March 15, 2021

Good morning, Members and the listening audience. We are here to consider the Ministry
of Transport and the revenues, expenditure and i ncome, Heads 48, 30, 34 and 35.
Minister Lawrence Scott, the Honourable Mi nister, you have the floor.

MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT
Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Good morning, Mr. Chai rman. I move that the following Heads , be now taken
under consideration.
• Head 48— Ministry of Transport Headquarters; • Head 30 —Department of Marine and Ports
Services;
• Head 34—Transport Control Department; and
• Head 35— Public Transportation.

It has been moved that Heads 48, 30,
34 and 35 be considered.
Are there a ny objections?
There are no objections, Minister, continue.

HEAD 48 —MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT
HEADQUARTERS
Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, today I am
presenting the budget for t he Ministry of Transport
Headquarters, Head 48. The budget appropriation for
the entire Ministry totals $55,104,000, as found on
page B -197 of the Estimates of Revenue and E xpenditure for the year 2021/22.
The departments which come under the Mi nistry inc lude:
• Ministry Headquarters —Head 48;
• Marine and Ports —Head 30;
• Transport Control —Head 34; and
• Public Transportation —Head 35.
In addition, the Ministry of Transport maintains
oversight of the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority, Bermuda Shipping and Maritime Authority, and Bermuda Airport Authority. Mr. Chairman, it is the Ministry
Headquarters which is responsible for transportation matters within Bermuda.
Head 48 cost centres 58000 [ —Administration
and 58010—Transportation Planning Team] are found
on pages B -198 through B -201 of the Estimates of
Revenue and Expenditure for the year 2021/22. The mission for the Ministry of Transport Headquarters is
transporting people and goods efficiently and safely.
Mr. Chairman, the Ministry of Transport Headquarters,
Head 48, includes two business units, an Administr ation Section and the Transportation Planning Team.
Mr. Chairman, the total current expenditure for
the Ministry of Transport Headquarters, Head 48, is
estimated to be $15,504,000 for the fiscal year
2021/22. This represents a decrease of $23,324,000,
or 60.1 per cent, under the prior year’s budget of
$38,828,000. The decrease is primarily due to tourism-related expenses being transferred to the Cabinet
Office.
Also, this year’s budget does not include
$22,881,000 for the Bermuda Tourism Authority grant and the Regulatory and Policy and Hotel administr ations. The remaining decrease of $443,000 was achieved by reducing professional services and oper-ating expenses.
The Headquarters budget includes funding for
the two business units mentioned previously, as well
as the current account operational and expenditure
grants and contributions, as seen in the Ministry of
Transport Headquarters subjective analysis of Current


Bermuda House of Assembly Account Estimate, Grants and Contributions, budget
line located on page B -199 and Schedule 1, Grants
and Contributions on page C -19 of the Budget Book.

Programme 58000— Administration
Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Administration, Head 48,
cost centre 58000. Mr. Chairman, the Administration
Section within the Ministry of Transport Headquarters,
cost centre 58000, will have a budget of $15,504,000.
Much of this allocation comprises the Bermuda Airport Authority’s grant, about which I will provide more i nformation later in this brief. For now, I will move on to
the Transportation Planning Team.

Programme 58010—Transportation Planning Team

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: The Transportation Planning Team, Head 48, cost centre 58010. Mr. Chai rman, the Transportation Planning Team within the
Ministry of Transport Headquar ters, cost centre
58010, is allocated a budget of $139,000 and can be
found on page B -198 of the Budget Book, Transport ation Planning Team, Head 48, cost centre 58010.
Mr. Chairman, the Transportation Planning
Section sits within the Ministry of Transport Headquarters cost centre 58010, is allocated a budget of
$139,000 and can be found on page B -198 of the
Budget Book. The Transportation Planning Section oversees cruise ship contractual, operational, regul atory and logistical matters to ensure the efficient int egration of transportation services to meet expectations in Bermuda. In addition, this section still has various transportation projects and policy research initiatives
deemed important by the Ministry.
Mr. Chairman, before the COVID -19 pandemic, 20 19 was Bermuda’s last full cruise ship season,
bringing 185 cruise ship calls and generating approx-imately $170 million dollars in economic benefit to
Bermuda’s economy. In early 2020 Bermuda only r eceived four cruise ship visits, generating approximat ely $1.5 million in passenger and crew spending from
outside of the tax period from April through October. Then the cruise ship industry came to a grinding halt
due to COVID -19 in March 2020.
Mr. Chairman, for the 2021 cruise ship season
all of the projections were strong. But now unfort unately, with the pandemic lasting longer than anyone could have imagined, our cruise ship schedule r emains very fluid and veers down month to month while cruise lines continue to voluntarily suspend service
and/or sell or stop certain ships in their fleet to mit igate revenue losses.
Mr. Chairman, in preparing for the 2021/22
fiscal budget process the Ministry of Transport tried to forecast the economic impact should we be fortunate to salvage some part of the 2021 cruise ship season,
slated to start in August. We estimate 75 ship calls, 105,636 passenger arrivals, with revenues of $4.5 million in passenger taxes, $1.3 million in visitor fees,
$2 million in transport infrastructure tax, and $25.1
million in passenger and crew spending, for a total of
$33 million in economic activity.
Mr. Chairman, since the FDA approved the
emergency vaccinations, and [ with] the distribution of
vaccinations in many countries , this has been a gamechanger. There is hope on the horizon to resume
cruising very slowly in Bermuda and perhaps with an
even bigger window than originally forecast to generate double the economic activity forecast should the stars align. We hope to be making an announcement
very soon on this subject.
Mr. Chairman, the Ministry of Transport
Headquarters employs four full -time equivalent employees under the following cost centres:
• 58000, three persons, the Ministry Comptroller, an Accountant Administrative Officer and
an Executive Assistant; and
• 58010, one Transportation Coordinator.
Compensation not including overtime is estimated at
$398,787, or 2.6 per cent, of the budget.
It is anticipated that in 2021/22 the Ministry
Headquarters will generate approximately $10 million in revenue from the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authorit y
revenues share, which is down from $17,300,000 from
the prior year primarily due to the downturn in flights
during COVID -19.

BERMUDA AIRPORT AUTHORITY

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, I would now
like to discuss the year ahead with respect to the
Bermuda Airport Authority. Mr. Chairman, the only
authority which receives a grant from the Ministry of Transport is the Bermuda Airport Authority. Mr.
Chairman, the Bermuda Airport Authority is nearing
the end of its fourth fiscal year as a quango under t he
Ministry of Transport.
The current account expenditure can be seen
in the Ministry of Transport Headquarters Subjective
Analysis of Current Account Estimates, Grants and Contributions, budget lines located on pages B -199
and C -19 of the Budget Book.
Mr. Chairman, the Bermuda Airport Authority
delivers a range of essential air navigation services
also known as retained government services at the
L. F. Wade International Airport, including:
• air traffic control ;
• air traffic engineering;
• Bermuda public and aviation weather ;
• all relevant information services ; and
• the Authority’s facilities vehicle and equipment maintenance.
On behalf of the Government of Bermuda, the
Airport Authority, as owner of the airport, also over-sees the performance of the airport de veloper and
operator, Bermuda Skyport Corporation, Ltd. (otherwise known as Skyport) and its 30- year concession to
884 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly operate, maintain and redevelop the L. F. Wade International Airport. Substantial completion of construction of the new air terminal building was achieved in
September 2020, followed by the official opening in December of 2020.
Both the completion and opening of the new
terminal by Skyport were delayed approximately four
months due to the onset of the COVID -19 pandemic.
Oversight of Skyport i ncludes monitoring key
performance indicators such as compliance with
standard airport operating procedures; international aviation regulations; building and equipment maint enance specifications; growth of the airport revenue
streams; and ensuring efficient airport terminal energy
consumption. The Airport Authority regulates the ai rport fees and charges charged by Skyport to the ai rport users. These regulated revenues were signif icantly lower than originally projected due to the r educed frequency of commerc ial airline flights and lo wer passenger volumes during the pandemic. As a r esult, the Airport Authority was required to fulfil its con-tractual obligation under the public agreement to fund
a portion of Skyport’s shortfall in guaranteed minimum
regulated revenues.
The Airport Authority, in coordination with the
Tourism Authority and Skyport, also leads Bermuda’s air service development with a focus on rebuilding Bermuda’s air service. Despite the pandemic, these
efforts have maintained all service lifts in our overseas
markets and have facilitated the much- anticipated
move of our main UK and European air service connection to London’s Heathrow Airport. It should be
noted that the Airport Authority’s annual report with audited financial statements for 2019/20 was laid in
the House, thus fulfilling a statutory requirement.
Mr. Chairman, the total Ministry of Transport
operational expenditures grant to the Bermuda Airport Authority will be $14,700,000 for 2021/22, representing an increase of $192,000 over the f iscal year
2020/21 allocation. This is a result of increased costs for the air service development activity, airport insurance and air terminal energy usage, offset somewhat
by reduced overseas redevelopment consulting costs and slightly lower headcount in the retained gover nment services operation.
Mr. Chairman, the Airport Authority currently
employs 47 full -time equivalent staff. The mostly Bermudian professional workforce has a mandate to pr ovide essential retained government services as direct employees of the Airport Authority, thus enjoying longterm job stability under the management of the Local
leadership team with a high -performance culture.
Mr. Chairman, as noted previously, the airport
terminal building portion of the redevelopment project
was completed during the current fiscal period, and
several other capital projects are required to be undertaken to support ongoing operations at the airport.
The 2021/22 capital grant request for the Bermuda
Airport Authority totals $2 million, which represents a $500,000 decrease over the prior fiscal year. These
funds will be allocated to several ongoing key airport
infrastructure and Federal Aviation Administrationrelated projects, including, but not limited to
• Instrument Landing System (the ILS) r eplacem ent;
• AIS to AIM O rganisational Transition —which
is the acquisition of IT infrastructure required
for certification of the Authority as an air nav igation service provider;
• Bermuda Weather Service, AviMet equipment
upgrades and website development; and
• Immig ration E-Gates for the Airport T erminal
Building.
It is anticipated that a number of these capital
projects will be completed during a timespan covering
two or more fiscal periods.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the dedicated teams at the Ministry Headquarters and the A uthorities under the Ministry for their unwavering com-mitment to service during what will probably prove to
be one of the most challenging years for Bermuda in
recent history.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This concludes
Head 48, Ministry of Transport Headquarters.
I now move on to Head 30 —Marine and Ports
Services.

Continue on, Minister.

HEAD 30 —MARINE AND PORTS SERVICES
Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: As stated on page B -202
of the Budget Book, the mission of the Department of
Marine and Ports Services is the regulation and safe operations of Bermuda’s maritime affairs including
marine border security, search and rescue, and public transportation.

Expenditure Overview

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, the total
current expenditure for the Department of Marine and
Ports, Head 30, is estimated to be $19,572,000 which
represents a decrease of $2,090,000, or a decrease
of approximately 9.65 per cent, over the 2020/21
budget. The decrease was achieved through the d efunding of vaca nt funded posts, a decrease in the d epartment’s operating costs resulting in a modified ferry
schedule that was achievable in line with the budget
allocation.
The Marine and Ports Department’s services
expenditures are set out under the following three
business units and can be found on page B -202 of the
Budget Book:

3006 —West End (Dockyard) cost centres
• 40040—Navigational Aids, $678 ,000;
• 40140—Tug Service, $1, 673,000;


Bermuda House of Assembly • 40210—Tender Service, $377, 000;
• 40260—Dockyard Maintenance, $3, 259,000.

3007 —Central ( Hamilton) cost centres
• 40090—Ferry Services, $6 ,742,000;
• 40150— Mooring and Boat Registration,
$285,000; and
• 40220— Administration, $2,762,000.

3008 —East End (Fort George) cost centres
• 40100— Maritime Safety and Security,
$1,872,000; and,
• 40180— Pilot Service and Offshore Search
and Rescue, $ 1,924,000.

Revenue

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, it is antic ipated that in 2021/22 the Department of Marine and
Ports Services will generate approximately
$6,004,000. Keep in mind that these anticipated rev enues may be adjusted based on continued restrictions
in place due to the pandemic.
This will be realised primarily through fees
charged for the provisions of the following:
• ferry services ;
• tug services ;
• boat haulage;
• pilotage fees ;
• boat moorings ;
• port dues .

Capital Expenditure
Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Capital acquisition expenditure for the department, found on page C -13 of
the Budget Book, is set at $5,648,000. The sum of
$170,000 is set aside for navigational aids which represents a decrease of $80,000 below the budget of
2020/21.
The capital budget for the Vessel Traffic Management Information System is set at $270,000, which is a d ecrease (over the 2020/21 budget) of $80,000. A
new capital allocation is provided for fer ries in the
amount of $5,200,000 and r epresents funds for the
depar tment’s vessel refit as a replacement pr oject.
Also, $8,000 is allocated to the purchase of new computer equipment.

Manpower

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: The department’s full -time
equivalents [FTEs], found on page B -204 of the
Budget Book, have decreased from 161 to 148
through the defunding of vacant posts.


Performance Measures

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: The department’s performance measures, found on pages B -205 through B -
207 of the Budget Book, remain positive despite the
challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic
and continue meeting the targets set in line with international standards. Maintaining these levels continues
to be challenging with the rapidly ageing fleet that r equires extra maintenance. Nonetheless, the depar tment continues to work diligently to manage these processes and to ensure that the delivery of safe and
reliable services is maintained.
Mr. Chairman, the Department of Marine and
Port Services represents one of the most critical oper-ational arms of the Government of Bermuda as it faci litates the movement of vital shipping commerce in
and out of Bermuda’s ports. Shipping was greatly i mpacted by the coronavirus pandemic with the suspension of all cruise ship calls to Bermuda for the 2020
season, for a tot al 476 international shipping mov ements in Bermuda’s waters over the recorded year
end, representing a 52.9 per cent decrease in shi pping movements, a direct impact of the coronavirus
pandemic.
The services the department provides include
pilot boats, tug boats, tender services and the Berm uda Maritime Operation Centre. Additionally, the department is responsible for the coordination of international search and rescue operations in the region of
the North Atlantic, and retains oversight of overseas
seapor t security and marine border control in compl iance with international standards. During the 2020/21
fiscal year, the department responded to over 355
search and rescue cases assisting both ships and
aircraft, locally and internationally. Mr. Chairman, the
Sea Express ferry service —another service provided
by the department —represents a comfortable and
efficient means of public transportation supporting the
local commuter and visitor markets that was severely
impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. And today
ridership remains somewhat low with signs of slow
improvement.
Mr. Chairman, the Boats and Moorings section is located at the old Paget Post Office building
and continues to provide services to both recreational
and charter boats, including moorings alloca tions. In
the upcoming year this section will be closely monitoring the registration of use of moorings to ensure that
the principle of one boat to one mooring applies to all
boat owners. So if you own one boat but have multiple
moorings, please know that the Boats and Moorings
Section is clamping down.
Mr. Chairman, the 2021 cruise ship season is
somewhat difficult to predict. The start -up of scheduled cruise ship calls is fluid. It is anticipated that once
they do start up, it will be at 50 per cent pass enger
capac ity.
886 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Department of Marine & Ports continues
to work towards the IMO (Instrument Implementation
Code, otherwise known as III Code) review, addres sing all gaps identified by the UK Maritime & Coas tguard Agency (the MCA) including supporting l egislation for both port and coastal states. The audit date
continues to be pushed back because of the COVID -
19 pandemic and is now expected to take place in
May 2021.

Target Outcomes

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, the target
outcomes for Marine and Ports operations for 2021/22
are to continue delivering the required marine services in a timely and professional manner to ensure customer satisfaction, also observing restrictions put in
place as a result of the pandemic.

Major Policy Changes

Hon. W . Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, major policy
changes will be implemented based on the United
Kingdom’s Maritime & Coastguard Agency’s (MCA)
gap analysis undertaken ahead of the upcoming I nternational Maritime Organization’s (IMO) audit in May
2021. These areas of change will include oil pollution control, ferry operations, off -shore search and rescue,
and better control over the importation of dangerous goods through our ports, along with other areas ident ified in the gap analysis. All outlined areas of change
are fully supported by the new Marine and Ports Service Act 2021 legislation, in its final stages of coming into law.
Bermuda has made great progress in tackling
the identified issues highlighted in the MCA gap analysis and is currently well positione d to succeed in the
upcoming audit.

Plans for the Upcoming Year

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Plans for the upcoming
year will include the following:
• continued educational and training opportunities for departmental staff to international
standards (once the t ravel restrictions for
government business are relaxed) to ensure
the department provides our customers with
safe, reliable and professional marine transportation and service;
• continued progress with the department’s
succession planning to ensure that highly
technical posts within the department are filled
by qualified Bermudians;
• continue providing training for the tug captains
and engineers ahead of the new tugs coming
into full service, estimated to be in May 2021;
• continue with the [ refit] and replacem ent of the
department’s fleet of vessels ; • progress the renovation project of Marine and
Ports workshops scheduled to commence June 2021;
• continue repairs to our navigational aids and
offshore beacons;
• installation of a new user -friendly online boats
and moorings registration system scheduled
to go live the 1
st of April 2021; and
• review legislative amendments to assist with
the removal of abandoned, derelict boats
across Bermuda left behind by hurricanes.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the staff of
Marine and Ports Services for their expert search and
rescue and pilotage service, as well as for delivering
efficient, consistent and reliable ferry service.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This concludes the
brief for the D epartment of Marine and Ports Services,
Head 30.
I will now move on to Head 34, the Transport
Control Department.

Continue on, Minister.

HEAD 34 —TRANSPORT CONTROL DEPARTMENT

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, the budget
for Head 34, the Transport Control Department (TCD),
can be found on pages B -208 through B -211 of the
Budget Book. The Transport Control Department’s
mission is to assure the safety of all roads users. Mr.
Chairman, the Department of Transport Control administers the operation of all motor vehicles and road
users on Bermuda’s roads.
The department monitors and regulates the
sizes, functionality, roadworthiness, physical appear-ance and quantity of all vehicles by carrying out the
following activities:
1. oversees the management of the Vehicle
Safety and Emissions Inspection Programme;
2. administers the registration and licensing of all
vehicles;
3. conducts practical riding and driving examinations for all riders and drivers;
4. regulates traffic by monitoring drivers and v ehicles;
5. issues permits on behalf of the Minister for the
operation of commercial and public service vehicles; and
6. implements road safety initiatives.
Periodically, the department inspects public
garages, filling stations and rental mini -car and cycle
liveries to ensure compliance with the conditions of
their respective permits. The department also issues
special permits such as one- day permits, which allows
a person to use an unlicensed motor vehicle (usually
driven to be repaired or to go to the department for
inspection) ; and Sunday permits for commer cial veh icles.



Bermuda House of Assembly Department Overview

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: The Transport Control D epartment is divided into five separate business units:
• Registration
• Examinations
• Traffic Enforcement
• Road Safety
• Administration
The Registration Section is responsible f or
registering and licensing all vehicles, issuing driver’s
licences and other documents to all persons who operate vehicles, and collecting revenue for every transaction conducted by the department.
The Examinations Section conduct s all driving
and riding tests to ensure that applicants are proficient
at operat ing vehicles on Bermuda’s roads. The exa miners also inspect all vehicles that use public roads for
roadworthiness and carry out write -off procedures for
private motor cars prior to their disposal.
The Traffic Enforcement Section is respons ible for the enforcement of road traffic and motoring laws, issuing moving violation s and parking tickets,
issuing permits for the movement of oversized trailers
with heavy or wide loads, unlicensed vehicles and
occasional Sunday permits. This section also monitors
the electronic vehicle registration ( or EVR) system
and works alongside the Bermuda Police Service to
support its traffic enforcement efforts.
This section assist s the Public Service Veh icles Licensing Bo ard by conducting investigations on
its behalf and monitoring the use of public service and
commercial vehicles on our roads . The traffic enforcement officers are deployed on street patrols to ensure that all vehicles operating in Bermuda comply
with our legislation. They are also responsible for tic keting abandoned vehicles and coordinating with sister departments to arrange for their removal and disposal.
The Road Safety Section is administered
through the road safety officer. The programme pr omotes road safety awareness through education,
training and public events , for example, Project Ride
(which became mandatory in 2010) and Road Safety Week . This section works closely with t he Road Saf ety Council to advise the Transport Minister on matters
pertaining to road safety by helping to devise , implement and execute strategies and programmes designed to address trending motoring issues .
The Administration Section is responsible for
the overall operation and administration of the department and its three fac ilities —North Street, Rock away and Southside. This includes professional ser-vices for the management of the safety and emissions
programme, as well as external IT support for the
eTCD online programme, the driver and vehicle regi stration system (DVRS ), the appointment management
system (AMS) and the electronic vehicle registration
(EVR) system. All of these systems are critical to ensuring optimum customer service. Customers now can manage their appointments online through the AMS. And the department has pa rtnered with the four major
motor insurance providers for the real -time electronic
transfer of policy information to the department operating system.
Mr. Chairman, the TCD continues to impl ement and maintain an effective and convenient vehicle
examination and registration programme which is i ncreasingly more user -friendly. Customer interaction
with today’s Transport Control Department is less
bothersome than in previous years.

Expenditure Overview

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, the
Transport Contr ol Department’s budget allocation of
$4,496,335 for 2021/22 is a $954,390, or 17.5 per
cent, decrease over the allocation of 2020/21, and can
be found on page B -210. Under the General Summary
of expenditures per business units, you will find that the estim ates for 2021/22 for each business unit have
changed somewhat from the 2020/21 estimates. Al though the core allocation of funds has not varied much from last year’s budget, funds have been redi stributed to reflect the department’s changes more accurately i n the operational requirements.
Mr. Chairman, it should be noted that around
65 per cent, or $2,914,996, of the total budget of
$4,496,335 is allocated to salaries. Also, approximat ely $359,300, or 7.9 per cent, is allocated for professional services. Thi s includes IT support for the EVR,
eTCD, DVRS and AMS operating systems, all of which are critical to the department’s daily operations
and maintaining excellent customer service levels.
The remaining funds are used for general operating
expenses such as utilities, repair and the upkeep of
facilities and vehicles, printing, office supplies, and
boards and committee fees.

Examinations —Cost Centre 44000

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, the Exam inations Section’s estimated budget of $1,212,160 is a
very slight decrease of $13,644 over last year.

Registrations —Cost Centre 44040

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, the r equested budget for the Registration section is
$772,484 for the fiscal year 2021/22. This amount is a
decrease of $154,794, or 16.7 per cent, versus the
2020/21 budget. The decrease is a result of the defunding of two posts in the section.

Road Safety —Cost Centre 44090

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, safety on
our roads remains of paramount importance. The estimated budget for t his section has been downsized to
888 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly $165,000. This represents a decrease of $324,536, or
an approximate 66.3 per cent decrease, over the pr evious budget. Defunding the road safety officer post
and backfilling the section with another employee accomplished this decrease. The overall figure includes the Road Safety Council Plan in the amount of
$60,000, seen on page C -19 of the Budget Book, and
$90,000 to facilitate the Project Ride Programme.

Traffic Enforcement—Cost Centre 44110

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, the estimated budget for the Traffic Enforcement Section will be $470,458. This represents a decrease of $113,941, or
19.5 per cent, over last year’s budget. The allocated
funds for this section were reduced by defunding two
posts.

Administratio n—Cost Centre 44210

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, the estimated budget for the Administration Section will be
$1,876,231. This represents a decrease of $347,477
or just over 15.6 per cent. This decrease is partially
due to the defunding of four of this section’s posts.
Mr. Chairman, it is anticipated that in 2021/22
the department will collect $29,033,200 in revenue. This decrease is due in part to a decrease in issuance
of permits to operate commercial vehicles and the
subsequent loss in examinations, registration and l icensing fees attached to those vehicles. A notable
trend is that of larger businesses acquiring smaller,
similar businesses and either downsizing or eliminat-ing the acquired businesses’ vehicle fleets.
Mr. Chairman, an unfortunat e side effect of
the pandemic is the virtual freeze in transactions i nvolving public service vehicles.
Capital Expenditure, found on page C -10, Mr.
Chairman, $16,000 has been allocated to replace the driver’s licence printers in the Registration Section.
Human Resources, found on page B -210, the
2021/22 budget estimates include funds for 39 full -
time employees. The full complement of staff of this department is 48. Therefore, this number represents
the nine posts that were defunded to reach mandated
budg et targets.
Mr. Chairman, I take this opportunity to thank
the staff of the Transport Control Department for their
efforts in delivering a high level of customer service.
Mr. Chairman, the Transport Control Depar tment will continue to review and update t he Motor Car
Act 1951 and the Auxiliary Bicycles Act 1954 and their
auxiliary regulations, and submit recommendations for
amendments necessary to stay in touch with modern
modes of transportation and innovative vehicle tec hnology and designs. Any recommended changes to
legislation will always have the safety of all roads in
mind. The department will also continue in its efforts
to address the ongoing issues with the lack of avail a-bility of public service vehicles both at peak times and
during late nights and early mornings.
Mr. Chairman, the Bermuda Road Safety
Council will work in conjunction with the Road Safety
Officer to continue with the implementation of Oper ation Caution. The focus in the 2021/22 campaign will
be to utilise the media more to educate the motoring
public regarding methods to develop safe driving and
riding habits [and] practices on our roads. The goals
remain preventing collisions, lessening serious injuries
and decreasing road deaths.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes the
brief for the Transport Control Department, Head 34.
I now move to Head 35, Department of Public
Transportation.

Continue on.

HEAD 35 —DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC
TRANSPORTATION
Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, I would like
to present the budget f or Head 35, the Department of
Public Transportation, found on pages B -212 through
B-215 of the Budget Book. The Public Transportation
Department’s mission is moving Bermuda with a qual ity public bus service. Mr. Chairman, the total current
expenditure, page B -212 of the Budget Book, is est imated to be $19,532,000, which is $2,836,000 less
than the 2020/21 budget. The department has three
business units: transportation, maintenance and administration. The budget breakdown is as follows:

3501 —Transportation cost centre
• 45101— Bus Operations, $ 9,647,000.

3502 —Maintenance cost centres
• 45090—Repair Servic ing, $4,239,000;
• 45115—Inventory Management, $1,656,000.

3503 —Administration cost centres
• 45120— Administration, $3,241,000;
• 45200— Management Support, $749,000.
Mr. Chairman, the public bus service operates
18 hours per day, seven days per week. Additionally,
the school bus service operates on weekdays during
term time. The current account expenditure for Bus
Operations, cost centre 45010, is estimated at
$9,647,000 for 2021/22. This is a decrease of
$1,119,000, or 10.4 per cent less, than the prior year’s
budget.
Mr. Chairman, the department employs a
team of professionals in repair and servicing to mai ntain the fleet of public buses, support vehicles and
equipment. The current expenditure for Repair Servi cing, cost centre 45090, is estimated to be $4,239,000
for 2021/22. This is a decrease of $1,385,000, or
24.6 per cent less, than the prior year’s budget. Parts


Bermuda House of Assembly for vehicles and equipment are procured, stored , controlled and issued by the Storage Section, which falls
under Inventory Management. The current expenditure for Inventory Management, cost centre 45115, is
estimated to be $1,656,000 for 2021/22. This is a de-crease of $524,000, or 24 per cent less, than the prior
year’s budget.
The Administration Section is primarily r esponsible for developing the department strategies,
policies and procedures, ensuring that the people,
processes and resources are available to deliver a quality public bus service. The expenditure for Admi nistration, cost centre 45120, which accounts for sal aries, utilities and shared services, is estimated to be $3,241,000 for 2021/22. This is an increase of $337,000, or 11.6 per cent higher, than the prior
year’s budget due to the incr eased electricity costs for
fuelling the new electric buses. This is also offset by a
corresponding reduction in diesel fuel costs under
Repair Services.
The Management Support Team is respons ible for the selling and processing of bus and ferry
fares, and providing administrative services for accounts, procurement and human resources. The expenditure for Management Support is estimated to be
$749,000 for 2021/22. This is a decrease of $145,000,
or 16.2 per cent less, than the prior year’s budget. Mr.
Chair man, it is anticipated that in 2021/22, DPT [D epartment of Public Transportation] will generate ap-proximately $2,864,000 in revenue that will be a ttained primarily from bus and ferry fares.

Capital Expenditure

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, the c apital
acquisition estimate for the department, as seen on page C -14 of the Budget Book, totals $7,394,000.
This is primarily for the acquisition of new electric
buses consistent with the procurement strategy for
replenishment of the aged bus fleet. The ca pital
budget also includes implementation of a digital fare
media system that will facilitate app- based mobile
ticketing, contactless payment and real -time passenger information. The Digital Fare Media Project aims
to provide frictionless, convenient and s ecure access
to public transportation.
The automated bus washer is past its useful
service life. This will be replaced with a modern sy stem capable of washing the buses and large comme rcial vehicles.

Manpower

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, the total
complement of full -time equivalents in the new
2021/22 fiscal year is 207, as recorded on page B -214
of the Budget Book. This is 25 fewer full -time equiv alents, or 10.7 per cent less, than the 2020/21 budget.
The breakdown of FTEs by each section is as follows: Cost centre 45000 —Auxiliary Bus Service has
zero full -time equivalents, two less than the prior
year’s budget. This cost centre has been merged with
cost centre 45101—Bus Operations.
Bus Operations, cost centre 45010, has 142
full-time equivale nts, 15 fewer than the prior year’s
budget reflecting reduction in the number of funded
vacant posts.
Cost centre 45090 —Repair Servic ing has 45
full-time equivalents, five fewer than the prior year’s
budget [due to] the reduction in the number of funded
vacant posts.
Inventory Management, cost centre 45115,
has been allocated four full -time equivalents, which is
unchanged from the prior year’s budget.
The number of full -time equivalents for the
cost centre 45120, Administration, is four, one less than th e prior year’s budget due to the transfer to the
newly formed Department of Employee and Organis ational Development.
And Management Support, cost centre 45200,
has 12 full -time equivalents, a decrease of two funded
vacant posts.
Mr. Chairman, I take this opportunity to thank
the dedicated group of individuals for their efforts in delivering a safe public service to our residents.

Major Policy Changes

Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Mr. Chairman, the depar tment is focused on delivering a reliable public bus and
school bus service. To this end, it is replenishing the aged bus fleet, recruiting operations and maintenance
staff, and investing in new technologies. In 2020, with
the support of the Rocky Mountain Institute, the department concluded an RFP for the next generation of
buses. The department will introduce appropriately sized electric buses at significantly reduced cost while
also reducing fuel and emissions.
The department’s modernisation plan also
includes the introduction of digital fare media, real -
time passenger information and computer -aided di spatch.
Mr. Chairman, the Department of Public
Transportation is committed to moving Bermuda with a quality public bus service. To achieve this, the d epartment will implement initiatives that ensure reliabi lity and dependability, improve the passenger exper ience and enhance operations. The department has
concluded an exhaustive research and procurement
exercise for appropriately sized low -emissions buses
for Be rmuda and in 2021 will take delivery of its first
30 electric buses. To support this, charging infrastructure will be developed at the Fort Langton Bus Depot.
This initial order will provide meaningful replenishment
of the aged bus fleet and begin the transition to zero
emissions.
With the introduction of new technology, the
department is committed to technical leadership and
890 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly enhanced asset management. Continuing investment
will be made in the training, development and recrui tment of technicians and trades responsible for fleet
maintenance. The department wi ll establish a work
planning function and retool the Maintenance Section
to support the new generation of buses. Considerable
improvements are underway to the facilities and infr astructure.
The Department of Public Transportation aspires to be Bermuda’s preferred transportation sol ution. To achieve this, the department will focus on i mproving the passenger experience, both in person and through technology. The Ambassador Training pr ogramme will continue in 2021 for all frontline repr esentatives. The advanc ement of projects such as digital fare media and real -time passenger information will
improve access to the public bus service and provide
for a safe and consistent “ frictionless ” travel exper ience.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes the brief for the
Department of Public Transportation Services, Head 35. And, Mr. Chairman, in closing I would like give
special thanks to the Ministry’s Acting Permanent
Secretary, Jasmin Smith; the Director of the Depar tment of Marine and Port Services, Rudy Cann; the
Acting Direc tor of the Transport Control Department,
Terry Spencer; the Director of the Department of Public Transportation, Roger Todd; the Ministry’s Acting
Controller, Deanna Warren; and the Accounts Team
throughout the Ministry for their hard work during the
budget preparation process.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes the
brief for the Ministry of Transport.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And
thanks to the Minister for his very detailed present ation of the four relevant heads that touch on the Mini stry of Transportation, being the Transport Headquarters; Marine and Ports; TCD; and the Public Transpor-tation System more broadly, which includes of course
the very important issue to most members of the public, and that is the buses.
Mr. Chairman, I am grateful to the Minister for
his presentation. I did not have a copy of his brief , but
I have made notes. And so hopefully I will be able to
refer him back to certain points in his brief because some of the things that cropped up were items of additional interest above and beyond the cold, hard
numbers on the page. The first question t hat I have for
the Minister, or the first observations really, are overall
high-level observations relating to the Ministry of
Transport as a whole. And for the benefit of the
Chairman and the Minister and the listening audience,
I am in the Budget Book at page B -197. And these are
the overall numbers for all of the heads relating to the
Ministry, including the revenue numbers and the capital expenditure acquisition development numbers.
And so I just want to take an opportunity, and
with your leave, Mr. Chairman, what I propose to do is
to put all of the questions that I have in respect of one
of the four heads, and then allow the Minister to r espond, and then get along to the next head. Obvious-ly, other Members may wish to ask any questions they wish. But that is how I propose to deal with it, and I
hope that this is convenient so that we are not jum ping all around and so that the listening audience can follow thematically each of the four heads in the var ious categories. So I am not going to be asking questions about some TCD —

Okay. Well, Mr. Chairman, I am
happy to proceed on that basis. Nonetheless, I will do
it head by head to try to assist the listening audience so that we are not jumping around from TCD to ferries
to buses, et cetera. So at the moment, my observ ations and questions are targeted at page B -197 of the
Budget Book and to the overarching questions in rel ation to the Ministry of Transport.
The expenditure for the Ministry of Transport
last year was budgeted to be $88- odd million. And in
the end it was revised upwards to $101 million, or a lmost $102 million. S o it was $101,806,[000] as we
can see. So it was quite a large overrun budget -wise
last year. And the Minister has outlined in this budget
a very ambitious project to bring the costs down. And
we see that the budget estimate for next year,
2021/22, for all four heads collectively under the Mi nistry is a budget estimate of $59 million. So we are dropping down from $102 million to $59 million, and that is a gross differential of circa $43 million, or a pproximately 40 per cent.


