March 17, 2021

Please proceed, Minister.
Hon. Renee Ming: Thank you.
Madam Chairman, I would like to take this
opportunity to thank the Fire Chief and the members
of the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service for their con-tinued efforts on behalf of Bermuda.
Madam Chairman, this closes my comments
with regard to Head 45, Fire Services. And I would just like to take this opportunity to thank the Admi nistration team and all of the services for their hard work duri ng the budget process. In addition to that, all
the members who serve under the Police Service, the
Fire Service, the Regiment, Customs, and Department
of Corrections, I would just like to take a moment to thank them as well for a job well done in challeng ing
circumstances.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Yes, Member, please proceed.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Madam
Chairman, and good afternoon.
Minister, thank you for reading the present ation on National Security today. And I want to start off
by thanking the staff within the Ministry, certainly, the
Acting Permanent Secretary and all of the staff within
the Ministry for the great work that they do.
I think we all will agree, Madam Chairman,
that National Security is at the heart of a solid founda-tion for Bermuda and our people. And that is why it is critical that we get it right as far as the budget goes
and make sure that they are funded in an appropriate
way for them to conduct their business.
Madam Chairman, you know I had the honour
to be the Minister for a number of years, so I am well -
versed in many of the areas of the Ministry. And I sit
here this afternoon and speak to you and colleagues
in Parliament with a great deal of concern about the
budget that I see for the Ministry of National Security.
976 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Let me preface that by saying that we all believe, I think, that COVID -19 will continue to be a real
issue for people and the economy in the foreseeable
future. I think no one can predict the future, but we
understand that COVID -19 is still here and we have
our challenges. This will certainly have an impact on
government finances, and it will certainly have an i mpact on government spending. The fiscal pressures
which we face and the poor financial position that
government finds itself in with the high debt level
means that it is very difficult for Ministers, and for the Minister of Finance, to find that balance that is r equired. Unfortunately, National Security appears to be
one of the ministries that has taken the brunt for some of those challenges. And I contend this afternoon, Madam Chairman, that it mi ght not be a wise exercise
for us to take this budget approach.
Let me deal with the numbers specifically,
Madam Chairman. If you go to page B -261 of the
Budget Book, you can clearly see what I am referring to, and I will lay it out in some detail. One thi ng I will
say as I start my presentation on the numbers, speci fically, Madam Chairman, is that I think all Members of Parliament are well aware that this year, with the
budget estimates for 2021/22, is the first time we actually see the final numbers for t he year 2019/20 —so
two years ago. These numbers coming out with N ational Security set the table for the concerns that I have, Madam Chairman, and here is why.
With the final numbers coming out for the year
2019/20 (and you will see that on page B -261 of t he
Book) page B -261 says that for the year 2019/20, the
budget for the Ministry of National Security ended at
$133.5 million, Madam Chairman. The original budget
for the Ministry of National Security was $130 million,
almost $131 million, $130.9 million. N ow, Immigration
has been removed from the Ministry this year, but I
am comparing like to like numbers. And why am I
concerned?
Well, clearly, I am concerned seeing an i ncrease of roughly $3 million in those numbers from the
original budgeted items to the final spend. And if you
look through every single department in the Ministry,
starting with Ministry Headquarters, the original number was $2.06 million, it ended up at $3.89 million;
Defence started at $7.2 million, it ended up at almost $7.5 million; Pol ice is the only area in the Ministry
which saw a reduction from $65.8 million to $64.2 mi llion. Customs saw an increase from $16.9 million to $17.8 million; the Department of Corrections saw an
increase from $25.8 million to $27.5 million; and then
Fire Se rvice had $13.1 million originally budgeted and
$13.9 million was actually spent.
Now, Madam Chairman, I am not going to
discuss this budget today and say that the spending was not merited. But what I am saying, Madam Chairman, is that prior to COVID -19, prior to the challenges that we faced with COVID -19 and that are continuing on, the original budget of $139.9 million has been overspent by almost $3 million. That is not a
good sign when we have cut the budget for this current financial year and we are cut ting the budget further for the financial year that starts on April 1
st.
So, the budget for 2019/20 you will see was
$133.5 million . . . sorry, the spend was $133.5 million.
The original budget for 2020/21 was $129.2 million, it
is revised that we are go ing to spend $135.8 million —
and that number is still subject to fluctuation —and the
current account estimate for the next financial year is
$122.6 million.
Anybody who has an inkling of an understanding about numbers and accounting and the budgeting
proces s would be very concerned about that and want
to know why we are in this position.
Now, I am sure Government will say, Well, in
2020/21 we had COVID -19 and that caused some of
the increases . Okay. Let us remove the COVID -19
spending and you will still see that the original budget
in 2019/20 was not met and the original budget in
2020/21 was not met, and it is very likely, with a d ecrease in budget for the next financial year over the
original budget before COVID -19 for this current f inancial year, at $7 mil lion . . . I would contend, Madam Chairman, it is going to be very difficult for us to meet that number as well.
And so, that forms the backdrop of the concern that I have, Madam Chairman. If you look through the numbers for 2020/21 original and revised,
you will see that Ministry Headquarters has gone up
$1.6 million in the year and we have not finished. D efence has gone up over $6 million, and that, most of that, I am sure, is because of COVID -19. Police have
stuck to their budget again, this is an interesting trend,
and I want to take this opportunity to commend the
Commissioner and his team for being able to actually
stick to a budget, in spite of the challenges —and they
are on the frontline—that they face at all times. And I
will get to that more when I come to that Head. Customs has managed to hold themselves in line with the
budget for the last year, and I am sure that is because
COVID -19 has impacted their day to day dealings, as
the Minister has alluded to, and I will get to that as
well. The Departm ent of Corrections has done a good
job and stuck to their budget. And Fire Services is over their budget.
But now we see significant increases in every
single . . . or one of those line items, with Headquarters having a 16 per cent cut in budget; Defence, has
a 9 per cent cut in budget; Police, has a further 1 per
cent cut in budget (and I will come to that more in detail); Customs is having a 6 per cent cut. Corrections
has a whopping 11 per cent cut in budget, Madam
Chairman. How on earth can you run a department
with a significant cut like that? It has not been explained in the brief. And Fire Services has a 9 per cent
cut in budget.


Bermuda House of Assembly So, that is the backdrop against what I see in
this Ministry and it is very concerning to take a look at.
So, let us get in to more details of those numbers.
If you turn to page B -262, the Ministry of N ational Security itself, I will start with the overview of the Ministry at the top of the page, which the Minister did
provide some outlook into during her brief. The D epartmental Objectives: To finalise the Strategic Plan for the Ministry. Madam Chairman, my concern is
pricked here, for the simple fact is that this was one of
the objectives from last year. So, I have a question to the Honourable Minister. And before I start asking
questions, I want to thank the Minister for answering
many of the questions that I had written down during
the brief. I appreciate the technical officers giving some detail. But in regard to the strategic plan, when
will it be completed and what years wi ll it include g oing forward? Because, obviously, if it was in the bud get for last year, and it is still in there for this year, we
certainly have some concerns. Will it be a viable plan?
Will it be a timely plan when we go forward?
The next line item is to introduce cybercrime
legislation . We support that fully. Unfortunately, and
sadly, it is the way of the world that there are those
amongst us throughout the world who will try to hack
into areas that they should not. When we were the
Government, that was an area that was brought to the forefront and we did significant work on it. And we are
pleased to see that the PLP Government is going to
continue to do some work on it. Most unfortunately,
this will cost money, this will disrupt systems from time
to time , but we need to make sure that we have an
acceptable firewall (is the way I would say it, Madam
Chairman).
The next Departmental Objective is to intr oduce a Police Authority to facilitate an open and co llaborative forum to support the Bermuda Police Ser-vice and the communities they serve. Now, Madam
Chairman, I was quite interested in this when it first surfaced, because I know that the Police do have an
annual Policing Plan and they effectively work on that
with stakeholders within the Ministry every year . I
know when I was the Minister I was invited to partic ipate, as were many other people. And I am curious to
see more meat on the bone, if I can put it that way,
Madam Chairman, about what the Police Authority will actually do. I believe, in my humble opi nion, Madam
Chairman, it is political speak to make it sound like we
are doing something to better relations between the
community and law enforcement. I want to see exactly
what this entails, what budget it is going to require,
what it is going to bring t o the table and what the final
outcome is going to be.
That leads me on to the next bullet point, to
collaborate with key stakeholders on the implement ation of a National Crime Prevention Plan. What is i nteresting about that, Madam Chairman, is that having
just said that the Police have an annual Policing Plan, I would like to know more details about the National Crime Prevention Plan: When will it be completed?
Who is involved in it? What are the guidelines that
Government has given for this National Crime Preve ntion Plan? Because, clearly, I would think that any N ational Crime Prevention Plan has to start with the ba-sis within the Bermuda Police Service. And it seems
like this is moving away from that to some extent and I
would not want to see resources us ed and have a di sconnect between the Police and any other authority
outside of that.
I noticed that the next objective, to formalise
and enhance collaboration and team environment be-tween the Ministry’s heads of department , is the same
as written last year. So I look forward to a timeline on
when we will see some progress on that, and what
outcomes have been to date.
In regard to the Disaster Risk Reduction and
Mitigation Unit, Madam Chairman, we fully support it. This has come out of the National Security and D efence Review, which when the OBA was the Gover nment, was something we worked on in tandem with
Government House to get done. That is a very useful document and a document that I believe will serve us
well. But we certainly support the Disaster Risk R eduction and Mitigation Unit fully.
And while I am talking about that, the Minister
did mention a number of different training pr ogrammes that have been done, or that will be done in
the future, in regard to disaster risk reduction and I want to commend t he Government for continuing with
that because these exercises are certainly key for
everything we do. And I think it was mentioned this
time around—cruise ships, airport, and also tsunami
exercises. The more we do that, the more we better
prepare and trai n our people —our first responders —
for how to deal with these situations. Touch wood,
cross our fingers, that we will continue to be blessed,
but training always helps us if and when a situation
arises.
I turn my attention now further down the page,
Madam C hairman, in the General Summary Expend iture and the business units that are listed at the bot-tom of page B -262. The Minister did give an overview
of the Gang Violence Reduction programmes and in my comments on this I would like to point out that last year in the budget $576,000 was spent on Gang Vi olence Reduction. At that time it was an unbudgeted
item, so I am pleased to see that Gang Violence R eduction is a continual budgeted item because it is
needed.
The Minister did give an overview of some of
the pro grammes that are running in there and, generally, we support them. We do have some concern,
Madam Chairman, that some of the initiatives seem to
have been developed quickly and maybe have not
produced the results that we would like to see. And I
would refer to the Hundred Jobs programme initiative that former Minister Caines started, I believe, probably
978 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly back in about 2018. And that programme has disappeared, or there have been no updates on it.
Madam Chairman, you might recall, that was
the programme where there was a jobs fair held and
individuals were trying to be placed in various industries throughout Bermuda. So, now this programme
seems to have disappeared, or is not talked about,
and other programmes are taking its place. Another
such initiative was the Redemption Farm, which happened in 2019/20. The Minister did say that this pr ogramme has been completed and now it has been
rebranded. I look forward to hearing more details of
the success and the implementation of this pr ogramme as we go forward.
Clearly, we still have some significant issues
within our community as it relates to gangs. And it is important that we deal with those initiatives in a cojoined approach between Ministry Headquarters and
the other helping agencies and the enforcement
agencies altogether because now we are spending a
significant amount of money and we would like to see that money go to programmes and not go in great extent to the people running those programmes. I think
we will have more success if it goes to programmes in
itself.
Madam Chairman, if you look at line item
93007 Disaster Risk Reduction and Mitigation, that
shows that there is an increase of $95,000 in the current fiscal year to $213,000 in the next fiscal year. And
that is, as the Minister explained, for a tempor ary post.
A question to the Honourable Minister: Can the Honourable Minister please provide the reason why that
post is temporary? How long it will be temporary for? And what are the guidelines for that person in that
position?
Going down further to line i tem 93997 National Health Emergency, I did not catch it, if the Minister
said it with any certainty, but if the Minister could give
an overview of the $1.6 million that was spent on the
National Health Emergency within Ministry Headquarters, I would apprec iate that.
But Ministry Headquarters has a budget cut of
$377,000, or 16 per cent, and if you look at the last
three years, the actual spend in 2019/20 was $2.4 million, the revised spending for the current year is
$3.9 million, but if you factor out and go to the original budget of $2.4 million, again, you will see that is a
significant cut. So, be assured that the Opposition will
continue to monitor this going forward to make sure
that the services are provided and the budget is still
handled in a most appropriate way.
I will turn my attention, Madam Chairman, to
the next page B -263. I am just curious, on the line
item where it talks about expenditure in regard to Travel. Travel was $45,000 for that line item in
2019/20, it increased to $104,000 in the cur rent fiscal
year, and it has been decreased to $83,000 for the
next fiscal year. So, two questions there to the Honourable Minister. In a COVID -19 year how was $104,000 spent on travel? And I am assuming that it
must have been because of police work and tr avel
that was required then. But from a spend of $45,000
to $104,000 during a COVID -19 year, where travel
was certainly curtailed, or shut down in some months,
that is a large increase. So an explanation on that;
and how the $83,000 for the next fiscal year would be
spent.
Advertising and Promotion, there was a jump
in the current fiscal year, and if the Honourable Mini ster could please provide some insight on the increase
of $15,000 for the current fiscal year.
The next line item is Professional Services. I
would like the Honourable Minister to provide some more detail in this regard, because Professional Services is a line item that I think we all know Gover nment lumps services into. And quite often we get hefty
numbers in there. We need to take a look at the
breakdown to ensure there is an understanding of
what it is for. And in this line item for Professional
Services in Ministry Headquarters, that is certainly the
case.
If you go and look at 2019/20, the actual
number for Professional Services was $1.366 million.
That was an increase over the budgeted number of
$965,000. So it increased about $400,000 in one year.
I would like to ask the Honourable Minister, what was
the reason for the increase of $400,000?
Furthermore, in the current financial year, the
budgeted number was $1.267 million, which was i ncreased to $1.84 million through the year. That is an increase of about $600,000. Could the Honourable Minister please give a breakdown of the $600,000 and
what that pertains to.
And then for the next financ ial year starting on
April 1
st, there is a Professional Services budget at
$894,000, a significant decrease of $373,000. The
Minister did refer to a reduction for legal services and
other consultants, but I would like some more clarity
on what legal servic es this pertains to, what consul tants this specifically pertains to.
The Minister did say that the Gang Violence
Reduction consultants are put into that head, so if the Minister can please give a complete outline of the
budget estimate of $894,000 and how it will be spent
this year, what consultants it is paying for, and the
length of each contract with each consultant.
I think that covers pages B -262 and B -263, so
I will turn my attention now to B -264, Madam Chai rman. And I do not want to repeat myself as we go
through this budget debate, but I have always had a
concern with Performance Measures because I think
they are typically . . . sometimes they are repeated
from year to year without any review of what they actually mean, or if they are still meaningful. And in this
case, with all due respect, these Performance Measures are, I believe, somewhat weak and do not
really tell us anything.


Bermuda House of Assembly You know, for the Ministry of National Security
Headquarters to have the Performance Measure of
percentage of meetings held and attended with a
quorum of heads of departments and in alignment
with the Ministry’s strategic objectives . . . that is not a
measure of any objective getting done. That is a normal procedure that should take place on a regular basis, and that is up to my humble opinion, with perm anent secretaries making sure that [these meetings] get
done.
So, I would like to see a general review of
Performance Measures so they actually provide some more meaning to the budget.
Madam Chairman, I would now turn my at tention to Head 06 Defence. And I want to start out by
thanking the Regiment for their services. Certainly,
through COVID -19 it has been an extra grind for the
Regiment because they have been on the frontline of everything at all times. They have actually stepped
forward and done a good job. And I want to take this
opportunity, Madam Chairman, to wish the best for all of them in their line of duty, and hope that those who
have been injured in the line of duty continue with
their recovery.
It has been grati fying to see them out there
working hand- in-hand with all the other services and
they have been doing a stellar job. Certainly, they were very courteous and polite any time I had to go
through any roadblocks, and I thank them for their
service.
It is good to see that volunteers are joining the
Regiment. I think it is a good opportunity for any young person to get involved, because it can teach you valuable skills. Certainly, the comradery with ot hers and what you get from it can help you as you go
forward.
Now, specifically, in regard to this Head, I
think the major challenge, other than COVID -19, has
been the Coast Guard, Madam Chairman. And I will get to that in more detail. I would like the Honourable
Minister, as we look at page B -266, to give a better
understanding of the ability to be able to reduce the
recruitment budget from $229,000 in the current fiscal
year to $141,000 in the next fiscal year —that is a decrease of 38 per cent.
I would like to also ask the Honourable Mini ster if she could break down the just over $6 million
spent on the National Health Emergency, if she could
give a breakdown of how it was spent and a better
understanding of how Regiment Officers were paid
during that time and how the rates of pay, specifically,
were arrived at throu gh that period.
Madam Chairman, continuing down to line
item 16075 Overseas Camp, I note that there was a
decrease in the budget for the current financial year to
$812,000. With COVID -19 taking place, I would like to
have an understanding from the Honourab le Minister
on how that money was actually spent through the current financial year. It is still a significant amount of money. And next year there is a further decrease of
30 per cent to $566,000. I understand that much of
that might be put towards an overseas trip to Guyana
that the Honourable Minister referred to. So, I would
like a better understanding of that.
Then in line item 16085, Madam Chairman,
Marine Operations, there was an original budget of
$1.496 million for the current financial year, which has
been revised to $1.326 million. And then the budget
drops to $655,000 for the next financial year. I would
like some more understanding from the Honourable Minister on the savings in the budget for the current
financial year of well over $200,000, and a savings of
$841,000 that is believed to be able to be achieved for
the next financial year. That is a cut of $841,000.
Understanding, Madam Chairman, that the
Coast Guard is a new institution within the Regiment, I would like to know: (1) where those s avings come
from; and (2) how that will impact the ability for the
Coast Guard to continue on to solidify its mandate.
Madam Chairman, if you turn your attention to
the next page, B -267, the line item in regard to Wages, we saw a significant increase in the current financial year of just about $6 million. But I assume that
once the Minister explains the National Health Emergency, this will come out in the wash in that area.
And the line item of Travel still sees a signif icant amount of money. Can the Minist er confirm that
that will go to the overseas trip in Guyana when it
takes place?
In regard to line item with Repair and Maint enance, we see that in 2019/20 it was $239,000. The
current financial year is expected to be $610,000, and
there is a reduction to $421,000 for the next financial
year. Can the Minister please provide some under-standing on how that will be achieved? Because we
saw a significant increase in this current financial
year, we have seen a significant reduction for the next
financial year —all of this against the backdrop that the
Regiment facilities, like some other government facil ities, are certainly in advanced stages of their lives and
that means that there has to be increased maint enance going forward.
Madam Chairman, the Minister gave an ove rview of the Employee Numbers, which is at the bottom
of that page on B -267. Now, what was interesting was
that all of the employees are put into Finance and R ecruitment and then Regiment Headquarters. The Mi nister did mention that the Coast Guard has hired nine
individuals and that five more will be hired in the current year. The Minister did say in her brief that since February 1
st (I believe I caught that date) of this year
that the Act covering the Coast Guard has been e nacted and the Coast Guard has taken over from the
BPS.
Can the Minister confirm that since February
1st that no BPS Officers have been going on Coast
Guard duties with Regimental Officers? Also, can the Minister please provide some more details in regard to
980 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly the Coast Guard on what training is still required, and
what authority the Coast Guard has? And by authority
I mean, Madam Chairman, do they have all the authority that the Police had to conduct maritime exercises? In other words, the authority to arrest, authority to board boat s, all of those types of things . . . have
we dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s in regard to
every piece of legislation that the Coast Guard needs
to enact and do their duties in the appropriate way?
And the third thing I would like to know about
that, because I remember when we debated the Bill in the Honourable Chambers of the House, Madam
Chairman, there was a great deal of talk about a leadership structure that was required. Now, obviously, in
any organisation there has to be a leadership struc-ture, and I would like to know some more details
about what leadership structure has been put in place
now with the development of the Coast Guard which
has gone from having no staff at the Regiment to ha ving at least nine staff and perhaps up to 13 staff by the
end of the financial year.
I would also like the Honourable Minister to
please give some understanding on the budget for the
Coast Guard that is in the Regiment, the total [budget]
number, and how that compares to the budget that the
Police had to run their maritime operations. Has there
been an increase in the budget? And please give
some details on what the increase in the budget will
be.
And my final question in regard to the Coast
Guard, Madam Chairman, is going forward, next year and the year after, what increases of budget does the
Government believe will have to be necessary to make sure that the Coast Guard continues to provide
the mandate that is required?
It is quite interesting, Madam Chairman, to
hear the Minister talk about the ageing fl eet within the
vehicles of the Bermuda Regiment. There was little mention of any of the vessels that the Coast Guard
has to do their mandate. So I would like a better of
understanding of what vessels they have, the age of
those vessels, and if the Minister is comfortable and
confident that the job can get done that is required.
The Minister outlined a number of different areas within the Coast Guard. And for many in the li stening audience who might have missed it, some of
those are what you would expect, such as, search and
rescue, interdiction to deter crime, but also, some
things that are add- ons—to look at fishery regulations
to make sure there is enforcement there, maritime regulations and border and port security. Those are
significant mandates when it comes to Bermuda, es-pecially in the summertime. So, I would like to have an
understanding of the ability of the Coast Guard to get
it done and the age of the Coast Guard fleet. I am well
aware that many of the vehicles in the Regiment have been around for some time and that they do have
some challenges. Madam Chairman, turning the page to page
B-268, are the Performance Measures. And the Mini ster did go through some detail on the Performance Measures. But I have a question in regard to business
unit, right at the middle of the page, the second item
on the business unit which has 16020, 16030, 16040
and 16075. The second item is “number of soldiers
listed as Long- Term Absentees.” So, for the edific ation of the Parliament, I would like to ask the Honourable Mi nister what does this mean? What is being
done about it? And when does the Minister believe
that this number will come off the books?
The next Performance Measure, “Percentage
of soldiers who pass their military standard tests,” the Minister did say that t he percentages might seem to
be low and that is because of the increase in testing standards. So, having said that, and I accept the Mi nister at her word for that, does the Government believe that these numbers are acceptable and if there is
much room to t he topside for improvement of those
percentages that are listed?
Madam Chairman, cognisant of time ( because
I believe this debate ends in about an hour ), I will turn
my attention to Head 07, the Bermuda Police Service.

All right. And we have until 3:36 pm.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Yes.
So, Madam Chairman, this debate goes on for
about another hour then.
So, Madam Chairman, first [under] Police—
Head 07, I want to thank the Commissioner and his
team for the work that they do. I believe that they have
done a very commendable job over the past couple of
years. I believe the Commissioner has assimilated
himself well into the community, and I believe he has
provided some good sound leadership there. And we have seen the results of that. But it takes a team to
make that happen and the Commissioner has certai nly shown some leadership there, in spite of some of
the challenges that they have faced, and I will get to
some of those.
But on page B -269 it talks about department
Objectives and I am not going to go through those
because I support them 100 per cent. But one thing I
want to speak to is “Enhance road safety.” And I did
not speak in the debate the other day in regard to that,
but we need to be serious about road safety in Bermuda because our habits are terrible, and generally
they are getting worse. And, but for the grace of God,
we would have many, many more challenges on our roads.
I think Bermudians are very frustrated by the
way people handle themselves on the road and the way people conduc t themselves on the road. I hear
that on the doorstep all the time as I continue to can-vass, and even before the last election. So, that is a real concern.


Bermuda House of Assembly Now, Madam Chairman, one of the things that
was missing from the Minister’s brief was an update
on any contract negotiations. And the Police is one
area that, publicly, we have not seen much of an up-date on the contract negotiations. So, I would like for the Honourable Minister to have an opportunity at the
end to provide an update on the contract negot iations,
unless I missed it in the brief. But I was scribbling
away with notes and I do not believe I would have
missed it at that point.
So, turning the page to page B -270, Madam
Chairman, as I said in my introductory remarks, here the rubber really meet s the road with the Police. We
are asking an organisation with tremendous respons ibility to, as the first page says, make Bermuda safer ,
with that tremendous responsibility, to continually cut [its budget] every year.
So, in 2018/19 the Police budget was $66.4
million. It was cut the next year to $65.8 million. It was
cut the current fiscal year to $61.8 million, which has
been revised to $61.4 million. And it has been cut in the next financial year to $61.3 million, Madam
Chairman. That is significant. We have seen cuts over
just those three years of $5.5 million in money. And at
some time, when the rubber meets the road, there has
to be some serious consequences about it.
So, to me, the cuts are in manpower. And that
means that some services might not be able to be
delivered, or some services might be delivered in a
less-than- expected way, and some services might be
pushed from pillar to post until there is a better opportunity to deal with those, Madam Chairman. And this
is a real concern to me going for ward.
It is a pressing concern, I would think, to the
community and, you know, the Government talks
about there were no homicides in 2019. That is very
laudable, and long may that continue. But it appears that with that type of violent crime . . . there are always spikes. And we need to deal with it.
But what I think it is important to recognise
here, and I am pleased to see that the Honourable
Minister did, in her brief, give an update on asset r ecovery. And the Minister referred to $84,000 to Pr oceeds of Crime, or $1.8 million, and also to an
$880,000 one that appeared to be within the Confi scated Assets Fund. Can the Honourable Minister
please confirm that those monies are in the Confi scated Assets Fund and how those monies are going
to be spent?
The e ye-opening part for the general public
would be, Madam Chairman, within the next part of
what the Minister said going forward, items that fund-ing is being restricted and there were some large
numbers in there of $179 million, $2.6 million, $10
million, $4 million, and then numbers within the tens
and hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is concer ning news, because you would have those that would try to do things against what is expected in our soci ety; but good news to see that somebody is paying at-tention, somebody is actually doing the work, and that
we are going to start to bring those offenders to justice.
And that is one of the things that we in the
OBA have always been strong on, that if people are breaking the rules of what we expect in Bermuda . . .
and certainly our financial crime is a big challenge. If
anyone is going against what we expect in Bermuda,
they need to be brought before a Justice and they
need to be dealt with and their assets need to be confiscated, because 99 times out of 100, thos e assets
were probably illegally obtained anyway.
So, congratulations to the Police and all the
authorities who deal with that. But having said that, Madam Chairman, perhaps it might be an incentive for
the Police to manage their budget in the best way
possible —which they have been doing right now —to
close some of these cases and perhaps a percentage
of the proceeds of crime can actually go back into the
Police budget. Because this would allow us, even in
times of austerity, as the PLP have talked about —an d
we see austerity all through the Ministry of National
Security —even in the times of austerity, the Police
would have the ability to access some funds after they
completed necessary and good work.
Now, there are those who might not accept
this idea, but I think this is an appropriate way b ecause those funds are going to go somewhere. When
the OBA was the Government of the day, we put
those funds to legal services; we put those funds to
helping our communities with cash back to communities. Madam Chairman, you probably remember that.
But I think now it is time that some of those
funds go back into the Police and the security services to help them to continue to deal with what they have
to do, because we cannot see a reduction in the
budget every year going forward. You will never be
able—

Member, can you just please try to
reference the line item that you are referring to,
please.

Hon. Michael H . Dunkley: Thank you. I was referring
to the Minister’s brief when she was talking about
Confiscated Assets; and the total budget for the Police of $61.298 million.
So, having said that, I look forward for the
Honourable Minister to provide some feedback on this item, because when you look at the Revenue Summary —

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Point of order, Madam
Chairman.
982 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: What is your point of order, sir?

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Point of order. You asked
the Honourable Member to refer to li ne items —

Your point of order?

POINT OF ORDER
Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: The point of order is the
Honourable Member referred to the Minister’s brief
when you asked about the line item. You cannot
speak to the Minister’s brief, because when the Mini sters talk and present their brief, they give the line
items and the subject matter to which they are refer-ring, which refers to the Budget Book. So, if the Honourable Member wishes to speak, he should refer to
line items so that we can all follow .
Thank you.

—referencing a line item so that we
can follow.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: —you seem to be buffering out a little bit, Madam Chairman.
Yes, Madam Chairman, you seem to be buf fering out, but I caught what you said.
Madam Chairman, I believe it is appropriate to
refer to the brief and line items, but I am specifically
referring to Revenue sources as well. Confiscated Asse ts should be listed somewhere and it should be
listed as a revenue source, Madam Chairman.
So, moving on to page—

I am right here.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Yes, thank you. So, in regard to page B -272 Employee Numbers and Full -Time Equivalents, the Minister did
give—
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Just one second, Mr.
Dunkley.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: —an overview.

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Madam Chairman, can
you put your picture on? As Chair your picture should
be up, please.

—and so.

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Understood. Okay.
When you can, please do.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you. I will continue
on, Madam Chairman.
So, in regard to page B -272 Employee Numbers, you can clearly see that the vast majority of the
budget for the Bermuda Police Service goes to funding manpower. And the Minister said in the brief that
the current number of officers was 393 and with r etirements and vacancies, that number will diminish as
we go through the next financial year.
Madam Chairman, manpower levels now
are—

Got it!

