March 6, 2020

I thought you were putting a question to
him.
The next Member who has a question is the
Honourable Member Richards. Honourable Member,
you have the floor.

QUESTION 1: TABLING THE REPATRIATION AND
MIXED STATUS FAMILIES BILL
Mr. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this was addressed by my colleague.
I wanted to ask about the repatriation issue
regarding Bermudians with children born overseas.
The Bill does not make any legislative changes in this regard. So I am curious why this was not considered at this time.

[Inaudible interjection]

Mr. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Right.

Restate it? Okay.
Mr. Sylvan D. Richards, Jr.: Yes. The Minister did
not hear me.
Regarding the repatriation issue which surrounds Bermudi ans with children born overseas, this
Bill does not make any legislative change in terms of
its being retroactive. I am curious why it is not retroactive.


Bermuda House of Assembly Hon. Wayne Caines: Mr. Speaker, this is not the appropriate time. At the appropriate time we will go into
this, during the debate stage, Mr. Speaker.

Yes. What it is you do not want to a nticipate the debate when the debate comes. Your
questions should purely be around what is written in the Statement today. And expect that there will be full
debate at the appropriate time with the Bill that is to
be tabled to support the Statement.
Any further questions?
None. That brings us to a close of the Question Period. And we can move on.

CONGRATULATORY AND/OR
OBITUARY SPEECHES

Mr. Speaker, I would
like to give congratulations to the African Methodist
Episcopal Church. Whilst I am not an AME, I think I
am probably the closest friend they have probably had
who is not a member in good and proper standing at
the commencement of their 134
th session of the Bermuda Annual Conference yesterday. And I would like
to congratulate them on that. But I would particularly
like to express my personal thanks to the Right Re verend Gregory Gerald McKinley Ingram, the presiding
prelate of the F irst Episcopal District which includes
Bermuda, and the Reverend Dr. Jessica Kendall I ngram, the Episcopal Supervisor who had been in charge of the First District for eight years. And this will be their last conference, Mr. Speaker.
And I must say, and th is is a compliment to
the bishop, he could have been a soldier. Because the way he runs that church and the district is with prec ision and accuracy and decisiveness. Were he to qua lify for status, I would invite him to run for a seat in this House, because we could use some of that in this
place, Mr. Speaker.

[Laughter]

Since we are giving it
to everybody else that appears. Mr. Speaker, don’t
say you are giving away anything to anybody anyhow.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to congratulate
the Pastor of St. Paul. Yesterday he gave a message,
Mr. Speaker, that probably should be repeated across the broadcast —it was broadcast across the country. I
hope they will broadcast it again. And it was about
operating outside of the box .

Mr. Speaker, it was a
message not just for AMEs. It was a message for
people across this country and across the world, as
far as I am concerned.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to extend c ongratulations to Keep Bermuda Beautiful [KBB], who
held their annual general meeting last night. And I was
so pleased to not only be present, because the Mini stry supports them and I am a member. But I was more
than pleased to see that a young Bermudian, Stefan
Smith, has assumed the presidency of the KBB, Mr. Speaker. And their mantra is to transition to younger
members, even though currently the outgoing pres ident, Amy Shillingford, is going on to be secretary to
support him. By their constitution, they as a general
principle and rule are making an aggressive and pr oactive attempt to bring young people into the organi-sation so it naturally thrives. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We recognise the Leader of the Opposition.
Honourable Member, you hav e the floor.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
I would just like to congratulate two men
whom all of us do know. First of all, Trevor Lindsay,
who has the TNN media, social media communic ations business has done the first of a TNN Com muni ty
Impact Award. And he awarded it to Pastor Leroy
Bean. I had the privilege of being with former Minister
Weeks in presenting this. We know that Pas tor Leroy
Bean has worked very closely with the Minister of N ational Security. And we want to just con gratulate him
for . . . it sounded as if almost 40- plus years of his
dedication to those who have been disen franchised,
of our young people who have found themselves in compromising positions within. . . pos itions of being
associated with gangs and the likes. His résumé goes
back to quite a bit.
And so I just wanted to thank Trevor Lindsay
for coming up with this type of award and to also congratulate Pastor Leroy Bean for his being the first r ecipient of this Community Impact Award and the fine work that he has been doing for Bermuda. Thank you.

There you go. But, Mr. Speaker,
I think it is even more fitting that on this day,
March 6th, 2020, we have International Women’s Day .
I have to highlight and send congratulations to a
woman who has basically made me who I am today.
Today, Mr. Speaker, is the 65th birthday of my mother,
your wife, who is actually in the Gallery today.

[Desk thumping]

But I think also, Mr. Speaker, it
is even fitting that as a schoolteacher, my whole life (I
go 35). So my whole life I have known my mother to
be a teacher. And she has brought with her her most
recent students from Dellwood Middle School. So as
you see in the Gallery, she has brought some st udents to just com e in to see how the Parliament operates in Bermuda. But as I said, she has a history of teaching. And so it is only fitting that she continues to
keep her students aware of how Bermuda’s Gover nment operates. And on this, her birthday, that she is
willing t o share it with her students. So, Mr. Speaker, I
would like to send congratulations. Thank you.
[Desk thumping]

Good morning, listening audience
and Mr. Speaker.
First of all, I would like to be associated with
the comments with regard to the AME Annual Confer-ence. And I also would like to congratulate organisers
of Internationa l Women’s Day 2020. This year’s theme
is actually Each for Equal. In the sense that if we are
women who are empowered, you would be surprised what we can do. And so as we continue to strive for
parity with our male counterparts, each year we recognise this day. But it also lets us see that we have
much work to do because that gender parity really is
not coming for us for 100 years. I may not be around
to see it, Mr. Speaker. But I hope that we continue to
strive for it.
Mr. Speaker, I say this to you all t he time, and
now I have the proof of it today. Two days ago the St.
George’s Community Centre was awarded the Centre
of the Year! Mr. Speaker, when I got that news, you
know I say, I say this all the time in the House of A ssembly about the centre . I say it to you all the time! I
say it is the best centre. But now even Bermuda thinks
it is the best centre, Mr. Speaker.
And in addition to that, Mr. Speaker . . . so
that is, you know, some rights for the next year at
least. The Community Centre worker, Employ ee of the
Year was none other than Caprial Dill, who is actually
well known to me. But she is actually out of the St.
George’s Community Centre. So I just want to congratulate the workers down at the St. George’s Com-munity Centre. I know them. I grew up wi th them. And
I associate the entire House with those comments, actually, Mr. Speaker. They work really hard. They put


Bermuda House of Assembly a lot of themselves into what that centre is. They look
for programmes which span across everything from
. . . we joke about it, but we sa y from zero to 100. But
they really truly try to be actively involved and interact within our community. And I would just like to use my time today to congratulate and thank them for all that
they do.

Before I call to acknowledge the next
person, let me just acknowledge that, yes, it was men-tioned that Dellwood Sc hool are with us this morning.
We have present the M3s and M2s, a mixture of st udents from Dellwood with Mrs. Lister and Mr. Bean.
And I would just like to acknowledge both of the
teachers this morning for the fine work that our st udents do, and [the fine work] the teachers do with our
students, and to bring them here this morning to at
least observe a little of what goes on here on a regular
basis.

[Desk thumping]
[Congratulatory and/or Obituary Speeches, contin uing]

And with that, would a ny other Member
like to do congratulations? I recognise the Honourable
Member De Silva.
Honourable Member, you have the floor.

Hon. Zane J. S. De Silva: Yes. Thank you, thank you,
Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning for the House
to acknowledg e the accomplishments by two people
whom I have been lucky to interact with over the last
week and a half. You will know that there was a pr ogramme launched earlier a few weeks back, Learn to
Earn, trying to get our young people into . . . well, our
young people are walking out the door now. (That is
unfortunate.) But be that as it may, we are trying to get not only our young people, but our Bermudians in
the hospitality industry. And I have spoken about that
many, several times over the last couple of mont hs.
But two young people I would like to highlight
that I have had the . . . because when they are doing
this programme, Mr. Speaker, they have on their
shirts Proud of the Hospitality Learn to Earn Pr ogramme. So they are easily identifiable. And I have
been to two restaurants in the last week. And I have
met two young people, Denise Dill and K iara Lee. And
they are proud of this programme. And if you had not heard, or if you are one of those colleagues in the
House who do not remember, these folks who are part
of the first cohort are actually getting paid $500 a
week to be trained, which is an awesome programme
that we have that bodes well for the future.
But I would like to highlight this young lady
Kiara Lee in particular . Because when I talked to her,
Mr. Speaker, I said, Look. What are your goals? What do you hope, to be a ma ître d’ one day or a head
waiter or waitress? Because she is a young lady, a head waitress. And she said, Listen. I’ll tell you what I
want to do. I want to own a restaurant boat. That’s my
dream. That’s my goal. And I encouraged her. I said,
Well, listen. If that is your dream and goal, go for it.
Don’t let anybody tell you you cannot do it. And stay in
touch with me.
So I just thought that this programme . . . and
you have heard me say many times, Mr. Speaker, you have been to enough events, and you know that I a lways encourage our young people. And Pat Gordon -
Pamplin is here listening, because she attends just
about all the Youth Parliaments we go to. And you will know, she will certainly know I always encourage our
young people. Look. It is okay to climb the corporate
ladder. But there is nothing wrong with owning it either. And this young lady, whom I had not spoken to,
had not met before, said that she wants to own her
own rest aurant boat. And I thought I would highlight
that because any of our . . . even our parents who are
listening. Encourage our children to go to school, get
an education. But let us encourage our people to be
entrepreneurs and owners of their own businesses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes. We a re talking about
the late 1960s, actually maybe around about 1967
and 1968 when I first started.
But getting back to Mr. Durham, Mr. Durham
was a quintessential Bermudian gentleman. And I guess in coaching terms, I guess you would call him a
players’ coac h because the way he handled us young
boys and tried to convey to us the principles of the game, it stayed with us long after we had moved on through teenage years and adulthood. So it was with
great regret to talk about his passing.
3404 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Secondly, congratulat ions to Mr. Kenny Bascome [sic] and the North Village team, now North Vi llage Rams on successfully winning the Premier Div ision league. And congratulations to all of them.

[Inaudible interjections]

Thank you, Honourable Member.
Does any other Honourable Member?
I recognise the Member sit ting next to you.
Honourable Member Scott, you have the floor.

Hon. Michael J. Scott: Good morning, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I do not know how I missed this.
But I believe I am associating myself with the cond olences to the family of a great matriarch of Somerset,
Ms. Mary Gloria Simmons, the mother of . . . the Mi nister of Health, the Honourable Kim Wilson wants to be associated. And I know why she would wish to be.
I am sure that she was her constituent. Yes, she was
the Minister’s constituent. So, Mary Gloria Simmons, the mother of Melvin and Warren (who is deceased),
Marita.

Yes. Good morning.

Hon. E. David Burt: Mr. Speaker, I would ask that
this Honourable House do send condolences to the
family of the late Ms. Dorothy Mills, who passed earl ier this week, and in particular without ques tion, I will
associate the whole House. And of course, Mr.
Speaker, condolences to our dear colleague, MP N eville Tyrrell, as it was his mother, Ms. Dorothy Mills,
who passed away earlier this week.
Mr. Speaker, I would also like to associate
myself with the condolences which were given prev iously to Ms. Mary Simmons from Somerset. In addition, Mr. Speaker, I would also like to
be associated with the condolences which were given in this House on Wednesday on the passing of Mr.
Glenn Simmons. I happened to know Mr. Simmons
very well. “Dingback” was without question someone
who was known and loved, a fierce fighter for justice,
a person whom we call an ambassador for Bermuda.
His work with our unions, his commitment to the people of Bermuda always went above and beyond the
call of duty. Without question, for us the Progressive Labour Party, he was a life member of the PLP. He was someone who worked inside of the trenches in
the Progressive Labour Party when called upon, and
without question will be a miss. So I sincerely would
like to associate myself with the condolences to his
family and to his friends, Mr. Speaker. Bermuda has
lost a giant in that man. And the labour movement, without question, has lost someone who was a very
staunch defender of workers’ ri ghts and the rights for
Bermudians inside of this country.
Mr. Speaker, in another note, I would like to
extend congratulations. And I would like to congrat ulate the six students of the Berkeley Institute who par-ticipated in the Virtual Enterprise International pr ogramme in New York to promote their Leisure in the
Triangle business. I was impressed with the creativity
and innovation of these bright students, who promoted
Bermuda- inspired merchandise, and congratulate
them on bringing home silver awards for the best
website and HR manual, and a gold award for best
boot design. It is exciting to see our young people
working on their own business ventures and getting international exposure at the Virtual Enterprises trade
show. So I would like to send my thank s and congratulations, of course, to the parents and teachers
who assisted these talented students, and I certainly
wish all of those six students success.
Finally, in closing, Mr. Speaker, I would like to
be associated with the remarks given by the Member
for constituency 21 of congratulations to the North
Village Community Club Rams for their first Premier
title in nine years, and extend the congratulations to
Coach Kenny Thompson, as well as Assistant Randy
Bean. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, firs t off, I
want to s end condolences to the family of Ms. Marie
Pacheco of Devonshire.


Bermuda House of Assembly Moving on, Mr. Speaker, I would like to join in
the condolences to the Tyrrell and Mills family for a
lady whom I rightfully should be calling aunt, Dorothy
Mills. What the Premier did not speak about was that
she was a proud St. George’s supporter , so proud that
she made 95 “runs,” almost a century. What he did
not say as well was she was a proud pond dog. More
importantly, as importantly, Mr. Speaker, what was not
said and what will be said right now is that she was a
mother of three sons and one daughter.
One son I would say was a dedicated son, so
dedicated that none of his constituents could find him
on a Tuesday. And one might ask, Why was that? Because every Tuesday without fail, her son went to take
care of his mother, spend time with his mother. And
that is a lesson for all of us in this House and all of us
in this community, that as we have parents who are
ageing, we might not be able to take a whole day because not all of us are retired and living that life. But
take time to spend with your parents, because not all
of our parents are going to reach 95 runs. Not all are going to reach 90. Whatever time our parents are going to reach, let us take time to spend with t hem
whether it be parents, aunts, uncles or godparents,
because they have invaluable life lessons to teach us.
So on behalf of the Famous/Brown family, I
want to give condolences to my big brother/cousin
Neville Tyrrell. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

And congratulate her on
attaining that milestone, and thank her for the years of
service with the young people of Bermuda, especially
those through Youth Parliament, of which she has
piloted many young people through Youth Parliament
and gave mentorship in that regard. I associate myself
with the condolences to the Tyrrell, Brother Tyrrell,
Neville Tyrrell’s family on the passing of his mother.
And may he be comforted by the many good mem ories that he has and all the good work that she has
done.
And also, I would like to be associated with
the condolences that were offered—formally associate
myself with the condolences that were offered to my
dear friend, Glenn Simmons. Growing up in Death Valley, White Hill community, was Joe Simmons ,
through the connection of the country growing up in
the Portuguese and black community, growing up t ogether, playing all types of sports together and around the farms and the like. And it is through golf that Glenn was able to show some true talents, lived in the
shadow of a great brother, Richard “Dirt” Simmons in
football. He was a gritty footballer, Glenn. But you
know, when you have got Dirt Simmons as your
brother, it is a hard act to follow —a hard act to follow.
But when Glenn took up golf, my Uncle Herman always used to tell me, The best hands in golf.
One of the most powerf ul golfers I had ever seen,
pound for pound, he hit a five- iron as far as most people could hit a driver. When Evan “the Big Cat” Wi lliams came here, tiny Glenn would walk up to him and
look up to him and puff up his chest. I can handle you.
That is the ty pe of character he was. But I want to
thank the Bermuda Industrial Union and his union
family, because Glenn’s talents were recognised in
trade unionism, and he was polished and developed.
And, you know, he made us all very proud to see him standing should er-to-shoulder with the leadership and
being Vice President of the Bermuda Industrial Union.
When you come from White Hill and that community,
and to see Glenn holding his own in that stature, it
made us all very proud.
We are very sad. I know his family. I grew up
in and out of his house. Diane, his sister, Donna and
the whole family there, and his father, his late father
and mother. Yes, that Whale Bay family stretching all
the way to Somerset and across the Island. Yes, we are very sad about Glenn.

Thank you, Honourable Member.
Does any other Honourable Member —
We recognise the Honourable Member Gordon-Pamplin. You have the floor.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as I join in the condolences that
have been offered to our honourable colleague Neville
Tyrrell and, obviously we did not each get to speak on
the previous week in terms of our condolences to honourable colleague Commissiong, I note, Mr.
Speaker, that there are probably one or two theories.
Either we are getting much older or we are stressing
our parents to death. I cannot quite figure out which it
is. Because we have actually had the opportunity here
to acknowledge and to commiserate with our col-leagues on many occasions since I have been in this
House on the death of a parent. So I certainly know.
Honourable Member Tyrrell and I go back
from central school days, so probably the better part
of 60- something years. I will not say how many the
something’s are. But certainly knowing the home in
which he was raised, it was your typical type of home
that we were experiencing as children of the neig h3406 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly bourhood, because he lived not too far from me. So I
certainly offer my condolences, or join in with the condolences that have been offered to my honourable
colleague.
Let me also ask, Mr. Speaker, that I send
condolences to the family of Joy Agass -Smith. Ms.
Smith gained prominence, if you can call it that, way
back in the late 1950s when she became the mother
of, I believe, one of the first sets of triplets or certainly
among the first sets of triplets. She was the mother to
the Miller triplets, who were Philippa, Margaret and Elizabeth. I had the occasion to work with Joy for quite
a significant period of time. She actually was the r eceptionist at KPMG while I was there as an accountant, working on their staff. And her loss is certainly one that will be felt by those three young women who
are her daughters. And her legacy will certainly live on
through her children and through her grandchildren,
Mr. Speaker.
And also, I would like to offer my congratul ations and join in on the congratulations on the 65
th
birthday of your bride, Mr. Speaker. I had the opportunity, as you know, when we were chairing the Parliamentary Conference fairly recently to have far more
interaction with her than I had ever had before. And I
had the appreciation of who she is as an individual. I would just offer one reminder, Mr. Speaker, that at the
age of 65, she can make sure that she registers for
her pension.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

[Laughter]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, first of all let me associate m yself with th e congratulations to the North Village
Community Club on winning the Premier Division, first
time in nine years.
I would also like to be associated with the
congratulations to a fine young lady whom you know, Ms. Miranda Lister. She and I had connections, party
connections. I always felt that she was one elegant
lady. That is how I would describe her.
While I am on my feet, Mr. Speaker, if you will
allow me, I would like to thank my colleagues for their
expressions of kindness on the passing of my mother.
It is something that the family is coming to grips with. And as mentioned by my colleague cousin, those
Tuesday mornings that I spent with my mum were well
spent. It is something that we came to an agreement on. It is about the only time that I could actually give
her some time. And it was good times. And I would
certainly like to thank everyone again for the kindness
that you have shown. Thank you.

I am a former vice president of
the club and current member. But I am certainly
pleased with the North Village Rams, and I also ex-tend my congratulations to the team.
I also want to extend congratulations to the
organisers of the International Women’s Day. As active members of the Labour Movement for over a dec-ade, we have been actively pushing to get recognition
to International Women’s Day. And it has finally
caught the steam that it actually requires. The unions
have been active participants in ensuring that there is
equality in the workplace between men and women.
And you will find that many of the organised bargai ning units . . .

[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

And you will find that in most
organised bargaining units there is a level of parity that needs to be achieved outside of unionised env ironments.
But nothing to take away from women on this
day. I ce rtainly want to say that women played an extremely important role in my life and my development.
And I want to congratulate all of the women on International Women’s Day.

Thank you, Honourable Member.
Does any other Honourable Member?
We re cognise the Honourable Member, Ms.
Jeanne Atherden. You have the floor.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to have this House
send condolences to the family of the late Ian Brown.
Ian was one of those individuals w ho was at EngravBermuda House of Assembly ers [Ltd.] and was in the printing industry for such a
long time.
[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: I associate Kim and Pat —I
mean, sorry —

Honourable Members.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Honourable Members Kim
Swan and Pat Gordon- Pamplin.
If you ever needed anything as it relates to
printing and you need something quickly done, you
could call Ian, and you knew for sure that he was go-ing to make it happen. I also knew that Ian afterwards
started to play golf. And he was one of those keen
individuals. And as everyone appreciates, when
someone dies you suddenly realise that you are going
to miss them. And I keep telling all of us in the House
here, anybody whom you know and love, please go home and hug them.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There are two Bills to be introduced
this morning. The first is in the name of the Minister of Health.

FIRST READING

HEALTH INSURANCE AMENDMENT ACT 2020

Hon. Kim N. Wilson: Mr. Speaker, I am introducing
the following Bill for its first reading so that it may be put on the order paper for the next day of meeting,
namely, the Health Insurance Amendment Act 2020.

Thank you, Minister.
The second Bill this morning is in the name of
the Minister of National Security.
Minister.

FIRST READING

BERMUDA IMMIGRATION AND PROTECTION
AMENDMENT ACT 2020

Hon. Wayne Caines: If it pleases you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I am introducing the following
Bill for its first reading so that it may be placed on the
Order Paper for the next day of meeting: the Bermuda
Immigration and Protection Amendment Act 2020.

Members , particularly for those in the
listening audience as well, we are at that point where
we will now resume into Committee of Supply to di scuss the annual Budget Debate.
And again for t he listening public, once we get
to that stage, the Speaker is out of the House, and the proceedings will be in the hands of the Deputy
Speaker, as the head of the Panel of Chairs. And the
Member of the Panel of Chairs this morning who will lead this sessi on is the Member, Mr. Commissiong.
But I will first call on the Minister of Finance to
lead us into Committee.

Hon. Curtis L. Dickinson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now
resume in Committee of Supply for further consider ation of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for
2020/21.

Good morning, Members.
Honourable Members, we are now in Commi ttee of Supply for further consideration of the Es timates of Revenue and Expenditure for the year
2020/21. We will be deliberating on Public Works and
the following Heads —which would be 36, 49, 53, 68,
81, 82 and 97.
I call on the Minister in charge to proceed.
Minister, you have the floor, the Honourable
Lieutenant Colonel Burch.

Mr. Chairman, the
Ministry of Public Works is responsible for maintaining
Bermuda’s critical assets and infrastructure. In fact,
Public Works is the lead agent in delivering the infr astructure requirements upon which so many of the
services provided to this Island depend. Some of the
assets and infrastructure that the Ministry is respons ible for include building and maintaining the following: • 617 roads amounting to 225 kilometres of
road surface;
• 751 buildings —which probably should be r educed to 749 since we knocked down 2 last
week ;
• 85 public docks and purpose- built berths servicing cruise ships, cargo ships and hundreds
of private vessels and yachts each year;
• five reservoirs with a capacity of 2.5 million
gallons of Bermuda’s precious and very li mited water resource;
• 75 amenity parks, beaches and school
grounds protected under the Bermuda N ational Parks Act 1986; and
• Ocean View and Port Royal Golf Courses .
Mr. Chairman, it cannot be overstated how
critical this vast and diverse Ministry is to Bermuda
and why it is so important that every possible opportunity must be grasped to maximise the economic
benefits that the capital expenditures of this Ministry provide. This includes establishing private sector par tnerships to ensure the government’s assets and infr astructure are maintained while simultaneously generating economic opportunities within the construction
sector. Therefore, the maintenance and enhancement of our infrastructure and facilities must remain a prior ity because infrastructure development is a vital com-ponent in encouraging a country’s economic growth.
Mr. Chairm an, the total budget allocation to
the Ministry for 2020/21 is found on page [B -213,] and
the allocated amount is $73,259,000. This represents a decrease of $188,000 from the original 2019/20
budget. Mr. Chairman, the anticipated revenue for the
Ministry is $17,734,000, an increase of $968,000
when compared to the original 2019/20 estimate. The
Ministry’s total capital budget for 2020/21 is
$44,571,000. This includes the capital development
budget of $41,147,000 and the capital acquisitions of $3,424,000. T he Ministry Headquarters’ budget of
$10,067,000 versus $7,942,000 last year, an increase
of $2,125,000, reflects a grant to the golf courses for
the preparation of the course for the Bermuda Championship of $1.15 million and an increase in the Office
Reloc ations/Alterations budget.
The Ministry’s established number of emplo yees, which is referred to as full -time equivalents
[FTEs] for the fiscal year 2020/21 is 714, an increase of 3 when compared to the established number for the fiscal year, as seen on pa ge B -218. Of note, though,
on that page is the actual number of staff presently of 620 with an increase of 20 during the last fiscal year.
Mr. Chairman, there is a self -imposed moratorium on
new hires which requires the specific and direct approval of the Minister before they can be processed or proceeded with.
The overarching objective of the Ministry
Headquarters (Finance and Administration) Head 36
is to provide centralised support to the departments
within the Ministry, which includes Public Lands and


Bermuda House of Assembly Buildings, Works and Engineering, Land Valuation,
Parks, and Land Title Registration to ensure delivery
of their varied services and operating programmes.
The services provided by the Ministry of Public Works
Headquarters are organised into the following s ix programmes, which are found on page B -[215]:
• 3601, Head Office Administration;
• 3610 , Accounts;
• 3611 , Purchasing;
• 3612 , Telecommunications;
• 3613 , Human Resources; and
• 3614 , Architect and Design.

Head Office Administration —Programme 3601

Mr. Chairman, the
Head Office Administration Programme 3601 com-prises Headquarters Administration (including Safety
and Health) and Central Filing. Headquarters Admi nistration, under the direction of the Permanent Secr etary, provides oversight and management support to
the entire Ministry of Public Works. It also ensures
that the policy objectives are met, and specifically is
responsible for the implementation of the Ministry’s Throne Speech initiatives, yearly business plan, management of safety and health matters, compliance and
numerous special administrative projects.
During 2019/20, Mr. Chairman, the Safety and
Health Office provided training to staff by offering a total of 208 hours of safety training, which was at-tended by 215 employees. The Ministry also conduc ted documented risk assessments to ascertain the risk that Ministry employees and the public are exposed to as a result of our activities. The training and asses sments will continue into 2020/21 so as to be in compliance with the requirements of the Occupational
Safety and Health Act 1982 and the Occupational
Safety and Health Regulations 2009.
Mr. Chairman, the second area of support
under the Head Office Administration is Central Filing,
which provides records management for al l human
resource records; Cabinet documents, and capital
projects and contracts, and maintains records for the Ministry’s legislated functions.
The operational budget for the Head Office
Administration Programme 3601 is $2,216,000 for fiscal year 2020/21, a marginal increase of $27,000
over the current year.

Public Works Accounts —Programme 3610

Mr. Chairman, the A ccounts Programme 3610 provides accounts payable,
accounts receivable, payroll, capital asset recording,
and nonf inancial and financial reporting functions for
the operating departments within the Ministry. This
section also prepares and distributes weekly payroll,
vendor cheques and invoices for services provided by
the Ministry’s operational areas, as well as collection and recording of online bank payments, credit card,
cash and cheque receipts. Through the use of the
centralised accounting system, this section manages
the yearly budget preparation and provides monthly
management reports, a process which enables the effective and efficient monitoring and control of the
Ministry’s current account budget along with the Mini stry’s capital development and capital acquisition
budgets.
Mr. Chairman, the Accounts Section’s focus
for the fiscal year 2020/21 will continue t o be on i mproving the debt collection for the Ministry and wor king with the Accountant General on improving pr ocesses involving the E1 system. This includes payroll process, debt collection, vendor payments and ge neral reporting.
The operational budget for the Accounts Pr ogramme 3610 is an amount of $1,146,000 for fiscal
year 2020/21, a decrease of $18,000.

Purchasing —Programme 3611

Mr. Chairman, the
Purchasing Programme 3611 provides centralised purchasing support, inventor y management, and
warehousing and disposal functions to the other departments and programmes within the Ministry and to
other external departments from time to time.
The Purchasing Section’s focus for the fiscal
year 2020/21 will be on relocating to a cen tralised f acility; creating supply chain- related policies, proc edures, and end- user instructions for the Ministry; establishing supply contracts through competitive bi dding; and working with the Accountant General to maximise use of section- specific functi ons and capabilities of the E1 system, with a specific focus on i nventory control, contract pricing, and key performance
indicators [KPI] reporting.
Mr. Chairman, the Purchasing Programme
3611 operational budget is $1,417,000 for 2020/21, an increase of $48,000.

Telecommunications —Programme 3612

Mr. Chairman, the
Telecommunications Programme 3612 provides a
suite of services such as replacement of telephones
and related equipment, and management of mobile
service contracts f or the Ministry. The programme also
provides advice to department heads regarding call flows resulting in greater efficiencies and managing the implementation of new technologies to maximise
cost savings. The Government owns and operates a
portfolio of sev en telecommunication tower sites
across the islands, and the towers are located at
Somerset Police Station, Alton Hill in Southampton,
Warwick Camp, Com -ops in Prospect, the Quarry and
Fort George.
3410 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Historically, the telecommunication tower faci lities have been managed by the Bermuda Police Service [BPS], as they were primarily installed to support
their operational telecommunication requirements. In
support of this use, the Department of Public Lands and Buildings [DPLB] assisted the BPS in managing
the le tting enquiries from third- party telecom operators
seeking to locate their own telecommunication equi pment on the Government’s tower portfolio.
The department also manage any lease arrangements for third- party operators who have a pproached Government to use their buildings or land for their own telecommunication installations. In April
2017, the Ministry assumed responsibility of the to wers and commissioned structural surveys for each
tower to establish their current condition, and also
conducted surveys of each equipment cabin, air -
conditioning and generator set. The structural surveys highlighted a lack of regular maintenance of the tel ecom towers themselves, which has resulted in every
tower displaying various stages of corrosion.
As these sites and inf rastructure are critical to
operations and are of national importance, we have implemented a maintenance program and continue to
carry out remediation works during this budget year
for the issues identified. We will continue with proper
planned maintenance schedules and make necessary
adjustments to minimise the risk of failure in the f uture.
This year a backup generator has been commissioned at the Quarry, and new air -conditioning
units have been installed at Fort George, Prospect, Warwick Camp and Alton Hill. We have received Cabinet approval for the replacement of the tower at Pr ospect and will next seek approval for the replacement
of the Fort George Communications Building. These
two locations are in the worst state and require r eplacement.
Mr. Chairm an, the Telecommunications Pr ogramme 3612 has been allocated an operational
budget of $749,000, a decrease of $89,000 as a result
of the implementation of the new Government radio
network.

Human Resources— Programme 3613

Mr. Chairman, the
Human Resources Programme 3613 provides r ecruitment, employee relations and training, and deve lopment services to the various departments and staff
within the Ministry. The role of the human resources
team is to liaise and partner with the Department of Human Resources to provide human resources advice and guidance, as well as provide administrative
support throughout the Ministry. In 2019/20, the H uman Resources Section continued to focus on the
Ministry’s Basic Employee, Foreman and Superint endent Training Programme (known as BeFAST), suc-cession planning and recruiting for difficult -to-fill jobs and retirements, and the management of the Trainee
and Apprentice Programmes.
Mr. Chairman, the BeFAST Programme is
now in its seventh year and has proven to be succes sful. Its objectives are to advance training, create c areer opportunities and build new working relationships
with peers and staff, ultimately creating a team that
speaks the same language, resulting in providing be tter service to our internal and external customers.
Mr. Chairman, in 2019/20 for BeFAST we f ocused on computer introduction— Microsoft Excel,
Word and Power Point —with the Information Digital
Technology Department [IDT] and partnered with the Bermuda Industrial Union to coordi nate the Workshop
on Understanding the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Safety and Health Officer coordinated
courses on safety and health in the workplace, the correct way to report incidents and accidents, and
CPR and First Aid training. Mr. Chairman, in 2019/20
we focused on internal training including Human R esources Quick Guide; orientation for new employees;
and Lunch and Learns and informational sessions with the Employee Assistant Programme [EAP], the
Bermuda Industrial Union [BIU], Bermuda Publ ic Se rvice Union [BPSU] and various health organisations
for our employees.
In 2020/21 the Ministry will continue to partner
with the BIU, the BPSU and Employee Assistance [Programme] to coordinate workshops. The Ministry’s
safety and health officer will also coordinate courses
on safety and health in the workplace, emphasising
hazard identification and control. In addition, ongoing emergency response training such as fire marshal and
CPR and First Aid training will continue into 2020/21.
Mr. Chairman, it is a fact that our workforce is
ageing; therefore, our Ministry will continue to focus
on succession planning to ensure we have sufficient employees trained and prepared to fill core and diff icult-to-fill critical positions in the future. The Ministry of
Public Works also has in place a trainee programme in which four trainees are currently enrolled. This pr ogramme focuses on training Bermudians for professional positions that are difficult to fill.
Ricardo Graham -Ward, a former bursary st udent, is in tra ining as a civil engineer and joined us as
a graduate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers
and the Institute of Structural Engineers in the UK. He
is currently assigned to the Structures Section and
completed his overseas secondment programme with
Ramboll, UK, an engineering company located in the
UK which has been contracted by the Ministry for the
design and engineering work for the new Swing and
Longbird Bridges.
Jamar Dill is in training as an electrical eng ineer and joined us as a graduate member of the Inst itute of Civil Engineers and the Institute of Structural
Engineers in the UK. He is currently assigned to the Electrical Section and completed an overseas s econdment programme with Aecon in Canada in 2019.


