Senate
Session 2019/2020
2 speeches
December 4, 2019
Official Hansard Report - Senate
Download PDF transcriptSession Summary
Simplified for YouThe Senate welcomed new Senator Dwayne Robinson who took his oath of allegiance. Attorney General Kathy Lynn Simmons announced the success of the government's pupillage program, which trained four young Bermudians as lawyers in 2018/19, with three more pupils to start in January 2020. The main debate focused on major changes to Bermuda's pension system that would require employers to provide pensions for non-Bermudian workers (phased in over 5 years) and allow retirees to withdraw up to 25% of their pension as a lump sum.
Key Topics
Swearing in of new Senator Dwayne RobinsonUpdate on the Ministry of Legal Affairs pupillage program for training young Bermudian lawyersNational Pension Scheme changes to include non-Bermudian workers and allow some retirement withdrawalsInternal Audit Amendment Act (first reading only)
Bills & Motions
National Pension Scheme (Occupational Pensions) Amendment Act 2019 - passed second reading (debate was ongoing at transcript end)
Internal Audit Amendment Act 2019 - first reading only
Minutes from November 13, 2019 meeting - confirmed
Standing Order 25 suspended to allow same-day debate of both bills
Notable Moments
Opposition Senator Kempe criticized the government for repeatedly using emergency procedures to rush bills through without proper consultation
Attorney General Simmons revealed she's considering requiring law firms that receive government contracts above certain amounts to take on pupil trainees
Concerns were raised about the additional costs to employers from expanding pension coverage to all workers
Debate Transcript
2 speeches from 2 speakers
Mr. Dwayne Robinson
Sen. Dwayne Robinson
I, Dwayne Vernell Robinson, do swear that I will be faithful and bear true all egiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors, according to law . So help me God. The President: And you will sign. [Pause] The President: Good. Thank you. Congratulations. Sen. Dwayne Robinson: …
I, Dwayne Vernell Robinson, do swear that I will be faithful and bear true all egiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs
and successors, according to law . So help me God.
The President: And you will sign.
[Pause]
The President: Good. Thank you.
Congratulations.
Sen. Dwayne Robinson: Thank you so much.
CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES
[Minutes of 13 November 2019]
The President: The second item is t he Minutes of the
13
th of November 2019.
Sen. James S. Jardine: Madam President.
The President: Senator Jardine, you have the floor.
Sen. James S. Jardine: Madam President, I move
that the Minutes of the meeting of Wednesday, the
13
th of November 2019, be taken as read.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Sen. James S. Jardine: Madam President.
The President: Carry on.
Sen. James. S. Jardine: Madam President, I move
that the Minutes of Wednesday, the 13
th of November
2019 , be confirmed as the correct record of that meeting.
The President : Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection. The Minutes are confirmed.
[Minutes of 13 November 2019 confirmed]
The President: Thank you, Senator Jardine.
Item No. 3, Messages.
MESSAGES
The Clerk: No messages, Madam President.
The President: Thank you.
REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
The President: There are none.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
AUDITOR GENERAL’S REPORT ON THE WORK
OF THE OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL,
YEAR ENDED MARCH 31, 2018
The President: I do have an announcement, which I
will read to you.
Senators, I wish to announce that, in accor dance with the provisions of section 101.3 of the Bermuda Constitution Order 1968, and section 10 of the Audit Act 1990, the Report of the Auditor General on
the Work of the Office of the Auditor General for the
702 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate [Financial] Year Ended March 31, 2018, has been
forwarded t o myself as President of the Senate, and
that the said report is hereby tabled in the Senate for
the information of Senators. And, Senators, you can
access copies of the report on your tablets.
A further announcement: the Annual Report of
the Bermuda College. Madam Attorney General , Government Leader in the Senate, Kathy Lynn Simmons,
you have the floor.
Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you,
Madam President, and good morning.
The President: Good morning.
BERMUDA COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE
YEAR 1ST APRIL 2018 TO 31ST MARCH 2019
Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: I hereby pr esent for the information of Senate the Annual Report
of the Bermuda College for the year 1st April 2018 to
31st March 2019. Senators can access a copy of the
report on their tablets.
The President: Thank you, Madam Attorney General .
NOTICES OF MOTION
The President: There are none.
PETITIONS
The President: There are none.
STATEMENTS
The President: We do have one Statement, Ministry
of Legal Affairs Pupillage Programme. And that will be
given by Senator Kathy Lynn Simmons, Attorney
General and Government Leader in the Senate.
You have the floor.
MINISTRY OF LEGAL AFFAIRS
PUPILLAGE PROGRAMME
Sen. t he Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you
again, Madam President.