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Yes, thank you.
As the BPS budget has been reduced over
the past two years, the question to the Honourable
Minister is: In light of the fact that 75 per cent of the
Police budget goes towards salaries and wages, and
the reduction in manpower has been laid out, does the
Minister feel comfortable and confident that the BPS
can deal with all of the challenges with the manpower
levels that we will be seeing this year, as I mentioned, low levels that have not been experienced for some
time? Factoring in attrition levels, it would be interes tBermuda House of Assembly ing to understand the confidence that the Government
will currently have.
A question to the Honourable Minister in r egard to manpower as well. The Honourable Minister (I
am just trying to refer to my notes to find the part
where she mentioned it) . . . the Honourable Minister
did mention in manpower levels . . . I would be interested to know the number of officers that are out on
extended sick leave or suspensions and when the
Minister believes that any number of those cases
would be cleared up. Obviously, most of the time, it appears in the past that extended sick leave and suspensions come with pay. It would be good to understand when there will be some progress in those ar eas.
And the Minister did mention on page C -15,
Madam Chairman, if you want to turn to page C -15,
and members who are following can turn there as
well. The Minister did refer to page C -15 on the Cap ital Acquisitions that will be enacted for the year, the
Police Computer Systems update, which we certainly support, and the Operational Equipment, which is a
network system update, which we certainly support.
However, the Minister did refer to the aged
vehicles that the Police have and, in fact, said that they are on the roads 24/7. And the Minister said, I
believe (I wrote down her words) that this was a critical risk . So, the Minister seemed to be making a case
for any type of budget for vehicles within the Police
Service, but there is nothing that has been allocated
for this year.
So, a question to the Honourable Minister, In
light of no budget for vehicle replacements, can the Minister assure this Parliament that the Police will be
able to get enough functioning vehicles on the road to
certainly deal with regular patrols and emergency patrols going forward, since it is an aged vehicle fleet, it
is on the road frequently and they are stressing those
vehicles because they drive at high speeds quite often?
On page C -7 the Minister did touch on the
Capital Development. And the Capital Development for the current financial year was supposed to be $250,000, it was cut to $150,000, and there is none
that is apportioned for Police Headquarters going forward. That has to be a concern because, as the Mini ster did say, again, it is a very aged facility up there.
And the question to the Honourable Minister is, What
is the plan going forward with the Prospect Police f acilities? Is there a plan that is being worked towards? What is the cost of that plan? And, in the meantime,
what are [the] annual maintenance costs expected to
be as we go through one year to the next?
Madam Chairman, I think this concludes my
comments on Head 07, the Bermuda Police Service. I will turn now my attent ion to Head 12, Customs.
I want to start out by thanking the Collector
Ms. Pearman and her team for the job that they do. I thank the Minister for the overview. It was good to learn that, while travel has been down, courier service
has been up, and they ha ve devoted some resources
there, and they have also turned some resources to
the Seaport Enforcement Team to step it up there. So,
that is good news to hear.
A question to the Honourable Minister, as the
Honourable Minister dealt with the Employee Numbers on page B -275, the Honourable Minister did not
mention at all succession planning. And I would like to
know, certainly with an organisation as large as Customs with about 200 staff members, what is the plan for succession from the very top right through to other
key roles within the Ministry?
Madam Chairman, I followed the Minister’s
brief as attentively as I could, making notes as the
Minister read through it. And one of the things that
had me with some questions and some concern is the Employee Numbers on page B -275. Specifically, b ecause I believe the Minister said that the current level
of employees was about 181, but it is budgeted for
204 in the next financial year. But clearly, reading the
brief I did not get the understanding that 23 new cus-toms offi cers would be hired. So I would like to have
some clarification. Is it the goal for the department to
get back to the 204 number? And, if that is the goal,
how will it be funded? And if that is not the goal, then
why is 204 the listed number?
The Minister did go into some detail and talk
about savings in the next financial year, which is going
for four more months, and that would be in the Salary
section at the top of page B -275. That comes to an
end because of the agreement with the unions. What
happens af ter that?
I believe that the current year will see travel
being restricted, continued by COVID -19, and certai nly cruise ships will be restricted. But Customs still has
significant responsibilities to deal with. And so, I want
to get some understanding of what the employee
numbers will be, because in the brief, I believe I wrote
it down that the Minister did say that they had been
under -manned for some time. Now, if they [have ben]
under -manned for some time, the Minister said they
are hard pressed (and I q uote) to maintain the level of
service . How does the Minister expect them to mai ntain that level of service and the morale unless employee numbers are boosted to some extent?
Madam Chairman, the line items under the
Subjective Analysis Expenditure part of this brief . . . I
am interested to know why the training budget has
been cut from $22,000 last financial year to $6,000 to
$4,000 this year, and what that will cover. Obviously, if there is a new batch of recruits taken on, that is not
going to cover much. So, I would be interested to get
some better understanding of that.
Also, I am interested in getting a better understanding of the Travel numbers, which were $95,000
in the year 2019/20, dropped to $22,000 in the current year, but rose to $56,000 for the next financial year.
984 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The increase in money in Travel . . . how will that be
spent?
Then the line item for Professional Services,
Madam Chairman, was $45,000 in 2019/20. It i ncreased to $106,000 for the current financial year, and
now will decrease to $19, 000 for the next financial
year. Can the Honourable Minister please provide
how the $106,000 was spent in the current financial
year, and how $19,000 will be spent in the next financial year?
I appreciate the understanding the Minister
gave on Clothing, Uniforms and Laundry and Mater ials and Supplies. That is, certainly, something that
appears to be feasible, and I hope it works out.
Madam Chairman, we are fully supportive of
the Border Control section and the work between I mmigration and Customs. I hope th is works out well because when those two hands talk together we can
certainly be much more efficient as we try to protect
our borders, and also enforce the rules on our borders.
Turning the page to B -276 and B -277, Madam
Chairman, in regard to Customs. At the top of the page B -277 the Minister did give an outline of some
Performance Measures, explaining some of the
changes in there. And that is accepted. But at the top
of page B -277 under business unit 22090 Vessel
Clearance, that line item says, Process 100 per cent
of Cruise Ship Passengers, expecting that arriving
passengers will exceed 350,000. Well, obviously, for
2020/21 that is not the case. And I wonder why that
Performance Measure was not changed. Perhaps it
was an oversight. And let us make sure we deal with
that as we move forward in the next financial year.
So, Madam Chairman, having said that about
[Customs], I will now turn my attention . . . because I
am cognisant of the fact that I have asked a lot of questions and I believe I have got two mor e Heads
left. I want to give the Honourable Minister an oppor-tunity to respond to some of the questions.
Head 25, the Department of Corrections,
Madam Chairman. I was certainly pleased to see the Minister state that Corrections staff are a great asset to the department, because, obviously, sometimes
they are seen by members of the public as the forgot-ten department because they operate quite often without any publicity. And they are doing a critical
function that is required for our community, to make
sure that those who have offended and been incarcerated, those sentences are upheld, but most i mportantly —and more importantly —that those individuals have an opportunity to improve themselves and
are released as better people.
But Madam Chairman, as I look at page B -
278 . . . and I wrote a significant amount of notes on
that page. We have some serious issues here be-cause (1) we have seen budget cuts, as I have explained earlier; (2) the Minister herself alluded to
manpower levels being less than desirous, and t hat word desirous is my concern; (3) we have seen m orale issues because the government and the depar tment have been in court; (4) in my view —and I will get
to this in more detail when I look at the numbers —we
see a lack of inmate development; and (5) there is no
mention of a succession plan.
And let me thank the staff and the Acting
Commissioner for the work that they do. I know it is difficult. I personally know a vast majority of them and
I had the pleasure of working with them. But the Mini ster herself, when she went through the brief, alluded
to the reassignment of the Commissioner of Correc-tions three years ago, and still we have an Acting
Commissioner. And that is unacceptable, because, as
the Minister alluded to, it causes some challenges and
it also causes leadership challenges. So, I ask the
Minister, What is being done to deal with this real i ssue?
And secondly in regard to that, every depar tment should have a strategic plan. I heard nothing about the strategic plan that gave me any comfort that
one was actually in place and being enacted. And if
we do not have the proper leadership that is accepted
to be the leadership . . . and this is nothing against the
Acting Commissioner, but if the leadership is acting
for a period of time, then it undermines the potential of
that leadership. And so it behoves us that we correct
the challenges with the acting positions and we cor-rect the challenges with the National Plan.
Now, let me get into some of the numbers
here. First, before I get into the numbers I w ant to ask
the Honourable Minister to please provide a contract update. It is my understanding that the prison officers’
contract should be up for negotiation, and it expires
very soon. The CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement] expires very soon. But we ar e still debating the
uplift previously and the current CBA will expire. So, I would ask the Honourable Minister for a contract update and what is going to happen with the CBA?
So, looking at the numbers on page B -278,
Madam Chairman, here we see the real challenges
that we have, because the original budget of 2019/20
shows that Corrections was allocated $21.577 million,
but the actual numbers of 2019/20, which you will see
listed there, were $25.24 million. That is an increase of about $3.66 million. Then in the next financial year
that number was . . . the original budget was $22.142
million, and now in this current financial year the Mi nistry budget has been cut to $19.437 million, Madam
Chairman. That is a 12 per cent cut in this year. But
over the cours e of the past two years that is a signif icant increase in that 12 per cent —almost double that.
And if you go line by line item . . . because
what is alarming about the financial year 2019/20 —
and the Honourable Minister did allude to it. But this is the fi rst time that we see these numbers. What is
alarming with the $3.66 million increase in that budget
is that we see every line item there—a budget i ncrease in Headquarters, a budget increase for the


Bermuda House of Assembly Farm Facility, a budget increase for the Co- Ed Facil ity, a budget increase for Westgate Correctional Facil ity. All of those line items saw an increase. That tells
you something.
But, Madam Chairman, here is the concern
that I have, because let us remember . . . and I think
we all agree that the job of Corrections is to fulfil the
mandate that the courts pass down of incarceration,
but also to provide—

Hon. Renee Ming: Good afternoon, Madam Chai rman.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: —the opportunity for all of
those individuals.

Hon. Renee Ming: Madam Chairman?
The C hairman: Yes. Yes —
Hon. Renee Ming: Can I get a point of —

—if you could just hold on.
Minister?

Hon. Renee Ming: —information? I am just trying to .
. . can the Honourable Member please tell me what
section of the Budget Expenditure he is referring to in
terms of the cut that he just spoke to? I am sorry, the increases that he just spoke to.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Yes, Minister, I am happy
to clarify. I am referring to the actual numbers listed
on page B -278 for 2019/20, and I referred back in the
last Budget Book to the revised numbers there. So,
the actual numbers . . . this is the first time we have
seen those actual numbers for 2019/20.
So, the 2019/20 revised original budget was
$21.577 million, the actual number is $25.24 million. So, we have seen increases there. And I do not want
to spend this part of this debate to go into why those
increases are there, I would rather look at us going
forward. But we know the money has been spent.
But here is my concern. As I was saying about
incarceration and rehabilitation, if you look at the next part, Inmate Services, all right, if you look at 2019/20 the original budget for Inmate Services was $3.5 mi llion, Madam Chairman. You will not see that in this
Budget Book, it is in the last Budge t Book. But the
actual number for 2019/20 is $2.328 million. We see the $1.2 million cut in Inmate Services. This tells me
that the mandate to rehabilitate those incarcerated is not working, because Inmate Services have been cut;
Psychological Services was cut over a couple hu ndred thousand dollars; Social Services was cut
$100,000; Health Services was cut $600,000; Educ ational Services was cut about $150,000; Vocational
Services about $90,000; Recreational Services cut —
all cuts across the board. Madam Chairman, those are the programmes
that the Minister talked about in her brief. And, to me, I
am not so sure, or comfortable, that those pr ogrammes actually took place. And if we are going to incarcerate people we need to give them the oppor-tunity to come bac k and be better people for that. But
the budget shows that this funding was not there to
make it happen.
So, I ask the Honourable Minister, you know,
to please give an overview of courses taking place.
For example, who is doing the NCCER classes at Westga te at the present time? You know, we hear a
lot of conversation about courses taking place, and
things like that, but I know, as a former Minister, that
they all do not take place every year and some of
them can slip by the wayside. But these are the criti cal
parts of incarceration —the critical parts of incarcer ation.
But what do we see in the budget for the current financial year? That budget increased to $3.4 mi llion. So there should be a significant number of
courses taking place but, unfortunately, Madam Chairman, if you look at the Performance Measures, it
does not refer to those. It does not give you any understanding of what is actually taking place. So I have
a real concern about those. The inmates need to be
given the support that they are required going forward.
Turning our attention now, Madam Chairman,
to page B -279, the next page, the Minister did give
some overview on Salaries and Wages, and we see
that for the next financial year there is a cut of almost
$2.8 million. The Minister did refer in her overview in
the brief that there were some challenges with manpower. The average manpower level up at Westgate, I
believe . . . no, for the total Corrections staff, and the
Minister can correct me if I got it wrong, was 188. But
the Budget Book says 23 6. And the next financial year
says 206. And the full -time approved numbers are
250. But forget that number for the time being.
But if we are 188 at the current level, and the
next budget calls for 206, how is that going to be
funded with a cut of $2.78 mi llion? Or will it actually be
achieved? If it is not going to be achieved, what is being sacrificed, what is being given up? I mean it is cri tical in Corrections that staffing is the right level in so
many areas. It is critical that staffing is kept at the level for them to, not only incarcerate people in safe and
humane conditions, but to make sure that the pr ogrammes are done.
And when you look at the Training line on
page B -279, you see that Training was slashed in the
current financial year from $112,00 0 to $11,000, and it
is increased to $20,000 next year. So I ask the Hon-ourable Minister, How is that going to be spent? There
is no way it can be spent with hiring any new people
and, certainly, if you have attrition, that level will drop
down. And I beli eve it is a dangerously low level for
them to continue to do their operations as required.
986 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly I remember a former Minister saying in the
Honourable House of Assembly that the Government
had given approval for 20 more officers. And I do not
believe that those 20 more officers have been hired.
Now, the Minister has resigned and moved on, but those officers . . . certainly, I do not believe they have
been hired. And how low are we going to let it go before we realise that we actually do have a problem
now and we do something about it?
Turning my attention to Professional Services,
halfway down that expenditure item line, Professional Services of $1.8 million in 2019/20 to $2.151 million in
2020/21, which ended at . . . it appears to be rising
through this year to $2.435 million, and $2.232 million
for the next financial year. Can the Honourable Mini ster please provide some detail on how that money is spent on Professional Services? It is a significant
amount. The numbers fluctuate. The budget is hardly
ever hit, and I would like to have some better understanding of that.
Now, the next line of Repair and Maintenance,
you can see that it is well over half -a-million dollars
over the last couple of years. But if you go back to the
Capital Development page on C -7, Madam Chairman,
you will see that Prison Minor Works, $400,000 was
done in the current financial year. It was budgeted for
$800,000 to do Prisons Refurbishment. That was never done, and that money now is earmarked for the
next financial year.
Madam Chairman, whe n you have challenges
with an ageing facility, housing units that require a ttention, flooring that requires attention, plumbing that
requires attention, and the Minister referred to doors
that need repair —do not lock, do not open properly —
water systems that need repair . . . we cannot defer
maintenance like that because doing that puts safety
at risk, Madam Chairman. So I would like a better u nderstanding of what that $800,000 covers, what the
Repair and Maintenance budget of $558,000 covers,
and the assurance that we will actually get it done. Is
the Ministry of Works going to do the work or is it going to be sub- contracted out to private contractors?
Madam Chairman, the Insurance line, a question to the Honourable Minister. The Insurance number seems to be jumping all over the place. The original budget for 2019/20 was $500,000. But the final
numbers shows $5,000 was spent. The original budget for the current year was $200,000, and it shows
that $7,000 is going to be spent. But the budget for
next year is $208,000. So could the Honourable Mini ster please give some explanation of what that refers to?
Perhaps I missed it in the brief, but I would
like the Honourable Minister to give some explanation
to Other Expenses for the current financial year,
budgeted at $98,000, but jumped to $238,000. What
was the necessity for the increase? And what will the
Other Expenses of $115,000 be in the next financial
year? Madam Chairman, looking at the Employee
Numbers as we go forward down to the bottom of that page, the Minister did provide some overview on E mployee Numbers. And one of the areas that has been a real concern for me over time is the Psychological Services. There have always been three psychol ogists in the Employee Numbers, but we have always
had a hard time getting to that level. And sure enough,
in 2019/20 with the actual numbers, there is only one
there when three were budgeted for. And it bears
looking at total numbers for 2019/20, because 119
Westgate Correctional Officers were budgeted for, but
we only had 94. Therapeutic Community, five were
originally budgeted, and it finished with four. Social
Services, seven were budgeted and we finished with
five. Health Services, the original number was six,
finished with three. And we see that trend continue all the way along, certainly with Psychological Services,
which is critical. And the Minister did allude to the fact
that some outside sourcing was being done, but only
one psychologist in 2019/20, only one psychologist in
the current financial year, and only two budgeted for next year.
Now, as a former Minister, I know that Human
Resources drags on for an extended period of time, so quite often psychologists could be in demand and
you lose the ability to hire them. And perhaps that is
still the case. But we have got to do a better job be-cause if you are not assessing your inmates, your first
step is lost in trying to get them back on the road to
recovery. So we will be taking a close watch on that
right there, Madam Chairman.
Now, Performance Measures on the next
page, Madam Chairman, page B -280. The top bus iness unit 35000 —

You have about 20 minutes left,
Member.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Madam
Chairman.
Performance Measures, the top line, I believe
we should get rid of number 1(a) because it does not
mean anything. If you take the total expenditure and
divide it by the capacity, and that is what it cost to maintain an inmate, that is not actually correct because the . . . the capacity is one thing, but the daily
numbers are another thing. And I believe that this
number of 76,401, if you take the total expenditure
and divide it by 372, that $76,414 is wrong anyway.
So that number should be looked into.
I am very concerned about the total number of
assaults inmate on inmate and also on off icers. And
very concerned to look at the item 6 where it talks about the development part of things. The Minister
talked about GED courses. But if there is a revised
forecast of only two inmates obtaining a GED, that sends one of two messages: 1) is that not many people are signing up for the course, which could be a


Bermuda House of Assembly good thing or a bad thing; or 2) that not enough work
is getting done to make sure that that course is completed.
So, Madam Chairman, as I wrap up Corrections, I am very concerned, because there is a $2.7 million cut in the budget, which you can see on page
B-278. There are 30 officers less than what is r equired. And in my view it means there are less educ ational opportunities, there is less time outside the cell, there is more overtime that is going to take place, and
I wonder if overtime is budgeted in. You cannot just
lock people up and keep them locked up. And I have
to worry about officers’ safety.
So, Madam Chairman, Parliament should
know that an inmate in need of treatment, an inmate
who needs education or therapy, or whatever, is a risk
to our community and we should not put them in that position. This budget is concerning, and I believe that
the Prison Officers have some grievances that need to
be taken care of, Madam Chairman. And I hope the
Government takes those comments for what they are worth and actually does something about them rather
than give pleasantries to say that everything is under
control —because, clearly, that is not the case.
The last Head is the Bermuda Fire Services .
And certainly, I have a special affinity for Bermuda Fire Services because I was a former volunteer for a number of years. So, I thank Chief Burchall and his
team for the very professional work that they do in
regard to serving and protecting our communi ty. I note
the defunding of five vacant posts, Madam Chairman,
not only in Bermuda Fire and Rescue Services, but in
other areas where there were vacant and funded posts, and I want to know how that money was actually spent in the current budget year.
Madam Chairman, the Minister did give a
pretty reasonable overview of this department, and I
have a question in regard to Training on 55150, $93,000 in 2019/20, $345,000 in the current financial
year, dropped to $151,000. Why the big ramp up in
the current financial year and then being able to drop
in the next financial year? Obviously, with a structure
and organisation with this many staff, you are going to continue to have attrition. So training has to be ong oing, new hires have to take place. In most organis ations of over 100 people you are going to have natural attrition of about 10 per cent a year. And if you lose
10 per cent of your staff, you have got a serious challenge to deal with. And I want to be assured by the
Honourable Minister that we are actuall y dealing with
the challenge.
Perhaps the Honourable Minister could also
help me out because on the line item I just referred to,
55150, there is a budget this year of $151,000. But if
you turn to the next page on B -282, you will see Trai ning, a line item of $190,000. What brings the difference between those two numbers in Training?
Madam Chairman, the Minister did say that
those posts will be defunded, and that overtime would go to cover, certainly the increased work at the Ai rport. And I am sure that wo uld take place for the other
Fire Services who do a good job. And now that you have medical emergencies added to that, they are on
the go all the time. So, I ask the question to the Hon-ourable Minister, What number has been budgeted for
overtime for the next financial year? It is stated that
overtime will be required, so I would like to know what
number has actually been budgeted for overtime.
And a similar question to what I asked in the
Police and in Corrections as well, Can the Honourable Minister pleas e give an undertaking to provide the
amount of staff out on long -term sick leave or suspension in both of those departments?
So, having said that and giving the Minister an
opportunity for about 15 minutes to reply, I thank the team at the Ministry Headquarters for their work. We fully support their work. But there are certainly some
dark clouds on the horizon in regard to the Ministry of
National Security budget for the next financial year.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Thank you, Member.
Would anyone else like to speak to the
Heads?
We are in the Committee of Supply, and we
are presently debating the Ministry of National Secur ity, Heads 83, 06, 07, 12, 25 and 45.
Would any Member like to speak?
Minister, would you like to respond to the
questions that have been presented?
Just so you know, you are on mute.

Hon. Renee Ming: Thank you, Madam Chairman.

You are welcome.

Hon. Renee Ming: And thank you to the Member for
his questions as they relate to the Ministry of National
Security. I understand his concern, but we are at this
stage governing through a national pandemic and it is
a difficult time. And it was a difficult budget. And you
have to have those conversations that are almost,
what we call them, a Come to Jesus conver sation
sometimes on what we need versus what we want.
But I will do my best, Madam Chairman, to go
through . . . there were lots of questions and there are
many answers. But I will look to answer as many as I
can.
I think one of the first questions that the Member asked was about the strategic plan for the Ministry and when it will be completed. I will say that we, as a
Ministry, have been looking at all aspects of the Mini stry in terms of review to see where we can have some
improvements and what areas w e can actually look to
to find efficiencies and even be more effective as a Ministry.
In terms of a timeline for the completion for
that, it does not have a timeline at this time, Madam
988 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Chairman, because that is something that we have
committed to, as act ually mentioned, if you will review
the Government’s Throne Speech. We talked about
reviews, and we also mentioned them in our budget
brief in terms of feasibility reviews as well, which all form a part of the strategic plan.
The Honourable Member also mentioned the
Police Authority and he asked, Well, what will they do? That, too, was a Throne Speech initiative, Madam
Chairman, and what we had specifically said when it
came to the Police Authority, it would allow the public to be able to have a voice in t erms of policing prior ities. I think that one of the things we explained at the
time was that the funding for Police is from the public
purse. And at this stage the Government . . . I am sorry, the public have no say in the policing priorities, and
a Polic e Authority will allow that bridge of communic ation to actually happen.
We see that as something that is positive for
the community. I know the former Governor, before he
left, said that he, too, thought that that would be a positive step and maybe even bridge any gaps in
terms of understanding of what police are doing. So that the community understands what the police are
actually doing and have an understanding of where
their money is being spent.
And so I do not know if he asked for a
timeframe, but I can say that we are actually in the research stage right now and we have looked at var ious jurisdictions in terms of what they have in policing
plans, and to look at . . . to kind of formulate what we
see as possibly going forward as the best fit for a
Bermuda Policing Plan.
The National Crime Prevention Plan was
something that the Member asked about as well. As
seen in the initiative with the Police Authority, we are
looking at that in terms of our research. And we would definitely not proceed with a Nati onal Crime Prevention Plan without the involvement of any of the key stakeholders. And in this instance I think the Member
referred to the Bermuda Police Service. Of course, the
Police would have the information in terms of crimes,
so I would not see them not being a stakeholder in such an important public initiative.
The Member asked about the DRRM team
and he said, you know, that there is no formal legisl ation to support the DRRM team. And I think the question kind of was, Where are we with that? I think that
Member may remember that the DRRM team was
actually formed in 2015 or 2016 and it had not been
formalised at that time, so we have undertaken and
have taken steps now to formalise the DRRM team by way of legislation and role. It is a process and it must
go through the government processes, which would
be the Management Services team looking at the le gislation.
It is unfortunate that it was not finalised by
them, but it is something that we are now endeavouring to take forward under this Government because we believe that Bermuda needs to have a disaster
team. We see the benefit of it. There is some proacti vity that can be involved in terms of community outreach. So we are taking the matter forward, finalising
that legislation and having a final . . . and we will have
a Disaster team.
I think the Member also spoke about the Gang
Violence Reduction team, and he mentioned the var ious initiatives with regard to, specifically, the 100
Jobs. And the 100 Jobs was a team initiative with the
Department of Wor kforce Development at that time,
and it was not intended to be an initiative going forward. At that time that is what was done, so that is
why we now, as a result, also have had the Redem ption Farm programme, which is now the Redemption
programme. And just to answer a question on that,. . .
as we look within our community, Madam Chairman,
things will evolve and at times we have to look at the
community need.
So, changing the Redemption programme also puts a component in there that speaks to entrepr eneurial ism, because what we are trying to do is not
only give cr edence to the actual programme in terms
of the grant but also, what can you do with it? What
more can we teach? What skills can we give to take
out there and be independent? So, that is where that
is. I think the question was the evolving of that.
I think I have answered the DRRM question.
But I am looking now because there was one on what was the $1.6 million related in terms of the health expenses. And Madam Chairman, I am quite sure (and I
am just looking for the answer right now) that this
would have been related to the COVID -19 expenses
that we would have had at the time. If you give me two seconds, it has just been sent, so I am looking at
them. Yes, so the $1.6 million in terms of the healthrelated expenses would have been related to COVID -
19 and what the Ministry of National Security did in
the beginning stages of the COVID -19 expenses.
I am waiting for some answers, but I will answer everything that I have.
In terms of . . . I have Defence questions that
are here, so I will answer those. Why were there r eductions in 16005 for Recruitment? So, this was due to the movement of the FTE Headcount to the CC16000.
How was the Overseas Camp Fund spent in
the current year? The money from the Camp was reallocated to cover medical expenses and to cover to
pay our part time staff. There is $137,000 in this
budget remaining.
How was the Royal Bermuda Regiment paid
during COVID -19? A supplement was submitted to
Cabinet. The paper was based on the Royal Bermuda Regiment pay scale.
How come the Maritime Operations budget
was reduced from the forecast? This was due to a delay in hiring of the full -time members in 2020/21. In


Bermuda House of Assembly 2021/22 $600,000 in Salaries is transferred to the
Regiment Headquarters.
How will this cut affect the Coast Guard? It will
not be affected as the Coast Guard . . . it is a simple
matter of delaying hiring and moving the headcount.
Why is there an increase in the Wages on
page B -267? This is due to the recruitment number.
How many BPS officers have been in the
Coast Guard since February? Four police officers
have been attached the unit and they are expected to
remain attached until further notice.
What authority and training goes with the
Coast Guard . . . come under? All authority for the
Coast Guard is under the [Defence (Coast Guard
Unit) Amendment Act 2018]. Their training is a combi-nation of current best practices plus processes and
procedures as taken from the Royal Navy, Metropol itan Police, US Coast Guard, and Royal Yachting A ssociation.
Is the Commander suitable for the position?
The current Commander has 25 years of experience
in the Regiment Boat Troop and was trained as a
special constable and instructs in Navigation at the
Bermuda College [since] his retirement several years
ago. His successor is likely to be commissioned from
the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst or the Royal
Navy College Dartmouth.
What increase do you need to carry out the
Coast Guard mandate? We will need an increase of $480,000 for the five additional heads that were approved.
In addition to that, I have another set of r esponses for Defence; let me give you those as well.
What is the breakdown of the National Health
Emergency? The breakdown is in salaries and in operations and the remainder went to h ealth expenses.
What vessels does the Coast Guard have and
their age? There are 13 vessels ranging in age from 6
to 29 years, with the average age being approximately
18 years. Most are small vessels that came from the
Royal Bermuda Regiment Boat Troop.
The budget for the Coast Guard compared to
the budget of the BPS? The BPS budget for Marine is
unknown, so we cannot compare to provide you with
an answer.
What increase does the Government think is
necessary that will allow the Coast Guard carry out its
mandate? Over the three years, we will need $2.4
million in capital to purchase new vessels. The current
establishment and operational budget is acceptable
for the inshore safety and security mandate.
What will you spend for the Overseas Camp
this year? T he Overseas Camp costs for the next
budget year will go to camps in North Carolina [for] Junior Commissioned Officers in the cadre May 21
st;
and in Guyana June 21st, and attachments to the Bri tish Army. This will enable soldiers to continue deve loping thei r skills and gain useful experiences in demanding environments. Another set of questions as they relate to D efence, Madam Chair . What is being done about the
LTAs and what is being done about reducing their numbers? The long- term absence is a soldier absent
without excuse over three training periods. Under the
current CO there have been no increases in the LTA,
legacy matters have decreased by 15 and is forecas ted to decrease by 10 per cent every operational
month.
And the current MATTs percentage, we accept there is need for improvement. The MATTs are
reviewed annually to establish if they are fit for pur-pose. The incumbency is in the process of raising the
standard required by new volunteers and expanding
assessment criteria of currently serving soldiers . The
Regiment will always seek ways to conduct self -
improvement.
Madam Chair , I will continue to answer questions. Why was the Training budget . . . and this one is
speaking to the Head relating to Customs Head 12. The decrease is based on the year -to-date accruals.
Customs is a member of CCLEC [Caribbean Customs Law and Enforcement Council], WCO (World Customs Organization), and via CARTAC [Caribbean Regional
Technical Assistance Centre] the Government enjoys
a number of valuable training programmes that are
provided at no cover cost above the membership fees
to those organisations.
The majority of costs ordinarily associated
with training centres are either paying instructor fees
and travel expenses or the travel expenses of officers
attending overseas courses. With travel restrictions
and social distancing measures being in place, Customs has not been able to enjoy in- class training,
whether in Bermuda or overseas and, therefore, has not incurred these costs and is unlikely to incur these
costs in the f oreseeable future. In the interim, Customs has largely been utili sing online training courses
provided free of charge by our membership in the
aforementioned organisations and in- house training
offered by experienced officers.
Madam Chair , I will proceed to answer anot her question as well as it relates to Bermuda Customs.

There is one minute left, Minister.

Hon. Renee Ming: Okay. The Travel costs was another question, I will try and get them done, Travel
expenditure for the day has been over $2,000. This pertains to part of the course for overseas travel of a
K-9 Handling Officer.
The Officer travelled overseas at the end of
2019/20 beginning the financial year for the procur ement and training of a sniffer dog. Due to the COVID -
19 travel restrictions it seems unlikely that the travel
costs will exceed $3,000 and the remaining amount of
approx imately $19,000 is now expected to be returned
as unspent budget.

990 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

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

Hon. Renee Ming: So, my time is completed, Madam
Chair man?

It has been moved that Heads 83, 06,
07, 12, 25 and 45 be approved.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Agreed to.
[Motion carried: The Ministry of National Security,
Heads 85, 06, 07, 12, 25 and 45 were approved and
stand part of the Estimates of Revenue and Expend iture for the year 2021/22.]

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

Thank you, Madam Chair , Honour able Member Ms. Jackson and thank you Minister Ming
for your presentation.
The next will be . . . Committee of Supply for
further consideration of the E stimates of Revenue and
Expenditure for the year 2021/22 under Health Mini stry on Heads 21, 22, 24 and 91.
Minister Wilson, you have the floor.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and
good afternoon. I move that the following Heads: 21,
Ministry of Health Headquarters; 22, Department of
Health; 24, Hospitals; and Head 29, Health Insurance
be now taken under consideration.

Minister, may I break in for just one
second? This is a four -hour debate. And it is scheduled to complete at 7:37 pm. Thank you, Minister.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The budget brief for Head 21, which relates
specifically to the Ministry of Health Headquarters, is
found on pages B -155, through B -160 of the Budget
Book. HEAD 21 —MINISTR Y OF HEALTH
HEADQUARTERS

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, the mandate of
the Ministry of Health Headquarters is t o make Bermuda healthier .