Bermuda House of Assembly Zeeko Johnstone is in training as a mechanical engineer and joined us as a graduate member of
the Institute [of Civil Engineers and the Institute of
Structural Engineers in the UK]. He is currently assigned to the Electrical Section and also completed an overseas secondment programme with Aecon in Canada in 2019. Both of these individuals are a considerable way down the road to acquiring their professional
designations, and those secondments will aid in that
process.
Andesha Busby is in training as a valuer and
joined us as a graduate member of the Royal Institute
of Chartered Surveyors. She graduated last year with
a Bachelor’s Degree in Real Estate and is assigned to
the Land Valuation Department. She is currently on a two-year secondment programme in the Southampton
UK Valuation Office Agency.
Mr. Chairman, the Ministry currently has three
apprentices: Justin Simons, an apprentice mechanic
currently working in the heavy shop, repairing and
maintaining gas and diesel engine construction equipment and machinery. He is a graduate of Universal Technical Institute. Malik Lynch is currently
employed in the light shop, where they repair and
maintain all government cars and vans. He is a graduate of the Bermuda College’s mechanical pr ogramme. And Derrica Saunders is currently employed
in the light shop as well, where they repair and mai ntain all government cars and vans. She is in her sec-ond year of Bermuda College’s Mechanical Pr ogramme.
Mr. Chairman, in addition, the Ministry also
plays a part in the government -wide bursary scheme,
and we currentl y have two bursary students, one in
the Structural Engineering Section, Tabia Butterfield,
who is presently studying for a Master’s Degree in
Civil Engineering at Cordiff University; and the other in
the Public Lands and Buildings section, Kobe Ric hardson, who is presently studying for a Bachelor’s
Degree in Building Construction Management at Purdue University. The Ministry is in need of bursary st udents in the areas of estates and buildings, surveying
and quantity surveyor for the 2020/21 year.
Mr. Chair man, the human resource team continued its successful partnership with C.A.R.E. Lear ning Centre which prepares a number of the Public Works staff for the General Education Diploma (GED).
To date, 15 Ministry workers have gained their GEDs,
and three employ ees in 2019/20 are pursuing the
qualification.
Mr. Chairman, in 2019/20 the Career Ou treach Programme was set up to introduce students to
difficult -to-fill positions such as surveying, technical
and engineering careers. The Ministry participated in
CedarB ridge’s Think about it Thursdays, Berkeley’s
Future Fridays and Clearwater Middle School’s Voc ational Career Fair, as well as Drive Around Career Fairs for CedarBridge Academy and Impact Mentoring
Academy, to introduce those students to technical posts in our plants at Tynes Bay Waste to Energy F acility, the Quarry Mechanical Section and the Mater ials Recovery Facility.
Mr. Chairman, the current account budget for
the Human Resources Section 3613 is $502,000 for the fiscal year 2020/21, a decrease of $87,000.
Mr. Chairman, the Ministry of Public Works
recognises that opportunities within the trades are typically promoted and introduced to summer students
during summer and seasonal employment. The role of
the Summer Student Programme is to provide assi stance in various departments throughout the Ministry
of Public Works with a view to offering the student
population exposure to work -related tasks in their
specific field of study or interest. Under the direction of
the section and department heads and in accordance
with department policies and procedures, summer students perform a variety of functions. The success
of this programme is immeasurable. Students find
their passion and thus become focused, self -
motivated and confident young people who blaze their
own course. As this Ministry covers both the trades
and the professions, it is vital to our ability to attract
qualified, competent Bermudians as part of any successful succession programme.
The closing date for university students this
year to apply for these posts was last Friday, and we
received a total of 79 applications through the Berm uda Jobs Board. These are university students. We run
a separate programme for high school students who
may have an interest in the professions or trades in
the Ministry of Public Works. Mr. Chairman, a budget
of $153,000 has been approved for these posts. And
since none of my technical officers are here, I am
probably going to hire all of them, and they will have
to find money elsewhere for them.

[Laughter]

Mr. Chairman, the objective of the Architect Design Programme 3614 is to
3412 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly deliver architectural design support for Government’s
capital development projects in a professional, fiscally
prudent and timely manner. Further, it provides opportunities for Bermudian graduates in architecture and
related disciplines to obtain the necessary experience and training to acquire professional designations in
their chosen field. The total budget for the Architectural Design 3614 for 2020/21 fiscal year is $174,000,
which represents an increase of $115,000 which i ncludes capital project recharges.
I must say as an aside, though, Mr. Chairman,
that the Chief Architect retired halfway through last
year. And so we are going through a bit of a reassessment about whether the structure of that pr ogramme is the best way to do it. And at present, the
two trainee architects that we have on staff have been
working in the Public Lands and Buildings Section and
working out quite well. And so we may in fact not go
back to the system that we had before.

Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs)

Mr. Chairman, the
budgeted number of employees for the Ministry of
Public Works Headquarters is 51. This can be seen
on page B -222. The headcount has reduced b y one
for 2020/21. But we should not cheer, because the
account of the Permanent Secretary now falls under
the Cabinet Office. And I believe that is true of all
Permanent Secretaries.

Performance Measures

Mr. Chairman, the
Public Works Headquarters will aim to conduct four
safety and health assessments with corrective actions in the year, conduct 20 safety and health trainings for
Ministry employees, improve the procurement cycle
time from requisition to creation of purchase orders in
two days 95 per cent of the time, produce detailed
reports on all operational and capital actual -versus -
budgeted expenditures each month by the 10
th day of
the following month 100 per cent of the time, and i mprove on the finalisation of capital project files. The department’s Architect and Design Section also continues to aim to improve on the efficiencies realised, by using an in- house team compared to the private
sector.

Capital Development

Mr. Chairman, with
regard to the major capital projects being managed by the Ministry of Public Works Headquarters, the overall
budget capital expenditure plan for the Public Works
Headquarters is $10,067,000, details of which can be found on page C -6 of the Capital Accounts Est imates.
And the capital developments include • cost centre 75050—Minor Works, nil. (But one
should not get alarmed. I think it is a question
of being covered in the next cost centre) ;
• cost centre 75053—Miscellaneous Small Pr ojects, $200,000;
• cost centre 7505 4—WEDCO Capital Grant,
$1,973,000;
• cost centre 75099—Office Reloc ations/Alterations, $1,925,000;
• cost centre 75306—Golf Courses Improv ement, $1,150,000; and
• cost centre 75334— WEDCO South Basin
Land Reclam ation, $4,819,000.
Mr. Chairman, the Ministry of P ublic Works
Headquarters will provide a capital grant of
$7,300,000 to the Bermuda Housing Corporation for
their operations, along with an additional $1 million of
which is to be allocated specifically to the North Street
Homeless Shelter. This can be found on page C -6 of
the Capital Accounts Estimates. The reason for put-ting this money in the Housing Corporation is that we have been in a public/private partnership with some
community -minded business folk over the last year in
doing renovations at the Housi ng Corporation. And
anybody who has served in government will know that
you are a lot easier able to manage getting money to
suppliers out of quangos than you are out of that big
monstrosity called the Government of Bermuda. And
so we are going to leave it there.

Capital Acquisitions

Mr. Chairman, the
overall 2019/2020 Capital Acquisitions Plan for the Public Works Headquarters is $3,424,000, under
Schedule C of the Capital Accounts Estimates, and
the capital acquisitions inc lude cost centre 76495 —
Vehicles and Equipment of $2,745,000 towards r eplacement of aged GP vehicles as well as equipment; and cost centre 76868—Communications Equipment
of $679,000 towards the Prospect Tower replacement,
Fort George Building enclosure and anti -climb barriers
with gates.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my presentation
for the Ministry of Public Works Headquarters, Head
36.
[Pause]

Mr. Chairman, I would
now like to turn to Head 49, Land Valuation Depar tment, probably the smallest department in all of government, the mandate of which is to proactively mai ntain an accurate and fair Valuation List for land tax


Bermuda House of Assembly purposes in accordance with the Land Valuation and
Tax Act 1967. This includes the five- yearly revaluation
of all properties on the Island. Additionally, the d epartment provides accurate and timely valuation a dvice to other government departments upon request.
The department ’s work ethic, principles and expertise
are aptly summarised in their maxim, We value Bermuda . Thus, the Land Valuation Department strives to
be a model of appraisal and assessment administr ation with a reputation for delivering impartial, accurate and understandable assessments that exceed statut ory requirements, guidelines and international best
practices.

Programme 4901— Valuation

Mr. Chairman, the
Land Valuation Department has the single Valuation
Programme 4901 with the accompanying business
unit of 59080, as shown on page B -225. The single
Valuation Programme comprises three primary areas:
• maintenance of the Valuation List ;
• appraisal service ; and
• revaluation.
Mr. Chairman, as seen on page B -226, with a
total of 10 full -time positions budgeted for in fiscal
year 2020/21, the Land Valuation Department is one
of the smallest departments in all of government. The
number of full -time positions has not changed when
compared to the preceding year.
Current Account Expenditure 2 020/21

The current account
expenditure estimates for Head 49 is a total of
$1,034,000 that has been allocated to the Land Valu ation Department for fiscal year 2020/21. This alloc ation represents a marginal increase, very marginal, of
$7,000 when compared to the original estimates of
2019/20.
Mr. Chairman, the department continues to be
financially prudent and resourceful in the provision of their legislative mandates and services. The increases seen in the various object codes are solely on account
of costs associated with the two trainee valuer pos itions and the department’s IT database.
Mr. Chairman, valuation for taxation purposes
is a complex and specialised field requiring a specific range of skills and expertise. Consequently, the department has invested heavily in attracting astute
young Bermudians for professional positions within
the department which are difficult to fill and as part of
Government’s commitment to succession planning.
The department currently boasts t wo such young
Bermudians who have risen to this challenge.
One I mentioned earlier, the trainee valuer,
Ms. Andesha Busby, who recently completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Real Estate at the University of
Reading in the summer of 2019; and bursary student Ms. Jodi Ming, who will soon be completing her Mas-ter’s Degree in Real Estate this year with the Univers ity College of Estate Management. Thus, Mr. Chai rman, the increases in the department’s budget are for
salaries, $49,000, as both trainee valuer positions are budgeted for the entire 2020/21 fiscal year.
Training, $10,000 for overseas training expenses incurred by the trainee valuer; Travel, $3,000 to cover expenses for visiting the trainee valuer whilst
overseas; and Repair and Maintenance, $6,000 for
additional software maintenance for the department’s
MAGI database.
It should be noted that the aforementioned
increases have been drastically offset by significant reductions in other areas in the department’s budget.
Professional Services is seeing a $35,000, or 53 per
cent, reduction—reduced costs for the data inputters
for the 2020 Revaluation project. And Materials and
Supplies is seeing a reduction of $25,000, or 61 per
cent—reduced printing costs associated with the 2020
Revaluation project, when com pared to the 2019/20
original estimates. These reductions relate to the oneoff expenses in connection with the 2020 Revaluation
project. Consequently, the department is seeing a
mere $7,000, or 1 per cent, increase in its overall expenditure budget for the fiscal year 2020/21.
Mr. Chairman, the department is committed to
our young Bermudians who aspire to attain their pr ofessional designations as chartered surveyors and will
continue to provide development, training and s econdment opportunities for them. I will speak more to
this when highlighting the Land Valuation Depar tment’s successes for 2019/20.

Revenue 2020/21

Mr. Chairman, rev enue for the 2020/21 fiscal year can be found on page
B-226 and remains at $6,000. This is revenue in r espect of fees which are paid by an objector to have
their objection heard before the Land Valuation A ppeal Tribunal in instances where the objection was not
resolved during negotiations with the department.
Whilst it is unknown the number of objections the department might receive during fiscal year 2020/21 and how many, if any, will go before the tribunal for a hearing, the estimated revenue is based on a total of 10
tribunal hearings.

Capital Acquisitions 2020/21

Mr. Chairman, the department’s bursary student, Andesha Busby, succes s3414 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly fully completed her three- year Bachelor of Science
Real Estate Degree programme at the University of
Reading, England, in June 2019. Ms. Busby then
commenced full -time employment with the department
in August 2019 as the trainee valuer and is on a fiveyear training contract and development plan. She
subsequently commenced a two- year secondment
opportunity with the Valuation Office Agency [VOA] in Southampton, England, in September 2019, where
she is part of the VOA’s graduate scheme. This
scheme is specifi cally designed to provide university
graduate students with structured work experience in
preparation for the Assessment of Professional Competence as part of the Royal Institution of Chartered
Surveyors [RICS] requirements for membership.
Mr. Chairman, this is a tremendous opportun ity for Ms. Busby to gain valuable experience in an extensive range of statutory valuation work and a solid
foundation for her future surveying profession. I am
pleased to report that Ms. Busby has settled in well at
the VOA. S he has completed the induction training
both locally and at other offices, and is now undertaking inspections and valuations of various property
types, including attending hearings at the valuation
tribunal.
Mr. Chairman, the appointment of Ms. Busby
as the trainee valuer is in keeping with this Gover nment’s commitment to encourage Bermudians to pursue difficult -to-fill positions within the civil service,
which are historically held by work -permit holders. As
part of the department’s long- term strategy and succession planning, Ms. Busby will assume the role of
valuer within the Land Valuation Department upon gaining the requisite professional qualifications and
post-qualification work experience.

System Integration with Land Title Registry Office

Mr. Chairman, the
Land Title Registry Office is responsible for providing
the Land Valuation Department copies of all sales
transactions on the Island. This sales information
forms the basis of the department’s comparable sales database and is critical to the appraisal advice provi ded to other government departments. Historically, batches of sales transactions were received from Land Title Registry every few months in the form of
paper hard copies of the notice of transfer documents.
As of June 2019, both department’s IT systems were
integrated to enable the electronic submission of sales transactions data on a daily basis.
Mr. Chairman, the benefits of the system int egration are numerous and are in keeping with the
Land Valuation Department’s commitment to be a paperless office and leveraging technology, which is in
line with the Government’s commitment to achieve 100 per cent paperless processing by 2023. The int egration of both department’s systems has streamlined processes and proc edures by facilitating more eff i-cient and modern ways of working, improved customer service and satisfaction, and enhanced data secur ity by removing the risk of paper files going missing.

Performance Measures 2019/20

I will now turn my a ttention to the performance measures for the depar tment for the current fiscal year. Mr. Chairman, the
department has again had an exceedingly demanding
year, and as one of the smallest in government, the work of the land valuation team should never be mi nimised or diminished, as this team is indirectly r esponsible for some $95 million in government revenue from land tax, stamp duties and immigration property
licence fees. The performance measures for the department can be found on page B -227, and I would
like to speak to some of these notable achievements.

Maintenance of the Valuation List

The legislated function
of maintaining the Valuation List utilises the greater
part of the department’s resources. This work entails
inspecting, reassessing and making a corresponding
alteration to the Valuation List on any residential,
commercial or tourist property that is built, altered or
demolished. At year -end 2019 there were a total
36,290 units in the Valuation List with a combined assessed annual rental value of approximately $1.3 bi llion.
Mr. Chairman, the department makes every
effort to amend the Valuation List for property alter ations within 20 working days of case creation, and a realistic turnaround target of 65 per cent was set. I am
pleased to report that the department exceeded this
target and completed 72 per cent of the maintenance
of the list cases within the 20- working- day turnaround
target. The department completed a total of 650 maintenance of the list cas es by year end, resulting in
724 proposals to amend the Valuation List in respect
of property alterations. Each proposal is an opportun ity for a taxpayer to object to the amendment to the
Valuation List. During 2019, the department received
only two formal objections, which were both settled
without the need to go before the Land Valuation A ppeal Tribunal.
Mr. Chairman, these outputs are a testament
to the work of the department and the accuracy and
veracity of the Valuation List, which underpins
$85,400, 000, or 7.6 per cent, of government’s projec ted revenue for fiscal year 2019/20.

Appraisal Services

Mr. Chairman, as
aforementioned, the Land Valuation Department also provides accurate and timely valuation advice to other
government departments upon request. This appraisal


Bermuda House of Assembly service will carry on in fiscal year 2020/21 and will
continue to include (1) the provision of valuations to
the Tax Commissioner and Registrar of the Supreme
Court for voluntary conveyances of property an d probate purposes, respectively, to ensure that the correct
amount of stamp duty is levied on each document;
(2) valuation advice to the Immigration Department in
relation to sales of properties to restricted persons.
The department reviews the purchase price on which
the Government licence fee is calculated to determine
if the price is an arm’s -length transaction and thus a
fair reflection of the open market value of the property;
and (3) appraisal advice to other government depar tments when requested, su ch as the Insolvency Unit of
the Registrar of Companies or the Estates Sections of
Public Lands and Buildings for the disposal or acquis ition of government properties.
Mr. Chairman, the department provided 391
open market valuations to other government depar tments and, impressively, met each of their turnaround targets, attaining a 100 per cent achievement rate.
This included completing 298 stamp duty cases for
the Tax Commissioner, all within 20 working days of
receipt; 26 probate cases for the Registrar of the S upreme Court, all within 10 working days of receipt; 63
land acquisition cases for the Immigration Depar tment, all within five working days of receipt; and four
requests for open market valuations for the Estates
Section and Insolvency Units combined, all within 10
working days of receipt.
Mr. Chairman, the outputs and achievements
of the department’s performance measures for both maintenance of the list work and appraisal services are impressive when one reflects on the relatively
small size of the office and its limited resources. Furthermore, the successful transition of the bursary st udent to the trainee valuer position and continuous
technological advances in creating efficiencies speak
volumes to the dedication and commitment of the land
valua tion team, and they should be commended for
these accomplishments.

Initiatives for the Forthcoming Year 2020/21

Mr. Chairman, the very
reason for the department’s formation in 1967 and
continued existence is that of maintaining an up- todate and accurate Valuation List as properties are
altered on a daily basis as a result of mergers, splits,
demolitions and new builds. In addition to this i mportant function, the Land Valuation and Tax Act 1967 also mandates a revaluation of all properties on the Island for land tax purposes every five years, as the
Valuation List forms the basis for land taxation.
Mr. Chairman, the Island- wide revaluation is a
significant project for the department and involves the
revaluation of over 36,000 valuation units at the same
time to maintain parity in the Valuation List. Property values change over time, and these changes are not uniform across the market. Since the last Island- wide
revaluation in 2015, the Island continues to exper ience declines i n property values in various sectors. As
some property types and areas have fallen in value more than others, the Island- wide revaluation re- levels
the playing field by reflecting these relative changes in
value. This mass appraisal of properties not only e nsures that all properties are valued on the same basis
and on the same valuation date, but ensures equity
and fairness between the assessments in the Valuation List and, consequently, Mr. and Mrs. Bermuda’s land tax liability.
Mr. Chairman, the revaluat ion project follows
three basic phases:
1. rental data collection;
2. analysis of the data; and
3. valuation model building and mass appraisal.
Survey forms were sent to all taxpayers in
November 2019 and final notices issued in January
2020. Once the rental data collected from the surveys
are analysed, the newly compiled 2020 Draft Valua-tion List will be published on the 31
st of December
2020. ARVs [annual rental values] contained therein
will be based on levels of rental value around July
2019. All taxpayers will then have six months from the
date of publication in which to lodge an objection to
their new ARV should they chose to exercise this
right.
Mr. Chairman, I must point out that the 2020
revaluation project will be the last paper -based revaluation exercise for the department. It is our commi tment that the next Island- wide revaluation in 2025 will
include the online submission of information.

Closing Remarks

Mr. Chairman, as I
conclude my presentation of the Estimates of E xpenditure and Revenues for the Department of Land
Valuation, Head 49, I would like to reference the three
Ps of any successful organisation— people, processes
and performance. The department is one of the smal lest in government with a current staffing complement of only nine full -time equivalents. Correspondingly, the
department also continues to have one of the smallest
expenditure budgets for both the current and the u pcoming fiscal year. Despite these limited resources
(some would say adequate ), the Land Val uation team,
its people , continue to provide first -class service in the
delivery of their statutory mandate of maintaining the
Valuation List and the provision of an appraisal service to other government departments.
Mr. Chairman, the department’s process es
and procedures are continuously reviewed with the goal of streamlining and improving workflows. This is evident with the successful system integration of databases with the Land Title Registry Office and the
electronic transmission of information betwee n the two
departments. Additionally, over the last year the de3416 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly partment has met or exceeded all of their performance
measures in respect of maintenance of the list and
appraisal work, all of which have resulted in increased
revenue for government.
Mr. Chai rman, for the upcoming 2020/21 fiscal
year, the department’s appraisal advice to other gov-ernment departments is expected to generate an estimated $9 million in stamp duties and immigration
licence fees. Additionally, the assessed annual rental
values in t he Valuation List underpin land tax revenue
of $85,400,000, or 7.6 per cent of Government’s est imated revenue for 2020/21. One can certainly appr eciate the comparatively low cost of the Land Valuation
Department when compared to the significant revenue
generated by the maintenance of the Valuation List and appraisal services it provides.
Mr. Chairman, might I be so bold as to suggest that the wider Government might look at using
this department and the Land Title Registration Office
as a template for reduc ing costs and improving greater efficiency.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my presentation
on the Department of Land Valuation, Head 49.

HEAD 53 —BERMUDA HOUSING CORPORATION

Mr. Chairman, I would
now like to turn to Head 53, t he Bermuda Housing
Corporation [BHC or the Corporation]. Mr. Chairman, the mission statement of the BHC is To provide ac-cessibility to adequate, affordable housing and pr omote independent living to enhance the quality of life
in Bermuda. Mr. Chairman, the Housing Corporation’s
grant allocation of $6,050,000 represents no change from the previous year. The allocated grant will be
used to subsidise the annual cost of repairs, normal
maintenance of properties, support services for fam ilies and individuals, and rental assistance via the Rent
Geared to Income Programme to clients of the Corporation and for the continuation of the H.U.S.T.L.E.
Truck Programme.
In addition to the operating assistance grant,
the BHC is budgeted to receive a capital grant of
$4,800, 000, which is the same as last year as well.
The capital grant will be used to pay for the interest and principal amounts due on the Corporation’s out-standing bank loan of $35,850,000.
Mr. Chairman, the primary functions of the
Housing Corporation are to provide housing in Ber-muda, to promote home ownership, to undertake and
carry out housing schemes and to undertake such
other functions in connection with housing as the Mi nister responsible for housing may require.
The Corporation continues to provide met hods for Bermudians to gain entry into the housing market, whether it is by way of becoming first -time
homeowners or renting affordable units that are avai lable. The Corporation continues to strive to provide adequate, achievable and affordable housing which
will benefit Bermudians.
The Corporation continues a public/private
partnership with Clarien Bank to assist hard- working
Bermudians to obtain their first home.

The HomeStart Programme

To date, that pr ogramme has assisted 14 Bermudian families in their
quest to become first -time homeowners. The initiative
has been very successful in providing properties
available for sale at affordable prices. The sale prices
of these properties have been significantly reduced in
return f or sweat equity to bring the properties back to
a healthy, habitable state. Many of the properties on offer were previously vacant and derelict —eliminating
unhealthy eyesores from the Bermudian landscape.
Mr. Chairman, I have recently had approac hes from four separate entities directly about bringing
Bermudian derelict place/properties back online and
rehabilitating them. I am probably breaking all the rules. But I have entertained every single one of them
and encouraged them to go away and come with a
proposal about how they might rehabilitate those
properties. And then we will put it through the filter of
Public Lands and Buildings and come up with an
agreement that will bring those properties back online.
The Bermuda Housing Corporation admini sters a number of programmes in pursuit of its mission,
including managing and leasing a large inventory of
properties comprising houses and apartments. Some of these properties are owned by the Corporation, and
others are leased from private sector owners.
The BHC manages 500 government and pr ivate sector residential units Island- wide and eight
transitional homes comprising 180 rooms.

The H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck Programme

And the BHC also
manages and controls the H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck pr ogramme, acronym for Helping the Unemployed Sustain Themselves with Limited Employment, which has
been in successful operation since 2007. This year marks the 13
th anniversary of the programme.
Mr. Chairman, the Corporation brought the
H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck Prog ramme to birth by contracting
eight young men and women of Middletown Lower to paint over graffiti on walls of BHC -owned property in
the Middletown area. It was very encouraging to see
the young men and women take pride in their work,
and in one case it was extremely satisfying to hear
one of them chastise his friend who was sitting on a
wall newly painted by him and chiding him for marking
up the wall with his sneakers. He had taken ownership of his work. Since then, the Corporation, through the
H.U.S.T.L. E. Truck Programme, has helped over
1,000 unemployed Bermudians in need with short -


Bermuda House of Assembly term temporary employment and assisted them with
finding full -time jobs, the most recent of which is the (I
forget the title) resident manager at Bermudiana
Beach. He came t o us off the H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck. In
addition, the programme has provided much- valued
assistance to our seniors, community groups, churc hes, schools and neighbourhoods. The Corporation
works with local banks to help assist Bermudian cl ients to retain their homes by advising on best steps to
manage mortgage payments when they are under
threat due to the continuing challenges of our ec onomic times.
The Corporation continues to find ways to
reduce expenses and generate positive cash flows. Through efficient us e of current staffing levels, redi stribution of duties, retraining and in- house seminars,
the Corporation has been able to use available staff members to ensure daily operations are performed to
expectations and in some cases exceeding expected
levels. Fur ther, additional efficiencies and cost sa vings are underway as the Corporation is working t owards the integration of the administration of the Bermuda Land Development Company [BLDC] oper ations, with the operations of the Bermuda Housing
Corporation.
Mr. Chairman, the BHC is transforming the
former Grand Atlantic condos into Bermuda’s newest
tourism venture, the Bermudiana Beach Resort Condo
Hotel. The Corporation has hired three young Berm udians to take over the management of the property.
They are Mr. Al len R. Walker, who has been appointed General Manager of the development; Deborah
Leverock as Operations Director; and Donovan Si mmons as Resort Manager. We are honoured that the
three Bermudians have expressed confidence in the
success of the Bermudiana B each Resort and our
Bermudian tourism product and wish to be a part of
that success.
Mr. Chairman, [BHC] has successfully signed
a licence agreement with the world- famous Hilton
(Tapestry Brand) Hotels. [Hilton] will be providing
training, reservations services, consultation and marketing to assist in the daily operations of the Berm udiana Beach Resort. Hilton has a sterling reputation
globally and will provide outstanding support in
achie ving the professional standards expected from
this new hotel.
Mr. C hairman, the Bermuda Housing Corpor ation continues to have empathy with many of its cl ients who have suffered a decline in their income
through unemployment or underemployment. The
Corporation has constant meetings with clients to help them navigate through these difficult social, economic
and financial times. It is worth noting, Mr. Chairman,
that the Corporation does not evict clients for an inability to pay rent . I repeat that: It is worth noting that
the Corporation does not evict clients for an inabili ty to
pay rent . If anybody looked at their financials and saw
the outstanding debt that they are carrying, they will know that that is true. But rather, when the difficult
decisions are made to evict, it is because of clients’
irresponsible or unhealthy behaviour after multiple
meetings, cautions and intervention programmes.
And as an aside, Mr. Chairman, we are likely
to see three of those evictions in the next few days in the courts. And all I would say is just that anybody
who has any sympathy, to ask, How much has their
arrears grown and how long have the cases been in
existence?

Minister, if I may, there was a request
from a couple of Members that we adjourn early so that Members could feel free to go to the International
Women’s Day event. It is only 10 minutes left. I mean,
my position is that we should just go right to lunch. I
suspect we are going to be amply represented at that event, and persons within the next 10 minutes can join
the members who are there.
Would you . . . Are you . . .

The Rent Geared to
Income [RGI] initiative gives real relief to clients by
assisting them with requested payment of only 25 per
cent of their combined household income to be paid to
the Corporation as rent regardless of employment st atus of family members. Part of this programme i ncludes finally a mandatory 10 per cent savings portion
of the monthly household income to guide clients into
positive saving habits for long- term goals.
I know that some families have graduated off
of this pr ogramme. I had asked the question before I
came, How many? I want to know. I think everybody
would like to know. And I should have that answer
when we come to answering questions.

Transitional Housing

The BHC operates
eight rooming houses, or transitional houses, that contain approximately 180 beds. The various houses are
3418 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly located throughout the Island and provide a safe habitat for BHC clients. The rooming houses cater to
households that need immediate, safe or emergency
acco mmodation. The Support Services Department
continues to hold regular rooming house meetings to
listen to concerns and address complaints from the
residents of those facilities. The satellite offices at the
largest rooming houses at Southside are charged wi th
regular meetings with clients who have fallen on hard
times. The support given includes economic, social
and psychological guidance to occupants to assist them in graduating out of the facility into more trad itional Bermuda living. Since its inception i n 2007, a
total of 380 families have transferred out of the room-ing house facilities.
Gulfstream is a multi -unit rooming house
comprising 78 rooms and currently houses 54 families from various backgrounds. Some families have adjoi ning rooms to ensure adequate privacy for parents and
children. The Gulfstream residents are appreciative of
the opportunity, and regular house meetings are held to listen to and allay concerns before they become
problematic to society. Unfortunately, as in many
things in this country, some clients have not been
compliant with meeting requests to discuss issues and
only react when given ultimatums of penalties for their
errant behaviours.
I might add, Mr. Chairman, that the Corpor ation is also exploring best practice international ly, because there is a growing belief that the size of this
facility is probably not conducive to the type of housing that we want to provide in Bermuda. And so we
may be transitioning from this into another model.
Mr. Chairman, Building 632, known as Langley House, is a 61- bed rooming house facility, located
at Southside, St. David’s. The rooming house is used
specifically to house men in need of affordable, safe
accommodation. There are currently 50 men residing
in that facility.
The Corporation has qua lified social workers
working out of the satellite offices, including a former
police officer to monitor and correct antisocial beha viours.
The Corporation is in the process of transforming the Harmony Club property into studio and
one-bedroom units which will be used primarily to
house seniors on the ground floor and families on the
second floor who are mobile and can live independently. Harmony Club property is also used as the
H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck offices, and the Gate House buil ding is used to provide em ergency accommodation for
persons in immediate distress or in need of immediate housing.

BHC Staff

The BHC has recently
initiated an intern programme for three young Berm udians who are working with the Corporation for one year. This intern programme is used to ensure that
our young people have guidance and counselling as
they make firm decisions on their career choices.
They are working in different departments of the Corporation including Finance, Property Management, Proper ty Operations, Compliance and the Support
Services Department.
The Bermuda Housing Corporation’s head
office is located at the Seven Arches Building [East
Entrance], 44 Church Street in the City of Hamilton
and presently consists of 41 personnel. Of that total, four H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck members operate from office
space at the Harmony Club, and three staff members
under the Support Services Department operate off -
site at a satellite office in the Southside complex.
The current structure of BHC consists of s even departments:
1. Project Management, with two staff;
2. Property Operations, with 10;
3. Finance, Collections and Home Ownership
Services, with eight;
4. Support Services, of 10;
5. Administration, of five;
6. Human Resources, with two; and
7. H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck, with four .

Project Management

Mr. Chairman, the Pr ojects Department, consisting of two employees, as-sists with advice regarding major repair work necessary on existing buildings owned by the Corporation, to ensure longevity of the C orporation’s assets. The
department has recently been restructured with the project managers overseeing the multiple dwellings
which come under the BHC remit to ensure that effective and cost -conscious maintenance programmes
keep the units in safe and heal thy states. They also
are responsible for initial drawings of projected capital
projects, as well as the project management of the
properties through to completion. Projects planned for
the year include
• conversion of Blocks B and D at Harmony
Club into the one-bedroom and studio units;
• restoration and conversion from five units to
nine units of Chelsea apartments in St.
George’s;
• renovation and conversion of the former St.
David’s preschool building into loft apar tments; and
• renovation and conversion of the former St.
George’s police barracks into a rental studio
accommodation.

Property Operations

The department is r esponsible for the maintenance of BHC’s housing stock
of approximately 700 units including the rooming


Bermuda House of Assembly houses Is land- wide. The department’s responsibilities
include the regular maintenance of buildings under the
control of BHC and providing advice and assistance to
clients of BHC on housing- related matters. The department comprises three property officers, six
maint enance officers and one administrative assistant.
The department conducts regular maint enance checks of buildings under the management of the Corporation and is responsible for small maint enance works along with coordinating more difficult tasks with trust ed and able contractors.
Last year, the Property Operations Depar tment completed approximately 2,700 maintenance
requests. The requests for maintenance are wide
ranging. They include everything from simple plum bing, electrical, water, sewage and roof repa irs, to
landscaping, painting, flooring and major renovations.