Madam President, it was just over a year ago
that I shared with this Honourable Senate that the
Ministry of Legal Affairs had renewed its commitment
to revive the Ministry’s Pupillage Programme
, which
had fallen dormant under past administrations. Today I am pleased to provide an update to Members and
the public about the successes of the Ministry of Legal
Affairs’ 2018/19 Pupillage Programme.
Madam President, the principal objective of
the pupillage programme is to train- up future Berm udian barristers and attorneys by providing a compr e-hensive and rigorous professional training opportunity
within the Ministry of Legal Affairs’ departments and
sections. As Attorney General and Minister of Legal
Affairs, I recognise the unofficial stewardship of this
title to be mindful of the state of the legal profession, including ens uring that there are sufficient opportun ities for Bermudians to access a career at the Berm uda Bar.
I recall being approached by several young,
talented and tenacious young Bermudians with law qualifications (and their parents) , lamenting that pupil
training places were not available within government.
In fact, pupil places within the private sector had also
dried up —all, unfortunately, due to budget constraints
and fiscal conservatism.
Madam President, I must emphasise that for a
person to be admitted to the Bermuda Bar to practice
as a barrister and attorney within Bermuda, they must
satisfy the requirements of section 51 of the Supreme
Court Act 1905. One of those requirements is that
such persons must undergo and complete a period of
lawful pupillage of not less than 12 months. Thus, if across Bermuda’s legal profession there are very few
pupil places, otherwise qualified Bermudians will be
barred from entering the legal profession. Yet, at the
same time, foreign lawyers are able to obtain work
permits to practice law in Bermuda. Such a barrier to
entry into the legal profession for Bermudians is unsustainable. Not to mention, in the longer term, it di scourages Bermudians ’ interest in pursuing a career in
law and impacts families who sacrifice so much to
send their children overseas to the UK, Canada or the
Caribbean to obtain their legal qualifications.
Madam President, I pause here for a snippet
of history. None other than Bermuda’s National Hero,
former Attorney General and Bermuda’s first female
lawyer, Dame Lois Brown e-Evans, created the first
formalised Ministry of Legal Affairs pupillage training
programme. It is through Dame Lois’ s vision, foresight
and legacy that the Ministry of Legal Affairs can take credit for developing many of the finest legal minds in
government and beyond. Notable former pupils are
the current Deputy Solicitor General, Shakira Dill -
Francois , and the Deputy Director of Public Prosec utions, Cindy Clarke.
Madam President, there are many advantages of a pupillage with the Mini stry of Legal A ffairs, including exposure to several different depar tments and legal areas under the Ministry’s umbrella ,
as follows :
• In the Department of Public Prosecutions and
the Legal Aid Office, pupils get exposure to
the full range of criminal law advocacy .
• Within the Civil Advisory Section of the Atto rney General's Chambers, pupils gain exper ience in advising government departments on a range of administrative law and civil law matters , as well as judicial review proceedings
and civil advocacy .
Bermuda Senate • The pupils’ time in the Legislative Drafting
Section of the Attorney General's Chambers
allows them to provide support and assistance to Parliamentary Counsel , whose role is to
translate the policies of the Government into
legislative provisions.
Madam Presid ent, the pupils gain hands -on
experience in all these areas, building up a breadth of
knowledge of Bermuda law and practice over the 12 -
month programme. A unique feature of the Ministry’s
pupillage programme is that each pupil has input to
divide their placements , based on their individual i nterests and future career paths. They also have an
edge over pupils in the private practice because of the
invaluable insights they gain into the inner workings of government. Pupils, like their supervising counsel,
work right alongside senior government officials , contributing to the operational and administrative aspects of the public service.
Madam President, I am overjoyed to announce that our most recent cohort of four pupils have successfully completed the programme. Each was
confirmed by their Pupil Masters to be exemplary in their competencies , and fit and proper to enter the
legal profession. They are all now called to the Bermuda Bar as barristers and attorneys, notaries public
and commissioners for o aths.
I encourage this Honourable Chamber to take
note of Janae Nesbitt, Shi -Vaughn Lee, Jason Outerbridge and Tiné Tucker —four barristers with exciting
and storied futures ahead of them at the Bermuda Bar. I want to publicly praise each one of them for
having e xcelled during their pupillages; for the impact
and quality of their contributions to each area they matriculated through; and for pushing themselves past
their comfort zones, thereby refining their skills and competencies. Furthermore, they have all conve yed
an interest in remaining in Bermuda to launch their professional careers and a commitment to public service.
The pupils start the programme with no expectation of future employment ; however , we are actively working with each of them to find suitable posts
across government , within existing budget allocations.