Bermuda House of Assembly Now, to be fair, there is a ver y glaring reason
why we see a reduction of $43 million. Part of that is
of course the fact that this Ministry used to be the Mi nistry of Tourism and Transport, and the grant that is paid in respect of Transport to the BTA [Bermuda Tourism Authority] is now moved out of the Ministry.
And so my understanding, and hopefully the Minister
will correct me if I am wrong—but my understanding is
that half or roughly half of the $43 million reduction to
the Ministry’s budget for next year is reflective of the
grants to the BTA.
Now, my first question then for the Minister is
this: The grant to the BTA is found at page C -17 of the
Budget Book. And if one keeps a finger at B -197 but
turns [also] to page C -17, there we see Grants and
Contributions, generally in that sec tion of the Budget
Book. And because it has moved, if you look you see Cabinet Office departments. And there the second line
in at 6835 on page C -17 is the Tourism Authority
grant. And that is indicated to be $21.5 million, which
is a reduction from last y ear of $1 million. The grant
when it was previously under this Ministry last year
was, I understand, at $22,500,000. So it is a reduction
of $1 million. But nonetheless it explains, I think . . .
and again I would be grateful for confirmation from the
Minister. But it explains, I think, why this $43 million
reduction in the Tourism budget is in fact at least half explainable by the fact that the grant is shifted to the
Cabinet Office in respect to $21.5 million. So that is
my first overarching question.
Secondly, and related to that, Mr. Chairman,
during his brief I heard the Minister say (and this is from my note, as I do not have a copy of the brief), but it is my note. I heard the Minister say that this grant to
the BTA was in fact a figure of some $22,800,000
(and I did not get the precise numbers), but
$22,800,000. So I appreciate that this is a grant i nvolved now with another Ministry. But I would be
grateful if there is a clarification as to whether or not
the $21,500,000 figure on page C -17 is in err or and
we should substitute the number given by the Minister
in his presentation to the House this morning. Again,
that number . . . I thought I heard him say
$22,800,000- and-something and I did not get the rest
of the number. So that is my second question for the
Honourable Minister.
Turning back now from the Grants and Contributions at page C -17, back to page B -197, as I said
the general, broad, overarching theme here is a sub-stantial reduction in the Ministry budget. And again
just using round numbers t o keep it simple for people,
the differential between last year’s actual budget of
$102- odd million and the projected budget for next
year of $59- odd million is the $43 million cut. And as I
said, some element of that, approximately half, ap-pears to be the Tourism amount. And the balance appears to be something in the region of $22 million in
reductions of costs at the Ministry of Transport. And what I would be grateful for, my third
question for the Minister, is if he could speak to that a
little bit more specifically. One of the explanations gi ven during his brief to the House was that we were seeing a reduction because a number of funded but
vacant positions were being unfunded. And so I would
be grateful if perhaps the Minister could in broad
terms, in percentage terms identify, of the $22 million
budget cut that is leaving aside the BTA grant, of the
circa $22 million budget cut at Transport, what percentage of that $22 million is due to savings by de-funding of vacant posts? Again, I am not looking for a
precise number but just a broad, rough figure so that
we get a sense of whether or not the $22 million r eduction in the Transport Ministry’s budget is really just
because we recognise that there are vacant posts that
need not be funded, and what element is really a r eduction in services in other line items which we will
come to as we move through the heads next?
The Minister then in the context of this went
firstly to Head 48. And Head 48, Mr. Chairman, for
your benefit, is at page B -198 of the Budget Book.
And this head is directed exclusively to the Ministry of
Transport Headquarters. And it seems from the numbers, and I will go through specific line items in a m oment. But again just looking generally at Head 48, it
seems that this sort of rough $44 mil lion reduction
(again bearing in mind the grant in there), but it is a
reduction that is largely occurring under this particular
Head 48 rather than occurring so much in the other
heads, in Marine and Ports, TCD and the Public
Transportation Services.
So I am assuming, without knowing the answer, that the lion’s share of the circa $22 million in reductions is related to unfunded (or defunding) of
vacant posts. But I would be grateful for that clarific ation, and if the Minister could kindly put a little bit of
meat on the bones there. He did touch on this, as I
said, in his brief. But if he could put a little bit more meat on the bones there, I would be grateful.
The Minister then turned in the context of
Head 48 to the Bermuda Aviation Authority. And he took us to page . . . again, keep one finger at page B -
198 and we will come back there. But he took us to C -
19. And again this is back to the C section, and this is dealing under Schedule 1 with Grants and Contributions. And if we look at page C -19, you see at the bottom of the page are the sections on Grants and Co ntributions for the Ministry of Transport. And I will come back to this, but specifically at this point in his brief the
Minister took us to line item 7099, which is one of the grants and contribut ions under the Ministry of
Transport Headquarters, which again is Head 48. And
we see there the Bermuda Airport Authority [BAA].
And what is interesting there is the grant from
two years ago was $16.5 -odd million. And the est imated grant for last year was $14.5- odd million. And
then we see that this was revised up to $35.5 million.
And now we are at $14,700,000. Now, the Minister in
892 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly his brief to the House said that there was a $17 million
. . . I did not get the specific numbers, but it was
roughly a $17 m illion figure, which is primarily due to a
downturn in flights due to COVID -19. He talked about
in general the minimum revenue guarantee. Then he
went on to talk about the headcount. And I believe,
again working from my notes, that he said that there
were 47 employees at staff at the BAA. And my questions on this point, on 7099, are whether or not they
are all paid out of the grant. I would assume them to
be. And I did not find other figures for salaries els ewhere. But I would be grateful for the clarificat ion. I
think (without knowing) that the $14.7 million grant
covers those employees.
And secondly, and related to that, if the Mini ster could just speak briefly to his vision for the BAA.
He mentioned that a document was tabled. I would be
grateful to know to what extent he sees the BAA getting bigger, getting smaller. I would be grateful to have
an idea broadly as to whether the 47 employees is
consistent with headcount at the BAA for the last few years. And more importantly than looking backwards,
looking forwards, how did the Honourable Minister,
now that he is firmly in the chair for Transport and gi ven his own personal involvement with the BAA and his involvement out there at the airport, what is his view
for that Authority and how it will function?
So turning back then from page C -19 and the
Bermuda Airport Authority Grant, the Minister took us more specifically to Head 48, page B -198. And first of
all, he actually touched very lightly on the objectives,
although I have some questions. And then he took us
to the general summary and then the subjective analysis. So I will deal with those in turn. Starting first with
the departmental objectives (this is page B -198) I
think it would be helpful to hear from the Minister.
Again, we do not need to dive down deep into
detail. But I think it would be very helpful to hear from the Minister. Given that the Ministry of Transport has
three overarching objectives stated in the department
objectives, it would be helpful to hear from the Mini ster a little bit more about where those stand and how
he sees them progressing in the coming year.
Now again for the benefit of those who do not
have a Budget Book in front of them, those depar tmental objectives, there are three, and they are ident ified as being priority objectiv es. And those three pr iority objectives in the Ministry are these:
1. Support delivery of an air services deve lopment plan for Bermuda. So there is an air services
development plan, and I absolutely understand why
that would be a priority objective of the Ministry (in
Head 48).
2. The second one in the box at page B -198 is
to improve reliability of marine and land- based
transport services through planned infrastructure up-grades. So the second priority objective identified by
the Ministry are planned infrastructure upgrades which
relate both to marine and land- based transport. Now, we did hear from the Minister in his brief about the 30
ferries [sic], and I will come on to that . . . sorry, I
misspoke, the 30 buses. And I will come on to that.
And we also heard about the new ferries, and I will
come on to that. But just on the infrastructure up-grades, one thinks of infrastructure not only as the
vehicles themselves, but as the general infrastructure
more broadly —the plant, the materials, the roads, et
cetera. And so I think the listening public and certainly
I would be grateful to hear about the number -two pr iority objective in a little bit more detail beyond simply
the purchases of the new materials, although I will come to the new material purchases.
And s o if the Minister could address this,
again, only the high level, what are the planned infr astructure upgrades. How does he see them being d eveloped and over what timeframe? And where does
he see this going? Because I think it is a matter of
particular imp ortance not only to the House, but more
importantly to the general public.
3. Mr. Chairman, the third priority objective at
page B -198 of Head 48, the Ministry of Transport HQ,
the third and final priority objective is to transform transport ferry media s o that it is frictionless and cas hless. And with this third priority objective I absolutely
understand that. It is a wonderful opportunity. Tec hnology presents us with the wonderful opportunity, and we see it in our everyday lives where, you know, all the ways in which we move around are made eas ier, where you have frictionless and cashless access
to transport. And you have a pass that you touch to a
machine, and it reads it. You do not have to deal with cash or coins or tokens, et cetera.
And this is obvi ously an area where Bermuda,
like anywhere else in the world, can benefit. One can
just compare the old process of where one used to
have to go into a bank and go to the teller and wait in a line and take the money out. And now we all just go
to an ATM mac hine when one needs to try to get access to cash. Likewise, for those of us and many,
many Bermudians do and have, prior to COVID -19,
travel led to other places, and you get on some of
these public transport systems, you know, you have a digitised card. You touch it on a display. It reads the
card, it lets you in. It deducts the cost of travel. You
are able to upgrade it so you are not carrying around
little pieces of paper that then get thrown away.
And I know that this is something about which
the Ministe r has been quite passionate. He has spoken to it in the past. But I think it would be beneficial to
hear a little bit more about how that is progressing and what is the plan for frictionless and cashless transport.
Given that this is one of the three prior ity objectives of
the department, it would be nice to hear a little bit
more about that, again at a high level.
Going back one to the previous infrastructure
upgrades, the planned previous infrastructure up-grades, I wonder if there is a written plan for t hat and


Bermuda House of Assembly if so whether that is something that the Minister can
talk to as well?
So still, Mr. Chairman, under Head 48, the
Ministry of Transport Headquarters, and still on page
B-198 for those following in the Budget Book, let me
now move to the General Summary of Expenditure.
Now, looking at this box, there are three business
units. There is 58000 —Administration , and below that
58010—Transportation Planning Team , and below
that, 58020—Regulatory and Poli/Hotel Admin. Now,
the Minister spoke to the first two. H e spoke to Admi nistration and he spoke to the Transportation Planning
Team. Unless I missed it, I did not hear him speak to
cost centre 58020, which is, as I say, the Regulatory
and Poli/Hotel Admin. And if we look at the numbers there, we see that the budget amount last year was
$381,000, which is revised downwards to $328,000.
And if we see the estimate for this budget year coming, 2021/22, we see a nil figure; it is zero.
And so I anticipate that this is because this
business unit has moved or is moving. I anticipate that
it is because it is moving to fall under the overall umbrella remit of the BTA [Bermuda Tourism Authority].
That said, I do have some specific questions for the
Minister. One is if he can identify with greater spec ificity what it is tha t these people do? If one keeps a
finger at page B -198, Mr. Chairman, and flips over the
page to B -200 you see there (still under Head 48)
employee numbers, full -time equivalents. And you see
those three business units that I was just discussing, 58000— Administration, 58010—Transportation Planning Team and 58020 —Regulatory and Poli/Hotel
Admin.
And you see at the end of last year under the
revised figures that there were eight employees, and
there were four in the Regulatory and Poli/Hotel A dmin line busin ess unit. And then if you look at the
budgeted items and the shaded elements to the right,
you see that they have disappeared and the employee
headcount is reduced from eight to four. And so going
back with that information back to page B -198 and
looking at the budget change to zero, could the Mini ster please give us a little bit more information about
what this business item is? I anticipate it has to do
with hotel inspections for regulatory purposes. But I
would be grateful for clarification on that.
And once he has identified what it is and what
those four individuals are doing, if he could then just
clarify whether this is moving to the BTA, which is my
best guess (but I may be wrong), or if it is moving to
somewhere else or if it is ceasing entirely. I t may be
that these were funded but vacant posts and that they
are now disappearing. But again I do not know, and it
is not really possible to tell from the numbers. And it
was not something that I heard the Minister address in
his brief. And so if he coul d address that, I would be
extremely grateful.
Mr. Chairman, still under Head 48, which is
the Ministry of Transport HQ, if we could now turn our attention to page B -199 where we see at the top box
the Subjective Analysis of Current Account Estimates. And this is where we dig a little deeper into the numbers and how we get to the $15.5 million estimate for next year. I have a couple of questions for the Minister arising from that box. And they are these: Firstly, on
the line item of Salaries, if we look at Salaries for two
years ago, actual salaries were $1.3 million. I note
that they then fell in last year’s budgeted number to
$769,000. I suspect (without knowing) that this
change was owing to someone moving to the BTA or something similar. But if the Mini ster could clarify.
More importantly, that number was then r evised down for last year’s revised numbers. And it has been revised substantially down for this year’s bud geted numbers. So we see an original budget number of $770,000. That dropped to $725,000- odd in terms
of a revised figure for last year. And this year’s bud geted number is $399,000. So that is a difference of
approximately $370,000 versus the original. And it
would be helpful to know where that cost savings is
coming in. I anticipate (without knowing) that it might
be part of the fact that there were funded but vacant
posts. And that may well be the answer. But again if
the Minister could speak to that lightly and at a high
level just to explain whether that is the reason for the
substantial r eduction in salaries at the Ministry of
Transport Headquarters?
It may also be that this is explained by the
business unit that we were talking about a moment
ago, the Poli/Hotel Admin business unit, moving. And
that may explain it. But again if the Minis ter could
kindly just explain where those savings are coming
from and why.
Mr. Chairman, still in the same box at page B -
199 under the Ministry of Transport Headquarters,
Head 48, if we could jog down a few lines to Travel.
Now, travel two years ago pre- COVID -19 was
$52,000. And then in that budgeted year, [which]
again would have been pre -COVID -19, travel was anticipated to be $104,000. Now, [with] the event (we did
have COVID -19 as we all know) and the Travel budget appears to have been only $3,000 which is a
marked reduction. And presumably the answer to that
is whoever was going to travel, wherever they were going to travel, they did not travel. And the $104,000
did not get spent. But I would be grateful [for an answer].
My next question: If the Minist er could address what $104,000 travel budget was for originally?
Because it is slightly difficult to know why the Ministry of Transport Headquarters would need a travel budget
of that level, that substantial level. And so if he could
clarify what that trav el was , it may well have been that
the Minister’s own travel budget comes out of that
number , I do not know . But if he could just identify ,
perhaps there were people going to some sort of trai ning session abroad or something. But it does seem like a lot of money in this particular context.
894 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: Shadow Minister.

Mr. Chairman, I am grateful for
the intervention and clarification. It may well be that
that was related to BTA. And one can easily (or far
more easily) understand why people in Tourism -
related roles would need to travel. I fully accept that. It
is not a criticism; it is just a question. And I just was
trying to get to the bottom of it.
And to be fair, Mr. Chairman, if one jogs one’s
eye two columns over and you see the projected budget for Travel for Transport for this coming budget
year, you see that it is $38,000. And it may well be, as
you say, that the difference there is people over t o
Tourism for travel. And again perhaps we can just
have clarity on that from the Minister.
So, Mr. Chairman, thank you for the intervention.
Then still at the same box, still at page B -199,
if we go down from Travel and skip down two lines, we get to Pr ofessional Services. And Professional
Services budgeted for last year, you see in the second
column is $211,000. And that was revised upwards to
$239,000. And for the budgeted estimate for this year,
it has been revised upwards again to $281,000. So
compar ing last year’s budget figures with this year’s
budgeted figures, that is an increase of some $70,000 for Professional Services. Again that seems like a
large increase in Professional Services. But no doubt
there is an explanation for it, and if the Minist er could
kindly share with the House what that explanation
may be?
Going down further still in the same box, still
at page B -199, if we go down we see Rentals. We see
Repair and Maintenance. We see Repair and Maint enance, then we see Energy, and then we s ee Mater ials and Supplies. Now, that number was the actual number or revised number of $12,000, and that is
more than doubling this year. And I am just curious as
to what the reason for that double or more than do uble [amount] is. It may well be . . . I am sure that there
is some explanation there, but I would be grateful for
an explanation.
Grants and Contributions then appear below.
And we already looked a little bit at Grants and Con-tributions. The Grants and Contributions are at page
C-19. And we have already addressed . . . it is at the bottom of the page under the heading of Transport on
page C -19. We were talking earlier about some of the
line items here under the Ministry of Transport Headquarters. I have already posed a question about the
different ial on line item 6835 —Tourism Authority
Grants. And we have already discussed two items
below, 7099— the Bermuda Airport Authority grant,
and I posed questions on staffing and indeed the Mi nister’s outlook for the BAA more broadly.
Mr. Chairman, there is a line item grant close
to your heart, I am sure, right above that, which is
7092. And it is the grant for the golf courses. And I am
not trying to get you on- side; I know that you are now
a Member of the Government and I a Member of the
Opposition. But, Mr . Chairman, it might raise an ey ebrow there to see that the pre- COVID -19 number was
$301,000. Now, of course that went to nil for last year, although there then is $47,000. But we get over to the
right, at nil. I do not know if that is because this is
movi ng, and you may know this, Mr. Chairman. As I
say, it is a matter very close to your heart, golf. But I
would just be grateful to know if we are effectively eliminating that grant or if the grant is moving som ewhere else, so is that why it comes as a zero line
item?
Below that we see the 7099— World Triathlon
Series. That has come to an end, and that is a Tourism matter. And I believe I recall that having been di scussed during the Tourism discussion in debate on
either Friday or last Wednesday, whichever da y it
was. And then we have Cup Match grants, et cetera,
and those are all now nil items.
So turning back to page B -199 and we were
up at the top box on your Subjective Analysis of Cur-rent Account Estimates. And we were on Grants and
Contributions. But we have just seen now, I think, why
the grants and contributions are diminishing so sub-stantially. Last year they were budgeted $37.5 million.
They were revised upwards to $50.5 million. And now they are budgeted for $14.7 million. And of course we
have already identified that one of those is the BTA
grant, which is a substantial grant which has now
moved. But can the Minister address the ot her issues
on those grants? As I say, it may well be that given that Tourism and Transport were together, now t hat
they are separated, those grants have gone els ewhere.
Turning next, Mr. Chairman, we are still on
page B -199. And we are on the Revenue Summary.
And the important thing here, I think . . . there are four
line items. But really, the one that is big her e is the
Cruise Ships. It was a devastating impact to our
budgeting process, to our economy to lose the cruise
ships for COVID -19. And it is something that has hit
us very, very hard.
I would be grateful to hear a little bit more
from the Minister as to his plans for resurrecting the
cruise ship industry to Bermuda. He touched on it a
little bit in his brief to the House, but this is going to be


Bermuda House of Assembly a tricky situation. We have the global situation as to
whether or not people are going to be comfortable
getting back on the cruise ships. Obviously, immunisations will impact on that. My understanding through
reading and conversations is that there has been a marked slashing of prices for the cruise ship industry
so that this is trying to attract people back onto c ruise
ships. But cruise ships are something that contribute a
significant amount to our economy. And so it would be
helpful to the public to hear from the Minister as to
how he sees that going, not only in the next 12- month
budget period, although specific ally that is what we
are talking about today, but more broadly? And
whether he feels cautiously optimistic or whether he is
concerned or whether he is bullish on a return to the cruise ships?
During his brief, Mr. Chairman, the Minister
spoke of the number of ship movements that occurred
last year. And he identified that there were 476 ship
movements. I do not know (perhaps I should, and I
will need to find out) whether ship movement is count-ed twice in the sense that a ship arrives carrying
goods and pull s into Hamilton Harbour, and it unloads
the goods and then turns around and leaves, whether
that counts as one ship movement or two. But I would
be grateful to know whether or not the 476 figure
means that half of that number is in fact the total number of ships that came into Bermuda last year in
the absence of our cruise ships.
The revenue summary shows a portion of this,
although only a small portion. It indicates the cruise
casino licences. And we see that two years ago that
was $925,000, although it i s multiple millions if you
include all of the berthing fees. I will see if I can find
that for after lunch in the back of the book as to the
amount of money that comes in from the cruise ships
more broadly. But it is certainly multiple millions. But
just on page B -199, line item 8521, you know, we can
see the impact that has happened here by reason of the decrease in the cruise ship arrivals. That two
years ago there were casino licensing fees of
$925,000 and that was the budgeted fee; less for last
budget year, $615,000. And in the event it was zero,
and it will be zero, or it is projected to be zero, rather,
going forward because of the absence of the cruise
ships.
But I do have a specific question there from
the difference between the actual of 2019/20, the first
column under [cost centre] 8521 and the budgeted number of $615,000, because of course both of those
numbers would have been pre- COVID -19. And so I
was not aware of any significant downturn in cruise
ship arrival intentions. Perhaps that is my failure not to
have known about that. But perhaps the Minister can
explain. Or was it merely that the cruise ships that
were coming for 2021 were those without casinos? Or is there a specific explanation? But I would be grateful
to know why there was almost a one- third drop, albeit projected, between those two years? So that would be
very helpful.
We also see that Hotel Licences (that is the
line item immediately above that line item), Mr. Chai rman. Again, I am on page B -199, and line item 8513
is Hotel Lice nces. Now again I suspect the answer for
this—
Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: Point of information, Mr.
Chairman.

Oh, yes. Okay. No problem. I am
happy to soldier on. Thank you, Minister.
Turning over the page to B -200, we are still
under Head 48 and this is now the employee numbers. And this was a question that I posed in respect
of the business unit Regulatory and Poli/Hotel Admin,
58020. And it may well be that that is the answer to that question, but I would be grateful for the answer.

[Pause]

Just for a few seconds. You might
want to repeat what you said.
896 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Scott Pearman: I will repeat it. I am grateful, Mr.
Chairman.
So what I was observing was, I was at page
B-200. And the third line item there is 58020—
Regulatory and Poli/Hotel Admin. And when we had
been discussing it at page B -198, that business unit, I
posed certain questions. But you see the headcount
drop. And again it may well be that they have now
moved over to the Cabinet Office, and no doubt the
Minister can answer that when he chooses to answer
these questions.
Mr. Chairman, if we then move on to Performance Measures, and again perhaps I am posing
questions when the answers are obvious. But the only
performance measures that are provided for the Mi nistry of Transport HQ are for the hotel inspectors. So I
anticipate the answer for the reason, if we look at page B -201, we look at the right end, the Targeted
Outcome, we see they are all discontinued. So I anti cipate for the hotel inspectors that that will move somewhere, and no doubt the Minister can clarify where. And then thos e measurables will appear there.
But more broadly on the topic of performance
measures, I would be grateful to hear from the Mini ster whether he intends to put in performance
measures for the remaining workforce in the Ministry
of Transport Headquarters, Head 48, for line items
58000— Administration and 58010 —Transportation
Planning Team, and whether or not that is something that he has on his to- do list for next year’s budget, if
we will see some performance measures for the r emaining elements of the workf orce?
Mr. Chairman, give me one second. I am just
going to check my notes from the presentation that
was made on this Head.

Absolutely. I am sure that there
may be questions not only from our side, but some
questions for the Minister from the Government side.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are now moving on to the second of the
four Heads, which is Head 30—Marine and Ports. And this is at page B -202 of the Budget Book. And the d epartment objectives are here identified. And it will help to just quickly trot through them, although I only have questions on two of them.
But they are to provide a required regulatory
oversight for Bermuda’s maritime affairs in compliance with international conventions, that is one; to impl ement phase 1 of the Transport Infrastructure Capital Spend Plan, that is two (and I will come back to that, the Transport Infrastructure Capital Spend Plan); the
third is to implement a pilot fare media system (and I
will come back to that one as well); then a noble one,
to improve customer satisfaction (always a good goal
for any government); and then the next one is to i mprove risk management to satisfy compliance with
international standards (and I do have a question on
that as well, in fact); and then to develop staff training
in accordance with international standards and to mi tigate departmental risk.
So if we come back to page B -202, but it was
here that the Minister took us to his announcement
about the new ferries. And he took us to Budget Book
page C -13. And once you are there, Mr. Chairman, at
the bottom of the page you see the heading Ministry
of Transport, you see Ministry of Transport HQ where
we see the automatic passenger counter that the Mi nister spoke to. And then down under Marine and Ports
next, you see four line items. You see Navigation Aids
at 76083, VTMS system at 76294, and New Ferries
(and that is the big news) at 76540, and then Computer Equipment at 76845. And I believe the Minister
spoke—no, I think he spoke to the computer equi pment going into TCD rather than this one. Yes, that is right. It was the new printer.
So my questions for the Minister arise under
cost centre 76540. The Minister during his brief to the
House indicated that some $5.2 million would be spent on new ferries. And I think what we would be
grateful to know from the Minister is just a little bit
more information about t hat. Could the Minister kindly
explain firstly, how many new ferries? Could he kindly
explain whether they have been ordered or whether
they are to be ordered? Could he kindly explain whether they will be new or used, which are being
purchased? Could he ex plain when he anticipates
they may arrive in Bermuda? Can he explain whether
or not, as and when they are put into use, where he
envisages those routes to be? Can he give us a little
more detail on the ferries, whether they are fast ferries or whether they are Hamilton Harbour smaller -sized
ferries that will be capable of berthing at some of the
smaller ferry port terminals? And can he indicate
whether there will be an intention to decommission
any of our existing ferries as a result of the new ferries
purchased?
Obviously, this is big news and welcome
news. And so it would be very helpful to just —I give


Bermuda House of Assembly the Minister the floor and he can crow about this initi ative. But if he could give us some more details around
it because I think it is obviously a matter of significant
public importance and, as I say, will be welcome news in many quarters.
Turning back from the Capital Acquisitions
page C -13 where we saw line item 76540, the New
Ferries, we will go back to Head 30— Marine and
Ports, the Current Account Est imates page, page B -
202. And you will remember, Mr. Chairman, before we diverted to the new ferry purchase I was just going through the departmental objectives. And I have a few
questions that arise from those objectives. Again having seen it as one of the three priority objectives,
overarching priority objectives for the Ministry, we see
the second bullet point in the Department Objectives
box at the top of the page is the Transport Infrastructure Capital Spend Plan.
My first question is, To what extent are the
planned infrastructure upgrades . . . is there a plan around that? And is that the same as or different from the Capital Spend Plan? So there is one that deals
with the plan and the infrastructure upgrade and is
there one that deals with the spending? And if the
Minister could give us a little bit more information
about that and share again his thoughts and ambitions
for the coming 12- month budget period and also further on into the future, that would be very helpful.
The line item immediately below that . . . sorry. I will just pause for a second, Mr. Chairman.

[Pause]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, when we paused we were o n
page B -202 under Head 30—Marine and Ports, and I
was in the Department Objectives box. And I was just
moving from the Transport Infrastructure Capital
Spend Plan and the questions that I have already
posed on that to the next bullet point item, which is to
implement a pilot fare media system. So I would be grateful to hear a little bit more about that. Presumably
that is tied into one of the Ministry’s three priority ob-jectives that we discussed earlier at page B -198,
where we talked about to transform the transport fare
media so it is frictionless and cashless.
But I would be grateful to know how that is
connected in with the pilot fare media system, where that fits? And I do not know why it is a pilot fare. But
perhaps the Minister can elaborate upon th at. Again what would be useful, I suspect, for the public to know
is how the current system works, what the new system
is that he intends to implement, how that is likely to
work and how will that help to improve customer sati sfaction and convenience?
I do not think we need to get too technical
about it. But it would be nice to know what system is
being implemented, if a system has been decided upon. And if it has not been decided upon, what the Mi nister is considering, when he may take those dec isions, an d of course the deployment and implement ation of any system that is embarked upon. I mean, I
know that this is something that the Minister has
talked about previously, but I would be grateful and I
think the public would be grateful to learn a bit more
about what the Ministry’s plans are.
Again, this is something that I would commend the Ministry on. It is the way of the future, and to welcome these technologies to make people’s lives
easier is no bad thing. Obviously there is the question
of cost in a tim e when we are in economic dire straits.
But it would be useful to know what is envisaged and
the cost around that.
Moving down from that line item under D epartment Objectives to the line item two below, which is to improve risk management to satisfy compl iance
within the national standards, the Minister will be well aware of the recent incident with the ferry driver. And the Minister was asked to comment by the media, as
was I, about the judicial criticisms or complaints or
frustrations about the inability or perceived inability to
charge that driver and to take away that person’s operating licence. I know the Minister has commented
on that publicly. But it would be useful to hear what
the Minister’s plans are to try to improve risk management in that area and whether or not he has any
specific decision he has taken for any specific legisl ative changes he wishes to implement in respect to
that.
Mr. Chairman, moving then from the Depar tment Objectives down to the Current Account Est imate General Summary, whi ch is the box at the bottom of page B -202, we see the expenditure— we will
come to revenue after this, but we see the expend iture for the various business units. And those are d ivided out into three separate sections. We have 3006,
which is the West End Doc kyard. We have 3007,
which is Central Hamilton Office. And there is the Ferry Service there that we will come to in a minute. And
then the third is 3008, which is the East End Fort
George.
So looking first, Mr. Chairman . . . Mr. Chai rman, I have lost you. Has everyone else lost the
Chairman?

I see. I see. Good. Well, I can
see you again.
Mr. Chairman, I was at page B -202. I was in
the General Summary box at the bottom on the left.
And I was under heading 3006 —the West End Doc kyard. And my fir st question arises from line item
40040—Navigational Aids. And this was an item that the Minister spoke to in his brief.