Finance Department

The Finance Depar tment has a total staff of nine employees, consisting of
one finance manager and two assistant finance managers, one responsi ble for reporting and the other for
IT, one accounts supervisor, three finance officers and
one cashier.
The Finance Department carefully monitors
the Corporation’s spending and compliance, ensuring that policies and procedures are adhered to and that
clients act responsibly in paying their bills in a timely
manner. The Finance Department fields questions of
a financial nature, provides mortgage advice and assists clients with understanding their financial oblig ations to the Corporation.

Support Services Department

The Support Services
Department is the department responsible for ensu ring that adequate housing is found for BHC clients.
The department conducts regular inspections of BHC
housing inventory to ensure clients are compliant with
their rental contracts.
The department consists of 10 persons, one
manager, one rentals case worker, two transitional
house case workers, two junior transitional house case workers, three rental inspectors and one intake
officer. There is a current waitlist for BHC ac comm odation of 108 cl ients. I personally believe that this is
underreported, and I tell them so.
The Support Services Department offers a
myriad of services to clients which include money
management, housekeeping, social and behavioural problem eradication, child care, and health and safety
guidance. In addition, the department offers advice on
support from other agencies that stand ready to assist clients who are in need of professional counselling.
Administration

The H.U.S.T.L.E.
Truck Programme continues to be of valuable assi stance to unemployed persons who actively seek work.
The programme operates out of the Harmony C lub
and caters to 20 temporary employees per week. The
H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck continues to be of valuable assi stance to Bermuda with the ability to adjust to the
needs of the community as they arise.
The current cost of the H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck
programme is approximately $1 million per year (20
people per week for up to three months total per year,
taking one week off each month to seek regular employment). At this level the Corporation is able to r otate through approximately 260 different people per
year. The programme is available for any unemployed
Bermudian. At present, there are approximately 35
people on the waitlist daily who are advised to return
the following day for an opportunity to work.
The H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck Office keeps a dat abase of information on the unemployed and their skill
sets for the specific purpose of making a good fit
when partnering with employers. The office regularly
receives requests from employers for qualified and
suitable potential employees. Upon receipt of these
requests, the da tabase is checked, and those persons
who have the required qualifications are sent on interviews in the hopes of achieving full -time traditional
employment.
In addition, the H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck has fundamentally replaced the bulk waste pick -up section
that was closed in the Ministry of Public Works, by
collecting and cleaning neighbourhoods of illegally dumped bulk waste items such as mattresses, sofas,
furniture and appliances on a weekly basis.
The Corporation has completed an MOU with
the internationall y recognised Cisco IT training network, a networking and cybersecurity solutions company to train unemployed Bermudians in IT solutions. The initiative is the first step in providing skills to
H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck members to enable them to i n3420 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly crease their opportunities for full -time employment by
teaching them transferable skills in computing oper ations. The first cohort of five students completed
Phase 1 of the programme two weeks ago.
Mr. Chairman, the Bermuda Housing Corpor ation has a very important role t o play in Bermudian
society, assisting vulnerable people including seniors,
mental health patients, inmates, young people and
those who have fallen on hard financial times. They
continue to come up with courageous, innovative
plans to help Bermuda combat t he escalating costs of
living [which causes] stress in many Bermudian fam ilies. They are committed to their tasks and willingly
embrace new challenges.

You have always been very efficient, I
must say.
Okay. So Members, it has been moved that
we take lunch right now. And the House will resume at
2:00 pm.
[Gavel]

Proceedings suspended at 12:31 pm

Proceedings resumed at 2:01 pm

[Mr. Rolfe Commissiong, Chairman]

COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY

ESTIMATES OF REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
FOR THE YEAR 2020/21

MINISTRY OF PUBLIC WORKS

[Continuation thereof]

Thank you, Mr. Chai rman.
Before I start with Parks, let me just say that I
spent the lunchtime carving some of the items out of
this thing and I will have more to say about this whole
process towards the end of this period. But I think that . . . anyway, I will have more to say and probably get
in trouble as a result. But in any case, we will press
on.

HEAD 68 —PARKS

So, this is the Depar tment of Parks, Mr. Chairman, which is responsible for
the administration of protected areas listed under the
Bermuda National Parks Act [1986].
The current account expenditure estimate
allotted to the department for 2020/21 is $9,289,128;
which represents a [3.67] per cent decrease of
$354,447 compared to the 2019/20 original estimate.
Mr. Chairman, the department’s budget is divided into the various programmes including: Admi nistration and Planning; Park Ranger Service; Lif eguard Service; the Park Maintenance Section encompassing Government House, Maintenance and Deve lopment, Eastern Parks, Tree Service, Western Parks,
Schools Grounds, Tulo Valley and the Botanical Gardens; Forts and Historical Sites; and the Railway Trail.
The Department of Parks has 143 posts within
its remit which remains unchanged from 2019/20 to
2020/21. However, it is important to note that the department operated during the 2019/20 budget year
with only 118 posts most of the year. And as I indicated in this m orning’s presentation, Mr. Chairman, there
is a moratorium on new hires that must make their
way all the way to the Minister before we agree to hire
folks.
The Capital Acquisitions Estimate for the department for the year is $650,000. Four hundred thousand of that is for Park Improvements to include: the
installation of a new lifeguard tower; repairs to buil dings in the Botanical Gardens; and restoration of designated parks. And $250,000 for the design of a purpose- built Administration and Maintenance facil ity for
Parks at Marsh Folly.
Mr. Chairman, revenues for the department
are projected to remain at $[128],000. Steady demand
continues for Special Permits for events such as
beach weddings for tourists at Warwick Long Bay,
Jobson’s Cove, Stonehole Bay, Chaplin Bay in South Shore Park, and Fort St. Catherine.
Media documentation continues to support
this. Also, the demand continues for organised functions such as birthday parties where Laser Tag occurs
and bonfires on various beaches. Fort St. Catherine
with the World Heritage designation continues to attract interested patrons for events such as weddings. The projected revenues for the various sectors are as
follows:
• Camping and Special Permits: $30,000;
• Concession fees: $5,000;
• Lifeguard service fees: $1,000;
• Horticultural Produce sales: $5,000;
• Fort St. Catherine Admissions: $60,000;
• Fort St. Catherine Retail: $1,000;


Bermuda House of Assembly • Fort St. Catherine Facilities: $27,000.
Camping and Special Permit Fees for functions at various beaches are expected to collect
$26,000; Concession Fees will amount to $5,000; and
$71,000 will be raised from the activities at Fort St.
Catherine; Lifeguard service fees are $1,000; and
Horticultural Produce from Tulo Valley of $5,000.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to report on key activities in the respective sections of the Parks Depar tment for the upcoming 2020/21 budget cycle.

Administration and Planning —78050

The Administration will
have a budget of $1,178,037. It is the hub of the d epartment and encompasses the P ark Planning section
which will be planning and implementing the following
projects for the budget year:
• Installation of a third fitness equipment station
at Death Valley Park in the west.
• The final phase of the installation of the new Lifeguard Tower at C learwater Park will be
completed following the implementation of
recommendations from the Department of
Planning.
• The Management Plans for Southlands and
Botanical Gardens will be updated.
• Trained staff in Geographic Information Sy stems (GIS) has commenced, collecting doc umentation and data of the Parks assets.
• With the assistance of the Estates section l icences or leases will be drafted for conces-sion operations at various parks and beaches.
• The improvements for the boat ramp at Stone
Crusher Corner in Kin dley Field Park will continue.
• The Sale Centre building and the Green
House at Tulo Valley Nursery are still planned
to be replaced in order to increase the produc-tion of plants for Bermuda Government properties.
• New signage, park benches, and picnic tables
will be placed in the parks and beaches.
• The department has embarked on several i mprovement projects including Community
Gardens, assisting with PTAs for their School Gardening Programmes and a new roundabout design scheme. That scheme was ev ident this r ecent Christmas Holiday season.
• The Tree Planting Initiative in partnership with the National Trust has also commenced; with
the aim of planting 2,020 trees in the year
2020.

Park Ranger Service—78000

Mr. Chairman, the
Park Ranger Service as a small team has operated like many other sections with a shortage of staff. The budget for the 2020/21 is $469,887. This section has
taken the lead with some of the public/private partnerships which are bearing positive achievements. The
section has been directly involved with the Friends of
the Bermuda Railway Trail and continues to assist
with most of the landscape culling of invasive veget ation, which is now required before the installation of
Phase 2 of the Bridging Scheme. Phase 2 wi ll involve
bridging Flatt’s Inlet.
The section continues to have a working rel ationship with the Bermuda Police Service [BPS], pr imarily the Community Action Team, which has pr ovided valuable assistance when enforcing the Berm uda National Park Regulations 1988. The recent clearing of abandoned vehicles at the Parsons Road Park is a prime example of their team work.
At Southlands Park they are directly involved
with culling invasive species with the Bermuda Zoological Society and PricewaterhouseCoopers [PwC] in
order to start the process of restoring the park on the
western boundaries. This initiative will continue.
The Park Ranger Service also works closely
with the Bermuda Bicycle Association and Fat Tire
Massive who provide assistance in maintaining trails
in designated parks. Patrols to the Island- based parks
and nature reserves are becoming more consistent.
The campground at Higgs and Horseshoe I sland Parks will be cleared, as will the Military Grav eyards and Lime Kilns at Ferry Point Park as per nor-mal.
A joint initiative with the Ministry of Tourism
and Transport will see Traffic Coordinators on duty at
the Horseshoe Bay parking lot in order to organise
and control the taxi and minibus fleets who are transporting passengers primarily to and from the crui se
ships in Dockyard.

Lifeguard Service —78010

The Lifeguard Service
has a budget of $473,981.
This year will see the installation of the new
lifeguard tower at Clearwater [Beach] Park. This will
ensure that lifeguard service continues at this popular
location.
The department anticipates that there will be
21 Seasonal and Reserve Lifeguards trained and cer-tified under the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) and
will be challenged to try and meet the expanded
cruise ship tourism s eason which will operate from
April to November 2020.
The Lifeguard Service works alongside the
Park Ranger Service and will continue to provide the following services:
• They will once again provide lifeguard and
water safety support during the swim portion
of the second ITU Bermuda International Tr iathlon 2020.
3422 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly • In conjunction with the Park Ranger Service
they will also provide training and certification
of 20 staff in the Department of Parks in either American Heart Association Basic Life Support or Bermuda Red Cross Community CPR,
AED, and First Aid with instructors who have
been certified.

Park Maintenance Section

The combined budget
will be $ 6,767,277. This section comprises the follo wing:
• Government House—78015: $268,290;
• Maintenance and Development —78020:
$831,139;
• Eastern Parks —78030: $1,007,923;
• Tree Service —78035: $581,904;
• Western Parks —78040: $1,394,634;
• Schools Grounds —78045: $563,706;
• Tulo Valley Nursery —78055: $400,018;
• Botanical Gardens and Arboretum —78065:
$1,399,664.
Mr. Chairman, the combined sections provide
landscape and horticultural maintenance and the necessary bedding plants for the Island’s parks, beaches,
nature reserves, roundabouts, schools, and Gover nment properties.
In addition to the maintenance performed by
these employees, in 2020/21 they will continue to make improvements to Blue Hole; repair and replace
the fencing in Spanish Point Park, Astwood Park,
Chaplin Bay, Admiralty House Park, Mullet Bay Park
and Shelly Bay Park; repair and upgrade bathroom
facilities in the parks; install park benches and picnic
tables at various parks and beaches such as John
Smith’s Bay, Astwood Park, West Whale Bay, and
South Shore Park (Warwick Long Bay Playground);
replace gates at parks, beaches, and the Railway
Trails; and they will be involved in the restoration and
improvement of parks including Coney Island, Adm iralty House, Shelly Bay, Ferry Point, Kindley Field,
South Shore Park, and Southlands. This will involve the major clearing of invasive species and replanting
with natives and endemic species.
The Skills Development Programme conti nues to develop persons with the skill sets for gardening and landscaping and have successfully garnered
the support from the Garden Club and is one of this year’s recipients of the End to End fundraiser. Some
of the goals of the programme are to:
• research colleges that we can consider sending SDP participants and Parks’ workers to;
• improve our training programme in areas like
arboriculture, horticulture and landscaping;
• gather information re apprenticeship pr ogrammes to share with government depar tments and the private sector. The Railway Trail —78100

The budget for the
Railway Trail is $320,000. This has remained constant
for over the last 10 year s.
The Railway Trail continues to be one of the
most actively used parks in the system year -round for
both residents and tourists. It has major events such as the World Triathlons and the popular End to End
the first week in May. It benefits by way of the co nstant promotion by the Bermuda Tourism Authority
and via social media. Going forward the department is
looking to do informing public notices and adverts to
inform and educate the public on things happening on
the Trail.
In 2019/20, staff were tasked wi th again
providing the landscape maintenance of the Railway Trails and they have been able to achieve this objective within budget. The same will apply for 2020/21.
Mr. Chairman, projects planned for the Rai lway Trail in 2020/21 include replacement of damaged
gates, installation of park benches, repairs of da maged fences, culling of invasive plants, and restoration
of uneven surfaces primarily in the western sections.
The department will network with Friends of the Bermuda Railway Trail and their industry partners for the
surface restoration projects and Phase 2 of Flatt’s I nlet.

Forts and Historical Sites

The budget for
2020/21 will be $399,946, which is a decrease of
$18,418.
The primary management responsibility for
this se ction includes Fort St. Catherine, within the
World Heritage site, and other forts in the eastern par-ishes. However, jurisdiction for managing forts extends to other parks in the National Parks System. The current five staff continue to market the Fort wit h
the Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA) and destin ation-based magazines and publications.
Revenues and patrons should remain steady
with slight increases correlating with the projected i ncrease in tourists for the 2020 season.
Projects planned for the fiscal year include:
painting of the guns at Fort St. Catherine, Alexandra
Battery, Gates Fort and St. David’s Battery; and refurbishment and replacement of the signs at various
forts.
Mr. Chairman, with those remarks I conclude
my remarks on Head 68 the Departm ent of Parks and
would now like to turn to Head 81 the Department of
Public Lands and Buildings.

Mr. Chairman, the r esponsibility of the Department of Public Lands and
Buildings is to: To effectively manage [Government]
property and provide national mapping to enable the delivery of effective public services.
Mr. Chairman, on page B -236 you will note
that there are four main programmes for the Depar tment of Public Lands and Buildings and they are as follows:
• 8100 —Administration
• 8101 —Buildings
• 8102 —Estates
• 8103 —Land Surveys
Mr. Chairman, the total budget allocated to
the department is $19,919,000 for fiscal year 2020/21,
as compared to $19,472,000 for the previous year.
This represents an increase of $447,000. This i ncrease reflects the government’s costs to effectively operate and maintain facilities for public services
across all government departments.
The Estates section is responsible for the
management of the Government estate; the Buildings
section is responsible for its maintenance and repair;
and the Land Surveys Section is responsible for map-ping and cadastral surveys. The fourth programme is
Administration, Training and Apprentices Programme
which comprises mainly the Director of the Depar tment and the trainees and apprentices.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for the programmes
are as follows:
• 8100 —Administration: $279,000
• 8101 —Buildings: $9,076,000
• 8102 —Estates: $10,236,000
• 8103 —Land Surveys Management: $328,000
This compares with the budget for the same
programmes for fiscal year 2019/20.
The increase in 8102 is due the increases in
costs [and] expenses in operating and managing the government’s ageing stock of buildings.
Lands Surveys has a nominal increase from
2019/20.

Administration

Mr. Chairman, pr ogramme 8100 Administration, Training and Apprenti ces has a total budget of $278,000. This programme is
split between two cost centres, namely:
• 91000— Administration: $232,000
• 91001—Training and Apprenticeship: $47,000
The Administration programme objective is to
provide administrative support for the Estates and
Buildings sections. It has a budget of $279,000 to
cover the head of department and support staff and is
split into two cost centres.
The Administration cost centre 91000 has a
specific budget allocation of $232,000 for fiscal year 2020/21, as compared to $227,000. This represents
an increase of $5,000, or 1 per cent. However, cost
centre 91001 has a budget allocat ion of $47,000 with
no increase over 2019/20 to support training and apprenticeships.

Buildings Section

The Buildings section
is split between two cost centres, namely:
• 91002— Services Management: $1,066,000
• 91003— Maintenanc e: $8,010,000
Mr. Chairman, the Buildings programme, as
seen on page B -236, has a mandate to effectively
manage the maintenance, repair and renovation of all
Government buildings. This programme has a total
budget of $9,076,000 when compared with the
$9,086,000 allocation during fiscal year 2019/20,
which represents a decrease of $10,000 over the prior
year. Again, with an ageing infrastructure more
maintenance and improvements are a necessity.
Mr. Chairman, over $3,000,000 under cost
centre 75309, All Schools Maintenance has been
spent in 2019/20 on annual capital and improvement
work to schools.
Most notably are the public schools annual
scheduled works for schools and painting to Nort hlands Primary, Paget Primary, Clearwater Middle School and Frances Pat ton Primary. Additionally,
each school had a list of regular maintenance and repairs that are tackled over the summer vacation to
prepare the schools for the new school year.

Capital Works Plans 2020/21

For 2020/21, there ar e
a number of planned capital works that will take place.
The schools continue to be a high priority with
major works being currently planned for the Easter
and summer breaks. Some $3,000,000 has been
budgeted for these works.
Mr. Chairman, I am happy to advise that the
refurbishment to the Sessions House has commenced
as can be seen by the scaffolding on the exterior. The
replacement of all windows and external repairs and painting are currently underway to seal the envelope
of the building. The House was moved to this temporary location at Veritas Place in September 2019 to
allow the interior works to commence. In conjunction
with the Sessions Project is a supporting project to
relocate the Criminal Courts to the Dame Lois Browne -Evans Building.
Mr. Chai rman, the capital budget has been a llocated in 2020/21 under cost centre 75320 for Parliament Building Refurbishment and Courts Reloc ation. This is for the interior fit out of the Sessions
House for the Legislature and includes the works to relocate the co urts from the ground floor of the Ses3424 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly sions House to the Dame Lois Browne- Evans Buil ding.
Mr. Chairman, as an aside, I have made a r equest to those people who count beans to separate
these two out. It is two different departments and it should be two differ ent bunches.
Mr. Chairman, the 2020/21 allocation for capital cost centre 75112, Major Buildings Upgrade Pr ojects is $3,050,000. The account enables the depar tment to carry out major works to improve and rede-velop facilities, to modernise, to make them fit for purpose, and meet statutory compliance. Most notable is
the redevelopment of the Agricultural Services Centre
in Devonshire which is a critical service for local far mers and for Bermuda’s food supply. The works under
this account also include:
• refurbi shment of the official residence of the
Premier at Camden in the Botanical Gardens;
• fire protection upgrades to government offices
at Global House;
• accessibility improvements to the K. Margaret Carter Centre in Devonshire;
• refurbishment works to various go vernment
and residential premises.
Mr. Chairman, in addition to the above, the
Department of Public Lands and Buildings also works
with other departments to manage projects and ex ecute works in 2020/21 including:
• Westgate Correctional Facility —replacement
of steel doors and windows and refurbishment
of the residential pods for inmates (and there
is an extensive list of current works that are
currently going on at the Westgate Correc-tional Facility);
• Marine and Ports —workshop improvements;
• PTB—staff bathroom s and changing rooms;
• Refurbishment and repairs to Lefroy Elderly
Care Home;
• Mangrove Bay Clinic —refurbishment; and
• Police —facilities improvements.

Estates Section

Mr. Chairman, the E states section under programme 8102 has a total
budget of $10,236,000. The Estates section is split
between two cost centres, namely:
• 91004— Property Asset Management:
$4,503,000
• 91005—Insurance: $5,733,000
And, Mr. Chairman, you will note from the
general economic debate that we are looking to br ing
down the cost of those insurances. And those discussions are ongoing.
The mandate of the Estates programme is to
effectively manage the Government estate, to provide insurance cover on all Government property and to facilitate and secure office and res idential accomm odation for government departments as needed.
The Estates section provides property and
land-related management service to all government
ministries and departments. This service includes i nsurance, acquisition, letting, rental and disposal of
land and property across the Island. The section is the
custodian of the foreshore and seabed and is responsible for licences and leasing of same.
Mr. Chairman, the Property Asset Management, cost centre 91004, together with the Insurance cost centre 91005, have a total allocation of
$10,236,000 for this fiscal year as compared with
$9,790,000 for the previous year. This represents an
increase of $446,000, or 4 per cent due to increased
costs for additional staffing including a trainee surve yor, increas ed costs of electricity and insurance.
Property Asset Management cost centre
91004 has a total allocation of $4,502,000 when compared to the $4,149,000 for the previous year. This
budgeted amount represents an increase of $354,000;
which is largely due to the extra costs of electricity for
public buildings, contractors’ costs and memberships
costs for professional institutions.
The budget for insurance $5,733,000 compared to $5,641,000. This is an increase of $92,000, or 1.6 per cent. The increase is largel y due to adjus tment in premiums due to additional buildings.

Asset Management

Mr. Chairman,
$1,925,000 under cost centre 75099 has been budg-eted for office relocations. Funds will be used to refurbish government spaces, wher e possible, to bring in
departments currently renting space in the private
sector.
This year the second phase of the refurbis hment of the third floor of the Government Administr ation Building is nearing completion. This is after many
delays and will provid e a significant increase in capacity with 31 new workspaces where 17 existed prev iously.
Mr. Chairman, the intention is to ensure all
Government offices are brought back up to codes and
standards as required under the Safety and Health
Act and other statut ory requirements, while also i ncorporating new space standards to reduce the
amount of space which is allocated to every single
government employee—from Ministers down to cler ical staff. These improvements for 2020/21 include
offices in the Government Admi nistration and GPO
buildings. The account also allows for works required
when offices are moved to leased premises.

Land Survey Management

I now move to pr ogramme 8103, Land Surveys, with cost centre 91007,


Bermuda House of Assembly on page B -231. This programme has a budget alloc ation of $328,000 for fiscal year 2020/21 as compared
to a budget of $322,000 in the previous year.
This section provides traditional and specialised land surveying expertise and guidance for the Bermuda Government. For example, the section establishes, maintains and updates a National Control
Monument Network across Bermuda, ensuring that
private Land Survey Companies have a standardised
and internationally compatible coordinate system to
utilise. Recently the Land Survey Sec tion worked with
Marine and Ports on a National Hydrographic Survey
as an international maritime regulatory requirement
and the section will have the benefit of updated mapping for both marine and terrestrial areas carried out under this survey.
Mr. Chairm an, there are daily many small pr ojects undertaken and completed by the department.
Many go unnoticed by the public and are carried out
with little or no disruption to government services. To
date this year, the department answered approximat ely 3,800 maintenance calls which resulted in small
repairs to more major works. Irrespective of size or
scope, great emphasis is placed on ensuring that the
work is carried out to the highest possible standards
by the staff who continue to take pride in their work.
This concludes the presentation on Head 81,
Public Lands and Buildings. I would now like to move
to Head 82, Department of Works and Engineering.

Mr. Chairman, the
mission of the Department of Works and Engineering
is: To ensure the effective and prudent management
of all operations and engineering services relating to
the construction, erection, improvement, maintenance,
and repairs of government infrastructure. The operational budget estimates for the department for 2020/21 is $29,29 9,000 which represents
a decrease of $348,000 over last year’s budget.
Programme 8200, Administration [page B -
228] provides for the salaried senior management team of the department. The mandate of the senior
management team is the efficient management of the
seven sections of the department, including:
• Highways;
• Structures;
• Electrical/Mechanical;
• Solid Waste;
• Water and Sewage;
• Tynes Bay Waste- to-Energy Facility; and
• Quarry Operations.
Mr. Chairman, a $259,000 budget has been
allocated for fiscal year 2020/121 and this represents
no change, when compared to the 2019/20.
Mr. Chairman, programme 8201, Engineering.
The mandate of the Engineering Services programme
is to provide quality electrical, mechanical, and structural engineering services. A budget of $1,683,000
has been allocated for this programme, representing a
decrease of $104,000 compared to the 2019/20
budget. This programme includes cost centres 92001, Electrical and Mechanical Management; cost centre
92002, Electrical Support; and cost centre 92003,
Structures. The decrease is from reduced funding of a
Mechanical Engineer post which is not set to be filled until later in the fiscal year, and a reduction in Training
budgets.
The Electrical/Mechanical Management and
Electrical Support (92001 and 92002) manage the provision of planning, design, construction, install ation, and maintenance services for electrical and m echanical systems associated with the government’s facilities.
Mr. Chairman, cost centre 92001, Electrical
and Mechanical Management, is estimated at
$673,000, representing a decrease of $75,000 from
the original 2019/20 budget. This section provides support on electrical and mechanical issues to other
sections and departments throughout government.
Mr. Chairman, cost centre 92002, Elec trical
Support is mainly used to provide the budget for street
lighting. Cost centre 92002, Electrical Support has
allocated $501,000, which is $3,000 less than last
year.
The Structural Engineering Services, 92003
manages the provision of structural ins pections, design, construction, maintenance, project and contract management services, as well as acting as the go vernment’s functional authority on structural and relat-ed civil engineering matters. The budget for this cost centre 92003 is $509,000, which represents a d ecrease of $26,000 against the original 2019/20 budg-et.
Programme 8202, Highways. Mr. Chairman,
the mandate of the Highways programme is to deve l3426 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly op and maintain the public road infrastructure to ensure the safe passage of motorists and pedes trians.
This entails all work associated with the planning, design, and construction of road schemes and includes
activities such as resurfacing, drainage, signage, road markings, retaining walls, and bus shelters. They are
also mandated
• to provide technic al advice to other Gover nment ministries and agencies on highway -
related matters;
• to manage the improvement of public roads;
• to assist citizens with their private road i mprovement needs under the Private Roads (Improvement) Act; and
• to act as the government functional authority
on highways engineering- related matters.
Mr. Chairman, a $3,685,000 budget has been
allocated to this programme, representing a decrease
of $33,000 as compared to the original budget.
Cost centre 92004, Management, has a
budget of $557,000, which represents an increase of
$31,000 compared to 2019/20.
The performance measure for cost centre
92004, Highways Management, indicates that the
forecast amount of communications received by the
team from members of the public during fiscal 2019 /20 is 1,500. The full -time equivalents for the cost
centre 92004, Highways Management, are nine, no
change from last year.
Cost centre 92005, Road Asphalt and Signs,
budget is $755,000, which represents an increase of $61,000.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92006, Public Roads Maintenance, is $828,000, which
represents a decrease of $34,000, when compared to
the original 2019/20 budget. This unit is responsible for the maintenance of retaining walls, sidewalks and other masonry works, as well as the highways drai nage systems.
The budget for cost centre 92007, Public
Road Cleaning, is $1,545,000 and represents a de-crease of $91,000 compared to the previous budget year.
The budget for cost centre 92008, Private
Roads, which is not in the Budget Bo ok, remains unfunded due to budget constraints.
Programme 8203, Waste Management. Mr.
Chairman, the mandate of the Waste Management programme is to arrange for the collection and safe disposal of Bermuda’s solid waste. The aim of the
Waste Management sect ion is to serve the people of
Bermuda by providing a comprehensive waste management programme, utilising the best technologies
for disposal, recovery of materials and energy r esources, protecting public health and safeguarding the
environment. This includes:
• education regarding waste reduction, reuse,
and recycling;
• waste recycling; • waste collection;
• composting;
• land creation;
• high temperature mass burn incineration with
energy recovery (waste to energy);
• special and hazardous waste disposal;
• the management and maintenance of the
Tynes Bay Waste- to-Energy Facility in a reli able, safe, and cost -effective manner; and
• acting as the government functional authority on all matters relating to solid waste, env ironmental engineering, waste to energy and
process engi neering.
Mr. Chairman, a budget of $17,292,000 has
been allocated for this programme for fiscal 2020/21,
which represents an increase of $104,000 as co mpared to the 2019/20 budget.
The budget for cost centre 92009, Management, Education, and Enforcement i s $376,000, which
represents an increase of $34,000.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92011, Recycling, is $1,126,000, which is an increase
of $33,000, when compared to original 2019/20.
Mr. Chairman, my observation is that the
Government is probably one of the worst offenders for not recycling, particularly the Members of this House.
So, our initial response to mandatory recycling is to
start at home with them —or us. At the start of this
year I asked the Education and Enforcement Officer in
the Mi nistry to devise a plan for implementation of
mandatory recycling throughout government. There are over 60 government locations, so the first step
was to get buy -in from the Cabinet and the Public
Service Executive. That was the easy part, Mr. Chai rman. Now, it is getting departments to participate. And
I am pleased to report that the response, so far, has
been encouraging. To date, 11 sections or depar tments are operational and another 26 others are in progress. We anticipate that the process will be complete by the end of this month. The key is to find an
advocate in each department who will police their colleagues. And I think that is exactly what the Education
Officer is doing.
Mr. Chairman, just a brief snapshot of rec yclables collected this year: On average, we currently
collect between 40 and 45 tons of recyclables a
month. That is approximately 20 to 22 tons every two
weeks, so it is increasing. This past fiscal year we shipped overseas 180 bales of aluminium, that is
180,000 pounds; 540 bales of tin, that is 1,080,000
pounds; 10,000 cable TV boxes and computer hard drives and 1,600 air conditioners.
Mr. Chairman, we have to [make] a better effort of recycling and I think we are on that path. And if we can get those in Government to actually carry out
that process, hopefully, they will carry that idea home.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92012, Airport Disposal Facility is $1,262,000, which
is an increase of $12,000 from last year’s original


Bermuda House of Assembly budget. And I see my handlers have arrived. Good
luck with that.
[Inaudible interjection]

No, he came in late.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92013, Composting Operations, is $1,646,000, which
represents a decrease of $147,000 when compared
with the original of 20 19/20. This decrease was pr imarily in equipment rental costs, which is projected to
be offset by newly purchased equipment.
Mr. Chairman, cost centre 92014, Special and
Hazardous Waste, has a budget of $1,338,000, which represents a decrease of $41,000.
The budget for cost centre 92029, Collections,
is $3,791,000, which is an increase of $114,000 when compared with the original. This increase is due to the
filling of vacant labour posts.
Mr. Chairman, the Tynes Bay Waste- toEnergy Facility provides refuse disposal and renew able energy for the country. It is anticipated during fi scal 2020/21 that there will be 14 tours of the facility as
indicated in the performance measure for 92016,
Tynes Bay Administration. The facility is also forecas ting that there w ill be two complaints from the me mbers of the public from the public drop- off facility, and
the number of employed power engineers will be 17,
an increase of 1 compared to last year. And I might
add that those posts are primarily filled by Bermudian
engine ers, Mr. Chairman.
The budget for cost centre 92016, Tynes Bay
Administration, is $585,000 and represents an i ncrease of $11,000.
The budget for cost centre 92017, Tynes Bay
Operations, is $4,992,000, representing an increase of $190,000.
The amount of electricity generated and sold
to BELCO is forecasted to be 25,000 kilowatt hours in
2020/21. This is a reduction from estimates due to
non-turbine -related steam losses within the plant due
to ageing auxiliary equipment, now due for replac ement. Now, I su spect that none of that means an ything to anybody, like it does not to me, so I will put it in dollar terms, Mr. Chairman. Last month, or January,
we received a check from BELCO for $1.9 million for two months’ worth of power being generated. So, that
gives you an idea of what they are doing. —
[Inaudible interjection]

Yes, it puts it in clear
perspective. Take your trash to Tynes Bay, do not
drop it off at Tatem. The revised forecast for the amount of ash
concrete the facility produces is 7,000 cubic yards.
This is an increase from last year due to funding costs
and overtime which led to ash being encapsulated raw
at the airport site instead of being processed into blocks.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92018, Tynes Bay Maintenance, is $2,083,000, a de-crease of $110,000 from the original fiscal 2019/20
estimate.
Programme 8204, Quarry Transport, and
8205, Quarry Products. The mandat e of the two Quarry programmes is, collectively, to manage the fleet
and equipment leasing, mechanical maintenance,
quarry operations; and to act as the government functional authority on all matters related to fleet management, vehicle, and other mechanic al engineering
and maintenance activities.
Programme 8204, Quarry Transport, has a
budget of $2,431,000 allocated to this programme for
2020/21, representing a decrease of $53,000 as compared to the original budget.
The budget for cost centre 92019, Quarry
Administration, is $551,000, representing a decrease
of $44,000 from the original estimate.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for cost centre
92020, Quarry Vehicles and Equipment Operation, is
$2,563,000, which has decreased by $10,000 from the original 2019/20 es timate.
The budget for cost centre 92021, Quarry V ehicles and Equipment Maintenance, is $4,816,000, which is the same as last year.
The budget for cost centre 92034, Quarry R eceipts, (an internal recharge budget with a negative value) is set for $5.5 mill ion and is the same as for
fiscal last year.
For quarry products, a $2,063,000 budget and
a $3,140,000 recharge budget for quarry products have been allocated to this programme.
Mr. Chairman, programme 8206, Water and
Sewage, the mandate of the Water and S ewage pr ogramme is
• to provide planning, design, construction, o peration and maintenance of the Government water extraction, treatment, and distribution
systems, and the wastewater collection and
distribution systems;
• to produce potable water on a cost recovery
basis to meet demand;
• to provide septage receiving facilities for pr ivate sanitation truckers and for limited public
facilities; and
• to act as the Government functional authority
on all matters related to water and wastewater engineering.
Mr. Chairman, a budget of $5,026,000 has
been allocated to this programme and this represents a decrease of $148,000.
3428 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The budget for cost centre 92025, Water and
Sewage Administration, is $1,001,000, which repr esents a decrease of $55,000.
The budget for cost centre 92026, Water
Supply and Treatment, is $2,683,000, which is a decrease of $88,000. This budget ensures that there are
sufficient funds allocated to pay for contractors who
supply supplementary bulk water, remote monitoring
and control systems support, and to pay for the electricity charges associated with pump stations and treatments plants within the infrastructure.
The budget for cost centre 92027, Water
Sewage and Distribution, is $782,000, which repr esents a decrease of $137,000 which has been reall ocated to cost centre 92028, Sewage Collection, to
more accurately reflect operations.
Mr. Chairman, the budget for the cost centre
92028, [Sewage Collection], as I just indicated, is
$560,000 and has been increased by $132,000.