Madam President, when canvassed for their feedback, pupils attest to the unmatched wealth of exper ience that pupillage with the Ministry affords . Acknow ledgement is given of the rich range of exposure, as
previously detailed, over pupillage within private sec-tor law firms. Additionally, pupils highlight the value of
the abundance of advocacy opportunities and their
involvement in litigation, drafting and advocacy with
tremendous public impact and/or of national i mportance. The former pupils attest to feeling confident
that the programme has sufficiently equipped them to
enter practice and prepared them for the rigou rs of
criminal and civil advocacy.
Madam President, the feedback from our outgoing pupils has informed improvements for the next intake of pupils. Currently, the Ministry has received
eight requests for pupillage and has obtained approval
to hire three new pupils. The cost per pupil is about
$78,200, which does not includ e benefits. We antic ipate our next cohort will commence training in January 2020. That recruitment process is pending. Madam President, it is anticipated that the continued success of the pupillage program me will provide a route
to the legal profession for the most qualifi ed Bermudian applicants, and over time reduce the government's need to recruit foreign lawyers. Cultivating a culture of
legal expertise requires planning toward domestically
meeting the demand for legal services, notwithstanding perennial budgetary constr aints.
Madam President, I wish to close by thanking
counsel within the Ministry of Legal Affairs who served
as Pupil Masters and provided the pupils with an o pportunity to work under their supervision and guidance
throughout the programme. The Pupil Masters for the
2018 /19 Pupillage Program me were Deputy Solicitor
General Shakira Dill -Francois , Crown Counsel Lauren
Sadler -Best, former Crown Counsel Specialist Larissa
Burgess , Crown Counsel Maria Sofianos , and Acting
Senior Legal Aid Counsel Charles Richardson. Al though Pupil Masters had ultimate supervision of the
pupils, all counsel within the Ministry generously volunteered their time, instruction, advice and words of encouragement to the pupils. They too deserve recognition.
Finally, training highly skilled Bermudians and
investing in Bermuda’s future is my priority. In a cl imate where well -educated Bermudians have found it
difficult to get their foot in the door and the hiring of
non-Bermudian lawyers continues to grow, this is a
vital programme which must continue. I look forward to updating the Senate regarding future programme
developments and successes. Thank you, Madam
President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Kathy Lynn Si mmons, Attorney General .
INTRODUCTION OF BILLS
The President: There are none.
FIRST READING S OF PUBLIC BILLS
NATIONAL PENSION SCHEME (OCCUPATIONAL
PENSIONS) AMENDMENT ACT 2019
INTERNAL AUDIT AMENDMENT ACT 2019
The President: The following public Bills have been
received from the Honourable House of Assembly and
are here read for the first time. Their titles are, respectively, the National Pension Scheme (Occupational
Pensions) Amendment Act 2019 and the Internal A udit Amendment Act 2019.
704 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate And, Senators, we had decide d that these two
Bills would be taken up today.
FIRST READING OF PRIVATE BILLS
The President: There are none.
QUESTION PERIOD
The President: The floor is open for questions on the
Statement that has been read. Would any Senator
care to speak?
Senator Michelle Simmons, you have the
floor.
Sen. Michelle Simmons: Good morning, Madam
President. Thank you.
The President: Good morning to you.
QUESTION 1: MINISTRY OF LEGAL AFFAIRS
PUPILLAGE PROGRAMME
Sen. Michelle Simmons: I want to commend the A ttorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs for r elaunching this pupillage programme. It is so important
in our community to provide the training and the expe-rience for our young people who are going overseas
to earn credentials so that they can come back to
Bermuda to work can avail themselves of. So this is
obviously an excellent programme. And the results
speak for themselves.
I just want to ask a question and make a very
short statement. My question is, As these pupils are going through the various departments within the Mi nistry of Legal Affairs, is the training they receive also
appropriate for them to enter into (I will call it ) private
practice in Bermuda? Because there may not immedi-ately be available to them positions within the Ministry of Legal Affair s. But I am hoping that they would be
able to get employment within the private sector.
The statement is , I believe there has been an
effort on the part of some to discourage young Ber-mudians from going into the legal field. I have heard it
myself. I have heard people saying that there is no
room for any more Bermudian lawyers. That is so far
from the truth. And I hope that those listening in today
who have young people who are interested in the l egal profession will encourage them to pursue their
dreams, to continue on this path if that is where they
feel they have been called.
Having said that, I am sorry to see that only
three spaces, I believe, have been allocated for pupils for the next year. I was hoping —
The President: Senator, can you direct your question
to the Attorney General , please?
Sen. Michelle Simmons: Oh, yes. My question is, Is
there any hope that that number can be increased?
Because I think there would be candidates who would
be suitable. Thank you very much, Madam President.
The Pres ident: Thank you, Senator Michelle Si mmons.
Would any Senator care to ask a question on
this Statement?
No.
Then, Senator Kathy Lynn Simmons, you
have the floor —
Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you,
Madam President.
