport for this work on the Budget and we look forward to continuing the good work for the Road
Safety Council for this upcoming year.
Thank you, Mr. [Deputy ] Speaker, for this time
and thank you to the listening public.