Review of Major Capital Projects

Mr. Chairman, I will
now provide a summary of the status of the major
capital projects being managed by the Department of
Works and Engineering.
The overall 2020/21 Capital Expenditure Plan
for the Department of Works and Engineering is
$16,330,000. Details are found on pages C -6 and C -7
[of the Approved Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure 2020/21].
Road Works, CEP cost centre 75042. The estimate for this cost centre is $2,820,000. This budget
comprises major maintenance work to the road network, which includes road resurfacing, as well as road
improvement schemes such as junction improv ements, road widening, and new sidewalks.
For fiscal 2020/21, the major works planned
will be in conjunction with the Island- wide BELCO
trenching scheme which will see new underground cable laid across the Island over a period of 36
months. This project will replace significant portions of
the Island’s 22 kilowatt systems. And the highways reinstatement following the trenching will be between
a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Public
Works and BELCO.
Water Projects, CEP cost centre 75044, this
programme is for planned and unforeseen small to
medium water and sewage projects, including a r equirement every year to provide equipment and ge neral facility upgrading to meet ongoing treatment, environmental, and safety -related issues. The 2020/21
estimate for this cost centre is $1,050,000. The funding will be used for an advanced water metering sy stem to reduce non- revenue water through early leak
detection. It is anticipated that this system will save
the government significant amounts in lost revenue
after implementation. Water and Sewage Capital Maintenance, CEP
cost centre 75345, this line item will be used for var ious system refurbishm ents as required by the ageing
plant and infrastructure. This represents no new funding as CEP 75044 was reduced by the same amount. Essentially, the new CEP was created for better trac king and asset management. The 2020/21 estimate for
this cost centre is $342,000.
Improvements in Street Lighting, CEP cost
centre 75046. Mr. Chairman, the estimate for this cost
centre is $560,000. This budget is used to cover the ongoing LED modernisation project currently being
delivered by BELCO.
Bus Shelters, CEP cost c entre 75048. Mr.
Chairman, the 2020/21 estimate for this cost centre is $30,000. This will see one new shelter built for the
coming year. Not a position I like to be in, and so we will be looking to scrounge money from elsewhere to
increase that number.
Private Road Street Lighting, CEP cost centre
75051. The estimate for this cost centre is zero. This
budget is normally used to provide extra lighting on private roads, but due to budget constraints, no service is planned for this next year.
St. George’s Sew age Treatment Plant, CEP
cost centre 75061. Mr. Chairman, the estimate for this cost centre is $530,000. This budget supports impl ementation of the previous St. George’s water and
wastewater master plan, which has been expanded to
include the greater island of St. George’s. The major ity of the funding will be used for further study and i mplementation costs.
Asbestos Removal, CEP cost centre 75064.
Mr. Chairman, the estimate for this cost centre is
$1,750,000, which will be used to continue the repac king of containers which have deteriorated too far at
the government quarry, and also to ship adequately
packed materials to the United States for permanent
disposal. This funding will also cover engineering costs for local disposal options for asbestos materials
that cannot be repacked and shipped overseas.
Structural Refurbishment of Bridges, CEP
cost centre 75116. Mr. Chairman, the estimate for this cost centre is $850,000. This budget will be used to
carry out repair work on Watford Bridge, which was delayed last year, as well as replace the Bailey Bridge
located at Coney Island.
Refurbishment Ferry Docks and Public Landings, CEP cost centre 75117. Mr. Chairman, the est imate for this cost centre is zero, as following major
repairs on King’s Wharf and Heritage [W harf] last year
and a survey of all wharfs and docks, no major works
are planned for the coming year.
Reconstruction of Retaining Walls, CEP cost
centre 75127. Mr. Chairman, the estimate for this budget is also zero. No work is planned for this initi ative during the upcoming budget year due to cost r eductions; however, efforts will be made—a greater effort will be made—to secure insurance funding from


Bermuda House of Assembly those people that demolished public walls to ensure
that they pay for them to be reinstated.
Foreshore Prot ection Work, CEP cost centre
75144. This cost centre is used to carry out repairs
and for mitigating measures to the foreshore. The 2020/21 estimate for this budget is $500,000 to address critical areas of North Shore Road and the for eshore at the Westgate Correctional Facility.
Causeway Refurbishment, CEP cost centre
75207. The estimate for the cost centre is zero dollars. No work is planned for this initiative during the upcoming budget year due to cost reduction. Howe ver, the inspections that have been c arried out on the
Causeway do not give cause for alarm, so we are able to skip a year without any maintenance.
Tynes Bay Waste- to-Energy Treatment E xpansion, CEP cost centre 75210. Mr. Chairman, cap ital funding for fiscal 2020/21 is zero dollars. No work
is planned for this initiative during the upcoming
budget year as long- term planning for the facility is
now part of a larger scheme to involve the Water and
Wastewater Master Plan for the Island. Additionally,
significant amounts of money have been spent i n this
current fiscal year to provide for maintenance to
Tynes Bay.
Dangerous Walls and Rock Cuts (Highways),
CEP cost centre 75258. The estimate for this cost
centre is $100,000. This cost centre is used to carry
out repairs to collapsed walls and rock cuts. Additio nally, as most cases of these damages occur due to
vehicle accidents, the Government will increasingly be
seeking insurance coverage for these accidents as
well from the vehicle owners to pay for the damage.
Quarry Refurbishment, [CEP cost centr e
75264]. Mr. Chairman, the 2020/21 estimate for this
cost centre is $1,046,000 which will be used to fund
upgrades at the Quarry Depot. Two new buildings
have been added to the site, which were relocated
from Morgan’s Point, the former Artemis buildings.
The funds will be used to fit -out the building interiors
with garage equipment and tools as well as a store
room . . . stores.

[Inaudible interjection]

No.
Mr. Chairman, here we are . . . [Pembroke
Canal Upgrade], CEP cost centre 75293. This pr ogramme is for the upgrade of the Pembroke Canal. The estimate for this cost centre is zero dollars this
year. While no funding has been allocated for the next
budget year, the Ministry is looking at ways to advance initiatives to address canal issues through str ategic partnerships with stakeholders. And I can say that the PS and I had recent
discu ssions with an ex ternal party who has some si gnificant expertise in this regard who may be able to
help us.
Reverse Osmosis Plants Electrical Systems,
CEP cost centre 75294. This programme has been
created for the as -needed upgrade of all the electrical
control and remote monitoring systems in each of the
water facilities . The estimate for this cost centre is
$293,000.
Tynes Bay Capital Maintenance, CEP cost
centre 75308. The 2020/21 estimate for this cost centre is $2,480,000 and will be used for the installation
of a new clinker crane and the refurbishment of the
bulky w ay share and some minor boiler works.
Morgan’s Point Works, CEP cost centre
75324. The estimate for this cost centre is $200,000. These funds will be used to address any further co ntamination discovered during the Morgan’s Point site
development.
Solid Was te Capital Maintenance, CEP cost
centre 75043. The estimate for this cost centre is
$450,000 and will primarily be used to replace ageing
equipment and infrastructure at four sites: Special
Waste Depot in Sally Port; recycling at the gover nment quarry; com posting at Marsh Folly; and the land
reclamation at the airport.
Swing Bridge Refurbishment, CEP cost centre
75096. The estimate for this cost centre is
$1,750,000. This budget will be used to advance the
environmental assessment and planning application
for both the Swing and Longbird Bridges. It is planned
for this work to advance the project to tendering and
procurement stage by the next fiscal year.

Review of Major Capital Acquisitions

Mr. Chairman, I would
now like to pr ovide you with a summary of the status
of the major acquisitions being managed by the D epartment of Works and Engineering, the details of
which can be found on page C -14.
Vehicles and Equipment, [CEP cost centre
76495]. The vehicles and equipment to be replaced
under the 2020/21 [budget] are those that have sur-passed their useful economic life and are in poor
and/or dangerous condition. The focus for next year
will be the replacement of essential heavy equipment,
such as payloaders, excavators, crane truck s,
et cetera that are essential to the Ministry’s road
maintenance and cleaning services. The purchase of this equipment will be critical to the Ministry carrying
out its support of the aforementioned BELCO trenc hing initiative.
The estimate for this annu al year is
$2,745,000. And that brings me to the close of Head
82, Department of Works and Engineering, Mr. Chairman. I am getting there . . . slightly over.
3430 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly I would now like to move to the final Head, Mr.
Chairman, 97, the Department of Land Title and Re gistration. Is that fine by you, Mr. Chairman?

[Mr. Neville S. Tyrrell , Chairman]

Mr. Chairman, the D epartment of Land Title and Registration’s mandate is:
Guaranteeing land titles, simplifying property transactions, and using digital technology to maintain data
security.
Additionally, the department’s objectives are:
• to create and maintain an electronic register
of all legal estates and interests in land thus providing securit y for owners and third parties;
• to publish as much of its data as possible in a
way that i s easy to access and understand;
• to maximise the use of its data for the benefit
of wider society and drive innovation in the digital economy ;
• to use digital technology to reduce the time
needed to receive, process, and deliver services to its customers, making them instant aneous wherever possible;
• to continue to reassess its processes, using
technology to make them as simple as poss ible for customers and colleagues alike, using
continuous improvement and new technology to ensure its systems are as efficient as possible;
• to create and maintain the Index Map;
• to maintain the Deeds Registry and ensure
transfer notices are completed within 10 days
of receiving the application. Mr. Chairman, the Land Title Registration O ffice [LTRO] strives to become a world- leading Land
Registry Office, and I believe that they are well on their way to doing just that, which means being outstanding at delivering its basic and core statutory services. Its aim is to make dealing with them quick and
simple by becoming even more customer -focused and
efficient while upholding its professional values at all
times.
Mr. Chairman, the Land Title and Regis tration
Department, has two Registration programmes, 9701 and 9702, with the accompanying cost centres of
10700 and 10730, which are found on page B -246 of
the Budget Book. These programmes comprise two
primary areas: Administration and Land Title Management.
The total current expenditure for the depar tment is estimated to be $1,463,000. This represents
an increase of $65,000 over last year’s budget. Mr. Chairman, once again, the bulk of the expenditure represents salaries, and the increase r elates to the employment of consultants as additional staff to assist the department. Management Services
are reviewing the Land Title Registration Office as it is recognised that it is woefully understaffed. The second biggest expenditure derives from the administr ation running cost of leasing the Land Title Registr ation’s Office in Milner Place.
Mr. Chairman, the LTRO is still in its infancy, it
has been operational for 17 months. It has three main
aims. The first of which is to register all land and
property in Bermuda as this will help to make conve yancing simpler, cheaper and faster, by moving from
an unregistered system of ownership based on pr ivately held title deeds to full registration of land.
The second aim is to provide a comprehensive land register that is enabled and supported dig itally, with high quality comprehensive data. Such i nformation will be a significant tool to help and support
the housing market and give a better understanding of
the economic growth or decline in it.
Mr. Chairman, the third aim of t he Land Title
Registration Office is to assist the Government in its
vision to stop land fraud. One of the LTRO’s primary
duties is to adjudicate on land disputes. Many hom eowners are property rich but cash poor; thus, they are unable to fight any disputes that they may have with
their neighbours. The LTRO provides a service when
a property is being registered. It will adjudicate on a
land dispute to ensure that the title is settled before it
is registered. In this role, the LTRO acts as an inde-pendent part y and will hear disputes involving private
landowners; however, any decision that the LTRO makes on ownership of land is based entirely on the
legislation and case law. The LTRO is a department
separate from other departments to ensure that its role as a quasi -adjudicator is not affected by outside
influences. This gives members of the public a sense
of security when bringing a claim concerning their
land.
Mr. Chairman, the LTRO’s revenue for
2020/21 can be found on page B -247 and is projected
to be $701,000. This revenue covers the work from
the Deed Registry as well as the Land Title Registry Office. Some of the increase is due to the influx of
cases released from the Office of the Tax Commi ssioner. From the date of its opening, the LTRO regi stration fees were set on a sliding scale, which relates
to the value of the property being registered. The
LTRO fees have remained the same so that the cost of registration does not have an adverse effect on
purchasers or first -time buyers who have a lower i ncome and are looking to acquire a property.
Mr. Chairman, the LTRO is a small multi -
skilled department. It has a total of 10 full -time pos itions budgeted for this fiscal year. Consultants currently occupy three of those positions. There are two
vacant positions within the LTRO at the moment. The


Bermuda House of Assembly need for proper succession planning has been recognised from the outset. Employing and training Berm udians will facilitate the sustainability of the department,
and building the organisational capacity is a priority.
The department will also be looking at ways to support staff within the department in their continued professional development and training.
And may I state for the record, Mr. Chairman,
that we have not had some success . . . I think we
have had two Bermudians rotate in and out and have
. . . throwing in the towel. That is the disappointing
part. What is encouraging, Mr. Chairman, is that I r eceived an email about two weeks ago, no, maybe a
month ago now, from the former head boy at the
Berkeley Institute, he is on Rotary Exchange in Brazil. And he indicated that he had been looking at the go vernment website at jobs and he wanted to spend his summer in the Land Title Registration Office and I
thought, Praise the Lord! A 19-year-old actually knows
that the office ex ists and wants to go there? So, needless to say, we are moving heaven and earth to have
him in that office this summer.

[Inaudible interjections ]

No, T. N. Tatem.
Mr. Chairman, business unit 107030, Land T itle Management, in the past year, the Land Title Registration Office undertook and achieved the following
performance measures . . . I am going to pass on
those. If you have got a question, I will answer.
Mr. Chairman, Major Achievements I would
like to highlight. The LTRO commenced an integration
project with the Department of Land Valuation —which
I talked briefly about this morning—to interface Landfolio with the Land Valuation’s data management sy stem. This initiative means that the LTRO will no longer need to send paper information to Land Valuation.
Their system now automatically, on completion of a
register, pulls the information from Landfolio that it
requires. This new process has been up and running
since June of last year, and is working well. The int egration has st reamlined the process of providing i nformation and has allowed LTRO to provide a more
efficient service to the Department of Land Valuation.
And I will repeat what I said this morning, that
I recommend to the wider government that those two
departments be the gold standard and a template for
future efficiencies.

Access to Land Information via the Web

The Land Title Regi stration Office Public Access Module (PAM) now has a
payment gateway in place and will be ready to be
rolled out this coming fiscal year. PAM, as it is called,
will allow the public to check their deeds information
online to ensure that it is correct. It will also enable
stakeholders to carry out searches online without ha v-ing to attend the Land Title Registrati on Office. By
introducing PAM, this will assist the office in becoming paperless in the future.
The LTRO legislation and triggers mostly
govern the work that they receive. So far this year; they have received the 572 Land Title Registration
applications. T his includes:
• conveyances on sale;
• mortgages;
• cautions against first registration;
• search applications.
The office is also committed to accepting vo luntary registration applications from the public and
has received 107 applications to date.
The office has a legislative duty to maintain a
judgment register. It has registered 45 such judgment applications to date.
The office still maintains the Deeds Registry
for applications that do not trigger Land Title Registr ation. So far, this fiscal year they have rec eived 675
such applications.

Plans for the Upcoming Year

Mr. Chairman, the key
projects for 2020/21 are as follows:
• The office is now looking to explore and pr ovide further security to their data by introducing new Blockchai n technology to its system.
In essence, Blockchain is a digital database
(or ledger) distributed across a network of
computers. The records are protected by cryptography (secret codes) and are therefore
protected against human error, or the editing or removal of data. Blockchain has been tout-ed as the future of land registries due to the
myriad of benefits it offers. Firstly, it has the
potential to reduce fraud significantly. Bloc kchain technology could also speed up the
conveyancing and registration process. This,
in turn, would also lead to greater efficiencies and cost savings for the Land Title Registr ation Office.
• The office will also continue to digitise the Deeds Registry records. [There have been]
58,000 applications scanned thus far, and
they are working their way through creating
Deeds Registry registers for them.
Mr. Chairman, let me close by saying I am fully aware that the people in the Ministry of Public Works have never seen the likes of me before, and
are unlikely to see the likes of me again. And I will just
leave it at that now. But I refer to them that the complaint department is at 105 Front Street.
I do wish, however, Mr. Chairman, to offer a
special thank you to the eight heads of the depar tments and quangos that make up the Ministry of Pu blic Works, ably led by Department Permanent Secr etary Mr. Randy Rochester. They are: Mr. Gideon Kigo3432 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly tho, the Chief Financial Officer of the Department of
Finance and Administration; Mrs. Diane Elliot, the D irector of Land Valuation; Ms. Sudell Joseph, who is
currently Acting Director of the Department of Parks;
Mr. Steve Conway, the Chief Surveyor of Public Lands and Buildings; Mr. Kirk Outerbridge, the Chief
Engineer of the Department of Works and Engineering; and Mrs. Debbie Reid, the Land Registrar , Department of Land Title and Registration. And the two
quangos: Mr. Andrew Dias, the General Manager of
WEDCO; and Major Barrett Dill, the CEO of BLDC and General Manager of Bermuda Housing Corpor ation. And, of course, their teams, without whom the
Minis try will not be able to function to the level that it
does.
Mr. Chairman, I sincerely believe in the motto
of the Ministry: Business as usual just won’t do. I am
not so sure everybody has bought into that motto— in
fact, I am sure everybody has not bought i nto that
motto, but I am not deterred. And I will have more to
say on that at the end of this debate, so I will simply end by saying to the team, thank you.

Thank you, Minister.
Any further speakers?
I recognise the Leader of the Opposition, Mr.
Cannonier.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
I would like to start off where the Honourable
Minister has ended off and, too, echo the sentiments
of the heads of these departments that we have been discussing, these different heads, and the fine work
that they do.
It is evident, after having listened to the Mini ster, that a lot of work has taken place, that Public
Works is really in the middle of some dynamic
change. And it is always very, very difficult when ev eryone usually wants to see change, but when it comes to them they are kind of slow at it. And so, the comprehensive . . . the detail . . . I was going to say to the
Minister . . . I could have let him go on for, it looked
like he probably had about three and a half hours of
reading and we could have closed it out. It was comprehensive. But now that he has cut some of it short, we have got a few questions that we would like to get
answered.
But I must say, the briefing that he has given
was very, very, very good and speaks volumes to the
efforts that he is putting in, quite frankly, to ensure that
Bermuda not only looks good, [but that] it is operating well, and the staff —the civil servants —are getting the
training that they need and the likes. So, again, I say
thank you to the Minister and thank you to his team —
he has some here at this present time in assistance —
for the fine work that they are doing.
I am squinting just a little bit, I do not have a
light over me, so it is a bit difficult. The lighting is a bit odd. So, I would like to turn over to page B -28 on the
Ministry of Public Works —

Page B . . .?

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Page B -218, sorry, B -218.
I am going to try to read without my glasses here.
And on this page, we have a general summary, of cours e, which highlights . . . and we will get
into some of the subjective analysis as we go through.
We certainly can see under the Current Expenditure . . . as we go down, we can see more highlighted on
the Parks, that in totality we are looking at about
$355 ,000 less there. And then if we go down to Head
81, Public Lands and Buildings, we see also that there
is an improvement in spending of $447,000. Works
and Engineering, between the original amount and the estimated amount, we can see that there has been a
drawback of about $348,000. As we go through the
analysis, the Honourable Member did mention some
of the reasons for this.
If we go further on down, we can see under
Revenue that, in fact, we are looking to take in more money, it is about $968,000. I did want to take a closer look at that just to understand a little more as to the
forecast and how we believe that we will be taking in
more revenue. There were some answers.
And if we go down, under Revenue, quite
frankly, Works and Engineering has a huge increase there of $957,000 so we are going to look for a little
more detail on that.
Under Capital Expenditure and Development,
if you will, what I will probably do, because it is quite
extensive and there are a few questions there, I am
going to move through all of the Heads and then come
back to that and spend some time just on that as we
move through, if you do not mind.
True to word, the Minister has kept to . . . he
continues to talk about the employee numbers and,
certainly, I understand that challenge. During the fiscal
prudence that we are living under, it is a challenge
when you are attempting to get work done and, usua lly, the first thing that is said is, Well, you know, we
need another employee. Rather than looking at ma ybe how we can change something up, many times the
first sense is if we can get an extra person then it may
relieve that stress.
And I know that the Minister is not always of
that mind, bearing in mind that there are some areas
of the last department that he just spoke of that, you
know, they have been calling for people for some time. They certainly are responsible for large amounts
of revenue, but with a very small number of emplo yees, the work that they do is quite fantastic.
The Minister also mentioned in his brief that
we have about 751 buildings. And so, one of the first
questions that I r eally wanted to get to was: Is there
any anticipation (I know that we have been talking about it for some time now) of selling off some of


Bermuda House of Assembly these buildings that we do have that are out there? Is
there a process in place so that if anyone has interest
in some of these buildings that they can participate in
trying to find out whether or not they are available . . .
if there is a process in place?
But with 751 buildings we know that financially
maintaining all of these buildings is a bit of a challenge. Are there any plans, moving forward with what
was already in place to sell off some of these buil dings, including post offices and the likes? So, if we can find out about that.
I will turn over to page B -220 under the Ge neral Summary. If we take a look here we will see that
. . . let me just skip over my page here and I will come
back to that other page. If we take a look here we understand that under 3601, Head Office Administration,
there was . . . he did explain to us about the Admi nistration concerning training information and the likes. But if we take a look, there is approximately $21,000
difference there. That is not a whole lot; maybe it is
just due to a cushion, per se, for Administration. At any time within Administration there should be some
fluctuation, I am assuming that that is that, and that is
the situation.
If we take a look at 46999, Hurricane Expenses, there is nothing allocated there. But certainly it appears as if we may have had to do some work. Is
that due to the hurricane that we just had? And interestingly enough, there used to be Hurricane Relief
under 46998 and I was not sure if we had just done
away with that at all, because now we have a different
item or unit number, which i s 46999. I do not know if
there is a difference between the two. Maybe we can
have an explanation for that. But in the past, I reme mber it being under 46998.
If we go down further, under 3610, Accounts
and Finance Management, it was interesting to listen that Accounts now is focusing in on debt collection, as
he mentioned in his brief. And, of course, he gave quite some detail about some of the things that it is
involved with —payroll payments, et cetera, monthly
reports and the likes. These guys are very, v ery, very
busy. Under Finance Management, I was not quite
sure . . . I thought it might have to do with staffing, per
se, but with all of the different kinds of things that they do, it was a bit odd to see an $18,000 less amount. It could be for any number of things. I was thinking it
might have been due to supplies or whatever the case
may be, but that probably would not fit there. It is just
an odd amount.
If we move forward to 3611, Purchasing, this
Purchasing Administration, we do see that there is a $62,000 increase there. And the Minister did say that
this was . . . they are focusing on inventory control.
So, I am assuming that this was due to an increase in
staffing to get that up to par for focusing in on control. I could be wrong. It would be interesting to hear what
that is. But it seems to make sense in that particular
area. If we move forward, down below there, and
we look at Telecommunications, this was quite inter-esting as I was listening to the Minister. Under 3612,
Telecommunications he mentioned in answering . . .
underspend there, he was talking about we were moving to a new network system that led to the savings. I
am curious as to what that network system is. But I do
know that a lot has been going into telecommunic ations and upgrading.
We did hear in a previous debate the Premier
and myself debating the projects that they were doing
from the Cabinet Office. So I know that they have
been looking at new phone systems and the likes. So,
I can see where the decrease will come into place. At
first, I was thinking maybe it was due to . . . and I am
asking this question: Is this also going to reduce . . .
this new network, will it reduce staffing to any degree, so that the numbers that are there for the staffing for
Telecommunications . . . will t here be a reduction with
this new network system that we see there?
And, again, the Minister was quite extensive
in his explanation as to the new technologies that they
want to increase. He also mentioned about poles, that
there were some poles that they w ere going to be r eplacing. So, I am not sure how much of that increase
goes toward the poles, but he did mention that as
well.
If we go down to 3613, Human Resources,
and if I just follow through here and go down to unit
46118, Training and Development, and I know that
this has always been —especially for Ministers —they
always want to make sure that they have got enough
training going on. We did hear quite a bit of training
that has been going on throughout the broad of Public
Works and the different Heads f rom the Minister. In
Training and Development there is a lesser spend of
about $77,000. I am curious. Are we finding a bit more
expertise on the Island that we can do training? Or
does this have to do with on- Island training that we
are reducing? Or is thi s mostly having to do with overseas training that we have cut back on?
He did mention, under Training and Development, that they [are] devoted to Bermudian advanc ement. This is really, really good to hear. And I just wanted to echo the sentiments of the Mi nister when
he spoke of Ricardo and his progress, he spoke of,
was it Zeko? A mechanical engineer (I am trying to
remember all of these names that he wrote down). I
think what I really want to just say there is that . . .
what a fantastic job that we have seen. We have seen many of them in the House here on many occasions where the Minister has given them accolades. He also
spoke to two bursary students, Ms. Butterfield and Mr.
Richards, I believe it was. We just want to also congratulate them.
What I did hear, which was new, was that 15
of the Ministry’s workers are getting their GED qualif ications, and that was really, really interesting and
good to hear. I hope that that continues.
3434 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly And he also mentioned about the . . . there
were 79 applications from univ ersity students. That is
a good sign, because I do know that within Headquarters of Public Works it has been a challenge in trying
to get qualified Bermudians, especially with some of these hard- to-fill positions.
So, there seems to be an effort of getting to a
point whereby we are filling these positions by qual ified Bermudians and getting them to that point.
So, to all of the members that he mentioned I
want to say congratulations to them for the fine work that they have been doing.
Under 3614, unit number 46040, Architecture
and Design, I was writing fairly quickly and I cannot recall exactly what was some of the reasoning behind the . . . if you look at Architecture and Design, the i ncrease of $115,000. I do recall something about cap ital recharges or something to that effect, and I could
be wrong, but it would be good to hear, once again,
what the increase has to do with there. And, again, a
challenge in trying to get qualified people; sometimes we have to go out and get professional services outside of the civil service government allocation, so it
would be good to hear about that.
Now, I am going to move over to [page] B -
221. Under Salaries, we did get an explanation for the
$176,000 less, and I want to thank the Minister for that. I was very much concerned trying to understand,
if the number of employees had not quite changed that drastically, then what did that have to do with?
Under Professional Services we have a plus
of $66,000, if we compare the original to the estimate. That may have to do w ith having to go out and get
extra services for Architecture and Design, I am not
sure. But I am assuming that this plays a big role in
that there.
Also, I did take note of the Materials and Supplies, an increase of $91,000. So, the original amount was $237,000 and the estimate this year is for
$328,000; which is a $91,000 increase. Is that due to
an increased administration because we are going to
be doing other works that he has already mentioned?
What does that primarily have to do with for Materials and Supplies? We know that they have some works
coming up, new things happening and coming up,
maybe they are anticipating that, which is what that has to do with. So, we would like to hear about that.
Bear with me just a minute here . . . I did not
have an y questions on the employee numbers. Again,
the Minister has been holding the line, doing the best
that he can with the numbers that he does have. So,
no real questions there.
So, if I could move on to Performance
Measures —

Mm-hmm, [page] B -223?

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: —on page B -223. Under business unit 46111, Administration, I
just had a question on the second point that says
conduct safety and health assessments and corrective
action plans for the operational areas. I am assuming
that this goes across the board for all of the depar tments or for all of government, period. So, I would just like a clarification on that. Does that include schools
as well for the safety and health assessments and
corrective action?
Certainly, with all of the things that are going
on now it would be very interesting [to know] whether or not the Safety and Health Officer has been going
around talking about the coronavirus as well as some
of the things that we need to. Has that been taking
place? We know that many businesses are doing that,
but is that happening within civil service? Has that
been taken on as a mandate by Public Works, be-cause it does manage all of these buildings? Or ma ybe these different ministries are handling it ind ependently. But, because we do have a Health and
Safety Officer that falls in these areas, it would be i nteresting to hear whether or not they are addressing this issue for all buildings, understanding also that
probably, next to Education, Public Works hires just
about [the] most c ivil servants in one block.
We need to get the information out there
about what is best practice and, of course, they are in
contact with the public as well. So, it would be inter-esting to hear if they have got anything in place that
addresses that.
If we go down . . . oh, he did answer that a lready, sorry. Under business unit 46113, Purchasing
Administration, it says meet the expected delivery
deadline by overseas goods orders by operational
areas . And that is to be removed. I was wondering,
how we are tr acking that now. Or is someone else
assisting with a system now that we are not tracking
it? And why are we not tracking that anymore? An ytime you are inputting goods, certainly you want to be
able to track them and know exactly where they are.
And I know within Public Works a lot of times it is an
emergency.
I recall one time travelling back on a plane
and I saw Public Works officers and they had gone
up—physically flown up themselves —and picked up
the parts because it was cheaper to do it that way. So,
is that kind of like a new norm? Are we looking at that
as one of the measures that we do use, that we send
someone up that can actually get the parts fairly
quickly, as opposed to going through the traditional
method, either online or over the phone? So, w hy are
we not tracking that?
And lastly, the last one on page B -223, meeting demand of our customers for maintenance service
items, it may be a similar reason as to why we are not
doing also, the first one that I just mentioned, I do not know. But we certainly want to be able to, as far as customer maintenance is concerned, keep an eye on
whether or not we are meeting the demands of these


Bermuda House of Assembly maintenance needs, whether it be in water works,
wherever it may be, so that we have a file in case . . if
there is a challenge.
So, I will flip over to page B -224. And under
Performance Measures, business unit 46118, Training
and Development, the Minister did mention several
subjects that they have been doing to complete Lunch
and Learns for the year. I believe he mentione d that
there was some CPR, First Aid training that goes on
during those Lunch and Learns. And so, as far as going into the new year, I know he mentioned some that had already been done. Does he have an idea of what
those upcoming subjects might be for the Lunch and
Learns? Maybe it is a hot topic right now, either dea ling with mould or dealing with the coronavirus, I do
not know. Maybe they have an agenda already, ma ybe they do not. So, it would be interesting if they have decided on that.
If you go down under the same business unit
46118, Training and Development, Career Outreach, I was not quite sure who handles this, this Career Out-reach. We certainly heard from the Minister of the
many efforts and things that they have been doing as
far as career outreac h is concerned in isolation. But
does the Headquarters itself have a plan in place on
how they do career outreach and getting to our young
people and the likes to let them know of these hard- tofill positions? That kind of a thing. If we can catch
them ear ly . . . I do not know if there is a plan in place,
but what is that Career Outreach? How does that
work?
Also, bear with me just a minute. Okay, I
asked that question already there. I would like to
move on to the next Head, which is Head 49. And, as
I mentioned, I will go through the Heads and then I
would like to go back to the Capital Acquisitions and
Capital Development, there are many questions there.