With respect —
The Presiden t: —in response.
Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: In response to
the question as to whether they obtain skills that they
can take into the private sector, the answer is yes. Professional conduct, advisory research and advoc acy skills are, in fact, transferrable.
To the issue of the number of pupils, what I
have actually done with regard to persons who have applied is to meet with them personally. And it is i nteresting to meet with these young people and to rea lly try to discern what their aspirations and passions are. And it is quite disturbing to end a journey, as a
matter of fact. And it is disturbing to hear that most of
them have been rejected, and some not even having
interviewed with respect to their applications for placement for training in the private sector.
So, what I have actually done, because most
of them are unemployed and have been unemployed
up to a year and have financial and family commi tments, is that I have actually been able to find opportunities for them within the public serv ice. So, as we
speak, I have sent one to Legal Aid. I have sent one
to the Ministry of Finance. And we have one internally
working in our Civil Advisory Section, pending pupi llage applications. So I have determined to ensure that
they do have an opportunit y.
I have also determined to ensure that, where
appropriate, if I can direct them on another career path that they may in fact be interested in, it is a winwin for everybody. But our commitment is to ensure
that Bermudians who do take the lead and commit to
this type of professional training actually are afforded
opportunities, where appropriate, when they return to
Bermuda.
I can also say that three of our four pupils are
actually working within the Ministry of Legal Affairs at
this time. I also am considering very seriously launc hing a policy within the Ministry where, when we farm
out legal work to firms in Bermuda, if that work is going to result in revenue over a certain figure, they will
be obligated to take one of our young people to train,
Bermuda Senate as a part of that package. So I trust that all of our
young people will continue to seek opportunities appropriate to their skill sets and know that we are
committed to ensuring that they receive the training
and opportunities that they deserve. Thank you, Mad-am President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Kathy Lynn Si mmons, Attorney General .
Any other questions from any other Senators?
No. Then, thank you. We will move on.
ORDERS OF THE DAY
The President: Items to be taken up for the second
reading by the Senate under provisions of Standing
Order 25. And the first one is the second reading of
the National Pension Scheme (Occupational Pe nsions) Amendment Act 2019.
Senator Campbel l, this is your Bill?
Sen. Vance Campbell: Yes, it is, Madam President.
The President: You have the floor.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the provisions of Standing Order 25 be granted so that
Senate may now proceed with the second re ading of
the public Bills —I will do both of them now, Madam
President —entitled National Pension Scheme (Occ upational Pensions) Amendment Act 2019 and the I nternal Audit Amendment Act 2019.
The President: Any objection to that motion?
Senator Kempe.
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Madam President, I have
raised this in the past, and I will raise this again, that
the use of the Standing Orders should really be for
emergency measures or in consultation with the O pposition. I do not know if this some attempt at disr espect or something. But yet again there has been zero
consultation with the Opposition on suspending Standing Order 25.
We have no issue with debating this today,
but it seems to have become Government practice because, for whatever reason, the legislative calendar
is not being organised efficiently. We are sitting here
with nothing to debate despite its being the umpteenth
session in this calendar. And next week, are we going to be in the same situation where we are going to
have to suspend Standing Order 2 5 to debate a Bill
the same day it is tabled?
This Chamber serves an important purpose
for the country. We have caught errata in legislation in the past. There have been Bills that have been turned
back in the past because the public has no agreement
or has not had the time to consult. I believe it is i mportant that we respect the processes of this Chamber so that everyone has due time to consider things, especially if they have been amended in the House of
Assembly.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Kempe.
Would any other Senator care to respond to
that?
Senator Kathy Lynn Simmons.
Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you,
Madam President.
The Senator’s comments are noted. However,
the Government remains committed to advancing its
legislative agenda and will consult when necessary.
His comments with regard to the timeliness of Bills
and also in terms of whether there will be any Bills debated next session or sessions following are really
not for that Senator to opine on at this stage. But his
comments are noted. Thank you.
The President: Thank you, Senator Kathy Lynn Si mmons, Attorney General and Government Leader in
the Senate.
Senator Campbell, there has been no objection to this Bill being presented. So you have the floor
to present the Bill.
BILL
SECOND READING
NATIONAL PENSION SCHEME (OCCUPATIONAL
PENSIONS) AMENDMENT ACT 2019
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, thank you.
I move that the Bill entitled the National Pension Scheme (Occupational Pensions) Amendment
Act 2019 be now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Carry on, Senator Campbell.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President , Senators
will be aware that the National Pension Scheme (O ccupational Pensions) Act 1998 (the Act) provides for
the establishment, administration and regulation of
private sector occupational pension plans for Berm udians and their husbands or wives. The Act became
operational on the 1st of January 2000, and regul ations were introduced in 1999 and 2000 to provide for
such matters as registration of plans, plans for self -
employed persons and pension fund investments.
