July 26, 2021

We have three
questions that were submitted for oral response. If it is
customary for me to read the question and then the answer, I will go ahead and proceed.

The President: Yes. Well, I will read the question and
then you will prepare the answer.

QUESTION 1: NATIONAL SPORTS CENTRE
CONTRACT

Sen. Ben Smith: Would the Honourable Minister
please inform the Senate as to whether the Board
of Trustees at the National Sports Centre authorised the c hairman to enter into a loan agreement
with HSBC for the project awarded to Atlantic E nergy Solutions, and if so the date on which the
trustees gave the authorisation?

Thank you, Madam
President.
The response to said question: The National
Sports Centre Board of Trustees agreed to accept the


Bermuda Senate HSBC financing and terms at its meeting dated
May 20, 2021.
The President: Thank you.
Is there a response ?
Supplementary questions for the Gover nment?
SUPPLEMENTAR IES

Sen. Ben Smith: Yes. Thank you and good morning,
Madam President.
Madam President, in light of the public information that has come out over the last couple of weeks about this particular subject, specifically some of it saying that there were members of the board of
trustees who disagreed with this contract being approved—

Sen. Owen Darrell: Point of order, Madam President.

The President: Senator Darrell, what is your point of
order?

POINT OF ORDER
Sen. Owen Darrell: Is the Senator posing a question
or is he giving a speech? I am not sure.
The President: Senator Smith, can you rephrase your
comment in question form? You are allowed two supplementary questions.

Sen. Ben Smith: Yes. I was framing my question.
So, Madam President, can the Minister please
let us know whether he would be willing to table the
minutes and correspondence regarding this contract
from the moment of its being accepted in 2018 to date
so that we can get clarity on all of the issues that have
been made public in the last couple of weeks?

The President: Senator P eets.

Thank you, Senator,
and thank you, Madam President.
The reply to the first question, which was,
Would the Minister be minded to table the minutes from May 20, or the minutes, I would imagine, surrounding this particular decision? I have made no
such decision at this time. But I will certainly take that
under advisement. And if needed or if directed in due
course, I can certainly table said minutes.
Regarding t he second supplementary question on whether or not this was the original contract, if
the question is in relation to the contract with ASG
[Atlantic Energy Solutions] , the ASG has always been
the contractor for this particular project. And there has been n o indication or change in that particular contract.
What the Senator may be referring to may be
the de tails of the financing of said contract. The information that I have this morning is that there is a difference in the financing model for this particular project
as orig inally proposed and what has been approved.
The President: Thank you, Senator .
Would any other Senator care to [ask] a supplementary?
Senator Jones.

Sen. Marcus Jones: Yes, thank you. Good morning,

Good morning.

SUPPLEMENTARY

Sen. Marcus Jones: Good morning to my colleagues.
Following up on the original question that was
asked, would the Minister explain to us Government
policy that dictates by what we have seen, not only in
the public domain but in practice, that if significant terms of a contract are changed, under normal ci rcumstances this particular project would be put out to
tender? Can the Minister give clarity on precedent and
practices within that Ministry and in the Government
overall up to this point?

[Crosstalk]

The President: Minister.

Yes, thank you.
In response to Senator Jones’s supplementary question, I cannot speak for the overall practice
for the civil service and for the Government. I can say
in this particular circumstance, the contract was not
put out for tender. The financing arrangements were
vetted by the Ministry of Finance, and they were supported by the Attorney General’s Chambers, as well as the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sport. So i n this
612 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate particular instance there was no retendering of the
project.

The President: Thank you, Minister Peets.
Senator Jones, do you have a second su pplementary?

[No audible response]

The President: Would any other Senator care to ask
a supplementary question?
Senator Tucker, you have the floor.

SUPPLEMENTAR IES

Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Madam President.
Good morning to everyone in the Senate and to the
listening audience.
My question is more so around the response
given. The specific question was whether the chai rman was authorised to enter into the loan agreement
with HSBC. So I am wondering if the Minister can expressly say yes, or was it another party who entered
into th e loan agreement?
And my second [supplementary] question is,
Was approval authorising (if it was the chairman) to
enter into the loan agreement given on the day of the actual meeting of the board with not less than four
trustees present, which would have formed a quorum.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Robin Tucker.
Minister Peets.

Madam President, I
was taking some notes so I can better understand the Senator’s question. If I fail to answer the question a ppropriately, I certainly do apologise. I can try to repeat
what I think I heard.
The first question I think the Senator was r eferring to was whether or not the chairman was a pproved to sign off on the loan agreement, if I understood the question correctly. And I believe the second supplementary question had to so with a quorum for
approval.
In reverse order, Madam President, the information that I can report to this Honourable Chamber is
that there was a quorum. And a decision was reached by the board on the 20
th of May regarding this partic ular contract. Regarding the supplementary question regarding, Was the chairman allowed or permitted to
sign off on that?
The information that I have, Madam Pres ident, is that based on the contract that w as given to
the NSC [N ational Sports Centre], that particular contract required at least two board members to sign off on that partic ular contract.

The President: Thank you, Minister Peets. Are there a ny other supplementary questions?
[Inaudible interjection]
The President: You have had your two, yes. I was
just going to tell you that.
Then we will move on to the question number
2, which is :

QUESTION 2: NATIONAL SPORTS CENTRE
CONTRACT

Sen. Ben Smith: Would the Honourable Minister
please inform the Senate as to who signed the
loan agreement with HSBC on behalf of the board
of trustees and whether they were authorised at
the time of signing?

In response, the
HSBC facility letter is signed by the National Sports
Centre Chairman and the Minister of Finance on the
basis of the board of trustees’ approval, dated the 20
th
of May 2021, and approval from the Minister of Youth,
Culture and Sport in accordance with section 10(3) of
the National Sports Centre Trustees Act.

The President: Thank you, Senator Peets.
Would any Senator care to ask a supplementary?
Senator Ben Smith, you have the floor.

SUPPLEMENTARY

Sen. Ben Smith: Yes. Th ank you, Madam President.
So can the Minister please confirm that the
chair of the trustees was an authorised signatory at
the time that this loan was approved by the bank?

The President: Thank you, Senator Ben Smith. Do
you have a second supplemental?

[No audible response]

Yes.


Bermuda Senate The NSC Chair was a signator on the contract
for this particular project.

The President: Thank you, Minister Peets.
Do you have a supplementary, Senator Ben
Smith?

[No audible response]

The President: Would any other Senator care to ask
supplementary questions?
Senator Robin Tucker, you have the floor.

SUPPLEMENTARY

Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Madam President.
My question is, given that the chairman was a
signatory on the account, as Minister Peets has confirmed, was the chairman a signatory prior to the
meeting? Or was he given retroactive authorisation?

Point of clarity.
The President: Minister Peets.

POINT OF CLARIFICATION
Sen. the Ho n. Dr. Ernest Peets: I think there may
have been a misunderstanding. The previous question
by Senator Smith and the second question by the
Senator do not seem to be the same question. And if I
am misunderstanding, I certainly apologise and I cer-tainly want to make sure that we are clear. When I
answered the first question, I was answering that
question not saying that the chairperson was a sign ator at the bank. That is not what I was referring to. But
I think that was the question that is on the floor from
the current Senator.
The President: Senator Robin Tucker, do you want to
rephrase your question?
Sen. Robin Tucker: Yes. Thank you, Madam Pres ident. And I do apologise, Minister Peets. I will clarify
the question.
I would like to know whether the chairman
was an authorised signatory. In other words, was he
authorised to enter into the agreement at the time of
the meeting, or was retroactive approval given?
Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, Madam
President.
There is a clerical problem as it relates to a
particular date. There is a facility letter that was
signed by the chairman on the 19
th. That date is act ually incorrect. That is a typographical error; it should have been the 20
th.
The President: Thank you, Minister Peets.
Do you have a supplementary, Senator Robin
Tucker?

[No audible response]
The President: Thank you.
Would any other Senator care to ask suppl ementary questions?
Hearing none, then we will move on to the
third question. And that is :

QUESTION 3: NATIONAL SPORTS CENTRE
CONTRACT

Sen. Ben Smith: Would the Honourable Minister
please inform the Senate as to the financial stan ding of the National Sports Centre to repay the loan
with HSBC for the project awarded to Atlantic E nergy Solutions?

Madam President,
the management accounts for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, show a deficit of approximately $1.7
million. The management accounts for the most r ecent quarter ending the 30
th of June 2021 show a net
loss of $20,000. The cost of electricity for the NSC
would typically range somewhere between $45,000
and $50,000 per month. The monthly loan repayment s
for HSBC are expected to be approximately $33,700.
The President: Thank you, Minister Peets.
Would any oth er Senator care to ask suppl ementary questions?
Senator Ben Smith, you have the floor.

SUPPLEMENTARIES

Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, in light of the answer that
the Minister has just given regarding the finances of
the National Sports Centre, and also with the information that was given to the Senate earlier this year about long- term unaudited financials for the National
Sports Centre, my question to the Minister is, Why would we go into a contract where the Government is having to pay for the project when that was not [in] the
original term s of the project? If the original terms of
the project were that the company was going to pay for everything up- front, why would we now sign onto a
contract where the Government is having to pay $3 million at a time where the finances of the country are where they are and the finances of the National
Sports Centre are where they are?

The President: Thank you, Senator Ben Smith.
Minister Peets.

614 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Sen. the Hon. Dr. Ernest Peets: Yes. Thank you,
Madam President.
The Government is backing the loan; the
Government is not repaying the loan.

The President: Supplementary?

Sen. Ben Smith: Yes, Madam President.
So who is responsible for the interest on the
loan?

The interest for the
loan, there has been a grant supplied by the Bermuda Government in the financing deal for the NSC project
to account for the loan interest. The monies saved from BELCO regarding the monthly bill will go towards
repaying the loan with HSBC.

The President: Thank you, Minister Peets.
Would any other Senator care to ask a supplementary question?
Senator Jones, you have the floor.

SUPPLEMENTAR IES

Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you, Madam President.
I first of all thank the Minister for providing us
with some of the expenses, the monthly expenses that
the National Sports Centre incurs. Could he give us
an indication of the revenue that the National Sports
Centre receives? Just to give this Chamber an idea or
at least some evidence that this quan go (I guess we
can call it) is able to service this debt to give us co mfort that this NSC can actually handle its monthly payments.

The President: Minister Peets.

I do apologise. My
microphone was turned off.
Right now what we can share, and share with
a great deal of confidence, is that this $3.2 million loan
has a five- year term, with about six months of interest,
which is being funded by a special grant, which I had
mentioned earlier. And as I indicated earlier, the
BELCO bills are north of $45,000 a month. Given the fact that the BELCO bill will be drastically erased and
reduced, there are financial projections that we can be
comfortable that the NSC will be able to defray its
costs by reducing its energy usage and consumption,
and in doing so transfer the debt that would typically
go to BELCO to pay off the HSBC loan.
Regarding revenue projections , I do not hav e
that information readily available with me at the m oment. If the Senate would be minded to allow me to get that information, I would be grateful.

The President: Thank you, Minister Peets. Senator Jones, do you have a second su pplementary?
Sen. Marcus Jones: Yes.

The President: You have the floor.

Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you, Madam President.
For the sake of the listening public and as a
reminder to this Chamber, can the Minister remind us
of the dates of the most recent audited financial statements that his Ministry has in their possession?
We recognise that the bank would have gone through
the management accounts with a fine- toothed comb to
ensure that these payments can be made. But we
know what audited financial statements can do for us
more so t han what management accounts can.
So can [the Honourable Minister] give us the
most recent year of audited financial statements that
he has in his possession for this?

Madam President,
earlier in this parliamentary session, the Ministry pr esented the audited financials for the NSC. And as such, that information is in the public domain.
At the moment I still do not have readily accessible to me the monthly estimates around revenue
for the NSC, based on the previous question.

The President: Thank you, Minister Peets.
Would any other Senator care to ask suppl ementary questions?

Sen. Marcus Jones: Sorry, Madam President. Could
I give a point of clarity?

The President: If the Minister accepts the point of
clarity.
Minister, do you accept a point of clarification?

Yes, Madam Pres ident.
The President: Senator Jones, you can ask your clarification question.

POINT OF CLARIFICATION

Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you.
Minister Peets, can you confirm or deny that
2016 is the [year of the] most recent audited financial
statements that we have on record for the NSC? I
know you were saying it is in the public domain. But if
my memory serves me correctly, 2016 was the last
one. I just wanted to establish that.