Expenditure Overview
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, the Headquarters allocation constitutes approximately 5 per cent of
the budget allocated for the Ministry as a whole. A
total of $8,997,000 has been allocated for this Head
for 2021/22, which represents a decrease of $3.508
million, or 28 per cent, under the original budget of
2020/21. The majority of the change is due to the transfer of Ageing and Disability Services and the K.
Margaret Carter Centre to the Ministry of Social D evelopment and Seniors, representing $2,879,000 in
funding.
Additionally, there were six respective grants
transferred also to the Minist ry of Social Development
and Seniors, representing $1,950,000 in funding.
However, Mr. Chairman, an additional $800,000 in
funding was allocated for transformation of Bermuda’s
health care structure via the new Bermuda Health
Plan.

Okay, thank you.
Hon. Kim N. Wilson : Okay.
Mr. Chairman, however, an additional
$800,000 in funding was allocated for transformation


Bermuda House of Assembly of Bermuda’s health care structure via the new Bermuda Health Plan.

Manpower
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: With respect to manpower, Mr.
Chairman, the change in manpower for this Head is detailed on page B -158 of the Budget Book, decreasing the employee numbers for the Ministry Headquarters from 46 to 18 established posts due to the transfer of the abovementioned programmes that I just spoke about, Mr. Chairman, to t he Ministry of Social
Development and Seniors.
However, I must interject here, Mr. Chairman,
to say the Ministry of Health employees and its par tners are the most courageous and dedicated emplo yees that I have ever encountered in my life! And the success of Bermuda’s war against the pandemic
called COVID -19 is attributed to the hard work that
they have en dured for well over a year and are still
courageously tackling.
Mr. Chairman, I am truly honoured to be a
part of this team and will forever be humbled b y this
journey that I have experienced with this team and
knowing how true heroes really do exist.
Mr. Chairman, I would now like to speak on
each of the sections and business units pursuant to
Head 21.

General Administration and Corporate Services

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: The business unit 2101, Ge neral, comprises a team of 10 persons and a budget
largely dedicated to grants and the national health
emergency for the COVID -19 pandemic. Over $3.6
million of the unit’s total budget of $7.9 million is for
grants, and $1.5 million is for the national health
emergency.
Are you with me, Mr. Chairman? No?

[No audible reply]
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: I can’t hear you, Mr. Chairman.

I’m sorry. My figures . . . you know,
you have the business unit, but the figures are not the
same that I had in this book here. It’s not your fault;
but we can’t hold this up. Continue.
I am really sur prised that I had not been supplied with this info rmation.
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Okay.
Two point seven mi llion dollars is the balance
which supports the strategic and operational components of the Ministry through the accounts section and
our cor porate services policy directorate.

Output Measures

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, the Public Service Reform has allowed us to step back and assess
the output measures and ask questions, such as, How
can we measure our performance and ensure we pr ovide the information to all stakeholders in the most
productive and informative manner? This and similar
questions resulted in a mass revie w and change of
our performance measures, which are listed on page B-159.
The Ministry revamped its performance
measures in the prior year to give better value for all
stakeholders and to ensure a core principle, accountability, is met. Significant highlig hts of the Ministry’s
outcomes are better demonstrated in the Ministry of Health Roadmap 2020.
The roadmap is an annual corporate plan
which provides an overview of the en tire Ministry and
is a useful document for all stakeholders to get a quick
and easy readable glimpse of the Ministry’s performance. Roadmap 2021 is in pr oduction. However, the
Roadmap 2020 is on our website at www.gov.bm
under the heading “Health Li brary.”
Mr. Chairman, under 31000, General Admi nistration , this Government is committed to the transformation of Bermuda’s health care structure via the new Bermuda Health Plan as stated in the Throne Speech last November .
Are you with me, Mr. Chairman?

[No audible reply]

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Pardon?

The Chai rman: Yes, continue.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Pursuant to section 31000, the aim of the
Bermuda Health Plan is to ensure equitable access to
necessary health care services, contain health care
costs, and engage prevention and health promotion
strategies to produce better health outcomes. Mr.
Chairman, as many people are aware, Bermuda’s cur-rent health system is at a breaking point with unsati sfactory health outcomes and unsustainable cost i ncreases.
Too many of us are uninsured, underinsured
or struggling to cope with soaring health [costs] and co-payments. The catastrophic impact of COVID -19
on the Island’s economy is directly felt by public and
private health care providers and their patient base,
as well as the funding methods which underpin the
system.
Mr. Chairman, the transformation to universal
health coverage through the Bermuda Health Plan is
rooted in the organising principle that integrated care
will be delivered via a single- payee mechanism. Int egrating health services across the continuum of care,
992 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly that is, public health, mental health, acute and post -
acute care and community services, will contribute to
improved health outcomes and greater resiliency in
times of disaster. This patient -centric approach enables Bermudians to get the care they need when they
need it and to have quality of care at a fair value.
Mr. Chairman, it is intended and anticipated
that the integrated service model will reduce duplic ations, enhance information sharing, and realise synergies, efficie ncies, and economies of scale that cause
savings to be realised with respect to our health care
costs.
Mr. Chairman, the Ministry of Health cannot
do this work alone or function in decision- making s ilos. That is why we value -build in our community par tnerships with organisations such as the Bermuda
Health Council, the Bermuda Hospitals Board, the Bermuda Medical Doctors’ Association, BermudaFirst,
Allied Health Professionals, the Island’s private insurers, the Chamber of Commerce, local and international businesses, and patient advocacy components.
An allocation to develop the design of and the
impleme ntation steps for a Bermuda- centric universal
health coverage system is accounted for in the
2021/22 budget. This complex undertaking will be set
up in phases over the next coming years.
Mr. Chairman, regarding business unit 31015,
Grants Administration, page C -18 lists the Health Mi nistry’s grants to a number of agencies, providing essential frontline servi ces to aid public health and social
assistance. Thes e are as follows:
• $2.5 million for the LCCA [Lady Cubitt Co mpassionate Association] to cover overseas
medical care for uninsured and underinsured
persons;
• $125,000 for the Bermuda Nursing Council to
support the regulation of nurses and midwives;
• $1 millio n for the Bermuda Health Council;
• $10,000 for SART, Sexual Assault Response
Team.

Plans for the Upcoming Year

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, since midJanuary 2020 the Ministry of Health has dedicated the
majority of its time and resources to the COVI D-19
pandemic. Last year this time, I recall speaking of the Ministry’s preparations for the emergence of a respir atory disease caused by the novel coronavirus that
originated in the Hubei Province in China. Mr. Chai rman, it is over 12 months later, and I can unequivocally say that no one knew what 12 months of fighting a
pandemic looked like.
Well, it looks like this, Mr. Chairman: a country
that has stood together and has achieved what many
other countries are still aiming for. We fought two periods of outbreaks, mitigated community spread, and
we are able to maintain our open borders with our ri g-orous testing programmes whilst we aggressively
vaccinate and immunise the population. The teams
will continue to progress the programmes in place to
win the war against the pandemic and ultimately aim
towards this Head’s mission which is, again, to make
Bermuda healthier .

Office of the Chief Medical Officer

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, this is found on
pages B -156 through page B -160 of the Estimates of
Revenue and Expenditure.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 2101 under Head
21 is the Office of the Chief Medical Officer (OCMO),
found on page B -156 of the Budget Book. Its total
budget for fiscal year 2021/22 is $1,056,000, and this funds two cost centres: 31030 Health Care Registr ation and Regulation, and 31040 Epidemiology and
Surveillance Unit. The office ordinarily consists of
eight full -time equivalents, and one part -time consul tant pharmacy inspector, and a relief pharmacy inspector providing a combined ser vice of 0.25 full -time
equivalents as of December 2020,
In response to the ongoing COVID -19 pandemic, Mr. Chairman, an additional 39 bodies were assigned to assist the office with formulating and supporting activities relevant to managing the pandemic
response including contact tracing measures.
The remit, Mr. Chairman, of the Office of the
CMO consists of four primary duties: registration and
regulation of health care professionals, pharmaceut ical drug control, epidemiology and surveillance, and
statutor y public health responsibilities. Over the past
seven years, the Office of the CMO has undergone significant reorganisation to optimise efficiency and
assure appropriate delegation of statutory duties.
Previously, the office registered all health care
professionals aside from nurses and psychologists, as
well as registering health care facilities namely, hospi-tals, pharmacies, clinical laboratories and diagnostic
imaging facilities. During 2020, the office transferred
the majority of its registration and r egulatory function
relative to health care professionals and facilities to
the Bermuda Health Council. And this transfer will be
completed in 2021.
Currently, the Office of the CMO handles the
registration and re- registration of medical practitioners, the initial registration of allied health professionals, dental health professionals, opticians and optometrists and pharmacists. The OCMO provides a dministrative support to the health professional statut ory boards and councils. The CMO is the executive office r of the Bermuda Medical Council. The office of
the CMO will retain functions relevant to medical practitioners and pharmacy regulation. This includes managing the registration processes, the handling of complaints and ensuring best practice standards are in
place to provide assurance of quality medical and
pharmaceutical care delivery in Bermuda.


Bermuda House of Assembly The Office of the CMO’s pharmaceutical
drugs control responsibilities include ensuring that
annual inspections of pharmacies are conducted and
monitoring the importation of prescription drugs, i ncluding controlled (or banned) drugs to ensure these
items are safe and are received by the appropriate
health care businesses and individuals. The office
must ensure that Bermuda stays within its assigned
quotas of contro lled drugs, and reports controlled drug
importation to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which is located in Vienna, Austria. The INCB monitors compliance to the United Nations I nternational Drug Control Conventions.
Health protection and c ommunity health assessment are two essential public health functions carried out by the Office of the CMO’s Epidemiology
and Surveillance Unit (ESU). The ESU monitors the
occurrence of diseases on the Island, both infectious
diseases (communicable diseases ) and select chronic
non-communicable diseases, to help prevent and control these diseases. The ESU receives reports from
health care providers and laboratories and invest igates unusual disease occurrences. Contact tracing and case management help to prevent or mitigate
outbreaks of disease.
Mr. Chairman, just as an aside, before coming
to the Ministry I actually had very little knowledge of
what an epidemiologist was. I remember meeting the
team and asking, What do you do? Of course, I now
know intimately what they do because they have been
at the forefront of our fight against COVID -19 preparing the reports and the like.
Mr. Chairman, periodic community health surveys are also conducted by ESU to monitor and document the health of Bermuda’s population. Th e
STEPS to a Well Bermuda survey, which is planned
for 2021/22, is an example. Data from community
health surveys provide population health information
which is essential to setting health system priorities
and for planning.
Additional functions of the Off ice of the CMO
are to facilitate designated legislated functions, advise government departments on health matters and sup-port the regulatory work of statutory boards and councils. The Office serves as Bermuda’s public health
focal point with communications from regional and
international authorities such as the Caribbean Public
Health Agency (CARPHA), the Pan American Health
Organization [PAHO] and the World Health Organiz ation [WHO]. Critical collaborations with these partners assist Bermuda by training public health professionals, supporting and implementing strategic plans and providing technical assistance to manage public
health emergencies.
Mr. Chairman, of the Office of CMO’s total
budget, $621,000 is allocated to health care registr ation and regulati on. Over that past year the section
registered over 200 health care professionals, pr ocessed 144 requests for controlled pharmaceutical drug licence requests, received and handled eight complaints against medical practitioners, and completed 27 pharmacy inspections.
The Registration Section continued to meet its
performance targets by publishing accurate health care professional registers and supporting the professional statutory boards in their registration and complaints -handling responsibilities.
For fi scal year 2021/22, $435,000 is budgeted
for the work of the Epidemiology and Surveillance
Unit. Capacity -building in public health, which was
supported by CARPHA, PAHO and Public Health
England in 2020, has assisted the staff of the ESU, as
well as staff i n the Department of Health, in meeting
the challenge of preventing and controlling emerging diseases such as the novel coronavirus, and in managing outbreaks of vaccine- preventable diseases such
as whooping cough.
Through the work of the Public Health Emergency Response Team (PHERT), the Office of the
CMO coordinates and collaborates with a broad range
of health stakeholders to prevent and mitigate public health threats.
The ESU has met the challenges set by the
World Health Organization to detect COVID -19 cases,
to follow contacts and to put in place adequate co ntainment measures to control the spread. To date there have been over 700 cases of COVID -19 ident ified in Bermuda and, sadly, 12 deaths. Numerous
persons have been impacted. But without the dedic ation and expertise in the Epidemiology and Survei llance Unit, Bermuda could have fared much worse.
Mr. Chairman, the Office of the Chief Medical
Officer’s entire workforce is nearly fully dedicated to
responding to the COVID -19 pandemic, which has
spread around the world and reached our shores.
Throughout 2020/21 the ESU has overseen an extended team providing case management, contact
tracing, traveller and school surveillance, data man-agement and analysis support to the incident command structure, develop ed to efficiently respond to the
COVID -19 pandemic.
This included investigation and responses to
more than 700 lab- confirmed cases of COVID -19 and
all of their contacts, surveillance of over 43,000 trave llers and weekly reporting to international public health
agencies. ESU works closely with public health par tners, including the Caribbean Public Health Agency or
CARPHA, the Pan -American Health Organization or
PAHO and Public Health England to prepare for and respond to COVID -19. The ESU also remains abreast
of updates from the World Health Organization and
acts on the relevant recommendations.
Mr. Chairman, although 2020 saw a decrease
in reported communicable diseases other than COVID -19, which may have been related to public
health measures that we implemented to control
COVID -19 pandemic, such as the shelter in place, the
ESU managed over 220 individual case reports of
994 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly communicable diseases, in addition to all that I have
just spoken about concerning COVID -19.
Mr. Chairman, the OCMO is providing critica l
support to the vaccination programme to get all elig ible residents of these Islands vaccinated and protec ted from the disease. Mr. Chairman, if I could, I would
like to sit here today and use the entire four hours allocated to this Ministry to appeal to how [devastating]
such a historic threat can be, and it has been, only
managed by the highest level of collaboration and so lidarity of every single sector and person in this community. This community has proven to be resilient
against catastrophic hurricanes when we band t ogether as one. So, I ask that we continue to rise to the
occasion for this unexpected and unusual threat to health like we have never done before.
Mr. Chairman, the development of the Chronic
Disease Register continues to evolve and be r efined.
In 2019, the initial Phase One of the Register was
completed. This phase piloted the process of collec ting data on diabetes and chronic kidney diseases in
three entities: Bermuda Hospitals Board, the Bermuda
Diabetes Association and the private endocrinology
practices. Progress with this work has slowed with the
onset of the pandemic in 2020, and the plan is to r estart these in 2021/22. Mr. Chairman, this ends my
presentation on Business Unit 2102, Office of the
Chief Medical Officer.
Mr. Chairman, lastly, with respect to Head 21,
I would like to highlight the work of the Bermuda
Health Council, which is a quango under the Ministry
of Health. They received operational funds in part
from a Ministry grant and a re position ed to continue to
advise and m ake recommendations to the Ministry on
health system matters. I am still on Head 21, Mr.
Chairman. The Bermuda Health Council’s mandate is
to regulate, coordinate and enhance the delivery of health services. The grant for Bermuda Health Council
can be found on page C-18 cost centre 6895 under
the Ministry of Health. In 2021/22, the Health Coun-cil’s grant will be $1 million. The Council has been
transferred over a significant number of regulatory
responsibilities, including registration of health profes-sionals, c oordination of statutory bodies and professional conduct committees, oversight of care homes and licensing of health facilities which were previously conducted through the Ministry.
Mr. Chairman, in addition to these new transfers of duties, the Health Council will also be taking on a regulatory role in the drug [formulary] and the pending health system reforms. The Health Council’s total
revenue is supported by a transfer from the mutual reinsurance fund and licensing fees paid by health
insurers for a total budget of $2.4 million in 2021/22.
In 2020/21, legislative amendments were
passed to formalise the transfer of new functions,
amendments which included the transfer of licensing
fees from the Consolidated Fund to the Bermuda
Health Council. As such, th e Health Council’s revenue will include the licensing and registration fees paid by
regulated facilities and health professionals.
Mr. Chairman, in 2020/21, the work of the
Health Council centred on four strategic areas: regul ation, quality and standards, and finance and economics, with oversight by audit and governance. Some of
this year’s achievements are as follows.
With respect to regulation: Mr. Chairman, as
the primary regulator of the health system, the Council is given the responsibility of facilit ating the administr ative functions of health professional bodies and health
professional conduct committees and licensing functions in respect to select health facilities, namely dia gnostic imaging facilities, laboratories, hospitals and
residential care homes.
The Health Council has successfully trans itioned biennial health professional re- registration pr ocess to a paperless system for over 650 nonphysician, non- nursing health professionals. Additionally, the Health Council has been, and will continue, working with the professional boards and conduct
committees to streamline existing policies and proc edures.
Following the transition of the regulation of
residential care homes, and prior to initiating the 2020
re-licensing of the homes, the Health Council prioritised the identification and implementation of more efficient re- licensing processes, including a shift to
electronic application submission, enhanced alignment of inspection criteria, so there [are] standards in
the care homes’ codes of practice and consolidation
of re-licensing and inspection reporting databases.
Additionally, Mr. Chairman, the Health Council
has streamlined the complaints reporting and handling
processes, which involves partnering with the teams
of Ageing and Disability Services u nder the Ministry of
Social Development and Seniors and the Bermuda Nursing Council.
The Health Council has also been working di ligently in collaboration with the Attorney General’s Chambers to draft legislation for the regulation of the
prices at which medications are sold to the public. In
2020/21, Cabinet voted in support of the proposed
legislation, and thus, in 2021/22 the Health Council
will begin the work towards the planning of implement-ing policies and procedures to support the proposed
legislation in anticipation of successful assent. And
you will recall we debated this Bill last week, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, this legislation will provide for a
range of regulatory functions, including but not limited to setting of the price of medications, granting author ity to monitor pharmacy compliance with regulated
pricing, and negotiating the price at which medications
are imported.
Mr. Chairman, with respect to Quality and
Standards: Within its goal to enhance the integrity and best use of local health sy stem data, the Health
Council led the system’s transition from International


Bermuda House of Assembly Classification of Diseases, version 9 medical coding to
the more current version International Classification of
Diseases, version 10, or ICD -10. While this transition
is still ev olving, we believe that this modernisation of
data will lead to much better understanding of our population’s health needs going forward. Data enhancement efforts are ongoing as the Health Council
continues to work with health system partners to identify g aps in data collection and reporting and the r esources required to close these gaps.
Mr. Chairman, continuing under Quality and
Standards: Having recently been transitioned oversight of clinical laboratories, and in response to the
obvious need, the Health Council led in the develo pment of standards and criteria for the operation of
COVID -19 testing facilities and the selection of
COVID -19 tests available publicly.
Mr. Chairman, turning now to Financing and
Economics: The Health Council published the 2019
National Health Accounts Report which details total
health system expenditure during fiscal year ending
31
st of March 2018 of $736 million, reflecting an i ncrease of 1.88 per cent and a per capita expenditure
of $11,529. During this same period, we saw spen ding
on overseas care at $93 million, which was slightly above our ten- year-average of $88 million.
The Health Council, Mr. Chairman, has been
instrumental in the development and modelling of var-ious scenarios for increasing access to necessary and
cost-effective care for all residents in support of the
Ministry -led initiatives under Health System and F inancing Reform. While there was a reprioritisation of resources due to COVID -19 for a significant portion of
2020/21, progress with reform is expected to r esume
in 2021/22 with the Health Council continuing to lead on the research and identification of solutions.
Mr. Chairman, in 2020/21, the Health Council
submitted drafting instructions for legislative changes necessary to finalise the standardisation of t he medical and dental charges. These changes addressed
long-standing concerns around disparities in rei mbursement for services provided in- hospital by nonhospital physicians.
Audit and Governance: Mr. Chairman, to continue its track record of timely financial transparency,
the Health Council, in close collaboration with the A uditor General, tabled unqualified audited financial
statements in its 2019/20 annual report in calendar
year 2020. The Health Council also successfully began its transition to a paper less office with the majority
of all information- sharing occurring via electronic
means. The Council also continues to review and en-hance its regulatory processes to become more eff icient, thus being a cost -effective resource to both the
Government and health system alike.
Information Dissemination: Mr. Chairman,
aligned with the Council’s mandate to disseminate
information to the public, the Health Council released
key pieces of information about the health system on a regular basis, including but not limi ted to, COVID
Current, which provides short summaries about ev idence based COVID -19 research, video SnapFact
which feature Health Council updates and general
health system updates, and multiple guest features on
the popular web- based talk show The Daily Hour,
where they provide a more in- depth look at the role of
the Health Council.
Mr. Chairman, the future: Looking forward to
2021/22, the Health Council will continue its involv ement in regulation of health professionals, regulation
of health businesses, management of innovative
health programmes, recommendations for enhanc ement to health legislation, developments of key health
system reports, contribution to short - and long- term
health systems strategy, oversight of health- system
data and analytics, researc hing and modelling essential and cost -effective health benefits, dissemination of
health- related population- based surveys, continued
stakeholder engagement, timely communications and management of local and international partner rel ationships. These key it ems are important as the
Health Council looks to support the larger goal of achieving a more equitable and sustainable health
system.
Mr. Chairman, of note for 2021/22, the Health
Council will continue its work on long- term care
standards and services as t he population ages, and
thus demands for these [services] increases. The
Council will also continue to provide expert advis ement on health financing and system reforms as part
of its role in ensuring cost -effective access to essential health services for r esidents.
Lastly, Mr. Chairman, I would like to
acknowledge the appointment of the 2021/22 Berm uda Health Council Board Members whose expertise
will contribute in the ongoing achievements: Dr. Sy lvanus Nawab is the Chair and he provides a paedia tric clinic al perspective, Mr. Anthony Richardson is the
Deputy Chair who provides expertise in public -private
partnerships, Mr. Anthony Santucci who brings a view of the integration of health care and social determ inants of health and community, Ms. Cynthia Thomas
who brings her legal expertise to the table, Ms. Kirsten
Beasley who offers a health system related reinsur-ance sector perspective, Ms. F. Ann Francis who gives the public -private sector financial perspective,
Ms. Shelle Hendrickson who shares the view of ove rseas healthcare models, Dr. Darrien Ray who ensures a mental health perspective, Dr. Michael Richmond
who shares a medical provider and hospital perspective, and Ms. Keechia Tuckett who brings years of experience in the government health insurance ma rket.
In addition, I wish to acknowledge that the ex -
officio members of the Board are: the Health Council’s
CEO, the Permanent Secretary of Health, the Chief
Medical Officer , and the dearly departed Financial
996 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Secretary. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my remarks
for Head 21 Ministry of Health Headquarters.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to now move on to
Head 22, the Department of Health.

Continue.

HEAD 22 —THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
This can be found on pa ges B-161 through
172 of the Budget Book. It gives me great pleasure,
Mr. Chairman, to present the budget for Head 22, the
Department of Health, again found at pages B-161
through B172 of the Budget Book . The total current
expenditure is estimated to be $28,323,000 for
2021/22.
Vision and Mission: Mr. Chairman, the D epartment of Health’s vision is Healthy People and
Healthy Communities . Do you want me to sing the
jingle for you?
Mr. Chairman, the Department’s mission is to
promote and protect optimum healt h and well -being in
Bermuda. Mr. Chairman, the 285 Department of
Health officer s (and that is located on page B-164)
work in 25 programmes to assure the health and well -
being of the general population. Mr. Chairman, the
Department of Health through its adm inistrative section will continue with its overarching strategic theme: Halt the rise in obesity and diabetes.
In addition, Mr. Chairman the administration
section has tasked all business units to look at includ-ing mental health awareness and promotion, w hich
affects overall health and well -being across the life
course. This is important now, more than ever, given
the toll, Mr. Chairman, that COVID -19 pandemic has
taken on our community.
The Department of Health will refocus its efforts on the prevention of non- communicable diseases
which are contributing to the ever -increasing cost of
healthcare in Bermuda with the inclusion of mental
health. A mental health situation analysis was conducted in 2019 in collaboration with Public Health England and the Pan A merican Health Organization
which resulted in a draft national mental health plan and key recommendations. The Department will look to integrate mental health into its clinic -based services
across the life course in partnership with the MidAtlantic Wellness Institute, as well as work with co llaborative partners to develop greater awareness and support of mental health in our community.
Mr. Chairman, the 2021/22 budget estimate
for administration is listed as cost centre 32230 and
found at page 162. The budget estimate is $531,000.
Mr. Chairman, in an effort to realise cost savings, the
Health Promotion, Healthy Schools and Nutrition Ser-vices were combined into the Health and Wellness
Programme and will work across all programmes and services within the Department of Health to promote
health and wellness in our community.
The health promotion sub- programme of the
health promotion and wellness programme develops
and implements policies, programmes and products that will promote health and wellness in the comm unity in collaboration with public health partners. The D epartment of Health has initiated a whole- of-society
approach to halting the rise of obesity and diabetes
locally.
Commit to Change, Small Changes, Big R esults initiative promotes small daily changes that can add up to big results. Mr. Chairman, the initiative e ncourages changes in four areas that will have an i mpact on a person’s overall health. These four areas include: Choosing to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of
water daily, eat at least three serv ings of vegetables
daily, exercise for at least 30 minutes daily and ba lance mental well -being by reducing stress.
Mr. Chairman, the COVID -19 pandemic led to
delays and cancellations in some of the plans the
Health Promotion Office had developed for 2020 due
to the team members being reassigned to tasks or
shifting tasks to assist with the COVID -19 response.
However, non -communicable diseases persist even
during the pandemic, and the team had to work in new ways to accomplish their goals. One was the Virtua l
Wellness Wednesday initiative to promote awareness
of and information about the monthly health themes
found on the Health Promotion calendar. The Depar tment of Health Facebook viewership increased as
community persons [were] interviewed on topics such as mental health and well -being, coping skills during
the pandemic, domestic abuse awareness and breast health, just to name a few.
Mr. Chairman, the Speech from the Throne
2017 stated, “The Government will lead the way in
wellness by encouraging its employe es to make
healthy choices, and will contribute to their well -being
by offering programmes, incentives and education to support the journey to a healthier public service.”
Mr. Chairman, in 2020 the Department of
Health again collaborated with the Department of H uman Resources, GEHI and the Department of Co mmunications under the umbrella of the Government of
Bermuda Employee Wellness Committee to roll out
the MoveSpring steps challenge. Mr. Chairman, almost 500 government staff participated in the challenge over a three- month -period to improve health
habits. Participants logged over 210 million steps and spent 915,532 minutes in physical activity. In 2021 there are plans to roll out enough other initiatives to
encourage and support public servants to lead healt hier lifestyles.
Mr. Chairman, the Healthy Schools subcommittee of the Health Promotion and Wellness Pr ogramme promotes health in schools through comm unity-based partners and the Department of Health
school -based programmes such as Child and School


Bermuda House of Assembly Healt h, Nutrition Services, oral health, community r ehabilitation services and environmental health.
Healthy Schools has been adopted by 30 of the 33
public and private schools since 2007.
Healthy schools is working more closely with
the Department of Education to limit all fast food de-liveries to schools for any reason and food focused
fundraisers to once per month in schools. Healthy
Schools will ensure that schools receive lists of non -
food fundraisers. During this school year, Healthy Schools and Nutrition Services worked with both government and community -based entities to develop a
school garden programme. The school garden’s pr imary purpose is to create sustainable thinking in our children and teens to learn that gardening can be healthy and [an] economic al food source, especially
as they enter into adulthood.
Mr. Chairman, Healthy Schools and the D epartment of Education’s Facilities Manager, with Env ironmental Health, will continue to work closely with school custodians and cleaning companies that clean schools to raise schools’ cleanliness standards.
Healthy Schools will continue to provide updates to the Entry to Exit protocols for school levels as r equired to reflect Bermuda’s COVID -19 status.
Mr. Chairman, the Nutrition Services subprogramme of the Health Promotion and Wellness Programme has been working toward healthy eating
practices within the Department of Health, Obesity
and Diabetes framework developed with communitywide consultation and engagement. It should be
noted, Mr. Chairman, that the orig inal outcomes of the
Nutrition Services Health Promotion Programmes
were affected by the COVID -19 pandemic. Notably,
the nutritionists joined the quarantine monitoring pr ogramme and the COVID -19 taskforce in the food s ecurity segment. Additionally, one nut ritionist was s econded to the ESU’s contact tracing team.
During the pandemic, Nutrition Services assessed the severity risk of food insecurity within di fferent vulnerable population groups. Nutritionists developed risk management and communications plans
to address food insecurity within the vulnerable and total population. Throughout Phase One of the pandemic, Mr. Chairman, nutritionists liaised with the third
sector Coordinated Crisis Response Team to offer support for the Island- wide feeding programmes.
Nutrition Services developed several initi atives including a food security analysis to improve sus-tainable food sources, participation in the Shi ppers/Importers Resilience meetings and advocating for international aid to support sustainable food initi atives.
Another critical initiative facilitated by Nutrition
Services included the School Lunch Challenge spo nsored by the Argus Group. Four schools completed the School Lunch Challenge and 20 winners were
identified. Community education programmes include
the Grow, Eat, Save Workshops facilitated in partner-ship with instructor chaplain Kevin Santucci, the D epartment of Parks, the Department of the Environ-ment, the Bermuda Agriculture Group, the Devonshire
Seventh- Day Adventist Church, Animal and Garden
and Br ighton Nursery. These workshops provide
community residents with the skills to be sustainable during these challenging economic times, as well as
providing healthy options to improve their overall
health and well -being. One workshop with greater
than 20 gr aduates has continued following appropriate
safety precautions due to the pandemic.
Mr. Chairman, the nutritionists facilitated two
Complete Health Improvement Programmes or CHIP
workshops, a scientifically validated lifestyle medicine
programme through a virtual platform. Graduates of
this 12- week programme participated in educational
sessions and experienced lifestyle skills to minimise
the consequences of illness or disease addressing the
chronic non- communicable diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
Mr. Chairman, Nutrition Services adapted to
the changing environment by providing virtual services
to facilitate menu planning assistance to 21 nursing
and rest home facilities and three correctional facil ities. In addition, nutr ition counselling was able to continue virtually for persons referred from high- risk populations.
Mr. Chairman, the 2021/22 Budget Estimate
for Sexual and Reproductive Health is listed at Cost Centre 32040 on page B-161 and is at $851,000. Mr.
Chairman, the Sexual and Reproductive Health Services programme consists of two sub- programmes:
the Communicable Diseases Programme and the Maternal Health and Family Planning Clinic programme.
Under these programmes, services are available to
prevent and control the spread of communicable di seases, education and health promotion about sexually transmitted infections including HIV, other communicable infections and the provision of health education to promote sexual health.
Mr. Chairman, collaborative services such as
the Bermuda Assessment and Referral Centre or BARC and Turning Point are provided for persons
with high -risk behaviours to minimise the spread of
infection and promote education and behavioural
change. Services also include collaborative pregnancy
care wit h the obstetricians for the under - and uni nsured, immunisations for pregnant women, family
planning for both women and men’s health screening.
Mr. Chairman, the HIV programme has successfully encouraged medication compliance. Some 98.6 per cent of the HIV population in Bermuda are
receiving treatment. Another encouraging statistic is
that in 2019 Bermuda was reviewed and [awarded]
validation for the elimination of mother -to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis by the World Health O rganization.
This valida tion was awarded partly due to a ntenatal clients being offered the recommended HIV
998 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly and syphilis testing, ensuring treatment guidelines are
implemented immediately and the great work from our
many invaluable partners.
Mr. Chairman, the global validation adv isory
committee which is an independent body that advises the World Health Organization on validation of
EMTCT of HIV and syphilis was impressed with the
progress made in repealing laws criminalising HIV
transmission in Bermuda. Bermuda also continues to
move to a real -time electronic data system to capture
all elimination of mother -to-child transmissions (or
EMTCT) processes and impact indicators.
Private sector clinicians were encouraged to
participate in this system so that data of all pregnant
women in Bermuda are captured. Approximately 10 to
20 women per year are not tested for HIV.
The Maternal Health and Family Planning
Clinic has experienced lengthy challenges, with hu -
man resources remaining lower than usual par levels.
An added challenge was the recent COVID -19 pa ndemic. As a result, we have had to scale back on the
number of clients seen. Despite such challenges ed ucation and the promotion of health and wellness has continued albeit on an individual level. We have pr ovided all of our usual servi ces to the community and
we will continue to do so, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, we want the public to value
health education, promotion and clinical support,
which are important parts of sexual and reproductive
health because sexually transmitted infection s inclu ding HIV/AIDS have not gone away, and neither have
unplanned pregnancies. The pandemic has had a
devastating financial impact on many which makes our services even more essential. Clients are encouraged to attend our clinics on education and counse lling on safer sex, women’s health, family planning advice and awareness of HIV/AIDS.
Mr. Chairman, the 2021/22 budget estimate
for the Clinical Laboratory is listed at cost centre
32090 on page B -161, and the budget estimate is
$267,000. Mr. Chairman, the government Clinical Laboratory is situated at the Hamilton Health Centre. Testing of clinical specimens is performed for child health, school health clinics, oral health, and the sexual and reproductive health programmes. The Clinical
Laboratory also serv es as the Public Health Clinical
Laboratory for Bermuda, and provides specimen handling and international transport services to the Cari bbean Public Health Agency [CARPHA] Laboratory,
which is in Trinidad, for advanced testing for diseases
of public health significance.
The laboratory continues the verification pr ocess of a percentage of COVID -19 samples and helps
send samples to CARPHA for gnomic sequencing. The laboratory continues molecular testing for sexually transmitted infections, the most sensitive and specific testing for gonorrhoea and chlamydia screening.
Child Care Regulation Programme

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, the 2021/22
budget estimate for the Child Care Regulation Pr ogramme is listed at cost centre 32290 on page B -162
and is $302, 000.
Significant steps have been taken to increase
oversight and to support quality child care in our day -
care settings, day -care centres and home day -care
providers. An audit of all day -care files was completed
and a new programme launched, the Child Care Regulation Programme. A jurisdictional review identified
the need for specialised oversight by persons with an
early childhood background. The programme has now
moved under the oversight of the Director of Health.
The mission of the programme is to enhance
the development of all young children by ensuring quality accountability, compliance, and best practice in
our child care setting.
The team now consists of persons with early
childhood or social work backgrounds and has trans -
formed the interaction w ith the day -care settings,
providing greater collaboration with providers, gui dance on educational opportunities, increased visits
and responses to complaints by the public. The Child
Care Regulation officers have also prepared a new
inspection tool, which is currently being utilised. This
tool, Mr. Chairman, provides an opportunity to look at
not just health and safety, but also curriculum and development activities for the children in these settings.
The tool will be used to provide star ratings for the
child-care settings.