[No audio 02:11:22 to 02:11:32]

And the question that I have
here is if you look at again 40040—Navigational Aids,
[if] you look at the expenditure from two years ago,
[then] you look at this, the budget increased from last year. You look at the decrease from $751[,000] down
to $541[,000], now this is entirely Transport -related. It
is not Tourism -related. So I anticipate that any questions here will have specific reasons and answers that
have nothing to do with Tourism moving.
But you see it decreases from $751,000 down
to $541,000 on navigational aids. So I would be grat eful to hear from the Minister the reason for t hat. As I
understand it and I recognise that those assisting the Minister will have a far greater appreciation of these things than I will, but navigational aids are health and
safety . . . well, not health, but safety issues. And so I
would just be gratef ul to know the reason for the
downturn between the original budget of last year and
the actual.
And then the differential between last year’s
actual and this year’s projected of $678,000. So I
would be grateful to know from the Minister why it
went down. Perhaps it was because fewer people
were able to get out during COVID -19 to maintain
these things; I am not sure. Perhaps it is that they do
not cost as much as they are not being used as much.
Again I am not sure. But it would be useful to have an underst anding around that. And I am grateful to know
secondly and separately why it is going back up again against last year’s actual of $541,000, why it is going back up to $678,000. But there was going to be i ncreased . . .
Moving on to the next line item, Mr. Chairman,
40140. This is the Tug Service. We see the actuals of two years ago at $1.7 [million]. We see the revised $1.3 [million] for last year. So it was actually cheaper
last year than anticipated. I anticipate that that reduction is owing to the decreased number of arrivals and
therefore the decreased requirement for the tugs to be
used. But I would be interested to know that because
it was interesting that the ship movements number, as I say, was 476. And I do not know whether that is
counting a ship twice that comes in and goes out. But
it would be nice to know how that contrasts with prev ious years, leaving aside the cruise ship numbers, just to see whether there was a downtown in other noncruise -ship ships’ arrivals as well.
The next item that I w ould like to ask about is
two more down, under 40260, which is Dockyard
Maintenance. Now, this has gone up. It was two years
ago that it was $2.58 million. And the budget was then
increased for last year to $3.38 million. Almost all of that was in fact then used under the revised number,
$3.1 million, so a little bit less in actual than in antic ipated. But the budgeted figure is $3.2 million. So I do
not know if that is just the year -on-year annual
maintenance costs for the Dockyard, or if there are specifi c reasons for that. But we would be grateful to
hear from the Minister about that and about the
maintenance.
The next item is just below on 40997 —
National Health Emergency. And we would be grateful
for some clarity from the Minister about that item. It
was zero two years ago, anticipated to be zero last
year and then went up by $55,000, and now it is pr ojected to be zero. But if we could just have an expl anation broadly at a high level from the Minister as to what that line item 40997 is and what it is int ended to
achieve, and why it was called into need last year,
whether that was COVID -19 related or otherwise, and
why having been used last year it is not anticipated to
be used this year?
Mr. Chairman, the next unit is Central Hami lton Office under cost c entre 3007. I am still at page B -
202. And the next item is the Ferry Service. The Ferry
Service is line item 40090, and the actuals from two
years ago were $7.32 million. That was projected to
go up last year. Again that budget estimate will likely
have be en struck before COVID -19 became the harsh
reality that it was, and in the event the actual revised figure was $1 million less. So it went from $7.9 million down to $6.9 million. I anticipate (without knowing)
that this was due to a reduction in the use of ferries by
passengers or indeed to the period of time where the
ferry service may not have been operational during
the COVID -19 shutdown. But I would be grateful to
hear from the Minister as to why there was a $1 mi llion difference between the original of last year and
the revised.


Bermuda House of Assembly And separately and secondly, the budgeted
number of $6.7 million. It does seem odd that where
we had a budgeted figure last year of $7.9 and there
was a reduction to $6.9, which is probably attributable
to COVID -19, although I wait for that answer, it does
seem odd to think that we are going to go down further to $6.7 million. And so I would be curious to hear
why the Minister thinks that the ferry service will have
a lesser cost next year when one would have thought,
as a matter of logic, that there would be greater use of
the ferry service now that we have immunisations do-ing so well on the Island and the likelihood of an i ncrease of tourist arrivals in the next 12 months, and
the fact that one would have expected as a matter of
common sense more people to be on the ferries next year than last year.
So I am just wondering if there is something I
am missing there, if there is something obvious that I
am missing or overlooking, or whether or not the Mi nister feels that $6.7 milli on is a sustainable figure, or if
it is just a budgeted figure which will then have to be
overspent?
I am moving on next to Moorings and Boat
Registrations, Mr. Chairman. I have a number of
ques tions there.
I wonder if this would be a good point to
pause?

—and we were talki ng about
Dockyard Maintenance and then I posed some questions on the National Health Emergency, 40997.
And while we are up in Dockyard, a further
question is, I know that there had been a plan to move the Marine and Ports Maintenance area closer to
Cross I sland and I was just wondering if the Minister
could clarify if that is still happening. I do not see a
budgeted item for it. It may well be that that is Public
Works rather than the Ministry of Transportation, but if
the Minister could kindly address that question in brief.

The next topic on the order is,
again, we are [page] B -202, we are in the Current A ccount Estimates General Summary box at the bottom
and moving now to the Ferry Service. If you look at
the Fer ry Service, two years ago we had actuals of
$7.3 million. Last year we had a budget amount of
$7.9 million and then we had a drop in [the amount of]
a million dollars for the revision, which I would pr esume without knowing, was owing to a decrease in
ferry use or possibly a decrease in ferry operations
entirely during the COVID -19 shutdown and reduced
activity period.
I am curious to see that the budgeted item for
next year is $6.7 million. Again, I am at 40090, Ferry
Service, and I am under the budget est imate in the
shaded column. And I am just wondering if the Mini s900 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ter could give us a bit of information around that and
around the Ministry’s projections for Ferry Service
use. The Minister, in his brief to the House, indicated
the purchases of the new ferr ies and I have already
posed questions on that and we have gone to the acquisitions section. It is interesting to see that the
budgeted sum for the next 12 months is the same for
the COVID -19 use period. And I wonder why that is. Is
the Ministry taking the view that there will not be an
increase in use? Or is there going to be a decrease in
routes or activity? If the Minister could just address that point, that would be useful.
The moorings issue . . . this was something
the Minister spoke to in his brief, and I know that he
said that one of the things in the upcoming year was to closely monitor the registration and use of moorings
to ensure that there was one boat per mooring. And I
am just wondering if we can have an update on how
that is progressing beca use I know that was an initi ative of the previous Minister as well and it would be
nice to know whether that is something that is now coming together.
I note that the budgeted sums for Mooring &
Boat Registration look about the same. This is, again,
in the General Summary of the Current Account Est imates under business unit 3007 and, more specifically, under the Mooring & Boat Registration at 40150. And if we look at those numbers, they appear to be
much the same, which is consistent because, of
course, the registration process, even if it were d eferred during COVID -19, would likely have continued.
But, again, I would like to know how the previous Mi nister’s initiative is faring and if we could have just a brief update on that initiative, this would be helpf ul.
The next thing that is interesting to see here
(it is in the next unit down under 3008 East End Fort
George) and it is number 40100, Maritime Safety &
Security. And I note that two years ago the actual
budget there was $2.3 million and that the project ed
budget for last year, again, a budget estimate set prior to any significant realisation of the COVID -19 difficu lties, was increased. So, it went from $2.3 [million] two
years ago to $2.6 [million] for last year. Now, I see that the expenditure, the actual expenditure, the r evised actual, dropped considerably and, again, that is likely because of COVID -19. But I note that it is going
back up, but it is not going up anything near to where
it was over the past two years —either by the actual
two years ago or the intended budget of last year. It is
only projected to be $1.8 million, or $1.87 million this
year, under this budget.
And so, I would be grateful if, firstly, the Mini ster could address the line item itself —40100, Maritime
Safety & Security —and give us a little bit more of a
picture as to what that element does and is used for. It
may well be that it does what it says on the tin—Maritime Safety & Security. Perhaps that is rescue
operations, I am not sure. But we would be grateful to
hear from the Minis ter and his team as to what that is. And then, secondly, what they think the impact may
be on a circa $800,000 reduction between last year’s
original budget and this year’s original budget —it is
actually $766,000 according to the Budget Book —
$766,000 less.
So, if the Minister could, perhaps, indicate
why that number is going down. Is that because of a
change in the provision of services? Or are we simply
doing more with less? And whether there will be any
knock -on effects given that when one sees the words
“safety and security” and you see a reduction in budget, you know, you just want to make sure that ever ything is going to be done to the best of our ability.
I have already asked about the Ferry Service
savings. And if we can now turn please, still under
Head 30 Marine and Ports, but moving to page B -203,
which is the Subjective Analysis of the Current A ccount Estimates. A couple of questions arising from this, if you look —this is the top of page B -203 under
the Subjective Analysis box —and we see here under
the third line item, Other Personnel Costs, and I would
just be grateful to hear about this because, again, two years ago we saw that it was $68,000. There was
then a budgeted reduction—a considerable budget
reduction—to $27,000, so, less than half. But t hat
budgeted reduction was never met and we ended up
with $58,000 on the revised. And so, I am just curious
why it is that, having budgeted such a reduction last year and having failed to achieve that budgeted r eduction, we are, again, budgeting the reduct ion to
$27,000 this year. And, perhaps, if there is a factual explanation around that.
Obviously, Other Personnel Costs is very di fficult for the average reader just reading that to know, you know, what those costs relate to, but we would be
grateful for some sort of clarification and assurance
from the Minister as to why we are budgeting a num-ber that was missed last time and was inconsistent
with the actuals two years ago.
Still in the same box, still under Head 30 for
Marine and Ports and still in the S ubjective Analysis
box—which is the top box at page B -203—if we trot
down a few line items we see the entry for Professional Services. And there we see that Professional
Services’ actual two years ago was $400,000 and then there was a budgeted reduction, and then a considerable reduction in the revised for —

You keep going back to two years
ago. We are debating this year’s budget. If you should
compare, you should com pare to last year, not two
years ago. This Minister was not in that position two
years ago.



Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Scott Pearman: Mr. Chairman, this Government
is responsible for its budget, because the Budget
Book contains two years of figures, so I am entitled to
put ques tions on them.
I am sure you would not want —

Thank you.
So, we have seen an actual figure and then
we have seen last year’s reduction, we see that it actually went down further. But then what we s ee for the
budgeted year is $571,000 for Professional Services.
So, it is an increase of about $80,000 to $90,000 on
the actual expenditure from the revised year of last year. So, I am just curious to know why, for Marine &
Ports, the Minister is anticipat ing an increase in Pr ofessional Services, if there is any particular issue that would require additional professional services to be
incurred and what that might be.
Two lines down we see Repair and Maint enance, and so, this is Marine & Ports, Repair and
Maintenance under the Subjective Analysis. And just
looking at last year compared to this year, without going two years ago, just last year the budgeted item
was $2.18 million and the actual revised was $2.12
million, and now, for this year, for the next 12 months, we are looking at $1.5 million. And so, when everyone
sees repair and maintenance, that is obviously a very
important area and it would be helpful to know why
there is such a significant projected decrease in expenditure on Repair and Maintenance for Marine &
Ports. It may well be that there is a perfectly innocent
explanation, you know, there is going to be a decommissioning of certain ferries or such like. It may be
that these new ferries might be the answer, although
we not know yet when they are arriving. But just on
the face of it, when you see a reduction for repair and
maintenance, that begs the question why it is.

[Inaudible interjections]

I will c ontinue. Then turning,
again, still under Head 30, Marine & Ports, still at
page B -203, just going down to the Revenue Summary, two items . . . well, three items coming up from
here. One is the Boat Charter number, which is line
item 8171, Boats -Charter.
Now, I am assuming that that is quite what it
says, that there is a fee associated with charter boats,
that this fee is paid to Marine & Ports, and that this is
how Marine & Ports derives its revenue. And I note that the budgeted number for last year was $110,000
but that this actually fell for the revised number down
to $71,000. And I am guessing, without knowing, and I would be grateful for the Honourable Minister’s input,
but I would be grateful to know if the roughly $40,000
drop . . . I suspect it is b ecause boat charters were not
happening during the COVID -19 period and there may
have been some waiver of licensing requirements or registration requirements. So, that would be my first
question on that line item.
My second question on that line item is t he
budgeted estimate of $110,000 for the next coming 12 months, which equates exactly with the budgeted sum
for last year. So, I read from that that the Ministry is hopeful that we will see a restoration of boat charter
fees back to where they were. I wond er if that is the
Ministry’s thinking and if that could be clarified. And I
also wonder how realistic that may be, given some of
the other contrasting reductions we have seen on ot her areas in Marine & Ports usage and services.
Dropping down a few numbers from there,
about five or six down, under line item 8183 we see
Port Dues. And Port Dues, again, we have the actual
two years ago, we have the budget of last year —both
at $730,000 —and we have $730,000 as a budgeted
item for next year. What we see in the m iddle is a
dramatic dip down to $141,000. Again, I anticipate
that this was owing to the absence of ships coming in
to pay port dues and that is why we see the significant
drop, and no doubt the Minister can clarify that. But that is my guess.
But the ques tion, again, that I would put . . .
and it is a similar question to the Boat Charters question. If you are going to back to the budget amount of
$730,000 which was the budget amount of the year previous, does that mean that you have full conf idence, Minist er, that the Port Dues are going to come
back on stream, notwithstanding that we are still in the
COVID -19 environment and that we, whilst we are
immunising very well as an island, we are not yet fully immunised and we are unlikely to have a tourism uptick? It may be that those port dues are just shipment
dues, so I welcome some clarity on that.
The same and further question to the bottom
line item in the Revenue Summary. The revenue for Marine & Ports for two years ago, the actual was $5.5
million, last y ear the budgeted revenue was due to go
up to $6.1 million. I am not quite sure why people
were optimistic that there would be a $600,000 gain,
but that is what they thought. Again, that was set before COVID -19 was fully appreciated. But the reality
was the revised numbers were down to $2.44 million,
so $2.4- odd million. Again, I appreciate that this was
likely due to COVID -19, that it would make sense to
see a revenue drop of that considerable nature in the
Marine & Ports area during COVID -19, people not
using boats, boats not travelling in as much. The Mi nister gave an earlier figure as to how boats in and out of the Island were down.
The question I have then is about the budget
for the next 12 months. And here the Ministry has budgeted a $6 million number . So, it is actually up
902 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly against the actual of two years ago, it is just about the
same as the budgeted number for last year, and I
guess, the blunt question is, why is the Ministry so
confident that the number will go back up? I mean,
obviously, we all hop e it does and we all want it to, but
just why is the Ministry so confident that it will?
Mr. Chairman, still under Head 30 Marine &
Ports, moving on to the Employee Numbers, which can be found at [page] B -204 and if we look here, the
box is at the top of page B -204, and there 161 actual
employees two years ago, last year it was anticipated there would be 161, in the event that number dropped
down to 144. Now, the Minister had addressed in his
brief to the House the situation of funded but unfilled
posts and I would be grateful for clarity about the di fference between the 161 and the 144 revised. Is it
that those 17 were funded, but unfilled entirely? Or
what portion of those 17 posts was, in fact, filled?
I note that 11 of them were at the Ferry Service. Yo u can see that from the second line item,
which is 40090 (the second line item down), where the budgeted number of employees for last year was 71
and the revised number was down to 60. So, there is
a difference of 11 at the Ferry Service. So, I guess the
question I have is, were those budgeted but unfilled
posts or where they redundancies or departures or
was it the need for fewer employees because of fewer journeys? What is the thinking around that? Can you
explain it?
I note that the budgeted item for the Ferry
Service will remain the same at 60. And if one drops down to the total budgeted items for Marine & Ports
as a whole, it is now going to go up from 144 to 148. Strictly, it is going to go up by five and then down by
one. And I note that the Administ ration is, in fact, going to gain two persons further. And so, the question I
would have here is, Where you are making considerable cuts to services —or it would appear that they are
cuts to services —why has the decision been taken to
add more to the admini stration of Marine & Ports and
cut back on the services?
The next question for the Honourable Minister
is still under Head 30 Marine & Ports, but now in the section of Performance Measures. This is [page] B -
205. And if one looks at the chart at [page] B -205, you
see the Performance Measures and you have various business units down the left -hand side —three different business units. The first is Navigational Aids
40040; the second is Ferry Service 40090; the third is
Maritime Safety & Security 40100. And we already
had a few questions earlier about Maritime Safety & Security when we looked at that under the General Summary.
My first question is in relation to the Navig ational Aids section, so that is the top business unit 40040. And I note that underneath that it says the In-ternational Standards are set by the IALA. And so, as
I understand it, that means that what people in that
business unit are supposed to be doing is complying with International Standards set by the International
body, rather than, necessarily complying with local
performance measures set by the Government. And
so, if that is the case, it just seems slightly curious that
the first four performance measures, which you can see in the four lines underneath International Standards set, are all proposed to be discontinued. Now, I
see that there are other performance measures below, but they are different and they are fewer. And so,
the question I have is, is this a change in the International Standards that have been set and are imposed upon Berm uda? Or is this a change in the Gover nment’s Performance Measure indicators devised by
the Ministry?
Staying on the same page, which is B -205,
under Head 30 for Marine & Ports, I would invite the
Honourable Minister to look now down to the business unit at the bottom of the page, and this is the business
unit Maritime Safety & Security, 40100, and it is the
second line item there that I notice, which is to “R educe the number of emergency satellite beacon false
alerts from Bermuda registered vessels and air craft
worldwide by 10 per cent.” Now, the fact that this r efers to a worldwide effort at reduction of false alerts
suggests to me that this, too, is an international
standard. I note that the actual outcome for 2019/20
(which is two years ago) was 100 per cent. And congratulations there, but then I note that it was discontinued. And so, again, I pose the question as to whether or not there has been some sort of change in
international standards that we no longer need to
meet that goal, particularly when we seem to have been meeting that goal so very well.
Mr. Chairman, still on Performance Measures,
taking you over the page in the Budget Book to [page]
B-206, there we see a chart of the Performance
Measures for other business units. We have the Tug Service, we have Moorings, Pilotage, et cetera. And
the questions that I want to pose to the Honourable
Minister are in the second business unit down—
40150, Moorings & Boat Regulations —and I posed a
couple of questions earlier about this, given the initi ative of t he former Minister in respect of boat moorings.
And I see the top line here is the “removal of 500 ill egal, unregistered moorings by year end.” Now, we
saw that the actual outcome two years ago was
10 per cent of that goal. So, I presume that means
they ma naged to remove 50. There was then a for ecasted goal for last year of 70 per cent, notwithstanding COVID -19, it is impressive to see that 30 per cent
was still met under the revised forecast in the third
column.
What I am curious to see is the target outcome for this budget year where we are back at 70 per cent. Is that really realistic if 10 per cent was
met two years ago and 30 per cent yeoman’s work
was done last year under COVID -19? Given that we
are still in the COVID -19 situation and that there are
restrictions on boating, on hours, on these sorts of


Bermuda House of Assembly things, I am just curious about the optimism demonstrated by a 70 per cent target.
Just below that we see that “80 per cent of all
moorings re- licensed within the May 31st deadline”
and “The remaining 20 per cent re- licensed within 3
months of the May 31st deadline.” That is disconti nued, but it is now set as a different metric. But one
below that we see the performance measures to
“Regularise all unlicensed in- water boats.” The actual
outcome for that w as 15 per cent two years ago and
then last year it was discontinued. I would have
thought that at a time when we are in such financial dire straits that boat licensing is pretty easy money,
or, as they say sometimes, low hanging fruit. And so, I
am just curious why that is discontinued because,
presumably, you know, that would be an ideal way for the Government to ensure that monies continued to
come in in the revenue sectors that we talked about
earlier. And just to remind everyone, the revenues for
this w ere at [page] B -203 and it was a projected i ncrease back up to $6 million for those various hea dings, including Boat Licensing.
May I also just observe and commend under
the Performance Measures, at the bottom of this one,
that one of the newly instituted performance measures
in 2020/21 was that “New mooring applications were
to be processed within a six -week timeframe.” And it
is great to see that, not only was the budgeted for ecast 100 per cent, but the revised actual forecast was
100 per cent as well. S o, well done to those who are
at Marine & Ports processing new mooring applic ations within a six -week timeframe for hitting the
100 per cent target. That is great to see and it is a lways positive when Government is able to give the response to the public s o swiftly and meet the needs.
Mr. Chairman, further down we see under
business unit 40180, Pilotage Service Offshore, we see that some of the metrics there, particularly the two
in the middle, have been discontinued. One of those is
“Success, on scheduled berthing and un- berthing of
ships” with a 100 per cent aim, we had a 90 per cent
meeting of that actual outcome two years ago, and
then it is discontinued. Likewise, “Overall performance
of Pilot Service” we hit a 98 per cent target, which is
great to see, again, that performance measure is being discontinued. I am just curious why that is.
Further down we have the next business unit
40210 and that is the Tender Service. And there is a
singular performance measure there for the Tender
Service and that is t he heading “Availability for service
as required for peak passenger periods.” A very sen-sible metric, one would think and, again, delightful to
see that there was a 100 per cent . Well, that was a
forecasted number of 100 per cent for last year , but
we have no numbers to the right, nor does it show that
it has been discontinued. And so, I am just curious why those numbers are not in there. Perhaps they
have been omitted from the Budget Book or, perhaps, they have been discontinued and it has not said so.
But if that could please be addressed.
The next business unit down is the Admi nistration 40220. And I just see that, again, in a time of
fiscal difficulties a very sensible performance measure, namely, To ensure all accounts payables are paid
to meet monthly deadlines has been discontinued,
notwithstanding that it was a 90 per cent actual success rate in 2019/20. So, it would be useful to know why that very sensible metric has been discontinued.
I make the more general point that we saw a
few pages ago how t wo extra people are being added
to Administration and yet, one of these metrics that
now applies to Administration is being abandoned.
That seems to be slightly incongruous just on the face
of it. Perhaps there is a practical reason why.
Mr. Chairman, I had understood from the
Chair who was in the Chair at the outset of the debate that the preference of the Minister was for me to pose
all the questions from all four heads and then to allow
for collective responses at the end, so, that being the
case —unhelpful though it may be to the listening a udience—I will now move to Head 34, which is the
Transport Control Department, and I will call it TCD as
everybody else does to make my life easier.
I think the big theme item and the item about
which, certainly I and no doubt the public, would like
to hear more is the suggestion that we are going to be
getting new buses and also the extent to which these will be smaller buses, as it seemed to be said in the
brief that they would be. And also, whether these are
going to be electric —

Okay.
904 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. Scott Pearman: Well, that is fine. I am happy to
defer my questions on the buses until Head 35. Let
me deal with the TCD while I am here, and I will just
write “new buses” under Head 35. Right.
Back to Head 34 and the TCD, and we are on
[page] B -208. The Depart ment Objectives . . . there
are four identified Department Objectives. The one
that I am curious about is the fourth one—this is the top box on [page] B -208, the department objective, To
develop an improved transportation network utilising
modern technology. And so, I would just be grateful if
we could have some further clarification from the Mi nister as to what modern technology the Ministry has in
mind. I noted during his brief he referred to the TCD
getting a new printing mechanism, but if he could per-haps put a bit of meat on the bones there to understand the technological advances that he has in mind
for the TCD going forward.
Turning then to the General Summary of the
Current Account Estimates, this is the Expenditure box at the bottom of [page] B -208. We have Examination, then we have Registration. So, this is business
unit 3401, Mr. Chairman, and underneath that we
have line item 44040 which is Registration. Now, the
actual two years ago was $1.1 million, the projected
budget for last year was $927,000. In the event we
had a revised estimate upwards of $1.1 million. So, I am just curious why that was. One might have
thought, perhaps wrongly, that under COVID -19 we
would have seen those figures the other way around,
that the $1.1 million was the projec ted budget and the
$927,000 was the actual. But nonetheless, it seems
that we anticipated a drop in registration and, non etheless, one did not occur and it went up.
Still on that same line item and still on that
same line of thinking, it is curious to see a sudden
drop from, apparently a $1.1 million revised last year,
to a mere $772,000.
Now, Mr. Chairman, I note that in his brief to
the House earlier today one of the things the Minister
observed was in respect of permits and the upgrading
of commercial vehicles. And he identified a trend in
acquisitions in the elimination of the use of certain commercial vehicles. So I am curious if that statement
in his brief is linked to these numbers or if there is
some other reason why we see a decline in Registr ation.

Thank you, thank you, I am
grateful.
So, we were at [page] B -208 and we were at
line item 44040 Registration. And the question that I
was posing w as why we had a decline in the budgeted
estimate number of $772,000. So, that is a decline of
some $344,000.
Further down on this same page, still at B -
208, still under Current Account Estimates, General Summary, Expenditure, I note the next line item is
44090 and this is Road Safety, a matter of great i mportance to the public at large. Now, Road Safety, the allocated amounts for actual 2019/20 was $200,000,
$202,000, and that was increased to $490,000 for last
year under the original budgeted sum.
Now, t hat decreased considerably to
$140,000. And, Mr. Chairman, whilst you do not want me to speculate, I would give the Minister the benefit
of the doubt that this was likely due to COVID -19. I am
more interested in the next number, and that is the
budgeted it em in the shaded area of $165,000. I am
curious why that is down so dramatically from the
$490,000 figure and what the thinking is behind that.
I also note that the Minister, unless I missed it
. . . and I did not have the benefit of his brief, but unless I missed it, he did not indicate what is or is not
happening with the Road Safety’s “Operation Caution.” And I wonder whether that is now being r educed.
If we also keep a finger at [page] B -208 and
we go to the Grants and Contributions item for the
Road Safety Council, this is at page C -19, under the
Ministry of Transport, right at the bottom under line
item 6962. There we see that last year’s budgeted


Bermuda House of Assembly grant was $310,000 of which only $60,000 was in the
revised, and now it is $60,000 for this year. So, if the
Minister could, perhaps, address that reduction in r espect of Road Safety, and specifically comment on the
status of “Operation Caution.” That would be great just to know if that has been reduced or defunded entirely,
or what.
Still at [page] B -208, still under Expenditure
for Head 34 TCD, Current Account Estimates, the next line item down is Traffic Control and then the line
item after that is Administration, which is 44210. I would like to just address a general question which is
that we established at the outset that there were
budget cuts of approximately $22 million for the
Transport Ministry. That is after one recognises the BTA grant is moving to a different department. So it is
curious with those sorts of cuts that the Administration
cost at TC D is increasing against the budget item of
two years ago and the actual of last year. I accept that
it is down against the original budgeted of last year,
but it has increased—

As is the revised figure of $1.44
million, which was the reality on the ground.
And Mr. Chairman, it is an interesting debate.
I think most people would be more interested in comparing the budget against the reality than comparing
the budget against a previous budget which was merely speculative. But, in any event, all the numbers
906 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly are here in the Book and, therefore, I am entitled to
talk to them and ask questions about them.

Thank you.
So, again, the point I am making, which is
perhaps an uncomfortable point for the Government,
is why when we have a $22 million- odd budget cut to
this Ministry are we seeing the cost of Administration going up? It is a legitimate question and i t is a question, I think, that both the Opposition is fairly entitled to
put and the public would like to know.
Moving on from there, Mr. Chairman, I am
going to turn to page B -209.

And the question I have in r espect of that line item is down on the Repair and
Maintenance.
Now, the Repair and Maintenance for 2019/20
actual was $176,000. The budget f or Repair and
Maintenance was increased considerably for last year
to $424,000, and in the event, it was down to
$198,000. Again, I hesitate to speculate what the a nswer for that may be, given your direction, Mr. Chai rman. But one would guess that that was due to
COVID -19. And so, there was less repair and maint enance going on because it was less necessary. None-theless, we then see the budgeted number going back up to $401,000. And does that mean that the Mini stry’s thinking is that everything is going to c ome back
on stream to the same degree as it was when we were budgeting pre- COVID -19?
The Revenue Summary is also on page B -209
and this was the point where the Minister made the observation in his brief about the fewer permits to upgrade commercial vehicl es. Is that the reason . . . and
I am looking at the bottom line item, so the totality of
the Revenue Summary. And, Mr. Chairman, for your
benefit, I will compare the original budgeted number —

And we see that that is down
now to the budgeted number for this budget cycle,
down to $29,033,000.
And the question I have for the Minister is,
What is the explanation for the anticipated drop in
revenue? He di d give one particular example, which
was fewer permits to upgrade commercial vehicles,
but that alone seems unlikely to have necessitated a
drop of some $2 million. Likewise, this is an area where, you know, revenue sources, one expects them
to be year -on-year on a rather continuous basis. So, if
the Minister could kindly address the reason for that
revenue drop.
Mr. Chairman, still under Head 34 TCD, just
turning to the Employee Numbers, which can be found at [page] B -210, and I am looking in particular . . . last
year saw a proposed head count reduction of seven
people. And you can see that number difference between the 2019/20 actual and . . . sorry, not reduction,
increase, the proposed increase from 41 people (actual) to a budgeted number of 48. So, it is going to be
an increase of seven more people. And it is interes ting, in terms of the Admin number, you see that was
six and they wanted nine, so they wanted to hire three
more Admin, and, in the end, they seem to have lost
one because the revised number is down to five on Administration. And the proposed number for next
year is, again, five.
I am just curious that, given that the Admi nistration numbers are down and the total headcount
number is down, and five is remaining the same, why
it is that if one compares that with page B -202 and the
Admin number there at [line item] 44210, appeared to be going up by about $470,000. I perhaps know what
the answer is, Mr. Chairman, but I will not speculate, given your direction and I will wait to hear what the
answ er for that is from the Minister, why numbers are
going up on one hand, but employee numbers are
down and are staying the same.
In the Minister’s brief he touched on the pos ition of 40- foot containers. Let me see if I can find . . .
yes, this is still TCD. He talked about the Traffic E nforcement Section and how they are the ones who
issue permits for the movement of over -sized 40- foot
containers with heavy loads. And on that topic, I would
be grateful to hear from the Minister —

—yes, exactly.


Bermuda House of Assembly And the question is really one of principle. I
know that there are some in the industry who want
more 40- foot trucks, and they suggest it will bring
down costs. I know that there are others in the indus-try who say that 40- foot trucks will increase wear and
tear on the roads and potentially have more safet y
concerns. And so, I would be interested to know what
the Minister’s view, what the Traffic Enforcement Section’s view is on this. Does the Minister have a view
on whether or not they will be issuing more permits in
this area or not? Is it more, is it few , is it baby bear’s
porridge, is it just right?
The other point the Minister touched on in
respect of TCD in his brief, is the Appointment Man-agement System. And that is the new computer sy stem . . . or not so new, it is a new -ish computer system
that all ows people to book their appointments online
to attend TCD. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to offer
my compliments to TCD on this system. It is a rare
thing when multiple members of the public take the
time to praise a particular aspect of government ser-vice. Usually we get it the other way around. Whether
you are in the Opposition or not, you hear about the problems. This appointment system, the Minister r eferred to it AMS, which I think is Appointment Management System, the online booking system . . . I
have had a number of people quite randomly say how
pleased they are about how well the system works.
So, just a shout -out of thanks to TCD over
that system and the success that it appears to be having in public opinion.
On the issue of TCD, when the Minis ter was
speaking to Expenditure Overview in his brief, he said
that the core allocation of funds has not —

—from last year’s budget.
And I note, to be fair, that the actuals were
less . . . the revised were less. And I also note it was
closed for a significant period. So, I am just curious
whether the Minister really does stand by his stat ement that the core allocations of funds have not
changed significantly when it is down almost a million
dollars.
Also, keeping in mind that i t was closed for a
significant period of time, you know, is it realistic that
this is where the numbers will be against the revised figures, which I described to you, Mr. Chairman, as
the reality on the ground.

If the reality on the ground was
$4.4 million against a $5.4 million budgeted item, how
realistic is $4.4 million again when we expect TCD to
be open all year round and not closed due to COVID -
19? So, I would invite the Minister just to clarify if he
stands by h is statement earlier in his brief, whether he
stands by that statement in his brief that the core all ocation of funds has not changed, as it does appear
that it has.
Now, Mr. Chairman, you will be delighted to
learn that I am moving on to the fourth and fi nal Head.
You will soon be rid of me.