Another signi ficant amendment was made in
2006 to make it possible for the commission to recover outstanding employer contributions as a civil matter
through the courts, as well as to make directors and
706 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate officers of companies personally liable for any unpaid
contributions.
Further amendments to the Act and associated regulations were introduced in 2010 and 2011 to
allow plan members with a real financial need to get access to a portion of their pension funds , based on
prescribed criteria for hardship. Specifically, fina ncial
hardship withdrawals were permitted for applicable mortgage arrears, eligible education expenses, uncovered medical expenses and rental arrears.
Madam President , the pension commission
has provided the following background statistics as at
the 31
st of December 2018: There are 25,386 estimated plan members. The number of plans is 3,065; [of
these] 3,050 [are] defined contribution and 15 defined
benefit. Approximately US$2.98 billion of assets are in
these plans . There are 568 self -employed plans .
There are six approved third- party plan administrators
and US $785 million of assets in local prescribed r etirement products, and finally BDA $28.79 million in
total financial hardship payments since inception in
2010.
Madam President , the pension commission,
which is the specialist regulatory body established to
administer the Act, undertook a review of the Act to
determine if all of the existing provisions adequately covered developments that have taken place since
the legislation was first introduced in 2000. To this
end, the commission’s standing advisory committee was engaged in reviewing various proposals. The
committee consisted of the following representatives:
the Argus Group, BF&M Life Insurance Company Ltd.,
Colonial Pension Services Ltd., Freisenbruch- Meyer
Insurance Services Ltd., Conyers Dill & Pearman,
Bermuda Public Service Union, Bermuda Industrial
Union, the Bermuda Employers Council, Bermuda
Investment Advisory Services Limited, Anchor Investment Management Ltd., Chubb Bermuda (forme rly ACE Bermuda Insurance Ltd.), AXA XL (formerly
XL Group Ltd.), and the Chartered Professional A ccountants of Bermuda.
The commission advised that the committee
met and discussed, originally, over 129 changes.
These proposals were also submitted to the pension commission board for its review. Madam President ,
the Government’s 2017 election platform stated that it
would “address the current structural imbalance of
pension benefits that exist between guest workers and
Bermudians by requiring equal treatment for Bermudian and ex -patriot labour. Currently, employers are not
required by law to provide the same level of pension
benefits to guest workers as they are to Bermudians,
thus making it more expensive to employ Bermudians.”
Members of the commission’s advisory committee were also invited to discuss and provide input
on the aforementioned proposal. In addition to the
existing members of the committee, the commission invited representatives of the Association of Bermuda [International] Companies [ABIC], the Hotel Emplo yers of Bermuda, the Restaurant Association, Con-struction Association of Bermuda, Landscaping Ass ociation, the Bermuda Human Resources Association
and a former board member of the Human Rights
Commission to make representations on the implic ations of introducing the proposal on their respective
industries or areas. Members of the committee and
invited representatives of industry groups met at the
offices of Chubb, which kindly offered to host the s eries of meetings.
In addition, the Ministry of Finance and the
commission also held discussions with represent atives of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and R einsurers [ABIR] and Bermuda International Long Term
Insurers and Reinsurers, and received helpful feedback.
Madam President, it would be remiss of me if I
did not advise that there were a number of concerns
expressed in broadening the coverage to include nonBermudian employees. In particular, the additional cost to employers, weakening of Bermuda’s compet itive position as a cost -effective financial centre and
the imposition of additional administrative responsibil ities were raised. However, it was recognised that a large number of employers in Bermuda already had
their non- Bermudian staff participating in either plans
registered under the Act or plans that are not required
to be registered under the Act. It should be noted that
plans that are not required to be registered under the
Act are very similar to registered plans, with the major
differences centred around the non- locking-in of pe nsion funds on termination or retirement, as well as to have employees who are US persons have the ability to participate in 401(k) plans to benefit from favour able US tax treatment of contributions.
Madam President, the Human Rights Act
1981 was also discussed as it related to the current
National Pension Scheme exclusion of non-Bermudians other than husbands or wives of Berm udians being potentially contrary to its provision on di scrimination on the basis of a person’s national origin.
Madam P resident, Cayman was noted as an example
of a comparable jurisdiction that had made it mandatory for all employees to participate in their occup ational pension system. However, Cayman does pr ovide exemptions for non- Caymanian employees in
specific circumst ances.
Madam President, while a number of the representatives were not in favour of broadening the coverage to require the inclusion of non- Bermudian wor kers, they recognised that if the Government decided to proceed with the proposal, it should do so as efficien tly and cost -effectively as possible. To this end, a
number of helpful suggestions were put forth on how
this could be achieved, and I am pleased to advise
that the Government has incorporated their suggestions in these amendments.