Carry on.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: So, under Head 49, Land
Valuation, again, I would li ke to lend my support behind the sentiments of the Minister, as he mentioned
that this is a model area, a department which, quite
frankly, has always pushed beyond their weight. And I
cannot thank them enough for the valiant work that they do.
If we go ov er to page B -226, the Minister certainly . . . I was grateful for the answers that he gave
as far as the Professional Services, Materials and
Supplies, because I was a bit concerned that they
were not getting the assistance, which has always been a challenge, looking for assistance in this area.
But those Professional Services had to do with reevaluation, the fact that those costs were there and so
they have come out. I do recognise that we are going to be moving into another phase of re- evaluation and
he did give a summary on that, which was good. He also spoke to the tribunal hearing, appeals tribunal
hearing, so I am grateful for that.
But I did write something down here as he
was talking, so if I will just go through it again. Ah!
Yes. He mentioned her e in this area about difficult -tofill positions. And I also would like to add to the sent iments with the Minister to congratulate Ms. Busby on
graduating the real estate course that she had taken.
And I know that surveying has always been a cha llenging ar ea, so it is really, really good to see we have
a Bermudian there. And also to congratulate Judy
Ming was it? I think it was Judy Ming, I think he mentioned Judy Ming, a student that has not graduated
yet, but is moving towards graduation.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, I am not sure if it was
masters or not, but I just wanted to send support to both of these ladies, because I do know this is a very,
very difficult area to get Bermudians in. Finally, we
see some end to the proverbi al hole, or tunnel, here,
that we have got some Bermudians coming into those
positions, which is a great thing. And the Minister and
his team need to be congratulated for that.
So what I would like to do is go to the Performance Measures on [page] B -227.
Under Performance Measures, the very first
item, business unit 59080, Valuation, it says, amend
the valuation list for all changes within 20 working
days, receiving notification of a change to a property .
And the Minister did speak to some of this. He spoke
to the fact that, in this particular area, Land Valuation
is responsible for about $85 million in revenue that we
take in, about $9 million in stamp duty, that they are
the basis for this. And I guess what I was wondering,
because these guys are so effi cient in this particular
department, as I know, 65 per cent target outcome
seems to be a bit low for these guys. I mean, for these
guys, 100 per cent is low to them. I am just wondering
why it is at 65 per cent. Is it due to staffing, potentially,
that the y need? Or is the system manual, that it is taking more time than they would like? So, it would be
interesting to hear about that from the Minister.
Also, the next point was . . . and this is a new
measure, I might add. It says, receive no more than 5
per cent objections to proposals served to amend the
valuation list on the ground that the ARV is incorrect
or unfair, having regard to other ARVs in this list. I am
just curious as to why they were thinking they wanted to make this a new measurement. I think I know why
and understand where they are going with this here,
but it would be nice to hear from them as to why they
felt that this was necessary as a new measurement,
considering, you know, these guys, they may get
complaints, but the resolution is incredible, that very,
very rarely is there an ongoing challenge here. So, it would be nice to understand the new measurement
here as to what they were thinking behind that.
3436 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly He also mentioned a bit of an education to
maybe some of the other departments, people processed and performance, these kinds of success and
the model that they have been following. He also
mentioned about new initiatives. What is remarkable
is that these guys do some pretty good work and the
Minister did mention 36,000 units, and they are very,
very efficient with this. So, I just want to thank him for
that update that he gave.
Yes, okay, and he mentioned about . . . oh,
the last paper -based re- evaluation that will take place.
So, that was good to hear as well, that coming into the
next term it will be paperless. And I know that they
have been on a trajectory of getting to that point.
So, I will then move on from there to Head 53,
Housing Corporation. And although Housing Corpor ation does not have much here as far as financials, the
Minist er did give quite a comprehensive . . . and he
probably even cut it short there, but details as to the
Housing Corporation. They have always done a fantastic job. I did not hear, though, I believe that the Housing Corporation has taken over BLDC. If they
have not taken [it] over, are they involved in the management of it at all? I was curious as to . .
. if they are
involved in the management of BLDC, what changes,
potentially, have they seen that can be made or have
they implemented as they are now helping [to] ma nage BLDC?
What challenges, maybe, have they found?
And what opportunities? Obviously, with such a lan dmass there I am sure that they are looking at some
opportunities that might be down there. Have they
identified, coming into management . . . Major Dill,
and having conversations . . . in fact, I just spoke to
him the other day about some prospective of looking
at BLDC and just wanted to give him heads up. What other opportunities is he seeing with the landmass
down there that could take place?
Now, one of the things that has come up, and
I have kept looking for it myself, was integrating (and we will get to some of that in Works and Engineering),
the joining of water and sewage systems and having
BLDC be the hub for that. So, I am going to get to that
in more detail when we get to Works and Engineering.

Okay.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Now, the derelict buildings
. . . he also mentioned under Bermuda Housing Corporation that there were many derelict . . . well, I
should not say “many ” derelict, but identified that there
were derelict buildings and that people had been approaching either himself or others within the Housing Corporation. I was hoping that maybe he could just let
the public know what they should do if they are interested in some of these derelict buildings, to get more
information.
How can they get more information? Is there
like a hotline or something? But is there a number that can be called? I am sure he does not want to be bombarded with a whole lot of calls, but who do they co ntact? Who is the contact person in looking at that?
Certainly, people are looking for options when it comes to some of these buildings. So, if we can get
them filled, then that goes a long way in maintaining
them as well and taking them off the hands, quite
frankly, of the taxpayer.
It was good to hear about the intern pr ogramme. The Minister did mention about they have an intern programme, which is good in relation to the H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck and the likes. I was curious (let me
just put a note here so I can come back to it), he did
mention that the H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck was handling our
bulk waste, and that was one of those things that kind
of went by the wayside. So, who do they call? Is there
a fee for this, if you want bulk waste to be picked up? Is there a number to call, if you want someone to
come by? Because I know that the public is probably
not . . . a large part of the public may not be aware
that the H.U.S.T.L.E. Truck is doing this, so it would
be good to get some more information on that.
And I am glad that the Minister also, in defence of the Housing Corporation, stated quite clearly
that they do not evict because of difficulty in paying.
And it is important that the public is aware of that.
Having been in this area and knowing some of the
challenges that have taken place, it really needs to be
a gross situation before the Housing Corporation puts
its foot down.
Just as soon as Wednesday there was som eone coming to me, complaining about the Housing Corporation , and I had to be very clear with them . . .
and they can back it up if they are listening. I had to
be very clear with them. If there is any area that is
lenient, which is willing to work with you, it is the
Hous ing Corporation. And I did say to them, you
know, do not disparage th ese people in that area.
Okay, I am going to move —

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN

HOUSE VISITOR

Mm-hmm.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: And if we go over to page
B-230, and I am just . . . in this particular . . . I am going to have to ask the Minister for some grace. When
he was talking, I could just about hear him in some of
the words that he was saying. I am going to try to pick
through the notes that I took because he did answer quite a few things here. And if there is a repeat,
please forgive me for that, I was trying to listen intently as he moved through.
Under Head 68, Parks, if we go down to . . .
under Parks Maintenance 6803, so, if we look at 6803 and the unit number 78020 —

Yes.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: —we see there Maint enance and Development. I just want to make sure . . .
I am just checking my notes on what he had said
here.
So, you can see that between the original
amount and the estimate there is a $40,000 difference. And considering, especially in Parks, that
maintenance is a major, major part of what they do, I
know that $40,000 actually goes a long way in . . .
especially in a large part of the work that they do in
trying to maintain so many different areas, I am just
curious as to why we are $40,000 less there, understanding that a large part of the work the public sees
openly, if he can explain that to us.
I did not see any staff changes affecting this
area, so it would be interesting to see what he has to
say there.
Now, right under that, if you look at unit number 78030, Eastern Parks —

Mm-hmm.
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier:—and I found this interes ting, because there is an Eastern Parks and we know
that there is a Western Parks. But if you look at the
Eastern Parks it is less $31,000, and if you look at Western [Parks] it is plus $27,000. And I know this is a
West End dude here, the Minister. I am not . . . is it
because of Cup Match that they are getting more?

[Inaudible interjection and laughter ]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: I am beginning to feel like
the East End . . . Renee . . . is Renee here? Back me
up here. Kim is here. That the East End is getting hit here and the West End is getting a spend of about $27,000. So, I will be looking at Cup Match time to
see—

You take an issue with that?

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yeah, man, I am an East
Ender. I am trying to figure out what is going on here.
Also, I was curious in pointing those out, he
did mention some work about Tulo Valley, so I did get
an answer there.
It was a bit odd, though, when he was reading
through the numbers under Parks Maintenance and
he seemed to be saying it was like a dollar off. I do not
know if that was just a typo in the script that he had,
but if you look at the estimate amounts, like Eastern
Parks, he said $1.1 million and down to Tree Service $581,000 . . . maybe it is just a typo. It is not of any
significance, but there was a dollar difference there.
If I could go down to 78065, Botanical Gardens —

Mm-hmm.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: —the original amount, of
course, $1.481 [million] and then the estimate amount
of $1.4 [million] even. For Botanical Gardens there is
an $81,000 less amount there, if we can get an expl anation to that. Understanding that I was just at Botan ical Gardens yesterday to an award [ceremony] and,
yes, I could see that it needed some more maint enance and work, what that had to entail.
If we go down to unit 78100, the Railway Trail,
the $320,000 . . . now, the Minis ter actually did answer that. And that was one of those areas where I
was not sure exactly what was mentioned there. So, I
am curious, is the $320,000 that is allocated here . . .
there is no difference. Does that have to do with just
Parks itself doing the maintenance, or does that i ncorporate any other private entity that might be wor king with them? And for that $320,000 is that all of the
Railway Trail that is involved? If it is not, then what are
we spending as far as assistance in this area for the
Railway Trail with, maybe private landscapers or the
likes?
Continuing on under the General Summary,
Administration, the Minister briefly mentioned . . . let
me just look here . . . yes, he briefly mentioned A dministration and Planning. But I just wanted to make
sure that I got that right, the $271,000 less, what that
had to do with.
Also, under Forts, the expansion to 6805, unit
number 78080, Forts and Historical Sites. Now, I
know that this area has been one of those areas that
has always needed a lot of m aintenance. And he did
mention a few things in his brief, but some of these forts and historical sites are in tremendous need of refurbishment. I am just curious as to whether or not
there are plans in the future of overhauling some of
3438 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly these areas, like we are doing with some of the buil dings that we have, to really give them some attention
in this area, thank you.
If I go over then to, on Head 68, over to [page]
B-231 under Subjective Analysis, and I think . . . I was
thinking that maybe some of this had to do with the
Administration and Planning, as I mentioned, the
$271,000 because we do see, under Salaries,
$204,000 less.
And then under Professional Services, if you
go down a little further here, the original amount was $300,000 and if we take a look at the estimate for this
upcoming fiscal year [it is] $118,000. What is that di fference, $182,000? Who have we taken out? And do they believe that by taking out these professional ser-vices it is going to compromise some of their effectiveness, knowing that, understandably, we are under
some constraints and we cannot fix everything?
Under Revenue Source . . . if you look at unit
8801, Facilities. Although they do not do a whole lot
here, it was interesting that we do have an increase of about $17,000, and beca use the numbers are extremely low percentagewise, it is high. What is Facil ities? Is that for, porta- potties? I was not quite sure
what that is, under Revenue [Source], and the antic ipated increase that we see there from the original amount of $10,000 to $ 27,000. What exactly is that?
Okay. If I could . . . again, no need to mention
the employee numbers here. Under Performance Measures on page B -233, under business unit, Park
Ranger Service, 78000. Again, I am on page B -233.
Number two, the total number of special permits i ssued, percentage of special permit requests pr ocessed within three working days, one month for large
events. If you look at the original amount, it is $575
and the target amount is about $650. So I was just
curious as to what were they expecting coming up this
year as far as . . . because of increased tourism. I am
not really sure even if whether or not they get special permits, maybe it is for a wedding or something like
that.
The other question that I had was exactly
what is a “special permit”? What makes it different
from a regular permit? Obviously, it is a kind of event,
and maybe I am trying to find out what are those kinds
of events that make a special permit a special permit, so that the public would know the difference if they are
looking to get a permit on Parks land.
If you go down to business unit, Lifeguard
Service, 78010, total number of preventative actions.
If you look at the original amount, it is $6,900. If you
look at the target outcome, it is substantially increased to $14,500. Now, the Minister mentioned that they
were holding courses and the likes. I was not sure if
that involved like CPR and first aid that the lifeguards
were doing, so I was just trying to tie them in to these performance measures. It is a drastic inc rease, so
what is that increase due to? What would the lif e-guards be doing as an increase? It is more than double.
If you go down to business unit, Maintenance
and Development, 78020 . . . it is kind of an odd question, but the first one is total number of toilets se rviced. I am assuming that it is . . . I do not know how
many toilets we have in public areas. But I just found that number interesting that we have 4,530 services. I
am assuming that most of that is done during the
summertime. I will say that i t is a major challenge. And
I know for sure that he is aware of the major challenge
of keeping our public bathrooms neat and tidy.
I do not know if we have made any [improv ements] there. There was also a challenge of even keeping them serviced, but it looks like we have reg ularised the servicing of these public toilets.
Maybe the Minister can tell us a little more
about how he is getting along with vandalism and the
likes at these public bathrooms and how they are
handling that. I can think of a few of the public areas
that continue to be vandalised. And how is he making
out with the management of that?
And then number three, under the same bus iness unit, 78020. The number of roundabout displays
replanted four times per year. I just wanted to say u nder this particular one, I was quite pleased because
the roundabout at the end of the Causeway has been
a challenge. It is just grass. And just up a little further on the Causeway, by the airport, you know, they have
a nice rock garden there. It looks all nice. But at that
junction in St. George’s, I’m going back to, maybe the
Minister is giving the East End less than the West End.

[Inaudible interjections and laughter ]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: But this year Cup Match is
in Somerset, yet some work is happenin g there. I am
not sure exactly what they are putting in there, but I do
want to thank the Minister for the fact that we are ge tting something, some sort of a display there. I know
being close to the water was one of those challenges.
So I am looking forwar d to seeing what they finally
come up with. It is shaping up like a star thus far, as I look at it.
If we go over to page B -234, continuing under
the Performance Measures, for Head 68, under Parks,
I took note of the number of roadside verges, twice
per m onth. That is really good to see. I just wanted to
highlight that. I am grateful to see the target outcome
is going to be higher there.
But if I go down to Tree Service, 78035, the
total number of trees felled. Now, there is a massive
increase between the original and the target outcome.
If you just bear with me, I just want go back over to
Tree Service. So Tree Service has an increase in the
overall budget of $15,000, on page B -230. And so I
am assuming that this ties into this performance
measure as well . But was it due to the fact that maybe


Bermuda House of Assembly one of our machines or our lifts was down, which is
why they were not able to do as many as they would
have liked. I do not think that this is the case because
the history speaks to the fact that 77 is around about
where we have sat. So, obviously, they want to do
more work in this area. And it would be nice to see ,
because I do know that even after the hurricanes we
still have stuff that needs to be cut down , whether that
has to do with that.
And again, also, in addi tion to that, number
two under that same unit, number of trees pruned.
And there is even a greater difference between the
original amount of 45 and the target outcome of 120.
What exactly was happening? What has led to this
drastic increase that they feel confident it can be done with such an increase?
Under business unit, Administration, on the
same page, B -234, Administration and Planning,
78050, the very first item is total number of special
permits issued for Botanical Gardens and the Arbor etum. Now, if you look at the original forecast, Mr.
Chairman, you will see 100 per cent. But if you look at
the target outcome, it is 21,000 per cent. So this is the
total number of special permits issues for Botanical Gardens. [I was] just curious as to what that is. Maybe
it is a typo, I do not know.

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: It’s a typo? Oh, okay.
Thank you. Maybe it is 210 per cent then?

[Laughter]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: You can let us know what
it should be.
If you go down to number 5, Total number of
permitted commercial activities per year, you see 5.
What are those kinds of commercial activities we are
talking about that are permitted there? The original
amount is 5, which historically may make sense, but
we are forecasting 22. Maybe they can tell us what
kind of events they are already aware of that are com-ing up so that the public knows that in these park ar eas we have things going on.
Mr. Chairman, if you go over to page B -235,
continuing under Parks, with Performance Measures,
under business unit Park Improvement, 75101, second item, the total number of new benches installed, I
will say this: I am pleasantly encouraged by the fact
that I do actually see benches now [at the] bus stops. I
do not know if that was by design. If they should not
be there, I am letting you know that I do see Public
Works benches [at the] the bus stops, but —

In the East End?

[Laughter]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: But if that is by design, it is
good to see.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, they have been r equested. So it would be good to hear about that. But it is kind of encouraging to see that, because we do
have seniors who are catching the bus more frequently, especially Honourable Member Kim Swan from
constituency 2. You know, he wants to have that bench at that bus stop. So, kudos to that; it is very
pleasant to see.
Under business unit Botanical Gardens,
78065, total number of flower beds displayed inside the parameter per year, [there is a] drastic reduction
there. Is that potentially due to the fact that getting flowers grown and the likes, has been a challenge,
and so we do not have the ceilings that we want to
accommodate the historical targets of 74? Knowing
also that the botanical gardens are certainly a place
where the public like to go for many different occ asions, whether it is permitted or not, but just to go
through and enjoy, are we having a challenge with
flowers? So that the public is aware, there might not
be as many in this upcoming year.
All right, Mr. Chairman, I want to move on
over to Public Lands and Buildings, which is Head 81. And if you take a look at the general summary [there
is] a spend of $19.919 million for the estimate in comparison to the original amount of $19.472 milli on,
which is a difference of $447,000, in total.
As I was going through and listening to the
Minister, if we take a look at . . . under Estates . . .
sorry, let me just make sure I got that right. Oh, before
I get to that, sorry. [I have a] note here, base d on a
comment that he made, under business unit 8101, on the same page B -236, Buildings, Service Management, he mentioned that certainly we have ageing
facilities. And these ageing facilities certainly need the
maintenance requirements going forward. Understanding the maintenance needs of these buildings, I
can see that we have a [decrease] of about $10,000
under Buildings.
That might not be too much. I would have
thought that with the issues of asbestos coming up and mould and the likes, that we might be spending
more under Lands and Buildings when it comes to
service maintenance and management. So I would
like to hear a little bit more about how the Minister believes that they will be able to manage going into this next new year with the increasing issues of mould and
asbestos coming up, how they plan on managing this
through the upcoming year.
If I can then move down to . . . I am sorry,
while we are talking about that, in a statement the
Minister made prior, he talked about the T. N. Tatem
building there. It would be nice to hear, just to get an
update on where they are with that. I know that they
3440 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly have had teams go up to take a look at it because we
are looking to rent it out and the likes. Based on their
inspections, what have they found thus far since he
made the statement about the area, and how much work does he think it is going to take to get it up to par to rent out?
If I could then go down to Estates, 8102, and
looking at Proper ty Assessment Management, 91004,
the Minister did mention . . . he ga ve an answer to the
increase of the $354,000, so I want to thank him for that, in relation to cost expenses. He also mentioned 91005, under Estates, Insurance. And this had to do
with adjustment in premiums.
I know that the team is always working really
diligently in trying to get these insurance premiums
down. I am curious as to what they are finding in their negotiations, whether there is a market out there,
whether or not the insurance companies are finding it
favourable to negotiate with Government in getting
some of these fees down, knowing the stellar history
that Government has with insurance and its pa yments. So, good luck with that as well.
He did give an answer to this and the adjus tments there and why he saw, under that Head, there
was going to be at least a $446,000 increase due to
insurance and cost expenses.
If we go over to page B -237 and we get to the
subjective analysis and current account estimates under Head 81, yes, the two highlighted areas, the Mi nister did give mention to this. What I was not sure of
was under Energy, further on down under the ex-penditure there. I just was not quite sure; I think he
said that electricity has gone up. I believe that is what he said. I was racing trying to get it down. But if that is
the case, I am curi ous as to . . . that is . . . maybe in
the grand scheme of things it is not that much. But the
$300,000 increase was rather interesting. Can he confirm if that was due to the increased rate? I think we
probably need to do a better job pushing them, and I
should not say “better” job, but I am sure the Minister
feels no way about pressing them at all, on getting a
better rate.
Okay . . . just bear with me a minute, Mr.
Chairman.

While you are doing that I will just
remind the listening audience that we are still in
Committee of Supply for further consideration of the
Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the year
2020/21.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Thank you. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman. I also did . . . this is one area that I did look at,
the employee numbers. The Minister did give an explanation to these areas, so I want to thank him for
that. I was just going through my notes. If we could go
to the Per formance Measures , then.

Mm-hmm.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Public Lands and Buil dings, under business units 91002 through to 91003,
the second item there, number of government -owned
facilities to be sealed removing the potential of water
ingress, future mould and mildew. I would like to hear a little more [about that].
The numbers have not changed, but as I mentioned already, this is a major, major challenge. And I know that in the House the Minister has spoken to it
several times, the fact that this largely has to do with
maintenance issues and those who are in the buil dings clearly not being as diligent as they can be with
opening windows and the likes. He has even been
colourful in naming it “the national flower.” I think he
said.

Yes.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, I think it was the n ational flower.
But mould continues to be a challenge in
Bermuda. It is something that we have lived with forever. But it does become a challenge when the public
is screaming out and we are trying to remediate these
kinds of issues.
I would like to know a little more. When it says
the num ber of government -owned facilities to be
sealed, removing the potential for this, it looks like
preventative maintenance. It would be nice to hear
about what that preventative maintenance is in detail
as to what we are doing. And does that . . . of course,
it includes the schools as well, not just the gover nment buildings.
There were also some new measures. I must
say it was good to see some of these new measures
creeping up. It does point to the fact, it tells the story
that change is happening. When you start seeing
these kinds of new measurements [it shows] people
are working diligently.
If we go down to business unit 91004 through
91006, the second item says, number of government departments with occupancy agreements for their acBermuda House of Assembly commodation in government premises. And then following after that, the number of expired commercial
and residential leases out, reviewed and renewed, or
re-let. So I see the logic in these, I actually do. So it is
good to see that we have new measures there. If the
Minister wa nts to expound on this here, as to what
they were thinking, then fine. I get it, but maybe the
public may not. But I do understand that, especially
with the challenges that we are having. So, again, k udos to those new measurements.
If you can give me just minute to just go back
to the front.

Mm-hmm.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Yes, I knew I had a note
here. In talking about public lands and buildings, I
know that there were at one time discussions about
centralising the civil service, all the different depar tments. [It would] be difficult with Parks, per se, but
with some of the major departments, centralising them so that when Bermudians are looking for the assi stance of government, they are not having to go all over the place in different ar eas, catch a bus from one
area to another, and then be told that they have to go
down to somewhere else and then have to walk to the
other side of town.
Is there still a plan in place, or have we given
up on centralising most of the departments within, I guess, the City of Hamilton, centralising civil service to
that effect? Where are we with those plans and
whether or not they have been scrapped? So thank
you, Mr. Chairman, for that.
I will move on over to another big Head, Head
82, Works and Engineering, which also hires a substantial number of employees within it. Of course, they
do an array of different works, to the benefit of Bermuda. So I will go to page B -240. The Minister certainly had quite a few notes for me to take from this
particular Ministry .
So I will start. I take note that under 8201, unit
92001, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. He did mention that there was a reduction in staffing here and that also there was a reduction in training.
I am curious, understanding of some of the
challenges that we have with mould and all these di fferent things, what was the reasoning behind reducing
the number of staff here? Is it just merely a cost
measure and it is not going to affect the overall pr ocess? But understanding that this is a very integral part of what Works and Engineering is doing, why it
was felt that they needed to reduce staffing and also training in this area? If you take a look of the overall
total, under Engineering, you can see that the original
amount is $1.787 million and the es timate for this u pcoming year of $1.683 million, which is a $104,000
difference.
Under Highways, 8202, if we go down, I did
have a question under Road Maintenance. I was cur i-ous. He mentioned several things in Road Maint enance, but I was not sure. Under th is particular area,
Road Maintenance, I am assuming that potholes are a
part of that area. The reason I am bringing up the
challenge of potholes, I noticed that . . . was it yeste rday that I was coming up? A lot of potholes were actually filled. I have als o heard from the public, complaining, Oh, well, we have a truck with three or four
people on it and they are trying to fill one small pot-hole. Not understanding the whole of the operation,
what everyone is doing.
There was some talk about a new process at
one time for filling potholes which was more perm anent. So, once we fill a pothole rain comes next month
and that kind of eats it up, and we have got the same
pothole exposed. They were looking at some composite that is mixed. I do not know if they are aw are of
that, but there was talk about some composite plastic.
I don’t know. It was a composite material mixed with
the asphalt so that it adheres to the other asphalt and
seeps into it, holding everything much tighter, where
the pothole is least likely to come back up again within a few months.
With technology there are so many things out
there. I am hoping that they are exploring some of these areas. I mean, my goodness, road works has
[advanced] to the point where it filled with microchips and the likes, where it can track the computerised
cars and the likes. So I am curious as to whether or
not we are still moving in that direction with the po tholes. It would save a whole lot of maintenance,
know ing that this technology already exists and it i nvolves rec yclable material, which is extremely cost -
effective.

If you want the answers to your —

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: What? Good Lord!
Thank you for that. I did not realise the time
had gone by so quickly.
All right, I will m ove down to 8203, Waste
Management. We did get some good answers coming
from the Minister here. And he mentioned about rec ycling. I just wanted to take note of that. Under Rec ycling, I am really, really encouraged that the Minister has taken this bold step to move Government along in
leading the way. Certainly it is the right move so I give
kudos to that. I am going to move along here.
3442 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly If we go on over to the General Summary, on
page B -241, under Head 82, I guess I was a bit concerned about Water and Sewage. This is an area
where I know that government receives revenue. But
yet you will see here at the summary of it, the original amount of $29,647,000 to the estimate amount of
$29,299,000 there is a difference of about $350,000,
$348,000. And if you look there—
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: For the whole department?
Got you. Thanks. Thank you for that. Okay.
Yes, because I know this is an ever -ongoing
process with water and expanding and improving its
footprint. I am curious as to whether or not the Mini stry is looking to improve its footprint in this area as well. So I would like to get an answer to that.
I will not go much into the subjective analysis.
I was pretty clear on most of it. We talked about the energy. He spoke to that. H e spoke to maintenance
as well. I put a tick there; I did not write the answer
down but for professional services, I think you a nswered that as well.
I will go on over to Performance Measures.
How much time did you say we had left?

It is d ue to end at 5:44. You have an
hour and . . .

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: Hour and ten minutes? He
is sharp. He can get through to the end; he can get
through them.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: You have some questions
as well? Okay.
I will leave the Performance Measures for
now, under Head 82. If we have time, I will come back
to those. I will move on over to Head 97, Land Title Registration. I was happy to hear that he said that
Revenue, the fees —

The Ch airman: Page B -427.

Hon. L. Craig Cannonier: I’m sorry, p age B -427, under Revenue Summaries. The fees will remain the
same. Again, I just give accolades to these guys; they
do a fantastic job as well. So, I echo the sentiments of
the Minister.
So, if I c ould then, Mr. Chairman, as I mentioned I would like to go on over to Capital Develop-ment and we will go through all of the departments there, with the few questions that I do have. And then
I will allow my colleagues to be able to ask some questions as we ll. (My goodness, I cannot believe that
the time has gone.)
Under Capital Development, page C -6, unit
75306, Golf Courses Improvement, I was curious as
to whether or not that involved . . . I am assuming
these are improvements for both golf courses. Maybe
if we could get a breakdown of the amount that goes
to one as opposed to the other: Port Royal, Ocean
View. And whether or not this has to do with tournament, these improvements, or is this just normal golf
course improvements through the course of time t hat
we are looking at, or whether it has to do with tournament.
Under Bermuda Housing Corporation, I see
the Homeless Shelter there. I was just curious as to whether or not he was aware of the kind of shelters
that they will be putting up there.
Park Impr ovements, 75101. I am aware that
this is normally a rolling amount with the classification
of an “E.” What are some these park improvements
that we are looking at? What are some of these
smaller projects that we are looking at?
If you go down to unit 75234, Parks Maint enance Yard Facility, I was curious as to whether or not
they have determined on a permanent location for the
maintenance yard. I know that was in question based
on the issues at Botanical Gardens and they were
temporarily moved over to Pembr oke, [to the] back of
Pembroke. So, are we looking at any facilities where
we may be moving them? What are the plans going
forward?
Under unit 75112, Public Lands and Buildings,
it was mentioned [about] the major building upgrades,
with a classification of an RA. I was just curious as to
how many and which different buildings we are look-ing to upgrade. I do know that there has been some
work at . . . is it Tudor Hill? I think I saw some work
going on up at Tudor Hill as well. How extensive are
these upgrades that we are looking to do?
If we go down to 75326, under Sandys 360,
the classification of “E.” We understand that. Is this
the monies to pay for the property, finally? I am assuming that this is what that is. Could I just get confirmation on that?
Another classification of Road Works, 75042.
Of course, this is always a popular topic. We are dou-bling there. He did give an answer. I recall him giving
an answer to that. So I am grateful this has to do with
the cabling, working with BELCO on that.
Under Water Projects, 75044, I also recognise
that he gave answers to that.
Sorry, I am going fast now. (I did not realise
the time had gone by so quickly.) Unit 75061, with this
classification of a “D” the $530,000 does not seem like
a lot of spend for such a large project. I understand
that we are expanding the sewage programme
throughout the greater [area] of St. George’s. I do not know if that includes . . . if it just includes BLDC that
this includes, or does it include St. David’s as well as


Bermuda House of Assembly a part of the parish? I am assuming that is what he is
saying. So what exactly do we believe we are going to
accomplish with this upcoming year with only a spend
of $530,000 for such an extensive programme? I do
know that people are here looking at it. It would be good he ar a little more about that.
He already mentioned under unit 57064, A sbestos Disposal. I am assuming that a large part of that spend has to do with getting rid of the containers
and the likes, full of the asbestos.
Under unit 57096, Swing Bridge, the old
Swing Bridge is getting moved. It is great to see; fantastic. I know the fishermen are not going to be too
happy, but it is good to see that. I was not sure where
this was accounted for, whether it was under 75096 or 75116, this work that is being done.
Structural refurbishment of bridges, 75116. It
appears we might have spent a little more than we
anticipated here. I am just curious, he did mention
Watford Bridge, and a large part of that had to do with
Watford Bridge. What other challenges are we having as with our ageing bridges and facilities?
The last two and I can sit down and let some
other colleagues [ask questions]. Quarry refurbis hments, he mentioned. He did speak to that. And
Tynes Bay [ Waste Treatment Facility ], he did speak to
that. So thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, I will sit
down.

Are there any other speakers?
I recognise the Honourable Member GordonPamplin.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I just have a couple of questions that I wonder if the Minister could address. One
is to start on the Ministry of Public Works, Headquarters. This is on page B -220. The business unit is
46112, in respect of Central Filing.
The Minister indicated that this Head handled
the archiving and the conve yance of government documents for storage and archiving and the like. And my
question is, What is the average demand for retrieval
and return of boxes to the Central Filing? And is there
any indication or is there any intent for us to be able put those doc uments, to the extent possible, on an
electronic medium so that we do not have to have
physical boxes and pay for space? I am just wondering if that is something in the plan going forward.
Under 46030, under Finance Management,
the Minister indicated about his efforts with respect to
debt collection, and I wondered if we have some kind
of aged analysis as to where we are in terms of the
debt.
On page B -221, on Salaries, the Minister did
mention, I thought he said that . . . this is under Sal aries, Subjec t Analysis for Salaries, page B -221, at the
top of the page. I thought he indicated that the neg a-tive of 176 had something to do with . . . I think he
said that the PS was now under Cabinet . . .

[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin : Okay. All PSs
have moved to Cabinet. So, the question now begs, if we have already spent in 2019/20, more than we . . .
I’m sorry, we have spent a little less than we budgeted
for, but it is more, we have already spent more than
we are estimating for aft er that transfer out. So we
had a revised in 2019/20 of 2502, in respect, and we
are saying 2020/21 we are only going to spend 2454,
but that 176 reduction was against the original est imate from the prior year. So I just wondered if there
was a quick explanation in respect of that.
On page B -227, with respect to Land Valu ation, amending the list . . . this is business unit 59080,
on Valuation, amending the list within 20 working
days. They are looking at a targeted outcome of
65 per cent, which seems a lit tle low for the efficiency
which happens in that department. I just wondered if
there was any reason why we are setting the target
quite that low. And should we be looking at a slightly
higher, or slightly better, turnaround on that?
On page [B -]237 in r espect of Public Lands
and Buildings, in respect of insurance. The Minister
has indicated, notwithstanding that he did explain that there were some differences in premium and the like,
but the Minister indicated that there would be
$6,840,000 on insurance. We have already spent an
actual in 2019/20 of $8,053,000, which is higher, so
that obviously would have something to do with the
adjustment of premium within the current year. So I
understand that. But the question that I have is, given
the positive claim s experience that the government
has with insurance, are we looking at the possibility of increasing our self -insured retention so that we do not
have to pay quite as much in premiums?
I did know that earlier on in the Budget D ebate, I believe the Ministe r indicated something to the
effect that they are looking at setting up a captive. It
would be interesting to hear how that process is going
to develop.
I want to go to Capital, on page C -7. And that
is on business unit 75293, with respect to Canal O perations, Pembroke Canal. He has indicated that there
is nothing that is being put in for this year. The idea
being that there were some external bodies who were
working along with Government, and I am just wondering how progressed those talks are, because th e
problems that exist in that area that are impacted by
that Pembroke Canal are still severe. I just wondered
how quickly we are likely to get some kind of resol ution with these external partners to be able to see
some relief for the businesses especially that live and
operate in that area.
Dangerous Walls and Cuts, 75258, on page
C-7. My question is, There is $100,000 set aside, but
3444 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly over on the page C -6, the stabilising roadside rock
cut, 75142, where there is zero, have these two bus iness units been merged so that the stabilising–– and
the $100,000, the dangerous walls and rock cuts, are
merged together? I am just curious whether . . . I think
there are still some unstable areas.
Quarry Refurbishments, 75264. The Minister
had indicated that they had actu ally gotten two of the
units that were transferred from Morgan’s Point which
were from the Artemis building that they used to help
construct two extra buildings (I think he said) down at the quarry. My question is, Was there a cost that the
Government had to pay to Morgan’s Point or was that
just part of the trade off in terms of what we have
done for Morgan’s Point? Did we have to pay anything for those buildings that were transferred down from
Morgan’s Point?
On page C -6, 75064, in respect of Asbestos
Disposal, $1.750 million. What was interesting with
that is that the Minister had indicated that we have to
repack some of the containers in which asbestos is now being stored. I think we know that the containers
that were used have rusted out over time and obv iously they have to be repacked and that is understandable. But what the Minister said piqued my ears and that is that we have repack it for shipping of some
of it to the US for disposal. I am just wondering whether we have additional insurance in relat ion to
that because it is known that asbestos, especially when it is transported into the United States, that it
actually has . . . it is always deemed, under the Occ upational Safety and Health Act in the US, to belong to
the generator. So I am just wonder ing if we have any
additional insurance, if we are taking our asbestos
and sending it off to the United States, what protections do we have in order to ensure, if somewhere
down the road there are claims , that we have looked
into that particular area?
Swing Bridge, 75096—

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

What page?