And this is the big news . . . well,
the ferries were big news, too, but this is the big news:
The new buses.
And it is h ere that I would, again, give the Mi nister an opportunity to crow, should he wish, to tell us a little bit more about these new buses. More specif ically, it would be great to know how many, what type, when they are coming. I would particularly like to hear ,
given the former Minister’s comments —and, indeed,
some of the things that the Minister said about the
Rocky Mountain Institute in his own brief —if that is still
where these are coming from and if they are going to
be electric. I know he said in his brief that they would
be smaller, which seems [to make] very good sense
for somewhere like Bermuda where you have access
issues.
908 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Anyway, so that is the high- level theme point
and it would be great to hear a little bit more about
that and what the public can ex pect and when, et
cetera.
I am at page B -212 of Head 35 and the D epartment Objectives are there set out. It is the second
objective which is, To ensure buses operate reliably according to the published schedule. It would be fair
and proper for me to point out that no- shows in Jan uary were almost 700, and no- shows in February were
750. And I just invite the Minister to speak to that.
Given that there is an overall decline in the funding for
the Ministry of Transport of some $22 million, and that
leaves aside the BTA grant, which we have already
covered, how does the Minister plan to do more with less? There was, of course, the bus strike. I would be
curious to hear if the Minister is satisfied that this has
all now been resolved and if he is confident that i t will
not happen again.
The General Summary —and this is page B -
212— and this is the tale of the tape on the numbers
The public transportation figures are going to be a
drop—and I am at the bottom to the right under the
differential in the parentheses, so, this is a compar ison with last year’s budget and this year’s budget. It is
going to be a drop of $2.83 million.
The other related question to the bus service,
and it is a question that I suppose is fair to ask, what progress, if any, is there on the bus schedule? And
can we have an update on that?
Mr. Chairman, turning to page B -214, this is
still under Head 35 Public Transportation, and here
we have the Employee Numbers (Full -time Equiv alents). And there is projected to be a marked drop in
the size of the workforce between last year’s budgeted number of 232 and this year’s budgeted number of
208. And if one looks above in the numbers to where
that drop is based, it is largely based on Bus Oper ations, line item 45010. It is the second line item down.
We know, from the Minister’s earlier stat ement that the line item immediately above that, 45000
Auxiliary Bus Services, has been merged with the line
item below, so they are now a conjoined line item. But we see a drop in workforce from 157 to 134. Well, the
Minister did speak earlier about a reduction in funded
but unfilled posts. So my question is, of that reduction there, both under the Bus Operations and the general
number, from 232 down to 208, how many of those
are budgeted but unfilled posts which are now not being budgeted for, versus a reduction in overall head-count?
So, Mr. Chairman, one more question, just on
the new buses. We were told, previously, that this was
going to be part of an RFP with the Rocky Mountain
Institute and that was supposed to happen in 2019.
The Minister has announced the position today, and we would just be grateful to know, not just the questions posed earlier about the buses, the type of buses,
et cetera, but just on the time table. And, in particular, I would love to know h ow many of those are going to
be electric.
And also, we would be grateful to know the
cost. If one goes to [page] C -14, which is . . . for the
benefit of those listening, Capital Acquisitions, and at the top of Capital Acquisitions on [page] C -14 under
Public Transportation you see the line item there for
Buses 76293, and looking all the way over to the budget estimate it is $6.6 million. And so, I assume,
but I would love to know whether that is the number
related to the buses, if that is for the totality of the
buses, or simply those that are anticipated to be ordered and delivered in the next year.
And my final question for now, subject to any
supplementaries that may come up, is that the Mini ster mentioned in his brief about the Ambassador
Training Programme. I would just be curious to know
what his plans are for the Ambassador Training Pr ogramme and whether he hopes this will grow or if it
will be maintaining the same size or what.
So, Mr. Chairman, thank you and I hope I
have been fair in my questioning. I certainly tried to be
fair. But I look forward to the answers from the Ho nourable Minister.

Mr. Simons, can you hear me? I have
been trying to get your attention—
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Was somebody trying to get
me?

The Cha irman: —for the last three minutes I have
been trying to stop you to try to find out where you . . .
what business unit, what Head, what page you are
talking from.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Hang on, sir.
Do you hear me, Mr. Chairman?

[Page] B -212. If we are talking about
the buses, about the mechanics, I think you probably need to go to C-14. That is where the purchase of the
buses will be, you know, where it is allocated in the
Book under Capital Acquisitions.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Yes, but then I was, bas ically—yes, I accept that.
910 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly And then I went on to the Repair Services,
that is on B -12. Because after you buy the buses you
have to maintain them.

I understand. No, we are clear, we
are clear.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: And so, my question b ecomes, what strategies and priorities does the Mini ster have for regular maintenance and repairs of our
buses so that they are regularly serviced? And I do not know if you heard me say earlier that, you know,
there are probably warranties with the buses.

[Line item] 44210, all right.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Can the Minister confirm
whether we are up- to-date in regard to having whee lchairs and motorbikes use the ferries, as w as done in
the past? I know at one point we suspended that service for handicapped, or physically challenged is a better way to say it. I just wanted to ensure that they
have full access.

And I am just trying to corr elate this planned infrastructure upgrade to actual funds and actual deliverables. And I am just having a
hard time picking through that, so, I wanted to ask the Honourable Minister, is this the business unit that will
be issuing this planned infrastructure upgrade? And, when will we expect to take delivery of that planned
infrastructure upgrade? That is my first question, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, my second is on [page] B -198,
again—

—but with the third Depar tment Objective, or priority objective, which is to t ransform transport fare media so that it is frictionless and
cashless . I am assuming this is the ticket system for
our transportation system.
And with that being said, I would like the Mi nister to advise what is this actual project or enterprise. What is the thing that he is actually anticipating doing?
And, again, when do we expect delivery? And, if we
have to attribute it to a busines s unit, I think that would
be under 58010 Transportation Planning Team.
Mr. Chairman, I am specifically wondering
because we see, again, a budget allocation of $139,000 and we seem to have two very large pr ojects affecting our infrastructure system in Ber muda,
but we do not see any deliverables. The only thing we
see, in fact, Mr. Chairman, when we go to [page] B -
201, under the Performance Measures for Head 48
the Ministry of Transport HQ, we have no performance measurements.
So, in my world what that woul d mean is that
we have . . . undoubtedly there is money being all ocated and it is going to go to something. Right now, we have some on [page] B -199, we have some $15.5
million being expended under this Head . . . $14.7 mi llion is going towards the Airport, in terms of the Grant,
leaving us with something in the range of $800,000.
So, $800,000 [is] being spent that is not grant -related under this Head, with a promise of what looks like an
infrastructure upgrade and what looks like a frictionless and cashless bus ticket system, and yet, we do
not see any explanation for what that is.
So, if the Honourable Minister could speak to
what those promises entail and when we can expect
delivery of them.
Moving on, Mr. Chairman, to . . . and undoubtedly I will have s upplementals on those, Mr.
Chairman.

Under Employee Numbers I
see that we are going down one employe e number for
the Road Safety business unit under the Transport
Control Department. And that would be a loss of 100
per cent of all staffing to that team or that business
unit.
Mr. Chairman, I draw your attention to [page]
B-208, which is the Mission Statement of this depar tment, the Transport Control Department, which is to assure the safety of all road users .
Mr. Chairman, we have heard in this Honourable House any number of times now the situation of
the roads in Bermuda, and we all drive on the roads.
So, it is actually something that requires a significant
amount of time and dedication. And I take the opportunity to thank the Road Safety Council for their work in that space.
But what has got my attention here, Mr.
Chairman, is that we have this one very clear Mission Statement, and then when we go over to actually look
at the funding to ensure the safety of our road users,
we are actually looking at losing people who are committed to that, to undertaking that role, despite the
number of public statements we have had on that.
Mr. Chairman, my question is, is it the inte ntion of the Ministry to defund the Road Safety unit?
With that also being said, Mr. Chairman, on
page B -211, going under the Performance Measures,
we again see that the Road Safety unit, business unit
44090, has a single objective, which I am really cur i912 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ous about. So, I suppose my second question to the
Minister would be, How is a unit that does not have a
person in it supposed to accomplish something? Is
there someone else who they . . . will they be borro wing staff from somewhere? That is my question in that
regard.
But since there is a performance measur ement here—and there is one—I will read that out, Mr.
Chairman, To maintain the pass rate for project ride
students at 90 per cent. Again, Mr. Chairman, for a
department that is committed to assure the safety of
all road users to have a business unit committed to
road safety and it not be staffed, and it have only one
objective, and that one objective is relating to Project
Ride, it strik es me that we might not be throwing our
full intellectual capital and financial resources behind
our road safety. So, I would ask the Minister what he
is intending to do about road safety under Head 34.
Moving on, Mr. Chairman, I note . . . I just
have a g eneral question, and I think this will be easy
for him to answer. The enforcement officers, I believe that they are attributed to business unit . . . I am sorry,
I am on page B -210. And I believe they are attributed
to business unit Traffic Control 44110. I see some
seven bodies there. And, again, given the state of the
roads in Bermuda, I would like to understand what are
the roles, or what are the actual performance oblig ations for those enforcement officers, which I believe,
again, are assigned to Traffi c Control 44110.
I note under the Performance Measures for
that Traffic Control unit, that the goal here is to keep
. . . I am sorry, the performance measurement is to To
keep response time to abandoned vehicle reports to
under 10 business days . I would definitely like the
Minister to speak to a team that, undoubtedly with
seven people can accomplish more than respond to
abandoned vehicle reports in under 10 business days.
So, what else are they doing? Because, Mr. Chai rman, we are attributing some . . . sorry, let me just look up the amount of money we are giving that team.
Traffic Control is $470,000. So, for $470,000 I am
sure seven people can do more than track down
abandoned vehicles in under 10 business days.
With that being said, Mr. Chairman, I would
like to stay on [page] B -211 and these Performance
Measures, all of which . . . we have Road Safety, Traffic Control, Examination, Registration and Administr ation. All of these are expected. All of the target outcomes, are expected to achieve. So, I suppose I
would want the Minister to note that this is quite a
thing for all of these not to have metrics associated
with them, but rather just to say we’ll get to it. But that
being said, Mr. Chairman, I will move on.
Head 35, Mr. Chairman, a question relating to
. . . oh, this is it . . . I am on [page] B -215. That is page
B-215, Head 35 Public Transportation, specifically
under Performance Measures business unit 45090
Repair Servicing. I would like some clarification from
the Minister as it relates to the bus fleet, because, i n-sofar as I can see the objective or the performance
measurement here is to Maintain the number of buses
in service daily at 80 per cent of the total fleet , which
means that we would have 20 per cent or a fifth of our
bus fleet out of order 80 per cent of the time. What struck me is not so much that number but then that
the target outcome, that measurement, [what] we are
aiming to achieve, having most of our bus fleet on the
road 80 per cent of the time.
So, let me say that again, Mr. Chai rman, because I thought this was . . . I cannot see that this . . . and maybe there is some logic behind it. But 80 per
cent of the fleet will be out on the road in service and
20 per cent will undoubtedly be in maintenance or
something like that. And I do not want to get into co njecture on that; I just take the point that 20 per cent will not be out there. But that is only 80 per cent of the time we expect that. So, the remaining 20 per cent of
the time we are expecting more than 20 per cent of
our fleet t o be in service. We are expecting how much
of our fleet to be in service —60 per cent, 50 per cent?
So, we just seem to give ourselves a lot of
time when we are not expecting a lot of buses to be
running. And I think the Honourable Minister would do
well t o advise the public that there is some backstop
because right now, Mr. Chairman, what we want to
make sure of, given that our economy is not doing so
well, is that we are able to move the labour market around very easily. And this strikes me as something
that could cause a problem. And we could go on
about that, but I will save that for supplementals.
The next question, Mr. Chairman, is preventive . . . I am sorry, it is on page B -215, again, under
Head 35 Public Transportation, business unit 45090
Repair S ervicing. And I note that the performance
measurement is to maintain buses according to the
preventative maintenance programme. The actual
outcome . . . so, we have a measurement where we
say we want to maintain the buses according to the schedule, the preventative maintenance programme.
But notice, Mr. Chairman, that we are actually targeting 90 per cent. So, 9 out of 10 times we are maintai ning our schedule, or we are actually adhering to our
maintenance schedule.
Now, Mr. Chairman, I just cannot believe that
that is . . . that strikes me as a bit of an odd maint enance schedule, because when a bus pulls up behind
me on my scooter, I would like to have a better than 9
in 10 chance that his brakes got dealt with that day.
So, my question would be to the Hon ourable Minister,
Is this an accurate performance measurement? And
how is the public assured that the buses are being
maintained if we are aiming at 10 per cent of the time
they are not being maintained as per the schedule?
Further to that, Mr. Chairman, I will add su pplementals as the Honourable Minister responds to
my specific questions or I will have supplementals on other Opposition Member’s questions.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.


Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: Thank you, Honourable Member
Richardson.
Are there any further speakers?

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Yes, this is the Opposition
Leader, again.

[Page] B -203.

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: —line items 8171 Boats -
Charter, 8177 Local Cruises.
Can the Minister tell us the underlying thought
as to how he arrived at his budget estimates for
2021/22? I am asking because I have spoken to a
number of those charter boat owners and they are
basically saying that there is no business for them to
have in 2021 unless we have the cruise ships. And
they are also challenged because of COVID -19 restricting the number of passengers. At some point, the
passengers equate to only to crew and staff. So it is
not economically viable in this environment for them to
go out.
So, if the Minister can give us the underlying
reasoning as to how they arrived at the estimates,
given that the charter business is crippled because of
COVID -19. And he has increas ed . . . well, he basica lly established the level at last year. But if you look at
the revised number for last year, they were down considerably.
And the next question . . . I only have three
questions. Can the Minister . . . and I direct you to
page B -198—

Mm-hmm.
Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: Can the Minister confirm
the amount paid for the minimum guaranteed load factor for the airlines? Some of these airlines have
negotiated a minimum load factor and we have to pay
if they are not met. So, can the Minister speak to how much we paid in 2021 and how much is projected to
be paid in 2021/22?
And lastly, I understand the BTA, the Civil
Aviation Authority and the Ministry normally g et together and craft an airline strategy plan. Can the Mi nister share details on the development of the airline strategy plan?
And those are my three questions.
Thank you. The Chairman: Thank you, Honourable Member.
Any further speakers?

Hon. N. H. Cole Simons: There are no further speakers, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Simons, can you mute your m icrophone . . . and the other apparatus that you have there because normally it is you causing all the problems, Mr. Simons, with reception here.
Hon. W. Lawrence Scott: The Shadow Minister’s first
question was about the Bermuda Airport Authority. This year the grant is for $14.7 million, this amount
includes the staff salaries. The revised amount from
2020/21 original was $14.5 million, that was revised from $35,513,000, that included funds paid to SkyPort
for the revenue guarantee.
And then the second question that the Shadow Minister asked was for me to explain my vision for the BAA. All right, Shadow Minister, here we go. So, I think it would be helpful to provide some context as to
why the BAA and the strategy for the BAA, which is
under Head 48, is so important.
We have to go back to the fact that under the
previous OBA administration, the project ag reement
did not protect Bermuda’s interests when it comes to the minimum regulated revenue guarantee. And that is based over fare arrivals and the passengers that
are carried thereon. So, the Shadow Minister asked
me about my role as Chairman of the Airpor t Author ity. And my role as the Chairman of the Airport Author ity was to create the country’s first Air Service Development Strategy. Now, why is that important? That is important because if we can increase the number of
flights to the Island, increase the number of passengers travelling to and from the Island, we decrease the
risk that all Bermudians have when it comes to having
to pay the minimum regulated revenue guarantee.
So, what we are doing right now is looking at
any and all viable options. So, it would be helpful for
the country to know that as the National Tourism
Strategy is focused on the Eastern Seaboard, is f ocused on the tri -state area, they believe that there are
economies of scale that can be leveraged, and Bermuda will enjoy the benefits. The economies of scale
that they are looking at are [the] 23 million persons
who live in the tri -state area. And so, therefore, the
914 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Bermuda Tourism Authority sees the tri -state area as
having 23 million possible or potential visitors to the
Island.
Howev er, the Ministry of Transport understands that and we are looking at other options. We have looked at the Azores, which was 250 [million],
roughly, potential visitors to the Island (because that is
the population). And we have now gone and helped
facilitat e a charter operation out of the Azores that
now comes to Bermuda. And it will be coming to Ber-muda, especially once a week, from June to Septem-ber.
Now, also what the Ministry believes is that
we share the vision of economies of scale but we also see greater economies of scale down in the Caribbe-an. The Caribbean has an estimated population of
roughly 44 million people. Now, if we can see three
flights per day from Bermuda to the tri -state area,
which has 23 million potential visitors, we believe that
one flight per week between Bermuda and the Cari bbean, with 44 million individuals or potential visitors,
would be very advantageous.
And just to break down the math, right now we
have roughly 198 Bermudians or individuals that go
from Bermuda down to the Caribbean, mainly the
most popular destination is Kingston, Jamaica. And
so, if you were to look at the economies of scale or what in math is called the golden ratio, you would then
have . . . that golden ratio would be 134,031 people in
the Caribbean that w ould most likely subscribe to a
non-stop service.
Now, I have to say non- stop versus direct because it is a very common misnomer that a direct flight means that it goes from one place to another.
That is incorrect. In the aviation industry a direct flight
is a flight that can go to three places. So, the Miami
flight from Bermuda . . . the American Airlines flight
from Bermuda to Miami, if that same aircraft then
goes on to Jamaica, that is considered direct.
What we are looking at in the Ministry of
Trans port is to have non-stop service between Bermuda and the Caribbean. And so, therefore, that
takes us back to that golden ratio of 134,031 persons. Now, if you were to look at that with the Caribbean
Airlines aircraft and the equipment that they have,
their aircraft seat 150 people. So, if you were to divide
the 134,031 people that we believe will potentially and
most likely subscribe to the Bermuda non- stop service, you could end up with basically 894 flights if you
were to just divide that straight.
But w hat ends up happening is that that gol den ratio . . . we in the Ministry believe . . . turns out to
a 17 to 1 ratio, meaning for every 1 person that leaves
Bermuda going down to the Caribbean, there are 17
people that would come from the Caribbean and come
to Bermuda. And so, therefore, that is part of why we
are looking at increasing flights, diversifying our product offering, and diversifying our wealth portfolio when
it comes the BAA and our air service development. But all of this dovetails seamlessly i nto the
National Tourism Plan which looks for jet -setters. Jet -
setters are those individuals who have an income of $250,000 per year.
Then you also look at the adventure seekers
who have an income of approximately $150,000 per year. And the Ministry believes that we will find those
types of individuals in bigger concentrations down in
the Caribbean than we would in the tri -state area. So,
now that is our air service development.
But also, the Shadow Minister asked me to
explain . . . that is just part of the vision for the Airport
Authority. The second part for the Airport Authority is,
remember, the Ministry is trying to mitigate the risk
which Bermuda has in having to pay the minimum
regulated revenue guarantee. So that is why the Mi nistry has directed t he Airport Authority to revisit and
once again reopen the research into our airspace ex-pansion.
Now, airspace expansion means . . . as it
stands right now, the Airport (meaning the air traffic
controller) controls five miles and 3,000 feet. Now, what happens is that moving from here, when we look
to expand our airspace from 5 miles to roughly 250
miles, now we can start to direct and do . . . and you
saw in the brief when we talked about air navigation
services. That is where we can provide air navigation
services. That is where we are creating possible new career opportunities for Bermudians here to get into
aviation and to do air traffic control and generate si gnificant revenue for the country, meaning that every
aircraft that flies through our airspace has to pay into the Bermudian coffers, meaning that every working
Bermudian— every Bermudian, every taxpayer in
Bermuda—tends to benefit from every flight that flies through our airspace.
And so, under the former Minister Shawn
Crockwell, he did a Boeing Jeppesen study back in
2012 and we are going to revisit that because, once again, any revenue generated airside under the pr oject agreement would go to SkyPort. But if we generate some small revenue for SkyPort that is less risk
that we would have to pay the minimum regulated
revenue guarantee. And so, now also, this now sort of
seamlessly parallels the Airport Authority going into the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority. And so, going
into the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority, what we are
looking at and what the y have been tasked to do is to
diversify their portfolio as well.
Now, it would be helpful for the public to understand, or note, that when it was under the gover nment and known as Civil Aviation, they were the go vernment’s largest cash cow or largest revenue gener-ator per capita. And I say per capita based off of the
number of employees. And so, now, what we are as king the Airport, the Civil Aviation Authority, to start to do is right now we generate revenue through the Civil Aviation Authority based off of aircraft that are regi stered in Bermuda. There was a news article recently


Bermuda House of Assembly that British Airways (who is retiring some of their 747s)
is going to put some of those aircraft on Bermuda’s
registry, which means that we are generating revenue
from that. But r ight now, most of our aircraft that are
on our registry are in the Eastern Bloc. What do I
mean by the Eastern Bloc? The Eastern Bloc is act ually Russia and [countries like] Uzbekistan and the
like. So, what we, the Ministry, are asking the Civil
Aviation Authority to do is to diversify their portfolio
and look at the BRICS countries. So, that would be Brazil, we already are in Russia, India, China and South Africa. But we would like to them to extend to
all of Africa and also the Middle East, looking for i ndividuals and/or airlines to register their aircraft on our
registry.
Now, they have also been asked to . . . and
this is all part of the vision that the Shadow Minister asked me to explain. We have also asked the Civil
Aviation Authority to look at how t o monetise rocket
launches. And if you are an aviation enthusiast, you
will have noticed that over the last couple of months there was a spike in rocket launches with missions to
Mars. I will not go into the astrophysics of all of that,
but, simply stated, every two years is a prime opportunity [when] Mars is closest to the earth and so,
therefore, larger government organisations will start to
launch rockets in trying to explore Mars.
We are trying to tap into that as an additional
revenue stream for Bermuda, given that we are one of the top places for aircraft registries. So, we would like
to have those rockets registered to the Bermuda
Rocket Registry, if or when that becomes available.
Right now, based off of what I stated earlier, that will mean we have roughly two years in which to start
moving things forward to be in a position to capitalise
on the next rush of rocket launches from China, Saudi
Arabia, Russia, and NASA with SpaceX.
Now, whilst we are on the Airport Authority
and the minimum regulated r evenue guarantee, that
will also show where the Ministry is going to leverage
the fact that we need to find a way to balance our
cruise arrivals with that of our air arrivals. If you look
at past numbers, you notice that there was a disparity between the c ruise [arrivals] which were, I believe at
roughly 650,000 versus your air arrivals, which were around 100,000, or the 200,000 benchmark. So, what we are going to do about that . . . and I am now moving to Head 30. This was held between Head 30 and
Head 48 as it is a joint initiative. Head 30 is Marine &
Ports, which would have the cruise industry, and Head 48 is the Airport and Airport Authority.
So, what we are looking to do is create an environment in which we can balance the cruise and air
arrivals toge ther. In doing that we are looking at innovative initiatives to motivate cruise lines to start looking more seriously at home porting. What does home porting mean? Home porting is when cruise lines
would actually leave out of Bermuda, use Bermuda as
an ori ginating . . . I will say base destination versus just an ending or stop- over destination. That would
mean that your air arrivals become your cruise visitors and your cruise visitors become your air arrivals.
Now, you have to appreciate that currently the
cruise industry is very fluid at best (pun intended). Therefore, we are really working hard, we are in talks
with multiple cruise lines on almost a daily basis trying
to ensure that they consider Bermuda number one on
their list when it comes to home porti ng. Why would
they start looking at us now, one might ask? That is a very good question. I am glad you asked it. The rea-son that somebody could get the cruise lines to look at
Bermuda is because of the fact that the CDC and the
UK have closed their ports or have restricted cruises
into and/or out of their waters.
Using Bermuda’s geographical location, which
is an hour and a half from the eastern seaboard, and also, just maybe a few hours from the UK, that we can
. . . and then also we are only a day or two days sail
away from the Caribbean. We are in a prime location at a prime time in which we can start to entice [cruise
lines] to start to look at home porting, to look at basing out of Bermuda, and taking those customers to other
jurisdictions.
Now, what i s the risk to Bermuda? The risk to
Bermuda in this COVID -19 environment is, once
again, COVID -19 itself. But the cruise industry is looking to go and become, what they call, fully vaccinated.
You will notice that Royal Caribbean just made an
announcement i n Israel that they are going to be basing most, if not all, of their Mediterranean cruises out
of Israel. That is a significant economic impact or ec onomic infusion to the Israeli economy.
We are looking to try to replicate that now.
Right now, if everyth ing were to go as planned with
this new home porting initiative, if we were able to
capitalise on it, this has the potential to infuse $75
million worth of economic impact to the country. And
that also would allow for us to potentially put roughly a thousa nd Bermudians back to work. And where do we
get that thousand number from? There are 600 taxi
owners, there are 150 mini -bus operators, and then
we also have those numbers in the hotel industry that
would be going back to work.
Because, remember, the way that things are
set up is that they will not be able to fly right in and get straight onto a cruise ship–– as well as when the
cruise ship does come back, they will not be able to
go straight to the airport ––but they would have to stay
in a hotel [both times]. But once again, they would be fully vaccinated, and even though the current health policy is that they would still do the testing prior to arrival, on arrival and the like. And so, therefore, that is
where we are looking to go, under Head 30 with M arine & Ports, we are looking to do that.
Now, also talking about [moving] per sons
around t he Island, I just want to clear up a misunderstanding. I understand where it comes from. The way
that things are written in the Budget Book, it can make
916 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly it look or seem as though we are getting new ferries.
There are no new ferries coming to the Island this
year. However, there are new buses scheduled to
come. And we are looking at having 30 new buses
arrive by the end of the fiscal year. And how will this help Bermuda?
Let me just give a few numbers so that persons can understand. Currently, we have approx imately, on any given day, roughly 65 working buses
out of a fleet of 90. Now, with those numbers we are
at the lowest inventory numbers since the 1960s, since my father was around and actually younger than
me. That is a long time ago. So, what happens in
moving forward is that we now have a summer
schedule that needs roughly 70 buses to operate eff iciently. And then we have a winter schedule which
needs 88 buses to run effectively.
Now, the difference between the summer
schedule and the winter schedule is those school
runs. Those school runs are now being serviced by
mini- buses. The mini -bus contract was being funded
through funded but vacant posts. With the removal of
those funded but vacant posts, we no longer have the
funding allotment to be able to afford to have the dedicated mini -buses. But what we will have is an i ncreased usable number of buses.
So, with the 30 new buses that we will be taking delivery of, once we take delivery and they become operational, we will have to retire 10 buses that
are currently in service right away. That would then
leave 20 buses on top of 55, which then takes you to
75 buses. That allows us to provide consistent reliable
service for . . . if we were to focus on doing the summer schedule year -round.
So, that means that we will not be providing
dedicated school runs. But we will be rerouting buses
around schools at strategic times of the day to ensure
that children, our students, which are our most pr ecious resource, can get to and from school safely. We know that this option works. It worked when I was
young. It worked when Neville Tyrrell was young. So,
therefore, it is tried and true. And, Mr. Chairman, I believe it worked when you were young as well. So, therefore, we know that it is tried and true.
Therefore, the $1.3 million that was spent in
this 2020/21 budget to get children to and from school via mini -buses we no longer have, so, therefore, we
have to look at better ways in whi ch to utilise the high
value assets that we have. Those high value assets are that of the buses, which are all electric.
The question was asked, what is the warranty
on them? There is a two- year warranty on the bus
itself, but an eight -year warranty on the batteries and
the electric propulsion system.
Now, also on top of that, what we are going to
be doing when it comes to the buses is that . . . you
have heard me talk about digital fare media. Digital
fare media is a gamechanger in the Bermuda env ironment. It will allow us to track our buses in real time using real world data. It also will allow for buses to
have passenger counters, buses to have Wi -Fi, buses
to have GPS. Now, it is not just the buses that will be
getting a modern refit, it will also be the ferries. I understand that we do have a ferry that is currently in
Boston that is getting retrofitted and will have GPS
closed- circuit cameras on board. And we are still tr ying to work out the challenge with Wi -Fi. The reason
that Wi -Fi is more of a chall enge on ferries than it is
on buses is that they are fast -moving and they move
offshore. Therefore, they are just skipping a bit too
fast from one tower to the other , but that is going to be
a code that we are going to crack , that we believe that
we can cr ack in the near future.
Going back to the buses, currently what ends
up happening . . . and we are also going to have passenger counters on the buses. So as passengers get on they will be counted. We will then be able to see . .
. the Ministry will then be able to see how many people were on what buses at what times and allow for us to have more strategic, more effective and more eff icient scheduling done. It bears [repeating] again . . .
and I want to stress this because I want to put this
challenge out th ere so persons can forward us a
comment. The goal for DPT is to provide reliable,
consistent bus service. So, when you look at your
schedule and you see that the number 8 Middle Road
bus is going to show up at your stop at 8:00, we want you to be able to k now that it is going to show up at
8:00.
Now, this does not mean that we can continue
to run the bus schedules that we have always had and that have always been running. We are going to run a
schedule that allows us to meet that consistency
which is allott ed for with the inventory that we have,
meaning that it can run on a 70- bus schedule. So that
is where we go with that, that is the buses, that is
Head 35 DPT, that is Head 30 Marine & Ports.
And then, when it comes to TCD . . . now, with
TCD we have sever al initiatives. One thing that makes
me proud of TCD and the team that I have is that al though our resources may not be as much as we
would like them to be, we are still able to provide the
same level of quality service that Bermudians have
come to expect from TCD. Therefore, there is going to be a modernisation with the central dispatching. Also
under TCD, part of the remit is road safety.
As I explained in the brief, we are in phase 2
of Operation Caution. And with us being in phase 2 of Operation Cautio n it is not as costly as it was in phase
1. We believe that phase 1 was successful and, if we
were challenged, we would use 2019’s road statistics
as the way to prove that, being that we had the lowest
number of road fatalities in 2019 that we have had in
some time.
But also what has happened is that we are also looking to combine, or include, or continue our joint initiatives between the Bermuda Police Service and
the Road Safety Council, and that will be [from] more


Bermuda House of Assembly of an educational aspect. So it is teac hing persons
about safe road operations. We are also going to be
seeing . . . you will start to see the Ministry come out
with infographics and little short infomercials about what is lawful and what is unlawful. There are certain things that we have been doing for quite some time
that are unlawful. And there are certain things that
because we have been doing them for quite some
time we believe that it is lawful. So, we just want to
make sure that persons are in tune with what is lawful
and what is unlawful . Therefore, once again, this will
take us to our traffic officers and the like. And our traffic officers go out and ensure that everybody is operating within the regulations.
Now, Shadow Minister, that brings me to the
end of the answer to your second question. I now go
on to question number three. Shadow Minister Pearman asked about the regulatory policy with the hotel
administration. That has been moved to the Cabinet
Office and was included in my brief.
The Shadow Minister also asked why the salaries have been reduced. The PS salary moved to the
Cabinet Office. The regulatory policy sector moved to
the Cabinet Office.
The other question was the travel budget.
Why a $104,000 budget in 2020/21? Most of the travel would have been related to tourism -related activities.
Professional Service— last year $211,000
originally, revised to $239,000; $281,000 was budgeted. This is for support for local events and professional services for projects and consultants. Let me talk
about the local events.
Local events, such as the PGA, local events
such as the Grand Slam, the Sailing GP, and the likes, that is what we would be using that money for,
as we know we will be asked for in- time services.
Shadow Minister Pearman, also asked, where
do we stand on objectives of air ser vice development?
I think I covered that already. I can start from the beginning if you would like.
Upgrades on infrastructure —we covered that
in buses.
The ferry and the pilot boat refits. The fact is,
we are purchasing one pilot boat, and we are retrofi tting the ferries that are currently in service, hence, they are just at that time.
The facilities upgrade. I am glad that you
asked that question. The facilities upgrade under Marine & Ports is much needed. We believe that what we
are going to do is . . . what we want to do is invest in
our people. And what do I mean? We need to make sure that they enjoy coming to work because of the environment, not just the community environment, but
the physical space itself. So we will be combining the
two work areas, the work area that is in town and the
work area that is up to Dockyard, in one of the old
America’s Cup buildings, which is perfectly located
right there [at the] waterside to allow for all the work to
be done and it does not put our visitors in harm’s way when we are starting to take boats up and take boats
down, especially when our cruise visitors are going to
be our air visitors and our air visitors are going to be
our cruise visitors, if we are able to [finalise] the initi ative that we are working on and to create the environment for that to be brought to fruition.
Then we have fare media, which we already
talked about.
The Shadow Minister also asked about the
regulatory policy enforcement. Those four staff were moved to the Cabinet Office.
Then the Shadow Minister also asked about
the grants for Bermuda Hero’s Weekend, Cup Match
and the World Triathlon. They all come under the
BTA, the Bermuda Tourism Authority, which is under
the Cabinet Office.
Cruises, can we give an update? We have, I
think, talked about the cruises.
The cruise ship casino licences have been
moved to the Cabinet Office.
Hotel licenses have been moved to the Cabinet Office.
We then have risk management to satisfy
compliance with international standards. The new Marine & Ports Servic e Act 2021 will be coming into operation soon, as discussed and covered in my brief.
Then you have the navigational aids, why are
they down from $751[,000] to $541[,000]? That was
done by defunded vacant posts and it was $678[,000]
budgeted for those posts .
The Tug Service, reduction in operational
costs, [for] cruise ships [and] non-cruise ships].
I spoke about the Dockyard’s maintenance i ncrease.
The National Health Emergency COVID -19
expenses were $55,000, which is not anticipated to be
needed for 2021/ 22.
The Ferry Service. Let me take a minute to
talk about the Ferry Service. As I said in the brief, we
are going to provide a consistent and reliable ferry
service, just as we want to do with DPT, but it will be
based off of what the budget can allow. That being
said, we will not be able to provide the St. George’s
Ferry, as that was $400,000 that we were not able to
find in the budget. But we will continually revisit that option. If and when our cruise season takes off, we
will probably look to see if we can then fit it in at that
time.
Also, to reduce some posts —the moorings
and boats. While I have quite a few more minutes,
moorings and boats . . . what we are looking at . . . we
know that there are boat owners that own multiple
moorings, but yet there is one simple flat fee. We are
looking at making this a lot more user friendly. So, we
are doing the research in having . . . if you have mult iple moorings, your first mooring is one price, your second one is an additional price, if you have a third one, it is even more than that, if you have a fourth
918 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly one, it goes up exponentially from there. So, once
again, that is what we are looking at doing.
Also, when it comes to boats, the Water Saf ety Council is looking to implement boat competency
examinations. Right now, somebody like myself and
MP Neville Tyrrell could buy a 50- foot boat and— oh,
sorry, Neville Tyrrell says a 60 -foot boat —not knowing
the difference between port and starboard, or bow and stern, and go motoring around the Island. We believe
that this is dangerous. The Water Safety Council believes that is dangerous and is looking at the possibi lity of implementing a boat competency exam for those persons who own a boat. And so, that might be som ething that you will probably hear about coming up over
the course of the next fiscal year.
Mr. Chairman, how much time do I have left?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon to all Members.
Members, as you are well aware, we are now
in Committee of Supply for further consideration of the
Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the year
2021/22. Heads 86 and 23 are now t o be debated.
I call on the Minister in charge to proceed.
Minister Tinee Furbert, you do have the floor.
MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
AND SENIORS
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Madam Chair man.
Madam Chair man, I move [that] the following
Heads: 86 Ministry of Social Development and Se niors Headquarters; and 23 Child and Family Services,
be now taken under consideration.