Madam President, I
do not have that information directly in front of me, but
as I mentioned we did table the audited financials for


Bermuda Senate the NSC in this recent parliamentary session. I would
suggest anyone w ho is looking for specific information
to access that publicly through their tablets.
I can suggest to the Senator this morning r egarding the previous question, revenue for the NSC
on a yearly basis is somewhere around $800,000 per
year.

The President: Thank you, Minister Peets.
Would any other Senator seek to ask suppl ementary questions?
Senator Robin Tucker, you indicated you
would.

SUPPLEMENTARIES

Sen. Robin Tucker: Yes. Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
My question is quite simple. Just wanting to
know what assurances does the Government have
that the Atlantic Energy Solutions will be able to meet its obligations? Certainly in the event that they default,
then what will be the consequences for them and how
will Government then seek to get their money?

The President: Minister Peets.

Yes. We are certai nly very, very invested in this particular project. This
project is absolutely necessary. The problem that we
have of course is that the current BELCO usage for
this particular facility, which is our primary sporting
facility, is something that is not sustainable. As such, the NSC has worked extremely hard to get to this
point, and we wish the project would have gotten
started a lot earlier. It certainly would have saved the
government, as well as the NSC, a lot of money.
So the assurances that we have regarding
this particular project right now are as follows: (1) the
funding has been secured and it has been guaranteed
by the Bermuda Government; (2) there are protocols
in plac e as well as governance issues to ensure that
the project is meeting its timeline regarding the installation for this project; and (3) information that I have to
date is that the project is on target to be completed
within budget and on time.

The Presiden t: Thank you, Minister Peets.
Senator Tucker, do you have a second supplementary?

Sen. Robin Tucker: Yes.

The President: You have the floor.

Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Madam President.
So the second question is, Have any of the
companies that have bid on this particular project had financing in place in order to conduct, to carry out the project? Thank you.

The President: Thank you, Senator. We will await a
response from Minister Peets.

Sure.
The bidding process for this project took place
a number of years ago, perhaps over three years ago. That process was very, very extensive and very, very,
very thorough. ASG was awarded the contract based on the fact that it was peer -reviewed and [deemed] to
be the best project for the NSC. At this date and at
this particular time, I would not be able to answer the Senator’s question on what were the financing models
for the companies that were unsuccessful. But I can
suggest and recommend to this particular Senate that this par ticular bidding process and the selection pr ocess for this particular operator to install this particular
project was thoroughly vetted, and they were awarded
the contract based on merit.

The President: Thank you, Minister Peets.
You have had your second supplementary.
Sen. Robin Tucker: May I just do a point of clarific ation? Because I just do not feel like the question was
answered accurately.

An Hon. Senator: Madam President, point of order. I
think the Minister did answer the question the best
that he could.

[Pause]

The President: Thank you.
Senators, that is the end of the Question Per iod for the questions that were posed, and we have
dealt with all of them. So we will move on.

ORDERS OF THE DAY

The President: The first Order of the Day is the second reading of the Development and Planning
Amendment Act 2021, and that is in the name of Senator Lindsay Simmons, the Junior Minister for Home
Affairs.
Senator Simmons, you have the floor.

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
Madam Pr esident, I move that the Bill entitled
Development and Planning Amendment Act 2021 be
now read a second time.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Carry on, Senator Lindsay Simmons.

616 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate BILL

SECOND READING

DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING
AMENDMENT ACT 2021

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Madam President, I rise to
introduce for the second reading the Bill entitled the
Development and Planning Amendm ent Act 2021 (the
Bill). The purpose of this Bill is to
1) give the Minister the power during a national
emergency to implement procedures to allow
the Director of Planning to expedite the planning application assessment and permission process;
2) provide for public consultation of an enviro nmental impact assessment for a proposed de-velopment prior to the making of a special development order;
3) provide for development orders to be made by the negative resolution procedure rather than
the affirmative resolution procedure;
4) provide for the designation of privately owned land as a protected conservation area on wri tten agreement with the owner of the land and to include a list of protected conservation ar eas; and
5) provide for the publication of procedures for
emergency development orders and deve lopment orders.
Madam President, I must reiterate the Go vernment’s commitment to introduce sustainable planning legislation which will go further in protecting our
delicate environment while streamlining measures to
stimulate our economy , particularly our construction
industry, and encouraging new investments.
Madam President, the amendment being d ebated today focuses on three key areas, which I will
discuss in the order that they are addressed in the Bill:
1. Emergency Development Orders
2. Special Development Orders
3. Protected conservation areas
Madam President, the amendment to the D evelopment and Planning Act 1974 provides for the Minister to activate on declaration of a national emergency procedures to allow the director to expedi te the
processing of a planning application and approve the
application to address a crisis, provided that any such
decisions, while fast -tracked, must not contravene any
legislative or policy directives such as building codes.
Madam President, the decisi on to grant such
an Order will only follow the declaration of a national emergency. As the amendment makes clear, a national emergency is defined by the following: (1) a national disaster such as a hurricane, flood, earthquake
or similar natural disaster; (2) a public health emergency declared by the Minister responsible for Health under the Public Health Act 1949; (3) a proclamation of emergency made by the Governor under [Schedule] 2 to the Bermuda Constitution Order 1968, [Chapter 1, paragraph 14].
Madam President, following the declaration of
an emergency, an Order shall be made based on any such representation made to the Minister and follo wing consultation with the director. The granting of an
Order will be subject to the negative resolution proc edure and be advertised in the official Gazette. Madam
President, it bears repeating that it is not the Minister
who grants the approval for emergency development.
To be abundantly clear, when the Minister issues the
Emergency Development Order, it simply commences
the process for the director to follow established and
publicly accessible procedures to assess and make
determinations on developments to address a national
emergency.
Madam President, it is important to note that
the same due process afforded to all other planning
applications is still applied in these cases. In fact, the
director or DAB [Development Applications Board] is
certainly afforded the option to refuse such an applic ation if deemed appropriate to do so.
Madam President, it must be reiterated that
the primary basis for supporting this aspect of the amendment is strictly to streamline the process where
it is determined prudent to do so. Simply put, it allows
the review and decision- making processes to be expedited for those rare emergency situations that the Island may face in the future. The procedures to be
crafted will ensure the review process is not compr omised and will demonstrate compliance with all regu-latory requirements.
Madam President, I will now discuss the impetus for the amendment regarding the granting of a
Special Development Order (SDO). Through a stak eholder engagement with the development industry,
concerns have continuously been expressed over the
length of time it takes to issue or amend Special D evelopment Orders. Therefore, the amendment seeks
to revise and most importantly improve the current
process to support greater efficiency while at the
same time introducing internationally recognised standards.
Madam President, with the current legislation
when SDOs are i ntroduced or amended, the Minister
must wait until the House sits to table an SDO. This
requirement, based on the scheduling of the sittings of
Parliament, has the probability to cause significant delays, which typically equates to economic ramific ations t hat can undermine the viability of a development. Madam President, in today’s competitive world, Bermuda cannot afford to do business inefficiently and
run the risk of losing the interest of new investment.
The one thing the COVID -19 pandemic has reminded
us of is that we are not immune to the consequences
of international impacts. Long delays should not undermine the potential of new opportunities. It is essen-tial that the Bermuda planning framework be aligned.


Bermuda Senate Madam President, it is imperative to point o ut
that currently no procedures exist to guide the process
of either issuing or amending an SDO. In previous
years the Department of Planning has received queries on how to commence the process. Additionally, it has been the lack of procedures that has contributed
to the perceived negative reputation of SDOs. The
lack of official procedures is one key shortcoming that
this amendment will address.
Madam President, currently the SDO process
only allows for debate and approval by the Legisl ature. An SDO does not involve the review of the general public. The new amendment will allow for a more
inclusive process that will require 21 days of public
consultation, which provides more value and input than any process that would ordinarily occur presently. While a cursory review of the amendment might
suggest that the decision- making has been relegated
to the hands of only a few, this amendment will ensure
that the public is engaged, consulted and considered
in the approval of any SDO.
Madam President, the amendment introduces
three new key elements:
1. An SDO proposal is advertised online for a
21-day public consultation review period.
2. An environmental impact assessment is mandated.
3. The procedures are to be drafted to set out
various required steps involved in the pr ocess.
Madam President, these three new components collectively allow for far more transparency,
scrutiny and testing to be afforded to a proposal which reflects global best practice, which is currently not
mandated here in Bermuda.
Madam President, I am pleased to confirm
that the required procedures are in the process of being drafted for consideration, which will ultimately be
available for public consumption upon approval via the
negative resolution process. I would like to share
some information on what the procedures will detail.
Madam President, first and foremost, the procedures
will detail the overall process from start to finish, from applying for an SDO until the point at which it is granted. Comprehensive details will be included on the r equirement of information that must be submitted as
part of the application. Such information would i nclude, first and foremost, the necessary studies and
justification provided in the form of an environmental
impact statement (EIS) prepared following intern ationa l guidelines. This would be accompanied by full
details of the development scheme.
Madam President, following the receipt of the
application, the application would be advertised, a llowing for the 21- day public consultation period. Pr ocedures would then determine the review process of the proposed scheme, and accompanying supporting
information in addition to all representations made by
the public. Finally, following review by technical staff,
procedures would detail how a recommendation will be made to support or not support the approval. It is
critical to note that all such details will be publicly accessible .
Madam President, I am certain you will agree
that in the drafting of these amendments, we have not
sacrificed the due diligence process to ensure that
development proposals are appropriately assessed in
terms of social, environmental and economic impact.
Instead, we have enhanced transparency and ac-countability by increasing the public engagement with
the process. In fact, we are ensuring that the amendment and procedures meet the requirements of the
UN Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment
to the Convention on Environment Impact Asses sment in a Transboundary Context, which defines wit hin its objectives the following: “(b) Contributing to the
consideration of environmental, including health, concerns in the preparation of policies and legislation;
(c) Establishing clear, transparent and effective pr ocedures for strategic environmental assessment;
(d) Providing for public participation in strategic env ironmental assessment . . . .”
For the information of Senators, this doc ument forms part of the UK document entitled “A Green
Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment” and can be found under Annex 3 of the UK’s Interna-tional Agreements to Protect or Improve the Environment.
Madam President, I now turn your attention to
the introduction of the concept of protected conserv ation areas. The aim of this amendment is to offer
heightened protection with respect to a special pr otected class upon which it is believed development should not be considered. A list of areas falling within
the protected class shall be referenced in the amended Act. Such areas which are subject to landowner
agreement may include areas of high ecological value such as nature reserves, actively cultivated arable
land, significantly sized swaths of woodland, and ar eas supporting valuable historical and/or cultural as-sets.
Madam President, it is key to understand that
a development plan is policy that is created via the Development and Planning Act 1974. This amendment would ensure that these areas, once protected,
are enshrined in law and can only be removed by the
Legislature via the affirmative resolution procedure.
Therefore, despite the cyclical changes of development plans, these protected areas will stay just that —
protected. Madam President, I wish to inform the
Senate that landowners have already expressed i nterest and commitment to have their land added to
this list. These landowners recognise the added value
of having such areas afforded greater levels of protection.
Madam President, I must also point out that
the provision of enabling areas of particular value to
618 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate be protected can be utilised as an additional planning
tool in the future negotiations of new development
projects. As in other jurisdictions, planners employ
negotiation techniques to secure positive planning
benefits in exchange for supporting development pr oposals. In effect, through this amendment, we can
secure at a more substantive level environment al
benefits for the country at large.
Madam President, some have asked why the
amendment to protect certain conservation areas is
important. They have claimed that there is adequate protection in the zoning of the land under the deve lopment planning process. Whilst it is true that the d evelopm ent plan involves [established] zoning for land,
these zones are vulnerable to change either by the recurring development plan review process, commonly referred to as zoning objection process, or via approval for development granted on appeal to the Mi nister. I must point out that this amendment offers the
same protections to privately owned land that the
Bermuda National Parks Act 1986 affords zoning as a reserve and parks that are public lands.
Madam President, it has been alleged that the
introduction of conservation areas weakens the level
of protection afforded via the existing zoning system
[provided for] by the Bermuda Plan 2018. Additionally,
it is claimed that the introduction of protected conser-vation areas infers that the areas already zoned for
conservation are somehow more available for development than originally intended. This is untrue, and I
would cite as an example the Bermuda National Parks
Act 1986, which protects those nature reserves and
parks that are public lands.
Madam President, in summary, the proposed
amendment to the Act forms a key element of the
streamlining measures originally announced in May
2019 to bring greater efficiency to the Planning D epartment’s processes and service delivery to the public and ultimately to provide a conducive regulatory
framework to support new investment while protecting
our environmental assets.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Lindsay Si mmons, Junior Minister for Home Affairs.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator John Wight, you have the floor.
Sen. John Wight: Thank you, Madam President.
I have mixed views on certain parts of this
legislation. I think to evaluate this legislation one
needs first to remember that the Bermuda Plan 2018
was dev eloped to create a comprehensive framework
to manage Bermuda’s natural resources. We are a
tiny island of only 26 square miles. So we need to be thoughtful around how we look forward to the future to
balance the needs of maintaining Bermuda’s natural
resources against the desires of developers, with spe-cial emphasis around potential development that does
not strictly comply with the Bermuda Plan 2018.
The Bermuda Plan was not only comprehensive, but the process by Government was done with much input from all stakeholders, including public consultation over a period of years. We need to ensure that this or any other legislation preserves the
great work created in this plan. To be clear, the current process has certain checks and balances which I
happen to li ke. If Parliamentarians do not view a Sp ecial Development Order as being in Bermuda’s best
interests, they can vote against it.
SDOs were created to permit potential developments that do not comply with the Bermuda Plan 2018. We thus must be very careful around how this
process under the proposed Bill will work. Under this Bill, there will no longer be the checks and balances for parliamentarians to debate and vote on. This gets
replaced by public consultation, but only required if
the proposed development requires an environmental
impact assessment —which is discretionary, I believe.
What is absolutely critical for me under this
Bill is how it will actually work in practice. Will there be
proper input and feedback obtained from diverse parties? Perhaps som e will be in favour and others not in
favour as part of the consultative process.
In conclusion, if proper governance and sound
judgment are exercised with each and every SDO, I
believe the process should work in the best interests
of Bermuda. But [that] this legislation [does] ever ything it can and should do to ensure that, I am not
convinced of.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator John Wight.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Robin Tucker, you have the floor.

Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Madam President.
I would like to start my comments concurring
with my fellow Senator Wight. I think that this Bill has
a lot of positives, and certainly there are parts of it that
will increase protections for the environment and
streamline the planning process, which is part of what
it is intended to do.
In addition to a couple of things that Senator
Wight just mentioned, I would also like to add that I have a particular concern as it relates to shifting from
the affirmative resolution process to the negative.
Maintaining the affirmative resolution process helps to
ensure that there is transparency and accountability.
As Senator Wight just mentioned, we are only a very
small island with limited land mass. It is in cumbent on
us to make sure that specifically all of the checks and
balances (as was mentioned) are in place.
While having a negative resolution process
will undoubtedly speed up approvals, or denials if that is what will be —however, haste does not always


Bermuda Senate equate to doing what is best. So especially when we
have a requirement to protect what land space we do
have, we must (as has been said in so many different
arenas) measure twice and cut once. And ensuring
that any requests go to Parliament for scrutiny that come through this [Senate] , then with so many different eyes on what is being required, with an opportun ity to be able to discuss what is being asked by deve lopers and being able to weigh out during a healthy
debate can only prove to be beneficial to the country.
So I think that retaining that affirmative resol ution procedure is very important.
Thank you, Madam President. That is all I
wish to say at this time.

The President: Thank you, Senator Robin Tucker.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Ben Smith, you have the floor.
Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Madam President.
I would just like to follow on with the comments that have come from the previous two Sen ators. The issue that I see presently is that we have checks and balances that are in place today. This Bill seems to be adding, right? You are getting more scrutiny by allowing consultation from the public. I applaud
that; I think it is actually a really good initiative. It allows for us to make sure that when we are making the
decisions, we are making decisions in the best interest of the entire community.
The part that is odd is to take out those
checks and balances that are there presently in order
to do that. The reason I say that is because we have
had projects that ha ve happened in Bermuda over
several Administrations that have been controversial.
There are times that the public is really against a certain project happening, but the project goes through
anyway.
So the question that I have is, if we get into a
situatio n where the project is having severe resistance
by the public but it is being pushed through anyway,
there is not an opportunity now for the checks and balances that are in place today to try to slow the pr ocess down and have people think, Maybe there is
something that can be changed. Maybe there is
some thing that can be done a little bit differently. And
that is done by giving the opportunity to Parliament [to
scrutini se this project].
The example that is given is that this slows
the process down. But as the previous Senators are
saying, once you have made significant adjustments to the environment you cannot take them back. So we
have sites in Bermuda now that have been changed
significantly that are not doing what they were intended to do, and we cannot go back and fix it and turn it
back to the environment it was. That ship has sailed!
So we have to make sure that we have the opportun i-ty to pay attention to those details, listen and som etimes slow things down when it is necessary.
But let us look at the opportunity of its being
efficient. The Premier of the day can call the House of
Assembly in for a special sitting to deal with whatever the situation is. So this idea that it will not be able to fit
in and it is going to slow down because of that sche duling does not make any sense. The session of the
House of Assembly last week was something that was brought up late in the day. Today we are meeting in
the Senate on a Monday instead of a Wednesday. We can make the adjustments if it is in the best interests
of the population.
In this case, it seems odd to me that we would
be taking away scrutiny, that we would be taking away
the ability for the House of Assembly and the Senate
to go through the final checks and balances and make sure that what we are doing is going through that second measurement before we cut. Because both Senators before me have said this is a very tiny island. The
decisions that are made in a lot of cases —and let us
be honest. The decision- making to drive in this direction is going to be based off of finances. It is going to
be based off of somebody saying that this is what they
are going to do and it is going to bring a certain
amount of money into the country.
But only if the project works! Because r emember that a lot of times private i ndustry is going to
be doing things in the best interests of their pocket.
That is why they want to get rid of the scrutiny. That is
why they want to move us out of it. So we have to be
careful that we are not giving them that advantage. Because sometimes we need to pause and realise,
Maybe that isn’t in the best interest of everybody in
Bermuda. Maybe that is not in the best interest of our community. Because, Madam President, we will not
be able to go back once we make a mistake.
And there have been mist akes made in the
past by multiple Administrations. In the debate in an-other place, a lot of those specific instances were
brought up. Do not make the same mistake again. Put
us in a situation where we have the opportunity to maybe say, That isn’t the right thing that we should be
doing. The population isn’t for it. There are things that
need to be changed in this particular development. Why are we going outside of the plan that everybody
has spent so much time and energy creating for us? Is
it specifically just for this particular group to make
maximum money?
Madam President, I believe that we should
keep it as affirmative and not negative. I believe that is in the best interests of the population. We are adding
scrutiny in this Bill, so let us keep the scr utiny that is
already there. Thank you.

The President: Thank you, Senator Ben Smith.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
620 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate Senator Michelle Simmons, you have the
floor.

Sen. Michelle Simmons: Thank you, Madam Pres ident, and good morning.
The President: Good morning.
Sen. Michelle Simmons: First of all I would like to
start by thanking the Permanent Secretary in this Mi nistry, Ms. Rozy Azhar, and Planning [Director] Victoria
Pereira for meeting with the Independent Senators
and giving us an extremely informative briefing last
week.
I will start by saying that there are several
positive aspects associated with this Amendment Bill.
And I am sure my fellow Senators who have already
spoken have acknowledged them. But I would just like
to reit erate that it is prudent to give the Minister power
during a national emergency, and that is clearly defined, to expedite the planning application process.
There are some wonderful examples that can
be called to mind of late in which emergency proc edures had to be enacted in countries overseas when
COVID -19 struck. Some countries actually had to
build additional hospitals and emergency shelters within days. I do not know what their processes are for getting permission to go ahead with those kinds of
developments. But I would imagine that they do not
have some of the onerous restrictions that we have. It
would not have happened here in Bermuda that way.
We have all heard the complaints from me mbers of the public about the planning process and how
sometimes it can take ages to get things approved. I
am not saying that the processes are without merit.
But sometimes we need to look at what we are trying
to achieve in order to make sure that we are really
trying to do what is in the best interests of the communi ty as a whole.
So I think that giving the Minister that power
during a national emergency is good.
Then with regard to Special Development O rders, I was really pleased to hear that there would be
statutory regulations to support this Bill. So this means
they cannot be circumvented. It is now required that
there has to be an environmental impact study com-missioned by the developer, not by government, and
that there will be public consultation of that enviro nmental impact assessment. Also, the regulations I
mentioned a minute ago will also require those public
servants who are involved in this process to follow a
process for looking at public consultation and follo wing up. All of this is really, really good.
So I think that this Bill, this part of the Bill, really brings the public into the process far more than
they have been brought in before. In fact, I think there has been limited consultation over SDOs, leading to
some unfortunate situations. The biggest hurdle for most of us is the negative resolution aspect of the change to the original Act.
I must admit I have wrestled with it, and I still am not feeling very secure about letting go of this level of
scrutiny —i.e., having to table an SDO in Parliament
before approval is given. That has caused me to lose
a little bit of sleep, [because] I am concerned that we
should not be increasing scrutiny in one area and then
diminishing it in the other.
So with those remarks, Madam President, I
will end my comments. Thank you.

The President: Thank you, Senator Mi chelle Si mmons.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Senator Jones, you have the floor. Marcus
Jones.
Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, as I have listened very i ntently to my fellow Senators discuss this particular
legislation, I could not help but hear the word coming,
I believe from all Senators, and that is “consultation,”
ensuring that sufficient consultation has actually been
utilised, maximised to ensure that our limited natural
resources are protected. Now, one of the things that
this amendment does stipulate for is, at minimum, a
21-day consultation period. Now, Madam President,
you will know that throughout my time in this particular
Chamber I have always had issues with the fram ework of consultation for any parti cular piece of legisl ation. I have really felt that there needs to be a beefedup, well -stipulated, well- thought -out consultation pr ocess that does not change based on the Ministry, does not change based on the particular legislation
that comes across our desks.
But having said that, Madam President, I also
believe that this amendment is missing something
very important as part of the scrutiny process of hav-ing a Special Development Order passed. I recognise
and concede why the Minister has wanted to take
away the negative resolution portion and make it affirmative. I agree with my colleagues —I always get
that confused—to keep the affirmative resolution in
there because of the quite valuable piece of scrutiny that is allowed for Parliament to debate and dis cuss.
One of our most important resources is land, especially when you talk about land that has been zoned as
conservation, woodlands. Those tracts of land are
very important.
So because it is so important, one can see the
importance of this country’s Par liamentarians debating
it, discussing it to ensure that we have done ever ything that we can to preserve the land.
Now, one would suggest that whenever one of
these Special Development Orders is put before the
Planning Department that it be mandated within the
amendment that an environmental impact assessment
be done for every one of them. Now, some may say


Bermuda Senate that it may be cumbersome, it may be timeconsuming. But, Madam President, I do believe it is a
layer of scrutiny, a layer of study work that can be
done to ensure that we have done all we can to pr eserve the land that we have.
So based on those short words, Madam President, I thank you for your time.

The President: Thank you, Senator Jones.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Owen Darrell, you have the floor.

Sen. Owen Darrell: Madam President, first of all I
would like to just say that I do support this amendment
brought forth by the Junior Minister. And it is very i nteresting to hear some of the One Bermuda Alliance Senators speak so fondly of a Special Development
Order all of a sudden. Let us just say that a Special
Development Order, SDO, has for a long time in this
country gotten a bad rep. The former Governments, former PLP Governments have been accused of gi ving them out too freely in the past. As another Senator said earlier, there are many examples of SDOs that
may not have been properly consulted with the public
or [may have become] deals gone bad.
But with this amendment, it actually gives the
board a little more power, because right now it is my understanding that the DAB [Development Applic ations Board] has very little power. There are tons and
tons of appeals that come in for all sorts of developments. And the only individual who has oversight on
that right now is the Minister.
Also, I want to talk a bit about this word “consultation” that keeps coming up. There is consultation,
a requirement of public consultation that is put in this
amendment. And with this Bill, parliamentary scrutiny
will not be erased. But I just want to go back and give
a very brief history lesson where I actually do not have to go that far back. A previous Government, the one
before 2017 immediately, had two particular Acts that
they put in place to actually bypass and circumvent
the SDO process. And I will remind you of those. One was the Morgan’s Point Resort Act 2014, and the
second was actually the St. Regis Act. With the St.
Regis Act, there was no consultation with the people of St. George’s. We still have an issue now with St.
George’s being a World Heritage Site. And I think
UNESCO is upset with Bermuda for actually circumventing that process.
So we can sit here all day and talk about lack
of consultation. But it was the previous Government that went to great lengths to create two Act s that went
against the standard SDO process. And I would also
like to remind you that, if you go up to Morgan’s Point
now, there is not much going on up there but there is a main roadway that was put in the plan to go right
through arable land. And it is still there. It is ridiculous.
So I think that it is not a matter of speed when we talk about making this process better. It is a matter of eff iciency. And as Senators said, absolutely we cannot
take it back when a wrong decision is made.
So I do believe that there are some key el ements in this amendment that actually give some power back to the board. Parliamentary scrutiny is not
erased. And I do not think that we need to be worried
about a lack of public consultation in this part, as it is
in here. I know that this Government will be committed
to going through the processes that are laid out in this
amendment.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Darrell.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?