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: This is on page C -
6. [It is] 75096. It is on the left- hand side of the page,
and that is the Swing Bridge Refurbishment. The question t hat I have is, Have there been effective lead
abatement on the structures that are there with the
swing bridge? Because I know under normal circu mstances, we would be doing sandblasting for lead-contaminated steel, and I am wondering whether those processes have been carried out as yet.
And then I had one other question and that is
on page . . . I go back to the Expenditure, page B -247,
and that is under Subjective Analysis of Salaries. U nder Land Title Registration, for 2019/20, we had est imated for $956,000, and we have gone up by $112,000 in this current year for 2020/21. However, for 2019/20, we have only actually expended
$596,000, so there is quite a differential between what
we have done, what we anticipate to be the new expenditure in relation—

On page B?

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: This is on page B -
247, Subjective Analysis under Salaries.
So the difference between . . . we have only
spent $596,000, and this is the best estimate as to
what we are going to spend given . . . you know, up to
March 31. And I am just wondering what the differential is between that number and whether the 1068 is perhaps a little bit too much, that we may have set
aside.
And the final question I have, very quickly, is
on Professional Services. We had an estimate of, in 2019/20, of $87,000 and in 2020/21 we have $86,000.
So there is only $1,000 difference. But in the actual
revised, what we would expect, the 2019/20 to ult imately get up to is $460,000 and I am just wondering
if there could be some explanation as to where that
differential is between what we initially anticipated that
we would spend and the $460,000 that we have act ually spent already, or that we anticipate to be the new
revised budget up to date.
Those are my substantive questions. I have a
couple more, but I can wait for some responses.

Okay. I am going to
go, I believe, in the order in which they came, even
though I have duplicate answers from my people over
there. Hopefully, they are not in conflict, otherwise
somebody wi ll be in trouble.
Any anticipation of selling buildings? Is there a
process in place of which buildings are for sale and
how does one go about obtaining information on the sales? The answer: First we would have to be sati sfied that the building is not needed for public services
and can be considered surplus to requirements. [Second] they would be put out for public tender for r equest for proposals to lease or sell, depending on the circumstances. And third, contact the chief surveyor with expressions of interest.


Bermuda House of Assembly Of course, they would have missed what I
said this morning, which is, follow none of those rules.
What I would say is that, particularly, in the case of
vacant and derelict buildings, people should make . . .
there is not going to be a whole lot of interest. And
they usually, in the four cases that we have currently
before us, these are people who have a special interest in a certain building. One of which is on Parsons
Road, that they just found a dead body in it. I do not
know why he wants to buy it, but if he wants to rehabilitate it then we are going to entertain that and come
to some arrangement that he can do so. And so I i nvite people to do that rather than wait for tender.
And I will give a more practical example b ecause the level of my frustration with this bureaucracy
is beyond 200 per cent. We have been trying to have
. . . I am sure there are six, seven former Ministers of
Public Works in this House, serving, including me.
And I can guarantee you that if I took them all to the
quarry tom orrow, they would find vehicles down there
that have been there before they came. And we have
been trying to have an auction for six months. I am not
going to wait another six weeks. Anyway, I will come
down off my bully pulpit.
Hurricane was under 46998 and now showing
46999. Was the cost of $988,000 related to Humberto.
Where was the hurricane relief? The account is 46998. The relief is netted off against the account and
the $988,000 is the operating cost of Humberto not
covered by insurance.
Explain t he increase in $900,000 . . . this must
be your third . . . I do not know what this was. You
know what this was, Mr. Cannonier? It is probably your second or third question, because they do not
say where this was. An increase in $900,000. Selling
buildings . . .
Okay, maybe this was in relation to Tynes
Bay. When I give you the answer, maybe it will make some sense. The answer is that it is an increase of
revenue from charging back BELCO from Tynes Bay
electricity. Okay.
Under 3612, the question was, Is t his an u pgrade? In fact, the new radio system that we are moving toward gives us a cost savings. And it should not
be a reduction in staff in this post.
Architect and Design, $36,000. This is less
the salary of recharges, expense for the chief architect
who is no longer there. And the irony in this is that . . .
and I might not get this quite right, but I will get the
principle. I believe the chief architect is paid and established under the Office of Project Management and
Procurement and the architects are established under
Public Works. Go figure. You got that on your list to
fix, PS? Because I do not want to stand here next
year talking this foolishness.
Performance Management, page B -223,
4611, in relation to the coronavirus. I think it was
about . . . the Ministry of Health is leading on this. We
are working with them along with all the other mini s-tries as a team together which meets, I think, every
day, headed by the Health Department. And they
bring in other resources as and how they need. Our
current involvement at the moment is coming up with
identifying locations for people to go to, should we
have an outbreak.
Career Outreach: What is the Ministry doing in
this area? This actually is being headed by the HR
Department in the Ministry. We have a young lady
who . . . we have a second young lady who is respo nsible for HR, but has a keen interest in helping young
people and doing outreach. So she is actually leading
on this, with the support of us in the Ministry.
Difficult -to-fill positions, wha t is the Ministry
doing? The Ministry is identifying all hard- to-fill posts
via the HR section and developing strategies to get
persons interested via the school career fairs that I mentioned and working with outreach to various high
schools in the country .
Derelict buildings in relation to BIY. I have
answered that. In relation to . . . there is no hotline.
They just write to the Ministry, if there is an interest.
Housing Corporation and BLDC, how are they
involved? The answer to that is that it is not going as
smoothly as I would like. It is not going as smoothly as
most of the people would like, working in both entities.
But they have merged the HR function and the IT functions. The IT functions were fairly easy to merge because a decade ago (well, may be a little longer
than that now) when there was some discussion about
merging the three entities previously, all of them
needed to have new IT. So they all purchased the same systems. And so the ability to merge IT now is
very easy.
The fact that it is not going as smoothly as we
like, I think that we have all decided and agreed that
we need professional advice. And so we shall shortly
be hiring Performance Solutions to help us in that r egard, in terms in coming up with how it is that we can
accelerate this process and effect some more cost
savings. So at the moment, the only posts that have
been subsumed by the BHC and BLDC are the CEO’s
post, so you have a dual -headed general manager
and CEO at BHC, and a dual -headed chief financial
officer at BHC.
Head 68, Parks, Maintenance, page B -230,
78020, a $40,000 difference. Eastern parks versus
western parks.
[Laughter]

I can confirm that
there is no bias in this, Mr. Chairman, between the West and the East. I accept all the Parks workers as
my children, so except for the week of Cup Match,
they belong to me.
But essentially, the answer to this is going to
be the answer to several other questions where there have been cuts in funding. In order for us to meet our
3446 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly cash limits we made a conscious decision to remove
funding from funded posts in departments. So that is
what that is. I will indicate as I go on in other areas
that in some cases that is the case as well.
Botanical Gardens, decrease, why? We r emoved funding as a result of a vacant post.
The same applies for Head 68, Admin.
Are there plans for fort development? Part of
Parks overall strategy will be to look at forts in consul-tation with the environment and natural resource
team. I do also know that we are having somewhat of a battle with those people in the east because the
World Heritage site designation covers forts and fort ifications throughout the entire country. It is the original
certification. And there is some resistance from those people who you are down ther e squatting with, Mr.
Chairman, about expanding it.

[Laughter]

But I think they should
look on the bright side. The ability to get funding for
the whole country is probably greater than just focusing in on St. George’s. That is what I will say. And ne ither one of them are here. I am sure they will get the
word.
Head 49, 227, Performance Measures, Objections of Proposals. Why are we doing this? The rec-ommendation by the Management Services review of
performance measures was objections form an int egral part of the department’s maintenance of the list
work . . . of the [can’t read it] something work, and
have not been reported previously.
Special permits at Botanical Gardens, stated
at 2100 per cent. This is a typo. Actually, the percentage increase was 210 per cent.
Head 68, Performance Measures, 234, why
the increase in commercial activities per year? More concessions are planned for 2020/21.
Are we still looking to centralise government
offices? Why the reduction in electrical/mechanical
section? The answer there is, the first step in this pr ocess is to move toward space standards. The removal
of the requirement for everybody and their cat to have
an office, and so there is still some resistance to that, I
will state. Qu ite naturally. But when I suggest to folks
who have the courage to mention it to me, Have I
seen the research? I suggest to them that I will organise a tour to PwC and maybe one of the other private
firms around the country, which is where we went to
get o ur ideas from in the first place.
And so, I wanted to give some statistics. And
these are statistics, which are probably decades old
and have gradually increased over the years. But I
think that both successive governments have recognised and acknowledged the fact that as long as you
enter into an arrangement to make some payment on
your arrears, then nobody is going to come look for you. And when you neglect to do that, everybody is
going to look for you.
So these are statistics from the January board
meeting, and these are for the 30
th of November 2019
and the 31st of December. And so, for bad debts, and
by that we mean . . . I am not sure what that means
other than . . . I only have an explanation for 144 of
the 370 people who are identified, some of whom r eside outside of Bermuda at the Credit Association,
unemployed, blah, blah, blah, Bermuda Debt Collection or Bermuda Credit Association. And so, they will not come off because if you win the lottery, we will
come looking for you first. And so, there are 373 pe ople in that category as of the 31
st December to the
tune of $2.9 million. And then for rental arrears, there are another 365 people at $2.3 million.
And so, what I want folks to understand is that
if . . . and these arrangements you enter into as an
individual family, there is no set schedule of what you
must pay. And so, as long as you are meeting that
commitment, nobody is going to trouble with you. B ecause whilst there is some pressure . . . and I always
get a lecture about arrears and what we should be doing about them. We also have to recognise that we
are not in a commercial enterprise and that we are a
government that has compassion for people who are
doing the best that they possibly can. And so, you cannot beat them down.
I have no problem s haring those statistics, but
I want people to know that as soon as you step out of
line and try and abuse the system, we are going to
come after you with all guns blazing.
Okay, Mr. Chairman, I am going to . . . are
there any more questions?

[Inaudible i nterjection]

The Chair recognises the Honourable
Member Ms. Gordon- Pamplin.

Hon. Patricia J. Gordon -Pamplin: Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I wonder if the Minister, in reference to page C -6 on the Homeless Shelter under
business unit 75320 . . . I know my Honourable Leader did ask a question concerning it, but there is a mi llion dollars being set aside. And the question that I
have is: This is for some r enovations for the existing
homeless shelter at North Street. Have they given up
on an alternative site that we looked at, in terms of
Bishop Spencer, that your government looked at, our government looked at? I am just wondering whether
we have given up on that and whether we are just g oing to go with fixing up the North Street facility.



Bermuda House of Assembly Lt. Col. Hon. David A. Burch: The short answer is
that the Salvation Army declined to go to the Bishop
Spencer because they did not think that they could
financially maint ain and sustain it. And so, what we
then set about doing was a structural assessment of
the facility at North Street. And it is not as bad as it
would appear, if it receives the support of government
going forward to address some of the challenges that
they face.
And so, we have been having discussions
within government . . . because it is not just Public
Works, it is the Ministry of Health, and I do not know
where the National Drug Commission resides now,
but wherever they are, they provide funding for the
drug treatment programme. So, what we have done—and you will hear from them —is [increase] the contr ibutions to the Salvation Army in order to be able to support their efforts there.
Over the last, I think it is fair to say, probably a
year, maybe a litt le bit longer than that, if you have
been by the North Street centre you will see first the Women’s Shelter, which is the one closest to North
Street. That went from being a dilapidated, run- down,
old piece of something to having been completely r efurbished. It is now painted pink and the innards of it have been completely refurbished and the women are
now quite happy. Subsequent to that —and this was in
a public/private partnership between the government
and some private interests who are friends of the Salvation Army —the Men’s Shelter . . . half of that buil ding was condemned. And so, that is being removed
and we are sourcing another space. But the part that
remains is being refurbished. And if you have been down on North Street recently, you will see the b uilding that is multi -coloured. That is being renovated as
we speak.
And so this million dollars in Public Works is
to provide them with ongoing support to make sure
that the facility remains in pristine condition. The next
phase— and probably the last phase, I think —is the
main administration building and the kitchen. We believe that this is sound, that word is not yet in, but we
have done the research in terms of sourcing units from various entities should we need to replace them.
And so, the commitment f rom the government is to
support the Salvation Army in its work there in every
which way that we can. And we are, in this budget,
meeting the financial commitment that we have made
and agreed with them.

Oh, you can’t see that
far? Okay.
Mr. Chairman, I end my presentation on this
Ministry of Public Works Heads by quoting the motto
of the Ministry, Business as usual won’t do . And I said
that earlier.
In my opinion (and this is mine, so . . .) it
would be fair to say that [motto] c ould apply to the
government generally, and specifically to the nature of
this budget process.
Mr. Chairman, you would know that I have
done this just a few times before. And I would venture to say that all six former Ministers of Public Works,
including yourself, currently sitting in this House would
find a lot of what was in the Public Works brief very familiar.

The system is broken.
It is old. It is archaic. It is disjointed. It is confusing and
frustr ating to both the Government and the Oppos ition. It was designed for a long time ago, Mr. Chai rman. Fifty -six hours is too long . . . a time when the
passage of information was via donkey, not fibre optic cable.

The only people pr esent in the House are the Minister, generally, and the
Shadow . . . we have got a few more now. So, the i nformation is not shared with all Members and the
learning process is made a nonsense of.
This year we used zero- based budgeting —the
process, on the face of it, sounds like a good practice. Unfortunately, in my opinion only, every time this pr ocess has been used the process has started from a
false premise. Even though everyone will agree at the
outset that everything should be up for cutting or consideration or debate, it is always started, though, with
some sacred cows. Now, there should only be one
sacred cow and that is Salaries. Everything else
should be up for consideration. It is not!

But, Mr. Cha irman, my
point is . . . my point is that we could do so much better. We could do so much better for both sides. We
could do so much better for the people of this country who do not have time to listen to Burch talk for three
and a half hours and the Oppos ition ask questions
that they do not . . . that I am not going to get an o pportunity to listen to. We could do a better —

—process of this. And
I would invite the Minister of Finance (in his absence I
am sure somebody has called him by now), to consi der, in consultation with the Shadow Finance Minister,
doing something different that actually makes sense to those people and these people, and those people
and those people out there. This process could be far
better and far more beneficial for the people of this
country, Mr. Chairman.

We call upon the Minister responsible
for Cabinet and Government Reform to debate Heads 13, 14, 51, and 61. It has a time of three hours and it can finish so oner if everybody agrees.

CABINET AND GOVERNMENT REFORM

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I move the following Heads: 13, 14, 51 and 61
the Department of Employee and Organisational D evelopment be now taken under consideration.
Mr. Chair man, [Heads] 13, 14, and 61 I will do
up front because they come directly under myself and Head . . . sorry the Department of Communications,
Head 61 comes under . . . sorry, Head 51 comes under the Minister Jamahl Simmons, so he will do that after me.

Continue.

[Mrs. Renee Ming, Chairman]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Madam Chairman, I would
have to agree with Colonel Burch in what he said just
now. I think we could do some things better. The pr ocess that we have been doing now has been going on
for years and years and, basically, numbers change,
but words, at the end of the day, do not change much
at all.
So, I could say “ditto,” “ditto,” and just put
some numbers in from last year and we would be fi nished in 15 minutes. But the process that we have
now . . . unfortunately, we will have to go through the
process.

HEAD 13 —BERMUDA POST OFFICE

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: So, Madam Chairman, it
gives me great pleasure to present the budget for
Head 13, the Bermuda Post Office, found on pages B -
48 to B -53 of the Budget Book.
Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office is
governed by the Post Office Act 1900, the Post Office
Regulations 1933, and the Post Office (Departmental
Administration) Regulations 1933. Postal services are
provided from: the General Post Office (also known as
the GPO), located on Church Street; the Mail Pr ocessing Centre (also known as the BMPC) located at New Venture House on Mill Creek; and the eight sub
post offices located throughout our beautiful Island.
These sub post offices are at Crawl, Devonshire,
Flatts, Mangrove Bay, Southampton, St. George’s and
Warwick, as well as the Perot Philatelic Bureau on
Queen Street.
Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office’s
mission is to connect the public to an accessible, affordable and efficient delivery of products and services.
The Bermuda Post Office is a member of the
Universal Postal Union (UPU) and works to ensure
that it meets its Universal Service Obligation to pr oBermuda House of Assembly vide access to affordable communication to all res idents of Bermuda. The department aims to deliver
mail consistently within four working days and provide
the public with other postal services. The Bermuda
Post Office also plans to increase its relevance in this digital age, and to take advantage of global opportunities in e- commer ce.
Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office
has set the following as its strategic priorities for 2020/21:
• continue Phase 2 of implementation of the
new postal operations solution;
• introduce strategic alliances with other ent ities;
• generate additional rev enue;
• be E-Commerce ready by 2020; and
• become a customer service centre for other
government services.
Madam Chairman, the new postal operations
solution is an information technology one that com-pleted its first phase in August 2019. This phase consolidat ed six legacy systems into one system whilst
improving controls, efficiency, effectiveness and acc uracy of the revenue collection and stock management process. This system has provided the platform needed for the Bermuda Post Office to introduce new re venue -generating initiatives and form strategic alliances with other government departments and external
parties on initiatives that are mutually beneficial.
These initiatives include: utilising the Bermuda Post
Office’s extensive Island- wide network to enhanc e the
revenue collection process Government -wide; promoting online shopping; improving the customs declar ation process; and expanding courier services.
The second phase of this project will enable
the Bermuda Post Office to become E -Commerce
compliant by 2 020 as well as provide a platform for
the provision of e- postal products and services, and e -
government services in the future—one of the initi atives highlighted in the 2018 Throne Speech. Hig hlights of this and other initiatives are provided in the
sectio n below in relation to plans for the upcoming
year.
The Bermuda Post Office recognises that in
order to remain relevant it must generate additional revenue. The Bermuda Post Office plans to do this by first developing a three- year business plan which
would introduce new products and services including
online shopping, improving customer service, devel-oping strategic alliances, and by introducing a more
effective marketing strategy for new as well as exis ting products and services.
Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office is
comprised of the Corporate Services Division and the
Operations Division. The Corporate Services division
includes Administration and Finance, Information Technology, and Philatelic Services; while the Oper ations Division is made up of the BMPC, the General Post Office (or the GPO), the Sub Post Offices, and
Courier Services.

Expenditure Overview
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: As indicated on pages B -48
and B -49 of the Budget Book, the Bermuda Post O ffice has been allocated a total of $10,502,000 for the
financial year 2020/21. This amount reflects a zero
variance from the 2019/20 budget allocation. Hence,
the point that the Minister just mentioned —no var iance, same revenue, and we are pretty well using the
same talking points.
Salaries and wages continue to be the largest
expenditure item at 83 per cent of total expenditure,
which is the same as the previous fiscal year. The
total estimate of salaries and wages for 2020/21 is $8,735,000, which is up from $8,696,000 in 2019/20,
an increase of $39,000, or a 1 per cent increase over
last year. As most accountants would say, it is insi gnificant or flat, basically. This is representative of a
drop in the approved establishment of 137 staff in
2019/20 to 135 in 2020/21, so a two employee drop
compared to 2019/20, but there is a 2 per cent salary
uplift.
Madam Chairman, operational expenses for
the Bermuda Post Office make up the remaining
17 per cent of the expenditure for 2020/21. The major
operational expenses included in the 2020/21 budget
are: rent, r epairs and maintenance, insurance, energy,
clothing, uniforms and laundry, materials and supplies, training, et cetera, et cetera. And I will touch on a few of those numbers in a few minutes. As a matter
of fact, I am going to mention it right now.
When we look at Salaries, we had mentioned
$7,500,011 compared to the revised figure of
$7,419,000, which is really a 1 per cent increase or
$92,000 over last year, or this current year, I should
say.
Wages are down by $54,000, now $1,223,000
compared to $1,277,0 00 (I am open to page B -49 in
case anybody wants to follow).
Other Personnel Costs was flat, zero, nothing
at all on that particular expense. The Government is not putting money in there.
Training is up by $3,000. It went from $19,000
to $22,000.
Transport . And transport would be consi dered, as you know, many of the Post Office people
drive their cars or bikes around to different homes and
some expenses are built in there for fuel, et cetera, et cetera.
Travel. We all know what Travel is, $12,000.
Communic ation is down by $12,000. It went
from $87,000 to $75,000.
Advertising and Promotion is down by $7,000,
or $79,000 to $72,000.
3450 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Professional Services went up by $7,000,
which is offset between Advertising and Promotion —
$76,000 up to $83,000.
Rentals are flat $332,000 last year, $332,000
this year.
Repairs and Maintenance went up by $3,000
from $539,000 up to $542,000.
Insurance is flat at $12,000.
Energy is flat [at] $12,000 last year, $12,000
this year. Sorry, 2020/21 . . . I cannot see this pro blem.

The C hairman: I think if you look at the line, yes.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Yes, $221,000 [down] to
$216,000; a $5,000 decrease.
Clothing and Uniforms went from $60,000 to
$60,000. It is the same thing, or zero, flat, no increase
at all.
Materials and Supplies [are] down by
$17,000, from $239,000 to $222,000.
Equipment (Minor Capital) went down by
$18,000. Other Expenses went up by $8,000.
So, you can see that last year the department
spent $10,502,000 and this year the budget, again, [is] $10,502,000.

Revenue Overview

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: When we look at the rev enue side, the revenue side depicts last year, or this current year 2020/21, estimated that, well, last year’s
budget was $4,645,000, but the revised figure is $4,220,000. And the reason for that is that the Frankpost Sales has been revised down from $1,097,000 to
$800,000. Bulk Mail has been revised down from
$1,019,000 to $980,000.
But we also see a drop between 2019/20 to
2020/21 by $605,000 and the reason for that is because instead of budgeting for the $1 million as we did
[last year] for Frankpost Sales (General), we are being
more reasonable and saying the amount that we will
actually collect is $750,000.
And if you also look at the Bulk Mail, which
was budgeted at $1 million, we are putting i t back
down to $777,000. And between those two amounts there is where the drop in the revenue will take place.
So, in other words, the 2019/20 Frankpost
Sales and Bulk Mail were overstated.

Capital Expenditure

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Madam Chairman, the Bermuda Post Office Capital Expenditure budget for
2020/21 can be found on page C -9 of the Capital A cquisition Estimates, Schedule C. The Bermuda Post
Office has been allocated an amount of $27,450 for
the purchase of a cancelling machine and computer
equipment. This compares to a revised 2019/20 all o-cation of $80,000, a decrease of $52,550, or 74 per
cent.

Major Policy Changes

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: If we look at some of the
Major Policy Changes, Madam Chairman, there have
been no major policy changes i n the Bermuda Post
Office in 2019/20 and none are expected in 2020/21.

Plans for the Upcoming Year

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: We do have some plans for
the upcoming year. As part of the Bermuda Post O ffice’s strategic objective to increase revenues, the
department will be introducing an online shopping
platform to allow our customers to purchase products and have them delivered through the Bermuda Post
Office network. We believe that we can compete with
the other courier services. As you know, most of the
time the courier services all come in on the same
plane down at the airport. They are on the same
plane; but the problem is that the clearance between
the Post Office . . . the courier service is faster than
the Bermuda Post Office. And why do I say that?
So, before I get to that part . . . so, we can
deliver faster service . . . I am sorry, the same time as
the courier service, and our price structure will be, of
course, much lower because we are not really into
that profit arrangement like the rest of the courier services. We believe that we can compete with those
other couriers; hence, we believe revenue will event ually go up.
Now, work is being done right now by KPMG
looking at a three- year business plan to see how this
whole thing can be put in place. S o, as soon as we
get more information from them we can reflect the
numbers in the budget. Right now, they are not r eflected in these budget numbers, but we will have a
way to do it.
But let me . . . all of you are aware that when
you order online and it c omes to the Post Office, you
go to the Post Office and the first thing they tell you is
to open up your parcel. You go to FedEx and the rest
of them, you get, Thank you Mr. Furbert . . . thank the
rest of them. And you ask the question, Well, why?
Well, th at is the question I asked. Apparently what
happens is they want to verify that you are not lying [about] the product [in] there. Well, if you are lying
there you are going to lie also in FedEx. So, what we
will be putting in place is doing spot -checks fro m time
to time on individuals. Hopefully we will speed up the
whole process of people [so they will not] get frustrated every time they are coming through the post office.
And so, customs will clear it, the information,
just like they do courier services right now, they have
a clearing service out there. It would get to the . . .
leave the airport, go up by our trucking to our clearing
process over there at Venture House, I think it is


Bermuda House of Assembly called. They will do the processing ensuring that customs does what the y have to do, get to the post office
hopefully within 24 hours or 48 hours at the most, and
then you go to your post office, ask for your parcel,
and get it through much faster.
But, from time to time they can ask for you to
verify or open up the box to s ee, and that is what we
call spot -checks. So that process will be speeded up
tremendously.
So, we will also be looking to increase rev enues by expanding our courier services as are cur-rently providing to the Ministry of Health. Our EMS
and parcels products will be marketed better to i ncrease knowledge of these products both internally . . . by the way, we are speaking right now to . . . most
of you are aware of myus.com. So we are having
some discussions with them and others to how we
can link up to flow things much faster here on the I sland.
We will also enhance our service levels so as
to improve our global EMS ranking, increase our pay -
for-performance EMS revenue, and maximise the bonuses for our parcels delivery. The Bermuda Post O ffice will also be est ablishing corporate standards for
customer service, inclusive of training and the measurement of outcomes.
To enhance the efficiency by which mail is
processed into the Bermuda Post Office, we will fina lise the MOU between the Bermuda Post Office and
HM Customs, which I was just talking about. We will
also establish MOUs with other departments with
whom we have partnerships so as to clarify roles and
responsibilities.
The Bermuda Post Office is currently in the
process of change with the second phase of the new
postal solution expected to be completed in May
2020. This will facilitate a mandate issued by the UPU
(Universal Postal Union) to send ITMATT data (or data which is used to communicate and attribute information about postal items) in 2020, to expedit e integration of the Bermuda Post Office’s IT solution with
the global Customs Declaration System (or CDS).
This will increase efficiency in the customs declaration process as well as enhance security and accountabi lity with respect to mail items. This phase is also ex-pected to include a web portal functionality including a customer service and payment gateway for [Philately],
PO Boxes, bulk mailers and other services. It will also
expand the Bermuda Post Office’s online presence to
offer e- postal products and services, and e -
government services in the future, one of the initi atives highlighted in the previous Throne Speech.
And what do I mean by that, in case you are
not aware? I remember when I was on the Efficiency
Committee and what happened was that there were a
lot of places where . . . I think it was about 19 different
places where you could go pay for government services, your dog licence somewhere, your boat licence
somewhere, your whatever, and the list goes on. So, we are going to provide a service within the post office
services that you can go and pay . . . if not all, then most government services at the post office locations.
In order to continue to have an online presence, the Bermuda Post Office website has been moved to the government website and we will intr oduce an online payment portal for certain postal services as far as possible within the current budget.
Additional enhancements in IT include intr oducing touch screen kiosks at the General Post Office
and all sub post offices, and introducing public Wi -Fi
at the General Post Office. Both of these initiatives are
expected to improve the customer shopping exper ience and increase foot traffic, thereby, increasing revenue. In order to increase accuracy over the payment
recording process, we wi ll implement a credit card
machine integration into the new postal solution. We
will also be upgrading the IPS software for greater
stability.
Madam Chairman, additional legislative
amendments to the Post Office Act 1900, the Post
Office Regulations 1933, and the Post Office (D epartmental Administration) Regulations 1933 are contemplated. The first phase of amendments was completed in July 2019. It is anticipated that additional
legislative changes will be made in 2020/21 and are
likely to include proposals for rate changes.
The Bermuda Post Office also plans to have
five stamp issues and one Presentation Pack in
2020/21. Our stamp program will include:
• Bermuda Bridges, Pt. 1, which will come out
May 21, 2020;
• 400
th Anniversary of Parliament, which will
come out August 6, 2020;
• Holiday Stamp, October 24, 2020;
• Presentation Pack, November 12, 2020; and finishing with the
• 100
th Anniversary of the Garden Club in
March 24, 2021.
We are proud to be an avenue through which
Bermuda can showcase its culture and rich history.
Members of the International Stamp Society —and
Member Chris Famous is on this Committee—are
planning a visit to Bermuda in November 2019. Chris
is not a member of that, he is a member of the Ber-muda group. This visit is expected to promote our
[Philately product] among international stamp collectors. We hope to develop relations with other agencies
such as the Bermuda Monetary Authority and Berm uda Tourism Authority for mutually beneficial collabor ations, to increase philatelic sales and to market Bermuda as a venue for conferences and other types of
events.
The Bermuda Post Office will be updating the
organisation structure to better reflect the vision and
future needs of the department. Job descriptions will
be updated and submitted for review and re- grading.
A training plan for the department will also be deve loped. This process will by tied in with the develop3452 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly ment of a succession plan and an internal and external communications plan. The department is also
committed to the full participation of its hearingimpaired employees through the use of an interpreter
for staff meetings.
On the operational front, the Bermuda Post
Office is looking to implement a Customs Declaration
System (CDS) which includes ITMATT, which is in
respect to electronic data transmission for mail items.
As a member of the UPU, the Bermuda Post Office is required to be operationally ready for e- Commerce in
2020.
The Bermuda Post Office is Gold certified and
meets all UPU security requirements and also passed a UPU Process Revi ew last year. The Post Office also
ensured that they are operationally compliant with the
requirements of the International Safe Transport of
Dangerous Goods by Air requirements. Dangerous
Goods standards have been implemented and training
of staff has occ urred, and the BPO is compliant.
We are looking to conduct a postman efficiency study and a measurement of delivery timeline pr oject.
Madam Chairman, the objectives, goals and
projects set by the Bermuda Post Office for 2020/21
will move it toward its vis ion of being a more innov ative, customer focused, and sustainable postal service. The outcome will be that Bermuda will be moving
closer to implementation of a postal service which
meets the needs of its residents whilst at the same
time being sustainable and financially viable.
Madam Chairman, I hasten to add my co mmendation to all of the hard- working and dedicated
staff of the post office, who are ably led by the Acting
Post Master General (should it be Post Mistress General?), Ms. Susan Moore -Williams an d her senior
management team.
Just to touch on a few highlights on what I
mentioned about the numbers as far as salaries, revenue. I mentioned that the number of employees went
from 137 down to 134. And I will leave the performance measures in case any of you want to ask any
questions about that.
So, that completes the Post Office. I will now
go to Head 14, which is the Department of Statistics.

HEAD 14 —DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Again, it gives me great
pleasure to present the bu dget for Head 14, The D epartment of Statistics, found on pages B -54 to B -56 of
the Budget Book.
The Mission is: To produce and provide stati stical information for data- driven decision making for
Bermuda.
The Department seeks to fulfil its mandate by
delivering quality data that aligns with international
standards and best practices, in order to facilitate a
culture of evidence- based decision- making for policies and programmes. As such, the Department of Stati stics actively seeks to improve its statistical methodo logies to support informed decision- making and help
achieve Government’s strategic objectives.