Approved. Move on.
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Madam Chair man.
Madam Chair man, I am pleased to present
the financial year 2021/22 Estimates of Revenue and
Expenditure for the Ministry of Social Development and Seniors.
Madam Chair man, I will briefly discuss the
Ministry as a whole, followed by information for Head 86—the Ministry Headquarters; and then, in detail, the
Department of Child and Family Services —Head 23.
Madam Chair man, four hours have been all ocated for these Heads. I intend to speak for approx imately two and a half hours in order to give sufficient
time for the Opposition to ask questions or seek clar ification on the financial year 2021/22 Estimates of
Revenue and Expenditure.
Madam Chair man, the Ministry of Social D evelopment
Madam Chairman, the Ministry of Social D evelopment and Seniors is a new Ministry that was
created on the 9
th of October 2020. The Ministry comprises the Department of Child and Family Services, Ageing and Disability Services, the K. Margaret Carter
Centre, and also responsibility for the Human Rights
Commission and charities. Madam Chairman, the
mission of the Ministry of Social Development and
Seniors is the protection of all individuals during their
lifetime and facilitation of well -being.
Madam Chairman, Bermuda’s success is contingent on the well -being of our residents and their
ability to live prosperous and fulfilling lives . One may
be wondering, What is social development? Social
development is about improving the well -being of ev ery individual in society so that they can reach their full potential. The success of our society is linked to the
well-being of each and every resident. This can only
be accomplished if we uphold our collective respons ibility by investing in our people and providing opportunities for residents to grow and develop their own
skills to empower them to achieve their full potential to
be able to contribute to their families and the comm unity in a meaningful way.
Madam Chairman, as the result of Bermuda's
economy, many of our residents have been provided with opportunities that have led them to enjoy a very
comfortable lifestyle. However, as a government and
as a community we must be honest with ourselves
and accept that this is not the reality for all of our res idents. Madam Chairman, unfortunately many of those


Bermuda House of Assembly amongst us have not had equal access to the same
opportunities and have been marginalised and are
struggling. These individuals are in need of support for
the basic necessities such as food, housing, clothing
and health care either through the government, churches or third sector organisations.
Madam Chairman, regrettably the COVID -19
pandemic has heightened the pre- pandemic economic
challenges and has added to the number of residents
who through no fault of their own find themselves in a
very difficult financial situation. While we focus on these financial challenges, we must also address the
social consequences that fall from this and ensure
that the community support and services are avail able.
Madam Chairman, as we all are aware, this
global challenge has had an impact on our Island.
However, throughout our history when we are faced
with chall enges, we unite as a community and come
out much stronger —Quo Fata Ferunt. With this ideo logy in mind and the strong leadership of this Gover nment, we will navigate through this and evolve into a better and stronger community. We must all play our
part and assist the most vulnerable within our community.
Madam Chairman, my initial focus for the Mi nistry of Social Development and Seniors is to ensure that the social policy and services are in place to pr otect, assist, inform and empower the most vulnerable within our community. The mission statement, pr ogrammes and budget for the Ministry are aligned with
this in mind.

Ministry Priorities for 2021/22

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Madam Chairman, before I pr oceed with the specific details of the budget, I want to
inform this Honourable House of some of the Mini stry’s priorities for this upcoming financial year, which will include the following:
A National Senior Strategy will be developed
to achieve this Government’s initiatives set out in the Throne Speech. The Mini stry intends to invite the Legislature to consider the strategies which will have particular emphasis on dementia care and a prevention
plan for senior abuse.
To fulfil another initiative set out by the Go vernment in the Throne Speech, the Ministry of Soc ial
Development and Seniors will seek the extension of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Di sabilities to Bermuda. This extension will uphold and reaffirm the government’s commitment that all per-sons, irrespective of their type of disability, must enjoy
fundamental human rights and freedoms .
The Ministry will introduce legislation to r eplace the Child Placement Board with a Children’s
Commission. The commission’s remit will be to adv ocate for children in care, and to promote and uphold best pr actice policies, programmes and services to meet children’s needs. The Ministry intends the Chi ldren’s Commission to provide further oversight to al-low Bermuda to meet and maintain international best
practice when it relates to our children.
Children in t he Department of Child and Fam ily Services care will have the option to an indepen dent living programme to remain in care beyond the
age of 18 years old. The Department of Child and
Family Services will establish this programme to enable those who wish [to do so] to continue to receive
support and services by way of housing options, life
skills assistance, postsecondary education, career
guidance and access to physical and mental health
care.

Grants and Contributions
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Grants and contrib utions allocated in the fiscal year of 2021/22 is in the amount of
$2,691,000, or 44 per cent of the Ministry of Social
Development and Seniors Headquarters budget. The
allocated amount will be distributed to charities and organisations within our communit y that align with the
Ministry’s mission, namely, Age Concern, rest homes,
the Women’s Resource Centre, Vision Bermuda, ( or
[Care of the Blind], Meals on Wheels, the Salvation
Army shelter, Summerhaven, the Centre Against
Abuse, Packwood Rest Homes, and To morrow’s
Voices. The Ministry intends to ensure value for money from our partners in these charities and organis ation.
During financial year 2021/22, the Ministry will
advance and implement a homeless strategy to assist those within our community who are homeless. The
strategy will allow the Government to further extend its
remit in proactively providing vulnerable individuals
and families with the assistance and services [they]
require to mitigate the risk of homelessness.
The Ministry of Social Development and Seniors is committed to working with the public and pr ivate stakeholders whose programmes and services
encourage the advancement of upward social mobility
and opportunities for families within our communities
who have traditionally been disadvantaged. The Mi nistry of Social Development and Seniors is collaborating with the third sector by setting up working groups to ensure that policies and legislation for the not -forprofit sector is modern and reflects Bermuda’s current
and future needs.
This includes ensuring we remain in good
standing with our National Anti -Money Laundering
Committee responsibilities. There will also be a wor king group to coordinate a more efficient and effective
delivery of service within our communities.
Madam Chairman, I w ould like to now draw
your attention to page B -284 of the Estimates Book,
where you will note that the Social Development and
Seniors Ministry’s budget for the financial year
2021/22 is $23,733,000. I am unable to provide a
920 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly comparison with the budget for f iscal year 2020/21 for
Ministry Headquarters, as the Ministry is new. Howe ver, I am able to provide a year -over-year comparison
for the Department of Child and Family Services,
which will be discussed under Head 23.
Madam Chairman, page B -284 shows a rev enue estimate for the Department of Child and Family
Services of $192,000 under Head 23, which is no
change from the revenue estimate over financial year
2020/21 for Head 23. Madam Chairman, page B -284
also details the current account expenditure of the
departments that make up the overall budget for the
Ministry by head, as follows:
• Head 86— Ministry Headquarters, fiscal year
2021/22 [estimate] $6.084 million;
• Head 23—Child and Family Services, fiscal
year 2020/21 [estimate] $16.441 million, fiscal
year 202 1/22 [estimate] $17.649 million;
The Ministry total is $23.733 million.
Madam Chairman, the summary shows that
financial year 2021/22 estimates for Head 23 have
increased from the original estimate of $16,441,000 to
$17,649,000, an increase of $1,208,000, or 7 per
cent. I will discuss the reason for this increase when I present the details in Head 23.
Madam Chairman, it is worth noting at this
point (it can be seen on page C -21) that the budget for
the Ministry includes some $4,031,000, or 17 per cent,
in grants and contributions. A number of these grants
were previously budgeted and managed at other Mi nistry Headquarters and now fall to this Ministry as they
were within the social development purview. The
grants and contributions include the following:
• $15,000 for Age Concern;
• $1,350,000 for rest homes;
• $100,000 for the Women’s Resource Centre
to provide support for disadvantaged women
and their families as part of their transform ational support services programme;
• $15,000 for Vision Bermuda, or C are of th e
Blind;
• $48,000 for Meals on Wheels;
• $550,000 for the Salvation Army to provide
emergency shelter on North Street;
• $600,000 for Summerhaven;
• $13,000 for Tomorrow’s Voices to provide
early intervention services to children with
disorders on the autism spec trum and other
developmental disabilities;
• $890,000 for foster care fees;
• $375,000 for Teen Services; and
• $75,000 for cross -ministry initiatives on housing and treatment for families in crisis.
Madam Chairman, $150,000 has also been budgeted
in the Ministr y’s Headquarters for a grant allocation to
the Centre Against Abuse.
Madam Chairman, these grants and contributions align with the Ministry’s focus to protect the most vulnerable in our community, and working in partnership with the third sector to ensure efficient and effective delivery of services to this community.

HEAD 86 —MINISTRY OF SOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT AND SENIORS
HEADQUARTERS
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Madam Chairman, the current
account expenditure for Head 86— the Ministry of S ocial Development and Seniors Headquarters will now
be presented and can be found on pages B -285
through B -289 of the Estimates Book. Madam Chai rman, the Ministry Headquarters embraces the Mini stry’s overall mission to provide for the protection of all
individuals during their lifet ime and facilitation of well -
being with the following Ministry Headquarter objectives:
• develop and implement policies to facilitate
access, social cohesion, growth and development, individual responsibility, a better
quality of life, greater inclusiveness and diversity, and civic engagement in the community;
• ensure that the provision of social develo pment services are effective and valuable and outcome- driven;
• protect and enhance the rights of children, adults, seniors, disadvantaged and vulnerable persons ;
• build safe and healthy families and communi-ties, and
• work collaboratively with the third sector to
enable effective delivery of social develo pment services to the community.
Madam Chairman, the financial year 2021/22
estimate of expenditure and revenue for Head 86 —
Ministry of Social Development and Seniors Headquarters can be found on page B -286 of the Estimates
Book. The Ministry Headquarters is responsible for
the budget of five business units:
• 96000— Administration;
• 96040— Ageing and Disability Services ;
• 96050— K. Margaret Carter Centre;
• 96060— Policy Development ;
• 96070—Grants to the Third Sector .
Madam Chairman, page B -286 shows that the
total budget allocation for the Ministry Headquarters
for fiscal year 2021/22 is $6,084,000 split between the
following business units: 96000— Administration ;
96040— Ageing and Disability Services ; 96050 —K.
Margaret Carter Centre; 96060— Policy Development ;
and 96070—Grants to the Third Sector . Madam
Chairman, as previously stated in my presentation, as
a new Ministry we cannot do a comparison for the
budget for financial year 2020/21.
Madam Chairman, the budget of $612,000 for
business unit 96000 —Administration relates to the
Ministry Headquarters. Madam Chairman, the budget
allocation includes $300,000 for litigation guar dians


Bermuda House of Assembly and counsel appointed by the court under the Children
Act of 1998 to represent children. Madam Chairman,
as mentioned earlier, $150,000 from this business unit
by way of a grant allocation will be provided to the
Centre Against Abuse. Madam Chairman, the balance
of funds are for the operational costs of the Ministry
Headquarters.
Madam Chairman, in order to provide context
for some of the budgetary figures showing in the sub-jective analysis of current account estimates for Mini stry Headquarters on page B -286, I will describe the
funding allocation and associated activity connected with business unit 96040 —Ageing and Disability Se rvices and 96050—the K. Margaret Carter Centre.

Programme 96040— Ageing
and Disability Services

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Madam C hairman, business unit
96040— Ageing and Disability Services has a budget
estimate of $1,013,000. This unit was previously u nder the Ministry of Health and for financial year
2020/21 had an original budget estimate of
$1,020,000. The reduction of $7,000 rel ates to the
temporary reduction in salaries. Madam Chairman,
the mission of Ageing and Disability Services is to
support and protect seniors and persons with disabil ities at risk of abuse or self -neglect via compliance
programme delivery, education and stakeholder col-laboration.
Madam Chairman, the Office of Ageing and
Disability Services [ADS], located in the Continental Building, 25 Church Street, Hamilton, provides a range of services to address the needs of seniors and
persons with disabilities. The following services pr ovided by ADS focus on public education and awar eness; accessibility and case management , namely
• senior abuse reporting and investigation,
which involves the investigation of all forms of
senior abuse including physical, sexual and
psychological abuse; financial exploitation;
and physical and psychological neglect that is
reported to ADS either by calling 292- 7802 or
by emailing a completed ADS referral and r eporting form to ADS at www.gov.bm
. ADS a lso keeps it s Senior Abuse Register that is
maintained by the Registrar.
• Case management offers assistance with care
needs assessment, coordinating care and
identifying access with services. Additional i nformation on case management will be pr ovided shortly in my presentation.
• Accessibility consultation provides advice to
developers on accessibility requirements and
best practices.
• Long- term care resources provide seniors and
persons with disabilities information about community and government resources. • Education a nd Training develop and impl ement public education and awareness events
to enhance the community’s understanding of
services, actions and issues pertaining to per-sons with disabilities and ageing.
• Events lists community events geared toward seniors and persons with disabilities.
• Policy and Programme Development supports
the planning, development and coordination of
policies and programmes for seniors with
physical and intellectual disabilities.
Madam Chairman, Case Management repr esents the largest staff ing contingent and primary pr ogramme focus for ageing and disability services. The
current team is committing to supporting our seniors and persons with disabilities in the community with
case management services. Case management services are inclusive of clients received in senior abuse
reporting under the Senior Abuse Register Act of
2008. The purpose of this legislation is to protect seniors from abuse, to establish a register of persons who have abused seniors, to provide for mandatory repor ting on the abuse of seniors and to make supplementary provision for those purposes.
Madam Chairman, over the last year COVID -
19 has placed a strain on the case management section, which was already coping with stretched r esources pre- COVID -19. Owing to COVID -19, a n umber of seniors required assistance in getting to the
grocery store or the pharmacy. To assist, case managers obtained grocery and medication vouchers from
the third sector group and dropped supplies off to seniors’ homes. Our team not only distributed ha nd san itiser to seniors across the Island, but also conducted
welfare checks on vulnerable seniors with limited
family support or no next -of-kin support.
Madam Chairman, to deal with the additional
demands, ADS required additional resources in the
form of two staff and streamlined functions within the
office to provide more efficient and effective service
delivery for our seniors and persons with disabilities.
Madam Chairman, in financial year 2020/21 a full 200
cases were managed by the case management st aff.
These cases ranged from low to high risk based on
the needs and circumstances of each client. The
types of services and/or support required for high- risk
clients are often more complex and intense. These
can be seniors or persons between the ages of 18
and 64 years old with disabilities and involve abuse
allegations, self -neglect or circumstances of limited- tono available or accessible resources or support for
their needs.
In addition, it can include cases requiring
lengthy case management. For example, 16 per cent
of all cases have had active intervention a year after
initial intake. Intensive case management support to one client alone with intellectual disabilities totalled 20
hours per month due to complex, multiple needs. This
particular case res ulted in the need for an overseas
922 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly placement being identified and Ageing and Disability
Services contributing $35,000 in funding support t owards this placement.
There were 87 reported cases of alleged
abuse in various forms, which include physical, ps ychological and sexual abuse, financial exploitation and
neglect. Out of all of the reports received by ADS, physical abuse made up the highest portion of reports
received at 30 per cent, while financial exploitation
and psychological abuse was the second- highest at
19 per cent. The remaining 51 per cent are a combination of neglect and sexual abuse.
Madam Chairman, ADS works in collaboration
with the Bermuda Police Service on abuses, and where appropriate cases proceed to charges and prosecution. During financ ial 2020/21 ADS supported
45 clients in Bermuda Police- related investigations in
conjunction with the Bermuda Police Service, two of
which were referenced to persons under the age of
65.
Madam Chairman, Case Management currently has three case managers, one supervisor and
one case manager assistant. Currently the average
caseload is approximately 40 clients per worker,
which falls outside of best practice ratios of 25 clients
per worker. This staff -to-client ratio results in caseload
and time allocations being focused on high- risk cases,
resulting in delayed timeframes for more low -risk or
preventative case management work. Madam Chai rman, a management service review of ADS is underway to ensure that the section can be properly r esourced to meet the grow ing demand and need for
these services within our community.
Madam Chairman, in financial year 2021/22,
operational improvements for Ageing and Disability
Services will be made through the acquisition of a new case management software platform. In order to k eep
costs down, we will be doing a phased approach of
purchasing and implementing the software modules.
The first module is the safety assessment at $15,000,
which is one of four assessments to be obtained from
a Standard Decision Making (SDM) tool to use in conjunction with the new case management software plat-form.
The SDM tool is a suite of best practice assessments that promote safety and well -being for
those most at risk. The SDM model offers workers a
framework for consistent decision- making. Also, it will
assist the office to target in -demand resources to vulnerable persons who are at high risk for being abused
and/or neglected.
Madam Chairman, education and awareness
are essential components to ADS’s mission. Key
achievements and work completed during the financial
year 2020/21 include the following:
• The ADS accessibility officers completed over
23 assessments, consultations for compl iance, but also for consultation and advice to
promote accessible design to the community; • [this fell] significantly below ADS’s target o wing to the COVID -19 restrictions .
• ADS celebrated International Day for Persons
With Disabilities on December the 3
rd, 2020,
in collaboration with other service providers .
• Owing to COVID -19 restrictions, WindReach
offered a free virtual common- ground conference with a theme entitled Amplifying Community Voices , in which ADS, the Accessibility
Officer and the Minister of the Ministry of S ocial Development and Seniors participated as pane llists.
• ADS offered a virtual lunchtime workshop called Access for All: Universal Design: Bat hroom Accessibility International Day on D ecember the 2
nd, 2020;
• ADS provided five information sessions on its
programme and services to stakeholder
groups, which included the Bermuda Police
Service, the Bermuda Ba nkers Association,
local banks and Therapeutic Consulting Services.
As stated earlier in my presentation, this year
ADS will participate in the community awareness and
education campaign entitled Dementia Care in Bermuda, in addition to continuing educat ion on preven ting abuse.
Madam Chairman, I would like to thank the
staff at ADS for their dedication and commitment to
our seniors and persons with disabilities during an
unprecedented year that gave rise to very challenging
circumstances.

K. Margaret Ca rter Centre

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Madam Chairman, the K. Margaret Carter Centre, also known as KMCC, manages
enrichment and training programmes for persons over 18 years old with cognitive developmental and phys ical disabilities within the community. These pr ogramme services are provided by KMCC during the
weekdays. KMCC has a budget allocation of
$1,751,000, which funds 17 staff in delivering client
and support services to 50 service users participating
in six different programmes.
Madam Chairman, this uni t was previously
under the Ministry of Health and for financial year 2020/21 had an original budget estimate of
$1,859,000. The reduction of $108,000 relates to the
defunding of two posts and a temporary reduction in
salaries.
Madam Chairman, the KMCC managers enrichment and training programmes for persons over
the age of 18 years old with cognitive developmental
and physical disabilities will be further elaborated on
in my presentation.
Madam Chairman, these programmes have
been affected by the global pa ndemic and the
measures that the country put in place as a result of


Bermuda House of Assembly the first local COVID -19 cases, which led to the cl osure of KMCC to ensure the safety of staff and clients
alike. Whilst the facility was closed, staff members
were redeployed to assist i n other areas within go vernment. Since the public bus service was not operating, KMCC’s bus drivers assisted with transporting
long-term care staff to and from work. Also, other staff
members assisted with contact tracing, home care
support and with setting up and breaking down
COVID -19 popup vaccine sites.
Madam Chairman, prior to the K. Margaret
Carter Centre reopening in September 2020, a signif icant amount of time afterward was spent in updating
the facility’s safety and health policies to align with t he
Health Ministry’s COVID -19 prevention protocols and
guidance. This included air quality improvement in the
facilities, purchasing safety equipment and supplies,
vehicle fleet refurbishment for improved cleaning and
disinfection, and staff training in updated safety and
health protocol, CPR, PPE equipment and environmental health (COVID -19 prevention) with a focus on
environmental cleaning and COVID -19 testing for cl ients.
Madam Chairman, since the reopening of the
facilities in September 2020, overall K MCC has i mproved its infection prevention and control measures, especially in the environmental areas, which has con-tributed to ultimately keeping the clients and staff safe
during this next stage of COVID -19.
Madam Chairman, I would like to take this
opportunity to thank Aeolus Capital Management, one of KMCC’s community partners for the equipment they
donated to KMCC’s sickroom. The sickroom provides a comfortable area for clients to be isolated if they
become unwell during the course of the day prior to
their pickup.
Madam Chairman, prior to KMCC’s reopening, the implementation of new routines and practices was introduced to mitigate the risk of transmitting
COVID -19, factoring in the room sizes and client
numbers at the facility along with the need to remain
compliant with COVID -19 guidelines. KMCC has been
forced to operate at its normal capacity. These factors have also impacted the vocational programme, which
has had its participation numbers reduced.
Madam Chairman, to place this within more
contex t, 30 per cent of all of KMCC’s clients currently
continue to attend onsite and participate in work -
based projects. However, clients remain in their bubbles, which prevents their engaging in community -
based work. Some of the work contracts that the cl ients have been involved in prior to the pandemic, unfortunately, have not been continued in order to r emain compliant with COVID -19 regulations. Further,
10 per cent of the clients continue to produce crafts
that members of the community are able to purchase.
Madam Chairman, the Eco- Schools pr ogramme of the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Inst itute has remained a viable programme with classes shifting from in- person sessions to remote sessions
via Zoom and staff support. Also clients remain activ ely involved wi th Keep Bermuda Beautiful [KBB] by co llating kits for items, clean- up and beautification ventures. I am pleased to advise that KMCC was awar ded KBB’s 2020 Presidential Award for the role that the
clients have played in supporting the organisation.
Madam C hairman, at this time I would like to
take this opportunity to congratulate the clients of KMCC, who continue to make a difference in our
community through partnering with KBB to keep our Island clean. Also, I would like to express my apprec iation to all of the staff members at KMCC who provide
us with a safe, caring and loving environment. Thank
you.
Madam Chairman, business unit 96060 hich
relates to Policy Development for the Ministry Hea dquarters and has a budget of $17,000 for office supplies. I spoke earlier of the policy matters under development, including the national fee strategy and the homelessness strategy.
Madam Chairman, business unit 96070 are
grants to the third sector. And I spoke earlier about how the $2,691,000 would be distributed to c harities
and organisations within our community that align with
the Ministry’s mission, namely, Age Concern, rest
homes, the Women’s Resource Centre, Vision Ber-muda, (or Care for the Blind), Meals on Wheels, Sal-vation Army shelter, Summerhaven, the Centre
Against Abuse, Packwood Rest Home and Tomorrow’s Voices. As stated, the Ministry intends to ensure
value for money from our partners in these charities and organisations.
Madam Chairman, whilst it is not possible to
do a year -over-year comparison for the new Ministry
in a subjective analysis of current account estimates
as shown on page B -286, I will speak briefly to the
amounts for financial year 2021/22. Madam Chai rman, salaries and wages totals some at $2,154,000
and relate to the salaries and wages for the 26 full -
time employees. Training of $5,000 is for local training
including report writing and conducting investigations.
Travel of $32,000 includes funds for both local travel
and overseas travel to check on complex -case clients
who are in overseas facilities. Communications of
$48,000, which includes phones, courier and postal
costs. Advertising and promotion of $26,000 is for the
brochures, pamphlets, advertising and the like to pr omote the services of ADS and KMCC. Professional
services of $735,000 includes funds for litigation
guardians, litigation counsel, the Centre of Seniors
Abuse and consulting services.
The care and maintenance of $114, [000] includes funds for maintenance of vehicles, equipment,
as well as professional cleaning services at KM CC
and the offices. Insurance of $113,000 is for clients who do not have the basic health care insurance providing them with care insurance. Energy of
$56,000 is for the facility’s energy costs. Materials and
924 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly supplies of $95,000 includes office supplies, books,
vocational supplies and food. Grants and contributions
were addressed earlier in my presentation.
Madam Chairman, on page B -287 you will
note that employee numbers relate to two pr ogrammes within the Ministry of Social Development
and Seniors Headq uarters. The full -time equivalent
positions remain unchanged at nine for business unit
96040— Ageing and Disability Services, and 17 for
business unit 96050 —K. Margaret Carter Centre.
Madam Chairman, this concludes my remarks
on Head 86.

Yes. Thank you. Continue, Minister.

HEAD 23 —DEPARTMENT OF CHILD AND
FAMILY SERVICES

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Madam Chairman, I now wish to present fiscal
year 2021/22 estimates of expenditure for Head 23—
the Department of Child and Family Services, which is
found on pages B -290 through B -293 of the Estimates
Book.
Madam Chairman, the Department of Child
and Family Services (DCFS) mission is protecting children by strengthening families. The objectives of
the department are to
• minimise and eliminate those social, psychological and other conditions known to cause or
contribute to physical and emotional illness
and sometimes social -economic problems;
• promote growth and directional change in
people and their social situation;
• assist in facilitating or improving social support for those in our populations who are at
risk; • provide treatment or curative services to address dysfunction and thereby assist people
to function better in society;
• restore individuals to a healthy condition or
useful capacity.
The department car ries out its objectives by
providing investigative services, day care services,
care and protection services for children; residential
and home- based services for families; assessment,
intervention and counselling services for children,
adolescents and families.
Madam Chairman, the current account est imates for Head 23 begin on page B -291 of the Est imates Book. A total of $17,649,000 has been allocated for Head 23 for the fiscal year 2021/22. This repr esents an increase of $1,208,000, or a 7 per cent, i ncrease over the original budget for 2020/21. Madam
Chairman, the Department of Child and Family Services continues to focus on developing an integrated service that allows children, adolescents and families
to receive services that are appropriate and coord inated and meet the challenges they face. These challenges can include but are not limited to uninvolved
parenting, social and life skills, housing, employment, budget, abuse of substances, antisocial behaviour, cognitive deficits, education, mental health conditions
and anger management.
Madam Chairman, t he Department of Child
and Family Services is responsible for promoting and
protecting the best interests and social well -being of
children, adolescents, adults and families. In order to
meet these responsibilities, the Department of Child
and Family Servi ces operates four programmes:
• Programme 2301— Services to Children and
Young Persons;
• Programme 2302— Services to Individuals
and Families;
• Programme 2303—Residential Treatment
Services; and
• Programme 2304— Administration.
Madam Chairman, i n the fiscal year 2020 /21
the Department of Child and Family Services conti nued with its efforts of providing a seamless continuum
of services to children and families throughout the
pandemic. The Department of Child and Family Services did this by redeploying resources to meet
chang ing programme and client needs. [The year]
2020 was a very challenging year for this Island and
the world.
Madam Chairman, the COVID -19 pandemic
required the Department of Child and Family Services
to be creative in its delivery of services as a frontfacing community -based child protection, residential
and intervention agency to protect clients and staff.
Madam Chairman, from March 2020 through
to November 2020 the Department of Child and Fam ily Services management consulted with the Depar tment of Health to ensure safety protocols were [i mplemented] to enable staff to safely perform their duBermuda House of Assembly ties while monitoring and investigating child safety in
this community.
Madam Chairman, these protocols continue to
be reviewed and updated as needed to not only ensure safety, but focusing on the performance quality
consistent with best practice standards and accredit ation. The US Council on Accreditation has approved
the Bermuda National Standards, which are the
standards used locally for accreditation of entities,
including the department to manage children. Berm uda National Standards Committee provides that we
use an accreditation.
Madam Chairman, service improvements
have been achieved by the Department of Child and Family Services implementing a strateg y that begins
with the enhancement of a structured decision- making
tool designed specifically for Bermuda, taking into ac-count our cultural identity and social norms.
Madam Chairman, since 2013 the use of the
structured decision- making assessment tool all ows
staff to objectively determine safety and risk for all children and their families who are referred to the D epartment of Child and Family Services. This tool utili ses a comprehensive assessment that ensure clients
receive the appropriate support and/or services from
the appropriate agencies. This process reduces referral duplication, closes previously identified gaps in service delivery and increases the role, efficiency and
effectiveness of the programme. Utilisation of this tool
has resulted in an improved comprehensive service
delivery system and an increased response time to
initial referrals. Also, this tool further enhances appr opriate prioritising of referrals according to risks and
ensures that the highest risks are addressed first, r esulting in better responses and positive outcomes for
clients.
Madam Chairman, I will now address each
programme and business unit for the department as
set out on page B -291. Madam Chairman, the Happy
Valley Child Care Centre is business unit 33010 and has an estim ate for fiscal year 2021/22 of $1,030,000.
The output measures for Happy Valley Child Care
Centre are found at page B -294 of the Estimates
Book. Madam Chairman, the budget allocation repr esents an increase of $2,000 from the fiscal year 2020/21, a minor increase. Madam Chairman, Happy Valley Child Care Centre is the only government -
operated child care facility on the Island which pr ovides high- quality child care for a maximum of 40 chi ldren whose ages range from three months to four
years of age.
Priority is given to children referred by helping
agencies such as the Department of Child and Family
Services, Teen Services, the Department of Health,
the Child Development Programme and the Depar tment of Financial Assistance. These agencies, along
with families experiencing various challenges, account
for 60 per cent of the centre’s intake. Madam Chairman, for September 2020 e nrolment, 26 applications were received for the seven
spaces available in the infant rooms. It should be noted that there were no intakes for the toddler and pr eschool classes for the 2020/21 school year. Children currently enrolled in the centre were moved up to the
preschool class or remained in the toddler’s class,
depending on their age.
The Happy Valley Child Care Centre monthly
fee is $400 for all children enrolled. However, if a child
is in the care of the Director of the Department of
Child and Family Services, they do not qualify for the
Child Day Care Allowance, and as such their costs
are absorbed by the Department of Child and Family
Services.
Madam Chairman, the estimates revenue for
fiscal year 2020/21 school year was $192,000. It is
important to note that the actual cost per child is approximately $525 per month. So that subsidy is also
built into the fees, which are consider ed less than pr ivate child care facilities. Despite the low costs to parents, Happy Valley Child Care Centre is a first -class
facility that is specifically designed to meet the comprehensive needs of young children and provides an
extensive curriculum of high academic standards with
trained teachers who are continuously involved in pr ofessional growth and development. The centre offers enrichment programmes that encourage family i nvolvement and builds upon child development.
Madam Chairman, comprehensive s ervices
offered at the Happy Valley Child Care Centre include music and movement, creative arts, literacy, writing, science, math, technology, community service, field
trips, strider bike riding, gardening, tennis and swim
classes, along with other curriculum activities that are
designed to assist in the overall development of the
children attending the centre. A full nutritional pr ogramme monitored and approved by the Department
of Health Public Health Nutritionist includes a morning snack, lunch and after noon snack. The centre also
has, as needed, an intervention programme that i ncludes mandatory parenting classes.
Madam Chairman, as with other sections of
the Department of Child and Family Services, the pandemic required Happy Valley Child Care Centre t o
make major changes in the way its services were delivered. During the three months of shelter -in-place,
the teachers provided online learning experiences that
aligned with the HighScope Curriculum. The learning
sessions were 30 minutes of fun hands -on interactive
activities for the toddlers and pre- schoolers. The chi ldren enjoyed participating in the sessions and seeing their teachers and classmates. Those families who
were unable to participate in the virtual lessons were
provided with HighScope family activity packets for
their child.
Madam Chairman, Happy Valley Child Care
Centre consistently utilises child assessment out-comes for classroom planning and individual interven926 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly tion activities. The HighScope Curriculum and A ssessment tool reflected outstandi ng results that val idate Happy Valley Child Care Centre’s commitment to
an inclusive learning model. The results for infants,
toddlers and preschoolers mapped steady improv ement in all areas of developmental growth.
Madam Chairman, in July 2020, sixteen c hildren graduated from the programme and were all well prepared to attend preschool. Their accomplishments
were celebrated with a drive- through leaving cerem ony at the National Sports Centre.
Happy Valley Child Care Centre received r eaccreditation with no conditions from the Bermuda
National Standards Committee for 2017. It is a test ament to the fact that Happy Valley Child Care Centre
is a child care centre of excellence, that it is meeting
best practice standards. The centre is up for reaccredi tation again in 2021.
Madam Chairman, each year there is an i ncreased demand for child care placement at the Hap-py Valley Child Care Centre. In keeping with the Health Department’s COVID -19 safety guidelines and
the child day care regulations programme requir ements, Happy Valley Child Care Centre could only
accommodate the enrolment of children for the infant
class in 2020. Children currently enrolled stay in the
toddler class, while others move to the preschool class.
Madam Chairman, in fiscal year 2021/22
Happ y Valley Child Care Centre will continue to u phold its commitment to partnering with community r esources including the Child Development Programme, the Department of Health, and Fire and Life Safety Associates. Happy Valley Child Care Centre will continue to serve as a community service site for public
and private schools.
Madam Chairman, community resources that
support children’s learning on the site are present ations from Sun Smart, Dental Care from the Depar tment of Health, and the Fire and Police Serv ices.
Support services for speech occupational therapy and
physical therapy will continue to be provided by the
Department of Health and the Child Development Programme.
Madam Chairman, on August 2020, Happy
Valley Child Care Centre received a new bus aft er the
previous one was destroyed by arson. Securing a new
bus by public/private partnerships has allowed the
children to continue with their community -based lear ning experiences. Unfortunately, vandalism of Happy Valley Child Care Centre remains a challenge. Acts of
vandalism such as paint thrown on the buil ding and
around the grounds, bottle breakage in the parking lot
and trash thrown on the property continue to occur.
Madam Chairman, an upgraded security sy stem, with the assistance of the PTA [Parent T eacher
Association], has recently been installed at the centre with the intent of mitigating the vandalism. Madam Chairman, I would like to take this
opportunity to thank the staff of the Department of
Public Lands and Buildings and the Ministry of Public
Works for maintaining the physical facility of Happy Valley Child Care Centre throughout the year, includ-ing dealing with the vandalism. Madam Chairman,
Happy Valley Child Care Centre endeavours to mai ntain a first -class facility for educating children in a
safe, healthy and caring environment. This year will mark the centre’s third reaccreditation.
Madam Chairman, I would like to take this
opportunity to thank all of the staff at the Happy Valley Child Care Centre, the centre’s active Parent Teacher
Asso ciation, volunteers and the community partners
for their continued dedication to Bermuda’s most valuable treasures —our children, our future.