Child Health

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, the 2021/22
budget estimate for Child Health is listed at cost cen -
tre 32030 on page B -161, and is $2,46 9,000. Mr.
Chairman, the Child Health Programme consists of four sub- programmes: I mmunisation, Child Health,
School Health including asthma education, and Travel
Health. The programme provides preventive and cur ative health services for infants, children, adolescents,
adults, seniors and the traveling public. This is conducted through t he various clinics, schools and community settings.
Services consist of health and developmental
assessments, screenings, referrals, treatment of m inor ailments, health education, health promotion, a nticipatory guidance, adult and seniors immunisations and travel consultation for travel to high- risk areas.
Bermuda’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) plans for the needs of vaccines in the
child and adult schedules. The Expanded Programme
on Immunisation procures most vaccines through the Pan America n Health Organization’s revolving fund.
This mechanism assures safe, effective and quality vaccines. Universal access for many of the vaccines is provided through the public and private sectors.


Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Chairman, all of the programmes in Child
Health, line it em 32030, were impacted by resource
allocations in response to the COVID -19 disease. The
human resources were diverted to support epidemiology and surveillance, contact tracing, COVID -19
screening and testing, as well as support health. The
remaining team supported school surveillance, development of school protocols for COVID -19, and health
education and public health prevention measures for students, school staff and parents.
Mr. Chairman, in spite of the challenges, pr eliminary data on immunisation coverage is 83 per cent
for two year olds. Although coverage decreased by
9 per cent compared with 2019, it may be attributed to
several factors: COVID -19 restrictions, reduced access resulting from scheduling and physical distancing
in waiting rooms, perceive d reduced access, closure
of clinics due to human resource depletion, and chal-lenges with physical structures for safety and health.
The status of the vaccine hesitancy strategy 2018 to
2021 has also stalled along with the launching of the HealthyPeopleBda app for the vaccine webpage.
However, Mr. Chairman, the vaccine webpage was established.
EPI training for health professionals in the
public, private institutional setting and allied partners was conducted. The workshop placed an emphasis on immunisatio n in the context of COVID -19 and consi derations for vaccine introduction. The adult immunis ation realised high demands for influenza vaccine with
over 6,000 doses administered through Flu Express
and the private sector. The public response was likely
due t o fears about simultaneous infections of influenza and COVID -19. Intersectoral collaboration provided
the support necessary for traffic flow and management, facility access and coordination. The Bermuda
Immunisation Information System was customised
with b ack data entry commencing with childhood i mmunisation. However the process was curtailed and efforts [were] given to implement the electronic i mmunisation register for adults in preparation of the
COVID -19 vaccine.
In spite of the challenges, the Child Health
Programme has realised contact with 88 per cent of
all parents of newborns and 76 per cent of mothers
screened for mental health wellbeing at six weeks after birth. These were done in person and/or by tel ephone according to the health risk COVID -19 r estrictions and country status at the time of the di sease. Child protection has been a concern during
COVID -19 restrictions and as a consequence of the
same. This is and will be an area of continued vulnerability.
Mr. Chairman, the school health programme
realised 22 per cent of its target health and developmental assessment for children age five years before the impact of COVID -19 restrictions. Screening r evealed 92 per cent of five- year-olds who were overweight or obese, which is a 1 per cent increase fr om the previous year. Addressing mental health and wel lbeing for families of the school -age population is done
through weekly or biweekly newsletters and resource
information during periods of shelter in place. Asthma
education was a significant focus with telephone contact made to families of known asthmatics in 100 per
cent of all primary schools to educate on asthma pr evention in the context of COVID -19.
Travel health was negatively affected by global travel restrictions. However, there were 286 consul-tations conducted in 2020, which is one quarter of the
usual annual figure. Consultations provide education
on water, food and vector borne illness prevention to
reduce the risk of Bermuda residents returning with
infectious diseases.
Mr. Chairman, the 2021 /22 budget estimate
for Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy are
listed at cost centr es 32080 and 32120 on page B -
161, and the budget estimates are, respectively,
$1,039,000 and $994,000.
Mr. Chairman, Occupational Therapist and
Physiotherapist (OT/PT ) services are provided to maximise the functional potential of individuals with delays
in normal motor development or with physical mov ement challenges. The OT/PT team comprises nine
occupational therapists, eight physiotherapists, one
coordinator and one team secretary who is shared
with the SLP [Speech Language Pathology] Pr ogramme.
Since the arrival of the COVID -19 virus to our
shores, the staff and service provisions were impacted and challenged. At the request of the Ministry of Health COVID -19 control centre, a number of our staff
members were redeployed to several teams in order to assist in the mitigation of the spread of the virus.
For example, contact tracing, COVID -19 hotline,
check -in phone calls to persons who were in quara ntine, leading exerci se groups for persons in Gover nment House quarantine facilities, just to name a few.
Mr. Chairman, during the initial stages, the
service provision delivery had to shift slightly, for example, reducing the number of home school visits,
initiation of tele -consult and the use of virtual meeting
platforms including virtual primary one orientations to ensure that our therapists and clients were safe and adhering to the precautions and mitigation guidelines
that were outlined by the Ministry of Health and the
Government of Bermuda. Amidst these challenges
and changes the service continued to adapt and strive
towards the provision and delivery of a quality and
evidence- based service to our community.
Mr. Chairman, the OT/PT Paediatric Team
aimed to increase early recognition of developmental
delays and to provide a more equitable service. It
must also be noted that school -age children with additional learning needs due to complex health conditions and/or sensory motor delays require regu lar monitoring and intervent ion to retain their functional ability
and to access education. Therefore, identified st u1000 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly dents were provided with individualised strategies
throughout the year and not just during school term
time.
Within the OT/PT Paediatric Team, dedicated
specialist OT s and PTs provide early intervention for
babies and young children between the ages of zero
and four years, at risk of developmental delays and/or
disability. Assessment clinics take place on a biweekly
basis to quickly identify and provide intervention for
children at high risk of delays and to decrease wai tlists for services. Parent multidisciplinary training sessions were delivered throughout the year in collabor ation with the Child and Development Programme and
within the community. It must be noted tha t these i nterventions reduced the number of referrals sent from
the early intervention team into the school health
team.
The OT/PT Seniors Team aims to increase
awareness of health prevention for seniors and to
support clients to remain as independent as possible
in their own homes. Therapy’s Seniors Team con-ducts home safety and falls risk assessments for all
seniors who are referred, with the intention of minimi sing the risk of falls at home. Health promotion events
as well as client and caregiver traini ng were provided
to maximise function and promote ageing in place. As
a result of the COVID -19 pandemic, the need to have
an additional suitable and dedicated space to treat
their clients became more apparent. In response to
this need, the team is in the process of repurposing
and designing one of their existing spaces into a therapy treatment space. Therapeutic equipment and activities are also being selected and ordered in this r egard. It is hoped that this addition will further enhance
the quality of evi dence- based services the OT/PT
team continues to strive to provide our community.
Mr. Chairman, the 2020/21 budget estimate
for Speech and Language Services is listed at cost centre 32100 on page B -161, and the budget estimate
is $1,623,000. The Health Department’s Speech and Language Programme provides speech, language
and feeding/swallowing assessment and intervention
services across the community . When fully staffed the
programme consists of 14 speech- language
pathologists (SLPs ) and one program me coordinator.
Of these, three SLPs provide early intervention services in collaboration with the Education D epartment’s Child Development Programme for chi ldren aged from birth to four or five years of age. Eight
SLPs are school -based, providing services across all
levels of the Bermuda Government Schools (from ag-es 4 to 18 years old). One SLP provides services to students with spec ial needs who attend Dame Marj orie Bean Hope Academy (between the ages of 4 and
18 years), and one SLP provides school -based services to students who attend Bermuda’s private
schools and home schools. Three posts have been
vacant and are under recruitment during this period, while one additional post has been under secondment.
Mr. Chairman, speech and language
pathologists work closely with parents and caregivers
in private homes, schools and in clinic settings across
the Island to raise awareness of speech and language delays and disorders, and to promote functional communication skills, as well as to prevent life- threatening
complicat ions that may occur during eating and swallowing . SLP therapy services include the provision of
prevention and promotion information, screenings ,
consultations and assessments, as well as intervention.
Objectives are measured in terms of the following:
• responsiveness —the provision of timely assessments;
• delivery —the provision of treatment for those
identified as needing intervention; and
• client improvement —the effectiveness of
treatment as measured by reduction in the
severity of the communication or sw allowing
challenges.
Mr. Chairman, this year 74 new refer rals were
received within the Early Intervention Programme, adding to the waitlist for an initial assessment . A total
of 35 young clients from this waitlist were seen for an
initial assessment. Whi le current programme time
guidelines aim to provide an initial assessment for
young children within three months of initial referral,
the average wait for an assessment is now running
between six and twelve months.
Forty -nine students were referred to the
school -based programme for students attending Bermuda’s Government schools, while two new referrals
were received for students attending Bermuda’s pr ivate schools, for a total of 51 new referrals for school -
aged children. Due to COVID -19 not a ll of these s tudents received an initial assessment within the programme’s time guidelines of 35 working days.
Once identified as needing services, clients
are provided with therapy intervention. A combined 433 clients were followed for intervention by Speech
and Lang uage Services this year. Caseloads can vary
between 30 and 60 clients depending on workload
demands. Clients are re assessed on a routine basis
to assess their status and to measure progress. Zero
clients were r eassessed during the spring of 2020.
Due to th e early closure of schools, namely March 18,
2020, it was decided to resume testing for school year
2020/21.
Mr. Chairman, t he 2021 /22 budget estimates
for Community Health and Community Health Admi nistration are listed at cost centres 32060 and 32010 on
page B -161, and the budget estimate are $1, 407,000 ,
and $1,033,000, respectively.
Mr. Chairman, community health nurses are
responsible for ensuring that the adult population,
from age 18 until end of life have access to health


Bermuda House of Assembly services. Community health nurs ing continues to
manage individuals in their homes with complex medical issues. The vision aims to educate persons to
make healthier health practices and supporting them
through self -care, preventive measures, family educ ation, counselling and promoting independence while
reducing the incidences of chronic disease, such as
hypertension, obesity, stroke and diabetes.
Mr. Chairman, Community Health Nursing r eceived a total of 528 referrals for nursing services.
Two hundred and thirty -seven referrals were received
for epidemiology and surveillance unit, 19 referrals for
financial assistance assessment, and completed a
total of 9,931 home visits. In addition, the community
health nursing team provided support at the CedarBridge Academy shelter during the Isl and’s hurr icanes, and that was for 167 individuals; curfew in
place at the Berkeley Institute for 52 individuals; and
the quarantine facilities for 452 individuals during
2020 in the midst of the COVID -19 pandemic.
Case conferencing continued with Ageing and
Disability Services, families, Mid -Atlantic Wellness
Institute, KEMH and their social worker regarding ind ividuals’ health and living status.
Mr. Chairman, during Flu Express the Community Health nursing team immunised a total of
2,320 persons. The pr ojected total number of CPR
[Cardio- pulmonary Resuscitation] classes to be taught
to the h otels , schools and the private sector are 102,
giving the public the tools they need to help save
someone’s life. The goal of taking it to the streets is to
identify persons at risk for non- communicable diseases, giving educational support when people come into
the Department of Health for adult preventative health
care clinic, especially for individuals who do not have
insurance or cannot afford their co- payment. This service is vital at a time when many have lost emplo yment and do not have the means to seek care to manage and control their non- communicable diseases.
Care plans are formulated to address health,
mental health, psycho- social and financial needs in
the c ommunity. Care planning ensures consistency of
care. If a robust care plan and equipment is in place a high quality of care can begin to meet our community’s health needs.
Mr. Chairman, the Community Health Admi nistration has oversight for six major progr ammes i ncluding Community Health Nursing, Child Health, Sexual and Re- productive Health, Adult/Occupational
Health, Re habilitative Services and Nutrition Services,
Clinical La boratory and the two long- term care facil ities for seniors. The administrative pr ogramme pr ovides a framework through c ollaborative efforts of the
programmes for health prevention and some curative health services for the community. The programme has responsibility for maintenance of facilities and
equipment, procurement of supplies an d staff perfor-mance to ensure clinics and related services operate
effectively, efficiently and safely.
Mr. Chairman, the 2021/22 budget estimate
for the Adult Health, Occupational Health and Wel lness programme is listed at cost centre 32130 on
page B -161 of the Budget Book , and the budget est imate is $488 ,000.
The Adult Health Programme consists of three
sub-programmes: Correc tional Health for medi cal se rvices to inmates in correctional institutions; Occupa-tional Health for medical assessment of recruits to the
uniformed services, and occupational health services
to government employees in hazardous and high- risk
occupations; and Forensic Services to the Bermuda
Police Service and medical supervision of detainees
in police custody.
During 201 9, 173 clinica l sessions ser vicing
1,029 inmate medical consultations were conducted at
Westgate facility. Also 94 per cent, or 180 new i nmates received an initial medical examination within 72 hours of intake. A total of 119 recruitment medicals
were completed for the uniformed services, including
Fire, Police and Corrections. During calendar year
2019 , there were 39 Bermuda Police Service forensic
call-outs during working hours and 88 after hours [occurred], totalling 127 who were serviced.
Mr. Chairman, the 2021/22 budget estimate
for Oral Health is listed at cost centres 32150, 32155
and 32160 on page B -162, and the combined budget
estimate is $1, 494,000.
The Oral Health Section contin ues to provide
comprehensive dental ser vices to Ber muda’s children
up to the age of 18 years , seniors from age 65 years
and over , and priority groups including prisoners at
Westgate, Co-ed and the Farm, and other institutions
where target groups are being serviced on a regular
basis with clinical and preventative programmes. We
are also being asked to assist many more adults between the ages of 18 and 65 who currently do not
have comprehensive health insurance or are unable
to pay for private treatment.
The COVID -19 pandemic has had a profound
impact on clinical services delivery in Berm uda. The
unit has worked tirelessly with the Bermuda Dental Board to ensure that we have adopted the optimal protocols to protect our staff and patients.
Our service is based on patient -centric care of
high quality and includes dental examinations, consul-tations, preventative and dental hygiene appointments, as well as a range of restorative clinical treatments including extractions and fillings. There is an overall strong emphasis on prevention and working
with our community, and we also offer emergency
services during regular working hours.
Mr. Chairman, the school -based programmes
are an essential part of the Oral Health Section’s services, and they include a successful screen and seal programme, where children’s teeth are sealed to pr event tooth decay and the children are offered fluoride
1002 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly applications . This currently has a participation rate of
75 per cent to 85 per cent and is offered at no cost to
the parents. Oral health education is offered to our
school children, where we have a 98 per cent partic ipation rate (and this is limited to our primary schools)
and a school -based fluoride supplementation pr ogramme for children aged six months up to 11 years
of age, with a 60 per cent participation rate. We are
currently relying on a mixture of online screeni ng and
school visits to help to be able to rejuvenate all of
these programmes once the pandemic allows us to return to the schools.
Mr. Chairman, preventive services are also
provided at the community level, with various oral health fairs and presentations in which citizens can benefi t from free oral health screenings and professional advice. Oral Health Month this year has been affected by the pandemic, but we are still introducing
a special theme focused on caring for our community.
This will initiate a programme that we have developed
for the unique needs of our vulnerable community i ncluding the wider Mid- Atlantic Wellness Institute family
as well as a new programme for our pre- primary
schools. This programme will highlight the importance of good oral health and diet and the essential role it
plays in maintaining optimal general health. This will
also assist us to reengage with parents and families as we look to improve the levels of oral health across
the Island.
The 2021 /22 budget estimates for Central L aboratory are listed at cost centres 32200, 32210 and 32220, and are listed on page B -162. The combined
budget estimate is $1,213 ,000.
Mr. Chairman, the Central Government L aboratory provides a wide range of analytical services.
The forensic programme performs seized drug and
toxicology anal ysis. To increase efficiency and reduce
waste, this year the urine programme was amended and incorporated successfully into the toxicology
analysis within the forensic programme. The compl ementary part of the urine analysis was maintained
which allows for clients such as prisons, probation
services and child offender services, to still have ac-cess to on- Island legally defensible analysis.
This year, possibly due to the impact of
COVID -19 on our borders, there was a si gnificant decline in case submissions. Interestingly, however, the
quantity of drugs per case has increased. For example, there was one submission to the laboratory that
amounted to approximately 80 kilograms of plant m aterial, where the previous year the total amount of the
plant material submitted amounted to approximately 88 kilograms.
Mr. Chairman, the forensic programme has
managed to procure a gas chromatography –mass
spectromet er (GC -MS). The equipment arrived in the
laboratory on 26 January 2021 and is waiting to be
installed. This equipment will allow for the distinction between cannabis and hemp in accordance with the Misuse of Drugs Act 1972 determining that the TCH
level concentration is in excess of 1 per cent.
Mr. Chairman, all analysts partic ipate in international proficiency testing which ensures that the
analysis and the analytical procedures are performing at an international standard. The results submitted all
fall within the acceptable criteria for testing. This gives
confidence that the analysis and the testing provided
within the laboratory are accurate and can be relied
upon in a court of law.
Mr. Chairman, t he Water and Food Pr ogramme perform analysis of potable and non- potable
water samples, dairy products and food. It is primarily
a laboratory support service to Environmental Health,
with the results used to identify bacteriological and
chemical risk to human health thereby assisting in
maintaining a low incidence in water and foodborne
diseases. Water samples are collected and analy sed
from various sources, including potable water distribution systems, sewage treatment plants, restaurants,
care facilities, residences and beaches. There were a
total of 4,179 water samples tested in the 2019/20 budget period.
This programme also provides weekly bact eriological analysis for the Bermuda Aquarium [Mus eum] and Zoo. Water is tested from the animals’ hab itats to assist BAMZ in maintaining their accreditation status.
Dairy products are also tested monthly to d etermine if they meet legislated limits as set out in the
Public Health (Milk and Dairy Farm) Regulations 1952 . Food testing is currently performed when there
is a suspected case of foodborne illness. This pr ogramme continues to meet all turnaround times for disseminating water, dairy and food testing results as
set out in our performance measures. In the 2019/20
budget period turnaround times were achieved 99 per
cent of the time.
The water and food programme used more
laboratory resources for detecting disease- causing
microorganisms in water. These analyses were undertaken due to a greater instance of confirmed clinical
cases of gastroenteritis reported to the epidemiology
and surveillance unit of the Ministry of Health.
It is anticipated that this programme’s revenue
in 2021/22 will increase due to a slight expansion of our customer base. Using the financial resources from
the 2021/22 budget, the water and food programme
will implement more lead measures to achieve this
programme’s goal of achieving accreditation.
Mr. Chairman, the 2021 /22 budget estimate
for Vector Control is listed at cost centre 32190 and is
listed on page B -162 of the Budget Book with an estimate of $1,547,000. Vector Control is a hard- working
team that gets results and ensures that threats of r odent-borne and mosquito -borne diseases do not manifest themselves in Bermuda. It is a credit to the team
that as an essential service they managed to continue to maintain an active programme of complai nt invest iBermuda House of Assembly gation and proactive baiting and monitoring for pests
during 2020/21 which was a very challenging year. No
doubt 2021/22 will also prove challenging as the pandemic continues. However, Vector Control plans to be
able to continue to provide the essential services.
Always trying to improve its services, Vector
Control has piloted the use of novel rodenticide baits
that include rat birth control. In response to a perceived increase in rodent activity during 2020/21 the
unit increased baiting activity within parks, public
docks and hot spots . These are now serviced on a
weekly basis. Residents are reminded that the best
way to limit rodent numbers is to deny rodent s access
to food sources such as garbage, by using liddedmetal trash containers and not putting trash out on a non-pickup day. In order to reiterate this important
message, Vector Control staff took part in a number of radio and press interviews throughout the year. Staff
liaised with colleagues in other jurisdictions through
involvement in the Pan American Health Organization.
This networking helps in the training and development
of the Vector Control staff, and we will continue to co llaborate with the Pan American Health Organization during 2021/22.
Mr. Chairman, the 2021/22 budget estimates
for Environmental Health are listed at cost centres 32170, 32270, 32171, 32172, 32173, 32175, 32180
and 32285, all of which can be located on page B -
162. A nd the combined budget estimate, excluding
Vector Control, is $2,4 26,000. Mr. Chairman, the Env ironmental Health Section as an essential service co ntinues to provide a monitoring, investigative and reg ulatory function in such diverse areas as food safety, occupational safety, nuisance control, water quality
and tobacco control during 2020/21.
In order to meet the challenges posed by the
COVID -19 pandemic it was necessary to change the
focus of the team. The team was realigned to provide support to the port health functioning along with colleagues from other sections in the departments at L.
F. Wade International Airport and other ports of entry
into Bermuda. This work involved ensuring compl iance with quarantine legislation and supporting the
COVID -19 testing regime which was established.
The Environmental Health Team also worked
with businesses and other stakeholders to produce a range of guidance documents aimed at managing t he
pandemic in a range of settings. The team also supported our colleagues in the epidemiology surveillance
unit and case management units in the investigation
of clusters and outbreaks of COVID -19. The team also
assists in the investigation of breaches of quarantine
and COVID -19 regulations. They also help to monitor
compliance with regulations and guidance. It will be necessary to continue this important work in managing the COVID -19 pandemic during 2021/22.
The Port Health Section of Environmental
Healt h carries out inspections of cruise ships and ot her vessels visiting the Island. The unit also monitors food products arriving on Island to ensure they are
safe for human consumption. This port health function
is central to Bermuda’s complying with interna tional
health regulations. During 2020/21 the number of ves-sels visiting Bermuda was greatly reduced and, ther efore, the number of inspections required to be carried
out was equally greatly reduced.
As mentioned previously, much more work
was required to be carried out at L. F. Wade International Airport and at the ports of entry to ensure compliance with quarantine legislation. On 9 December
2020, the new airport opened. Much planning was
necessary to ensure that the transfer of functions from
the old air port went as smoothly as possible. Thankfully, this was the case. The success of this transfer
was in no small part due to the commitment and ded ication of our working team at the airport. A new quarantine and isolation room is now operational within the
airport. This enhances Bermuda’s reputation as an
international destination and ensures compliance with the international health regulations.
Interviews for the post of port health and pr eparedness manager took place during the year. It is hoped that this p osition will be filled in the near future
along with a team of four port health officers.
The department continues to work with
Skyport and other government stakeholders to ensure
that the cargo shed is brought up to international standards for processing and, where necessary, i nspecting shipments of food, medicines and human
remains.
During 2021/22 it is very likely that most of the
work of the port health unit will again be focused on
the management of COVID -19. However, the unit is in
discussions with other government departments and stakeholders in preparing for a potential return of
some cruise ships to the Island.
Mr. Chairman, the Department of Health also
operates two exemplary long- term care facilities,
namely, the Sylvia Richardson Care Facility (SRCF) in
St. George’s and the Lefroy House Care Community
(LHCC) in the west end in Sandy’s. Mr. Chair man, the
2021 /22 budget estimate for Sylvia Richardson Care
Facility is listed at cost centre 32015 at page B -161,
and the budget estimate is $5, 465,000. And for t he
2021 /22 budget estimate for Lefroy House Care
Community is listed at cost centre 32000, also found on page B -161, and the budget es timate is
$4,738,000.
Mr. Chairman, they provide care and promote
independence and optimal health to persons aged 65
years and older , who have significant nursing and
care needs requiring 24- hour facility -based care. The
Lefroy House Care Community , or LHCC (and when I
refer to Sylvia Richardson, I will refer to it as SRCF), is
a multi -level elder residential care c ommuni ty, which
provides comprehensive medical nursing, enviro nmental and recreational services to the resident , respite care, and day-care elders in our com munity.
1004 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Our aim is to maintain and improve quality of
life for elders and their loved ones. Interna l projects
are underway to provide and/or improve the staff
room, the recreational area for elders and storage areas to optimise the current space. Plans are also underway to replace the roof and other much needed
internal refurbishments to the kitchen and dining ar eas. Work in these areas will continue into the 2021/22
budget year. Equipment upgrade needs have been
met with the purchase of two additional mechanical lifts so that elders can be safely mobilised or transferred during activities of daily livin g, and fitting of two
new washers and three dryers for the laundry facility .
Funding was contributed to the purchase of a brand new bus which will enable the elders to be safely and comfortably transported.
Mr. Chairman, staff have been employed, all
beds are now full. Total bed capacity is 42. Due to the
pandemic, all short -term respite care admissions and
day-care services were suspended. No doubt this has
impacted families and seniors living in the community. The facility has been closed to visitors, res idents and
staff and has undergone regular COVID -19 testing.
And vaccinations of those who consent have recently
begun.
Mr. Chairman, the demand for nursing beds
continues to very much exceed capacity. The Sylvia
Richardson Care Facility has been working a long with
Ageing and Disability Services, Community Health, and the Bermuda Hospitals Board social work team as
beds become available.
Mr. Chairman, HVAC, fire alarm and tel ephone systems present some challenges. Capital
funds have been requested for the necessary u pgrades. Some general upgrades to flooring and furnishings have been made and are ongoing.

Revenues

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, revenues for the
Department of Health are projected to reach $3,661,000 for 2021 /22. These estimates can be
found at page B -163 of the Budget Book.
These revenues come from the sale of medications, vaccines and biologicals; fees for clinical services; patient fees from the two long- term care facil ities, as well as fees for licences and permits issued by
the Env ironmental Health Section of the department.
Mr. Chairman, t his concludes Head 22 . I
would now like to move to Head 24, Hospitals.

HEAD 24 —HOSPITALS

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, Head 24, Hospitals, can be found i n the Budget Book at pages B -173
through B -174.
Mr. Chairman, the Bermuda Hospitals Board
(BHB) delivers the only round- the-clock emergency
and acute medi cal, psy chiatric, palliative care, and substance abuse detox inpatient hospital services . It
also delivers diagnostic, surgical and outpat ient services and residential long- term care for seniors, and
mental health and intellectual disability service users.
Services are provided from King Edward VII Memorial
Hospital, the Mid- Atlantic Wellness Institute [MWI] and
the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre, and 26 group
homes with certain administrative functions such as
the medical concierge, HR, finance and IT in the Craig
Appin Building in Hamilton.
At the time of the reading of the budget in this
House last year, the BHB had warning signs of an infectious disease spreading around the globe, but no
real sense of the impact that COVID -19 would have
on our daily lives, our social relationships, travel and financial well- being.
Mr. Chairman, the pandemic has had a ser ious impact in our hospital and group homes. It is not just that intense preparations were required to care for
COVID -19 patients and potential surges, but how it
has transformed service delivery and operations in
order to keep patients and residents who are highly vulnerable safe from infec tion while continuing to deliver on its mandate of caring for the community.