Thank you, Madam
President.
I think it is important for this Chamber, as well
as the listening public, to know that the Minister, the
Perma nent Secretary [PS], the Director and all of the
individuals who were responsible for bringing this par-ticula r amendment before us, [recogni se] the fact that
Bermuda is 26 square miles, [this fact] has not been
lost on them. Actually, the reason why this particular
amendment is important is the fact that Bermuda is 26
square miles. We know every square inch of this I sland, and we certainly want to do everything we can to
protect it.
One of the things that was important to me
particularly when I had the opportunity to see the brief
for this particular Bill and have it presented by the PS,
as well as the director, this Bill is trying to address a
fundamental issue that the COVID -19 pandemic has
brought upon our shores, as well as shores around
the world. And that is to be responsive. And this particular Amendment Bill is responsive. It sets out in the
Bill quite clearly that the direction for this particular
amendment is to grant emergency development po wers in response to national emergencies. And we cannot lose sight of that.
I have gone over this Bill. I have had this Bill
explained to me. In my opinion, Madam President, it retains protection while also adding the necessary
expediency wherever needed or necessary. There are
benefits in this particular Bill, as the Junior Minister
has already communicated. I do not need to remind
this particular Chamber that the Minister did communicate the benefits of this particular Bill and the
aims of this Bill in another House and did so quite
well.
So we are very, very supportive of this particular amendment. The technical officers who are
responsible for implementing this are excited about
622 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate this amendment and believe that this amendment is in
the best interests of all 26 square miles. Thank you.
The President: Thank you, Minister Peets.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
No. Then I would just make a brief comment,
too, and that is to thank the Permanent Secretary,
Rozy Azhar, and the Director of Planning, Victoria P ereira. The two of them spent some time with the Ind ependent Senators going through this Bill and the r ationalisation for implementing it. I was struck, having
been in the Senate for a number of years (it is 11 or
12 now) and I was involved in some of the previous
SDOs. I particularly remem ber the SDO for Tucker’s
Point. I know at that time there was a hue and cry,
and several thousand people walked through that
property to try to salvage and save some of Berm uda’s lands.
But even reflecting on that, having listened
and having talked to the Permanent Secretary and the
Director, I was impressed with the fact that the Director, Victoria Pereira, is a Bermudian who has been in
that department for 18 years. And I was quite i mpressed and reassured by her commitment to Berm uda and really to save . . . She indicated to us that she
was a committed Bermudian working in the Planning Department, and she will ensure that our Bermuda, in
terms of all of the areas that need to be saved on this
Island, will be done so under her direction.
So I just wanted to say that I was impressed
with it. I think I had many of my concerns and ques-tions answered during that particular presentation.
There are some questions that have been
posed to you, Senator. I will just hand over to you,
Senator Lindsay Simmons, to respond to some of the
concerns that have been raised.

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
Madam President, the principal St. Regis Act
that was passed was used with the existing SDO pr ocess. The Administration took this path without including any consultation with the public. The people of St.
George’s had no say. The OBA also did not allow the advice of the technical officers to take under consi deration the sensitivity of the World Heritage Site. This
issue still exists. They were bypassing the existing
SDO process, used the legislative process and disr egarded zoning issues as well.
[It was the] same with the Morgan’s Point
[Resort] Act. They also bypassed this by using the
existing SDO process. The OBA Administration took
this path without including any consultation with the
public. There was no public consultation for the people to [have a] say. The OBA also did not follow the advice of the technical officers for this project as well.
They did not take into consideration the sensitive matters related to Morgan’s Point. They have also used legislative Acts to bypass existing SDO processes and
used the legislative process to disregard zoning i ssues.
The Department of Planning are raising the
threshold for sustainable development, also the pr ocess related to the SDOs, adding international standards to the process. We are creating a new and more
improved protected class for special areas of land. We
are making the SDO process more transparent, r equiring more public involvement, the requirement of
the [environmental] impact assessment. There will be more public involvement in the developmental pr ocess, which is important.
Let us also not forget the airport development
Act which caused protests from many Bermudians —
[there was] no regard for the pu blic opinion.
When it comes to the negative resolution, this
still has to be laid in the House. If a Member wishes to
debate it and it is agreed upon, it will still be debated.
So parliamentary scrutiny is not being erased, and the
SDO can still be voted down.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Simmons.
You now move on.
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you.
Madam President, I move that the Bill entitled
Development and Planning Amendment Act 2021 be
now read a second time.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Carry on, Senator Lindsay Simmons.
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Madam President, I move
that [Standing Order] 26 be suspended in respect to
this Bill.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
Senator Ben Smith.

Sen. Ben Smith: Yes, Madam President.
I would like to see if we could get this to go
into Committee [of the whole] .

Sen. Marcus Jones: Second objection.

The President: For what?
Sen. Ben Smith: To amend the negative resol ution
[portion].

The President: You have not presented the amendment to the Bill.

Sen. Ben Smith: Can we discuss it in Committee?



Bermuda Senate The President: If you move that you want to go into
Committee, then —

[Crosstalk]
The President: Senator Lindsay Simmons, you would
have to make a motion. There are on the floor two Senators who have asked to move into Committee.
[Inaudible interjections ]

The President : You can move the motion that we
can—

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: I can, or I have to?

The President: We would have to go into Committee.
Generally speaking, the Senate does not usually go
into Committee for every Bill.
However, if there are objections and if there is
a request on the floor to move into Committee to di scuss . . .

Sen. th e Hon. Dr. Ernest Peets: Is there a vote?
The President: We can determine a vote. There are
two . . . you can move the motion and then we can
vote on it whether we move . . .
The Clerk: Move that the Senate resolve itself into
Committee of the whole for furt her consideration of
the Bill.
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Madam President, I move
that the Senate do now resolve itself into Committee
of the whole for further consideration of the Bill.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
[Inaudible interjection]
The President: You made the motion, and I have
asked whether there is any objection to the motion.
Some Hon. Senator s: We object. Yes, we object.

Object.

The President: Two objections.

An Hon. Senator: Three. I object.
The President: So the Clerk will take a vote of all
Senators with respect to whether or not the Senate
will go into Committee on this Bill.

Sen. Marcus Jones: A point of clarification, Madam
President.
Can this Chamber get some understanding of
how a request to go into Committee can then be voted
against? We have never been here before; I know I
need some clarity. So if Madam President can point to the Standing Order that substantiates that decision, I
would appreciate it.

The President: Senator Jones, there was a motion on
the floor. And because it is a motion, Senators can
vote on the motion. So that is the answer to the question you have raised. Ther e is a motion on the floor to
go into Committee and there are objections. So what
the Clerk would need to do is to take a vote on the
motion as to whether or not the Senate would go into
Committee. So that is what I have asked him to do.

Sen. Marcus Jones: So can I then ask . . . so it is
quite possible that the Government, with the majority of numbers, can refuse to go into Committee for every
piece of legislation that comes across this Chamber?
In theory , is that a possibility?

The President: It is if it is a motion on the floor. Generally speaking, the House goes into Committee. The other place (I am talking about) goes into Committee
on every Bill. The Senate does not. So because of that, there is a motion that was put on the floor that we
go into Commi ttee. And because it is a motion, we
would need to take a vote on it.
There are object ions. So I have asked the
Clerk . . .

[Inaudible interjection]

The President: Yes, I know.
So there is a motion on the floor. I have asked
the Clerk . . . because th is is a motion, we will vote on
this motion as to whether or not we will go into Committee, because this is generally not what the Senate usually does.

The Clerk: Okay, Senators.
We have a motion before us for resolution into
Committee of the whole. So those who are opposed
will vote nay, and those who are in favour will vote yea.

Sen. Ben Smith: Just for clarity, yea is to go into
Committee?

The Clerk: The motion is to resolve into Committee.
So those who vot e yea will want to move into Commi t624 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate tee; those voting nay do not want to move into Committee.
Okay? So, let us begin.

DIVISION
[Motion to resolve into Committee of the whole ]

Ayes: 4 Nays: 7
Sen. Ben Smith Sen. Hon. Dr. E. G. Peets
Sen. Robin Tucker Sen. Owen Darrell
Sen. Marcus Jones Sen. Ariann a Hodgson
Sen. John Wight Sen. Curtis Richardson
Sen. Lindsay Simmons
Sen. Michelle Simmons
Sen. Hon. J. E. Dillas -Wright
The Clerk: Madam President, the motion to resolve
into Committee [of the whole] is defeated .
The President: Yes. The motion to move into Committee has been defeated: 7 ayes to 4 nays .
[Motion defeated: The motion to resolve into Commi ttee of the whole on the Development and Planning Amendment Act 2021 failed by majority on division .]

The President: So, Senator Lindsay Simmons, you
will continue.

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 26

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Madam President, I move
that [Standing Order] 26 be suspended in respect of
this Bill.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection. Carry on, Senator.

[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]

The President: Carry on, Senator.

BILL

THIRD READING

DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING
AMENDMENT ACT 2021

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Madam President, I move
that the Bill entitled Development and Planning Amendment Act 2021 be now read a third time.
The President: Is there any objection to the third
reading?
No objection.
Carry on, Senator Simmons.
Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Madam President, I move
that the Bill do now pass.
The President: It has been moved that the Bill do
now pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
The Bill is passed.
[Motion carried: The Development and Planning
Amendment Act 2021 was read a third time and passed.]

The President: Thank you, Senator Simmons, and
thank you, all Senators.
We will now move on to the second Order of
the day. And that is the Public Treasury (Administr ation and Payments) Amendment and Validation Act
2021. That is in the name of Senator Arianna Hod gson, the Junior Minister for Finance.
Senator Hodgson, you have the floor.

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
Madam President, I move that the Bill entitled
the Public Treasury (Administration and Payments)
Amendment and Validation Act 2021 be now read a
second time.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Carry on, Senator Hodgson.

BILL

SECOND READING

PUBLIC TREASURY (ADMINISTRATION AND
PAYMENTS) AMENDMENT AND
VALIDATION ACT 2021
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
Madam President, the Government wishes
the Senate to now give consideration to the Bill ent itled
Public Treasury (Administration and Payments)
Amendment and Valida tion Act 2021 .
Madam President, on March 12, 2020, the
World Health Organization categorised the COVID -19
outbreak as a pandemic less than three months after
first reporting an unusual cluster of severe pneumonia cases in China that only hinted at a poss ible new di sease. Cases and deaths had rapidly grown to over 120,000 and 4,600, respectively. And little was known aside from evidence that large gatherings played a
key role in the rapid spread of the virus.
Madam President, less than one week later
on March 18, 2020, the Bermuda Government announced that the first diagnosed cases of COVID -19