Bermuda Senate The most signi ficant suggestion put forth by
the advisory committee and included in this Bill is the
phasing- in of contribution rates —5 per cent for employers and 5 per cent for employees for non-Bermudians —over the next five years, as was the
original practice when the legislation was first intr oduced for Bermudians and their spouses. Also, it was
agreed that certain exemptions should be provided for
non-Bermudian work permit holders employed for a
short term —for example, that is one year or under.
However, upon receivi ng a renewal of their work permit, they would be required to be enrolled.
Madam President, initially it was proposed to
amend the Act to include the requirement for all em-ployees in Bermuda satisfying the eligibility requir ements to be enrolled by their employers in Bermuda in
a registered plan or financial institution pension plan.
Both of these plans are approved by the commission,
provided they satisfy the various requirements under
the Act.
Madam President, Senators are advised that
representatives of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers brought to the attention of the
commission that US citizens on a work permit in Bermuda may already participate in a 401(k) plan, which
they asserted is broadly equivalent to the plan r equirements under t he Act. They requested that such
employees should not be required to participate in a Bermuda- registered plan, and if their employers are
forced to do so, it would involve additional regulation
and expense, which they believe is unnecessary and
costly, and could jeopardise their existing 401(k)
plans’ recognition under the [US] Employee Retir ement Income Security Act [ERISA] of 1974 and relat-ed favourable US tax treatment.
They originally requested that these 401(k)
plans be automatically deemed registered, but not
subject to the Act’s requirements. Madam President,
this view was not supported, as “ deemed registered”
is not a concept or practice recognised under the Act and would complicate the commission’s regulatory
oversight and responsibilities.
Madam President, the commission has had
experience with a small number of international bus iness employers who have voluntarily agreed to make
changes to their existing 401(k) plans relating to spouses of Bermudians where dual citizens, US and
Bermuda, are emplo yed in Bermuda, so as to satisfy
the Act’s requirements. The commission has not r eceived any feedback from these employers that the
changes required to be made to their 401(k) plans
have caused them unfavourable tax treatment by the IRS. However, it is now proposed that section 3 of the
Act be amended to provide for the non- applicability of
the Act to such US employees participating in a plan qualified under section 401(k) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. In addition, recognising that
some employ ers may wish to have their 401(k) plans registered under the Act, voluntary registration has
been provided for.
Madam President, the Government recogni ses that there are a number of plan members who have
not been able to accumulate a reasonable pension, as they have not been employed long enough since the
Act was first introduced in January 2000. And it does
not make financial sense to have them receive b etween $100 and $290 per month from plan administr ators and have to incur ongoing plan expenses, which
will further reduce their small pension balance. Fur-thermore, at retirement, members may need to r eceive a lump sum to help with repayment of a mor tgage, another major financial commitment or to pay for significant living expenses such as home or res identi al care or health insurance upon leaving the
workforce.
The Government has heard the increasing
requests from the members of the public for greater
access to their pension plans. And as a result, plan
members will be able to receive all of their pension
funds in a lump sum at retirement if they have
BDA$50,000 or less. In addition, for those with larger
balances, it will permit a one- time payment of up to
25 per cent to be received as a lump sum at retir ement, as specified in regulations that will be intr oduced in due course.
Madam President, another important change
relates to the introduction of regulatory and admini strative fees to support the increasingly important work
of the commission. Senators are advised that the pr imary source of income for the c ommission is the annual government grant. A small amount of fee income
is also generated. It should be noted that the original
fees paid to the commission have not increased since
the inception of the Act, nearly 20 years ago. The
Government recognises the important role the commission provides and that, to further develop its s upervisory and regulatory capacity, it must enhance its
resources and to enable its income to come from
more independent sources.
Consistent with the regulatory models already
established in Bermuda, it is necessary to introduce fees for the various services the commission provides
and for those service providers primarily benefiting from the mandatory occupational pension system to
pay those regulatory fees.
Madam President, the pr oposed Bill provides
for a number of significant policy and regulatory objec-tives, and the following is a summary of the more si gnificant areas, some of which have been mentioned
previously. [The proposed Bill]
• requires non-Bermudians to participate in re gistered plans;
• provides for additional financial hardship wit hdrawals for funeral expenses;
• permits retirees to apply for financial hardship withdrawals and to be exempt from having to
pay the application fee;
708 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate • permits plan members or former members to
receive the entire value of their pension fund
account balance for defined contribution plans
or commuted value for defined benefit plans
at retirement, at $50,000 or below;
• provides for the ability of plan members at r etirement to receive up to 25 per cent of the
value of their pension fund account balance
for defined contribution plans, or commuted
value for defined benefit plans, as prescribed
in regulation;
• introduces regulatory fees payable by plan
administrators;
• changes the two- year vesting [period] of contributions to one year;
• provides for the Minister of Finance to intr oduce regulations to control the fees charged
to plan members;
• introduces monetary penalties for noncompl iance by plan administrators and other related persons;
• provides for certain ex emptions for multi -
employer plans;
• includes all bonuses in calculating the amount
of pension contributions;
• requires employers to maintain specified pa yroll and employee- related information, and
failure to do so is an offence;
• introduces the payment of interest by emplo yers on their late pension contributions;
• in order to reduce plan expenses for smaller plans, increases the requirement for audited
financial statements for plans from $1 million to $3 million; and
• introduces greater oversight of plan trus tees,
and their specific fit and proper standards.