Current financial position

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, current financial
position.
Bermuda, like the rest of the world finds itself
in an unprecedented position in the fi ght against
COVID -19. BHB, as the healthcare provider of first
and often last resort, has had to ensure essential
emergency and acute inpatient and outpatient services could continue throughout surges and ou tbreaks. This has brought additional financial challen ges in an already stressed environment.
Mr. Chairman, prior to the pandemic, controlling costs was already a focus for the BHB. The long-term affordability of services for the community was a
key concern in BHB’s attempts to make savings. The
pressur e of increasing healthcare costs led to the d evelopment of a financial recovery plan prior to the
pandemic which included a robust costs -saving pr ogramme. The pressures experienced in this fiscal
year, however, have meant deeper savings had to be
made. The goal always remains to seek efficiencies in
how service is run and where possible make in- year
savings without impacting quality or access. BHB’s cash in hand, or working capital, often referred to as a
reserve, is declining. This year it had to be used t o
secure COVID -19 related supplies at a time of national emergency.
Overseas and self -pay revenue has reduced
this year as a consequence of the pandemic, reducing
tourist numbers, cancellations of all but urgent activity
during COVID -19 surges, and the fac t that there were
more self -pay patients due to higher unemployment.


Bermuda House of Assembly Lost overseas inpatient and outpatient revenue
amounted to approximately $5 million, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, there have been expenditures
due to the ongoing threat of COVID -19. Critic ally i mportant supplies have been needed to protect health
care workers and patients, especially personal protective equipment. The pressure of global supplies meant
prices for new supplies were inflated and meant that
we had to buy supplies, such as surgi cal masks, in
volumes which would not normally be required. While these were absolutely essential supplies to enable the safe delivery of health care services, this has placed
significant stress on cash.
At present, BHB has undertaken $5.6 million
of unpl anned expenditure in this area. This cost would
have been even worse without the generous and greatly appreciated support of local and international
businesses who donated over $1 million collectively
for supplies. The Bermuda Hospital Charitable Fou ndation also donated $1 million for the purchase of a
second oxygen concentrator to ensure that sufficient
ventilation to infected patients can be provided, al though BHB still faced significant unforeseen install ation and ongoing costs.
BHB is not alone in exper iencing financial
challenges. All of Bermuda is under pressure. BHB had to look beyond its planned savings programme to find new ways to save money through the worst of the
pandemic’s impact. Like Government, BHB approached the unions in July with a propos al that left
base pay untouched, along with the agreement of no
cost of living increase this year. The proposal included
reduced overtime rates and pension and social insur-ance vacation. This meant take home pay was not
affected, but BHB could have made savings.
Mr. Chairman, BHB is very grateful to the
Bermuda Industrial Union leadership and members
who were the first major body to sign up to this
agreement and did so early, helping to save costs
month over month. BIU secured an agreement from
their member s to reduce their overtime rates, forfeiture of their cost of living allowance increase and the
union endorsed that their members voluntarily agreed to occupational pension and social insurance holiday
for the employer. This was a true example of the Bermuda Industrial Union’s commitment to Bermuda’s
health care system during these difficult times.
Non- unionised staff, which included certain
roles in the hospital and all senior leaders, including VPs and executive team, are not eligible for overtime
paymen t. And no cost of living increase was therefore
agreed alongside voluntary participation in the salary
cut of 5 per cent and the pension and social insurance
holiday.
Total saving are projected at $6.3 million i ncluding no payment of cost of living allowance for a
full year, and that is at $4.1 million, and five months’ of
savings arising from changes in overtime rates, pay
reductions for non- unionised staff and suspension of pensions and social insurance contributions at $2.2
million. The selfless action of the BIU fixed scale and
position staff at the time when they were on the frontlines is greatly appreciated not only by the hospital but
by Bermuda who needs a financially viable hospital to keep caring for the community throughout all event ualities.
Although the impression across the health
care system is that costs will continue to rise, it should
be noted that in most categories BHB base funding
has not been increased for several years, even though medical inflation has continued to rise by at
least 4 per cent each year. Additionally, there are si gnificant investments required that relate to technology
and BHB’s ageing infrastructure and facility. BHB sits
on an estate that is both high rise and high maint enance and currently has a major clinical system that is
no longer supported and must be replaced.
An agreed estimate master plan can help us
safely navigate the risks, and an electronic medical record is starting, which I will speak to in a few m oments, Mr. Chairman. However, having the funds
availabl e to support these capital projects will be crit ical for BHB to maintain the safe delivery of services.
The increasing risks the BHB faces in the upcoming
fiscal year is that without adequate revenue and continued savings, it will use up its cash balance and not be able to sustain its existing service or undertake critical investments that are vital for the safe ongoing
delivery of care.

Response to the COVID -19 pandemic

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, response to the
COVID -19 pandemic. While there are grave concerns
about the financial impact of the pandemic on the
hospital, the response to COVID -19 and the needs of
our community has shown BHB at its best. It has had,
however, a major emotional toll on the workforce, as well as impacting what plans, projects and activities
could be achieved. The response to the pandemic
dominates the discussion this year because it has
dominated the finances, staff focus and operations of
our hospital. BHB’s financial position, its achiev ements and performance can only b e explained
through the lens of one of the biggest challenges it has faced.
BHB started educating staff organisational -
wise on the novel coronavirus that was beginning to spread from Asia on the 31
st of January 2020, the day
after the World Health Organi zation officially reported
it as an international concern. After initially sharing
information online via email that the virus continued to
spread throughout February, meetings and forums
were held with leadership and staff to share what was
known about the virus, how to identify it and what pr otection was needed in a health care setting. By the
end of February, the board had had its first COVID -19
presentation on the virus and the BHB’s response.
1006 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly By the end of February BHB had developed
policies and proce dures on how to deal with COVI -19
cases to ensure the safety of staff and other patients.
This included how to identify and treat infected p atients, an area of research that would constantly be
changing as more was learned about the virus, and
also how pat ients would be transferred safely.
By early March, the level of threat had i ncreased as had fears that Bermuda and its hospital could become overwhelmed if similar patterns as seen
in New York, Italy and the UK were experienced here in Bermuda. Unlike larger countries, there was no
place to refer patients if our one hospital became full.
International medical transfers were not possible as
hospitals in the US had to cater first to their own popu-lation, and international borders by the end of March
were clos ing. BHB started having daily senior leadership meetings to quickly respond and adapt to an es-calating threat and a breakdown in global supplies as
countries desperately tried to secure personal protection equipment and medical supplies and medication.
The key focus for BHB was to secure PPE for
staff and increasing capacity in case there was a surge. BHB worked closely with Government and the
Ministry of Health, and this collaboration/cooperation
helped set up processes to secure supplies which
BHB took r esponsibility for through its procurement
department.
Foresight in the design of the acute care ward
so that it could increase the number of negative pressure rooms was a saving grace and no doubt helped
prevent the spread of COVID -19 in the hospital to st aff
and other patients. A negative pressure room stops air
flowing out. If someone coughs, the expelled droplets
of aerosol stay in the room because the pressure only
ever draws air in, not out. A small number of negative
pressure rooms already existed in the emergency d epartment and selected rooms of the acute care wing
because the hospital is always dealing with infectious
diseases from influenza to TB to MRSA. But nearly
every patient room was converted to negative pressure during the first wave of hospi talisation.
A section of the acute care wing surgical area
was converted and this enabled BHB to use it as an
intensive care unit overflow tripling its critical care c apacity. Mr. Chairman, the initial [concern] as cases
started to be identified in Bermuda and hospitalis ations went up was capacity. It was not just about beds,
but staffing. As an isolated jurisdiction, we do not have hospital staff in other facilities who could be brought
over to assist. Who was on- Island was all we were
going to have, espec ially as international borders
closed down and travel restrictions across the globe
were introduced.
The old surgical area in the old hospital also
came into its own. The space had been used for storage, but this was cleared in case acute care beds
were ne eded. That BHB was proactively seeking to
retain bed stock was fortunate timing as the order had been made later in 2019, about 100 new beds arrived
on-Island that could be used for additional space.
Special appreciation must go to BHB staff at this time.
They kept going throughout and did everything poss ible to keep hospital services at King Edward and MidAtlantic Wellness Institute running. Environmental
Services staff worked tirelessly to respond to i ncreased cleaning needs, especially in areas with
COV ID-19 patients.
Although elective surgeries were postponed
during shelter in place, emergency and urgent surger-ies, including those related to cancer and cancer diagnoses continued. Surgical nurses cross -trained to
work in critical care to ensure additiona l ICU beds
could be staffed. New pathways were set up. For ex-ample, Mr. Chairman, MWI set up a separate process
for inpatient stays, while they were testing and waiting for results before going to the acute medical health
floors.
Hotlines and emergency and MWI were set up
to support the community. Physicians started to use
tele-medicine to keep in contact with patients. BHB’s
facility staff and BHB’s buildings and Black & McDo nald and the Acute Care Wing [ACW] work tirelessly to
clean out, upgrade and prepare safe spaces.
BHB Pathology started its own testing pr ocesses for patients. The Infection, Prevention and
Control team undertook countless training sessions and oversaw patient testing and managing outbreaks.
The Employee Health Services team managed testing
and contact tracing processes for staff working closely
with the Department of Health.
Staff adapted to changing advisors on preca utions, testing and how to work safely. People who could, worked remotely, but many staff still had to
come in onsite t hrough the surges and outbreaks,
shelter in place, and despite personal challenges such as managing child care to ensure patients did receive
the care they needed. And as a country we thank you all!
Despite all we have gone through, babies
were still born , accidents happened, there were still
catastrophic illnesses such as stroke and heart attacks. People still had mental health issues or chronic
issues that needed managing. BHB kept functioning throughout.
Mr. Chairman, as went into April however, we
still did not know how bad the first wave would be.
BHB worked with its Ethics Committee to develop
guidelines similar to those used in other overwhelmed
countries relating to how care would have to be r ationed if we ran out of beds, oxygen, or ventilators.
Even with the various generous donations from co mmunity businesses for supplies, which by May took the
number of available ventilators from 9 to 30, the ox ygen supply would not have been added for a major surge. An oxygen generator bought with the donation from the Bermuda Hospitals Charitable Trust, has r eBermuda House of Assembly solved this issue. But even though it was ordered in
April it did not arrive until August.
The actions by Government, however, by
closing borders, enforcing the shelter in place, then
only slowly opening up, the focus on testing, the r equirements for masking were brave, resolute and crit ical in bending the curve of infection so that the hosp ital could cope and avoiding the terrifying scenes we
have seen around the world of overwhelmed health
care services. BHB remains relieved that the ethics
guidelines that were drawn up early on were never
needed.
Mr. Chairman, in fact the largest surge the
hospital experienced was in April when there were 28 inpatient admissions, four admissions in critical care, and s ix deaths. Numbers in the acute care wards in
ICU dropped again in May, although sadly three more people died in that month. The second surge was over
December and January when 23 people were admi tted to inpatient wards and there were two ICU admi ssions an d tragically three more deaths.
In total, Mr. Chairman, between March and
the 25
th of January 61 people were admitted to inp atient wards and seven to the intensive care unit. BHB
has had six COVID -19 cases in its long- term care unit,
and one at MWI. Mr. C hairman, 12 people have died
in total.
These are statistics to date but the pandemic
is far from over, Mr. Chairman, and Bermuda remains
at risk of future surges. Until we can increase vaccination numbers, we will need to live and work with mas king, physi cal distancing and limiting gatherings, especially social gatherings, Mr. Chairman. BHB is supporting the Government’s vaccination programme as it
promises our best chance to move beyond the pa ndemic. It is run by staff and community clinics and we
are grateful to the many people who are helping out in
both. About 700 BHB staff to date have now been
vaccinated and about 250 people are vaccinated per day at BHB’s community clinic which helps the national effort of vaccination and immunisation, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, turning to Key Performance I ndicators. While the COVID -19 response has very
much dominated the hospitals update this year, it has
also made progress in a number of areas, one of which was a sharper focus on key performance indicators. Despite the pandemic, ensuring quality and
safety benchmarks are being met has not flagged . A
quarterly, quality and patient safety data report is
posted to the BHB’s website every quarter for the public to view, including MRSA and C. difficile infections,
re-admission rates, falls and personal injury numbers.
A more detailed set of indicators has become the performance card internally.
What they tell us about the fiscal year to date,
which is April to December, is that while elective sur-geries were postponed during the shelter in place, activity has returned to the numbers seen in the same period of 2019, although there are strict screening
processes and enhanced personal protective equi pment is needed. Mr. Chairman, additional capacity
has been put in place to reduce waiting times for routine endoscopies. The amount of time it took to wait
for the procedure had gone up over April, May and
June due to the shelter in place and elective surgery
postponements. I would stress that urgent endoscopy
procedures, for example, for potential cancer diagn osis did continue throughout, Mr. Chairman.
Wait times in the Emergency Department had
achieved target so far, with year -to-date figures sho wing a 16- minute wait to be assessed by triage after
arrival and 272 minutes average between arrival and departure. Wait times for routine diagnostic imaging
tests taken as an average across all modalities is also
within target. Emergency and urgent diagnostic imag-ing referrals are always seen within a day or two.
Mr. Chairman, 80 per c ent of diagnostic r eports are now also finalised within 24 hours. However,
length of stay on inpatient wards has trended higher
up to 8.6 days for the year -to-date average with the
highest rate between April and September. At MWI
[Mid-Atlantic Wellness Ins titute ] all pa tients, 100 per
cent of them, received follow -up with seven days and
patients’ satisfaction, which is measured every six months, rose to 85 per cent.
Mr. Chairman, different performance indic ators were compiled in the first surge of the pandemic as health services were heavily impacted with r educed activity in areas such as surgery, diagnostics
and Allied Health, which includes services such as
physiotherapy and occupational therapy and have
focused on COVID -19 hospitalisations. Thankfully, as
hospitalisations went down, and for the most part
stayed down, BHB returned to its usual indicators as it
aimed to normalise access and activity as much as
possible.
Mr. Chairman, turning now to Accreditation.
BHB’s substance abuse programme at Turning Point
achieved accreditation with CARF [Commission on
Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities ] in this fiscal
year. The survey was carried out between the 26
th and
28th of August and this was the first time the survey
was completed remotely. All the usu al survey components were covered including review of the documentation, virtual tour and remote interviews of staff and
clients. CARF surveyors selected clients at random to
ensure a fair review of standards. Despite the pressure of the pandemic the servi ce passed the accred itation survey and received the highest level of accredi tation, which means they do not need to be surveyed again for three years. This is the fourth accreditation survey over 12 years by Turning Point, each of
which it has passed at the highest level.
Mr. Chairman, Winter Planning. BHB established a winter plan for the first time in 2019/20 to cr eate resilience within KEMH [ King Edward VII Memorial
Hospital ] for expected upsurge and demand through
1008 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly the peak winter period. This included reducing the
weekday hours and service at the Lamb Foggo Urgent
Care Centre from the 16th of December so that diagnostic and clinical resources could be focused in the Emergency Department where the need is greatest.
Last year this led to improved flow as patients
in the Emergency Department were seen faster and
admitted to wards faster. This year also proved hel pful. While the prevalence [of] many of the user respir atory diseases at this time, such as flu, was much lo wer, there were still a significant number of patients
who required a lot of staff time in diagnostics due to
chron ic illnesses or age- related co-morbidities , or
without mobility.
Mr. Chairman, Savings Programme.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
Honourable Members, for the benefit of the
listening audience we are debating the Heads under
the Hospital 21, 22, 24 and 91. The Minister is pres-ently on Head 24, Hospitals.
Minister, you may proceed.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, turning to Savings Programme.
The focus on making health care more affordable by
running effectively and efficiently as possible was a
goal of the BHB strategy aim to reduce the per capita
cost of care. KPMG had first partnered with BHB in
2018 to provide support to BHB projects seeking to
make cost savings. Si nce then, nearly $30 million has
been saved. Work has included improving patient flow through admissions and discharge without delays, to seeking better deals in drug procurement, more eff icient scheduling of professional staff including nurses,
doctors an d imaging technicians, and reducing overtime, to financial efficiencies such as contract reviews and the sale of unused properties.
The contract was renewed in this fiscal year,
and alongside the Savings Programme work KPMG
have supported development and implementation of
an integrated care plan. The new contract cost runs
into 2023 and will cost just over $2 million. The total costs since 2018 including the new contract is about
$5 million.
Mr. Chairman, Johns Hopkins Affiliation. BHB
looked for a clini cal affiliation as part of its 2016– 2021
Strategic Plan and the benefits will outlast that strat egy. The BHB was very proud to announce its clinical
affiliation contract with Johns Hopkins two years ago
following a robust and lengthy RFP [Request for Pr oposal] process in which six highly acclaimed hospitals applied and went through extensive review. Achiev ements over the last two years include a joint continuing medical education programme for local medical
staff, a residency programme that saw some of Johns
Hopkins brightest young physicians undertake a rotation at BHB, the establishment of an integrated stroke
programme which is aiming to become accredited in
the upcoming fiscal year, planned improvements in training and psychiatry and support for clinical quality
initiatives.
Sadly, an on- Island medical education conference that was [planned] for April 2020 had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. BHB’s contract with
Johns Hopkins was renewed in this fiscal year for another year at the cost of $800,000.
Mr. Chairman, turning now to Court Liaison
Physician. BHB has collaborated with the Bermuda Police Service and Court Services to offer mental
health support to individuals in need at the Hamilton
Police Station and with the Magistrate’s Court. The
goal is to provide early intervention for individuals with
mental health conditions presenting before the courts
and to provide real time critical guidance in cases in
which a formal psychiatric is not required. One of the
key aims of this initiative is to addres s the outstanding
court -ordered requests that reflect an increased clinical volume in recent years. A three- month pilot funded
by BHB started in February.
Mr. Chair man, Youth with Complex Needs. A
Youth with Complex Needs Planning Group has been
working on a project that will see Hibiscus Cottage
(which was renov ated this year) turned into a res idence for young adult males with high support needs. The new residential service will focus on increasing
their skills of independence and will aim to create op-portunities for their eventual transition into less highly
staffed accommodations. The group home will be
staffed 24 hours a day by BHB Community Support
workers with intensive input from the multidisciplinary intellectual disabilities community team.
Facilities Improvements. Mr. Chairman, BHB
facilities and infrastructure required investment this
year. Early in September BHB had ordered a new
generator for the general wing at the old hospital after
a risk review highlighted issues with it should there be an on Island outage. The BELCO power outage in
December unfortunately showed the risk was real and
there was a delay in transferring power to the gener ator. Thankfully, critical systems in the older part of the
hospital had access to the temporary battery po wer
supply. There were no patient harm events, just a
temporary interruption of some outpatient services.
However, it highlighted why the investment of
$934,300 was needed. Work on the electrical supply
at MWI has also been undertaken, costing $216,000 as was work on the MWI kitchen at a cost of $378,000
which prepares patient meals and supplies a staff ca feteria.


Bermuda House of Assembly Capital projects at Hibiscus Cottage, at MWI,
and Montrose Cottage. An additional space during the
pandemic were completed at a cost of $177,00 0 and
$900,000, respectively.
Mr. Chairman, turning to System Upgrades.
Two BHB systems were upgraded in this fiscal year.
These projects were already underway and this time
last year and although they were delayed due to the
pandemic and had to switch fr om classroom to remote
learning, they were both successfully implemented. The first was a replacement of BHB’s procurement and supply system and the second was an upgrade of
its time and attendance system through which payroll
and scheduling of all staff i s managed. Both systems
enable BHB to work to high levels of governance with
standards embedded in the system and help improve
efficiency.
BHB in partnership with the Ministry of Health
runs an annual corporate blood donor drive compet ition in order to increase the numbers of people donating blood in Bermuda. Sixteen businesses competed in the competition this year with the completion ge nerating 371 donations, about 20 per cent of all donations made. Ending in June on World Blood Donor
Day, Freisenbruch Me yer was the winner —their first
win in the competition. While finance is the focus of
today’s discussions, it cannot be ignored that the do-nation of blood is also absolutely critical to the safe
running of the hospital. All donations are voluntary, yet
dona ted blood saves lives and allows for therapeutic
treatments for cancer patients, sickle cell patients and
many others. We remain grateful to all the members
of the public and all businesses that support blood donation.
Mr. Chairman, looking ahead, the ne w Strat egic Plan. With the current Strategic Plan due to end at
the end of March 2021, BHB started work on revie wing the previous strategy and taking stock of the current environment to understand what should change
and what should continue. The 2021 –2026 BHB Str ategic Plan is currently close to development. Staffing
community feedback had been part of the review pr ocess with about 400 community members responding
to a survey, about 300 BHB staff involved through f ocus groups and surveys. Mr. Chairman, revi ew of d ata, environmental scans and SWOT analysis have highlighted that many of the issues remain the same
with an ageing population with increasing comorbidities and high instance of chronic disease.
However, many issues are more pressing, including
the financial situation due to COVID -19. The Strategy
will go through a board- approval process and will be
publicly released by the end of this fiscal year.
Electronic medical record. Mr. Chairman, in
last year’s budget brief it was shared that BHB was
going to embark on implementing an electronic power
record, or EMR. BHB’s main clinical system is no
longer supported and must be replaced or clinical care
will be impacted. In line with the 2018 clinical services plan recommendation, BHB has taken this opportunity
to upgrade to an electronic medical record that will
become a central digital resource for patient information and activity at King Edward, the Mid- Atlantic
Wellness Institute and the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care
Centre.
Many people will know how EMRs work having been in hospitals overseas. They give clinicians and teams immediate access to a patients’ medical
information and through it they can make referrals,
transfers and orders and communicate across disc iplines. They can reduce delays, improve decisionmaking and outcomes as well as ensure patient safety
with established alerts and warnings built into the sy stem, for example, if two medications are counter -
indicative.
Mr. Chairman, COVID -19 caused a delay in
BHB’s plans. Implementing an EMR is a massi ve undertaking requiring widespread staff engagement and training. And this was just not possible in a year when
the focus had to be on responding to the pandemic.
This year’s pause also enabled BHB and Serna to discuss how to make this more affordable and a contract was signed this year that will cost -spread over a
longer time period than initially expected helping to reduce the initial project cost. Additionally, more will
be managed remotely rather than large influxes of Serna staff coming to the Island which represents a
cost savings. Serna has gained valuable experience
working remotely over the last year with other clients.
The cost of the entire project implementation is expected to be in the order of $50 million over 10 years.
Mr. Chairman, turning to BHB’s Estate Master
Plan. Another project that was paused by the pan-demic was the BHB’s Estate Master Plan. The Acute
Care Wing provided a purpose- built solution for acute
medical services but outpatient and long- term care
services at KEMH and all mental health substance abuse and intellectual disabilities services at MWI are being delivered from increasingly old and expensive to
maintain facilities. BHB’s board approved an outline
business case last fiscal year to identify how the rest
of BHB’s campus es should be developed in order to
meet Bermuda’s health care needs. Although some work has been progressed, this project will [need] more attention in the upcoming fiscal year as facilities
need a workable solution given their increasing age.
Mr. Chairm an, Integrated Health Care. One of
the key ways to address health care inequity, improve outcomes and reduce cost to offer services that work
seamlessly for the patient from access to transfer through and out of any care pathway back to the
community setti ng. This more integrated approach
was recognised in the last phase of the Strategic Plan
and will become a fundamental part of the next fiveyear plan as BHB aims to make improvements that
make health care more affordable and more effective.
Mr. Chairman, the approach will cover areas
including mental health, cancer and having more cli n1010 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ics available in the community rather than just at the
hospital. The goals are to make tangible improv ements, whether it is the ability of BHB to discharge
people to long- term care placements or community
care centres, the need for health care services to be
closer to the people who need them, or the improv ements that could be achieved through closer collab oration and cooperation of different health care provi ders and organis ations.
Mr. Chairman, turning now to Head 91, Health
Insurance.

HEAD 91 —HEALTH INSURANCE

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, it gives me great
pleasure to present the budget for Head 91, Health
Insurance. And that can be found, Mr. Chairman, on
pages B -175 through B -177 of the Budget Book.
The mission of the Health Insurance Depar tment [HID] is to provide accessible health benefits.
The primary role of Health Insurance Depar tment (and Mr. Chairman, I will refer to it as HID) is to
provide access to affordable health insurance to all
residents of Bermuda. The demand for affordable
health insurance in Bermuda has not changed. We
continue to face the challenges of increasing health
costs, poorly managed chronic illnesses and a rapidly ageing population t ogether with a low birth rate. With
the increase in the number of unemployed persons as a result of the pandemic, the availability of an affordable health package is even more essential, as HID
provides an option for those persons either directly or
by way of the Department of Finance Assistance
through the supplemental unemployment benefit.
My commitment to a more value- based health
system, one that will reduce the health burdens of the
current health system with a focus on improving population health, Mr . Chairman, is unchanged. This will
happen with health financial reform and we look for-ward to getting back to the work that has already been
started.
Mr. Chairman, for fiscal 2021/22, , there has
been $2,669,000 allocated for this Head, which is a
decrease to the approved 2020/21 budget of
$1,086,000 or a 29 per cent decrease. The Head 91
budget is the partial source of funding behind the Health Insurance Department which is responsible for
developing and administering the government’s social
health insur ance products offered to the public, and
that includes:
• the Health Insurance Plan (HIP);
• the FutureCare Plan (FutureCare);
• the Mutual Reinsurance Fund (MRF); and
• the Government Subsidy Programmes (Subsidy), which pay towards the hospitalisation
costs of se lect populations.
Mr. Chairman, HID’s policyholders have seen
no increase to monthly premiums since 2015 as a r esult of the Government’s financial support and trans-fers from the MRF. Although there were no benefit changes in fiscal year 2020/21, the source of funding
of the Standard Health Benefit for the Health Insurance Fund ensured that Bermuda’s population is now
facilitated through the Mutual Reinsurance Fund. This new model changed the fee for service method of
funding for Bermuda Hospitals Board’s delivered
Standard Health Benefit to a block grant payment
model without impacting the public’s ability to access
medical care. This change also centralises the collection of health service metrics inclusive of disease and medical encounter types.
Mr. Chairm an, during fiscal 2020/21, the
Health Insurance Department continued to provide the Personal Home Care (PHC) benefit to eligible polic yholders. This benefit has proven to fill homecare gaps in the community and certainly supports the ageing in place concept. The benefit also provides income for
those persons, such as family members and the like,
who care for the policyholders. At the present time,
approximately 347 policyholders regularly use the
Personal Home Care benefit, with HID receiving on average fiv e requests for the benefit on a weekly basis. This benefit contributes a pro- rata monthly max imum amount to supplement the cost of in- home car egivers. HID paid out $7.3 million dollars in personal
home care claims over fiscal year 2019/20, an approximate i ncrease of 25 per cent from the previous
2018/19 [fiscal] year.
As expected, this benefit has exponentially
trended upward as have operational impact and ex-penses. In 2020/21, the Health Insurance Department began a phased approach to implementing means
testing. This started with a re- evaluation of protocol
assessment tool which assists in the calculation of care hours that are awarded. Changes made provide
a more rigorous assessment that includes a granular level of assessment of activities of daily living which in
turn has resulted in an objective and consistent as-sessment of all policyholders. It should be noted that
the Health Insurance Department is expected to pay
the personal home care plans for fiscal year 2021 that
total $6.8 million, a total reduc tion of $500,000.
Mr. Chairman, due to the COVID -19 pandemic the Health Insurance Department has shifted their in-home assessments to telephone and video assessments. This move has allowed HID to decrease
the amount of time a person waits to be assessed for
the benefit from three to four weeks to one- and-a-half
weeks. This decrease in wait time for access to the benefit has proven to be beneficial for policyholders and their families.
Mr. Chairman, the Enhanced Care Pr ogramme (ECP), is a programme that the Health Insurance Department is committed to for the treatment of
chronic non- communicable diseases for the underi nsured and uninsured. The programme provides access to primary care which enables participants to
receive treatment they may not have had access to


Bermuda House of Assembly prior to becoming part of the programme. Currently
the programme has 109 active participants and three
participating providers. The outcomes vary from comorbidities and other factors; however, the clinical
measures continue to demonstrate the overal l disease
trend is moving in a positive direction with health i mprovements and stabilisation being shown.
Mr. Chairman, 88.5 per cent of participants
who started the programme with a haemoglobin A1C
of greater than 7.5 have reduce their haemoglobin
A1C nu mbers by 1 and 2 per cent. The results show
participants have had less emergency room visits and
hospitalisation and an increase in access to health
care services and medication.
Mr. Chairman, in summary the Enhanced
Care Pilot Programme continues to prov ide access to
health care services to those most in need whilst e nsuring a patient -centred focus and value for care.
On the 31st of March, 2017 draft financial
statements are under final review by the Office of A uditor General. The department continues to work
through the remaining fiscal years with the intention of
working toward being in a current position while at the
same time focusing on improving its control reliance to
create a risk mitigation environment.
Mr. Chairman, I will now summarise the operating results of the various funds under HID’s admi nistration, followed by a discussion of the Performance
Indicators for the department over the period.

PART I
HIF (Health Insurance Fund) Operating Results

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, t he Health Ins urance Fund includes two products and policyholder
groups, namely, HIP and FutureCare. The fund pr ojects to have a total estimate headcount at the end of
fiscal year 2020 /21 of 8,745 [persons] which is a
10 per cent increase compared to fiscal year 2019 /20.
• Projected, gross policyholder of the Health I nsurance Fund premiums earned for fiscal year
2020/21 are $44.7 million, which represents
an increase of $2,445,000, or 5.8 per cent
from 2019/20.
• Claims incurred in 2019/20 equalled $37.9
million for 2020/21 claims estimated to be
$29.7 million (and this is due to the Standard
Health Benefit now being funded through the
MRF , effectively June 1st, 2019) .
• Health Insurance Fund has allocated approximately $3.95 million in administrative expenses in fiscal year 2020/21.

FutureCare Operating Results

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: The projected headcount for
FutureCare is approximately 4,768 persons as of
31 March 2021, an increase of 280 persons, or
6.2 per cent compared to 31 March 2020. • Projected FutureCare premiums earned for
fiscal 2020/21 are $27.2 million, which repr esents an increase of $1.3 million, or 5 per cent
from 2019/20.
• Claims incurred for 2020/21 are estimated to total $24.3 million as compared with $26.4
million in 2019/20.
• Administrative expenses of approx imately
$1.95 million will be incurred by FutureCare for the fiscal year 2020/21.

HIP Operating Results
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: The projected headcount for
HIP is approximately 3,977 persons as of 31 March
2021, which represents an increase of 526 persons,
or 15.0 per cent compared to 31 March 2020.
• Projected HIP premiums earned for fiscal
2020/21 are $17.5 million which represents an
increase of $1 million, or 7 per cent from
2019/20.
• Claims incurred for 2020/21 are estimated to total $5.4 million as compared with $11 million
in 2019/20.
• Administrative expenses of approximately
$1.95 million will be incurred by HIP for the
fiscal year 2020/21.