Programme 2302— Services to
Individuals and Families

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Madam Chairman, I will now
speak to Progr amme 2302—Services to Individuals
and Families, found on page B -291.

For the listening public, we are debating the Ministry of Social Development and Seniors,
Heads 86 and 23.
Minister, when you are ready you may conti nue.

Hon. Tinee Furbe rt: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Madam Chairman, the activities covered in
programme 2302 are the following business units:
• 33020—Investigating and Screening (formerly
known as Family Services );
• 33030—Foster Care; and
• 33200—Counse lling and Life Skills (form erly
known as Bermuda Youth Counselling Services).
Madam Chairman, t he estimate for these
business units for the fiscal year 2021/22 is
$6,082,000. This represents an increase of $665,000,
or 12 per cent, compared to the fiscal year 2020/21
budget alloca tion. Madam Chairman, the Intake, A ssessment and Investigation Section of the Department
of Child and Family Services is responsible for provi ding a unified response and comprehensive safeguar ding services to the children of Bermuda.
The budget estimate for business unit 33020
for fiscal year 2021/22 is $2,238,000. This represents an increase of $476,000, or 27 per cent, over the ori ginal budget for fiscal year 2020/21. This increase is
related to a realignment of staff within the organis ational structure.
Madam Chairman, the Department of Child
and Family Services provides services and support for
children and families in our community who have been impacted by all forms of abuse, neglect and exploit ation. Also, the department is committed to partnering


Bermuda House of Assembly with stakeholders to promote safe and healthy families
while protecting children from abuse, neglect and exploitation. This is achieved through investigations, assessments and referrals to counselling services and
support organisations. Madam Chairman, whe n a r eferral to the Department of Child and Family Services
meets the threshold for abuse and/or neglect, the assessment tools provide designated timeframes to init iate contact with a child and/or family.
The performance measures for intake and
assessment can be found in pages B -294 to B -295 of
the Estimates Book.
Madam Chairman, the Intake and Asses sments team provides care and protective services and
assessments [for] children. This is achieved through the three specialised units —Screening, Investigations
and Assessments, which have a combined total of 16 staff. The Screening Team comprises five social work
assistants, who are on duty each day to receive new
referrals via email, fax, the KIDSLINE, or from me mbers of the public or professionals who walk i nto the
department. Due to the nature of the Department of
Child and Family Services, functions within the community (it should be noted) at the department operate
24 hours a day.
Madam Chairman, in 2020, a total of 34 referrals were received via call -outs, which refers to either
after-hours, weekends or holidays. The Investigations
Team include five social workers who are responsible
for conducting inquiries on all cases screened to be
investigated. In 2020 an additional relief social work
assistant and s creener were hired to provide additio nal support in the screening of new referrals to the department.
Madam Chairman, the Investigations Team
received 930 new referrals in 2020. This is a decrease
from 2019 of 1,031 new referrals who reported to the
Depar tment of Child and Family Services. The department has one central Screening Team, one cen-tral screening system which allows investigations for
assessment services to be processed and assigned in
an expedited manner. All screenings are reviewed to
provide immediate feedback to mandated referrals on
the service or investigation and the designated r esponse timeframe.
Madam Chairman, the screening process can
also provide a referral with a reason the case did not
meet the threshold for investigation. The Investigation
Team completed 100 per cent of the structured dec ision-making screening assessment within the stipulated time frames. Out of the total number of cases
screened, 174 cases were screened out to other ser-vices, 715 were screened in for investigation and 41
were screened directly to the Counselling and Life
Skills Section for substance education. Cases that
were screened out did not meet the threshold for child protection. The Department of Child and Family Services ensured that children and their fam ilies were
referred to other services within the community. Referrals were received for the following types
of abuse:
• neglect , 430
• sexual abuse, 124
• physical abuse, 121
• behaviour problems , 83
• emotional abuse, 101
• care of relative, 3
• teen pregnancy , zero
• service requests , 48
• suicidal ideations/attempts , 20
Madam Chairman, the total number of referrals screened in for investigation represents 615 children and 481 families for 2020. The number of first -
time referrals to the Department of Child and Family Services was 224 children. A total of 179 children had
multiple referrals for either the same or multiple abuse
types. Madam Chairman, the referral numbers by age
and sex are as follows:
• Age 0– 4—male 75, female 79; not applicable,
seven; total 161.
• Ages 5 –9—male 88, female 90; not applicable
zero, with a total of 178.
• Age 10– 14—male 70, female 99 with a total of
169.
• Age 15– 18—male 49, female 58 for a total of
107.
• Total males 282, total female 326, not appl icable, seven.
• Total 615.
Madam Chairman, it should be noted that 663
incidents reported occurred in the child’s or children’s
homes either by a parent, guardian or caregiver. And
165 reported incidents occurred out of the home and
identified as a non- caregiver. A full 102 referrals were
for behaviour problems or service requests. Mandated reporters referred 729 cases in 2020. And this was 67
cases fewer than the previous year.
Madam Chairman, as a result of COVID -19,
children were required to attend school remotely. And
this may have impacted the r eduction of overall referrals of abuse to the Department of Child and Family
Services. Educators are mandated reporters, and
without the direct contact with children, some of these
cases may have gone undetected. The department is
required to respond withi n 24 hours, five days or ten
days, depending on the nature of the referral and the
assigned timeframe. The department received 203
referrals that required a 24 hours response, 482 referrals that required a five- day response and 30 referrals
that required a 10-day response.
Madam Chairman, social workers conduct all
objective investigations that involve interviewing chi ldren, the parents and the witnesses or collateral contact who may be relevant sources of information. S ocial workers must observe the child in their living conditions, the parent/child interactions and relationships,
928 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly conduct further record checks and obtain all relevant
medical and assessment reports when applicable.
Madam Chairman, the second purpose of the
investigation is to conduct an as sessment of the i mmediate service needs of the child and their family.
This involves assessing the child’s immediate safety;
[assessing] their future risk of neglect and/or abuse
within the home; and determining the family’s need for
necessities, crisis in tervention, counselling and/or
support services. The Department of Child and Family Services collaborates with the Bermuda Police Ser-vice on referrals received for physical/sexual abuse,
neglect and behavioural problems. With collaboration
it is determined if joint investigations are needed; and
if required, forensic interviews are conducted.
Madam Chairman, the Investigation Team
noted an increase in some categories of abuse. While
referrals received for a child on the child’s sexual
abuse or sexualised behaviour as decreased, this
form of abuse remains the majority of sexual abuse
referrals, at 69, which equals 56 per cent of the total
number of referrals. The number of neglect referrals
increased to 430. And 197, or 46 per cent, of neglect
referrals were children exposed to family violence.
The majority of these referrals were received by the Bermuda Police Service. There was a significant i ncrease of 20, or 300 per cent, in the referrals for suicidal attempts or ideation, and an increase of 30 or 70 per cent for emotional abuse cases.
Madam Chairman, the Department of Child
and Family Services received 48 service requests, which is a decrease from 2019. Examples of such r equests received are for local welfare checks made
from overseas jurisdictions, mainly the United Kin gdom. These requests require home checks for chi ldren who are involved in child protection services outside of Bermuda. It is important to note that these
homes or welfare checks may require a considerable
amount of time to liaise with the agencies and relevant
parties both here and in the overseas jurisdiction.
Madam Chairman, the Department of Child
and Family Services is also required to investigate
mandated professions such as, but not limited to doc-tors, day care providers, teachers, coaches, religious
officials and leaders if an investigation identifies them
as alleged perpetrators. A total of four investigations were conducted which required the investigation s ocial workers to conduct interviews with the child, their
parents or guardians, the mandated professional and
all relevant witnesses. This is a significant decrease in
comparison to 2019 when there were 29 investig ations of professionals.
This reduction could be attributed to COVID -
19 and shelter in place, as children did not attend school or participate in extracurricular activities. At the
conclusion of the investigations, an outcome report is provided to the organisation or the employer of the
investigating professional. The outcome report i n-cludes recommendations that are a result of the investigation findings.
Madam Chairman, investigations were co nducted on 715 reports of maltreatment, and response
time [goals] were met on 626, or 86 per cent of the
referrals. This performance measurement exceeded
the department’s 80 per c ent goal for the year. During
shelter in place workers were able to investigate cases virtually by videocall. In emergencies, workers did
enter the community to investigate child abuse cases,
conduct forensic interviews with the police and/or placed childr en in an alternative household for their
safety and well -being.
Madam Chairman, during the investigation,
once the initial contact has been achieved the D epartment of Child and Family Services is required to complete a safety assessment to determine imminent risk on all in -home abuse cases. The primary goal of
the safety assessment is to ensure the children are
safe in a household and that the parent or guardian
has agreed to the established plan. If a safety threat
has been identified, the objective of both the safety assessment and the plan is for the department and
family to work together to reduce risk, without seeking
a court order.
Madam Chairman, the investigation social
workers completed 529 safety assessments. This engagement with parents allowed the Department of Child and Family Services to ensure that the children
are safe while working to preserve the integrity of the
family. Risk assessments are always completed after
conducting a home visit and prior to a case being
transferred or closed. The team completed 466 risk
assessments. Investigations that are referred for
abuse outside of the home do not require the structural decision- making assessment tool, as the alleged
perpetrator is not living in the home and therefore the household is deemed s afe.
Madam Chairman, a total of 779 case reviews
were conducted on 533 children of 408 families. A full 588 cases were approved for closure; 140 cases were
approved for transfer to another team within the department; and 51 cases required further assessment.
Madam Chairman, in accordance with the
Council on Accreditation Standards, the department had two performance quality indicator meetings to
review all data that were compiled to ensure that best
practice accreditation standards were maintained.
Madam Chairman, the Investigation Teams referred
148 cases for transfer for ongoing services within the Department of Child and Family Services. Upon com-pletion of the investigation, 662 cases were closed, an
increase of 105 cases [that] were closed in 2020.
Madam Chairman, during shelter in place social wor kers utilised their time to complete their relevant doc umentation on closed cases. Of these cases, 221 were
proven, 308 were not proven, 76 suspected and 32 inconclusive.


Bermuda House of Assembly The Investigation Team participates i n a multi -
agency team such as the Sexual Abuse Response
Team (or SART) and the Child Protection Team (or
CPT. Madam Chai rman, all of the employees employed at the Department of Child and Family Services are deemed essential workers. And during COVID -19, th ey continued to respond to reports of
child abuse or neglect. Investigation workers did the
following during shelter in place:
• conducted investigations via Zoom and
WhatsApp video;
• forensic interviews continued using PPE and other COVID -19 measures;
• emergency call -outs and SART investigations
were conducted;
• staff assisted in the setup and breakdown of
shelters at the Berkeley Institute and CedarBridge Academy for shelter in place and for
two hurricanes.
Mr. Chairman, currently the Assessment
Team consists of a clinical supervisor, who has a doctorate in counselling psychology; and three social
workers who have masters’ degrees ( assessors) . This
team is responsible for conducting comprehensive assessments in children and families who are exper iencing issues inclusive of cognitive challenges, domestic violence, substance abuse, behavioural problems and emotional concerns. The purpose of the assessment process is to produce a comprehensive r eport that outlines the various factors that need to be
addressed in order to empower the family and enhance family functions. At the initial meeting with cl ients referred for an assessment, they are provided
with an overview of the assessment process and sign
consent forms to participate in the services. As parti cipation in the assessments is voluntary, clients can
decline services following the referral or can withdraw from services at their discretion at any point in time
during the assessment process.
Madam Chairman, a plethora of assessment
tools are utilised in conduct ing assessments and r eflect the needs of the family as based on the referral
questions and presenting problems. Data collection entails conducting clinical interviews with children and
families and administering assessment tools, obtai ning pertinent inform ation from collateral contacts and
acquiring written reports from external agencies already providing services to the clients.
Throughout the course of conducting the assessment, assessment teams use the clinical superv ision from the clinical supervisor on a weekly basis to
ensure professional standards are upheld, ethical practice is adhered to, and the therapeutic alliance
with the clients is a priority.
Madam Chairman, the Assessment Team
receives referrals from both the internal team within
the Depar tment of Child and Family Services and externally from the Family Court and Supreme Court. Service provision entails three main areas: individual assessment, child and/or adult; family assessment;
and consultations. Madam Chairman, individual assessments encompass social -emotional and beha vioural assessments; cognitive assessments; and at-tention deficit hyperactivity disorder evaluations. Fam ily assessments reflect a family -systems approach to
the assessment process, which entails data collection
to identif y personal and familial variables that impact
family functioning. And subsequently, the role of the
assessor is to propose appropriate solutions to i nclude family relations.
Consultation may be conducted formally by
assessors completing reports that evalu ate the var ious factors impacting the child and/or family which
provide recommendations to aid service provisions. In
addition, a social worker from another team may r equest guidance on beneficial intervention strategies to
utilise it with their clients. M adam Chairman, the A ssessment Team conducts individual assessments on
all new clients who are entering into foster care or residential treatment services so that any baseline data
can be obtained regarding the child or adolescent who has not had prior invo lvement with the Department of
Child and Family Services.
Assessment referrals initiated by the Family
Court or Supreme Court must be expedited according
to the court order and take precedent over non- court
cases due to the reduced timeframe and expectati ons
of the court. Madam Chairman, the timeframe for
completion of an assessment ranges from a minimum
of 45 days to a maximum of several months, depen ding on the time required to build rapport; the complex ity of the case; the degree and consistency of clie nt
engagement; receipt of records and information on
collateral sources; and the length of time it takes to
administer, support, interpret and write the asses sment report. A feedback session is held at the com-pletion of the assessment process with parents, the
child/adolescent (as appropriate) and if concern was
given with case management workers from other departmental teams, as well as schools.
Madam Chairman, as appropriate internal
referral to other sections of the department is facilitat-ed in this ass essment, and this primarily consists of
intervention and services that are deemed necessary
to be performed by the Counselling and Life Skills
Team and the Family Preservation Team. As appr opriate, internal referrals to other sections of the department are facilitated following the assessment, and
the recommended interventions in services are i mplemented by the respective teams. Madam Chairman, the total number of referrals to the Assessment Team was 20 individuals, of
which 14 were social -emotional asses sments, 6 cognitive assessments, and 3 family assessments. There
were 12 female clients and 11 male clients. Madam
Chairman, the sources of referrals to the Assessment Team from within the Department of Child and Family
Services included Investigations Team, 15 cases;
930 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Family Preservation, 1 case; Counselling and Life
Skills, 4 cases; Court Social Work, 3 cases.
Out of these assessments, there were 10 s ocial-economic reports completed, 5 cognitive reports
and 2 consultation assessment reports. The clinical
supervisor is the only member of the team who can
perform cognitive assessments, and as a result there
are cases wherein two separate reports —one cogn itive and one social -emotional —are produced for the
same client, the clinical supervisor and the assessor.
Cross -team collaboration is warranted for complex
cases. There were 12 cases in which assessors engaged in joint service provision with a case manager
or counsellor from another team within the Depar tment of Child and Family Services.
Madam Chairman, by the end of 2020, out of
the new referrals six clients/families declined services
for their lack of engagement, one for medical reasons
and one opted to seek community services. Two cl ients were pending services due to the COVID -19
pandemic and the client’s being in the precontemplation phase of commencing the assessment process. And one case received consultation services
instead of a complete assessment report. There were
a total 24 reports completed for the year, which i ncluded a case carried over from 2019, when the report
was completed in 2020.
Madam Chairman, a total of 171 assessment
tools were administered collectively by the team which comprised the following areas:
• cognitive, 9
• academic, 8
• behavioural, 48
• trauma, 22
• substance use, 12
• bio-psychosocial, 27
• mental health, 45
This resulted in a total of 54 files being audited.
Madam Chairman, several trends were ident ified as follows: an increase in the number of referrals
for cognitive assessments; mental health issues; domestic violence; service re quests for younger children
under the age of 10; and referrals received from the
Court Social Work Section of the department. In addition, a broader usage of certain assessments tools
was noted for areas such as executive functioning, attention to problems and daily living skills. There was
also a recognition of the need to connect clients with the resources during the course of the assessment
process, particularly counselling services due to the
complexity of the needs of the families.
Madam Chairman, as previously stated the
COVID -19 pandemic impacted the Department of
Child and Family Services service provision throughout 2020. The Assessment Team had to quickly adapt
to using alternative methods to perform data collection, especially during the shelter -in-place period
when staff were working at home. Multiple technology platforms were used, which allowed scheduling flex i-bility. Working from home also impacted the ability to
observe nuances in terms of assessing a client’s d emeanour, facial expressions and other body language,
which can be discerned during the face- to-face contact.
Madam Chairman, the clinical supervisor performed multiple managerial roles by supervising two
teams with distinct responsibilities and expectations.
The role required that the clinical supervisor functioned as a clinical therapeutic resource for the entire department. In addition, during the past year the clini-cal supervisor supervised two university students pursuing degrees in human services and had their pract icum placements at the Department of Child and Fam ily Services.
Madam Chairman, finally the team participated in several training sessions during the course of
the year, which were conducted internally and externally. The team also participated in Clinical Circle,
which is a weekly professional meeting and is composed of team members from the Assessments Team
and the Counselling and Life Skills. The aim of the group is to promote team cohesiveness, professional
support and peer consultation.
Madam Chairman, the Foster Care Section of
the Department of Child and Family Services is r esponsible for providing alternative living arrangements
for children under the age of 18 with those who are in need of out -of-home placement. The budget estimate
for business unit 33030 in fi scal year 2021/22 is
$2,634,000. This represents an increase of $104,000, or 4 per cent over the original budget of fiscal year 2020/21. This increase is related to an increase in
therapeutic foster fees. Madam Chairman, foster care,
or out -of-home care, i s used for children when a saf ety assessment decision results in a placement to ensure a child’s safety. Foster care provides a safe,
supportive and therapeutic environment for a child
while working towards either family reunification or an
alternative per manency option may be provided during a child abuse investigation, assessment or ongoing intervention phase of child protection.
Madam Chairman, the Foster Care Pr ogramme has three classifications of private home placements:
1. Traditional foster care pl acement. These
foster parents are generic and have no biological connection to the child;
2. Kinship foster care placement. These foster
parents are related to the child, and they have a si gnificant bond and connection to the child;
3. Therapeutic foster care placement. These
foster parents have an advanced level of either ed ucation or employment and skill set, and are equipped
to foster children with either physiological impairment
or emotional challenges.
Madam Chairman, when a child is placed in
foster care, the Department of Child and Family Services will work with the child, the parents, foster parBermuda House of Assembly ents and several professionals from partnering age ncies that will provide services to the child or children
and their parents. It is important that the following o ccur:
• Foster children must be supported in key
transi tions such as the original placement,
changes in placement, changes in schools
and then leaving foster care.
• Foster children must have ongoing care and
protection while having their developmental
needs met.
• Foster children will not be subjected to any
physical discipline, physical restraint or chemical restraint.
• Foster children must be assisted with gaining
skills and an overall sense of well -being that
will allow them to realise their potential for
positively participating in and contributing to
the wider community.
Madam Chairman, the Department of Child
and Family Services is responsible for monitoring out -
of-home care placement to ensure that the level of
care provided by foster parents is consistent with the
Council on Accreditation Standards. Social workers
are required to visit with the children and foster parent
in the foster home a minimum of once per month, in addition to monitoring the well -being of the child in
school and their involvement with other stakeholders.
During 2020 the Foster Care Team continued to monitor placements and facilitate context using electronic platforms. The child’s psychiatric, psychological and
emotional needs must be constantly evaluated to
promote optimu m care. Visits with the foster parents
allowed for information- sharing, discussions regarding
the stability of the placement, including discussions
about successes and concerns. Madam Chairman, all children in foster care
have a social worker and a socia l work assistant assigned to them. Children in foster care have all of their needs met. Services provided by the department for
foster children include but are not limited to medical
care, dental care, clothing, therapy, social and recrea-tional extracurric ular activities, educational activities
and tutoring. The child’s psychiatric, psychological
and emotional needs must be constantly evaluated to promote optimum care. Visits with the foster parents allow for information- sharing, discussions regarding
the facility after placement including discussions about
successes and concerns.
Madam Chairman, all children in foster care
have a social worker and a social work assistant as-signed to them. Children in foster care have all of their needs met. Services provided by the Department of
Foster Children include but are not limited to medical
care, dental care, clothing, therapy, social and recreational extra- curricular activities, education activities
and tutoring. In addition to contact with the child and
foster parent, foster care workers are required to meet
with the parents on a monthly basis. These meetings provide an opportunity for the foster care worker and
parents to work on service plans to address the child’s
welfare risks that placed their child in foster care.
Madam Chairman, frequency of contact is
determined by their assessed risk level. The higher the risk, the higher the level of intervention and engagement required monthly. In accordance with the
Children Act of 1998, parental visitation is required for
all children in foster care homes unless otherwise ordered by the courts. Foster care workers are responsible for ensuring supervised and unsupervised visit ation occurs. Regrettably, there are a number of chi ldren in care who have no contact from thei r parents,
either by conscious decision of the parents or due to their parents’ untreated, severe mental health or substance abuse.
Madam Chairman, the Department of Child
and Family Services upholds the principle of maintai ning significant familial relat ionships within the biological family of the child. It is the social worker’s respon-sibility to assess the suitability of family members to
ascertain what role they can play in visits or telephone contact that would be beneficial to the child. If a child
is placed with a non- relative, the department is always
open to family members as alternatives to traditional
placements.
Madam Chairman, the foster care team consists of one co- ordinator, three social workers and
three social work assistants, and one admi nistrative
assistant. The team was responsible for a total of 70
children, along with their birth parents and their r espective foster families, during the financial year
2020/21. This represents a decrease by 11 children
from the prior year. Although there has been a decrease, the complexity of the cases has magnified in terms of mental health [challenges], behavioural i ssues and difficulties at school.
Madam Chairman, during the financial year
2020/21, the Foster Care Programme serviced a total
of 11 ther apeutic foster children. The children in this
category have a variety of physical, cognitive, em otional and behavioural challenges. Therapeutic foster parents are compensated at a higher rate than traditional foster parents. They sign contracts that outline
the level of care expected based on the children’s needs. These are the same 11 children who were serviced in this category in the previous year.
Madam Chairman, by the end of 2020 a total
of 12 children transitioned from the Foster Care Pr ogramme. Three children were taken to residential
treatment services; five children aged out of the Direc-tor’s care. All children were unified with their birth parents. The Foster Care Coordinator recruited 12 new
foster parents in 2020, which is a decrease of three.
There is a need for more foster parents, particularly
for emergency and our difficult -to-care- for children.
Madam Chairman, the Department of Child
and Family Services continues to feel the impact of
the loss of the Sunshine League Children’s Home. Its
932 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly facility was typically used for children older than eight
years old who needed out -of-home placement and
could not be accommodated from the traditional foster
care. The Sunshine League also served as an inval uable resource in terms of keeping sibling sets toget her. Presently the Department of Child and Family Ser-vices has 16 sibling sets residing in foster care. And
out of these 16 only 3 sets are currently able to reside
together in the same foster home.
Madam Chairman, May 2020 was marked
Foster Care Awaren ess Month. The Foster Care
Team could not put on the annual Appreciation Tea
due to COVID -19 regulations and guidelines. But the
Department of Communications was instrumental in
producing new advertisements which expressed the Child and Family Service Department’s appreciation
to all foster parents.
Madam Chairman, as of the end of 2020, the
Foster Care Programme arranged a Christmas gift
scheduled pickup arrangement. Due to the pandemic,
an in- person party was not held. The Executive of the
Foster Parents Association (registered charity 620)
organised gift donations. Each child received multiple gifts for the holiday season. The Department of Child
and Family Services and I are extremely grateful to
the donors who supported this event, which included
membe rs of the public, Renaissance Re and the
Mount Saint Agnes Academy.
Madam Chairman, the department would like
to acknowledge the foster parents of Bermuda, who
are our unsung heroes who provide loving, stable
homes to children who have experienced signifi cant
trauma as a result of abuse and neglect. On a daily
basis, they make a foster child’s life better by their
numerous acts of care and kindness. In addition, the
Foster Parents Association works in partnership with
the Foster Care Team to provide extra support to foster children and foster families in the form of financial
support, educational trips, therapeutic equipment,
specialised recreation programmes, laptops for seniors and students, and tertiary education scholarships.
Madam Chairman, as a resul t of classes b eing taught remotely due to the pandemic, children who
attend senior school were in much need of laptops to
allow them to continue to learn from home. The Pembroke Rotary Group answered the needs for assi stance from the Department of Child and Family Services and donated 16 laptops.
Madam Chairman, I take this opportunity to
express gratitude to all of the individuals and organisations, including RenaissanceRe, Mount Saint Agnes
Academy, Pembroke Rotary Group and the Foster Parents Associatio n who have supported the Depar tment of Child and Family Services in various ways in
order to make a foster child’s life experience one to
remember. Thank you.
Madam Chairman, the purpose of the Cou nselling and Life Skills (CLS) unit within the Department of Child and Family Services is to advance and pr o-mote the emotional well -being of youths up to 18
years of age and their families. The budget estimate
for business unit 33200 for fiscal year 2021/22 is
$1,210,000. This represents an increase of $85,000,
or 8 per cent, over the original budget for fiscal year
2020/21. This reflects an increase in consulting services that will allow the director to uphold his mandated responsibilities under the new child safeguarding
legislation. It is also reflected under t his business unit.
Madam Chairman, CLS offers support that
strengthens the knowledge, skills, cognitive exper iences and support systems of individuals and families
to make healthy life choices. Individual and family i ssues include but are not limited to f amily and relationship dynamics, co -parenting, grief and loss, communication, trauma and adolescent substance use.
Madam Chairman, CLS provides individual,
family and group counselling. Due to the COVID -19
pandemic, there were no substance abuse [pr ogramm es] conducted for the year 2020. The CLS
team did, however, continue to provide counselling
support for children and their families, using various telehealth methods such as Cisco, Webex, Zoom,
WhatsApp and email. In order to best serve the needs
of the cl ients CLS counsellors work collaboratively
with clients to complete specific assessments or
screening tools to measure progress and service
planning that is geared towards project goals and de-velopment. Despite interruptions to services by the
COVID -19 pan demic, the team completed 17 assessments for the year 2020.
Madam Chairman, CLS continues to align
services and classes with other teams within the D epartment of Child and Family Services in order to
maintain a client focus that promotes wellness for
families and their children. In addition, CLS continues
to collaborate with external stakeholders by providing a holistic approach and incorporates the dual family
and their support system. Referrals are received from
external entities such as the Department of Education.
Child and Adolescent Services, and the public are
screened into the investigation/screening section, and
a decision is determined in conjunction with the SDM
tool, which intervention is required to determine the
needs of the individual child and their families so that
they can be applied for services. There is a mem orandum of understanding between the Ministry of E ducation and the Department of Child and Family Ser-vices that all substance- related incidents that occur in
students are referred t o the department for either a
substance abuse assessment, substance education or both.
Madam Chairman, the number of referrals
that were received for 2020 was 87. There were 36 females and 51 males referred in 2020. Based on the
referrals, the primary reasons clients were referred to
CLS services were for trauma, substance use and family relationship dynamics. Over the years, the
highest age group for males and females were chi lBermuda House of Assembly dren and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 14,
and 15 and 18 years old. This trend continued in
2020.
Madam Chairman, during this fiscal year,
2020/21, as in previous years, the number of children and adolescents requiring services is as follows:
Madam Chairman, 13 females between ages of 16
and 18 years old, and 16 were femal es between the
ages of 10 and 14 years old; males were 22 between
the ages of 15 and 18 years old, and 17 between the
ages of 10 and 14 years old. This trend demonstrates that there is a growing need for resources for children
and adolescents who are impac ted by numerous
stresses previously mentioned.