Bermuda Senate had been confirmed in Bermuda. Madam President,
without any pharmaceutical agents known to be safe
and effective against COVID -19, most governments
around the world were left with no choice but to i mpose non- pharmaceutical interventions to reduce
transmission of the virus and mitigate risks to the pu blic health. These included bans on public gatherings,
mandatory stay -at-home policies, closures of schools
and non- esse ntial businesses, and in some cases,
like Bermuda, restrictions or complete closures of
borders. While these proved effective in reducing transmission, their impact on many economies has
been severe.
Madam President, as previously mentioned,
the impact of the pandemic has been felt differently by
individuals depending on their circumstances, most notably those without the ability to earn income wor king from home. No doubt, Madam President, the i mpact of this pandemic has been profound on all of us,
but I ask Senators to consider the impact on individuals who were deprived of the ability to earn income to provide for their family units.
In this age of always -on, always -connected
smartphones, mobile devices and computers, at times
we may momentarily lose sight of and potentially take
for granted the fact that many of our essential activ ities depend on human interaction with individuals who
can only deliver their services face to face. For many
in Bermuda, in addition to dealing with actual or potential health challenges, they faced a struggle to
even take care of their basic needs due to no or signi ficantly reduced income. It was clear that the Gover nment needed to provide financial assistance to those individuals most impacted by restrictions on mov ement and thus their ability to provide for their families.
The disruption of COVID -19 has been exper ienced and felt by all, but in a manner that is not equ itable and is not balanced. The UEB [unemployment
benefit] represents this Government’s best effort to
ensure that the impact of the necessary public health
imperatives to keep our collective society safe was
more balanced, especially for those who were forced
to sacrifice their ability to earn income for the greater good of all.
Madam President, the Government therefore
in very short order drafted regulations to provide an emergency and temporary unemployment benefit pr ogramme, a first of any kind in Bermuda. Further as the
fast-paced pandemic evolved and outbreaks occurred
in Bermuda, the Government was commit ted to extend or reintroduce support as necessary which r esulted in several amendments to the regulations to
authorise payments.
Madam President, as Senators would be
aware, the demand for the UEB was overwhelming and substantial with over 10,000 persons applying for
initial support and more than 6,500 reapplying for continued benefits under various amended regulations.
Because of the critical nature of ensuring that funding was provided to these vulnerable persons on a timely
basis, initially at the onset of the first shelter -in-place
order, there were instances in which there was insuff icient time for the unemployment benefit applications
to be completed within the full review and approval process prior to making payments.
Madam President, there is ther efore a need to
validate any such payment made under any of the unemployment benefit regulations to an eligible person without prior approval as required by the relevant
UEB regulations. During the initial UEB, the Depar tment of Workforce Development formally approved
3,300 applications, having vetted them in accordance
with the regulations. During the second phase, all
5,833 applications that have received benefits were
fully vetted and approved in advance of payment.
Madam President, due to fast -moving d evelopments, including rapid changes of infection rates on the Island, it is also necessary to also validate all i nstances in which extensions were made to the pa yment of UEB. Some payments were made prior to the
extension of their relative regulations due to timing
differences between when amendments could be gazetted and when individuals were expecting and rel ying on their next benefit payment to help provide for
their families.
From the 6
th of January through the 23rd of
March, 357 payments were made for a total of $516,065. Payments of $73,000 were made to individuals who were under mandatory medical quarantine without pay from their employers. And 267 pa yments for $443,000 were made to individuals whose
income was directly impacted by the restrictions on
bars and indoor dining. Lastly, Madam President, there were also i nstances in which some recipients of the UEB received
more money than their legislated entitlement. In most
cases, this was due to individuals or their employers
not advising on a timel y basis that they had returned
to work as required under the regulations. Some r ecipients have already returned these funds, while ot hers whether or not they were aware, have not and therefore still owe the government.
Madam President, I would like to take a m oment to explain how the overwhelming majority of the situations occurred by walking through an actual example. One individual was eligible for benefits begi nning March 24, 2020, the effective date of the regul ations, and ending May 25 when they returned to work. This is a period of nine weeks, meaning, he was eligible for a total benefit of $4,500. However, Madam President, while he went back to work on the 25
th of
May, he did not inform the Government, contrary to
the requirements in the regulations , until late in June.
Therefore, on June 10, he was paid an additional biweekly payment of $1,000, which represents money
he received while working and earning normal income
while not informing the Government.
626 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate This scenario represents the vast majority of
funds outstanding. It is the Government’s intention to
inform all individuals with outstanding balances of this
nature and pursue the recovery of amounts directly
from respective recipients. To this end the Ministry of Finance has formally commenced this recovery effort
and sent emails to 2,075 individuals, which represents
an aggregate of $2.6 million of the $3 million that is
outstanding. While initial attempts will be pursued directly with the individuals, where appropriate and as
needed, the Government will engage with employers
in our efforts to return funds to the public purse.
It should be noted that several individuals,
and in a few instances companies on behalf of their employees, proactively returned funds they knew were more than the benefit enti tlement in advance of
the Government’s formal recovery efforts. The expec-tation is that all individuals and all companies that are
informed will follow these examples of responsible
citizenship and swiftly return funds.
Madam President, it is important t o reemphasise that the COVID -19 pandemic was not something
most countries were sufficiently prepared for. When
the Bermuda Government was faced with having to
ensure that its citizens were able to support themselves and their families due to the financial impact of
public health measures, it was operating in a new territory and without the luxury of time.
Madam President, as I have mentioned prev iously, it was a time when saving lives had to take
precedence over rigid adherence to rules of best practices f or the greater good. Notwithstanding that pr edicament, sufficient processes were followed and
amended to ensure that the actions contemplated by
this Bill are to validate eligible payments and assist
[in] the recovery of any amounts outstanding to the
Gove rnment. Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Arianna Hodgson. Would any other Senator care to speak on this
Bill?
Senator Jones, you have the floor.

Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you, Madam President. I
would like to thank the Junior Minister for bringing this
legislation before this Chamber today. I surely can
appreciate the work that the Government did under
much stress and in the midst of a major natural disaster that we have been through to put a system in place
to help and assist those in our community who were in
dire straits financially. So we do appreciate that, and we thank the Government and the civil servants who had to make that happen virtually overnight.
Having said that, we surely do encourage the
Government to have a s trict and robust regime in
place to ensure that payments in the future will not be done in error, ensure that those who were paid when
they should not have been paid, that [this] money is
recouped. Because we have to constantly remind our-selves that this i s the people’s purse, not an individual’s. It is what the joint efforts of a country does to provide (shall we say) a safety net for its fellow cit izens. And I believe that most of us in this room, around this Island would applaud what was done but would r eiterate that the regime should be in place to
ensure that that does not repeat itself.
One thing that I did take note of as well —I
believe the Junior Minister may have mentioned it in
her brief, but I believe it is worth repeating. And that is
if the gov ernment department is also in direct contact
with the employers, who would know if these emplo yees had returned to work, a lot of the confusion could
have been cleared up as well.
So with those short words, Madam President,
we are in support of this legis lation. Thank you for
your time.

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

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I was seeking some clarity on whether or not
we are directly reaching out to the employers, and I
can get that information to you, Senator Jones. Is that suitable? I can move forward?

The President: Yes. You can carry on.

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Okay. Thank you, Madam
Presid ent. I move that the Bill entitled the Public
Treasury (Administration and Payments) Amendment
and Validation Act 2021 be now read a second time.

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

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 26

Sen. Ar ianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident. I move that Standing Order 26 be suspended in
respect of this Bill.

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

[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]

BILL

THIRD READING

PUBLI C TREASURY (ADMINISTRATION AND
PAYMENTS) AMENDMENT AND
VALIDATION ACT 2021



Bermuda Senate Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I move that the Bill entitled the Public Treasury (Administration and Payments) Amendment and
Validation Act 2021 be now read a third time.

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

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I move that the Bill do now pass.
The President: It has been moved that the Bill ent itled the Public Treasury (Admi nistration and Pa yments) Amendment and Validation Act 2021 do now
pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
The Bill is passed.

[Motion carried: T he Public Treasury (Administration
and Payments) Amendment and Validation Act 2021
was read a third time and passed.]

The President: Thank you, Senator Arianna Hodgson.
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you. Thank you,

We now move on to the next item on
the Orders of the Day. That is, items that may be considered under the provision of Standing Order 25. And
that is the second reading of the Financial Assistance
Amendment and Validation Act 2021. This is also in
the name of Senator Arianna Hodgson, Junior Mini ster for Labour.
You have the floor.

STANDING ORDER 25

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I move that the provisions of Standing Order
25 be granted so that the Senate may now proceed with the second reading of the Bill entitled the Fina ncial Assistance Amendment and Validation Act 2021.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.

[Motion carried: Leave granted for the Financial Assistance Amendment and Validation Act 2021 to be read
a second time on the same day as its first reading.]

The President: Carry on, Senator Hodgson.
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
Madam President, I move that the Bill entitled
the Financial Assistance Amendment and Validation
Act 2021 be read a second time.

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

BILL

SECOND READING

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE AMENDMENT
AND VALIDATION ACT 2021

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
Madam President, I bring to the Senate today
the Bill entitled the Financial Assistance Amendment
and Validation Act 2021 . This Bill amends regulation
6A of the Financial Assistance Regulations 2004 with
retrospective effect and validates certain payments
made under that regulation.
Madam President, the purpose of this Bill is to
amend regulation 6A(1) of the Financial Assistance
Regulations 2004 to extend the maximum duration of
a financial assistance award for an able- bodied recip ient from five years to seven years. The amendment will also make this change retroactive, effective from
April 1, 2021, in order to validate payments made
since the beginning of the 2021/22 fiscal year.
The Senate will recall that with that, in accordance with [regulation] 6A(1), payment of an award
to an able- bodied recipient shall be limited to a max imum period of five years, whether that period is con-tinuous or an aggregate period made up of two or
more awards.
Madam President, Senate should be advised
that the five- year term for some financial assistance
clients expired on March 31, 2021. This Bill amends
the regulations to extend the five- year term to seven
years. Accordingly, a retroactive amendment to the regulations will be required to address the issue with respect to pay ments made since April 1, 2021. This
includes 100 persons who have received payments
totalling $700,046.56.
Senate will recall that the mission of the D epartment of Financial Assistance is to assist the vulnerable Bermudians to maintain a standard of livi ng
during challenging economic times. This cashless
programme is designed to provide a financial stimulus
to individuals and households as they navigate
through economic hardships.
Madam President, as of June 2021 the total
number of persons on assistance was 2,306. The
largest category pertained to pensioners at 1,037, fol-lowed by those with disabilities at 786, then persons
628 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate employed with insufficient earnings at 245. The smal lest category is able- bodied unemployed persons at
238, although this number continues to trend upwards
monthly as a result of the current labour market conditions in the aftermath of the COVID -19 pandemic.
I would also like to take time to remind Senate
that the DFA [Department of F inancial Assistance]
also provides the following services to eligible persons on financial assistance: rent, nursing and rest home
fees, food allowance, health insurance, disability service, BELCO allowance, personal home- care allo wance, medical supplies and equipment, and telephone
allowance.
Madam Pres ident, it is expected that the effects of the pandemic will be felt for some time into the
foreseeable future. This could not have been predic ted at the time the five- year term was introduced. This
Government remains committed to assisting and supporting e very Bermudian, especially those who face
challenges in getting back to gainful and meaningful employment. Therefore, we will continue to provide the necessary support, assistance and resources
needed to carry Bermudians through this unprec edented and for many unpredictable time.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Hodgson.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Jones, you have the floor.
Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you, Madam President.
Again, I thank the Junior Minister for bringing this legislation before us here today. I think it is an important
piece of legislation. We as a community, I believe that
we are obligated to take care of those who are vulnerable and in a situation of dire straits. And extendi ng
the number of years from five to seven at a time when
this pandemic [struck which] no one was prepared for,
Madam President, makes this legislation a legislation
of compassion.
Having said that, Madam President, I would
have been far more (shall we say ) pleased if this particular legislation would have had a sunset clause to it. As much as we know that two years added to the
standard five years would be helpful, I would like to think that the effects of this pandemic should not be
felt 10, 20 years down the road from now. As a means
of being compassionate, but at the same time responsible with the public purse, I would like to have seen a
possible clause that would turn back the terms to five
years, let us say, in five years’ time.
I would also like to see a more vigorous r egime in place to ensure that things such as soft skills,
in addition to technical skills, be beefed up. I believe
that we should have a system in place even within our high schools that trains our young people to have a
professional w ork ethic so that they know how to pr esent themselves in an interview, know how to have a strong work ethic when they enter into the workforce.
These things are important, Madam President. And
the reason why I raise that is because I have been
asking the q uestion to employers, How has the hiring
gone? (especially within the category of food service
in restaurants ), and I am recognising that many employers out there are having a hard time filling these
positions that were once filled by expats.
One thing that I have reiterated several times
in the Senate, having been an employer of and manager of an establishment of over 100 staff, is that what I am hearing constantly is that our employers want to
hire Bermudians. They desperately want to hire Bermudians. But at the same time they must ensure that
they run a business professionally and efficiently. So
we need to–– in tandem with supporting those who are
vulnerable, those who are in a hard place due to this
pandemic, in addition to extending the time from five
years to seven years to allow for our fellow Bermudians to be eligible for financial assistance ––we should
also on the other side push the point that those who
are in a hard place, those who are trying to get back into the workforce need to be trained and have all of
the support at their disposal to ensure that they are
employable, Madam President.
So in short, I will say that it would have been
great if we would have seen a sunset clause whereby
this five years that has turned into seven sometime within t he future can be rolled back to five. But in general, Madam President, we support this legislation.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Jones.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Robin Tucker, you have the floor.

Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Madam President.
Like my fellow Senator Jones, I certainly su pport the legislation. However, I too would like to have
seen a sunset clause put into it. Of course, every
country, every government has an obligation to pr ovide financial support for its citizens when they are in
need. So that is a given. We already know the effects
of COVID -19 and that there are many people struggling, able- bodied as well as those who are in the ot her categories that were already menti oned.
However, as it relates to employers, one of
the things that Senator Jones had spoken about was
having spoken to employers. I have been in human
resources both in a corporate environment and in a hospitality environment. And I have seen first -hand, I
have had people come to me who have had no bac kground, no experience, bringing me their financial as-sistance forms, having applied for corporate attorney
positions, walking in in my office just asking me to
sign off on their form just to confirm that they have
applied for a job.


Bermuda Senate I have hired people in hospitality enviro nments where they have shown up on day one, and on
day two they have called back and said that they have
got another opportunity, and left. I have hired people,
again Bermudians in hospital ity environments, who
have been hired as wait servers and said that they do
not want to work shifts and they do not want to work
weekends.
So I am just saying that my comments —
please, I want to stress I am not minimising the fact
that there are able- bodied persons on financial assi stance. Everybody needs a hand at some point or the
other. I personally have come as a young person
growing up listening to my grandmother beg the electric light company man to take the lock off of the meter box because the light s were out. So I know what it is
like not to have. And I certainly would not want to know that people are going without.
However, I think that responsibly, any responsible government, any responsible parent will do what sometimes is unpopular and will pus h the envelope to
ensure that people and their children pull their own
bootstraps up. And I sincerely believe that we ought to
be giving people a hand, absolutely, but it is a hand.
And I believe that seven years is quite a long time for
the Government to be supporting able- bodied people
who are capable of having jobs.
Sometimes that is going to mean that while
we are navigating through our lives, we may not be
able to get the job that we are accustomed to doing.
We may have to take another type of a job until we
are able to get back into the environment in which we
are accustomed. I have an uncle who— this is quite
some years ago. Eastern Airlines went out of bus iness. He was working for Eastern. He had a wife who
had brain cancer, two children to support a nd a mor tgage. He had no means of income. What he did was he went to his next -door neighbour. He borrowed his
next-door neighbour’s lawnmower and drove around
to go and cut people’s lawns. He ended up picking up
dead bodies for a funeral parlour and delivering flo wers for the funeral parlour.
So all I am saying with that example is that I
just want to encourage people that we have to som etimes get outside of the box. But from a governmental
point of view, I do not think that we are servicing, d oing the bes t to service able- bodied people who could
be working. I think that if people in the Senate—I think
we could all recognise that there are certain people,
and those are the people I am speaking about —there
are certain people who just want to live off of the Go vernment and off of the system. Those are the people whom I am speaking to.
So therefore, I believe that we do need to
have a cut -off point, a cut -off reassessment point. [We
need to] put some more of those checks and balances in place to ensure that pe ople who are able- bodied
who can be working are doing so. We all have heard the stories of people who have left Bermuda, who have gone to the UK and are living off of the UK. My
concern is that we do not turn into a local UK where
people are doing the very same thing here.
Thank you, Madam President.

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

Sen. Ben Smith: Thank you, Madam President.
So, Madam President, it is always a balancing
act when you are having a discussion about this specific group of people who [are in] need. And with the
pandemic, the number of people who are in need has
increased significantly. So we are fully aware that this
is the situation, and at no time are we saying that we
should not be supporting the people who need it the
most at this time.
But when you look at a period of five years,
and now it is going to be seven years, you would think
that with Workforce Development, they would have
the opportuni ty to train these able- bodied people to do
a job [within that] a five- year period. And we also
know that you would have the idea that there are certain jobs that are held by work permit holders, that you
could train somebody for a specific job because it i s
such a long period of time.
The problem that I am looking at is, if som eone is unemployed over a five- year period, was there
no opportunity that came up? Or is there a situation
where some of the people within this group are unemployable? It is a very t ough thing to say about som ebody. But it has been alluded to. There are some
people who are just checking the box. They go around
to different establishments, knock on the door and
say, Is there a job available? They have no intention
of ever trying to get the job. We have to make sure
that the group that we need to protect, the ones who
are able- bodied who really want to work are not being
caught up in this same group with others who do not
have that intention.
So I guess the first question that I have is
about that correlation with training for these able-bodied people so that they can be prepared for a job
so that we do not have somebody who is unemployed ––who wants a job and is willing to work –– over a fiveyear period and now what will be a seven- year period.
My second question is, Within that period is
there a reset? So if you were able to become employed, how long do you have to be employed for [so
that] if you became unemployed again you now start up another five years, seven years? Do you understand what I mean?
The reason I bring that up is because of what
Senator Tucker just alluded to that there are some people who like to live off of the system. And what we
do not want to do is create an environment where that is enticing for people. Because t he reality is that we
have some parts of our population who have decided
630 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate to get on that plane and go to England because they
have heard the rumours that there is an easier life,
that you can go over there and be supported with
health care. You can be supported with getting money, but you do not have to work. We do not want to get into a situation where that is the environment that
we are creating to make people think that this is an
option. And once again it is not everybody. But there
are some people who f all into that category, and we
need to make sure that we are separating the ones who are able- bodied who want to work, who are wil ling to train, who are willing to do what it takes for them
to get a job, and the group who do not want to do that.
So, Madam President, when I see the five to
seven years [extension], I understand it in this partic ular instance. But seven years without work? I need to know that what we are doing is showing that they
have done everything they can to progress toward a
job so that we do not have more people joining this
line of able -bodied unemployed who are collecting
money.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Ben Smith.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Hearing none, then it is over to you, Senator
Hodgson.
Oh, I beg your pardon! Minister Peets.

I do apologise,
Madam President. I was just taking my seat.
Madam President, I have had the opportunity
to work in social services for the better part of ma ybe
perhaps two decades. And there is a lot of convers ation that we can have about the various factors on
unemployment, housing and all of the situations that
have given rise to why financial assistance is so i mportant. Obviously, this is not the opportuni ty to do
that, nor is this the Bill to do that. But one of the things
I am grateful for regarding this Bill is that the Gover nment recognises that this is a pandemic , and, having
said that, there are extraordinary circumstances that
are at play.
But also, in particular, there are individuals
who are at the end of the five years without emplo yment and still need assistance. Without this amendment, they would not be able to continue. So I am
grateful for the Junior Minister bringing the Bill to the
Senate for debate. I am asking that all Senators support this Bill.
Thank you.

The President: Thank you, the Hon. Dr. E. G. Peets,
for your comments.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Hearing none then, Senator Arianna Hodgson, it is over to you.
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I just want to address a few of the points
made by the Opposition Senators.

The President: Yes.

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: So I do want to make it clear
that the Department of Workforce Development and
the Departm ent of Financial Assistance have already
partnered together to offer personal employment
plans to Financial Assistance clients. So this is som ething that we are working on, and as we continue to
move forward and see the changes that are necessary or relevant, we will continue to make those
changes and go forward.
But I would say as a Government particularly,
we are committed to ensuring that our persons are ready for the workplace and that employers have the
support that they need and that employees also have
the support that they need. And that looks like a lot of
different things that Workforce Development is explor-ing at this time.
This initiative, the personal employment plan,
will actually help Bermudians to secure gainful and meaningful employment as they accept the assistance
from the Department of Financial Assistance. The
employment plans include work readiness, financial literacy and computer literacy training, along with individual career coaching and support.
To Senator Tucker’s points, I also work in HR
and I have worked in the public and the private sectors. And I have hired persons with a lot of exper ience, and I have also hired persons with little to no experience. Even recently in my experience and my
efforts with the COVID -19 pandemic, we have seen a
lot of persons have the opportunity to gain gainful em-ployment. It has been an experience that persons
would have never otherwise been able to get. So I do applaud the Government for providing those opport unities for persons who were out of work, literally hiring
persons every day or at least every other day. So that
is encouraging.
I have also heard from a lot of employers who
have been in contact or who have worked with Wor kforce Development, and they are very pleased with
the work that is being done and the training opportunities that are being afforded to our Bermudians, both
young and old. I would say that I find it a bit difficult to
assume the person’s aim is to live off the system. I
would say that we are not aware of why persons are on financial assistance. We are not aware of the particular challenges. And I do not think it is enticing for
anybody to have to go to the Government for support
for basic necessities.
We do want to empower persons and address
the root causes. So in the int erim, we do think it is
necessary to provide the support to persons who have
found themselves at the end of the five years in the


Bermuda Senate middle of a pandemic. So I do thank you all for the
general support of this Bill.
Madam President, I move that the Bill entit led
the Financial Assistance Amendment and Validation
Act 2021 be now read a second time.

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

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 26
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I move that [Standing Order] 26 be suspended
in respect of this Bill.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.

[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]

BILL

THIRD READING

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE AMENDMENT
AND VALIDATION ACT 2021

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Madam President, I move
that the Bill entitled the Financial Assistance Amendment and Validation Act 2021 be now read a third
time.

The President: Is there any objection to the third
reading?
No objection.
Sen. Arianna Hodgso n: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I move that the Bill do now pass.
The President: It has been moved that the Bill ent itled the Financial Assistance Amendment and Validation Act 2021 do now pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
The B ill is passed.

[Motion carried: The Financial Assistance Amendment
and Validation Act 2021 was read a third time and
passed.]

The President: Thank you, Senator Hodgson and all
Senators.

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
The President: We now move on to the next item on
our agenda, and that is consideration of the Draft O rder entitled Tourism Investment (Nautilus Hotel) Order
2021. And that is in the name of Senator Owen Darrell, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Tourism.
Senator Darrell, you have the floor.

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 71(2)

Sen. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, I move that Standing Order
71(2) be suspended so that the Senate may now pr oceed with the consideration of the Tourism Investment
(Nautilus Hotel) Order 2021.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
[Motion carried: Standing Order 71(2) suspended.]
Sen. Owen Darrell: Madam President, I move that
the Senate do now take under consideration the Draft
Order entitled the Tourism Investment (Nautilus Hotel)
Order 2021.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Carry on, Senator Darrell.

DRAFT ORDER

TOURISM INVESTMENT (NAUTILUS
HOTEL) ORDER 2021
Sen. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President , the purpose of this
Tourism
Investment (Nautilus Hotel) Order 2021 is to permit
the grant of tax relief to the developers investing in the
tourism products , Nautilus Hotel and Atlantic Hotel
Limited, which is in the national economic interests of Bermuda.
Madam President, Honourable Members of
the Senate will recall that the Tourism Investment Act
2017 [the Act] became operative in November 2017.
The primary objective of the Act is to make Bermuda
more attractive to foreign investors and to incentivise and assist local tourism -related business owners to
invest in their product. The Tourism Investment Act provides a scale of t ax relief that can be accessed by
developers through the grant of an Order approved by the House [and this Senate]. By way of background, Madam President, the
Nautilus property, located on 88 South Road, Wa rwick, is adjacent to the Azura Hotel residences located at 90 South Road, Warwick. The Church Bay Trust
Company Ltd., licensed trust corporation and trustee
of the Nautilus Trust, acquired the Nautilus property on January 10, 2021, and is the sole shareholder in
the Atlantic Hotel Limited. The trust submitted an a p632 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate plication for a tourism investment Order on behalf of
the Atlantic Hotel Limited on March 25, 2021 [reques ting the maximum full 10- year exemption available u nder the law].
The Nautilus property consists of 1.97 acres
and is substantially zoned tourism, 75 per cent, with
the remainder being residential 2. The Nautilus prop-erty was acquired in order to serve as an expansion
project to the Azura, which has now been substantially
developed by the principals of Church Bay Trust
Company Ltd. The int ent is to develop the Nautilus
property in two phases. P hase 1(a) would redevelop
the existing Nautilus main house into three units, cr eating between 20 and 24 new units. Phase 1(b) would renovate the remainder of the existing Nautilus house and infrastruc ture, creating additional hotel -quality
amenities including but not limited to landscaping, lighting, roadways and a new saltwater pool. The lo wer floors of the existing residence building will be renovated to create two additional hotel residences, a
total of six hotel keys, or suites.
Phase 2 will consist of the creation of 20 add itional hotel residences, 9 two-bedroom suites and 11
three- bedroom suites. The total hotel inventory will
include a potential maximum of 60 new or like- new
keys, with a minimum of 24 keys each if the owner
only commits to one mandatory key or suite.
Madam President, the trust has committed
$3.5 million to the acquisition of the subject property and a further $250,000 in closing costs. The construction costs of phases 1(a) and 1(b) are estimated to be
$3 million, and phase 2 [to be] $18.5 million. The total
budget for the costs, including acquisition, renovation, professional fees, transaction costs, reserves and
working capital, is estimated at $28 million.
Madam President, in meeting the criteria for a
new hotel, this Order provides for the Nautilus property to receive, in summary:
• full relief from customs duty for a period of six
years from the commencement of this Order ;
• full exemption from hotel occupancy tax for a
period of six years after the hotel’s opening
date;
• full exemption from the employers’ share of payroll tax for a period of six years from the
hotel’s opening date, subject to annual verif ication of a management training programme
for Bermudians; and
• full exemption from land tax for one year star ting six years after the hotel’s opening date,
subject to verification that the hotel employs
70 per cent Bermuda staff, and ending on its
first anniversary of that date.
Madam President, it is forecast that 100 to
150 cons truction jobs will be engaged during the
three- to-four-year development process of Nautilus. A
similar number of jobs were created during Azura’s
development. The Nautil us development will also r esult in additional 25- plus jobs of varying duration in support of the development’s design, engineering,
financial, legal and associated disciplines. Upon completion of Nautilus, the combined Azura/Nautilus r esort is expected to provide approximately 80 hospital ity and food- and-beverage jobs.
This, Madam Pres ident, is welcome news and
signals a strong vote of confidence in Bermuda’s tourism and represents another product offering in support
of the rebuilding of the industry. Madam President,
this Government is well aware of the challenges
ahead for our Island. The commitment and confidence
demonstrated by the Atlantic Hotel Limited is recognised and deeply appreciated. Bermuda cannot rest
on its past laurels. The constant renewal of our hotel
product is critical, and this investment Order will help
to significa ntly achieve this end.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Owen Darrell,
Junior Minister for the Cabinet Office and Tourism.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Order?
Senator Jones, you have the floor.

Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you, Madam President.
I listened with great interest to the Junior Mi nister presenting this piece of legislation, and I believe
that we all can be very pleased that we have more foreign investment coming into this country to further
develop o ur hotel product.
I do have a few questions to ask of the Junior
Minister, and I have some comments after that. When
I was listening to the two phases of development, I
believe he had a 1(a) and 1(b). My question would be,
Is the first phase of development the residential component of the full development? I did not clearly, fully
see whether these phases were separate and apart from one another. So I know that in the hotel industry
part of the financial model is to have a residential component in addition to the units that are going to be
rented out to tourists. So if the Junior Minister can
clarify that for me as well?
My next question would be access to the w aterfront. Now, it was stated in the Junior Minister’s
brief that this particular development was going to be a part of the Azura development. I can assume, but I
refuse to (I do not want to assume), but would like to
know the access to the waterfront that is there and
whether there is going to be an environmental impact
assessment [and] whether an e nvironmental asses sment is needed and necessary. We know at that particular area on South Shore there have been a number of developments that have (shall we say) been put
in a position of risk because of the potential erosion
there on the South Shore. So I would like to know if
there are plans for an environment impact asses sment.
Also, in light of what we discussed earlier t oday and the legislation that was just passed earlier,


Bermuda Senate the Development and Planning Amendment Act, does
the Junior Minister anticipat e that there will be a need
for a Special Development Order for this particular
property as well? It would be good for this Chamber to
know in advance if this is something that the Gover nment anticipates.
Most of us will be aware of the Hotels Concession Act that was passed back in 2000. That was
the original brainchild of a former PLP Administration
that put the concessions together to encourage and
incentivise hotel investment in this country. That par-ticular Act, that particular concession has had its s uccesses and (shall we say) not -so-successful exper iences. One thing I did take note of, which I am very pleased about, one of the stipulations of this particular Tourism Investment (Nautilus Hotel) Order is for there
to be a management training programme in place as
part of its plan.
My question to this particular piece of this O rder is, With this management training, would there be a management position at the end of this training plan? Now, I will say this. I have worked in a number
of hotel management groups, and I have been the
only Bermudian sitting around the table of all of the
executives. Now, we have seen an improvement, a
gradual improvement in that. But one thing I would
love to be able to see, just as much as we have a 70 per cent target of hot el staff being Bermudian, I
would love to see, for example, a 50 per cent target of
Bermudians who are sitting around the executive
management table—just a way of measuring performance, measuring the intentions of these hotels to
ensure that our Bermudians not only get into the tourism hospitality industry but also can see their way to
the top of the tourism hospitality industry.
So, Madam President, with those questions
and those comments, I thank you for my time.

The President: Thank you, Senator Jones.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Order?
Hearing none then, Senator Darrell, it is over
to you.

Sen. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President.
As always, I listened intently to what Senator
Jones always has to say, as he does have experience in the tourism industry. So I am going to work bac kwards off of his questions.
The first one is in regard to the management
training and the desire of all of us to see more Berm udians in executive management positions. I can say
this just to start, the Government’s Training and Policy
Unit has already started discussions with the Depar tment of Workforce Development and with the hotel representatives to determine the components of such a plan when it comes to management training. It is
likely that there will be a difference between the two hotels and each plan will have a customised approach
as to how this would look.
But with that said, there is a hotel that just
recently opened in Bermuda. I do know that they do
have a Bermudian who is on their management, or executive, team. They have more Bermudians (we
have been told) who will move into those executive
positions in the next couple of years once they are
sufficiently trained. So to answer your question, Sen ator Jones, the answer is yes. I think we all do wish to
get more Bermudians into management training and management positions going forward.
On the second question (I will skip to) is
phase 1(a). The way I understand it, it is going to be the 25 per cent of the total development which will b e
residences. Then phase 1(b) will move into the hotel and the suite portion.
The second question he did ask is, as you can
understand, very technical in nature. I do not have the
answers readily available at this time, the one on the
impact study, the one on access to the water and the
piece about, Is the intention to go [with an ] SDO ? But I
will look to getting those three for you.
That is all I have on that, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Darrell. You can
carry on now and move.
Sen. Owen Darrell: Madam President, I move that
the said D raft Order be approved and the following
message be sent to Her Excellency the Governor:
May it please you, Your Excellency:
The Senate, having had under consideration
the Draft Order entitled the Tourism Investment (Na utilus Hotel) Order 2021 proposed to be made by the
Minister responsible for Tourism with the written
agreement of the Minister of Finance under the prov isions of section 5 of the Tourism Investment Act 2017,
has the honour to inform Your Excellency that the
Senate has approved the said Draft Order.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection. Therefore, Senator Darrell, a
suitable message will be sent to her Excellency.

[Motion carri ed: The Draft Order entitled Tourism I nvestment (Nautilus Hotel) Order 2021 was approved.]

Sen. Owen Darrell: Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senators.
We will now move on to the last item on our
agenda, and that is consideration of the D raft Order
entitled the Public Health (COVID -19) Emergency E xtension (No. 4) Order 2021, and that is in the name of Senator Arianna Hodgson, Junior Minister for Health.
You have the floor.

634 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 71(2)

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Madam President, I move
that Standing Order 71(2) be suspended so that Senate may now proceed with consideration of the Public Health (COVID -19) Emergency Extension (No. 4) O rder 2021.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
[Motion carried: Standing Order 71(2) suspended.]

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I move that the Senate do now take under
consideration the D raft Order entitled the Public
Health (COVID -19) Emergency Extension (No. 4) O rder 2021.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.

DRAFT ORDER

PUBLIC HEALTH (COVID- 19) EMERGENCY
EXTENSION (NO. 4) ORDER 2021
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: I am pleased to invite the
Senate to consider the Order entitled the
Public
Health (COVID -19) Emergency Extension (No. 4) O rder 2021 .
Madam President, Senators will be aware that
the current Publi c Health Emergency Order is scheduled to lapse on 23 August 2021. The Emergency orders, which have been in place since 30 June 2020 following the state of emergency put in place on
1 April 2020, are made pursuant to section 107A of
the Public Health Act 19 49 and declare that a public
health emergency exists in Bermuda due to a communicable disease that poses a threat to the Island.
We live on a very small island, Madam President, and
as we know from two very serious outbreaks in D ecember of last year and in March/April of this year, the
[coronavirus] can spread quickly and with devastating
effect. It strikes at the heart of our community as hu ndreds of people test positive, thousands end up in quarantine, an d sadly, people succumb to it and die.
To date, Ber muda has lost 33 lives to COVID -19.
We can slow the spread of the virus by follo wing basic public health advice of wearing a mask to cover our nose and mouth, as well as physically di stancing, downloading the WeHealth Bermuda app, and avoiding the three C ’s of closed spaces, crowded
places and close- contact settings. The more barriers and space there are between you and others, the
harder it is for the virus to spread.
Also, Madam President, we have added a nother layer of protection this year, the COVID -19 vaccine. As has been said many times, vaccines save
lives, and it is no different with the Pfizer and the
AstraZeneca vaccines being used in Bermuda now.
Both vaccines have proven to be highly effective after
two doses. While an immunised person can stil l test
positive, evidence shows you are likely to feel few, if
any symptoms or you may experience only a mild version of the disease because your body is better able
to fight off the virus. This means we can keep people
out of the hospital and have fewer deaths due to
COVID -19. With a reduced viral load on your system,
it is also hoped you are less likely to transmit the coronavirus, a nd research so far is promising.
Madam President, this Government is firmly of
the view that the COVID -19 vaccine is vital to our r eturn to normal.
Madam President, Bermuda’s goal of community immunity will be achieved when 70.0 per cent
of the total population has been immunised. As of July
17, the most recent reporting date, 65.0 per cent of
the population has been vaccinat ed with one dose
and 63.7 per cent of the population has been immunised with two doses. When you take into consideration just the eligible Bermudian population, who are those
over 12 years of age, 73.3 per cent of the population
has received either one or two doses of a vaccine.
These are great results so far. For all of those who
have taken the important step to get vaccinated,
please know your vaccination not only protects you,
but it protects your family and our Bermuda community. And we are ever grateful.
Madam President, as a Government, we recognise it will take more time to reach the goal of
community immunity. Younger age groups, in partic ular, have not yet taken full advantage of the vaccines available. However, when the vaccine campaign b egan in J anuary, the Government’s immediate goal
was to protect our most vulnerable population— our
seniors. I am extremely pleased to report that 81 per
cent of people between the ages of 65 and 79 have
one or both vaccine doses and 87 per cent of seniors
over the age of 80 have one or both doses. This
means we are well on our way to protecting our senior
population. To repeat —preventing infection, the onset
of the disease itself, and community spread via a pr ogramme of mass vaccination will be a critical part of
how we navigate our way out of this pandemic. We
have all felt the impact that COVID -19 has had on us
personally, and we all now know it has impacted our
Island’s economy. Getting vaccinated is an integral
part of our ongoing collective effort to reduce the
spread of the virus here on Island. This is essential, not only for our health, but also to allow us to return to
a sense of normalcy with our daily lives.


Bermuda Senate Madam President, as we all know, COVID -19
was caused by a new virus that spread quickly
throughout the world. Unfortunately, it still exists, in
large part, because it can be transmitted so easily be-tween people who are in close contact or through coughs and sneezes.
Madam President, the Acting Minister of
Health consulted with the Chief Medical Officer and determined that a communicable disease of the first or
second category, namely COVID -19, continues to
pose a severe threat to public health in Bermuda. The
outbreak this past spring which saw both a sharp rise
in positive cases and an increase in deaths highligh ted the impact of variants of concern. In that outbreak
it was a UK variant of COVID -19 (the Alpha variant
[B.1.1.7]) which was the variant of concern. To control
and contain the spread of infection, public health
measures, such as those provided for in regulations,
will continue to be relevant and necessary beyond
August 23, 2021.
This Order before us now will extend the Pu blic Health (COVID -19) Emergency Order 2021, made
under the Public Health Act 1949, to permit the Governor to continue the Public Health (COVID -19)
Emergency Powers Regulations 2021, which impose
extraordinary measures necessary in the interests of
public health to prevent, control and suppress COVID -
19.
Madam President, Honourable Senators will
be aware that the Public Heal th (COVID -19) Emergency Extension (No. 3) Order 2021 was made under
the affirmative resolution procedure, effective June 24,
2021, for 60 days, expiring on August 23, 2021. Ho wever, the COVID -19 pandemic continues to rage on
globally and a public health em ergency continues to
exist on our shores. Therefore, in accordance with
sections 107A(3) and 107A(4) of the
Public Health Act
1949 , I bring the Public Healt h (COVID -19) Emergency Extension (No. 4) Order 2021 to this Honourable
Chamber to seek approval for the extension of the
public health emergency for a further 38 days, ending
on September 30, 2021.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Arianna Hodgson.
Would any Senator care to speak on this O rder?
Senator Robin Tucker, you have the floor.

Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Madam President,
and thank you to the Junior Minister for bringing this
Order before the Senate.
I just want to say that the Opposition has no
objection to this particular Order. I do, though, wonder whether there are any plans afoot to encourage or
incentivise more people to get vaccinated. I know that
this was a topic that had come up quite some time ago. There was a lot of discussion on it. And I also want to mention that while I am fully immunised, I still
believe that it is an individual’s personal choice
whether they do or whether they do not; that is entirely
up to them. I am more so talking about the people
who might still be a bit on the fence.
So there are people who are still sort of teetering. I am just wondering whether there is anything,
any discussion about perhaps incentivising those people to get immunised if they so choose, because
that too might be helpful in helping us get to that 70 per cent of community immunity. So I think all of us
would be very, very happy to see the end of these
public health extensions and be able to get back to a
sense of normalcy. So as has been declared by all of
the Ministry of Health officials, we need to get to that
place of community immunity before we can move to the next level.
So just wondering what the plan is, if there is
one, because otherwise with all of the new variants
and the like then we could be extending these orders
from now until the cows come home. So just wondering. Thank you.

The President: Thank you, Senator Tucker.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Order?
Senator Michelle Simmons, you have the
floor.

Sen. Michelle Simmons: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
Bermuda finds itself in a pretty good place
right now with regard to COVID -19. But we should not
take where we are right now for granted. The virus is
still a reality. We see it spreading elsewhere. And we
know that the Delta variant is in Bermuda, and of
course that means there is potential for more engagement with the local population. So I think it is i mportant to make sure that we give the Government the
power to enact regulations that they need to in order
to keep the public saf e. And this is one of those emergency extensions that just makes sense.
So I support this Bill, though I am still praying
that we continue to see no community spread here of the virus. And I am going to look on the positive side
and assume that we will st ill be in a good place when
we meet again in the Senate.
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Michelle Si mmons.
Would any Senator care to speak on this O rder? Hearing none, Senator Arianna Hodgson, it is
over to you.

Sen. Aria nna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
Madam President, I can say that although we
have seen a decline in the rates of persons being
636 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate tested, we are still optimistic about reaching community immunity. I think it only makes sense that the vaccine enthusiasts who are ready and willing—they
stepped up and they made that move in the initial
phase. Right now, as Senator Tucker mentioned, we are dealing with those who are a bit hesitant. Persons
are hesitant for various reasons. I know that our team
is working hard to make sure that persons who are a
bit hesitant or a bit nervous have the information that
they need to make a good decision for themselves.
So I think that is our focus right now. Of
course, we can always do more to spread our mes-saging and to make sure that we are focused on def initely reaching community immunity so that we can
get back to the business that we are excited about doing.

The President: Thank you. And with that . . .

Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I move that the said Draft Order be approved
and that the following message be sent to Her Exce llency the Governor:
“May it please Your Excellency:
“The Senate, having had under consideration
the Draft Order entitled the Public Health (COVID -19)
Emergency Extension (No. 4) Order 2021 proposed to
be made by the Minister responsible for Health under
the provisions of section 107A of the Public Health Act
1949, has the honour to inform Your Excellency that
the Senate has approved the said D raft Order.”
Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Is there any objection to that motion,
[for] that [message] to be sent? Hearing none, then a
suitable message will be sent as you have described.

[Motion carried: The Draft Order entitled Public Health
(COVID -19) Emergency Extensio n (No. 4) Order 2021
was approved.]

The President: Thank you, Senator Arianna Hodgson, Junior Minister for Health.
Sen. Arianna Hodgson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.

MOTIONS
The President: There are none.

CONGRATULATORY AND/OR
OBITUARY SPEECHES
The Pr esident: Would any Senator care to speak?

Thank you.
Just for a moment to offer one [expression of]
condolences, as well as one congratulatory remark.
I was saddened to learn this weekend that we
lost one of our seasoned entertainers in Gilbert Caisey, also known as “Bill.” And we certainly want to
send our condolences from the Department of Culture
to [the family of] Gilbert “Bill” Caisey. He was an extremely important fixture in our entertainment, partic ularly during the 1970s and 1980s, if not before. So
having said that, I know it has been a very difficult year for entertainers regarding COVID -19, but in particular we have lost a number of entertainers in the
last year. We certainly offer our prayers for his family.
But on another note I certainly want to congratulate Dana Selassie. I was in the West End last night, a little farther west this week of Cup Match than
I would prefer to be.

[Laughter]

Just a little west of
Maximart, Dana Selassie has had her inaugural ope ning of the Buna Gallery & Coffee House. Apparently it
is going to be the brand- new hub of entertainment and
culture and the arts. And I had a fantastic time last
night. I certainly will be working with Dr. Kim Dismont -
Robinson to see how we can assist and partner. She has a great vision for Bermuda entertainment and cul-ture. I learned a few things last night. “Buna” sta nds
for “coffee.” [Ms. Selassie] had a wonderful coffee bar
with authentic coffee from Ethiopia. I did not know until then that Ethiopia is also the birthplace of coffee.
So, Dana Selassie and your entire group,
[you] did a fantastic job last night. The entertainment from Joy T. Barnum, Ras Solomon and, of course one
of my favourites, Live Wires. I really had a good time.
The President: Thank you, Dr. Peets, Minister Peets.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Senator Lindsay Simmons, you have the flo or.

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
First, I would like to also extend my cond olences to Bill Caisey’s family, as he was at one point
my father -in-law.

[Inaudible interjection]

Sen. Lindsay Simmons: Yes. So condolences to his
family, his children, grandchildren. He was an amazing person.


Bermuda Senate I would also like to congratulate the young
men who participated in the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. Alpha Beautillion last night. I was honoured to
be a judge. And I would like to name six gentlemen
who actually participated: Jayden Coleman, Vincent Darrell, Seth Hardtman, Xavier Ramsey, Keiano
Rawlins and Dequan Trott. If this is what Bermuda’s
young men have in store for us, we have a bright f uture ahead of us. It was an amazing opportunity to
take part in it, and I want to congratulate all of them,
and especially to Vincent Darrell for becoming the
2021 Alpha Beautillion. Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Lindsay Si mmons.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Sena tor Tucker, you have the floor.

Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you, Madam President.
I want to offer condolences first of all.
The President: Yes.
Sen. Robin Tucker: Condolences to Mary Suzanne
Simmons’s family. I first met Suzanne in the early
1990s when I joined Conyers Dill & Pearman. Al though I had not seen Suzanne in quite some time, I
do recall that she was a kind and patient woman who I
never heard complain about anything, even when
there were many opportunities to do so. She was the
person who I remem ber who always got the complainers back on track. So I extend condolences to
Suzanne’s family and friends.
I would also like to express condolences to
the family of the late Ms. Phyliss Fubler, who passed
away in her 93
rd year. She was a constituent in C -7. I
offer condolences to Ms. Fubler’s daughters, Denise and Lynn; and her grandsons, Mikado and Kyoto in
particular. I met Denise and her sons when [the boys]
were students at Warwic k Academy with my children.
So I have had the opportunity —Mikado was in and out
of my house because he was good friends with my son. So I just wanted to send condolences to the entire family and to Mrs. Fubler’s friends.
Another expression of condolences for [the
family of] Ms. Leah Fox, who was a very well -known
bus driver. Leah has known me probably before I
knew myself. She was a family friend as well. She
also was a person who was driving the bus when I
was in high school at Warwick Sec. I remember her being certainly a warm and friendly personality. So
again condolences to her family.
On a brighter note, I want to express congratulations to Leahnae Morton- Richardson, who is the
2021 winner of the EY Bermuda Gil Tucker Scholar-ship. This scholarship was awarded to a value of up to
$30,000 a year for a maximum of five years u ntil co mpletion of the minimum education requirement to qualify as a Certified Public Accountant. Ms. Morton-Richardson is a graduate of the Bermuda High School
for Girls, and she will be heading to Dalhousie University in Halifax to pursue an undergraduat e degree in
accounting. So I am certainly looking to hearing of her successes in the future and definitely wishing her all the best in her studies.
Another note of congratulations I would like to
give to Andre Lambe. I am a boxing fan, and he r ecently bec ame a professional boxer and won his bout
at the Caribe Royale Undisputed Promotions event in Florida. He now boasts a 2:0 record as a professional boxer. So congratulations to Andre.
I would also like to express congratulations,
and good luck really —so m y congratulations might be
a bit premature, but certainly expected. Good luck to
Flora Duffy, Bermuda’s triathlete, who is competing
today at the Olympics in Tokyo.
Congratulations to Kenneth and Gloria Si mmons, who are both 95 years old and celebrated 70
years of marriage. They married on July 12, 1951. I do
not know [but] actually I think most of us were not
even a twinkle in our parents’ eye when they got married; I certainly was not. But I know her as “Aunt Gl oria,” as she is my uncle’s [sister -in-law], my uncle Mi llard and my aunt Eileen. Eileen is sister to Aunt Gl oria. So we definitely share family. So I just want to say again, congratulations to Kenneth and Gloria Si mmons, being blessed to have not only many years of life but also many years together as a couple.
Finally, I just want to say congratulations in
advance to Somerset for winning the 2021 Cup, Cup
Match Classic!

[Laughter]
Sen. Robin Tucker: Thank you very much. Thank
you, Madam President. That is all I have to say.
The President: Thank you, Senator Tucker.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
Senator Darrell. Senator Owen Darrell, you
have the floor.
[Laughter]
Sen. Owen Darrell: Madam President, thank you.
I would just like to send congratulations to Mr.
Brownlow Place. Mr . Brownlow Place celebrated with
his family this weekend 105 years of life. I do know
from another place that a request came in to spend
some time with him this weekend. I do know that his
family had a gathering on Saturday evening. So I just want to say t o his daughter, Ms. Charlene Tyrrell, and
other family members, congratulations to this national treasure whom we have in Mr. Place, who continues to live a full, purposeful life.
Also, I would like to say congratulations to all
of the members —I know we are on the topic of Cup
Match— of both teams, St. George’s Cricket Club as
638 26 July 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda Senate well as Somerset Cricket Club, for being selected to
this year’s Cup Match Classic. This Cup Match Classic and the lead up to it has been anything but normal
or traditional. We have n ot had Cup Match since
2019. So I do want to say congratulations, especially
to the Colts. I do know that St. George’s, I believe,
took two Colts in their team this year. So I want to say
congratulations to them and their families for all of the
hard work they have put in. And I will be at the Classic
on Thursday and Friday as a prelude to Cleveland County winning the Eastern Counties Cricket Associ ation Cup on August 14. Thank you, Madam President.

The President: Thank you, Senator Owen Darrell.
Would an y other Senator care to speak?
Hearing or seeing none, I would just like to
offer comments myself. One is to associate myself
with Senator Darrell’s congratulations for Mr. Lefroy
Brownlow Tucker [Place], who is related to me. He
was the one who identifie d in a doctor’s office some
years ago. But anyway, yes, I think he is still driving.
He is a wonderful, wonderful person. Oh, yes, 105
years old and alert. He is doing very well.
Then on a sad note, I would just like to express condolences to [the family of] Winston Everard
Eugene Powell, who was funeralised on Saturday. I
send condolences to his brothers, Richard and Steven Powell and their families. Winston was a highly skilled
mason who became a much- sought -after contractor,
who built homes all across t he Island. He was also a
self-taught carpenter who specialised in making beautiful cedar dining room furniture. He was employed by
the United States Navy many years ago, maintaining the Argus [Island] Tower that was located 30 miles off
of Bermuda’s shores . He was a much- loved man, another cousin of mine. (I have quite an extensive fam ily.)
With that, we are moving on.

ADJOURNMENT

The President: I hand over to Senator the Hon. Dr. E.
G. Peets, Minister of Youth, Culture and Sport and
Government Leader in the Senate.

Madam President, I
make a motion that the Senate adjourn until Septem-ber 15, 2021.
The President: Thank you.
Would any other Senator care to speak on the
motion to adjourn?
Hearing, seeing none, Senators, we will a djourn until September 15. And I want to wish you all a
very enjoyable Cup Match and Mary Prince Day.
Whatever you do, be safe. Carry on with the regul ations. And I extend that to the rest of Bermuda. I am sure you all join me in making, ensuring or even as king the public to be safe over this period. Follow the regulations, and particularly with respect to safety on
our roads and adhering to all of the regulations that
we have talked about.
So with that, the Senate stands adjourned.

An Hon. Senator : Go, St. George’s!

[Laughter]

The President: Thank you all.

[At 12:50 pm, the Senate stood adjourned until
10:00 am Wednesday, 15 September 2021.]