Mutual Reinsurance Fund Operating Results
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, the Mutual Rei nsurance Fund premium for 2020/21 remains the same
as 2019/20 at $331.97 per person per month. This
increase from the 2018/19 premium of $101.97 resul ted from a reallocation of the premium in the remodelling of the Standard Health Benefit payment structure
primarily to support the modernisation of the BHB
Standard Health Benefit reimbursement, as I di scussed previously, Mr. Chairman.
The total projected premiums to be received
by the Mutual Reinsurance Fund for the year ended
31 March 2021 totalled $184 million, which represents
an increase of 10 per cent compared to fiscal
2019/20. Administrative expenses of $282,000 have been allocated to the Mutual Reinsurance Fund for
the 2020/21 fiscal period.

Subsidy Operating Results
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: The total forecasted claims paid
for hospitalisation under the Youth, Aged and Indigent Subsidy Programmes are $105.8 million for the year
ended 31 March 2021.
These claims are paid from the Consolidated
Fund in the Hospital budget and pr ocessed and adj udicated by the Health Insurance D epartment [HID].



1012 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly PART 2
Performance Measures
(Qualitative Service Performance)

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, we will now consider the department’s Qualitative Service Performance which can be found on page B -177 of the
Budget Book. HID reviewed and revised its performance indicators, in alignment with the Government Public Service Reform, and focused on the following
objectives:
• improving HID stakeholder level of engagement and ease of doing business;
• reducing paper use and using more digital systems;
• achie ve cost containment of personal home
care benefits through appropriate case management;
• achieving an unqualified opinion on the financial statements; and
• improving reliability and efficiencies in the use
of digital applications.
The new performance measures are derived
from the objectives and provide all stakeholders with
information on the activity and progress being made in
attaining policy and organisational goals.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank HID’s various business partners: Sutherland Healthcare Solutions; Argus Insurance; Morneau Shepell; Global Medical Management Inc.; and ProServe for their conti nued support. I would like to thank the team at the
Health Insurance Department and the Health Insurance Committee for their tenacity and commitment during what has been quite a challenging year.
Mr. Chairman, this ends my presentation for
Head 91, Health Insurance.

Closing Remarks

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, in closing, as you
can see, the mandate of the Ministry of Health is wide
ranging and expansive. Despite the unprecedented
pandemic and growing health needs of the communi-ty, we are we are grateful to benefit from the expertise, dedication, passion and the broad range of health
and business professionals whose commitment [is] to public heal th and the country. Words can never describe how appreciative and indebted I am to our staff
and to our health partners who make it happen on a
daily basis, but not only doing their job, but going beyond to fight the war against the COVID -19 virus
whilst p lugging the gaps and catching people who
have fallen through the net to care for their health and
their social needs.
Mr. Chairman, staff have sacrificed their days
off, their rest days to ensure that testing and vaccine
programmes are running smoothly, and for this I cannot explain the feeling it gives me to have such an impeccable and dedicated staff. I applaud them and the whole community should join me, Mr. Chairman,
because, without them, Bermuda would look very,
very different.
This concludes my budget brief for the Mini stry of Health. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Yes, Honourable MP Dunkley. Please
proceed.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to start by thanking the Minister
for, as you sai d, a very broad presentation. The Mini ster presented for an extended period of time and covered the brief in all the ministries. It was hard to follow
some times because going through various budget
lines was not done in order, but back and forth. And
also just during the brief we received a number of
pages that had to be corrected. So we were trying to scan through those pages at the same time. But I do appreciate the Minister giving a comprehensive brief
and I am sure Members are thankful for that overvie w.
I will say, Mr. Chairman, just like in National
Security, Health is a very critical Ministry. It was before COVID -19, and now with COVID -19 it is certainly
a much more critical Ministry because of the pandem-ic and its impact on our lives, and its conti nued impact
on our lives going forward.
Mr. Chairman, I want to also start my presentation by echoing the Minister’s comments of thanks to the countless workers within the Ministry who have toiled on the frontlines fighting the pandemic since
March of las t year. Interestingly enough, today being
March 17, one year ago tomorrow our first two cases
were identified on the Island and things started to (as
Bermudians say) things started to get real at that time.
So our workers in this area have been working at the
frontlines for a year now. Quite often they have done it
behind the scenes. Quite often they have done it after
coming in after a busy day the day before. There has
been no rest for the weary because the pandemic
works seven days a week and they have had to work
as well. So I want to echo those thanks to the Mini ster.
I do not think we can do it enough because
we have seen that those frontline workers have worked well through the challenges and most of the
challenges were unknown at the time. So not onl y
should we thank the Government workers but also a
lot of the private sector workers who jumped in. For
example, in the beginning when testing was not set


Bermuda House of Assembly up, we had private companies like Helix help us out
tremendously from the beginning. So I think we all
echo the tremendous gratitude that we have for them.
As the Minister reflected on COVID -19 for
some time, and it runs all through just about every single one of the heads that we debated today, N ational Security and certainly Health, I want to also
echo what the Honourable Premier said last night that
we cannot let COVID -19 fatigue distract us from the
challenge that we have at the present time.
There is no doubt that we have had significant
challenges through this period and we have met them
head on. W e have had some success. We have had
some relapse from time to time in regard to spikes of
COVID -19. But, clearly, as we head forward into the
coming months, it can be likely that if we let down our
guard, if we become fatigued, if we take our eye off
the ball (so to speak) that we will have some challenges that we can avoid.
The Minister said in her presentation that
there have been 700 cases identified to date, that is a significant number for a small community. But for the
actions we have taken, that number could be even
higher. I know we have all sacrificed, Mr. Chairman, in
many things that we have done in our regular routines, and that sacrifice must need to continue for the
greater good of the community.
I, too, like the Minister, am very grateful for
the large majority of Bermudians who have followed the restrictions and the regulations that have been in
place. In the beginning I am sure many people thought, Wow, this is a little bit extreme. But now that
we know more about the pandemic those restric tions
and regulations were appropriate. And from time to
time the strengthening of them has helped us combat
some of the challenges we face. So while the coming
months look a little bit more optimistic, I do not think
we should ever let our guard down in t his matter because a spike could put us in a much more critical position than we are currently. And while we have
talked about COVID -19, the recovery from it will certainly, health- wise, take some time [and] community -
wise and financial -wise for families, and for Gover nment it will be long -tasked.
So with those comments, Mr. Chairman, I
would like to devote my attention to specific heads.
Interestingly enough, Mr. Chairman, and I will start out
as I did with National Security, just to reflect on some
budget numbers because, as you know, with the pu blication of a Budget Book actual numbers from two years preceding are provided. And in this case, as far
as the Ministry of Health is concerned, actual numbers for 2019/20 are provided. And if you go page B -155,
Mr. Chairman, you can see that the 2019/20 numbers
are provided and it shows for the Ministry of Health
the actual number for that year was $14.648 million.
The original budgeted number for the Ministry
of Health Headquarters, Head 21, was $11,649,000, so with the publication of this budget, we see that there [was] a significant increase in the Ministry of
Health’s budget for the financial year 2019/20. And I
would like the Honourable Minister to just give us an
overview for that for an understanding of what took
place and how we will avoid that in the future.
Continuing down on Head 22, Department of
Health, the actual number for the financial year
2019/20 was $27.468 million which is a decrease of
$1.3 million for the Department of Health. So, well
done for them for staying within the budget during a
very difficult period of time.
The next Head is the Hospital, Head 24. The
original budgeted number for 2019/20 was $145.674
million. It is very concerning, Mr. Chairman, we see
now that the actual number for the hospital is
$153.513 [million] which is an increase of $7.839 mi llion. And I will come to that more when we get to the
Head. That increase is concerning in light of all we
have talked about with the hospital, but also in light of
the debate that has taken so far today with the Mini ster’s presentation.
If you continue on to slide across to the next
two columns of 2021 original and revised, we see i ncreases in spending, Mr. Chairman. The Minister did not directly allude to those, but I am pretty sure th at
they are based on monies that are put in to play b ecause of the COVID -19 pandemic, a $13 million i ncrease within the Ministry Headquarters. About a
$900,000 decrease in the Department of Health. I assume that this is because of COVID -19 spending.
Now, Mr. Chairman, for 2021, specifically, if
we turn our page to B -156, and Mr. Chairman, I am a
bit hamstrung at this time because the correction pa ges have come through on my email, I have not been
able to print them off and get to them, but I have made
some notes on the notes that I have for this debate,
so I will work through them. I think I will be pretty ac-curate in that regard. Certainly, you or the Minister
can interject at any time if I stray off the proper num-ber that is being debated.

I am sure the Minister will keep up.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Mr. Chairman,
for that clarification.
I hav e looked through them and I have tried to
make some notes and I will refer to that when I come [to that item], so I appreciate your understanding.
First, under the Ministry Headquarters, Head
21, let me first focus in on the line item 31015, Grants
and A dministration, which you can find on page C -18,
Mr. Chairman, which gives a fuller clarification on the
allocation of those grants.
1014 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Chairman, the Grants and Administration
for this Head, the original 2020/21 allocation was $5.7
million and the revised was $6.438 million. In looking
back at page C -18 of the Budget Book, I can clearly
see the reasons for the change. It is down to an add itional $723,000 that has been allocated to the Health
Council. Unless I missed it, Mr. Chairman, it appears
the Minister did not cover that, and so I have a question of what was the $723,000 down to? What made
that necessity, an extra $723,000 to that million- dollar
grant? The grant for the previous year was
$1,160,000. The grant for the next financial year is $1
million. So, $723,000 is a significant increase in the
grant funding, and I would like to ask the Honourable
Minister what that refers to. The only thing that I am aware of is that there
was a court case that was settled out of court at the time, and I am wonderi ng if that $723,000 refers to
that court case settlement, of which the details have
been kept quiet so far. So that is the question to the
Honourable Minister.
Staying on that line item 31015, Grants and
Administration, we see that for 2021/22 it has bee n
decreased to $3.634 million. The copy that you have,
Mr. Chairman, probably says $2.134 million, but in the
pages that came through we see an increase of that
grant funding. So if I go back to page C -18 it appears
that the Government has had second consi derations,
because there is a line item for LCCA Medical Care Overseas, and the budget has remained fairly consistent. In 2018/19 it was $2.86 [million]. In 2019/20 it
was $2.5 [million]. In the original Budget Book where
the number was published, it was $1 million. Today we have seen a change where that budget goes back
to the $2.5 million. So I just want the Minister to confirm that there has been a rethink on that and we are
very supportive of that.
As the Minister did say, the LCCA do very
needed work in our community by assisting patients,
and as you would know, Mr. Chairman, [these are patients] in financial need who must be sent overseas for
medical or surgical procedures that are not available
in Bermuda. Certainly, with our ageing population and the incidences of challenges that we are having, the
LCCA certainly provides a tremendous service. So I am glad to see that this correction has been made. And I wonder if the Minister could answer, when she
gets a chance, if that has been a reconsideration, or if
that was a budget error in the printing of the book.
So that deals with the Grants and Contributions. I know that a number [of these] had been moved to other departments and that is certainly ac-ceptable. This happens from time to time during
budget debates so there is no question in regard to
that.
Jumping up one line, Mr. Chairman, still on
page B -156, General Administration. Now, Mr. Chai rman, General Administration, looking back at the actual numbers for year 2019/20 (and let me just confer with the prior Budget Book, General Administration),
the original budget which was revised through the f inancial year 2019/20, was $1.976 million. And now we
see, Mr. Chairman, the final spent amount for the year
2019/20 has jumped significantly to $3.932 mil lion,
which is on page B -156.
So question to the Honourable Minister: That
increase of $1.8 million (which is a significant amount of money under any circumstances) can the Minister
give some clarification on what that increase payment
is for? I do not want to speculate, but obviously $1.8 million needs to be accounted for and the Minister
certainly has not mentioned that at all in the brief.
I note that the spending for the year 2020/21
in the original revised has increased by $441,000. And I will ask th e Honourable Minister to give us an understanding of what that increase may be.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman. Point of information.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Certainly, Min ister.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you. Mr. Chairman, may I
proceed?

The Chairm an: Please proceed. Thank you.

POINT OF INFORMATION

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you.
I am trying to ascertain the question from MP
Dunkley, so thank you for yielding to me.
The figure of $1- point -something million that
you were referring to, can you dir ect me to the line
item and what Budget Book you were referring to, b ecause it certainly is not the Budget Book that I am
looking at right now.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Certainly. The line item is
31000, General Administration.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Yes.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: If you look at the total for
2019/20, you will see $3.932 million.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Yes.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: That was the final amount
spent. If you refer to the previous Budget Book where
it shows the estimated amount to be spent on that,
you will see a figure of $1.976 million. So between the
revised estimate and the final budget there has been
an increase of $1.8 million and I am questioning what
that $1.8 million is.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Okay. Mr. Chairman, can you
assist me in that regard because we are dealing with


Bermuda House of Assembly this Budget Book. I did not know that you could reference to budgets a couple of years ago. If that is the
Budget Book that we are looking at.

Minister, I was befuddled myself.
MP Dunkley , if you could stick to this Budget
Book, because I was wondering where you had gone with that figure myself. So, I mean, I understand what
you are trying to do but we are dealing with this Bud get Book, please.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Well, Mr. Chairman, I
would appreciate your direction, but if you would just
allow me to clarify a bit. This is the first time we have
seen final numbers for 2019/20. If we cannot refer to final numbers for two years ago, the budget process
certainly descends to a much lower level and the
budget process really means nothing about that. But I
will follow your guidance.
You know, $1.8 million that has increased
over revised, that is a concern to me. If I was to raise
that under motion to adjourn or another debate I
would prob ably be stopped because I would not be
allowed to debate it because we already debated the
budget. So, I will follow your guidance. I made the
point. In the future during this debate, I will continue
just to point it out to ask the question but I will not dwell on it, as I have through the day. I mention it and
I then I have moved on.
Obviously, like you, Mr. Chairman, I take
budgeting process seriously. It is taxpayer’s money and I think taxpayers are owed an explanation. And I
am sure the Minister can pr ovide a response with the
technical officers.

MP Dunkley, continue. You were on a
good line. So please, continue.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Yes, sir. I would like to bat
for Somerset so I will stay on that good line, sir.
Mr. Chairman, goi ng down that page on B -156
to line item 31997, National Health Emergency. I
would appreciate the Honourable Minister giving a breakdown of the $12.729 million that is listed on that
line item for 2021 revised spending. And the new
page that just came out t hrough the debate today, the
next line, the estimate for 2021/22 has been reduced
for $3 million (which I believe you might have in your
book) to $1.5 million which was sent out in the correction. Could the Honourable Minister please give some
understanding of how this number of $1.5 million was
arrived at and what it might include?
I will make this comment knowing what we are
going to need to fight COVID -19 going forward is an
uncertain science, at best. I was wondering why the $3 million was changed to $1.5 million and where we think we might end up with that.
I appreciate the Minister’s detail on the [bus iness unit] 2102, the Office of the Chief Medical Officer and the Epidemiology Unit, and I will come back at
another point in the transfer of the Natio nal Office for
Seniors and the Physically Challenged out of that department.
Mr. Chairman, if you now slide our attention to
page B -157, I believe there were some changes made
on that page. I have tried to jot them down through the
debate as we have had i t today.
In the middle of the expenditure chart, which
is at the top half of the page, Professional Services
are listed in that area. And Professional Services for 2019/20, a final figure of $1.645 million. Professional
Services for 2020/21 is $1.599 mill ion increased to
$7.087 million and then a budgeted number this year,
I believe, in the new book of $2.051 million. Could the
Minister please give a breakdown of those Professional Services, who they are for and what the num-bers pertain to? Obviously, I am sure, the $7 million
for the revised for the current financial year deals with
COVID -19, and I would like some breakdown on that.
In regard to that, Mr. Chairman, the Minister,
through parliamentary questions, has given detailed
replies on COVID -19 expenditures. And in addition,
Mr. Chairman, the Auditor General tabled a report in
the House that is titled “
Government of Bermuda r esponse to the COVID -19, Auditor General’s Public
Interest Report ”, wh ich, in my view, gave some preli minary overview of the handling of COVID -19 as a pu blic interest report.
Mr. Chairman, I know Government was up
against a crunch of time in much of the work that had
to be done. And in the beginning because of the fear
of the unknown, which is natural, we had to move
quickly on a lot of stuff. One of the concerns that I
would have, certainly in the past and going forward, is
the number of sole- sourced contracts that have been
given out, some of them quite significant —

The C hairman: Honourable Member, I have given
you a bit of latitude, but you need to stick to your
line—

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: I am talking about Professional Services, sir.

Okay. Go ahead.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: And I am cognisant of
time, I will move through it quite quickly. That is why I
am talking at a faster pace than I normally do. So I
would like some understanding from the Minister that
these sole- sourced contracts will, now that we are in a
position where we understand the landscape a bit
more of COVID -19, that we will do more to make sure
that they are only used in the most necessary and
appropriate circumstances, because some of them
are quite significant and we want to be able to look
back at the use and spending of taxpayers’ m oney
and feel that we got the best value for money.
1016 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Chairman, moving down the page to Revenue Summary, I see the Travel Authorisation Fee
and I am sure that this is a relief for Government to
get some additional revenue from a very bad period. I
ask t he Honourable Minister how the number of $4.2
million for revenue is arrived at this year based on the
fact that COVID -19 is still around But it is a significant
amount of money and I am sure that no one is complaining about having to pay the fee, but how is that
number arrived at? And is the Minister able to shed
any light on how long this Travel Authorisation doc ument will become [the] norm for people? Through this
year? How far out are they able to speculate on where
that might line up?
Mr. Chairman, t urning over to the next page
on B -158, which deals with employee numbers , the
numbers look pretty straightforward to me. One of the
things I would like to ask the Honourable Minister to
explain in more detail when she has the opportunity,
when she wraps up the presentation, is that last year
during the debate the Minister talked about the high
number of vacant and unfunded positions. This year
the Minister alluded to them as well. This year there
will be no vacant and funded positions, there will be
vacanci es that will be filled at the time [they are needed]. Can the Minister give a number of how many v acant positions are funded for the Ministry and have to
be filled in the coming year?
Turning to the Employment Numbers . . . sorry, the Performance Measures . The Minister did say
that there was a revamping of these measures from 2020/21, and I appreciate that. A question in regard
[to that], at the top of page on B -159, which talks
about business unit 31000, General Administration,
and the first one is improv ing employee satisfaction in
the Ministry of Health from 61 per cent. A question to
the Honourable Minister is, How is this percentage
level obtained and what does the Minister believe
would be a good improvement level to get to?
Secondly, in regard to t he next line item, i mprove public perception of the Ministry of Health from
49 per cent. How is this number obtained? And perhaps as a surprise to some Members in Government
benches I would think that this number is low. Based
on the performance over the past year I would think
the perception of the Ministry of Health would have to be much higher than that. They have been on the
frontlines and they have done a commendable job
through that period.
Mr. Chairman, now turning over to page B -
160, still dealing with Performance Measures, the Mi nister did give some clarity on the percentage of co mmunicable diseases and investigations. So that a nswered my questions there. And also the final Perfor-mance Measure there in regard to the sharing of r eports with stakehol ders in a timely frame. So, that
deals with my comments and questions on Head 21.
Let’s switch our attention to Head 22, the D epartment of Health, Mr. Chairman. The Chairman: Proceed.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, sir.
The Minister did offer to sing the jingle, and I
was hoping she would because it is quite a catchy
jingle.

I was as well.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Let’s spare us; we won’t
do it.
This department is part of the engine room of
the Ministry of Health, which often get s overlooked by
what it does in the public but certainly it is well appr eciated by me and I am sure all Members of Parliament
for what they do. It is very a very broad- based department and the Minister did go over it in some detail.
Even though she jumped from one line item to another
line item, it did answer a lot of questions. But there are
a few comments I would just like to raise in regard to
that.
So, first, on page B -161. A question to the
Honourable Minister in regard line item 32040, Sexual and Reproductive Health, the budget estimate for
2019/20, the original revised, and the estimate for
2020/21, if you see it on that line, it is $783[,000] for
2019/20, it jumps to $917[,000] for last year, the r evised at $731[,000], and then it is $851[,000] set for
this year. Can the Minister provide a bit of an understanding as to why that number has been a bit of a
moving target in that regard?
I know that in looking at staffing numbers on
page B -164, you will see that for 2019/20 there were
seven staff, for 2020/21 the revised number is six, and
for the next budget year it is eight. So I am assuming
that up and down flow of that budget number is due to
staffing issues in that [department]. Can the Minister confirm this is the case and also assure that the i mportant work that has to be done in that area has still
been able to get done and will get done in the next
financial year?
Mr. Chairman, I might have missed it when
the Minister was jumping around, but [line item] 32110, Nutrition. I see no budget allocat ion for this
next financial year coming up. It dropped from
$178,000 to zero. So I assume that is an amalgam ation in another area, but if you look, shifting to page B -
164 under Nutrition, [line item] 32110, you see that there are two employees that are sti ll in that area so I
would just like clarity why [there is] no budget alloc ation, and if the employees are still working, are they working in another department doing similar type of
work?
Mr. Chairman, turning the page to B -162, I
want to take this oppor tunity to focus in on line item
32190, Vector Control, a department that I am sure
everyone knows. And I want to give them some direct commendation on the work they have done. As many
people are aware, we had a real issue with rodents


Bermuda House of Assembly last year. A lot of w as due to moving to once a week
trash collection and many individuals were putting the
trash out way too early for the collection. It was sitting
there and we had all sorts of problems due to that. It
took a bit for the department to get on top of things, but they have got on top of things, and they have
done a commendable job at dealing with that challenge. So much so that I think it is something that is in
the smokescreen behind us, and I hope it does not
rear [its] head again. I have been in constant com munication, as I am sure many Members of Parliament
have been, in regard to challenges that our constit uents have raised to us, and they have done a commendable job. I want to congratulate them for that.
And not only dealing with rodents, but mosquitoes which comes up quite often because of the rains that
can come quite frequently. So, congratulations to that department.
So you see, Mr. Chairman, in spite of the
challenges that they have had to deal with, their numbers were down a bit. I am glad to see that they are getting 22 staff over the 20 that they had last year,
probably filling the vacancies, because that is work
that must go on every day and those challenges we
face, those types of rodents and mosquitoes, they
never take a break.
Sliding down two more lines, Mr. Chairman, to
32285, Port Health, I picked up quite a bit of what the Minister said. And I understand that Port Health, the
number in the 2020/21 budget has dropped from
$228[,000] to $142[,000] because of no cruise ships in
port. Also, the second big responsibility (my words in
there), Mr. Chairman, is the inspection of food that
these Port Health workers have to do. I would just like
some more clarity from the Honourable Minister on
the significant increase in the budget for 2021/22. You
will see the $443,000 still recognising that there will be
very few, if any, cruise ships that come into the Island.
So that makes me seek some clarity on the drastic
increase of that number. I know the Minister did talk
about compliance issues and more that has to be
done, but I would just like a little bit more detail on
what that means as far as cost and what that is going to mean going forward.
Moving down to Administration, the line item
32240, Health Promotion. Most of the Budget Books have zero for t he 2021/22 estimate, but the page that
just came out I think shows $411,000, so that clears
up some questions there. Obviously, with the challenges we face in our community, Mr. Chairman, we
need to do all we can to promote good health. We
have critical is sues which the Minister did refer to with
the rise of obesity and diabetes. Certainly the increase
in mental health challenges, some of that was spurred
by what has taken place over the past year with
COVID -19. So I am pleased to see that there is an
incre ased budget in there for the next financial year.
Mr. Chairman, moving to page B -163, Other
Personnel Costs, I note that in the revised spending for the current financial year it [increased] from $5,000
to $95,000. But then it drops to $5,000 again in
2021/22. I would like the Minister to provide an expl anation for that if I missed it during the brief. That is the
Personnel Costs, I see it is a fluctuating line, but I wonder why the original budget was $5,000, went to
$95,000, and now it goes back to $5,000 again.
The Training line item dropped in the current
financial year by just about half. I assume that was due to COVID -19. I see it is being reinstated because,
obviously, training is important. Likewise with Travel, I
see that Travel has been reduced during the current
financial year. I assume that was [because of] COVID -
19. I am pleased to see that funding has been saved and not spent in other areas.
Mr. Chairman, I would appreciate the Honourable Minister giving a more detailed explanation on the m iddle line item, Professional Services. We see in
2019/20 it was $1.636 million and in the current financial year is $1.420 million and it will be $1.276 million
in the next financial year. So if the Minister can pr ovide details of those contracts, the cos t of those contracts and what those individuals or those companies do, I would appreciate it.
Turning the page now, Mr. Chairman, to B -
164, it was interesting, if you look at the 2020/21 employee numbers you will see a great deal of fluctuation
in those m ovements and that is why I asked the Mini ster to provide some more information about the cur-rent vacancies and how many had to be filled. You
see the 30 in the Lefroy House, original 59 and bud geted 59. It has 55 at the current time. And Sylvia
Richardson is down one. It certainly is important in our
rest homes, and these two are well -respected government -run rest homes that we make sure that we
have the staff to do the work that is required. But there
are some reasonably significant reductions in emplo yee numbers.
I hope that this can be dealt with going forward, be cause the revised number for 2020/21 is 250.
You will see it at the bottom of that column, Mr.
Chairman. But the estimate for next financial year is
276. There are 26 new staff that are going to be hired.
And I assume that all those positions are funded and
they will be filled in the next financial year.
Mr. Chairman, brief attention to Head 22, Performance Measures, and I will be cognisant of time on
this matter. I noticed that right at the top of the page
the number of falls has been discontinued. That was a
Performance Measure before. I raise that to get some
understanding from the Minister because obviously in seniors or rest care homes it is important to have an
understanding of falls, because as you will know, Mr.
Chairman, you are, like me, getting up in age a bit.
We still feel that we are pretty good at what we can
do, but one of the things that can happen as you get
older your sense of balance goes and you have falls for a number of differ ent reasons, so falls —

1018 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: Member, please speak for yourself.

[Laughter]
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Well, I heard you refer to it
in prior debates.
But it is something that I think is important for
us to understand because falls are a precursor for
other issues that seniors can have. And if we understand the propensity for falls within the facilities, I think
we can understand also some of the other challenges we have. So just a clarification on why that performance measure was released from those Performance Measures.
If you look down . . . obviously, I could go in
depth on all of these performance measures because
health is very important to me and every Member of
Parliament. But one that I will say something about
here is the third line from the bottom, Percentage of
five-year old students who are overweight or obese to
promote healthy habits. This number of 17 per cent for
2020/21 and 16 per cent for 2021/22, is certainly
alarming. Somebody as young as five who would be
considered overweight or obese, it just goes to show
that we have some real challenges in raising our
young people and we need to do a better job of doing
that because if you do not get off on the right footing you are going to have critical issues all the way going
forward and that will mean that health care requir ements will be raised and the cost of health care will be
raised as well, Mr. Chairman. So I just wanted to f ocus in on that.
The Minister did go through many of those
performance issues and as I slide through the pages I
will only comment on ones that I think are important,
since time is of the essence. I think that covers that
Head 22, Mr. Chairman. So I will go on to to Head 24,
the Hospitals.
Mr. Chairman, I thank the Honourable Minister
for the comprehensive o verview of the Hospital. And I
am trying to shuffle through some of my papers here
for what I wrote down when the Minister gave an
overview of the current financial challenges within the hospital. The Minister said that prior to the pandemic
controlling cost was a challenge. The Minister went on
to say that deeper savings had to be made. And the Minister said that cash reserves were declining. So I
ask the Honourable Minister, What is the current level
of cash reserves? How much of the cash reserves
have been used in the current fiscal year to deal with
challenges within the Hospital? The Minister did go on
to give an overview of COVID -19 expenditures and
how it stretched cash, and I want to echo the thanks
of the Minister for those who have given $1 million
worth of donations and the Bermuda Hospital Found ation for their $1 million worth of donation.
If the Honourable Minister could give an overview of the $5.6 million of unplanned expenditures,
what they are, broken down in categories, I would be most appr eciative. I thank the Honourable Minister for
providing a backdrop for the savings, the $6.3 million worth of savings. And I want to thank everyone i nvolved in that because obviously we are all in this t ogether and the sacrifice of people need to be recog-nised as we deal with that.
The Minister did talk also in regard to the
Hospital, and I am focusing on the finances of the Hospital because obviously we get one page with the
Hospital, [and] on the back side there is more information. But it really does not tell you much. It tells you how much was given to the Hospital, $147.251 million
this year. We know that for 2019/20 the actual number
is $153.513 million, which is a significant increase
over the original budget, Mr. Chairman. And so I want
to delve int o these numbers because, as everyone
knows, we only have one Hospital . And it is critically
important that we get things right there.
I believe it is held with a great deal of conf idence by members in the community. I certainly feel very comfortable with the Hospital through my dealing
with it, whether it is myself personally or with family or
friends. But when we have the critical challenge in
health care, when we have the critical challenges with
the cost of health care, and the critical challenge of
COV ID-19, we need to make sure we get it right.
There are a lot of concerns that come out of
the past year that we need to focus in on. One of the things that has been raised to me, Mr. Chairman, is
the fact that because of the absolute need to curtail
servi ces at the Hospital because of COVID -19, many
locals have not been able to get some of the services
they need. And now that things are opening up, the
availability for some of those services is stretched out
for a long period of time.
For example, just recently I had a constituent
call me that they couldn’t get an MRI for a needy fam ily member for some time. And the portion of the body that needed the MRI, it was critical for the timing. So we need to make sure that the Hospital can service
our community, along with the other doctors within our
community as well, because we cannot let COVID -19
impact our health through the pandemic and also our health because we let it deteriorate over the past year.
So a look at the finances gives us a better under-stand ing of the challenges.
I was pleased to see that the Honourable Mi nister gave us an overview of the KPMG Review 2025 that was mentioned last year and mentioned again
this year. The Minister said that $30 million has been
saved so far. Can the Minister pleas e give a breakdown of the savings in specific areas? Can the Mini ster please also give the potential going forward for
savings, because the Minister did mention the pote ntial for savings but did not give a number that could be
stamped on to that?
The Mini ster did mention the cost of the co ntract was $2 million and today $5 million has been spent. Can the Honourable Minister give some overBermuda House of Assembly view on how the cost of this contract with KPMG was
arrived at? It is a significant number. I think it would
help Parliament to understand how we arrived at this
significant number and what it means going forward.
Certainly, the Hospital is facing a financial cr isis because they are moving into their reserves, they are using their reserves, and COVID -19 is going to be
with us a while longer, so I think we are going to face
some issues in trying to get back to some normalcy in some of the revenue areas that they can have.
Now, having said that, Mr. Chairman, I am
somewhat alarmed that the Minister has not given any updates o n the annual reports for the Bermuda Hosp itals Board because I believe, unless my research is
slipping a bit, the last annual report was for 2015 and was tabled on March 6
th of last year. At the time the
Minister said 2016 would be tabled soon and the good news was it was an unqualified report. The Minister
went on to say that the anticipated schedule will see
the BHB completing reports for 2017/18/19 by the end
of the calendar year 2020. So I ask the Honourable
Minister to provide an update on that, becaus e obv iously we are talking about significant sums of money.
We are talking about an institution that is challenged
with finances and we know many of the reasons
around that. It is not acceptable, it is alarming, and must not be allowed to continue where fi nancial r eports are this delayed. So I look for the Honourable Minister to provide some background on the update
on the tabling of those reports that are much delayed
at the present time.
I was pleased to see that the Minister gave
accreditation updates and I am glad to see that it went
through even during the difficult times that we faced in
COVID -19. So kudos and well done to all of those
who have been involved in that.
The last thing I will say in regard to the Hospital, cognisant of time, and I have ask ed a lot of questions, is that the Minister mentioned the blood drive. And I wanted to support it 100 per cent. It seems like
a small matter, but it is critical to the health of our
community. And I commend the Minister and the Hospital for putting that in the brief this year and last year
as well, maybe in previous years. Without blood the Hospital cannot function. We should use this oppor-tunity. Just like many of us are getting over the hes itancy of a vaccine, we should get over the hesitancy
of contribut ing blood, because during times of need
we all would hope that if we need some blood there is
an opportunity for us to get it. So congratulations on
the work they do, but we can get much more out of
Bermuda to make sure that the Hospital does not go
throug h the stress that they go through. I give as
much as I can, and I find that people in that section of
the Hospital to be wonderful professionals and I hope they continue to find access to everything that they
require.
The last Head, Mr. Chairman, is Head 91,
Health Insurance. The Minister gave a pretty over-arching detail of the Health Insurance. I will not bel abour it much longer other than to say a couple of
things. In general administration, on page B -175, Mr.
Chairman, you will note that the expenditure for
2021/22 has decreased at $2.669 million. I wonder
where that cut is being made in Administration. It
would be helpful to have a breakdown of the $2.669
million, on what areas of Administration that they apply to, Mr. Chairman.
Turning the page to B -176, sir, Professional
Services, if the Minister could give an overview of
what the professional services are because it was budgeted at $383,000 for 2020/21. You will see that it
decreased at $233[,000]. I wonder if that is a COVID -
19 reduction and if those services were not wanted or
needed. But it is back to $383[,000] again for the next
financial year. So if the Minister could give an overview of that.
Grants and Contributions on page C -19. Mr.
Chairman, if the Minister could just give an overview
of why the cut [of] $1 million in the Grant to the Health
Insurance Fund. Mr. Chairman, if you look at the Performance Measures, those performance measures,
unlike many other performance measures, I think they
tell a real telling tale about what is going on withi n the
community. You see the numbers increasing signif icantly and a headcount of HIP policyholders and
Headcount of FutureCare policyholders and the volume of claims is up significantly, about 10 per cent.
That in itself is cause for concern, and while we will
have many other debates on the National Health Plan I am not going to take the opportunity at this point to
speak to it, even though I could refer to a budget line
in Ministry Headquarters, Mr. Chairman. I am sure we are going to have many other debat es [about] it.
It just makes it a necessity that as a community we come together and make sure that if the Gov-ernment is going to go ahead with this National Health
Plan that there is good widespread consultation for it
and we get it right. Because we cannot afford to have any failure as we deal with a significant change that
will take place. And I will leave those comments at
that and come back to that at another time when we
are having a debate that is specifically focused in on that.
Mr. Chairman, the last thing that I will speak to
during this section of the debate is, the Minister talked
about vaccinations. I wanted to just give credit where
credit is due to the Government for making sure that
eventually we got up speed on aggressive testing and PCR t esting. We can still do that, and that is one of
the reasons why we have been able to open our bor-ders to some extent.