Programme 2303—Residential Treatment Services

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Madam Chairman, I will now
speak to Programme 2303—Residential Treatment Services found on page B -291.
Madam Chairman, the activity covered in programme 2303 is Residential Treatment Services.
These services include Family Preservation; the
Brangman Home; the Development Centre; Observ atory College, also referred to as the Oleander Cottage;
Psycho -Educational Programme ; and the Youth Res idential Treatment for financial year 2021/22. This pr ogramme has a budget allocation of $7,643,000. This represents an increase of $648,000, or 9 per cent,
from the financial year 2020/21 budget allocation.
Madam Chairman, the budget estimates for
business unit 33060 for fiscal year 2021/22 is $1,545,000. This represents a decrease of $640,000, or 29 per cent of the general budget for fiscal year
2020/21. This decrease is related to a realignment of
staff within the organisation structure.
Madam Chairman, DCF S Family Preservation
Team operates under a sound case management and assessment model which comprehensively assesses
a family or child’s needs and developed service plans
made for families, child and stakeholders to maximise
intervention that positive out comes for the families.
The team is responsible for providing ongoing interventions to monitor and ensure the safety of children
at risk of abuse or neglect, assist families to include
family functioning, increase child wellbeing, reduce the need for placement in out -of-home care, and to
enable children in out -of-home care to return safely to
their families. I draw your attention to the reference to out-of-home care which refers to children in foster
care, residential treatment services and Psycho- Ed
servic es.
Madam Chairman, the ultimate goal is to r educe or eliminate the circumstances in the family that
have been or are causing abuse or risk ot abuse
(emotional and/or physical) to the child and to mai ntain the child in their home environment. The Family Preservation Team receives referrals from the de-partment’s intake team and from DCFS out of Home
Services (Foster Care, Psycho- Ed or RTS).
Madam Chairman, Family Preservation Services are provided to clients of the Department of
Child and Family Services either via consent of the parents or under the authority of a Family Court order.
The Family Preservation Team consists of two coordinators, seven social workers, seven social work
assistants and one administrative assistant.
If child safety is an assessed concern as per
the Children Act of 1998, Family Preservation Ser-vices will be mandated if deemed so via the courts.
Upon consent, Family Preservation Services are also
provided for young persons transitioning from care at
the age of 18 years old. The pur pose of this service is
to reduce the likelihood of future harm and to provide support and assistance to the young person as they transition into independent living.
Madam Chairman, in order to achieve its goal,
Family Preservation Services requires the s ocial
workers and social work assistants to manage cases in compliance with the Council on Accreditation Fam ily Preservation Standards in accordance with the pol icies and procedures of the departmental structure
decision -making assessment system for Child Prote ctive Services. The social workers’ frequency of contact
with a family is determined by the family’s assessed
risk level. The higher the assessed risk for future abuse or neglect, the higher the level of intervention
engagement that is required monthl y.
Madam Chairman, a household assessed at
high risk requires a minimum of four face- to-face visits
a month. Moderate risks require a minimum of two face- to-face visits per month with parents, caregivers
and children, in addition to collateral contacts. A nd low
risk requires a minimum of one face- to-face visit a
month. All of these visits are within the parent, car egivers and children, in addition to collateral contacts,
for example, schools, therapists, doctors, mentors, et cetera.
Madam Chairman, I will now highlight the performance of the Family Preservation Team and the client outcomes for 2020. The Family Preservation
Team was able to maintain significant services during
the COVID -19 pandemic, which requires a level of
creativity coupled with safety protocols and proc edures. The data that will be provided gives an overview of the statistical outputs and outcomes for the
Family Preservation Team.
During the calendar year January 2020 to D ecember 2020, the Family Preservation Team have served a combined total of 165 families and 265 chi ldren, whilst in 2019 the number served totalled 116
families and 189 children. This is a notable increase in
families and children in comparison to the previous
year that reflects a 32 per cent increase in families.
This increased caseload has been very challenging
for staff, as the complexity of these cases remains
very high and required a high number of face- to-face
934 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly contacts, multiple court appearances, family conferences and consultations within the community and
government stakeholders.
All families involved with the family preserv ation receive SDM family strengths and needs asses sments every three months. These assessments help
to identify the areas of need or development required
within a family, as well as strengths within the family
unit. The areas of need must be addressed in order to
reduce risk within the family unit that have placed, or
have the potential to place, a child at risk of abuse or neglect. The assessment also serves as a guide for
service planning. A nalysis of data for 2020 has highlighted a number of trends within the families that
have been served by the department. Individuals with trauma, coupled by executive functioning def icits/issues are significantly affecting functioning within families and r esulting in risk to children.
Family Preservation workers are noting that
when entering the homes of many, many referrals they are finding many households in disorder. Routine and structure are necessary for a developing child to
feel safe and learn how t o manage themselves and to
learn essential life skills. Needs assessments co mpleted during 2020 have identified the following as the top four issues for areas of need affecting our families:
1. Parenting Skills : 26 per cent of families assessed; improvement of basic parenting skills as needed by the parent /caregiver in order to ensure
safety and discipline of children. In addition, improv ement needed to meet the initial developmental needs of the child.
2. Mental health coping skills, cognitive functio ning: 24 per cent of families assessed. Parents/caregivers having difficulty coping with the
stressors in their life, which creates situations that
places the children in their care at risk. This may be
demonstrated by periodic or at times severe mental
health symptoms including, but not limited to depression, apathy or consistent use of negative coping
mechanisms that exacerbate the problem.
3. Resource management basic skills: 14 per
cent of families assessed. Parents/caregivers facing
challenges with resources being i nsufficient or not well
managed and/or including debilitating debt. Given the financial challenges caused by the pandemic with many having reduced income or loss of income, and
children participating in remote learning for most of
the year, many households have been challenged
meeting basic needs of their families, such as food, clothing and medical needs. Also, many people have
been challenged supporting the resources necessary to have their children adequately participate in remote
learning with the lockdown and physical closures of
schools during the period of 2020.
4. Household relationships and family violence
represent 12 per cent of families assessed, frequent discord or family violence within the household. The
household experiences increased disruption of pos i-tive interactions coupled with lack of co- operation m utual, verbal or physical abuse between adults.
Custody and visitation issues are characterised by frequent conflicts. The department continues to receive frequent reports of domestic violence be-tween adults in the presence of children. Ultimately
the dynamic of the parents’ relationships creates si gnificant stress and risk for child’s emotional and developmental wellbeing. We see children in situations
exhibiting behaviours ranging from anxiety, depression and disassociation to learned volatile behaviour
manifesting in school and out -of-school environments.
There is a serious risk of these patterns of behaviour
becoming linked and normalised in children, impacting
their emotional development and relationships as they
develop.
During 2020, seventy -two new cases were
referred to Family Preservation. Throughout the year a total of 69 cases were closed. All closed cases were
void of child safety or child protection issues at cl osure. Six cases were t ransferred to out -of-home services (foster care and residential treatment services)
due to an increased safety risk from within.
• Forty -two cases achieved service goals or no
child protection issues at closure. This repr esented 61 per cent of case closures .
• Two cases, the child aged out and declined
further services.
• Fourteen cases the family declined services. Initial assessments by the intake team ind icate that the family would benefit from services; however, the family declined and there were no safety issues at closure.
• Five cases involved relocation to other juri sdictions.
• Six cases transferred to out -of-home services,
(two to foster care and four to residential
treatment services ).
During 2020 there were 53 referrals of parents
or guardians who wer e abusive or neglectful of chi ldren on open cases to Family Preservations. This i nvolves an investigation for abuse/neglect of cases already open with the department. This is a decrease
from 2019, which saw 65 new referrals for:
• 5 initial abuse;
• 33 for neglect ;
• 7 physical abuse;
• 5 children beyond parental control; and
• 3 service request for preventative support.
DCFS notes neglect remains the highest category of re- referrals on an open case. This correlates
to the areas of needs assessments conducted on each family —parenting skills, coping skills, mental
health, insufficient resources, basic needs and child
exposure to domestic family violence.
Madam Chairman, at DSFC routinely asses ses outcomes to determine if interventions are effective
and to deter mine when and what adjustments to service delivery need to occur. Family preservation, perBermuda House of Assembly formance on outcome measures for 2020 are as follows:
• percentage of family risk assessment for
abuse and neglect completed demonstrated
behaviours consistent with or some improv ement in behaviour by participating in service
plan goals —82 per cent of households assessed ;
• percentage of households where risk of abuse
or neglect has decreased or remained low/moderate —80 per cent of households assessed ; and
• percentage of cases closed due to families
achieving goals —61 per cent of families had
cases closed with DCFS due to achieving service plan goals.
Madam Chairman, the Family Preservation
Team continues to develop in providing effective service to children and families. P erformance improv ement is an ongoing endeavour, thus enhancing the
opportunity for improved client outcomes. The data
gleaned from 2020 have been utilised to establish annual plan goals and objectives in 2020/21, striving
towards increased positive client outcomes.
I would like to commend the Family Preserv ation Team and its co- ordinators for their unwavering
commitment to families through 2020, which proved to
be extremely challenging.
Madam Chairman, I will now speak to Brangman Home Youth Development C entre and Oleander
Cottage. Madam Chairman, the financial year of 2021/22 budget allocation for business unit 33070 —
Brangman Home is $1,166,000. This is an increase of
$202,000, or 21 per cent, which represents the corrected budget shortfall in financial y ear 2020/21.
Madam Chairman, business unit 33080—
Youth Development Centre’s allocated budget for f inancial 2021/22 is $242,000. This is a reduction of $8,000, or 3 per cent, in comparison to the budget
allocation of fiscal year 2020/21. This reduction r eflects a 10 per cent reduction in salaries for the first
three months of the financial year.
Madam Chairman, Oleander Cottage that
comes under business unit 33090, has an allocated
budget of $1, 159,000, which is an increase of
$239,000, or 26 per cent, in comparison to financial
year 2020/21. This increase is related to the realignment of staff within the Department of Child and Fam ily Services organisational structure.
Madam Chairman, residential treatment services provides —

While I hand over the Chair to Member Tyrrell. And in so doing, I just want to remind the li stening public we are debating the Ministry of Social
Development and Seniors. This debate is a four -hourlong debate, which began at exactly 3:59 pm and is scheduled to end at 7:59 pm.
Member Tyrrell, are you ready to assume the
Chair?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, the Residential Treatment Services (RTS) provides group living intervention services
to children between the ages of 12 and 18 years. These are adolescents who are deemed to be at risk
in the community and requiring care and protection in
a safe and structured residential environment. All chi ldren placed in this service have had their situation
and circumstances consi dered by the Family Court
where it has been deemed appropriate for them to be
placed on a Care Order and, as such, become the
responsibility of the Director of Child and Family Services.
Mr. Chairman, the RTS programme provides
24-hour, 365- day-a-year ser vices. The young ladies
are located at the Brangman Home while the young
men receive services at Oleander Cottage. The Youth
Development Centre is utilised to provide one- to-one
and special management of residents based on their needs as indicated by ongoi ng evaluation, and if they
are placed in care of the director as a result of criminal
behaviours.
Mr. Chairman, the inclusion of family is a key
component to the service provision, when this is not possible alternate community -based relationships and
resources are utilised to develop an appropriate
community -based reintegration plan. The programme
at RTS also includes the monitoring of clients on tra nsition in preparation for family reunification. The goal
is to have children transition within 12 months of
placement or to implement an individual plan that may
include independent living, depending on age and
family circumstances. Given the complex trauma ex-perienced by the current adolescents, transition has
exceeded the 12- month goal.
Mr. Chairman, during the budget year
2020/21, RTS provided community -based services to
children on transition in the community, as well as
those eligible for discharge. Family engagement i ncluding crisis intervention, transition planning, reunif ication assessments and trauma awareness and med936 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ication education resulted in a more seamless reunif ication process for the children and families.
RTS provides group living, individual and
group counselling, family assessments and interve ntions, parent groups (as needed), vocational and ed ucational planning, and life skills development. Aftercare and interagency interaction services are based
on the individual needs of the adolescent and their
consent for continued services.
Mr. Chairman, the programme was faced with
many challenges in financial year 2020/21 related to
the number of children receiving services, those r equiring specialised services and the need to create
separate residential space, also, the need to quarantine a group of students out of an abundance of caution resulting from a possible Covid- 19 exposure.
Mr. Chairman, the fiscal budget for financial
year 2020/21 continues to reflect DCFS’s commitment
to ongoing quality improvement based on sound st atistical data and empirical research. In 2020/21, client
data again indi cated that the majority of children r equiring this service had family relationship issues and
childhood trauma.
Due to trauma induced behaviours with res idents, RTS continues to utilise therapeutic and family
components of the programme, maintaining its partnership with Cornell University as they continue to
provide RTS staff with Therapeutic Crisis Intervention
[TCI] and Children and Residential Environments
[C.A.R.E.] training. Both the TCI and the C.A.R.E cu rriculums are based on the empirical research and
provide a foundational philosophy and tangible beha vioural management skill set for staff to provide effec-tive care for all children and families that experience
crisis in their lives. The unit supervisor and shift officer, currently in the process of recertifying as TCI
trainers, must be able to provide ongoing training and
developmental to their staff.
Mr. Chairman, RTS provided in
house/residential services for 23 adolescents in 2020.
This total included 10 males and 13 females. Client’s
services i ncluded case management of children as
indicated by individual assessments and service
plans. Interventions included cottage programmes,
educational and vocational opportunities, transition,
family reunification and aftercare. Client profiles for 2020 indi cated that 100 per cent of adolescents i nvolved in the services had family relationship issues;
the majority of children, both male and female, had
experienced childhood trauma, including abando nment, abuse, grief and domestic violence. This data demonstrates the wide range of specialist services required for dealing effectively with the children and
families in need of services.
Mr. Chairman, the data from 2020 highlights
trauma as a prominent factor for the young people
placed in RTS. Of the components f eatured in each
category which includes trauma, neglect, attachment difficulties and abandonment represent the most pr o-found challenges. Eighty -six per cent of clients experienced neglect; 95 per cent experienced attachment
difficulties which have adversel y affected their ability
to engage in healthy interpersonal relationships; 100 per cent of all children at RTS have parent/child
relationship challenges; 48 per cent of the client population experienced mood disturbances and disorders.
Mr. Chairman, 52 per cent display learning
challenges. Mental illness/cognitive challenges is ev idenced across 21 per cent of parents of children in
the RTS programme; domestic violence among the adults has been witnessed by 30 per cent of the res idents and has likely to hav e contributed to their trauma; 90 per cent received psychiatric or psychological
interventions for the year; eight of the 23 residents at
RTS have been identified as long term as they have
no plausible family reunification plan. [In the] 2021/22 budget year, four of these residents will turn 18 and
out of those three will be eligible for the independent
living option.
Mr. Chairman, in 2020/21, budget capital
funding was allocated for the establishment of a Transitional Living Regime for children ageing out of the
care of the Director of DCFS without a reunification
plan. A building was identified; however COVID -19
required that its use be redefined. DCFS and the Mi nistry of Public Works will work together during the
2021/22 budget year to seek an alternati ve location to
begin operations of a Transitional Living Regime for
children ageing out of the care of the director of DCFS
without a reunification plan.
Mr. Chairman, the objective of this regime is
to ensure that children ageing out of the Department
of Child and Family Services receive the same level of
support that their peers would expect from a reasona-ble parent. This includes but is not limited to setting up
a home, career guidance, physical and mental healthcare, post -secondary education and having opportunities to help them progress to be productive cit izens within our community.
Mr. Chairman, over the previous year RTS
has successfully met the majority of the planned outputs/outcomes, seen on page B -295 of the Budget
Book. Statistical data and the performance quality i mprovement process has been consistently used to monitor quality and to determine changes needed to
improve the service provided. The 2021/22 budget
year is designed to continue providing resources that
allows this programme to provi de a quality service to
children and families.
Mr. Chairman, with a continued focus on the
best interests of the child and continued review of our
policies and procedures, while it is noted that RTS is
not a prison or a secure environment, but rather a
group home, in the 2020/21 budget year the DCFS
administration has worked collaboratively with the Ministry of Public Works, specifically the Department
of Public Lands and Buildings in enhancing RTS phy sBermuda House of Assembly ical structures. All buildings utilised by RTS have r eceived several maintenance upgrades.
Mr. Chairman, the Brangman Home has had
heat repair work, its internal flooring replaced, i mproved lighting installed, and the grounds regularly
maintained. A timeline has been established for additional renovations t o Brangman Home that will i ncrease capacity and provide a more efficient use of
space as well as accommodating an on- site standby
generator.
Oleander Cottage also had a complete renovation. The security systems at both the girls’ and
boys’ homes will undergo review and recommendations for enhancements implemented to ensure the
care and safety and protection of the residents.
Mr. Chairman, the Psycho- Educational Pr ogramme was developed to focus on children who could not be effectively treated in Bermuda or those
who had exhausted all available local therapeutic
treatment services. The budget estimate for business
unit 33100 for the fiscal year 2021/22 is $2,295,000. This represents an increase of $696,000, or
44 per cent, over the original budget for fiscal year
2020/21. This increase reflects the anticipated i ncrease demand for this service and the increasing complexity of cases and associated costs of the service by overseas service providers.
Mr. Chairman, although Bermuda’s ability to
diagnose various psychological behavioural and educational problems has improved, more children are
being identified with various psychological, socioem otional and psychiatric conditions that are beyond the
available services to provide treatment locally. The
Psycho -Educa tional Programme affords the Depar tment of Child and Family Services the opportunity to
have external input with regard to therapeutic intervention and aftercare services.
Mr. Chairman, overseas programmes utilised
by the Psycho- Educational Programme are chosen
based on the area of specialty treatment they are l icensed to provide. After clinical review and based on
the needs of the child, recommendations are made by
the assessment team on the best school options. The
department has sought for several year s to find a ccredited schools on the east coast of the United
States to meet the needs of our children . Unfortunat ely, only a limited number of schools have been able to
meet the therapeutic needs of the children DCFS services. Also, it has been identified that it is not cost -
effective to provide all of the services in Bermuda because of the insufficient client base in each specific
area.
Mr. Chairman, the Psycho- Social- Educational
Programme provides children and youth with protection, care, and nurturance by licensed and accredited
therapeutic overseas facilities. Psycho- SocialEducation programmes provide a safe, supportive and
therapeutic environment for a child, while working col-laboratively towards either family reunification or an
alternative permanenc y option.
The Psycho- Educational Committee is comprised of representatives from Child and Adolescent Services, Ministry of Education, the Department of Child and Family Services, Ministry of Health (which is
not currently active).
During 2020, the Psych o-Educational Pr ogramme, a total of seven continued to receive overseas in therapeutic placements for a complexity of
issues identified across the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM- V) Criteria of Mental Disorders. The purpose of the DSM -V is to provide
clear descriptions of diagnostic categories in order to
enable clinicians to diagnose and treat people with various mental health disorders. Each c hild received
an assessment from local service providers that determined an individuali sed treatment plan and inte nsive interventions, according to the diagnostic categories defined by the DSM- V.
Mr. Chairman, in the best interest of the child,
the Psycho- Educational Committee utilises an overseas service provider that specialised primarily in
providing clinical and comprehensive assessments at
a university hospital. The implementation of such an
assessment was utilised to assist DCFS in obtaining a
clear and comprehensive understanding of the needs of the referred Psycho -Educational clients without an
identified diagnosis or those that did not engage at all
with local service providers. The comprehensive overseas assessment assisted in the development of a
dynamic, individualised treatment plan that has facil itated the most appropriate match of local community
resources or an overseas therapeutic placement that
will meet the child’s specific need.
Mr. Chairman, there were no new children
sent overseas via the Psycho- Educational Programme
in 2020. Of the seven children who were overseas durin g fiscal year 2020/21, four children completed
their programme and returned to Bermuda leaving
three children overseas.
All Psycho -Educational clients serviced overseas received the Global Assessment of Functioning
(GAF) with a scoring range of 20 to 50. A score of 50
is defined as having serious symptoms or serious i mpairment in social, occupational , or school functioning,
and 20 is defined as having danger of hurting self
and/or others. The result of a low Global Assessment
of Functioning (GAF) scoring r equired that all Psycho -
Educational clients receive intensive clinical treatment
and a longer duration of treatment options coupled
with one- to-one staff interventions, psychotropic medications, frequent team meetings, psychiatric hospita lisations, family intervention programmes and ther apeutic visits .
Mr. Chairman, COVID -19 has prevented the
required face- to-face contact of children overseas.
However, there has been increased virtual contact
and includes treatment team sessions, family ses938 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly sions and indivi dual client contact. Out of an abundance of caution and travel restrictions affecting our
new facilities and consideration of new referrals for
children to be placed in programmes overseas has
been suspended.
Mr. Chairman, the Ministry of Education and
the Bermuda Hospitals Board Child and Adolescent
Services have limited resources and/or are ill equipped to service clients who are diagnosed with
conduct disorder, experiencing severe mental health
challenges and are high risk in the community. Co nsequentl y, applications are made to the Psycho- Ed
Committee requesting an overseas placement for a
young person that is not able to be serviced in a trad itional school environment or within the current ther apeutic milieu at CAS (Child and Adolescent Services).
Mr. Chairman, large demands continue to be
placed on the Department of Child and Family Services as a result of the Ministry of Education and CAS
(Child and Adolescent Services) lack of resources and
the overall inability to service children in a traditional
school setting. If DCFS did not have the High- Risk
Intervention Committee, the department would not give adequate response to the increased referrals
from this group. Where skill set and resources allow,
Family and Educational assessments and school su pport are provided by our Assessment, Counselling and
Life Skills Teams and our Residential Care officers.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 33110 Youth
Residential Treatment budget allocation for fiscal year
2021/22 is $1,236,000. This reflects an increase of
$159,000, or 15 per cent, in comparison to fiscal year
2020/21. This increase is a result of the realignment of
staff within the Department of Family Services organisational structure.
Mr. Chairman, Youth Residential Treatment is
the administrative and pro fessional services section
that requires all of the necessary accounting, man-agement, counselling and clinical services to all of the
residential homes and programmes. It is the respons ibility of this business unit to identify all of the training
needs of staff, clinical needs of all of the children enrolled in the programme, management of repair services with all facilities and report them to the director
for action. This unit is also responsible for all performance quality improvements and making sure all of
the programmes within the Residential Treatment
Services meets and maintains accreditation standards.

Programme 2304— Administration

Mr. Chairman, the activity co vered in Programme 2304 is Administration business
unit 33120, Admi nistration business unit 33130, Client
Funding and business unit 33997, National Health
Emergency.
The estimate for this programme for fiscal
year 2020/21 was $3,001,000. The estimate for fiscal year 2021/22 is $2,894,000 reflecting a budgetary decrease of $107,000, or 4 per cent.
Mr. Chairman, the Administration section of
the department is responsible for the general superv ision of the sections within the department and oversight of the Psycho- Educational Programme. The
budget estimate for business unit 33120 for the fiscal
year 2021/22 is $2,444,000. This represents a d ecrease of $107,000, or 4 per cent, over the original
budget for fiscal yar 2020/21. This reduction is related
to the realignment of staff within the organisational structure.
Mr. Chairman, all staff development and trai ning is delivered via this section and as previously hig hlighted training in all sections of the department has
been purposefully aligned with the overarching goal of
providing a comprehensive, seamless continuum of services that meets the complex needs of our client
population.
Mr. Chairman, 2020 has forced many to r ethink, retool and modify how one does what they do. And DCFS administration’s approach to staff training was no exception to this reality. The traditional method of providing face- to-face staff training was no longer a viable option due to COVID -19 risks and regul ations in place. In 2019, fortunately DCFS had commence membership with Relias Learning Systems to
become the core training vehicle for staff prof essional
development in the field. Relias has become DCFS’s
web- based training partner. Orientation training has
been custom designed for each section of the d epartment based on the core needs of the department,
as well as each section.
Mr. Chairman, Relias hosts a vast library of
webinars in their platform, and they conduct regular
reviews and training updates to new research deve lopments in the field. Relias courses are endorsed by numerous professional bodies including the Council
on Accreditation and the Child Welfare League of
America (CWLA). This training solution also has customisable elements that allows for DCFS policies and
procedures as well as legislation training to be built
into the system. This allows for consistency and accessibility to nec essary training for all staff. April 2021
will mark a year of using this online process to assist
with the staff training. All frontline staff have availed
themselves to the core expectations of the training
programme and several have taken courses that wi ll
assist them with increasing other skillsets.
Mr. Chairman, the Administration section is
responsible for reviewing all policies and procedures
and making the necessary recommendations that will
expand the capacity, scope and quality of our social
servi ce delivery system. Given the current fiscal r estraints, the event of COVID -19 coupled with the i ncrease in demand for more specialised and therape utic services, the Administration section continues to
review and where necessary reallocate its resources


Bermuda House of Assembly to ensure client needs are met and services to the
individual is not compromised.
Mr. Chairman, the Administration section will
finalise the implementation of its approved reorganis ation structure and strategic plan during financial year
2021/22. Recruitment is near completion and this will
ensure DCFS is fully staffed. Administration continues
to look for opportunities of performance quality i mprovement. This section will continue with moderni sing the department strategy of providing comprehensive assessme nts of all referrals so that clients r eceive the appropriate service from the appropriate
agency thereby reducing referrals and enhancing outcomes thus, ensuring that each section maintains
their accreditation status.
Mr. Chairman, additional training for forensic
interview will assist investigators within DCFS as well as the police service to be more effective and ther apeutic when interviewing children. The introduction of
child safeguarding legislation, an amendment to the
Children’s Act 1998, based on t hese advancements in
the Administration section of DCFS is in the process
of developing a training programme that will certify
counsellors to asses and provide counselling to all
children accused and victims of sexual offences.
Mr. Chairman, the Administr ation section of
the Department of Child and Family Services exper ienced significant challenges during 2020. Having to
develop and constantly update the department’s
COVID -19 operations protocols, staff went above and
beyond during shelter -in-place and dur ing curfew p eriods to ensure all children and families involved with DCFS were safe. The administration staff assisted with any necessary support and experienced minimum disruption to service delivery. Many of these
strategies you will have heard earlier i n this present ation.
Mr. Chairman, the budget estimate for bus iness unit 33130 for fiscal year 2021/22 is $450,000.
This represents no change over the original budget for
fiscal year 2020/21. Mr. Chairman, the grant funding
provides $375,000 to teen serv ices and $75,000 for
cross- Ministry initiatives to assist families in crisis.
National Health Emergency —business unit
33997. Mr. Chairman, there is no budget estimate for
this business unit for fiscal year 2021/22. This bus iness unit was created to respond to the COVID -19
pandemic in financial year 2020/21.

SUBJECTIVE ANALYSIS

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Mr. Chairman, I will now speak
to the subjective analysis found on page B -292. Mr.
Chairman, detailed explanations for changes to var ious cost categories is f or the subjective analysis for
fiscal year 2021/22 found on page B -292 will now be
discussed.
Salaries: Mr. Chairman, $8,894,000 have
been allocated to salaries which is a $227,000, or 2 per cent decrease compares to fiscal year 2020/21.
This decrease in salaries reflects for the remaining
10 per cent reduction in salaries that all Government
employees agreed to take to offset Government ’s financial loss during the COVID -19 pandemic.
Training: —Mr. Chairman, $154,000 has been
allocated to training in fis cal year 2021/22. This repr esents a $30,000, or 24 per cent, increase compared to
fiscal year 2020/21. Due to the new child safeguarding
legislation requirement, staff have had to receive trai ning regarding childhood sexual abuse from various
perspectives.
Travel: Mr. Chairman, the allocated budget for
fiscal year 2021/22 is $204,000 for travel. This reflects a minimal increase of $8,000, or 4 per cent compared
to fiscal year 2020/21. This increase reflects children attending facilities abroad, due to the Psycho -
Educational Programme and for children required to
travel for medical services.
Communications: Mr. Chairman, $193,000
has been allocated to communications for fiscal year
2021/22 which is an increase of $15,000, or 8 per cent
in comparison with fi scal year 2020/21 budget alloc ation.
Professional Services: Mr. Chairman, the
budget allocation for professional services for fiscal
year 2021/22 is $3,782,000 which is an increase of $359,000. This increase shows the Government ’s
commitment to providing the necessary training and
constant services that support the newly enacted child
safeguarding legislation. This legislation requires the
Director of Department of Child and Family Services to provide services for all children involved in sexual
abuse cases. This includes victims and those accused.
Rentals: Mr. Chairman, the budget allocated
for rentals is $1,321,000 in fiscal year 2021/22. The
total increase in rental costs is $378,000, or
40 per cent from fiscal year 2020/21. This amount is in
relation to two facilities: one at 131 Front Street, which
rental costs amounts to $221,000, and the balance of
$157,000 is for the rental of the children’s facility l ocated at Aeolia D rive.
Mr. Chairman, although the move of the D epartment of Child and Family Services to the new l ocation at 131 Front Street has caused an increase in
the budget allocation for rentals, this can be justified.
DCFS’s new location has been beneficial overall by
providing a more efficient and effective operations
which provides a more streamlined, user -friendly service to children and families.
Mr. Chairman, families no longer have to tra vel to various locations seeking services. Now they are
able to go to one location and find all the services the
department offers in a therapeutic environment. This
location also offers the opportunity for the Sexual A ssault Response Team to have a state of the art facility
that once completed will exceed industry standard
providing the appropriate environment for secure ex940 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly amination for any sexual ass ault victim. The ability to
have the space for such a facility is worth the cost for
the rental increase.
Repair/Maintenance: Mr. Chairman, in fiscal
year 2021/22, repair maintenance budget allocation is $551,000, which is an increase of $219,000, or
66 per cent from fiscal year 2020/21. This increase is
primarily for the ongoing maintenance and development of DCFS’s new software system called Protect
Me.
Mr. Chairman, there is also continuous need
to ensure Brangman Home and the Oleander Cottage are sec ure and maintained for the safety of all children
and their care providers. The DCFS is faced with i ncreases with the number of children placed in care of
the director, many of whom have significant mental
health conditions and behavioural challenges. The
department must be financially prepared at all times to
maintain these facilities so that the needs of the chi ldren residing in them are met, also providing them
with a safe and comfortable place to call home. Insurance: Mr. Chairman, $4,000 has been
allocated in fiscal year 2021/22 to insurance which is
an increase of $1,000, or 33 per cent compared to
fiscal year 2020/21. (I want to repeat that: $1,000.)
This increase reflects the insurance coverage on the
Happy Valley Child Care Centre bus. The assistance of the private sector in donating to purchase a new
bus was on the condition that the new bus be fully
covered by insurance.
Energy: Mr. Chairman, the introduction of another home on Aeolia Drive complex because of the need to isolate a child that required additional services is the reason for this increase. This home when not
being used for this purpose has been identified for use
should a child in care of the director need to isolate
due to COVID -19. As a result, the budget allocation
for fiscal year 2021/22 for energy is $300,000. And in
comparison to fiscal year 2020/21, this is an increase
of $2,000, or 1 per cent.
Clothing, Uniforms and Laundry: Mr. Chai rman, $178,000 has been allocated for fiscal year
2021/22 for clothing, uniforms and laundry. This increase of $43,000, or 32 per cent, in comparison to
fiscal year 2020/21 is a result of the department’s r esponse to working with children under COVID -19 pr otocols.
Materials and Supplies: Mr. Chairman, the
budget allocated to materials and suppli es is
$432,000 for fiscal year 2021/22. This reflects an i ncrease of $129,000 for materials and supplies. This increase is a result of assessment tools that is r equired for the director to meet his obligations under
the child safeguarding legislation. This allows for the
director to be able to effectively assess and determine
the best treatment options for both victims and those children accused of committing sexual related offenses. Equipment: Mr. Chairman, $27,000 has been
allocated in financial year 2021/22 for equipment (m inor capital), which is an increase of $9,000, or 50 per cent compared to financial year 2020/21. This
increase in equipment is due to the department having
to continuously replace furniture and other household
items within the reside ntial homes.
Other Expenses: Mr. Chairman, other expenses in financial year 2021/22 received a budget allocation of $84,000. This is a minimum increase of
$2,000, or 2 per cent, in comparison to financial year
2020/21. This minimal increase is due to the projected
cost based on actual spending over the past budget
cycle.
Grant and Contributions: Mr. Chairman, for
financial year 2021/22, $1,340,000 has been allocated
to grants and contributions. This is an increase of $240,000, or 22 per cent, in compari son to financial
year 2020/21.
Mr. Chairman, this increase by way of grants
and contributions is to assist with the needs associat-ed with therapeutic foster care, which includes chi ldren who are diagnosed with severe conditions and/or
challenges such as m edical, mental, emotional or behavioural needs that require intensive protocol and
medical interventions that cannot be accommodated
in traditional foster care settings. Due to these cha llenges, these children require a more skilled foster
parent and speci alised professional services to meet
their needs so that they are able to thrive.

Capital Expenditure

Mr. Chairman, I would like to
draw your attention now to page C -8 and C -16 and
the estimate for Capital Expenditures for the Minist ry
of $518,000.
Mr. Chairman, on page C -8 you will note
$500,000 is budgeted for the youth transitional living centre to provide for our Throne Speech commitment
so that no child would age out of our assistance at 18
and can continue to be provided with our services.
Mr. Chairman, of the balance of the $18,000
capital acquisitions will be for a photocopier for Mini stry Headquarters, as well as IT and furniture replac ement at DCFS.
Mr. Chairman, at this time I would like to thank
all the staff of the Department of Child and Family
Services for their dedication to providing effective and
efficient services to the children and families within
our community that require the support and services that is provided by DCFS.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This concludes my
presentation of the departments under the Ministry of Social Development and Seniors, namely Head 86,
Ministry Headquarters and Head 23, Department of
Child and Family Services.