Madam President, with your indulgence, I
would like to go back and provide a definition for certain terms that I mentioned —specifically, “ defined contribution plan” and “ defined benefit plan, ” just for those
in the listening audience who may not understand
what we are referring to.
The President: You certainly may do so, Senator
Campbell.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, a defined contribution plan
is a type of retirement plan in which the employer, employee or both make contributions on a regular basis. Individual accounts are set up for participants, and
benefits are based on the amounts credited to these accounts through employee contributions and, if a pplicable, empl oyer contributions, plus any investment
earnings on the money in the account. In defined contribution plans, future benefits fluctuate on the basis of
investment earnings. Madam President, defined benefit pension
plans are a type of pension plan in which an employer
or sponsor promises a specified pension payment, lump sum or combination thereof on retirement, that is
predetermined by a formula based on the employee’s earnings history, tenure of service and age, rather
than depending directly on individual investment r eturns. A defined benefit plan is defined in the sense
that the benefit formula is defined and known in advance.
Conversely, for a defined contribution retir ement saving plan, the formula for computing the e mployer’s and the employee’s contr ibutions is defined
and known in advance, but the benefit to be paid out
is not known in advance.
And finally, Madam President, I will use the
term “ commuted value. ” The commuted value relates
to a defined benefit plan, and it is the present value of
the future series of cash flows required to fulfil a pension obligation— basically, what that amount is worth
today that you will receive in the future.
Thank you, Madam President, for allowing me
to clarify those.
Madam President, the proposed amendments
will represent the most significant legislative changes
since the Act was first introduced. I can advise that the Pension Commission has already commenced the
transitional arrangements and consultation with plan sponsors and administrators required to operati onalise these amendments smoothly.
Madam President, the proposed amendments
contained in this Bill are sensible, reflect the need of the members of pension plans and are in line with
pension provisions and regulations in other jurisdi ctions.
Madam Presi dent, in closing, I would like to
thank all of those persons within the Pension Com-mission, the Attorney General’s Chambers, the Mini stry of Finance and the private sector who have assis ted with the development of this Bill.
Thank you, Madam President.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
SENATE VISITORS
The President: Thank you, Senator Campbell.
And before I open the floor for the Senators to
respond, I would just like to acknowledge the pres-ence in the Chamber of a number of people.
First, I would like to acknowledge the presence of the Assistant Financial Secretary, Mr. Steven
Gift; the Pension Commission CEO, Mr. Peter Sousa;
the Parliamentary Counsel, Miriam Rogers; and the
Director of Internal Audit, Ms. Roseanne Foy. Welcome to you all.
Bermuda Senate [National Pension Scheme (Occupational Pensions)
Amendment Act 2019, second reading debate, co ntinuing]
The President: Would any Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Kempe, you have the floor.
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Thank you, Madam Pres ident. Thank you, Senator Campbell, for your introduction of the Bill.
There are a number of things in this Bill that
we certainly agree with. I believe giving people access
to their pension funds en bloc as opposed to in annu ity form is certainly good for people to be abl e to exercise their hard- earned savings as they see fit. E xpand ing on some of the hardship qualifications certainly makes sense to adapt the legislation to modern
needs, especially as it relates to education and these
kinds of things. And reducing the vest ing period from
two years to one I think more accurately protects a far
more mobile workforce that younger generations tend
to exhibit, perhaps working a year to 18 months at
companies before changing. And that mobility should
not jeopardise their company -side 5 per cent of the
pension contribution.
There are a number of things afterwards,
though, that I either have questions about or just
some commentary on. I noticed, and I am almost going in reverse order of what I want to speak about, but
it was more i n the order that Senator Campbell laid
out the commentary.
One was as it relates to the 5 per cent, or r ather the pension contributions, for guest workers in
Bermuda. And I guess there can be philosophical di scussions either way about what pensions in Ber muda
were made for. Were they put in place in order to pr otect Bermudian workers who retire in Bermuda, some sort of financial stability? Or were they set out to pr otect all workers no matter where they were going to spend those pension funds, whether it be in Bermuda
or overseas? Obviously, the 5 per cent company contribution is an additional cost of business. And things were put in place in the past certainly as a way to assist people post retirement living in Bermuda.