Going back to the Minister’s brief, I
take it.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Yes, I am going back to
the Minister’s brief, bac k to Ministry Headquarters
1020 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly where it is Control , furthermore, to vaccinations, which
the Minister did mention. And we are thankful that we
have been able to get a good deal of supply with
some more supplies arriving tomorrow.
So a question to the Minister, What is being
done to address vaccine hesitancy? There has been some talk about it. Does the Minister believe that we
are making progress in this regard? Because we still
have a long way to go to get a significant part of our
population vaccinated.
The second part of the question on vaccines
is, Does the Minister have any further clarity to offer to Parliament on continued source of supply? Right now
I believe we have enough for about 40 per cent of our
population. Obviously to get to the herd immunity the
Government talked about, we should be about 70 per
cent. So where are we going to get the extra 30 per
cent from? Do we have any commitment? [Is there]
any further concrete commitment from COVAX? And
do we have any further commitment from the UK, who
we s hould thank tremendously for their support and
their dollars to support it as well.
And the final question I will ask, Mr. Chai rman, is, In regard to vaccines, now that people have
had two vaccines and they have built up [immunity] in
their body, the littl e card that was given after your first
and second appointment, does Government intend to
use that as some official card, or will that certificate be
put in a more formal way as other jurisdictions have
done like, . . . well certainly, Israel has stamped it in
the passport, I believe. And Gibraltar has an official
certificate. What is Government’s approach going forward in regard to that? They had alluded to it, but there has been no clarification.
So, Mr. Chairman, I believe that will end my
presentation. I thank you for the opportunity to speak.
I thank the Minister for her work over the past years. I have not always agreed with the Minister, but there
have been many good decisions made. And for the
most part, the Minister has been accessible for comment or advice going forward and answering questions. And I know it must be a tiring process, but I just urge all people, Stick to it. We are going to get
through this because, Bermudians, we are strong t ogether. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Before you start, Mr. Opposition
Leader, could I remind you that we are finishing at 7:37?
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: I just have a handful of
questions, not many at all.
[Crosstalk] The Chairman: Proceed. Proceed.
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: I would like to refer the Mi nister to page B -161, under Community Help, Admi nistration. Given that we have a number of seniors at
home and people who need home care, my question
to the Minister is, How many district nurses do we
have and what have we budgeted for district nurses
who can make house calls for 2021/22 and compar atively to 2020/21, for last year? So, again, district nurses, how many? And what type of allocat ion have
we assigned to it for last year and for this year?
I would like to also take the Minister on to
page B -163. Again, Revenues and Fees. Can the Mi nister show us where the revenue from the clinic on
Victoria Street is recorded, because I do not know
based on the revenue sources where it is included?
And if she can, that would be much appreciated. And
if she could tell us how much revenue the clinic act ually generated last year and how much is estimated
for this year? And also, we have the tropical medicine
section of the clinic. I know they are a revenue earner for the clinic, so if you could provide the revenues in
the tropical disease section of the clinic for the last
year and this year.
Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Excuse me, Mr. Chairman.
I wonder if th e Honourable Member could assist me by identifying the line items so that I can follow.

Thank you.
Opposition Leader, could you please give us
some line item?

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: I presume she . . . I am
making an assumption because it does not state
clearly. So I am presuming it may be under Patient
Fees. Does Patient Fees, 8163, include revenues
from the clinic on Reid Street . . . sorry, on Victoria
Street? And if it does, could she also provide details
on the revenues earned from the tropical disease section of the clinic?
I would also like to go to the area [of] Lefroy
House and Sylvia Richardson [Care Facility]. And we saw that [on]

Page please. Page and line number.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Page B -161, line item
32000 and 32015. We saw the expenditures of $4.738
[million] for Lefroy House and $5.44 [million] for Sylvia
Richardson. Can the Minister confirm whether any of
these two care homes realise any revenue? Or is it all
funded by government? Because there may b e people
who are living in these residences who can afford to pay the government fees for it and I just do not know whether we realise any revenue from these two senior
residences. And if they did receive revenues, how


Bermuda House of Assembly much was received for each institutio n for last year
and this year and where is it recorded?
And those are my questions.

I just have one question for the
Honourable and Learned Minister. I am not quite sure
on the line item. I am guessing it is page B -156. Either
under the National Health Emergency, 31997, or possibly under Surveillance line item 31040, but it is
somewhere in there. And Minister, the Health depar tment has provided a stop light system for nonimmunised travellers with dates of quarantine, et
cetera. It is a very helpful flowchart. Does the Minister have an idea of when we will have a similar flowchart
for immunised travellers? And that is my only question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, MP Pearman.
Are there any other speakers?
I hear none.
Minister. Over to you.

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I will at tempt to answer the questions, not
necessarily in the order presented. I am going to start
with the last and move forward.
With respect to the question that was just
asked by the Honourable and Learned Member concerning the stop light for travellers, we are actually in
the final stages of . . . I was hoping to have had it
completed yesterday, but there is a little bit of tweak-ing that needs to be done so we will have that same
14-day red, gold and green provision for immunised
persons. So that should be published any day now.
So that is a work in progress. Like I said, there are just some minor tweaks that were being done yesterday
for that to be published, because we know that there
are a number of individuals who really want to have that information. So j ust stand by; that should be pr oduced very quickly.
With respect to the Honourable Opposition
Leader’s questions. Starting with 32067, the budget
for the district nurses is $1.4 million. As I spoke prev iously, some of the district nurses have been, I gues s,
torn between their respective roles because for the
last year they have not only been providing the service of what they do for the community nurses, what
we refer to them, but they have also been on the front-line of COVID -19 with respect to case management,
testing, vaccinations and the like. The revenue question that was asked concerning Sylvia Richardson, page B -161, Mr. Chai rman. Sylvia Richardson, line item 32015 and Lefroy,
line item 32000, whether or not we generate revenue
from those two facili ties. The answer to that can be
found on page B -163, line item 8163, Patient Fees. So
you will see for the 2021/22 an estimate of $2.6 mi llion. That represents Patient Fees for both Lefroy and Sylvia Richardson.
I just got a note . . . the Honourable and
Learned Member, that stop light immunization will be
released tomorrow.
But back to the Honourable Opposition Lea der, his question is at page B -163, the revenue for
those two long- term care facilities, line item 8163 at
page B -163. With respect to the ques tion concerning
the status of immunisation with respect to your proof, so to speak, the Premier did indicate a couple of
weeks ago that we are looking for a technological s olution and are looking to have a vaccine passport. We recognise that this is something that all nations are
grappling with, and the expected completion of that particular solution is around May.
Let me just go back to the questions. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman. Okay. With respect to the ques-tions concerning BHB, I can advise that the 2016/1 7
audits have been completed and they have been ap-proved by the board and they are actually at the de-sign phase now, with respect to those reports. The
2018 audit has just been completed and it is expected
to go to the board next week for their approval.
The $5.6 [million], what was the $5.6 [million]
used for with respect to BHB? That was for all PPE
(personal protection equipment) N95s, and so forth.
You would have noted in my statement that there was
. . . because there was a drive of all nations of the
world were trying to get, source certain supplies, un-fortunately, many of those supplies were actually i ncreased in cost because everybody was trying to get
[with] a shortage of supplies. So that $ 5.6 [Million] represented PPE, and in particular the N95s.
The current level of the cash reserves, Mr.
Chairman, is $28 million. And $17 million was used in
this last fiscal year, Mr. Chairman. With respect to the
question concerning the Health Insurance Department managing with the $1 million cut, the department has
recently revised their objectives. And it was to devise
efficiencies within the department, Mr. Chairman. And
this is inclusive of the reduction of paper use and using more digital systems, improving reliability and eff iciencies in the use of digital applications, and achie ving cost containment of personal home care benefits through appropriate case management. And, again,
Mr. Chairman, the cost containment for the personal
home care benefit has already seen results in savings
for this fiscal year to an estimate of $500,000 when
compared to fiscal year 2019/20.
There was another question concerning the
National Health Emergency Budget for the COVID -19
1022 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly expenses in 2021/22 for $1.5 million versus the r evised spend in 2020/21 of $12.793 million. The breakdown of that, Mr. Chairman, that $12 million, was with
respect to PPE, and as I said, it was not only that sourcing PPE became challenging, but of course, be-cause of limited supply the expenses associated with
that also because effectively it was a seller’s market.
Receiving the purchase of testing supplies, Mr.
Chairman, is also part of that $12 million. As well as
contractors. There were a number of questions concerning professional services. These were for contract workers who were participating in our vaccine and our
aggressive testing regime. We also had to pay rent,
with respect to that $12 million for a warehouse as
well as the management of the warehouse, which manages the supplies of our PPE.
The Ministry also had seen significant expenditure in 2020/21 to bulk purchasing of PPE as
well as testing supplies, and the mass vaccination
programme that is in progress, also in anticipation of
costs where were reduced coincided with more per-sons than becoming vaccinated.
Mr. Chairman, there were other questi ons with
respect to Head 22, the Department of Health, Staf fing, page B -161, line item 32040. Why were those
numbers shifted? The answer to that is, as the Hon-ourable Member said, it is as a result of staffing. Still on page B -161, Mr. Chairman, line item 32100, the
question concerning Nutrition Services. Mr. Chairman, I am going to assume . . . I think the Honourable
Member said that he did not get the revised budget
pages. That has been an amalgamation, so Health,
Promotion and Nutrition are now amalgamat ed, Mr.
Chairman. Again, that is at line 32240 on page B -156.
There is now an amalgamation between Health, Pr omotion and Nutrition. In the revised Budget Book, the
revised pages will show the allocation of sums for
that, Mr. Chairman. Again, that is 32240 at page B -
162.
There was a question concerning Port Health,
Mr. Chairman, and why there was an increase with
respect to the 32285. And there was an increase in
airport activities as well as extra duties for Port Health, all as a result of COVID -19. So there is an increased
staffing as well as jobs concerning COVID -19.
Going over to Head 21, B -158 . . . I am sorry,
there was another question by the Honourable Opp osition Leader with respect to the fees that are collec ted by the clinic. And the answer to that, Mr. Chairman, is page B -163, and it is 8147, Dental Fees for Chi ldren, as well as 8669, Medication. So those two items, collectively, are the fees that . . . I am sorry, the
revenue generated by the clinic for those two partic ular items.
Moving to Head 21, which is B -159, Mr.
Chairman, under the Performance Measures, there were questions that were asked concerning 31000,
General Administration with respect to the Performance Measures of the employee satisfaction and public perception of Administrative H ealth. Those
were based on surveys, Mr. Chairman. So there were surveys conducted, 100 per cent is always perceived
as good; however, the Ministry’s aim is for improv ements in perception. So, that is what the targets are stating. I thank the Honourable Mem ber for his conf idence in the Ministry team, however it is based on the
surveys that have been conducted to date.
The question, Mr. Chairman, concerning
LCCA : Why was the budget changed from $1 million
to $2.5 million? As [stated by] my colleagues who
have spoken before me, this obviously was a very
difficult budget. The impact of COVID -19 has been felt
by all. We have seen different iterations with respect to our budget concerning our numbers and so forth,
but the Ministry, most importantly, Mr. Chairman, recognises and always has recognised the invaluable
service that the LCCA pays to our community and as
such their budget has remained as it was last year
and is un changed.
Again, there were questions concerning the
level of Professional Services. Those were tied to contract workers with respect to COVID -19, sourcing individuals to do vaccination, testing and the like. And
some of the contracts that the Honourable Member
Dunkley spoke to concerning basically the ministerial
questions and answers that were c onducted a couple
of weeks ago, the contracts are . . . we are in the pr ocess of conducting tendering and getting three quotes, and tendering to ensure that we bring those respective contracts in line. But given of course the emergency situation of COVID -19, contracts were solesourced, but we are regularising that by getting three
quotes and going through the tendering process.
Turning to page B -155, the question concer ning . . . I think I have answered that. Why would the
expenses increase? They are all C OVID -19-related
expenses. Page B -156, Mr. Chairman, line item
31015, Grants and Administration. Why was the 723
to the Bermuda Health Council, what was that for? Mr.
Chairman, that was a combination of legal fees as
well as we had, as I mentioned in the br ief, added
functions to the Health Council with respect to the
oversight of care homes and the personal home care
transfer. So that went to the Health Council, so the costs were associated to that. I have spoken about
the LCCA. I have spoken about Professi onal Services
at page B -157. Again, those were related to COVID -
19 contractors.
Travel Authorisation Fee. It is $75.00. That is
line item 8110. Still at page B -156, Mr. Chairman, the
Honourable Member asked about the travel authoris ation fee and when will that end. When COVID -19
ends. We will continue to have to best guard and pr otect our borders, which is how COVID -19 gets into
Bermuda. So we will always require at this point a
travel authorisation process so that we can ensure that residents as well as vi sitors that come to Berm uda have the requisite COVID -19 test, negative test


Bermuda House of Assembly before they enter Bermuda. The travel authorisation
fee currently is $75.00 and we will no doubt continue
utilising the travel authorisation process for quite
some time, until the pandemic is over.
Mr. Chairman, I think that was the bulk of the
questions, but I am just looking at my phone, so just bear with me. Oh, with respect to the Honourable O pposition Leader’s question concerning district nurses,
there are nine posts but pendi ng filling vacancies of
those district nurses. With respect to the KPMG con-tract concerning Head 24, for the Hospital , the cost of
the KPMG contract is $3 million. And ROI is four times
the cost of the whole contract and the return on i nvestment, Mr. Chair man, is six times the cost of that
whole contract.
I believe I have answered the questions, Mr.
Chairman, just let me . . . indulge me a minute.

Members, it has been moved that
Heads 21, 22, 24 and 91 be approved.
Is there any objection to that motion?
I hear none.
Agreed to.
[Motion carried: The Ministry of Health, Heads, 21, 22, 24 and 91, were approved and stand part of the Est imates of Revenue and Expenditure for the year
2021/22.]

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, I move that the
Committee rise, report progress and ask for leave to sit again.

Good evening, Members.
Members, are there any objections to the r eport that the Committee rise and reporting progress
for leave to sit again?
No objections. The leave has been granted.
The next item on the Order Paper today is the
second reading of the Rent Increases (Domestic
Premises) Control Temporary Amendment Act 2021,
in the name of the Minister of Home Affairs.
Minister, do you wish to proceed with your Bill
this evening.

Hon. W alter H. Roban: Yes, Mr. Speaker.

Members, are there any objections to
that?
No objections.
Continue, Minister.
1024 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly BILL

SECOND READING

RENT INCREASES (DOMESTIC PREMISES)
CONTROL TEMPORARY AMENDMENT ACT 2021

Hon. Walter H. Roban: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce to this Honourable House the Bill entitled Rent Increases (D omestic Premises) Control Temporary Amendment Act
2021.
The purpose of this Bill is to (a) increase the
length of permitted rental to a Bermuda resident in a
rent controlled vacation rental unit from an aggregate
of six months in a consecutive twelve- month period to
an aggregate of twelve months in a consecutive twenty-four month period; (b) to increase the validity of v acation rental (rent control) certificates from one year to
two years; and (c) to make the increases in length of
permitted rental to a Bermuda resident and the validity
period of vacation rental (rent control) certificates
temporary to enable a review of those increases [ before] the expiration of two years.
Mr. Speaker, we have met with the Real E state Division of the Chamber of Commerce to discuss
the challenges associated with holders of one- year
residential certificates who are trying to find suitable
rental units. The Chamber noted that there was an
inventory shortage of studio and one- bedroom apar tment categories as these rental units are mainly occupied by the local rental market. In addition, those
who have been granted a one- year residential certif icate are looking for fully furnished apartments without
having to enter into a long -term contract with a lan dlord as they cannot guarantee that they can or want to remain beyond the term of the certificate.
Landlords renting in the residential market do
not normally offer for rent furnished apartments. Additionally, landlords are normally seeking tenants who
are prepared to commit to a longer term than one year. As a result, concerns were expressed about the
limitations of the six -month aggregate length of stay
restrictions in a vacation rental unit within the Rent
Increases (Domestic Premises) Control Act 1978, the
principal Act. Most studio and one- bedroom apar tments fall at or below the threshold of the $28,000 for
rent control units.
Mr. Speaker, the vacation rental market offers
units that are furnished and, by their very nature, offer
short -term rentals without the need for a long- term
contract. However, due to the legislative restrictions in
section 6 of the principal Act, a landlord of a vacation
rental unit should only rent the property of an aggr egate of six months out of a consecutive 12- month period. This restriction would require one- year residential
certificate holders to secure, and move into, another
rental space for the remaining six months. The Bill
proposes to increase the length of stay from an ag-gregate of six months within a consecutive period of
12 months to an aggregate of 12 months with a consecutive period of 24 months.
Mr. Speaker, the overarching objective of the
proposed amendment is to stimulate economic growth
by removing any impediments for the one- year res idential certificate holder to reside on Island. The pr oposed amendment provides five important compo-nents to address the needs identified by the one- year
residential certificate holder.
1. They will not be considered tenants; therefore, a long- term l ease commitment
is not required.
2. They will not have to vacate a rent -
controlled vacation rental unit after six
months.
3. They will be able to terminate their stay if
they wish to leave before their certificate
expires.
4. They will have access to fully furnished
apartments.
5. The amendment provides an opportunity for holders of vacation rental (rent control) certificates to begin earning revenue for
their properties which experience negative financial impact due to the COVID -19
pandemic.
Mr. Speaker, the Bill wi ll remain in force for a
period of two years from the date the Act becomes
operational . The Rent Commissioner and her team
will monitor the local market during the two- year per iod to ensure that locals and helping agencies have
access to apartments within rent control inventory.
Mr. Speaker, presently there are 312 rent -
controlled vacation rental units in operation. [This] rep-resents approximately 2 per cent of the total rental
units under rent control. By implementing the Rent
Increases (Domestic Premises) Control Temporary
Amendment Act 2021, we will be supporting the Go vernment’s firm commitment to provide financial stim ulus for many industries within our economy.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the
Rent Commissioner, Ms. Karen Marshall, and her team who drafted this legislation, Ms. Amani La wrence, Parliamentary Counsel, and Ms. Alsha Wilson, Assistant Parliamentary Counsel.
Thank you, very much, Mr. Speaker. And I
now wish to open the floor for debate on this Bill.

MP Richardson, you have the floor.



Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Jarion Richardson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
And I thank the Honourable Minis ter for bringing this
to the House for consideration.
Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Minister has
referred to a number of motivations for making this
determination to bring this piece of legislation to the
floor. And for the purposes of the listening audienc es,
I just want to make sure that it is quite clear, because
it is actually quite a convoluted, confusingly -worded
piece of legislation.
What it actually says is that we are going to
extend . . . there are two kinds of vacation rental units
in Bermuda. The rent control ones and the non- rent
control ones. Persons in Bermuda who would like to rent a housing unit as a vacation rental must get per-mission from the Minister in the form of these certif icates. Then again, these certificates come in two forms, thos e people who have units that they wish to
rent as vacation rentals, they have them under a rent
control circumstance, and those who do not have
them under rent control circumstance.
This Bill speaks to those who have those v acation units that they wish to rent out under rent control. It does not speak to those vacation units that are
not under rent control. As the Minister had pointed
out, this conceivably will be all of the small units such
as the studio apartments and one- bedroom apar tments, or something similar to that.
So with that being said, Mr. Speaker, the purpose of this legislation was to stimulate economic
growth. The Honourable Minister said that this would
come about because those with rent -controlled vac ation units would be able to offset the impact of COVID -
19. What I do not see here, Mr. Speaker, is any kind
of . . . and I know I harp on about these feasibility
studies and impact studies, and Green Papers, and
basically anything beyond legislation to help explain
the purpose other than the Ministerial Statement. And
we yet again see only the Ministerial Statement, so when we scrutinise this piece of legislation, when we
seek to approve it, we actually are going on the word
of the Minister and no further information.
So the Minister has made the point that there
are 312 rent -controlled units which are available for
rent as vacation rentals composing 2 per cent of the
actual whole market of those rent controls. He also
specified that the Rent Commissioner and helping
agencies will monitor to ch eck inventory. My concern,
Mr. Speaker, is the distinctly non- committal nature of
such a statement.
Mr. Speaker, the legislation in and of itself
amends very few paragraphs and sections in a piece
of legislation. The Rent Commissioner is not mentioned at all in this, and neither is any other helping
agency. This House has no assurances from them
that they will have any role to play in the monitoring of making sure that this piece of legislation does not
have an adverse impact into the inventory.
Hon. Walt er H. Roban: Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

Point of order.

POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]

Hon. Walter H. Roban: Perhaps the new Member of
the House is [unknowingly] misleading the House and
also the public.
I am the Minister of Home Affairs. I am the
Minister responsible for rent control. So that is where the ultimate statutory legal responsibility lies to e nforce the legislation. He seems to be confused as to
whom it is. It is the Rent Commissioner and me, and
that Rent Commissioner is under m y Ministry. So the
enforcement is through the Rent Commissioner.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
So the goal here is to stimulate economic
growth. And if it were to stimulate economic growth
then we would be looking at having a bigger impact
into the inventory. So, it is as if we are trying to have it
both ways. We are saying that there is going to be an
economic impact, there is going to be economic
growth fr om this exercise; however, it is going to be so
sophisticated, so nuanced, that it actually will not i mpact the inventory, or rather, that it will have a
de minimis or a minimal impact on the inventory. In
other words, people who are looking for rent contr ol
properties will not be impacted enough for it to matter.
Now, with that being said, Mr. Speaker, we
are, or rather I am concerned about the law of uni ntended consequences. And so with that, my point
would be that we are entirely dependent on this acti on
having a positive effect, again without any other i nformation at this time.
So with that, Mr. Speaker, I will have the rest
of my comments when we go into Committee. Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
1026 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Speaker: Thank you, MP.
Does any other Member wish to ma ke a contribution at this time?

Hon. Jason Hayward: Mr. Speaker.

Minister Hayward, you have the floor.

Hon. Jason Hayward: Thank you for allowing me to
provide intervention into tonight’s debate.
Mr. Speaker, what we see here is a Bill that
seeks to extend the restrictions on vacation rentals for
control of properties. Mr. Speaker, this Bill presents an
opportunity for us to capitalise off of effective policy
that this Government has put in place. Mr. Speaker,
the Minister talked about the economic impacts of this particular change, and I have no doubt that this will have a positive impact on our economy. Why I have
no doubt, Mr. Speaker, is because–– if I refer to a r ecent Royal Gazette article, if I may, Mr. Speaker?

Continue on. Yes, you may.
Hon. Jason Hayward: If I reflect on a current article
form the realtors of Bermuda in regard to consumer
confidence in Bermuda’s real estate market, it speaks
specif ically about the rental sector and the boom that
the real estate sector is having in regard to rental
properties.
When I look directly into the article it
says, 1“Luxury” residential “home sales were up a lmost 150 per cent compared to 2019.” It says that “the
fourth quarter of 2020 was the best it has been in
more than five years . . . an end- of-year [report].” . . .
“‘The trends of 2020 spurred the rejuvenation in virt ually every segment of our industry with increases in
volume of transactions in the last quarter of 2020.’”
Mr. Speaker, those positive figures in a time
where we have had economic downturn, in a time
where we have had an exodus of work permit holders
from Bermuda, is directly correlated with this Gover nment’s ability to put in place policies that actually i ncrease our residential population. The Work from
Bermuda certificate has been extremely positive, extending visitor’s stays from 90 days to 180 days has
been extremely positive. And what we also see is an
increased number of persons wanti ng to remain in
Bermuda on an annual basis. This offsets some of the
losses that some of these vacation rental owners
would have had due to the decline in tourism.
But it was the agility and swiftness of this
Government that actually put effective policies in
place. To date, I as the Minister, have approved over

1 Royal Gazette , 10 Marc h 2021 600 Work from Bermuda certificates and close to 400
of those individuals are living, residing and contri buting to our economy. Why this change is necessary
is because there is a large portion of pr operties
[which] are unfurnished in Bermuda. Most likely the
vacation rental properties are actually furnished pro perties. So we have a number of vacation rental properties that were under -occupied because they had a
restriction of a six -month tenancy on th em. Extending
the period of time means that we increase the avail ability of properties that our visitors, who are now res idents, can actually reside in.
Mr. Speaker, the fact that we are bringing this
Bill to the House and with consultation from the realtors, means that this is evidence that the Bermuda
Government’s policies are actually working and this
will support homeowners who chose to rent their
properties out and offset where they may have had
tourist bookings that have cancelled due to COVID -
19.
It is amazing that we are talking about industries that are doing a boom in one of our worst ec onomic downturns. This Government will continue to
put policies in place that support our economic recovery. This is one result of effective policy implement ation. And, Mr. Speaker, this should be viewed only as
an opportunity. I do not know why an individual would
have much concern that we are trying to put more
properties on the market for persons who want to r eside and contribute to Bermuda’s economy.
So I tha nk the Minister for his swiftness to
bring this particular Bill to this Honourable House. I
wholeheartedly support it. And I hope that Bermuda
can see that the Bermuda Government’s policies to
support economic recovery, some are paying off, and
that we are heading in the right direction. Thank you,

Thank you. I will keep it brief.
I just simply wanted to carry on from the “unintended
consequences” that my colleague, MP Ric hardson,
mentioned in his words. And that is twofold.
One is that I am just wondering if the Minister
might be able to give, shed some light on the fact that
vacation units, rental owners will not be able to raise
their rents —

[Inaudible interjections]

That’s okay.
Just that the . . . yes, they may have an extended lease now, and so there is this continuity of a
tenant. But the fact that they will not be able to adjust
their rents, maybe for seasonal reasons and maybe
through renovation, they will not be able to raise their rents, and so the owner then has to bear the brunt of
that financial loss.
And the other being land tax. So, these vac ation unit owners still have to pay the land tax. And we
know that this land tax has been frozen. And we also
know that the value of properties is going down. So
the vacation unit owner is still going to have to pay
land tax and probably, there is a possibility, that they
are going to be paying land tax that is actually calc ulated higher than the present value of thei r property.
And so there is yet a second financial loss to the ow ner.
And I am just wondering if the Minister has
any insight on how the owner themselves will be able
to reconcile the fact that they are actually, in the long
run, losing some money, or the money is maybe less
than they may have anticipated.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

What I find curious . . .
there is a saying, Things are getting curiouser and
curiouser. What I find curiouser is that if those who
are in the industry are agreeing with our policies,
those who are in the industry are saying that our ho listic policies of whether it be vaccination, whether it be
digital nomads, whether it be . . . whatever it may be,
it is spurring interest in real estate. Obviously, we are
on the right track. But somehow or the other, the OBA
always have to find somethin g to say No, this ain’t
gonna work. No, this it’s wrong. But at the same time,
they are yet to come to the table with any of their own
ideas.
If it was left to certain segments of this country, we would never have built Loughlands for Berm udians. If it wa s left to certain segments of this country,
we would have never built Anchorage Hill down in St.
George’s. So, yes, we have to balance things out. We
have to take care of landowners. We have to take
care of tenants. That is the job of a government. So, I
1028 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly am finding it curious er and curiouser why the OBA . . .
even in the very nice tones that MP Richardson
comes with, finds the need to try and poke holes in
something that, whilst it may not be perfect, it has the
agreement of the real estate market, real est ate pr ofessionals. We are not just doing this in a vacuum.
When we said that a few months ago, when we said
that—

Mr. Speaker, I am mindful
that the Honourable Minister said in his comments
that they had met with the Chamber of Commerce.
But I have not heard anything more from, for example,
the rental real estate agents. In fact, I have heard
something contrary to that, that the industry was su pportive of this specific piece of legislation.
So I just wanted to clarify that. Although that
has been said, I have made equal inquiries and I have not observed the same thing.