I would like to thank the Minister, and I would also like to thank the many people
who do so much to su pport our youth and our seniors
in the community. I would also like to commend the Minister on such a thorough brief. This is my first time
hearing the brief, so both of us are having our first
budget debate under these Heads. I certainly apprec iate all of the information that was shared.
I would just like to preface that there were an
awful lot of statistics in there. So, I may be a little off,
or need a little guidance along the way, because I was
not able to necessarily record all of the detail. So, wit h
that, please excuse me in advance.
I would like to begin with Head 86 and the
Ministry of Social Development and Seniors, Headquarters. This is somewhat new in that the senior’s
component has increased the budget allocation and
they are looking at an increase overall, by the looks of
it, between both Head 86 and 23 of about $7,300,000.
You know, my reflection on this is that in both areas
these are two Ministries that so desperately need our
financial support which makes it very difficult to want
to scru tinise the numbers severely because this is an
area that our Government is created for —to support
any individuals and families. So, generally speaking, this is not necessarily about scrutinising the budget to that extent.
I did have a question on page B -284 around
the capital expenditure. It just had “acquisitions deve lopment,” and then there was a $500,000 budget,
which I believe is the last item that the Minister mentioned, which is the independent living. I was just cur ious whether there is a timeline on when this will be
finalised, when we will begin to populate the independent residential facility, and when can we begin to
support our young children who have aged out of the system in this new environment?
Just moving over to page B -286, Head 86—
Agein g and Disability Services. So, they are moving into this new Ministry. I am just curious whether there
will be any additional services or thoughts around how
we may be able to assist our seniors through ageing
at home. There have been a number of initiativ es and
committees. The Deputy Speaker has chaired a
committee, MP Wade has also been a chair on committees looking at how we can restructure and support
our seniors though ageing at home. So I was just c urious whether ageing and disability services ha d been
able to make any progress on programmes that will
support the home environment versus the residential care facilities.
Line 96070, Grants to the Third Sector, and
that comes in at $2,432,000. This includes . . . I know
that Summer Haven is there and the rest homes, et
cetera. There is one line item in here on page C -21,
line 6869 Grants to External Bodies and it is over half a million dollars and I was just curious what —

Mr. Chairman, can you repeat
that question?

942 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: The MP was asking about a li ne item
in terms of the correction to the number in the book. I
said that I noted that you wanted to answer all questions at the end. Is that when you want to refer to the
question she asked?

Yes. I just am curious . . .
there is . . . the original Budget Book has a line item
on page C -21, and this line item is 6869 Grants to E xternal Bodies for $552,000. There is a revised Grant and Contribution page that has been brought to my
attention, an insert, and I see that that line item has been removed. It is not on this revised page.
So my question is, Has the $552,000 to External Bodies been demised? What has happened
with that $552,000?
[Crosstalk]

And those are my questions
for those pages.
Now, I would like to move into the performance measures, B -288 under business unit 96040,
Ageing and Disability Services. I am just curious . . .
there are a number of accessibility assessments that
have been c onducted. And last year, well 2019/20
there were 73 assessments, and then last year, 2020/21, there were 55. And moving forward these
assessments have been discontinued. So I would just
like to know why they have been discontinued and if
there is something replacing them.
Moving just down there, the number of senior
abuse investigations. Again, it has been discontinued
and I am just curious as to why.
The next line . . . I am still on B -288 under
Ageing and Disability Services. I am just looking at the complaints. So, the number of senior abuse complaints submitted by the Registrar and the type of
abuses, and the total that I am seeing listed here in
the on page 288 of the [Budget] Book is 61 cases. It is
suspected that there would be the possibility of 45 in
the next year, 2021/22, which brings to light the question about whether any additional legislation is being
considered to support senior abuse, in particular the Office of the Public Guardian, and what the progress
may be in that area.
I am still looking at complaints, just in the next
line down, complaints leading to an investigation. We
have 41. So, if we go back up to the total of 61, I am just curious how the cases that are not picked up for
investigation are reconciled, and sort of under what
circumstances they would not be justified for further
investigation.
And then at the bottom of the page, this refers
specifically to residential care home complaints. I am
just curious, there is the number of complaints that are
received and then the number of complaints that are
investigated do reconcile. The revised forecast for
2020/21 was 19 and it is documenting that the 19 were investigated. So, I am just curious if in residential
care homes 100 per cent of the complaints are investigated. Again, I am just curious why any complaints that are coming in from the general public at the total
of 61 would only get 41 investigations.
Moving over to B -289, under K. Margaret
Carter Centre. I am just interested in finding out a little
bit more in the increased compliance with first aid
standards and whether in general this is part of any
kind of accreditation, and if the Minister might just be
able to give us a little more information about OSHA.
And again, the next line down, increased
compliance with fire s afety and emergency standards.
Two questions: One is that the performance measure
shows that 70 per cent of the . . . I guess, of the . . .
70 per cent of K. Margaret Carter Centre . . .
70 per cent of the standards, I guess, were in compl iance. So I am just curious what is not in compliance
(the other 30 per cent), given the fact that is a facility
that I would imagine requires very detailed, accurate
and, you know, a lot of attention needs to be given to
the fire safety and emergency standards there given
some of the challenges in mobility, et cetera.
Moving on, I would like to go straight into
Head 23, the Happy Valley Child Centre. I am on
page B -291, line item 33010. I think that the Minister
had mentioned the monthly cost, and I thought that it


Bermuda House of Assembly might have been around $525 a month. I am just cur ious where and how that price is calculated. The reason I am asking is that it appears in some cases the
monthly cost of Happy Valley Day [Child] Care Centre
does tend to establish the norm for the private sector
as well. So I am just curious how we may be able to
itemise or reinforce the services that are provided at
Happy Valley Child Care Centre so that this same
level and standard of services are provided to similar
private day care, child care centres, that are charging
the same amount of money, but may not be as struc-tured as the Happy Valley Child Care Centre.
So, I would just like to know, again, or if the
Minister was not able to list what the real distinction is
as far as the value and quality of program ming there
versus the private sector.
I am also curious, under the Happy Valley
Child Care Centre, you know, with the child asses sments that are carried out. I am just curious [about]
the percentage of children that are prepared for pr eschool that do grad uate out of Happy Valley Child
Care Centre. I am also interested in how many of the
children who come to the Happy Valley Child Care
Centre have also received intervention services from
the child development project, and how many of the
children have been referred from the child development project to Happy Valley [Child] Care Centre. I am also curious how many of the parenting pr ogrammes are proved at the Happy Valley Child Care Centre.
There has been talk, and I believe I heard the
Minister mention that interns and some school chi ldren, you know, high school children, are able to join the Happy Valley Child Care Centre team, whether it
is to provide internships or whether it is a part of the
curriculum of the child certification programme at the
Bermuda College. I am just curious how many of our
young adults have gotten involved in the internship
programmes whether it is part of the Bermuda College
in general or a high school community service pr ogramme.
There was some mention of accreditation at
Happy V alley Child Care Centre. I am just curious
what accreditation body Happy Valley Child Care Centre actually is enrolled with.
I am going to end there with that line item with
a thanks to Ms. Swan for all of her hard work. And,
again, I am sure that 2020 has been most challenging
given our shelter -in-place for so long.
Going back to B -291, line item 33020. This is
around the investigating and screening and the intake
and intervention and foster care. I am just curious how many children were referred this year? I am just fli pping over to the performance measures . . . yes, it is
just percentages. And, so, I am just curious if, you
know, 90 per cent of children have been referred, it is 90 per cent of how many? So, I am just curious how
many that population is.

Thank you. And still under
Business Unit 33020 Invest igation and Screening on
B- 294. I am just curious ho w many referrals for either
counselling or for home- based services. Again, we are
receiving percentages, but it is difficult to know 100
per cent of how many.
Moving on, I am going back to page B-291
line 330 30, Foster Care. Again, I do believe that the
Minister mentioned in her brief how many foster parents . . . and I see here, sorry, that there are 90. And I
am just curious if the Minister could maybe give an indication of how many of the children, or families, are in-taking children with special needs.
And there was mention . . . I am not seeing it
in the book here in actual words, but I am just curious
about the Therapeutic Foster Placement, if maybe I
could just get a definition of therapeutic foster plac ement. And I am just wondering, too, what is the larges t
group that foster children fall into? Are we seeing
more where it is mental health related? Is it substance
abuse or is it abandonment? I am just curious of that
breakdown.
And with regard to . . . and I am still under the
same line item for Foster Care, I am just interested in
finding out a little bit more about the training that our
foster parents receive, and whether any of that trai ning has moved online and will stay online. And my
reason for asking that is that when it is more readily
accessible, par ents can engage with any kind of trai ning and it may be that they can do it in their own time, as well as at specific designated times.
And I am also curious whether we assist the
Foster Parent Association at all. I did not notice them
listed in the grant and I was just curious what the rel ationship is with the Foster Parent Association. And I
am just curious too, Minister, whether we had the
Young Citizens Award this year. If I might just get an update on that as well.
944 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly And back to page B-291 under Counsel ling
and Life Skills 33200. There was some partnering in
the past, I believe, with external counselling partners.
And I am just curious whether we still have that pr ogramme in place. I am referring to a past ministerial
budget brief where it was mentioned that there was
sort of a joint partnership with CARE in Bermuda. I am
just wondering whether that programme is still in existence, and if we might get an update on its progress
if it is.
Still on page B -291, under Residential Treatment 2303, and I am going to start with 33060, Family Preservation. There has been talk about . . . I have
heard reference just reading past briefs of the cross
ministry intervention team, and that there is more a bit of a home- based programme. I was just wondering if
the Ministe r might be able to elaborate on that for us.
Sorry, I am just referring to my notes for a minute.
Moving down to 2303, Residential Treatment,
33070 Brangman Home. You mentioned that there is an increase of $202,000 this year. I am just curious whether ext ra security is being considered as part of
that additional expense for this year, because I see that the $202,000 increased. I’m sorry . . . I’m just
looking at past years. So, yes, if we go back to 2019,
the budget was about that. I am guessing that the
2020 expense dropped ever so slightly due to maybe
the pandemic, and then it is coming back up $1.166
million for this year. But I am just curious whether s ecurity is being provided.
And the same for 33090, Observatory Cottage
has a similar increase this y ear, $239,000. And again,
I am interested in whether that includes additional s ecurity for those two residential locations.
Then 33100, this is the Psycho- Education
Programmes overseas. There is $2.3 million that has
been budgeted for this year, which is an increase of
almost $700,000, which is a 44 per cent increase. So,
could the Minister just confirm then that we are seeing
additional cases arise this year which would be causing an increase in the Psycho- Educational Pr ogrammes? Or is this tuition related? I am just curious
whether we could get a little detail on that. And again, I apologise Minister if I missed it, but I was listening to
my first brief and so I may not have received all of the
information.
And then on page B -291, 33130, the Grant
Funding of the $450,000. Again, I am not sure what
that grant funding is referring to. I did not see it listed in the supplementary piece that was given. And so, I
am just curious what that grant funding is for.
Just turning the page to B-292 under Subjective An alysis, can the Minister just give us a little i nformation? Under Travel you were saying that the $204,000 allocated for travel is for the actual chi ldren’s travel costs. I am just curious whether the Mi nistry includes, I do not know, whether a parent . . .
does the Child and Family Services pay for parental
travel to visit their students who may be overseas and also, whether this particular line item covers members
of the DCFS staff that travel overseas to visit st udents? I am just curious if I might be able to get a little
more detail around the allocation of that travel budget.
And under Rentals, the Minister mentioned
that there were two facilities. One was a children’s residence and the other was Front Street. I am just
wondering whether there is square footage pricing for
that. It is easier for me to understand, because I cannot remember whether . . . for the Front Street as an
example, $221,000. I cannot remember whether that
was monthly or annually. But if I can get the square
footage it will make it a little easier for me to be able to
figure out exactly what those rental costs are.
The Repairs and Maintenance which is right
under Rentals, the $551,000, which is up $219,000. Is
that repairs and maintenance specifically for residen-tial or is that repai rs and maintenance to office buil dings? I was not quite sure about that.
Turning the page to B -294, the Performance
Measures, number 2 under the Happy Valley Child
Care Centre, says . . . the indicator is a minimum of
70 per cent of parents to engage and c omplete parenting classes, and of the 70 per cent, 90 per cent
seem to have completed the parenting classes. I am just wondering what kind of support, if any, we provide
for the parents that do not engage in completing parenting classes and what is put in place to either pr ovide support or additional guidance to those parents
that are not involved.
And moving down the page B -294, Business
Unit 33030 Foster Care, number 3. I just did not quite
understand this. It says number of foster youths who participate in Life Skills Training, and it says that for
2019/20 there was 700 per cent. I am just curious if I might be able to get a little more information on 700
per cent. It is showing here in the actual original and the forecast for next year. There are actuall y numbers,
12 children, 16 children. So I am just not sure what
the 700 per cent is or whether that is a typo.
Moving over to B-295 under 33200, Counse lling and Life Skills. It says that the number of mental
health assessments completed
. . . there was onl y
one. I am just curious, given the environment, whether
this is an anomaly, if this is something just unique for
this year due to our circumstances, or was the average number of health assessments completed
through Counselling and Life Skills.
Again, I am still on B-295 under 33090 Observatory Cottage, and I guess this would apply as well to
Brangman Home, although I do not see it listed as a
performance measure, just for Observatory Cottage. But it says the number of individual service plans
completed for the year within policy guidelines, and
then it goes on to say the number of clinical group
sessions facilitated during the fiscal year. And it also
has the number of residents having intake asses sments completed within the 30 days of intake. And
you know, 100 per cent for sure. But I am just curious,


Bermuda House of Assembly what if anything is done to prepare for transition, especially given the fact that we do not necessarily have
anywhere that is you know, sort of really, really up and
running, to my understanding, once the chi ldren age
out—the children that are ageing out right now. I am
fully aware of what is coming; but I am just curious what kind of support we provide through that transition
period.
And, then again, turning the page to B-296, I
am inter ested in accreditation. So under Youth Res idential Treatment 33110, as well as under Administr ation 33120, there is reference to accreditation, and
there is an additional reference under Administration
that the accreditation is through the Counsel on A ccreditation. I am just wondering if the Minister might
be able to just give us some detail on the Counsel of
Accreditation. Is that a local programme? Is it from
overseas? I do not have a reference point for that, and
I would be interested to find out more.
If the Minister does not mind, I would like to
stop there.

My apologies. Thank you, Honourable Minister for the d etailed listing and review of these most important areas
of Government. I must say, it was very detailed, and I
much appreciate the fact that this took place. It a nswered a lot of questions.
I would like to start out, Mr. Chairman, if you
will go on B-286 under Head 86, Ministry of Social
Development and Seniors. Just one question on the
date.
Okay, under Insurance, if we go down to the
Subjective Analysis of Current Estimates, s everal
lines down we see Insurance for $113,000. If the
Honourable Minister could give us just a briefing of
what that insurance covers for the Ministry, so that we
can better understand some of the things that are
needed to be covered, and the intricacies that take
place under such departments. I think sometimes the
public are not aware of exactly where some of this
cost has to go and why it can be very expensive at
times. If she can give us an idea, the Honourable Mi nister, of those.
Moving quickly because I know time is running out, I will then move over to page B -291 under
Head 23. The Honourable Minister, under Residential Treatment unit 2303, Brangman Home 33070 item
and 33090 item under Observatory Cottage, did mention security. I did hear that part. I am assuming part
of that is for security. But the question I had here was, we know that in the past there have been some issues
that we have read about. Have the security issues
been rectified? So, at present, is security in operation
at these two locat ions? Are they operational and in
progress? And if they are not, what are we putting in
place? Because I know it has been some time since
we have had some issues there with security.
Also, in her briefing, my second question was
under Referrals. I am going to go over to . . . where is
it? I am trying to find the item number that I had, that I was looking at. She mentioned 240 new referrals this year for Child and Family Services that were actually
new, and that was down from the previous year, these
referra ls. I thought 240 was a lot, but if it was more
than that, that is concerning. I did not hear quite why
she thought these referrals were down from . . . I do
not recall the actual number. I think it about 50- plus or
more. But she thought that these referrals were down, especially coming out of a COVID -19 situation where
people have been stressed out. And we had heard in
the media that people were stressed out. And I
thought I had heard, and the Minister can correct me if
I am wrong, that there were more cases being repor ted. But I could be incorrect as to the media stating
that. Why were they down? Why does she believe that
they were down during such a stressful time?
In addition to that, I would like to go over to
[page] C-221 under the part of Family Servi ces, C -21.

Continue.

946 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Mr. L. Craig Cannonier: Under C -21 the Ministry of
Social Development and Seniors. If we come on
down, there were some corrections I thought needed
to be made. But I did find those, so thank you very
much Minister for providing those.
But under Child and Family Services is Foster
Fees, unit number 6900, Foster Fees. And I noticed
that it has drastically increased. I am not sure what
that is at tributable to. Are we expecting $230,000
more of foster parents coming into pl ace taking care
of these kids? Or has the fee gone up? Maybe we have increased the fee to take care of kids. I do not
know what that is attributable to. And can she can
give us an idea of approximately how many families in
Bermuda, because I know that . . . actually I was a
part of being a foster family as well several years ago.
I am just curious as to how many families in Bermuda
are contributing, because I know that this is such a
fantastic thing that families would actually participate
in this. And that is again on page C -21 under Grants
and Contributions, Child and Family Services, Foster
Fees.
Also (let me just make sure I get the page correct), on C-27 Government Department Accommodations and Rentals, once again, Accommodations for
Rentals, department rentals. I was just curious. We
are aware of the increased rent for Customs House of
$801,486. This number is quite different than what
was quoted by the department actually to the media.
When they quoted the rental rate to the media it was
$788,000 per y ear. I was just curious as to how come
there is a difference in the Budget Book when it was
publicly stated at a different amount.
Also, under the Accommodations and Rentals, I was just curious. There are, let’s see, it looks like
five different rentals. I also recall that the Ministry pu blicly stated that they were renting five different places, which did not line up with the four that they did last
year. So I am not sure why it was stated in the public
that there were five places that they rented. Maybe
they can clear that up, because I only see four from
the revised estimate. So, I do not know what the fifth
one was. And if she can explain a little more about the
CMIT Reside ntial. I know what it is, and it would be
nice for the public to know exactly what that is.
The other question that I would have under
Customs House rental is . . . it was stated they wanted
to move all of the . . . in fact, I will quote, the Ministry
said, incorporate all sections of the department under
one roof . Is that, in fact, th e case right now that all the
departments of DCFS have moved under this one roof, and if not, are they renting from somewhere else in addition for some other space or administrative
work?
The other question to this was when did
DCFS actually make a reques t to move to Customs
House? And what were the requirements that they
listed as to what was needed to make that move? Then the next question would be, What other
locations were viewed? In fact, as they moved to
Front Street, before they moved to Front Street what
other locations? I would assume that it was the E states Department that was looking for them. I am not
sure, considering the substantive Minister of Public
Works was speaking to it. But we did not hear necessarily from DCFS. What other places did t hey look at
pending the requirements that they thought they
needed for the $801,000?
And that wraps up the questions I had. Thank
you, Chair.

Under 2303 Independent
Living, I am just curious. The new independent living
arrangement that is there for the future. Is there a pr ojected budget for the rental or purchase, or how ever
we are going to manage the physical building there, and whether the actual independent living has been
finalised, or is this still in sort of the development stage?

Thank you, MP Jackson. Are there
any other speakers ?
If there are no other speakers, Minister, do
you wish to respond at this time?

Hon. Tinee Furbert: Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I
am just writing down a lot of questions. Okay.
Please excuse me; the responses may not be
in the order in which the quest ions were asked. But I
will start with the last question from MP Jackson.

Minister, proceed.
Hon. Tinee Furbert: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I was saying that I probably will not answer
the questions [in the order] in which they were asked.
But I will start with the last one first in regard to the
average time period in which someone is in the over-seas placement. That does range depending on the complexity of the clients. It can be from 12 to 18
months or longer, again depending on the complex ity
of the client’s needs going overseas.
There was a question in regard to the . . . and
also, I would just like to say, Mr. Chairman, that I cov-ered a lot of these questions in my brief already. But
there was a question in regard to the facility of DCFS .
That was actually requested several years ago. And
the request was for all services to be under one roof.
As far as square footage and amounts, I
would like to defer those questions to the Ministry of
Public Works as they are responsible for these sorts
of questions. As far as the areas that are not in this
facility of DCFS, that would be the Happy Valley Care
Centre, as well as the residential treatments facilities.
There was a question in regard to whether or
not the Happy Valley Child Care Centre is accredited.
It is accredited by the Bermuda National Standards
Committee. There was a question in regard to the
CDP. How many children from CDP are engaged with
the Happy Valley Child Care Centre? CDP is limited in
the services that they are currently able to provide as
a result of staff shortages. They were unable to pr ovide parenting classes for their portage programme.
They also no longer have a family counsellor to assist
with those services.
Only one child from CDP receives services
within the Happy V alley Day Care Centre, and four
children are receiving speech and OT [occupational
therapy] services from the Department of Health.
I am going to try and see if I can answer the
questions that were not answered in the brief. In r egard to the security syst ems at the residential treatment facilities, both of their security systems are operational. However, both sites are currently scheduled for upgrades. So that is currently under review for enhancements. But the security system is an area which
is being pri oritised for upgrades.
There was a question in regard to the counselling within DCFS. They received 87 referrals for
2020 including 41 direct referrals for substance counselling and education. And just for some information,
[INAUDIBLE] no longer exists. N ow the counselling
services of DCFS staff provide the required substance abuse counselling and education.
There was a question in regard to how many
were referred to DCFS within 2020. There were 930 new referrals; 174 were screened out, 715 were screened in for investigations, and 41 were screened
directly to counselling and life skills.
There was a question in regard to the defin ition of therapeutic foster cares. These are foster par-ents who have advanced levels of either education or employment and skil l sets, and are equipped to foster
children with either physiological impairment or em otional challenges. For the year 2020, we had 11 ther-apeutic foster care placements. And MP Jackson
used the term special needs. So there were 11. There
is foster parent training, foster care hosts, foster parent training facilitated by local psychologists and therapists. And this is also supplemented by online trai ning through Foster Parent College. Foster Parent Co llege is endorsed by the Child Welfare League of America, and the National Foster Parent Association.
There was a question in regard to how many
children who leave the Happy Valley Child Care Cen-tre are being prepared for preschool. I mentioned in
my brief that all of the children leaving—so that is 100
per cent —are well prepared for preschool. And in
most cases they are over prepared and have mastered the preschool curriculum.
In regard to the grant funding, which was
business unit 33130, there was a question in regard to
the grant funding and how that money w as allocated. I
mentioned in my brief that of the $450,000, a full $375,000 was allocated to Teen Services. And the $75,000 was for cross -ministry initiatives. I believe MP
Jackson mentioned CMIT . So to provide services,
CMIT and also housing through CMIT.
There was a question in regard to the Berm uda National Standards Committee on who they were
or the accreditation that DCFS is under, as well as the
Happy Valley Day Care Centre, wanting some more
information. So the Bermuda National Standards
Committee i s a group of Bermuda funders, policy
makers and professionals who united in 2004 to cr eate opportunities for human service organisations and
charities to use in seeking to demonstrate the quality
of their work. In 2005 they were established through a
memor andum of understanding with the Council on
Accreditation in New York to operate the first international Council of Accreditation accrediting process.
And so there is an agreement that Bermuda has with the Council on Accreditation to use international r eviewers while maintaining a less expensive and more
culturally relevant Bermuda operation. And so that is the accreditation process for our services here.
There was a question in regard to DCFS beginning to populate the independent living facilities, and we want to support children in that environment.
Again, thank you for that question. The initial start in
June of 2021 with the girls’ facility and the boys’ facil ity being dependent in the identification . . . sorry, the
girls’ facility, the timeline being J une 2021, and the
boys’ facility being dependent on the identification of a
newer facility, that will take a little bit longer. But we
are having meetings to discuss with possible sites for
948 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly that facility. The expectation is that it will be oper ational before the end of this budget year.
There was a question in regard to CDP [Child
Development Programme] providing parenting classes. I think I answered that question, maybe. And there was a question in regard to the Happy Valley
Child Care Centre providing internships for students at
the Bermuda College. The internship programme
does not exist currently at the Bermuda College.
However, community service opportunities are always
made available to high school students through pr ivate and public, who have an interest in early chil dhood education.
I will move over to some of the questions that
are related to Ageing and Disability Services. There was a question in regard to the insurance of $113,000
under the Ageing and Disability, K. Margaret Centre
(my apologies; I did cover this in my brief.) I advised
that this was for some clients of K. Margaret Carter
Centre who do not have basic health care insurance.
It provides clients with basic HIP insurance, particular-ly those who need insurance and protection during
their vocational programmes off -site.
There was a question in regard to the performance measures within the Ageing and Disability Services. (Let me see. Let me turn back.)
I believe there needed to be clarification on
some of the performance measures. And if MP Jac kson just looks under the performance measures, she
will see that it is that performance measure where it
says “Discontinued” . . . if you look under, there has
been a new performance measure written. And so it
has not been discontinued; it has just been reworded, and it is under Accessible Assessment and Consult ations Conducted.
In regard to the performance measures for
ADS [Ageing and Disability Services], again that wor ding was changed, and it was replaced with the performance measure which was just following. There
was a question in regard to the seniors abuse perfor-mance. That has been replaced within the performance which is just under it.
There was a question in regard to the difference between abuse investigations versus reports,
and why t he numbers are different. We receive many
important forms that allege abuse but do not meet the
definition or do not require an abuse investigation established within the initial screening process. It does
not mean that the person does not require support,
but case management services are provided. And there are also reports received that cannot move due
to the anonymous nature preventing follow -up or persons not consenting to an investigation. And we have
to respect the person’s wishes, who have the capaci ty
to decide regarding their participation in investigations, and this must be upheld. And this can result in a case not proceeding to investigation.
There was a question in regard to how ADS
assists seniors to age at home. The Ministry is actual-ly lookin g to table during this financial year a senior
strategy to have a particular emphasis on dementia care. There is a programme operating in case management support [for] seniors in their homes who
have insufficient resources to ensure that they are able to have the proper care. And again, the Ministry
of Public Works could probably elaborate, but there is
a programme in the Ministry of Public Works in Bermuda housing, as well as Age Concern in regard to
monies being allocated to assist with in- home renov ations or accommodations or modifications. So there is
a programme in place for that.
I just wanted to answer the question in regard
to the change in grants. There was an amended version which came within our Budget Books in regard to
the grant allocations. And the grant number is
$2,691,000. The grants that make this up were set up in my brief. There was Age Concern at $15,000. The
rest homes were $1,050,000. Vision Bermuda was
$15,000. Meals on Wheels was $48,000. Salvation
Army Shelter, $55,000. Tomorrow’s V oices was
$13,000. Women’s Resource Centre was $100,000.
Summerhaven, $600,000, Packwood Rest Home,
$300,000.
There was also a question in regard to additional legislation being considered for senior abuse. Yes, MP Jackson mentioned about the Office of the
Public Guardian. It is being handled under the Ministry of Legal Affairs and is moving forward. Regarding updates to the senior abuse legislation, a main amendment will be in relation to intervention capacity. And
amending this Act is a main priority for us this year.
There was a question in regard to cases not
picked up for investigation. So initial screens can ind icate the report should not have been a seniors abuse
report, but refers to the needed case management
area and the services are provided or additional referrals are needed.
There was a question in regard to the relation
to compliance with the Fire Safety and Emergency Standards. So the revised forecast was 70; what is
the other 30 per cent in relation to? It primarily has to
do with having the written displays throughout the f acilities about where the relevant meeting areas are and set out evacuation plans. So everyone at KMCC is aware of what to do. However, the signs need to be
properly displayed throughout the facility with pictures
of the plans. The AEDs are onsite, who are KMCC. All
staff have engaged in the Fire Marshal training. Staff and clients participate in both announced and una nnounced fire drills.
There was a question in regard to the breakdown of job descriptions at the KMCC where all the
numbers decreased from 19 to 17, with both of those
posts being the janitor and the bus attendant. I did
speak in the brief in regard to the cleaning service that
was hired to clean the facilities secondary to COVID -
19 having to do with the deep cleaning because of the
times, because of the vulnerabilities of the clientele.


Bermuda House of Assembly So they provide the services throughout the day and
at the end of the day. And the bus attendant services
are covered via the full -time staff that we have at
KMCC.
There was a question in regard to the psycho
ward and the increased allocation of funds for psycho -
ed clients. Yes, there is an anticipated increase of
complex cases and clients. And so we have allocated
for that. So there was a question in regard to the tra vel and budget allocation. The travel allocation is for both the children and the staff who have to go . . . the
children may have to go away for a medical asses sment overseas, but the parents travel is actually laid
out in the facilities overseas agreement. So th e
agreements actually cover parents or guardians who
would like to travel overseas to visit their children who
are in the overseas facility.
There was a question in regard to the repairs
and maintenance under the DCFS. And again, the
repairs and maintenance is for the software system
that DCFS has, as well as the children’s facilities, which I mentioned in my brief, and, you know, what
would need to be operated or maintained there.
There was a question in regard to the number
of mental health assessments completed. And the
question is about completion. And 100 per cent of the
referrals in regard to mental health assessments were completed. So that was an error, MP Jackson, at one.
And it was actually 100 per cent.
In regard to support for the transition period,
our clients who age out are still supported whether at
the time of their ageing out maybe through the RTS
[Residential Treatment Services] programme or the Family Preservation. So there is still support there by
way of those services.
Let me just see. There was a question in r egard to the Young Citizens Award. As a result of
COVID -19, that was not followed this financial year.
And there was a question in regard to CMIT. So the Family Preservation area has actually expanded their
remit to provide th e services to expand CMIT. And so
there was a gap, to answer that question.
There was a question in regard to the complaints of the residential care homes. And that is act ually now managed under the Bermuda Health Council,
but ADS does work jointly with t he Bermuda Health
Council for seniors of these investigations. And so, if
there are any questions in regard to complaints of the
residential care homes, we can ask that question of
the Ministry of Health.
I think that it is. Hold on. Yes. That is it. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman.

Yes. And listed in there, as I
had mentioned, they made a public statement of five
different places that they were renting, and I only see
four. So I did not know what that actual fifth one was,
because t hey mentioned that all of these would come
under one roof in that statement. I am just trying to
qualify that.

These amounts are stated
on page C -27 as to the rent of these buildings. I find it
interesting that the Minister would not know the answers to some of these questions [about where] they
are renting. I guess if they are not spending the money to rent these particular places, then they might not know the details. But if you are renting these and cal ling them under your department, I would expect for
the Minister to know thes e details. It is under their r emit. These numbers would not be under Public Works.
These accommodation rental numbers will not be under Public Works. So how can I ask them? Because
those numbers will not be there.

Thank you. Is there an appropriate
wording to the motion?
Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: And ask leave to sit
again.
Hon. Walter H. Roban: I am sorry. I move that we
rise to report progress and ask to leave to sit again.
(Is that the appropriate wording, Mr. Chairman?)

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: Ask for leave to sit
again.
Hon. Walter H. Roban: Yes. I would move the motion
and ask for leave to sit again.

Thank you, Deputy.
It has been moved that the Committee rise,
report progress, and ask for leave to sit again.
Is there any objection to that motion?
Hearing none , [approved.]

[Motion carried: The Committee of Supply agreed to
rise and report progress, and sought leave to sit
again. ]


House resumed at 7:56 pm

[Hon. Dennis P. Lister, Jr., Speaker, in the Chair]

REPORT OF COMMITTEE

ESTIMATES OF REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
FOR THE YEAR 2021/22

Thank you.
Members, are there any objections to the
House rising to report progress and asking for leave to
sit again?
There is no objection to that.


Bermuda House of Assembly That brings us to a close of today’s session of
the Budget Debate.
And we now move on to the next Order on the
Order Paper. And I believe it is in the name of the
Minister of Education, and it would be for the second
reading for the Education Amendment Act 2021.
Minister, would you like to put your matter
now?

Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, Sr.: No. (I am sorry.)

Okay.
With that done, would you like to move the
motion for Adjournment then, Deputy?

ADJOURNMENT
Hon. Walter H. Roban: Absolutely, Mr. Speaker.
And I just want to thank the Chairman for gi ving me guidance on the appropriate motion for the
previous Budget session. I thank him for his guidance
on that.
But now, Mr. Speaker, I wish to move that we
adjourn and sit again Wednesday at 10:00 am.

Thank you, Deputy.
Does any Member wish to speak to that?
No Member wishes to speak to that?
Then the House stands adjourned as of now.
Good evening, Members. Have a good night, and we will see you Wednesday morning at 10:00 am. Good night, Members.

[At 8:00 pm, the House stood adjourned until 10:00
am Wednesday, 17 March 2021.]



952 15 March 2021 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly



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