Expenditure Overview

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Madam Chairman, the total
current expenditure of the Department of Statistics
found on page B -55 is $2,493, 000. And I will touch on
these, but I am not going to read all of this. I like to
look at numbers, it is better for myself.
So, the Salaries are up by $58,000 or 3 per
cent.
Wages went from $66,000 to zero, and I think
it is reallocation between wages and salaries . . . the
$66,000 and the $58,000.
Other Personnel Costs are flat, $6,000 last
year, $6,000 this year.
Training goes up from $12,000 to $42,000 or
a $30,000 [increase]. We believe that it is very i mportant that the personnel who are actually at t he department have training in other locations around the
world to see what they are doing. So, I support that.
Travel went from $22,000 to $25,000 and we
are doing more training, which may also include some travelling overseas, hence, why the Travel budget has
gone up by $3,000.
But as you see, the overall increase within the
expenditure is zero. So, there has been some reall ocation within the department as far as being more eff icient and making their . . . based on zero- based
budgeting.
Advertising and Pr omotion went up by
$11,000, from $6,000 to $17,000.
Professional Service went up by $16,000,
[from] $50,000 to $54,000.
Rentals went down by $9,000, [from]
$166,000 to $163,000.
Repairs and Maintenance goes down by
$7,000, [from] $59,000 to $52,000.
Energy goes down by $18,000, [from] $78,000
to $60,000, which basically means that they are looking at some cost savings within Energy, because if
you look at 2018/19 it was $42,000.
Materials and Supplies go down from $69,000
to $53,000 or a $16,000 decrease.
Minor Equipment Capital is zero. And Other
Expenses goes down by $1,000.
So, at the end of the day, $249,300 last year
and $249,300 this year.
As far as full -time equivalents there were 23
last year and 23 this year, or next year, a zero difference; no incr ease, no changes at all.
There is no revenue making within the D epartment of Statistics. Maybe we can look at finding a
way to charge a few when everybody goes online and looks at revenue . . . we can inquire about that, but we


Bermuda House of Assembly can investigate something l ike that maybe in the f uture.
So, Madam Chairman, that is basically Stati stics, I am not going to get into . . . sorry, Major
Achievements. We touched a little on those things.
One of the major achievements of the d epartment is that the base year for meas uring Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) at constant prices in Berm uda was updated from 2006 to 2013. In addition, met hodology changes based on the implementation of the
2008 System of National Accounts, such as the calc ulation of Financial Intermediation Servic es Indirectly
Measured, were implemented. The revised estimates
incorporated benchmark data from a 2013 Supply and
Use Table which reconciles the three approaches to measuring GDP.
Bermuda’s GDP series now reflects a more
accurate picture of the size and s tructure of the economy and incorporates new activities which were pr eviously not captured in the computational framework. The relevance of the GDP series has been enhanced and is now more internationally comparable with other
jurisdictions.
Another major achievement was revising the
International Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities Rev. 4, which was last updated in
2003. The revised version aligns its procedures and classifications with international standards and would
facilitat e arranging for all businesses to be classified
consistently throughout the government ministries and
departments. Both updating exercises incorporated
feedback from the Caribbean Regional Technical A ssistance Centre consultant and were completed in
August 2019.

Plans for the upcoming year

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: The Department will produce
the following core publications in the upcoming year:
• Monthly: Retail Sales Index and Consumer
Price Index;
• Quarterly: Balance of Payments and International Investment Position; and Gross Domestic Product by Expenditure;
• Semi -Annually: Labour Force Survey Reports;
• Annually:
o Bermuda Digest of Statistics;
o Bermuda Job Market Employment Briefs;
o 2019 Employment Survey Tabulation
Set;
o Annual Gross Domestic Product;
o The Inf ormation, Communication and
Technology Profile;
o Environmental Statistics Compendium; and
o The Tourism Satellite Account Report.
Madam Chairman, the department will conduct the following surveys this year: • Quarterly Hotel Gross Receipts Surveys;
• Surveys of C onstruction Projects;
• Balance of Payments and International I nvestment Position;
• Semi -annual Labour Force Survey;
• Annual Employment Survey; and
• Economic Activity Survey.
The department conducts ad hoc surveys,
provides survey samples and undertakes in- depth
research and analysis of data. In addition, the d epartment provides statistical advice and professional
consultancy in the collection, processing and analysis
of data for government departments.
The department will engage in activities such
as processing and providing trade statistics, fulfilling statistical data requests from local and international organisations and making presentations to internal
and external stakeholders.
Madam Chairman, it is anticipated that the
Department of Statistics will under go a comprehensive review by the Management Consultant Section of
the Cabinet Office as we seek to maximise efficiency
in terms of the use of technology, staffing and service
delivery.
Madam Chairman, let me take this opportunity
to acknowledge and thank t he hardworking staff of the
Department of Statistics led by the Director, who is in the Chambers today, Mrs. Melinda Williams, and her
team of statisticians and support staff for their conti nued commitment.
I just want to mention one thing in the Performance Measures. The department plans to do a N ational Household Income and Expenditure Survey
from July 2020 to March 2021 and hopes to have an
80 per cent response rate.
Madam Chairman, the next one I will touch on
is the last one before the Minister Jamahl Simmons
gets up, the Department of Employee and Organis ational Development, Head 61.

Minister, just before you proceed, that
can be found on page B -70 for the listening audience.

HEAD 61 —DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYEE & O RGANI SATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: It gives me great pleasure to
present the budget for Head 61, The Department of
Employee and Organisational Development, found on
pages B -70 to B -72 of the Budget Book.
The Department of Employee and Organis ational Development’s miss ion is to optimi se talent and
transform the Organi sation. And I repeat, The D epartment of Employee and Organisational Development’s mission is to optimi se talent (within the civil
service) and transform the Organi sation.
The total current expenditure is es timated to
be $1,672,000 for 2020/21, which remains unchanged
from the original amount 2019/20.
3454 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The subjective analysis for the department is
on page B -71 of the estimates book. Please allow me
to highlight the material object code increase.
Salaries are estimated at $2,125,000 [and]
represent an increase of 6 per cent or $126,000 compared to the current estimate for 2019/20 of
$1,999,000. This increase is attributed to additional
funds for resources needed to assist with implement ation of the new structur e as well as funding for employees incremented to the next grade in their pay
scales during the current fiscal year in accordance with their employment contracts.
Receipts credited to programmes, if you look
on [page] B -71 you will see some receipts credit ed to
programmes. This is estimated [to be] $579,000 in comparison to the current estimate of $437,000. This
is attributable to the estimated recharges back to the
Public Service Superannuation, Ministers and Members of the Legislature Pension and Government E mployee Health Insurance funds. These funds cover the
administrative costs incurred by the compensation and benefits business units.
I will repeat: There is work that is being done
by the compensation and benefit business units and
they charge back their costs to this particular salary
portion. So, do you follow me? Okay.

Manpower

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: The manpower estimates for
the department as outlined on page B -71 are 21 full -
time equivalents, which remains the same as the ori ginal estimate for the year 2019/20.

Performance Measures

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: The performance measures
developed for the Department of Employee and O rganisational Development are found on page B -72.
The measures for the department are all new. This is
a transition year for the new department and, ther efore, I will take the time to briefly expand upon them.
Its initial brief is centred around organisational
development and changes as the HR component is being built out.
A number of significant change initiatives are
in ch annel in accordance with the Government R eform Strategic Planning Framework. Many of these initiatives will affect the entire organisation and require
engagement and participation at the ministry and department level.
Therefore, the purpose of rolling out a Pe rformance Measurement and Management System for
the government reform initiative is to establish a sy stematic approach to manage and evaluate the impl ementation of the change initiatives across the organ isation. Ministries and departments will ultimately be
required to report progress. Strategy and performance underpin the deli very of government reform.
Strategic alignment workshops, which focused
on aligning department and ministry missions with the
Government’s vision and operating model, were com-pleted in August 2019. These workshops established
the foundation for the Performance Measurement
workshops with ministries and departments in Oct ober. More work with ministries and departments under
the direction of the Management Consulting Team will
be undertaken in 2020 to ensure operations are aligned with the Government’s vision. These efforts
are directly related to the performance measure to
facilitate the completion of strategic plans by depar tments.
Additionally, to ensure that the Government
continues to cultivate the development of a performance management culture, ministries and depar tments will be provided with ongoing assistance to further refine the development of performance management metrics.
As already stated, the system wide workshops
with m inistries and departments commenced last year
and the output is evidenced in the Performance
Measures that have been included in the budget submissions for 2020/21 across all heads. What Honourable Members should have taken note of by now is
the significant shift and the new measures that have been included under the Performance Measures section in the 2020/21 Estimates of Revenue and E xpenditure versus the 2019/20 Estimates for many mi nistries and departments. The new measures focus on
results and outcomes related to the creation of public
value, which is very important —measures focus on
results and the creation of public value.
Madam Chairman, the Management Consul ting Team will also continue their work in assisting the
Government to solve complex operatio nal problems
with a view to improving organisational performance.
One of their core functions involves the conduct of
[an] operational/organisational needs analysis across
government. The objective of this work is to ensure
that ministries and departments are functioning in an
efficient (including cost efficient) and effective manner
with the overarching objective of achieving greater public value as indicated earlier.
Honourable Members will already be aware of
work to centralise and streamline the deliver y of HR
services in government. This requires the amalgam ation of 10 HR units and departments across gover nment —10 HR units and departments across gover nment.
A part of this process involves rationalising
processes and systems to ensure information flows freely between the Human Resources Information
Management (HRIM) System and Enterprise One (E1) version 9.2.
Work is already underway to identify duplic ation in the payroll processes. New workflows will be


Bermuda House of Assembly determined and ultimately the on- boarding experienc e
improved, while at the same time the administrative
burden will be reduced.

Current Year Achievements

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Effective 1st April 2019, the
Management Consulting Services (MCS) section and
the Accountant General’s Compensation and Benefi ts
section were transferred to the Department of E mployee and Organisational Development for budget purposes.
So, if you look, Madam Chairman, at the
budget . . . and this is very important. If you look at the
budget under employee numbers, Management Co nsultant Services Compensation is now under the D epartment of Employee and Organisational Develop-ment. This compensation originally was transferred to
the Department of Employee . . . and the Accountant
General’s Compensation and Benefit section, okay? I
hope we are all aware of that. So, not all Human R esources units, or departments, are currently, right now, under the Department of Employee and Organ isational Development.
You may be aware, Madam Chairman, the
Department of Human Resources has a Human R esources department. The Bermuda Police Service has
a Human Resources department. Bermuda Fire and
Rescue Service has a Human Resources department. The Department of Corrections has HR. The gover nment Post Office has HR. Public Works has HR. The
Department of H ealth has HR. The Department of
Public Transportation has HR. The Department of E ducation has HR. The Accountant General’s depar tment has HR. They do not currently sit under the D epartment of Employee and Organisational Development in this budget.
We are i n a transition budget and so, hopefu lly, next year, or, hopefully, within a year, we will have
all those human resources falling under the Depar tment of Employee and Organisational Development.
Okay, I just want to make it very perfectly clear on that
part.
Ms. Carlita O’Brien will take up this new post
on March 9, 2020—she has [already] taken it up— and
will lead the organisation through significant changes. So, this whole transition period will eventually . . . and
not necessarily all human resources depar tments will
sit within that office. As you know, we can work within
. . . wherever you were working through, and some
may end up in one big structure depending on how we
work with Works and Engineering who is responsible for offices and stuff, but not necessarily will everybody
have to sit within that [office]. But they will fall under
the Employee and Organisational Development, hope-fully, in the next year’s budget.
During the past year, Management Consulting
Services (MCS) was designated the Project Manag ement Office (PMO) for the Government Reform Initi a-tive (GRI). In particular, MCS assisted the Deputy
Head of the Public Service with mobilising the project
with much succe ss. And I would like to thank PS
Cherrie Whitter for such a great job for what she h as
done, first of all, in leading this process and making it
very clear, and helping me to understand how this
actually makes it work. As the numbers became more
enlightened, it even became clearer how this whole
thing will work.
In accordance with the pri orities established
for government reform several taskforce groups are
now actively engaged in delivering future- forward init iatives under the operating components known as
People (which are government employees) and Platform (which includes government IT infrastructure).
The Project Management Office is overseeing
the delivery of work related to talent management, a Pilot Leadership Programme, a system wide performance appraisal process across all job categories, a
rewards programme, and, of course, the tr ansition to
the new model and structure for the delivery of HR
services across government.
On the IT side, the Project Management O ffice is overseeing the delivery of work related to government’s 2023 Paperless Initiative, digital identific ation, and telec ommunications rationalisation.
Further, the Project Management Office led
out on system -wide training for the alignment of fiscal
management and strategic management through the
ZBB (zero -based budgeting) process and managed
the project to produce an elect ronic data collection
instrument to assess the value of government ser-vices by business unit. The electronic tool was used
throughout government to gather the necessary as-sessment data as a part of the ZBB data input pr ocess.
The data gathered is now being analysed and
will be used, following refinement and consultation, as
one of the primary inputs for the delivery of the Public
Services Plan. In accordance with the Government Reform Strategic Framework, the Government will
produce a Five- Year Public Servi ce Plan which r equires the review and justification of services provided
by Government by 2020.

Plans for the Upcoming Year

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: The department’s core objectives for the upcoming year are set out on page B -
70 and that is to: function as the programme management office of the government reform initiative;
facilitate organisational improvements of Ministries,
departments and government entities throughout operational, organisational and strategic reviews; i mprove performance management gov ernment -wide in
accordance with the Strategic Planning Framework
2019- 2023; and operationalise the Shared Services
Centre.
3456 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Under the People component of the pr ogramme the Pilot Leadership Programme will launch
in the spring, and the first cohort will be on- boarded
this summer.
The first phase of the system -wide performance appraisal process will roll -out in the spring and
planning for the next phases will be completed.
Also, it is expected that a major milestone in
the delivery of HR services will be achiev ed with the
launch of the Shared Services Unit in September. This back -office operation will manage the high volume of
transactional services for all employees across the
public service.
Under the Platform, or IT component of the
government reform initiati ve, the Project Management
Office will oversee Phase I of the 2023 paperless init iative which is expected to result in a slew of gover nment forms being automated and made available to the public via the Government portal starting this
spring. Pilot testing is now in progress with approx imately 16 customer forms across two departments
already digitised, and a training programme designed
to teach identified officers from each department how
to digitise their own forms [is] a work in progress. The
training is expected to take place in the spring and
more customer forms, including those requiring pa yment should be available to the public this summer.
The Project Management Office will also ensure the completion of planning for Phase II of Government’s 2023 paper less pursuit. Phase II addresses
the content management and database components
for the paperless initiative.
Madam Chairman, during the fiscal [year] additional taskforce groups, under the direction of the Project Management Office, will be activated and new
projects under the government reform initiative commenced.
Further, the team will engage senior management across the service in another series of wor kshops as the government seeks to build capacity and
improve performance management. It is also expected that a programme and performance management system will be implemented.
The department itself is expected to take
shape. Over and above the Shared Service Unit, it is
anticipated that the amalgamation of more of the units and departments associated with the HR transformation will occur as the positions within the new d epartment are populated with existing employees.
Madam Chairman, let me take this opportunity
to acknowledge and thank the dedicated and har dworking staff within the Management Consulting S ervices section and the Compensation and Benefits sections who have commenced work on the amalgam ation of the Department of Employee and Organis ational Development and led out on the government
reform initiative.
At this time, I will give it to Minister S immons
to do Head 51. HEAD 51 —DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Good evening, Madam
Chairman.
It gives me great pleasure to present the
budget for Head 51, Department of Communications,
found on pages B -66 through B -69 of the Budget
Book.
Our mission is: To be the trusted source of i nformation for Bermuda.

Expenditure Overview

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Madam Chairman, on
page B -66 there is a general summary for the depar tment. The total current expenditure is estimated to be
$2,764,000 for 2020/21. This is a decrease in the pr oposed expenditure over the 2019/20 budget of
$386,000 or 12 per cent.
Madam Chairman, on page B -67 for the su bjective analysis you will note an error in the dates,
which will be corrected. The dates for each column should be 2018/19, 2019/20, 2019/20, 2020/21 and
2019/20 versus 2020/21 respectively.
Madam Chairman, there is a $256,000 decrease in salaries. This represents an overall 10 per cent reduction, which is due to the Portals Management section moving to Information and Digital Tec hnologies Department (IDT) in 2020/21. This transfer of
posts was a recommendation by the Management
Consulting Services section following their review of
IDT in 2019.
The advertising and promotion budget has
decreased by $45,000, or 18 per cent, to $205,000.
Professional services has decreased by
$11,000, or 24 per cent, to $35,000.
Repair and maintenance has decreased by
$60,000, or 55 per cent, to $50,000.
Materials and supplies has reduced by
$13,000, or 32 per cent, to $28,000.
Equipment (minor capital) has reduced by
$3,000, or 5 per cent, to $56,000.
Other expenses were reduced by $5,000, or
42 per cent, to $7,000.

Manpower

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Madam Chairman, I will
start by saying this is an all Bermudian staff.
There has been a change in the number of
staff in the department. In 2019/20 there are 30 full -
time funded employee posts. Following a Manag ement and Consulting Services review of the Information and Digital Technologies Department (IDT),
the decision was made to move the four posts in Portals Management Team from the Department of Communications to IDT. The section comprises one Assistant Director Portals Management and three Portals Administrators.


Bermuda House of Assembly The salary allocation for this section is
$432,687. The other sections within the department
remain the same. They are: Administration, Comm unications; CITV; Creative Services; and Telephone Customer Service Representatives (who are the Gov-ernment telephone operators).
There is currently one post, Madam Chai rman, to be filled in the department; that of Communications Officer within the Communications section.
The recruitment process has started and it is antic ipated the post will be filled in the coming months.

Communications section

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Madam Chai rman, as we
discuss staff, I must pause to highlight the functions of
the various sections within the department. The public
continues to seek their news and information in short,
interesting, easy to digest sound and visual bites.
The department continual ly provides information which is readily and easily accessible utilising
all platforms, radio and print ads; social media pos tings; 30 to 60 second videos; online postings; the government’s Tree Frog App; the government’s
YouTube channel; and the government’s portal
www.gov.bm
.
While the department incorporates traditional
news services, social media continues to drive how the department communicates with the general public.
Madam Chairman, Bermudians are increasingly turni ng first to social media and online news
sources for their information. The department con-stantly reviews their analytics, online engagement and
other measurements to determine what is working and how users want to receive their information.
Madam Chairman, the drivers of media engagement are the communications team, who conti nue to provide outstanding service. The section comprises: one Assistant Director Communications, five
Communications Officers and one Internal Communi-cations Officer. Their aim is to ensure that the community is well informed about government services,
programmes, policies and legislative initiatives.
In short, Madam Chairman, the communic ations officers provide the words that help to shape the voice of government which determines how the public
sees and hears the information that is shared. Communications officers draft Ministers’ speeches, write
and issue press releases and media statements. They
create and implement communications plans, write ads and video scripts.
Madam Chairman, working with Creative Services, they develop and maintain government’s social
media presence. Within the public service, they make
sure public officers know and understand what is happening around government. This drives employee knowledge and understanding about the organisation
in which they work which further helps to enhance
employee morale. CITV

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Madam Chairman, over
the course of 2019/20, staff at CITV made significant
gains in productivity and in the quality of the work pr oduced at the station. With a small and efficient all -
Bermudian staff, CITV is able to constantly generate
fresh, professional programming which is relevant to
Bermuda.
Production standards at CITV, in terms of
quality, quantity and speed, continue to improve. The quality of production has also increased in the areas
of graphics and motion graphics, with the station
maintaining a professional on- air image by constantly
updating its graphics so they are timely, exciting and
current.
Since its launch in 2007, CI TV has become a
central element in the architecture of the Bermuda community. The station occupies a cohesive place at
the crossroads of government, culture and Bermudian
identity.
The CITV staff have developed a wide range
of skills by moving from a broadcast video- only oper ation to one where the station routinely generates
graphics, motion graphics, highly professional video
and audio productions for social media.
CITV generates hundreds of programmes,
videos, public service announcements and radio ads
every year. The content covers everything from government information to the arts, education, sciences,
the environment, and Bermuda history, to name a few.
Madam Chairman, as skills and technology
have improved, so too have the station’s efficiency
and cos t-effectiveness. Over the years, CITV has
greatly increased the volume of work it generates, in the face of constantly shrinking budgets.
Like other sections within the Department of
Communications, CITV saves the Bermuda Gover nment tens of thousands of dollars in production costs annually. If the government were to outsource and
use private sector production houses for a fraction of
the work CITV produces, the cost would quickly become prohibitive.

Creative Services

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Madam Chairman, if you
want to immediately see an example of the work of
Creative Services, I urge you to look at this year’s Budget Statement. The cover design and layout of this
document is just one small example of the work the
Creative Services team provides.
This s ection includes an Assistant Director
Creative Services, a Senior Graphics Designer, three graphic designers, two photographers and one Image Librarian. This small team works together to provide
all government’s signage, posters and fliers, social
media gr aphics, print ads and photography.
3458 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly Madam Chairman, everything you see that is
produced by government would have been phot ographed, sourced and designed by the team at Creative Services.

Customer Service Representatives

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Madam Chai rman, the
Customer Service Representatives are two ladies and
a gentleman who answer government’s switchboard,
arguably the busiest switchboard in Bermuda, fielding hundreds of call a day. They are the ones on the frontline, answering questions, giving hel p and directing
callers. I am pleased to report that working with the
Information and Digital Technologies Department (IDT), the current switchboard which has served us for
decades, will be replaced.

Administration

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Madam Chairman, this
section comprises the Director, Executive Assistant
and an Accounts Assistant. They are responsible for
the administration and overall running of the depar tment.

Capital Expenditure

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Madam Chairman, the
capital expenditure for Communications listed on page
C-10 of the Budget Book is $443,000.
Four hundred thousand dollars has been all ocated to build a new website. The current site,
www.gov.bm
, is built on a system known as Druple 7
which will become obsolete in 2021 and, therefore,
the work to build a new site must begin in the coming
year.
Twenty -two thousand dollars has been all ocated for a desperately needed new vehicle for Creative Services.
Madam Chairman, $11,000 and $10,000 will
be spent on buying new computer equipment and to
upgrade existing television station equipment, respectively.

Output Measures

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: With the purchase of
equipment for CITV and faster internet speeds, it is anticipated the number of programmes produced by
the television station will increase by 5 per cent, t ogether with a reduction in the cost to produce these programmes. These locally -focused programmes further define and preserve Bermuda’s heritage and cu lture.
Madam Chairman, Bermudians are increasingly turning to online options to view local and international content. More locally produced shows will be
housed on CITV’s YouTube page, providing viewers with on -demand local programmes to watch when
they want and where they want.
Overall, the department will work to assess
the services provided to customers using a customer
service assessment tool. The goal is to continually increase internal customer satisfaction year over year,
in order to ensure the Communications team meets
and exceeds client needs.

Major Policy Changes

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Madam Chairman, social
media plays a significant role in how the government
communicates with the public. More and more people
get their news and information from family and friends
sharing links to stories of interest and topics about
which people have a concern. The social media platforms will continue to be used by the department to get information— whether it is a static graphic or brief
video —to our people. Those interested in learning
more can cl ick on the graphics and be directed to the
website where press releases or information pages
give even greater details.
One such direct communications platform
which was launched during the 2019/20 financial year is the Tree Frog app.
Madam Chairman, for t hose who are unfami liar with the app, I will give a brief explanation. The Tree Frog app can be downloaded from the App Store
or Google Play. All press releases that are posted on
the government website www.gov.bm
will be dow nloaded to the app. The public can receive information
directly from the government, without interpretation,
analysis or bias.
As you may recall, Madam Chairman, before,
during and after Hurricane Humberto impacted Bermuda last year, all information ab out the storm was
relayed to the public by traditional media methods and
via the Tree Frog app.
Madam Chairman, this app was considered a
huge success and continues to provide the people of
Bermuda, whether on Island or overseas, with direct
information about the government’s programmes, policies and services.
Madam Chairman, I would like to take this
moment to pause and acknowledge and recognise the public officers who worked extremely hard to create,
launch and maintain this news and information app,
and to congratulate the Bermuda College students
and their lecturer who were a part of the project from
its inception.
Madam Chairman, I encourage everyone who
does not already have the app to download it to their
phone today.

Plans for the Upcoming Year
Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Madam Chairman, the
department will work to enhance and fine tune how it


Bermuda House of Assembly communicates with online users, employing analytics
and analysing engagement to determine what works
for the identified demographics and target markets.
The modernisation of CITV’s equipment is
ongoing.
Working with IDT, the main government
switchboard will undergo an enhancement, making it
easier and faster for the general public to communicate with government departments.
Madam Chairman, the Department of Co mmunications will provide guidance and support to Mi nisters, Permanent Secretaries and Heads of depar tments as they work to deliver their message to the
public through social and traditional media. The role of
internal communications grows as employee- focused
programmes are created and implemented as there is
an increased demand for employee awareness and
engagement.
Madam Chairman, I would like to close by
thanking the Director, Aderonke Bademosi Wilson and the expert team at the Department of Communic ations . Their ability to serve under often stressful cond itions, including late nights and weekends, is extremely commendable. And I appreciate the sacrifice that they
make and for the excellent job that they do. This goes
for the entire team: communications off icers; the
Creative Services team; CITV; portals administrators;
administrative staff and customer service represent atives (the telephone operators). All work together to
provide sound professional advice, a stellar product
and a quality level of service unmatched anywhere.
Bermuda public officers and the government are well
served by the Department of Communications and I take this opportunity to publicly thank each of them.
Thank you, Madam Chairman. This concludes
my budget presentation for Head 51.

Good evening, Madam
Chairman.
Before I begin, I would like very much to focus
on one head at a time, so maybe Communications
first, and then I will move on to the other three.
But before I ask my questions I would like to
acknowledge, especially on International Women’s
Day, that all of the heads that we are debating right
now are led by women. And I certainly do recognise
the strength and the potential, and I certainly wish
them all well. If you do not mind, Madam Chairman, I would like to just name them.
The Head of the Department of Statistics is
Melinda Williams. The Acting Head of the Department of the General Post Office is Susan Moore Williams.
The Department of Communications, Aderonke
Bademosi Wilson, and the Department of Employee
and Or ganisational Development —congratulations
too—Carlita O’Brien.
So, it is wonderful to see that so many people
moving into leadership roles are women. So, thank
you very much for all of that.
So, moving on to Communications, I did not
really have any . . . I did not want to go line by line as
there have not been many changes. But I am interes ted in the portal and the changes that are taking place
with the website. And so, I am wondering if the Mini ster can just give a brief description and explanation of
what difference it is going to make, moving the staff
and the portal management from Communications into the technology space.
And, of course, my concern really is around
the content and what is going to be provided to the
public. So, my question would be that if they are moving into a more technical domain, is that going to
compromise the content that would be on the web-site? And if there are going to be any changes, which
in some ways will be welcome changes to the
www.gov.bm
website, what those changes might be?
Would you mind answering those questions?
Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Thank you, Madam
Chairman, and thank you, Honourable Member.
The changes were made, actually, to create a
better synergy by putting them in the more technical
section
In terms of what we can expect from the website, I cannot say at this time. Part of the issue with upgrading the website is the expiration of the existing
service. I cannot remember its exact technical name,
but that expires in 2021, so t hat will require us to do
an upgrade. When we get closer to the time we will be
able to analyse what will actually be changed and what will be done to upgrade it.
In terms of content, DCI will continue to liaise
with the portals team to make sure the cont ent is co nsistent with the content you would see on Tree Frog or anywhere else where government information is contained.
So, at this time, right now, normally DCI would
provide the content to someone who uploads it to the
site. I do not anticipate that c hanging.
Thank you.

You did mention analytics
and, just for the sake of the general public who may
be following along, I am on page B -67 discussing line
item 61060 Portals Management.
So, within that you had mentioned the intr oduction of some analytics. And I am just wondering
how are we going to communicate and prepare the
general public for what will be really quite a bit of data collection that they may or may not want to get i n3460 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly volved in. So, without getting too into the weeds about
it, two big pieces for me: One is probably the most
popular and common, which would be cookies.
So, cookies, basically, is a method on a website where the computer, the technology, can track your interests. So, if you go onto the government
website and you go to the public libraries and you
spend some time in the public libraries, the Bermuda
National Library site, and you are looking for certain
items within the library, maybe a little bit in the archives, and then you come out of that site and you are minding your own business and then all of a sudden
bookstores start popping up on your screen when you
are on Facebook, or you might be on any other website. And then, all of a sudden, things that seem like they are directly of interest to you randomly st art to
appear on the website. Well, that is because these cookies are tracking your likes on . . . and I do not
mean “likes” like Facebook, social media likes, but the
sites that you are travelling and landing on within the
Internet, they are tracking that and they are taking
what you favour and then they are advertising to you,
in a nutshell.
And so with all of that, this being a gover nment website, are we going to be looking at tracking
people? Are we going to have things like a cookie policy where we are informing our visitors to the gover nment website that: (1) we are tracking; or (2) giving
them the option to opt -out and not be a part of having
this tracking take place? And what is the government
doing from the backend of this to put in place the
proper safeguards?
And, of course, the privacy, the data privacy,
is another growing issue. Bermuda is getting closer and closer to exercising the legislation that has been
passed around privacy. And so, how are we going to
manage that on the government website?
Now, to the best of my knowledge, the government website does not collect any data, it is just a
search engine. Is that correct, Minister? Yes. So, at
least there is not a concern that there is personal data
that will be shared. But just the fact that there is a pr ivacy policy that could become live soon and how that
would impact visitors to the government website.
So, my question, again, is, Are we going to be
going into some serious analytics? And if we are, how is that going to be implemented and when, who?
Could you just give us some information on that?

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Madam Chairman?

Minister.

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Madam Chairman, Honourable Member, the analytics that we are referring to
are actually the study of the effecti veness of posts.
So at the moment we are using a software
called Hootsuite, which basically gauges how many times something is shared, how many times som e-thing is liked, how many times things are passed on in
conversations around it. And part of the measurement
of the tool is that you will find out that maybe there are
certain subjects that generate more interest and r esponse. There are certain presentations, whether it is
video or image, which generate better response. And
so in using that information, we are then able to say,
Okay. These are the most effective tools for reaching
people.
In terms of the cookies in the website, at the
moment we do have cookies on the website, but we do not spam people. We do not provide that information to anybody else. No w, we are able to track
how people use the site, to make it easier for people
to find out what they are looking for. They are invest igating to find out what the cookie policy is, but this falls under the information technology side, so that is a little bit outside the remit. But I think it important that
part of the analytics that we are using via Hootsuite is
to be able to see things such as what times people
are most likely to be observing. So when you see
something . . . you know, if I post something at 9:30
am, for example, there is a different reaction than if I
post something at 1:30 pm. And so those are things
. . . we are able to get better timing, better response
and become more effective.
And the reason why this is important, partic ularly in the 2 1
st century, is that people no longer just
go to the paper and read it cover to cover to get their
information. It is very much a bespoke experience.
And so you have to maximise the time that you get in
front of people and the way that they get the information which is most appealing to them. So there are
many people, for example, who will not watch a 10minute video. So you determine from some of the
things they look at that certain videos are more effective. You will find that some visual images are more
effective.
And so it is very helpful in terms of making
sure we penetrate, because as more and more people are choosing what they choose to take in, it becomes
harder and harder to get their attention at the time
they want to have their attention grabbed. And so that
is part of the process.
I will try to get you a more detailed answer on
the cookie policy. But at the moment we do not track
that sort of thing. We are not giving that information to
anybody for that to go somewhere else and use.
Thank you.

And I have one other question around the portal, and then I will let it go. And that
is around the design and the actual journey that the
customer experienced.
So, you know, I understood the rationale
around having basically the www.gov.bm
as the
search engine. You know, you pretty much get on a


Bermuda House of Assembly landing page and you type in what you are interested
in. And then it gets pretty much as close as you are
going to get to the topics. And gone are the days
when there were individual websites. And I happen to have gone on a website that must have been the post office’s original website, because it had been many
years since it has been updated. But it is still out there
if you google Bermuda Post Office. Same with, you
know, the Bermuda National Library, which, I have to
declare my interest, I was at one point very much a
part of the board. And they have a beautiful website that is still live, but it is no longer in use becaus e of
the mainframe www.gov.bm
portal.
I know how difficult and time- consuming it can
be to have to manage a very creative website. And it
is your own website, and so you have got to find an
individual IT person in every d epartment in order to
maintain and update each department’s website. But
at the time same, there is something to be said
around the customer experience, when you can go to
one particular website and everything that you want to
ask about that topic is right there. Whereas now with
the www.gov.bm site, you kind of have to keep
searching and trying different key words to collect
what it is you are looking for.
So my question then is, Is there any appetite
(well, it will not be communications now; it will be
technology) to look at the design of the gov.bm we bsite and how it may change its look and feel to i mprove the customer experience?

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: I think that is a very good
question. And I agree. I think that i s part of the pr ocess that is necessary, because we want to be an effective tool for the public to get information from.
So right now . . . and a lot of businesses have
actually gone away from websites, and they just stick
it on their Facebook page or the ir Instagram. But we
have to be able to cover all the bases. And making it
more effective, more accessible and a better product
is part of the mandate going forward.
Now, as to what that looks like and how that
will work, I cannot say at this stage. But t hat is part of
the mandate. Because we recognise that it has to be
user-friendly.