Thank you, Honourable Member.
Does any other Honourable Member wish to
make a contribution at this time? Any other Member?
No other Member. Minister, would you like to
reply and wrap- up and take us to Committee?
Hon. Walter H. Roban: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
And thank you for the interesting contributions of the Members who have spoken so far. They are interes ting, certainly, some of the comments from the Oppos ition on this particular measur e. I suspect, perhaps,
there has not been as much exhaustive research
done in this area of legislation due to some of the comments that I heard. And there isn’t, perhaps, as
much of an understanding of the vacation rental markets and even the market that w e, this Government,
has successfully put in place for the one- year residency scheme of which is being . . . some led and shaped
by the work of my honourable colleague, the Member who sits for constituency 17, Minister Hayward. And I appreciate his supporti ve comments and certainly
those of MP Famous, who sits for constituency 11.
I actually have listened carefully to the comments of the Honourable Members who sit for consti tuency 20 and constituency 23. But it does appear that
perhaps some effort by them needs to look more
closely at the facts, particularly around the vacation
rental market, of which their comments seem to miss
some of the very obvious facts of how these markets
operate and also how the one- year residency certif icate permit . . . and even t he impact of the nature of
the difference and contrast between rent control properties and properties that are not within rent control
that are a part of this particular market.
My remit with this legislation is specifically on
the properties that are under rent control. And I outlined specific statistics as it relates to how many prop-erties those are. So, there are other properties that
exist in the vacation rental market, that are not in rent
control and they do not exist within my realm of r esponsibility . So perhaps some of the issues that they
have been apprised of exist with the other aspect of
the market and not with this aspect of the market. And
I would encourage them to go perhaps out there and
ask further questions of those who operate in that
mark et to be better educated around those issues so
they can contrast between what happens within the area that is within the realm of responsibility of this particular Bill, Rent Increases (Domestic Premises)
Control Temporary Amendment Act 2021 . . . the pri ncipal Act was done in 1978; this is an amendment to
that Act dated 2021. So it is clear as to what we are
dealing with today.
I just want to make some facts clear as well,
Mr. Speaker, as it relates to some of the points raised. As the Minister responsib le for rent control and for
vacation rentals, within the remit that was in rent control, I only sign licences for those properties that are
under rent control. The Minister for Tourism has r esponsibility for those properties that are over the
$28,800 ARV, which was clearly articulated as the
figure of the seal for what I deal with in my brief.
Rent control properties are 55 per cent of the
rental property market in the Island. So, although there is a limited amount of those that may be vac ation rentals, th ey are 55 per cent of the rental properties on Island.
There also seemed to be some confusion by
the Honourable Member who sits for constituency 23
as to . . . if I can be blunt, Mr. Speaker, he questioned
the validity of the consultation with the real es tate
market that has been articulated during this debate.
Let me make it clear, Mr. Speaker, the Chamber’s Real Estate Division came to us with this issue.
So we did not go looking for a problem. They who are
within this industry brought the concerns to us, co nsulted with us on it, we listened to them and, as the
Honourable Member Jason Hayward just articulated,
we crafted a plan to respond. They brought this to our


Bermuda House of Assembly attention some months ago, a few months ago, late
last year, and along with my other minist erial co lleagues who deal with the issues for the other side of
this market, we devised a solution.
And this Rent Increases (Domestic Premises)
Control Temporary Amendment Act 2021 is that sol ution. This is a solution that was devised in consultation
with that industry. I do not know who the Honourable
Member Richardson spoke to, but we . . . the Real
Estate Division of the Chamber of Commerce came to
us. So we are responding to a need that they deter-mined had to be addressed and we devised a sol ution. Thi s Act is the solution.
In fact, Mr. Speaker, the Rent Commissioner
works well with the Real Estate Division of the Cham-ber of Commerce. They consult all the time. This is
evident by the enormous amount of work and information that is provided by the rent c ontrol agency to
provide information to tenants, to landlords. It is a r esult of that ongoing consultation that goes on all the time. That is why we were able to learn about this i ssue and respond to their requests on how we should
deal with it. So what I would implore is if the Honour able Member Mr. Richardson has concerns or is not
that informed about what consultation was had, he
needs to go to the Real Estate Division of the Chamber himself and talk to them.
Mr. Speaker, under section 6 they are taken
out of the rules of rent control, when they are vacation rentals. Additionally, Mr. Speaker, rent control property, people who are licensed, there was some question
raised about the concerns of unintended consequences, about landlords who might be involved with . . .
particularly who are under the rent control, that they
could not charge higher than the rent control rate to a
vacation rental client, and that they would lose money
as a result if this was a furnished place, obviously,
that they be looking for , and that this is an unintended
negative consequence possibly of this amendment.
Well, you know, the vacation rental market is
a very transparent and open market. People go
online. It is a very modern market to find out what the
rates are, what the quali ty of the actual accommodation is, and they can choose what is the best rate. A lso, those properties that are within this scheme that are licensed charge what the market requires, what the market rate is. So, they can evaluate based on a
one-bedroom of the same type and what the market
is, and usually those rates are pretty competitive because it is an open and transparent market.
So this is not a case where a landlord is necessarily going to find himself out of any pocket for their obligations. If I can j ust recit e a few key points,
Mr. Speaker , the daily average charges for a vacation
rental under rent control, set by the owners, are as follows:
• Studios, $85.00 to $225.00.
• One bedroom , $110.00 to $275.00.
• Two bedrooms, $250.00 to $375.00 Although there ar e not that many . . . these
are the daily rates. So you are not necessarily going to have a lot of the multiple bedroom units under rent
control, but I am just giving you a picture as to these
are the rates that many people who go out there can see, they are transparent, and they can make their
choices.
Landlords are not going to set rates that are
going to be detrimental to themselves. They are able to set going vacation rental rates if they have the l icence to operate as a vacation rental. And those who
are in the market clearly ––as we still have a number
of properties within the market, it probably ebbed and
flowed as a result of the pandemic, but certainly I suspect that as we become more open and people begin
to travel more and people want options, we will find a
level of further buoyancy in this market going forward.
And also, Mr. Speaker, the Honourable Member Mr. Hayward alluded to that right now, and the
evidence coming is in the media, that right now the
realtors are experiencing quite a good mark et right
now. Right? Those are the facts. That is not coming
from the Government. We do not have to spin this
information. The realtors themselves have said in the
media that right now with sales and other activity,
things are looking up. They have a very optimistic a pproach.
And just some other facts, Mr. Speaker . . . I
hope this answers some of the issues that have been
raised. Mr. Speaker, just to add some other points, as
it relates to vacation rentals and those who get certif icates. After the certif icate expires, the rate of that
rental property reverts back to the lawful registered
rent that would be available to local persons. So once
that particular property comes out of being a rental
unit which is licensed to be a vacation rental, it goes
back t o the regular rates.
So, some of the issues that I think Members
might have had around “unintended consequences”
(to quote), we believe that the system can address
that, and it does. I can assure you that the rent control
agency monitors the situation on a daily basis to make
sure that certain things do not happen that may be
detrimental to the rental market. And part of what I
actually outlined in my statement, Mr. Speaker, is to address that.
This provision, if you note the title of the Bill
(and this i s a bit of an education for the Opposition as
well as the public) Rent Increases (Domestic Premi ses) Control Temporary Amendment Act 2021—
temporary —temporary meaning that it has a sunset
clause, and I outlined that specifically in my brief. So
the rent con trol agency can monitor over the next two
years how this actually impacts the market. And if we
see negative impacts, we will address that directly as
quickly and nimbly as we brought this legislation to
this House. It is designed that way because we a ppreciate our priority is not just to ensure that people
can come from overseas and rent here, but to provide
1030 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly a protection and support for the local people who we
cater to and provide their rental needs. That is not
missed on us.
So with that, Mr. Speaker, I believe I have
answered most of the questions. I think there was a question in relation to land tax. Again, I would implore
Members to perhaps do a bit of research so they can
understand these areas better. The owners only pay
land tax on their ARV. Right? Not on their rents, on
the annual rental value.
So with that, Mr. Speaker, I believe I have answered and addressed all the issues raised and with
that, Mr. Speaker, I would like to move that the Bill be
committed.

Continue. Hon. Walter H. Roban: Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman, the Bill seeks to make a temporary amendment to the Rent Increases (Domestic
Premises) Control Act 1978 to increase the lengt h of
permitted rental to a Bermuda resident in a rent controlled vacation rental unit from an aggregate of six
months in a consecutive twelve- month period to an
aggregate of twelve months in a consecutive twenty -
four month period, to increase the validity of vacation
rental (rent control) certificates from one year to two
years, and to make the increases in length of permi tted rental to a Bermuda resident and the validity per iod of vacation rental (rent control) certificates temporary to enable a review of those increases at the expiration of two years.
Clause 1 provides the title of the Bill.
Clause 2 amends section 6 of the Rent I ncreases (Domestic Premises) Control Act 1978 to i ncrease the length of stay in a rent -controlled vacation
rental unit from a co mbined total of six months in a
consecutive twelve- month period to a combined total
of twelve months in a consecutive twenty -four-month
period. It also provides for the increase in the validity
period of a vacation rental (rent control) certificate
from on e year to two years.
Clause 3 provides for the Bill, once enacted,
to be brought into operation by notice in the Gazette.
It also provides for the expiration of the Bill after a
two-year period and gives the Minister the power to
make an order before the e xpiration of the Bill, subject
to the affirmative resolution procedure, to extend the
Bill for an additional period should an extension be
necessary.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chai rman.
The Honourable Minister gave some numbers
earlier, but I just want to get some clar ification as it
relates to clause 2, proposed section 6, of the Act,
where we are deleting 12 and substituting 24. If he
could just let me know how many certificates have
been issued as it relates to properties that fall under
the category that will be impacted by clause 2(a).
And how much of the total percentage of the
properties under rent control does that constitute? I
believe he touched on the number before, but I would
just like a clarification about that number as it relates
to impact. Thank you, Mr . Chairman.



Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: Thank you, Honourable Member.
Minister, do you want to answer that, please?

Hon. Walter H. Roban: Yes, certainly, I will provide
that information, Mr. Chairman.
Presently there are 312 rent -controlled vac ation rental units i n operation. That represents approximately 2 per cent of the total rental units under rent
control. So that is 2 per cent of all the units under rent
control. I hope that information is satisfactory to the
Honourable Member.

It has been moved that the Bill be
reported to the House as printed.
Are there any objections to that?
There appear to be none.
The Bill will be reported to the House as printed.

[Motion carried: The Rent Increases (Domestic Premises) Control Temporary Amendment Act 2021 was
considered by a C ommittee of the whole House and
passed without amendment.]

I call on you, Mr. Speaker.

House resumed at 8:05 pm
[Hon. Dennis P. Lister, Jr., Speaker, in the Chair]

REPORT OF COMMITTEE

RENT INCREASES (DOMESTIC PREMISES)
CONTROL TEMPORARY AMENDMENT ACT 2021
The Spe aker: Thank you, Deputy.
Members, are there any objections to the Bill
entitled the Rent Increases (Domestic Premises) Con-trol Temporary Amendment Act 2021 being reported
to the House as printed?
No objections . The Bill has been reported and
received. Now I understand that this brings us to the
close of matters that were on the Order Paper to be
discussed. Am I correct, Ministers? All other matters
are being carried over?
[Inaudible interjections]

Yes. I am trying to get . . . okay.
1032 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report
B ermuda House of Assembly Members, we are going to seek your indu lgence. Earlier today when we were going through the
Order Paper, I indicated that the Government Bills that were being tabled this morning had a technical issue and we had to delay the tabling of them. We would now like to return to that Order on the Paper and have those matters tabled at this time. So, Members, we
need to seek your indulgence.
Are there any objections to the indulgence at
this time?
No objections.
Ministers, would you like to introduce your
matters now?
Hon. Walter H. Roban: Mr. Speaker, may I move
forward on the matter?

Members, are there any objections to
this?
No objections. C ontinue.
[
Motion carried: Standing Order 14 suspended.]
PAPERS AND OTHER
COMMUNICATIONS TO THE HOUSE
[
Recommitted]
BERMUDA IMMIGRATION AND PROTECTION
(RENTAL AND USE) AMENDMENT
REGULATIONS 2021
Hon. Walter H. Roban: Mr. Speaker, with the Governors’ r ecommendation and in accordance with section
36(3) of the Bermuda Constitution, I have the honour to attach and submit for the consideration of the Hon-ourable House of Assembly the Bermuda Immigration and Protection (Rental and Use) Amendment Regulations 2021 responsible for land licences in exercise of
the power conferred by section 102C (1)(c) of the Bermuda Immigration and Protection Act 1956
.
T hank you, Mr. Speaker.

Are there any objections?
There are none. Continue, Minister.
[
Motion carried: Standing Order 14 suspended.]
PAPERS AND OTHER
COMMUNICATIONS TO THE HOUSE
[
Recommitted]
MARINE AND PORTS AUTHORITY (PORT
DUES) AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2021
MARINE BOARD (SEABORNE SERVICES)
REGULATIONS 2021
MARINE BOARD (PILOTAGE DUES) AMENDMENT
REGULATIONS 2021
Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Speaker, with the Go vernors’ recommendation and in accordance with sec-tion 36(3) of the Bermuda Constitution, I have the honour to attach and submit for the consideration of the Honourable House of Assembly the Marine and Ports Authority (Port Dues) Amendment Regulations
2021 proposed to be made by the Minister respons ible for marine and port services in exercise of the
power conferred by section 76 of the Marine Board Act 1962; [the next one is] the Marine Board (Sea-borne Services) Regulations 2021 proposed to be
made by the Minister responsible for marine and port services in exercise of the power conferred by section 97 of the Marine Board Act 1962, and [lastly] the Marine Board (Pilotage Dues) Amendment Regulations 2021 proposed to be made by the Minister respons ible for marine and port services in exercise of the
power conferred by section 103 of the Marine Board
Act 1962.

Thank you.
Good evening, Mr. Speaker, colleagues and
listening audience. Today I rise as someone proud of
my Island home, its history and tra ditions. My maiden
speech is in memory of my late father, Allan Eugene
Simmons and my late husband, Frederick Wade.
Mr. Speaker, I am here in this Honourable
House of Assembly as a Member of Parliament for
constituency 25, Warwick North East. And as a Black
single mother, with the wisdom of age, I am also here
as a proud member of the Progressive Labour Party.
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to be the first
spouse of a Member of Parliament to be elected as a
Member of Parliament and one of the eight women
elected to this Honourable House. I am in this House
committed to serve the people of Bermuda. Mr. Speaker, our stories begin well before we arrive on
this earth. If we are lucky, our stories will extend beyond us. I am a product of my parents, my family, my
friends, my experiences, my education, and my cou ntry.
Mr. Speaker, my message today is about empowerment, responsibility and involvement. On the
heels on the International Women’s Day, I take this
opportunity to speak on the roles of our women.
Throughout our history, women have played a central role to ensure stability, progress and the long- term
development of our Island. This includes educators,
politicians, entrepreneurs and caregivers. But our central and most significant role is that of mother. In the
most part, we as mothers have been the major dec ision-makers in education, diet, [and] health for our
families. We not only chart the direction of family life,
but we impact the development socially, morally, [and]
spiritually of our children, the fut ure leaders and wor kforce of this Island.
Mr. Speaker, I became a widow at 40, a single
mother of three young children, and the sole bread
winner. In a split second I became both the mother
and father having to make critical decisions about my
children’s lives. I was totally overwhelmed. But I had
to draw strength from my resilience and my faith to
continue. I had no choice. Fortunately, my family, my
friends and the community embraced me and provi ded encouragement and support.
1034 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Speaker, I applaud al l mothers who sacr ifice and work tirelessly through many hardships to
provide a stable home environment for their children.
For those single mothers who, through no fault of their
own, are both mother and father, I understand and I salute you. As parents, our hopes and dreams are to
provide greater opportunities for our children. In pol itics, in government, in the private sector women hold leadership roles and contribute to the successful running of our country, especially during this pandemic.
As women we are resilient and strong. We must all celebrate our history and wear our badge with honour.
I intend to represent, empower, and be a role model
for all women.
Mr. Speaker, I understand the fear and frustration of being unemployed and struggling to find a
job to support your family. This is the situation so
many of our people are facing during this pandemic.
As a government, we will continue to stimulate our
economy, to provide training, creating employment
opportunities, support entrepreneurship and small businesses. We must get our people back to work.
Mr. Speaker, our ageing population is increasing rapidly and currently represents almost 20 per
cent of the population. With predictions of increasing
to 33 per cent by 2039, the importance of promoting
healthy ageing and ageing in place is critical and will
provide additional strain on our health system and long-term facilities.
Mr. Speaker, in December 2019, my official
political journey began at 64, an age where most peo-ple are anxiously waiting retirement. This is just the
beginning for me as I intend to work tirelessly to em-power and represent my constituents, women and our
seniors.
On March 15
th, I officially became a senior, a
title that I will wear with honour and pride. No longer is
it the case that life stops or slows down when you turn
65. Our seniors, or should I say, we seniors, still have
much to contribute to our families, our community and our society. Many of our seniors are vibrant, educated, physically active, ageing well, and living their best
life. I will lead by example —not only by talking the
talk, but by walking the walk. My mantra is: Ageing
well.
Mr. Speaker, as the Chair of the Ageing Well
Committee, [my] role is to ensure that our seniors are
front and centre in all policies through government.
Ageing in all policies —we are committed to improving
the quality of life for our seniors.
Mr. Speaker, over the past months I have
called many seniors in my constituency to conduct a
brief Ageing Well Committee survey on their concerns
and also to get ideas and initiatives that would i mprove their quality of life. As there were only two questions, I thought maybe 10 minutes per call. Needless
to say, some calls have lasted for over an hour. Our
seniors have a wealth of knowledge and experienc e
and can teach us about enduring change and ha n-dling life’s challenges. We must treat them with r espect, even though their bodies and their minds are
beginning to fail them.
Mr. Speaker, as seniors we must stay healthy,
exercise daily, constantly stimulate our minds, social-ise and stay involved with our families and our communities. We must maintain our independence and
use the resources that are available. We must bless
our children, our grandchildren, and our great grandchildren with the intergenerational wisdom.
Mr. Speaker, get your house in order. It is cri tical to plan and communicate your wishes and desires with your family. This advice is not just for seniors, as
an accident, poor health, or our age can result in d ependency. If you do not plan, someone will plan for
you. Where do you want to live? With your family at
home? With caregivers at a senior facility, a nursing home or a rest home? Do you have a will, a power of
attorney, a health care proxy? If not, it is time to meet
with your attorney. Get your house in order!
Mr. Speaker, many of us have or will at some
point have the responsibility of being caregivers or
organising caregivers for our ageing parents and rel atives. Caregiving can be demanding and stressful. I
understand first -hand the i mpact of caring and su pporting a loved one, as both of my parents have dementia. There are many reasons why we should pr ovide care for our elders. But in a few words, it is sim ply the right thing to do.
Mr. Speaker, I always make myself available
to anyon e who needs advice or support as this is unknown territory for so many people. So often people just do not know what is available. And in some cases just want to talk. Do not try to do it alone. Reach out
and seek the support as needed to avoid burnout. I
will continue to be an advocate for seniors and I will
empower them as they provided the foundation for our
Island.
Mr. Speaker, the creation of the Ministry of
Social Development and Seniors demonstrates our Government’s commitment to responding to the opportunities and challenges of an ageing population. In
the near future we will be developing a senior strategy with [a] focus on dementia. This blueprint will identify
the current needs as well as the new and emerging
issues expected to affect our seniors in the future.
Mr. Speaker, in December 2019 my official
political journey began at 64 years old when Premier
David Burt invited me to join his awesome Senate team. The Senate leader, Attorney General Kathy
Lynn Simmons, Senators Vance Campbell, Anthony
Richardson, and Crystal Caesar mentored me by sharing their experiences and wisdom. Although not
on my bucket list, having lived a life of service, this
new role was a natural transition. Ten months later on October 1
st, 2020, the entire Senate team was el ected
to the House of Assembly, a truly historic moment.

[Desk thumping]


Bermuda House of Assembly

Mr. Speaker, I worked
hard to ensure that my campaign was about understanding the needs, ambitions and aspirations of my
constituents. Affordable and qu ality health insurance,
low food costs, quality public education and greater
employment opportunities were major concerns. As
Members of Parliament we will continue our work to
stimulate our Island’s economic recovery by creating
employment opportunities, expanding quality infr astructure, and securing more investments for health
and employment. We are all in this together.
Mr. Speaker, I continue to canvass, hold
monthly clinics, branch meetings, attend many events, respond to constituents’ concerns and provide support to our vulnerable people. Communication and accessibility is the key to effectively representing my constituents’ concerns, opinions and ideas. I am commi tted to educating my constituents on issues and the
political process to ensure their d ecisions are based
on credible information and data. It is about empowerment, increasing one’s level of social consciousness
and also building a solid, sustainable foundation for
your family’s future.
Mr. Speaker, as an elected official, I am
committed t o adhering to the seven principles of pu blic life: selflessness; integrity; objectivity; accountabi lity; openness; honesty; and leadership. I also pledge
to work to the best of my ability on behalf my constit uents and the people of Bermuda.
Mr. Speaker, what do I want my legacy to be
as a Member of Parliament? I want to be remembered
for leaving Bermuda a better place than I found it, i nvesting in people and encouraging them to pass on
what they have learned from me to other people; service, empowerment and working to improve the qual ity of life for all Bermudians. My legacy will not be lea ving something for people, but leaving something in people.
Mr. Speaker, I quote Martin Luther King, Jr.:
“Everyone has the power for greatness, not for fame
but great ness, because greatness is determined by
service .”
Mr. Speaker, 2020 will be a year that each of
us will remember forever. In January no one would
have imagined not being able to greet our families and friends with hugs and kisses. As a result of COVID -19,
we have experienced shelter in place, business and
hotel closures, alphabetised shopping, social distancing, the border shut down, hand sanitiser, remote
learning, curfews, school closure, nasal swabs —the
list goes on! But as a result, community spirit h as
heightened. There has been better health and h ygiene, less food waste, extra care of our vulnerable, neighbourly outreach. We have built genuine relationships, and most important, reassessed our priorities.
Mr. Speaker, Bermuda is facing tough times
but there is hope for our Island’s future. We must r emain positive and work together. It is during our dar k-est moments that we must focus to see the light. Mr.
Speaker, there have been so many people I want to
thank who have played a special part in my jour ney to
this place, but time does not permit. I take this oppor-tunity to acknowledge the generations who sacrificed and struggled so that we have so many opportunities
and freedoms today.
These opportunities and freedoms are why I
stand here as a senior, as a female, and as a Black
Member of Parliament. I take to heart that my commitment and obligation is to pass this Island to our children and grandchildren with greater opportunities
and freedoms than were passed to us.
Mr. Speaker, no one can make it into this
Honourable House without having a great team. Led by my campaign manager, Randal l Hunt; my team,
which also included people from other constituencies;
and my son, Frederick, walked the streets every day
for five weeks from the time I was announced as the
candidate for Warwick North East.
Mr. Speaker, the Premier David Burt, Minister
Curtis Dickinson, and Minister Neville Tyrrell took the
time from their Government responsibilities and their
own canvassing to support and endorse me. Former
Minister Renee Webb and former Minister Dale Butler
also canvassed with me. The PLP headquarters team,
led by Alexa Lightbourne, provided guidance, orga nised phone calls, public relations and flyers. My son,
Frederick, stood by my side for 12 long hours on election day. They all played a role in my being elected.
Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, where would I be without the
love and support of my family and friends? Many of them handed out flyers, made calls, and went door -todoor with me. Even though my mother could not be with me at the doorstep as she has dementia, I know
that she was always there in spirit on every step of
this journey. Thank you for the love, encouragement,
support, and believing in me.
Mr. Speaker, last but not least, I express my
heartful appreciat ion to the constituents of 25 North
East who welcomed me at their doorsteps. Thank you for placing the trust in me to represent you. I promise
to listen and care. I will be brave and use my imagin ation and creativity to envision a future that does not
exist. I will speak with enthusiasm and courage on
your behalf during debates. I will work with our Government to introduce fiscal labour pensions, social,
environmental and economic reforms to speed up the
progress towards development. This is my pledge to
you.
Mr. Speaker, I thank this Honourable House.

[Desk thumping]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I
won’t be taking up that much time.
I just wanted to draw to the attention of this
Honourable House the temporary loss of generation at BELCO that we experienced recently. We have seen
some comments in the public and I wanted to draw
our attention to it, specifically the Honourable Minister responsible for this space because I do think the public will be interested in Cabinet’s response —in the
regulatory response, I should say —about another
outage.
Without being derogatory, we are mindful that
BELCO has gone through a number of recent changes. And what we want to do is portray that whatever
has taken place . . . that there is no similarity or linkages between the two.
We did receive a public comment from
BELCO about a temporary loss of generation, but it
was very short. It did not explain why or how it took place. And I am mindful that again, we do regulate the
power generator. They are our only power . . . well,
sorry, they are the only significant generator of power
and the owner of the transmission and distribution
network. So we are entirely relying on them. And what
happens is, I want to make sure that the publ ic are
made aware of the ramifications for them when we
lose power because we are overly dependent on
them.
As I said, we had a significant outage on D ecember 18
th. We did see an interim report published,
or rather, sent to the Regulatory Authority [RA]. But no
further comment was made on that. And I believe the
chief executive of the Regulatory Authority refrained
from making any more comment until we get the final
report.
So in that we are still looking forward to that
comment, which I believe comes out at the end of March when we get more information about what
happened on that day, and then we can also hear
more about what happened most recently and assure
the public that the two are not connected, that any
kind of impacts have been thoroughly considered and
that we are moving forward without having these ci rcumstances arising, going forward.
Obviously, Mr. Speaker, the entire Island is
dependent on BELCO and what we just want to do is get some assurances that we are not looking at a
chain of events t hat could lead to more outages or
that we are in some way attending to any kind of causation. So, Mr. Speaker, that is all I wanted to say. I
look forward to either the RA, or the Minister’s brin ging the RA's report to us or making his own Ministerial
Statement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I won’t take that long, Mr.
Speaker.
First of all, I want to congratulate our colleague for her inspiring maiden speech. She can
speak from the capacity as someone who worked holistically, that she put all her effort in the short time
that she had to retain that seat for constituency 25.
Constituency 25 has traditionally been a seat
that could go either way. As we know, the Honourable Dale Butler held that seat for a number of years. And
then in 2012 a combination of things happened [so] that it fell into the hands of the OBA. In 2017, a colleague of the Big Momma of the former Senate
Chamber, now the Attorney General, in a short period
of time did a big job and closed the gap on that seat
where we lost the seat by, I think, 50 votes.
In 2018, former MP Jeff Baron, decided pol itics just was not for him. Not surprising, but I won’t get into that. And then we were left with the task of not
just one bye- electio n, but two bye- elections set for
June the 7
th, 2018. And for the first time in history we
had two bye- elections with two Curtis’s running—o ne
in constituency 22 and the other one in constituency 25. Constituency 25, Branch Chair , was Ms. Ianthia
Butler, w ho we called “The Mayor” of Spring Hill. She,
alongside Mr. Tarik Bean- Darrell, Mr. Jonathan Smith,
Mr. Jamir Simons, and quite a number of us, we were
called “The Reconnaissance” at that time. We worked
hard. We worked every day, every night to take that seat back. And on June the 7
th, [the] Honourable F inance Minister was elected as an MP.
Fast forward to 2020, the seat became avai lable for Senator Ianthia Simmons -Wade. She contacted us on the campaign team and said, What do I
need to do? We gave her a c hecklist and she and her
team, alongside those that she mentioned, from not only C -25, coalesced around her and gave her
110 per cent. At the same time the other side, rolled
out a candidate who was so sure that he was going to


Bermuda House of Assembly win that seat, that he was g oing around showing these
things that were not even applicable to the constituency.
And as you know, Mr. Speaker, the PLP foundation is knocking on doors, knowing the constituency and letting the people feel our love. So it came as no
surprise that on Oct ober the 1
st, although the margins
were tight, that Senator Ianthia Simmons -Wade, became MP Ianthia Simmons -Wade, thus fulfilling the
legacy in which she spoke about.
Mr. Speaker, since October the 1st, MP Si mmons -Wade has immersed herself in so many things.
I am not at liberty to say all, but when she talks about
the Ageing Well, that is just one of the things that she
has immersed herself in to keep this Government and
the party going. So, when she says that she is that
number, that age, I am like, Oh, r eally? I couldn’t tell. I
wouldn’t . . . You don’t . . . you look like you said, ‘ You
are just starting. ’
So I say to her and I say to others, Take heed
on what she said. Plan for your future, because at the
end of the day, Mr. Speaker, we are all going to get
old and we are all going to hopefully retire. We have
to put things in place now.

BELCO POWER DISRUPTION

Mr. Speaker, I would like
to pivot to one other thing before I close.
I find it a bit irritating, to say the least, t hat
persons who do not work in a profession seem to act
like they know all the answers. Tonight I am putting on
my BELCO hat for a quick moment. I know that we have the president of BELCO in our caucus, but I am
going to speak as a BELCO —

Mr. Speaker, I thank you
for your guidance. I am here to speak as a BELCO
worker of near 30 years.
Mr. Speaker, BELCO workers work in the
most arduous conditions, 24 hours a day. We go out
in the weather when peopl e are sheltering in. So when
persons, whether they be elected persons or nonelected persons, take liberty amongst themselves,
whether directly or passive/aggressively, to cast aspersions upon the work of BELCO —not the institution,
the workers —it goes beyo nd the pale.
What I would say, Mr. Speaker, is this. There
is not one BELCO worker, whether they be in the of-fice or whether they be in the plant or whether they be
in the trucks that wants to see outages in this country.
There is not one worker that is not affected when we
have outages in this country. There are almost 300
BELCO workers. So if there is an outage, we are not immune from those outages. Our families are in dar kness. Our toilets cannot flush. Our TVs do not come
on. So we are working hard to get those lights back
on, Mr. Speaker.
So I say to the Member who spoke earlier,
and I say to those in the public, you do not fully un-derstand what it takes to deliver electricity to this
country. Those who do it . . . they do it with passion.
They do not do it simply for a pay cheque. They do it
to ensure that their families’ lights are on; that their
neighbours’ lights are on. So, please do not cast aspersions on something that you do not know. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Honourable Member.
Does any other Honourable Member wish to
make a contribution at this time?
I hear none. Thank you, Members. At this
point the House is closed. We will see you on Friday
morning at 10:00 am.
[Gavel]
[At 8:44 pm, the House stood adjourned unt il
10:00 am, Friday, 19 March 2021.]




1038 17 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly



[This page intentionally left blank.]