I am sorry, I just came up
with another question around the portal.
This question actually overlays with the online
services for the post office. So i f a government department chooses to have any kind of online services,
if we start getting into being able to make purchases
or being able to pay for certain taxes and things, is
this going to be something that will be a part of the
mainframe portal? Or wi ll that be a separate website?

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: I cannot really say at this
stage because, as I mentioned, they are actually g oing to be basically rebuilding it almost from scratch. So whatever those considerations will be will be pro bably wrapped into that. That is the best I could say at
this stage. But I commit to working with my colleague
in the Ministry of the Cabinet Office to bring the information forward at the appropriate time.

And I have one other topic
that I am int erested in in the Department of Communications. And that is the telephone customer service.
This is B -67, and I will start with the Tel ephone Customer Service Representatives, 61070. So
you had mentioned that there is a new phone system which is in the pi peline. What will happen, and will this
new system impact the three, the super -valuable, absolutely wonderful personalities that are presently on
the telephone system?

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: Madam Chairman, it is
my hope that it will make their lives eas ier.
At the moment they are, quite honestly,
stretched. And if you have a situation where, say, one
person is sick and another person has to leave the
office for personal reasons, you have issues. And also
the system has a number of technical problems as
well.
So it is our hope that this will actually make
their lives easier, make their jobs easier and could
provide a faster, more effective service for the public.
So in terms of the details, the mandate really was to
try and find a way to address the fact that we really
are tight down there. And when you have . . . it’s a vehicle that operates at high efficiency when every
part is in place. But it can very quickly break down if
the machinery breaks down or an individual has an illness or is gone. So part of it is to try and make their
lives easier and to provide a better service to the public consistently. Thank you.

Would any other Member wish to
speak to Head 61, the Department of Communic ations?
I recognise the Member from constituency
number 10.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Madam
Chairman.
To the Honourable Minister, this has been an
interesting discussion. Around social media, could the
Honourable Minister inform this Honourable House if
the strategy was developed in- house or outside the
house, and if it was developed outside the house, can
the Honourable Minister say who helped develop it
and what was the cost?

Hon. Jamahl S. Simmons: I will have the cost for you
shortly. It is for a period in the final quarter of, or in the
middle of 2019. We had the services of Keshia Ming.
It was put out by the Director of Communications to hire him to do overall strategy, to do an analysis of the
3462 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly effectiveness of what we were doing, as well as to
look at some of the ways we presented information.
So I will get the information on the cost. If I remember
correctly from memory, it was about a three- month
contract. And I cannot remember off the top of my
head. But I will get that information for you. The team
is actually pulling it together for y ou.
But I think it was important because one of the
. . . I think it is important to stress that our machinery
is evolving. And it is evolving by nature, because the
last change in job descriptions we had was back in the early to mid- 2000s. And if you look at 2007, that is
when social media really started to kick in. So when
we brought staff on board, they did not necessarily
have to have the skills when they were hired. And we are finding now that this is part of supplementing necessary information. So it is whether, you know, knowing how to present it, how to present, things of that nature; that expertise was very helpful.
So he was on for a period of time. And like I
said, I will get the details for you shortly as soon as
they have it for me. Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Yes. I would like to just move
over to the performance measures on B -69, in partic ular. In Portals Management, 61060, I am just interes ted in the satisfaction surveys that you have. I see that
there are satisfaction surveys as well for 61070, which are the Customer Service Representatives. And each
year it is just mentioning that there is a desire for an
increase in satisfaction scores. Usually it is between 5
per cent for the customer service reps and 10 per cent
for the satisfaction levels of the government portal, by
users.
But I am just wondering what the current satisfaction levels are for both the portal and the customer services. So, you know, we know we want to try
and get an increase. But where are those satisfaction scores now?

Thank you.
Would any other Member wish to speak to
Head 51, Department of Communications?
No other Member. We will move to the other
heads. But I just wanted to make sure that we did ev e-rything in Head 51. So rather than having each Mini ster going up and down every five minutes, I think that
would make more sense.

[Pause]

Yes, please.
And so I am interested in asking some questions for Head 13 for the Post Office. So my first question is actually on the leadership, s o let me just look
for it in employee numbers. I guess I can speak to it
on page B -49 under Salaries and Wages.
Page B -51 under Administration and Finance.
I am just curious what the status is for the Post Master General. She has been in an acting positi on now for
quite some time. And what is in place to see whether
we cannot confirm someone in that role so that there
is a feeling of continuity and stability, given the fact
that there appear to be quite a few initiatives that the Government would like to proceed with. But having
someone in an acting position, to me, just seems like
it is not as stable and confirmed. And I am just curious
what the status is on the position of the Post Master
General.

And my other question is
around page B -49, line 345, the Sub- Post Offices.
You mentioned that there are now eight of the
sub-post offices. And I am just curious, one, what has
come of the post offices that are no longer in oper ation? I know that there was an initiative sometime
back to just try to sell them. I am just not sure what
the status is of the closed sub- post offices and whet her there is any appetite to reduce the numbers any
further in the coming year or so.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: The Post Office does not
come under the Minister of Cabinet. It will come under
the Ministry of Works and Engineering. That falls u nder their assets. So what will be done will be done
from that Ministry’s point of view. As far as looking at it
further, having this reduction, we have not considered it at this time.


Bermuda House of Assembly Ms. Susan E. Jackson: And also, I would like to ask
some questions around the Universal Postal Union,
not quite sure what line item that would be. Maybe
Professional Services? I am not quite sure.
But my question is that I am curious. You had
mentioned in one of your Ministerial Statements a while back that the Bermuda Government is paying
some $80,000 a year, I believe, in sort of membership
dues for the United Postal Union. And I c ertainly know
that this year it feels as though the Minister has given quite a few Ministerial Statements around challenges with the UPU. So I am just curious where we stand
and what we are going to do with that.
I do not even know if we have to be member s.
I know that the United States had threatened to pull
out of the union because they were not satisfied with
some of the rates that were being kind of, I guess,
mandated by the Universal Postal Union. And so it
has just kind of triggered the question of w hat our role
is really in the UPU. Why we are in it, why we are pa ying $80,000 a year and what we are getting out of it?

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: UPU is a conglomerate of
194 unions, or members. If you were not involved in
the UPU, you could not move transactions or parcels
throughout the union membership. You would not be a
part of it. You could not transfer information to the United Postal Services. They would not move it unless
you formed some other specific agreements. But because you are a member of the UPU, those countries
have to accept your postal services. Okay?
And the $80,000 . . . we pay that $80,000 to
the UK Government. I am not sure which line item that falls under because they then pay it to the UPU.
Okay? We pay the money particularly to th e UK Pos tal Service. We fall basically under them. They then
pay. That is why when we go to the United Postal U nion conferences they speak on our behalf, although
we pay as a member.

Okay. So no votes. And we
come under the UK. So th is feels a little bit like a correspondent bank, and it is all about the United States,
really, right? So if we want to move any posts and
parcels through the United States, we have to be a
member of the UPU.
I know that the United States has sort of rates
that they charge for international posts. On top of the
$80,000 a year for the membership, do we have to
pay postal rates to the United States Post Office every
time we pass mail through their system?
Yes. Okay.
So is there anything that we can do to get
good value from being a member of the UPU? I mean, I saw that . . . I just kind of googled them. (I ask
Google everything.) And I notice that there are some
jurisdictions, small jurisdictions that actually really
want to compete. And I noticed that we d o mention in
the Budget Book, you know, that we have got rank-ings. Maybe it was a Ministerial Statement. You know,
that we have particular rankings. And if I were to give
some direction, page B -52 under Programmes, 330,
just talking about sort of technical compliance of the
UPU, products, specifications, I guess it would fall under that to a certain extent.
Are we actually trying at the post office to i mprove some of the ratings that the union has so that we can find some competitive aspect to it? I notic e
that there are some jurisdictions that very proudly say that they are ranked eighth as, you know, being able to deliver post in a particular window of time, that they
are fast, that they are efficient and, you know, some
other attributes. And I am just w ondering whether we
at the general post office, the Bermuda Post Office,
have any appetite to really try to compete with some
of those rankings to improve our services to such an extent that we can generate some national pride,
some government civil servic e pride around some of
the improved rankings.

Minister.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I will try to explain. I do not
have the information in front of me, but let me try to
explain basically how it works.
So the United Postal Union falls under an advanced country, per se, and a country that is being modernised, or a country that is underdeveloped and
so on. So the more underdeveloped countries pay a
lower rate than we charge them. And the fight last
year was with China and the United States in par ticular. Many of you buy something, products from . . . I
think the company is called Alibaba. It is cheaper to get their products from China to Bermuda than from
New York to Miami.
So the Trump administration said, Nah. No,
no, no. We want them to increase their rates. Hence,
we will limit ourselves, myself and others who were
buying from China, to get the product here. And there
was literally a strong mandate from the Trump admi nistration that if the UPU do not increase their rates,
they are going to pull out. So we met in Switzerland.
And they made it very clear. It was either do or die.
You know, we all know who the big country is when it comes to the United . . . if they had pulled out, we
would have to negotiate particularly with the United
Postal Se rvice. But the UPU said, If you negotiate with
them, you are out of the UPU.
So it was all this big mess as far as what to
do. So it was bargaining. It was political manoeuvring.
And the first vote was, Nope. Not happening. And so,
everybody bowed their head. And it was a whole room of . . . it was huge. And we went away to come back in
the afternoon, so let us say one o’clock in the afternoon. And then we all said we heard that the meeting
was being held off until four o’clock, for an example. In other words, negotiation was starting to take place,
and some things were making some headway.
3464 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly So, what was agreed on was that they will adjust the rates for . . . and we fell, Bermuda fell, interestingly, under a more modern jurisdiction or a more
advanced juris diction. Hence, our rates were pretty
high, right? Hence why we pay $80,000 and some
countries may be paying, I do not know, $5,000 or
$7,000 for being part of the UPU. The larger ones, of
course, we were up there with the United States,
France, Canada and all the rest of them. There were
very few Caribbean countries that were involved in that with us.
So what was agreed on is that the United
States could increase their rates, okay, for China. And
because of that, we will be able to increase our rates
for any country that deals specifically with the United
States and particularly Bermuda, based on the
amount of weight, a certain weight. And so I expect
that we will get a rate adjustment. It is not calculated
here because we do not know what exactly it is going
to be, right now. There will be an adjustment to the
rate. Hence we will gather more revenue. We will have the opportunity, too, to do that.
But it came down to . . . I remember clearly
the Secretary of State said that . . . he was clear. He
was sitti ng on that side about three rows behind me.
And I looked at him and I said, Well, in other words
you either do it or we are pulling out. And so ever ybody had to . . . there were fights . . . not literally
fights. There were debates and a proposal put forward
by some other countries. And we came down to the
idea that we will let the United States increase their
rates, particularly when it came to China. So now the
rate from China to New York may be just as much as from New York to Miami, for instance.
And h ence, anybody who will eventually be
buying it from China from Bermuda, well, the rates will
be going much higher. I hope I explained that a little
bit.

So I just will segue then to
ask some questions around some of the proposals for future services. On page B -49, line 350 under Courier
Services, with all of these there are not any real n umeric changes. So this is not a big discussion for me
around the spending, but it is around the performance
and the evolution of these various departments. So you had mentioned the online shopping and the creation of the possibility to have courier services and an
express mail kind of thing coming from the United
States.
So I am just wondering, one, how will that kind
of online shopping model work well or have any rel ationship to the UPU? You know, I mean, if the Berm u-da government, the post office, gets into a relationship
with, I guess i t would have to be an American distribution business of some sort, which would collect all of
the parcels that Bermudians would be purchasing
products online, Amazon, wherever, and all of those products that we order online from the government
post office would then go to some American distribution. And then that American distribution would, I
would suspect . . . you had mentioned they all use the
same plane, so these things would then be flown to
Bermuda. Are they not going to be a part of the gen-eral postal tr aditional processing? Or is it going to be
sort of like a separate kind of business, this online
shopping? Or how is that going to work?

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: So, the post office provides
that service now. There are goods that come through
the Bermuda Post Office. If you look at the retail sales
monthly, there is a value that is placed there. So we
get about $400,000 to $500,000 of value that comes
through the post office based on people ordering
online. It is cheaper. It is cheaper.
But if you look at other courier services,
sometimes they are $12 million. I think last month was
about $19 million for a certain courier service that comes through. So you have goods coming through
shipping. You have got goods coming through people
bringing them back through on the plane. You have
got goods coming through the courier service. Like I
said, it was like somewhere between $15 million and
$19 million, not last month, but whenever we did it
last, in December.
But the Bermuda Post Office value —value,
not the month that we collect —is about $400,000. So
if we provide a service . . . and many of you within the
sound of my voice have an address in the United
States. I know my son- in-law has an address som ewhere in New Jersey. He sends his products from time to time to their [New] Jersey address. When he
gets to a certain amount, he says, Send me that bulk.
Right? So if we are able to provide, say a separate
thing is coming in, and they come in in a bulk package
or a box or whatever you consider, that of course
would be cheaper coming in on that particular plane.
And I mentioned that we are having discussions with www.myus.com
. As a matter of fact, some
of you may a lready be going through them. But type
www.myus.com , you can actually do that. So that pr ovides ZipX , may have, because they have their own
services, distrib ution centres around the United
States. I believe the one over on (not Bermudiana
Road) Par -la-Ville Park, the road down there (I could
not name the company) . . . they have a . . . I mean,
literally we could set up a sub- place somewhere in the
United States if we want ed. But whether it is cost effective or not, we will take a look at it. And then ever ything will go there. And then they ship it, fly it from wherever back to Bermuda for distribution.



Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: Does any other Member wish to
speak?
I recognise the Member from constituency 10.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Madam
Chairman.
To the Honourable Minister: I was listening to
your brief, but I stepped out a bit to get something to
eat. Did you give mail volumes for the past year or
over the past couple of years? Volume of mail that
has been moved by the Bermuda Post Office? Vol-ume of mail that has been moved over the past year?
The reason why I ask that is because it is
clear that mail volumes continue to decline for many reasons . You know, people do not send you bills anymore by mail; you pay them online. There are many,
many reasons behind it. And with the mail volumes
decreasing, I would be interested to know how much
they have continued to decrease.
Is there any consideratio n for a review of the
mail delivery routes and the frequency for delivery?
Because as I understand, at the present time if I
would have one letter that is for me on a Monday, my
post office person would bring it on a Monday. If there
was another that came for Tuesday, they would do
Tuesday, and they would do it every day of the week.
Is there any consideration, based on declining vo lumes, of looking at streamlining routes, making them
more efficient so we could utilise our staff in a more
efficient way to m ake them more productive?

Minister.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Honourable Member, I do
not have the numbers in front of me right now. I am
hoping they are bringing them back and can provide that information for us. But there has definitely been a
reduction in mail. I think we all recall when we were
much younger than we are now that we were writing
letters to our girlfriends, whoever, every five minutes.

[Inaudible interjection]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: But you do not write an ymore. You send out text messages. You send out one
text message. And so people are not using mail as much. And right now, most companies are sending
you information online. Get your BELCO online; you
get quite a few things on online.
But the numbers have decreased, and yo ur
point is valid. And that is why the numbers basically
for employment, for employees in the post office, have decreased over time. I used to have a graph, but unfortunately . . . I wish I had remembered. I could have
brought it. But as you know, the revenue is here, and
expenses are up here. So we are trying to get this moved and going closer. But the points that you have
mentioned are valid, and we are looking for that type
of information ultimately to make things much more efficient within the department and provide more services.

Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Madam Chairman.

While you sort that out, let us take a
minute to remind the public that we are in the Est imates of Revenue and Expenditure. We are doing Heads 13, 14 and 61, Cabinet and Government R eform. It is now 7:31. And this debate will finish at 8:40.
Member, you would like to speak?
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Yes, please.
To the Minister : In line with what my —

Minister, you have someone who
would like to speak, but I wanted to make sure that
you have their —

[Crosstalk]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Yes. I am just trying to get
the information for the Member. Was there another
question you asked? Sorry.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Yes, I had. And it is in line
with what my colleague ask ed.
Bearing in mind that . . . I am looking at the
headcount in terms of 132 and then 137, and then
134. I guess what I am asking is the fact that . . . bearing in mind that the amount —

Excuse me, Member. You said you
are looking at the headcount?
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: I am looking at head B -51.

3466 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly The Chairman: Okay.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Okay? And I am saying,
bearing in mind that the . . . we all know that the
amount of mail that is being delivered is declining.
And I guess my quest ion to you is, Has any study
been undertaken to see whether, with the amount of
mail that is being delivered, whether a scheduled . . .
You know, we have garbage, which is collected once
a week. It used to be twice a week. We have all gotten
used to that. So should we be turning around and
looking at the mail and saying, okay, mail is only being
delivered twice a week? Especially if the delivery of
mail twice a week will mean that we will need fewer
individuals to be in the postal service.
Now, I am assumi ng that if we have fewer
individuals, those individuals will be available—

Hold on.
Hold on one second, Member.
I need to make sure that I am listening to what
the Member is saying. So if you are talking, I am just
asking you to lower your volume. Thank you.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: So I am assuming that if
we are able to reduce the number of postal workers
who are required to deliver mail . . . that leaves them
to do something else. And I do not know, that something else might not be in the post office, but it might
be in another government area where they have skills.
And to me, the bottom line is, what can we do to r educe the size and the cost of government? It does not
make sense not to explore this. And if you were in the private sect or, this is the first thing that they would be
doing.
So I have to ask the Minister, has this type of
review been looked at? As I say, I would love to have my garbage collected twice a week rather than once;
but I have adapted to it. So I would like to fi nd out
whether, then (the post office), the idea of collections perhaps twice a week has been considered, bearing
in mind we all know that with emails and all sorts of
other stuff, the amount of mail that is being delivered. And if it is any real mail, it is usually what I call solici ting mail rather than bills, et cetera.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.

Thank you, Member.
Minister.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: So basically, I think I can
answer some of the questions here. There are about
six million [pieces of] mail annually. The costs have
been reduced by 50 per cent over the last 10 years.
Deliveries . . . and they do deliveries through many
parts of it. So not only are they working in town, but
they may also work in another sub- post office around
Bermuda. So they do things differently. Do we need to improve and get better eff iciency? We do. So I agree with that part.

Is there a question?
I recognise the Member from constituency 19.
Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: And I am going to ask the
other question, partially because if these things have
been considered, then the public will get to know that
it has been. And if not, then hopefully it will.
Bearing in mind in terms of I do not think
postmen are delivering as much mail, the second thing is, why do we now, in the age of reduction in
terms of using mail, still have to have a sub- post office
in every location? And when I say in every location that it is now, why do we need to still have sub- post
offices? And the reason I am asking is because if
there is an opportunity to have one area covering a
larger area, and if you then have the mail being di stributed perhaps not as many days as it was, then one would think that there is an opportunity to reduce
costs. Because having a post office means that you have to not only have the people who are there, you
have the upkeep of the post office itself.
So I wondered whether the Ministry and the
post office people have looked at whether there is any opportunity to start to reduce the number of sub- post
offices and then reduce the mail delivery so that more
people are then able to go and deliver the mail and we
can reduce the costs and the expenditure.

I am going to recognise the Member
from constituency 10.
Hon. Michael H. Dunkley: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Minister, just appreciate the volume for the
last year, I guess. You said six million pieces. I know
that the post office probably has the information, because I am sure they look at it. But could you endea vour to get the information, say, for the last five years? How much has mail volume declined year in and year
out? I think that will help get a better understanding.
They should be able to tell quite quickly that, on average, 4 [per cent] or 5 per cent a year.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: You are absolutely right,
Member. We will get that information to you and try to get a more accurate number, even percentage- wise.
But you ta lked about cost reduction. And that
is something that we are doing. But you also have the
opportunity to provide a service in those particular sub-post offices, which is not currently being provided
right now. As you know, right now you have to come


Bermuda House of Assembly to Ham ilton to pay for your dog licence, your cat l icence, your boat licence and your driver’s licence. But
we can provide services within the sub- post offices,
charge revenue and gain other revenues, that are cur-rently not being provided.
As a matter of fact, we have facilities that can
be worked even more efficiently, other than right now
everybody going into over there by Venture . . . not
Venture, Mills Creek. Mills Creek, where FedEx has
one location, per say. And we are able to find a way to
provide more s ervice in the sub- post office. We are
just saying. But it is something that we can look at.
But at this moment, we are looking at more
how we can provide service to people within those, so
granny is not leaving Hamilton Parish every five minutes, jumping on a bus, and walking over to Mills
Creek to get her mail. Or she does not have to go down to pay for her dog, cat or rat cat. I said rat cat ;
yes, you are right . But come to Hamilton Parish.
So you get concerned about the people. You
will be concerned ab out providing a service closer to
them, where they do not have to be going back and
forward every five minutes.

I recognise the Member from consti tuency 19.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Sorry, Madam Chairman, I
guess this seems to be inconsistent and in opposition
to a statement that was made earlier from the point of
view of saying that there was going to be the opportunity of having people pay all their bills at one place,
et cetera. And there was a suggestion that it was the post office, you know.
So what I am trying to say is that if you are
trying to have streamlining where people are going to
the post office, per se, then things where granny or somebody else might go to the sub- post office, then
might not need to go there because someone else will go to the post office and deal with it.
So all I am just saying is that we have to be
careful that we do not do something which is incon-sistent with something else. If you are trying to say that all the government things can be done at a place,
then maybe fewer things will need to be done at a
sub-post office, and therefore the justification for a
sub-post office might not be as great as it has been in
the past.
And I just would like to think that the Minister
and his technical team will perhaps consider this.
Thank you.

Thank you, Member.
Minister, would you like to respond?
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Madam Chairman, you know
the Honourable Member had five years to do what she
wanted to do. The direction we are heading is where
we are. [Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: That is right. And so right
now everybody . . . everyone can go online in their
house and pay for their car licence —everyone. Right?
So there are 33,000 whatever homes, about
33,000 homes, you can go there. We are saying that we are going to provide some services within the subpost office that allow individuals to go to their sub- post
offices, which will raise additional revenue on behalf of the post office, hence shrinking the deficit between what the government spends and what the gover nment collects. That is the direction we are headed.
The direction you were headed was nowhere, because that is where you went —nowhere.

Thank you, Madam Chai rman, I just have a quick question.
So when you were talking about sort of consolidating or centralising bill payment, you had mentioned in your brief that there were like six legacy
computer systems. And I am on page C -9, line 76663,
Computer Equipment. I see last year there was some
$24,000 that was spent. Is that for the switching from
the six legacy systems into one system that you quot-ed in your brief? And is this system, this new system,
going to be able to allow or accommodate for this centralised payment? Or would we have to purchase additional equipment in order to go to a sub- post office
and pay the dog licence, the cat licence, the car l icence, the boat mooring?
It is C -9, yes. And there is Computer Equi pment P urchase, 76663. So last year there was a good
bit spent on computer equipment, but I am just curious
what this taking six legacy systems and purchasing
one system or . . . I am just trying to get some clarity on the computerisation of the post office, especially
around this, going to be able to pay everything in one
place.

Minister, yes.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Madam Chairman, I believe I
mentioned something about it in the actual brief. I am trying to find it right now. Just give me one minute.
[Pause]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: So what I mentioned was the
Bermuda Post Office capital expenditure budget for 2020/21 can be found on page C -9; that is what you
are talking about. Of the capital acquisition estimates,
Schedule C, the Bermuda Post Of fice has been all ocated an amount of $27,450 (that is what you mentioned), the purchase of a cancelling machine, the
3468 6 March 2020 Official Hansard Report

Bermuda House of Assembly computer, and the computer equipment. This compares to the revised 2019/20 allocation of . . .
[Pause]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: RMIS AS400, IPS, File Pro
P.O. box system. And that will all be replaced by the Swift system. Yes.
[Inaudible interjections]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Right, the Swift system.
The Swift system allows —

Thank you.
So with all of the proposed changes, I just
want to reflect on B -49. The total expenditure for the
post office is about $10.5 million in expenses. But yet,
they are right now only earning about $4 million in
revenue eac h year. So last year and this year, there
has been lots of optimistic conversation about looking
at things like online shopping and improving the express mail maybe, those kinds of things. With the 134 members of staff, what kind of retraining, retooling . . I
would imagine that there is going to have to be some
restructuring if the model of the post office is going to
change, become a little more technical. And so I am
just curious whether, one, any of the staff will be i mpacted, as listed on page B -51? An d two, what kind of
projected revenue you are hoping to actually make to
try to balance, at least, so that . . . I mean, it is going
to take a while for us to earn $10 million in revenue to
balance off our expenses. But it is just a huge loss every year. A nd it looks as though this has been the
case for the last few years, at least —at least in this
book.
So, you know, are we expecting that we are
going to earn additional revenue? And what kind of
projected revenue numbers are we looking at with the
introduction of these new services? And are the 134
members of staff going to be retooled, reorganised in
order to accommodate and meet all of these new ser-vices that you are proposing?

Minister.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Madam Chairman, first of all
let me just say that the staffing level has come down
considerably over the years. We do not plan to cut staff. I am not sure if that is the objective of the One
Bermuda Alliance.
Oh, you are not planning to cut staff? So you
are happy with the staff num bers? So we are, too.
[Inaudible interjections]

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Right. So . . . no, well, do not
be too concerned. The point is I was not sure whether
you were saying that you were going to cut the staff.
No? Okay. All right, because that is the biggest chunk
of expenses within the post office.
So the post office is providing a service. And
the service consists of 134 fulltime, per se, staff. And
as time goes on . . . and I will tell you, some of the
staff work under a lot of pressure, because I am sure
there are many forms that have come across my desk for hiring additional staff. We are still looking at some
of them. Some of them we will approve; some we will
not approve. But I am very grateful for the service that
the post office staff are act ually doing.
And so what we are trying to do, based on the
numbers that are there, is say what can we do to pr ovide more service to find a way to close the gap between revenue and expenses? Will we get there? I do
not know. You know, probably not. But what we are
trying to do is no different from the other services we
provide. As you know, the bus service . . . I have ne ver found a way to close the gap, no matter how you
talk about it.
But there are services that the Government
believes have to be provided. What we did over the
years (I think this stuff probably started under yourselves), we probably closed some of the post offices,
three post offices. Okay? So those are some of the
things that you have done. What you did not do is r emove all of the post offices, as the Honourable Mem-ber Jeanne Atherden is talking about.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Point of order, Madam
Chairman.

POINT OF ORDER

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: I did not suggest closing
all of them. All I suggested was to look at the rational isation of how many post offices you could use. The
same way in other countries where you have a little
hub that can service a catchment area, you do the
exact same thing with the post office.
And I know that the Minister is capable of doing that. So I am just c hallenging him to give it a shot.
Thank you.

Thank you, Member.
Minister.
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: I understand what the Honourable Member is saying. But what I am saying is,


Bermuda House of Assembly they felt that [closing] three post offices was sufficient.
That i s what they did. They closed three post offices.
And so the numbers that remain they felt was the right
number. That is what I am assuming. If not, they
would have done four or five or six. But they did not.
So we are happy right now, and as we go on
to build money, to see how things are going. But what
we plan to do is provide better service within the sub-post offices.
Now, what we are doing as far as revenue, I
mentioned at the very beginning that a report is being done by KPMG looking at a three- year plan for a
business plan. And so those numbers are not currently in the budget. Once the plan has been done, I will
probably make a Statement in the House to say, This
is what it looks like. These are some of the efficiencies
we are going to be working on. But what I did not want
to do is give you a false . . . just a number. I mean, I
could have put in a number and said, Okay, we’re going to get $50,000 or $100,000 or whatever. And then
next year you are going to say, Well, you didn’t get the number.

[Inaudible interjection]
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Right. So that is why.
So KPMG is doing a three- year plan. Hopefully, that plan will be done sometime in the next four
weeks to six weeks. I know that they are flying in an
individual to have a meeting with all the staff for half -
a-day, with myself and probably the PS, and looking
at what, as far as putting numbers together . . . because it is not putting numbers together, but what those different things look like within the post office.
So will we close the gap? You and I will not be
here when that happens, if it does. The time may
change. Other ways, like I said, right now we move
from mailing to WhatsApp to Messenger to whatever it
is. The young generation . . . times change. And as
the time changes, the G overnment will change with
that.

And so my final question, or
area of questioning around Head 13 for the Post O ffice, page B -49, is under Rentals.
So yes, a couple of years ago the post office
processing unit moved out into the new Venture buil ding. And we are paying an annual rental cost of
$332,000. I am just curious whether the Government has made any moves or has had any thoughts about
moving out of that building, or what might come of the
general post office, which is relatively quiet as far as
customer volume and traffic, of people, are con-cerned? And what we might be able to do to find
some efficiencies there through building?
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Good observation. The Mi nistry of Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Works and
Engineering are having a discussion now in particular
with that regard. If we are able to find a way to move
the processing back to town, then of course we save X amount of dollars. But that conversation is going on
right now with the Ministry of Works, between the two
PS’s, on how we can make things work better.

Thank you, Madam Chai rman.
I just had one or two questions on Head 14,
Department of Statistics. I guess the big question rea lly for statistics is all about timing. And so, you know, I
am just curious. There was quite a bit said about the
time frame of collec ting data and when it is released
to the public. And I am just wondering whether there
are any improvements that are going to be made. I do not know. Let us see, under B -55, the Core Statistics
and Publications, 24020. What changes or improv ements might be made in the future to reduce the time
from data collection to data release to the public?

Minister.

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Well, I mean, I do not have
the information. But just thinking about technology,
technology always finds a way to im prove inefficiencies within departments.
For instance, every month we have people
going into the fields, particularly let us say grocery
stores, collecting items as far as price is concerned.
We are looking at other ways of collecting that information whi ch may be readily available, which could
cost . . . which would improve efficiency of not allo wing the staff to go out in the fields. But there are things we are looking at currently right now to see if that can
work. That is just on retail sales.

The Cha irman: Would any other Member wish to
speak?
I recognise the Member from constituency —

Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: And another thing to say,
and that is where technology comes in.

Yes. So I am just staying
with 24020, Core Statistics.
So then, if we purchased and increased our
number of tablets so that we can electronically collect
the data, which would then be quickly downloaded or exported into some sort of programme that would
push out the results a lot faster, is there any move to
introduce surveys that are sent directly to respondents? And so, the survey respondent is actually just answering the questions online, or are we already doing that?
I mean, I do not want to take away from humans going out into the field with tablets and asking
questions. But the ability to just quickly do an online
survey . . . I do not have any knowledge on the met hodology and the ways in which the Department of St atistics collects its data. So I have to ask these general questions for understanding.

I recognise the Member from consti tuency 19.

Hon. Jeanne J. Atherden: Thank you, Madam
Chairman.
This is on page B -56. It is indicating under the
Performance Measures, new tables in the environmental statistics compendium compiled to reduce data gaps as per the United Nations Statistical Division’s
recommendation by December 2020. It is indicating
that there are two new tables.
I wonder if the Minister would do two things
for us. One, indicate what the two new tables are, and
also indicate to us whether there are any further t ables that we need to introduce in order to reduce the gap, as recommended by the United Nations Statistics
Division.

Here it is. Head 61, Depar tment of Employee and Organisational Development.
So, I would like to be gin with the employee
numbers on B -71 and the . . . so, in the brief it was
explained that there were staff members that had
been moved from management services and the A ccountant General’s office, I think, yes, to move into the
employee and organisational development. Now, will
they move in with new job descriptions? Are they going to, you know, is their actual pay scale changing?
What will be different about them moving from one
department to the new employee and organisational
development? Will they have a completely different
job description now?

Minister?
Hon. Wayne L. Furbert: Sorry . . . no. Right now, the
compensation falls under the Accountant General.
Management Consultant service falls under the employee organisational development . So, now those
two units will fall directly under that employee and organisational development structure. That is where
they will be.
So, the transition of that group will eventually
move ––as I mentioned earlier, other human resource
departments, such as , fire, public works, and ever ybody else who is separate–– all of that will fall, event ually, under that employee and organisational deve lopment under the budgets part next year.

So, do those separate HR
areas or departments in each one of those Ministries,
presently kind of come under the umbrella of the department of human resources?
It seems like we have got a duplication of efforts right now. We have got the department of human resources, which is functioning at full speed. So, their
expenditure is close to $4 million. And then we have
got the department of employee and organisational
development, which is right now probably about $2 million. I am just curious where all those satellite HR
people . . . so the HR at the police, HR at wherever,
fire service, they are all going to come into the d e-partment of employee and organisational development. So, what happens with the department of human resources? Is that . . . that is going to move into .
. . so next year this will not be Head, 26, for a depar tment of human resources. That will be phased out. Okay. All right.

[Inaudible interjections]

So, Madam Chairman, I am
just wondering what will be fundamentally different
about the people who are going to be moving from
where they are now into this employee and organis ational development.
Now, I get what the vision and focus and
some of the quite ambitious goals that the employee
and organisational development department has es-pecially around government reform, but I am just cur ious what they are hoping to achieve by bringing all of
the HR member s into this one area.