Whether that 5 per cent contribution was actually a driver of preference in employing a guest
worker versus a Bermudian I have reservations and
doubts. I would like to see some data around that. I
believe especially at the lower end of the economic
spectrum that work permit fees and repatri ation guarantees and these kinds of things probably offset that
in grand sense. So I struggle to believe that that is an
actual reason of causing certain job categories to be
filled mainly by guest workers as opposed to Berm udians.
The 25 per cent drawdow n, that is available
only upon retirement. Whilst I think that is a good thing
that people have, you know, a lagging mortgage or a car payment that they need to get rid of, and perhaps
the interest on that is greater than interest that is b eing earned through your pension, then that is a wise
choice to avoid kind of, you know, saving with less
interest and paying with more on the other hand. But my concern is misconception in the community. At
the, I guess, quasi -Throne Speech at the delegates
conference, t here seemed to be this big layout of bi llions of dollars overseas that can come back and start businesses and all this kind of thing.
And I just want to be quite clear for people
who took that speech as the ability of someone who is at a stage in their l ife where they want to be building
and creating businesses, that this drawdown does not
assist them. This is not what this is for. This is for
people post retirement. So just so there is no conf usion in the community about whom this 25 per cent
benefits, i t is not what was alluded to in that speech.
Another, I guess concern and element that I
am kind of happy with, [is] the fact that the Pension Commission is going to grow somewhat in size to
meet its heightened needs. [This] can be both a good thing and a bad thing. If it is simply building its size in
order to respond to increased red tape, that is not a
good thing. If it is increasing its size in order to hold
bad-actor employers to account, those who collect but
do not invest the contributions of their employees, if they were going to see a heightened number of bad actors brought to court, brought to account, fined, et
cetera, I think that is an excellent use of increased
funding, for fairness and accountability for Bermuda
as a whole.
I am not sure wha t the key targets are as it
relates to this increased spending, and I am hoping we can get some clarity on that. But I remember at a
meeting at the Ministry of Finance with a couple of
technical officers related to this, my understanding
was that the gener al idea is to grow the budget of the
Pension Commission from about $1 million to about
$2 million. The other goal is to transition from a pr imarily government subsidy —i.e., tax -funded entity to
a self -funded entity.
Now, one of my challenges with that, and this
is a smaller dollar amount on the grand scheme of things. But my challenge with that is that we are effec-tively transitioning costs directly onto the user base
again. That $2 million in funding is going to be assumed by fees that are contained in the Schedule
herein, perhaps not entirely. So I did some rough
math, and I expect that, to reach that $2 million self -
funding number, we are going to see another amendment in the future where these fees increase. I believe
it is somewhat naïve to believe that those fees will not
be passed on, eventually, to the consumers, to the
users, the investors in these pension schemes.
And my other question is, What is going to
happen with that close to $1 million government sub-sidy? Are we going to see a decrease in t axation ge nerally to offset the fact that these costs are being
710 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate transferred directly onto the user -based taxpayers as
fees? We saw a similar mechanism happen with the
health care reform in April. Elements of the gover nment’s Standard Health Benefit were funded by taxes
that had already been collected. And those same costs were then simply shifted to the working class
and to employers. This new health plan that is coming
seems to use the exact same mechanism.
So my question is, with all this transfer of
government expense directly onto the taxpayer, why
are we not seeing any commitments to a reduction of
the tax burden to provide some balance, instead of
hitting people with the left hand and then with the
right?
And those are my comments, Madam Pres ident. Thank you.
The President: Thank you, Senator Kempe.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Jardine, you have the floor.
Sen. James S. Jardine: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
First of all, thank you to Senator Campbell for
very helpful comments. There were some points in
there which answered one or two of my questions. So
thank you very much for that. First of all, I want to
acknowledge that there are a number of positive aspects of this Bill, such as the vesting period being r educed from two years to one year.
The requirements of new plans to be regi stered within 90 days instead of the current 180- day
period, I think it is important that when new plans are
created, they are registered as soon as possible. And
so, that is a good change. Also, the new requirement
under [clause 14, which inserts] section 19(6A) of employers to pay interest on contributions payable to a
plan where such contributions have been outstanding
for more than 30 days beyond the end of the month in
which the y are due—hopefully, that will encourage
those employers who are delinquent in making their
pension fund payments to get cracking and make them on time.
Also, the amendment to section 34 [at clause
22] with respect to payments to be made in the case of shortened life expectancy (and there were some
changes there which I was pleased to see), and the
addition of a new section 69A [at clause 38], which
indicates that the Pension Commission will issue
Guidance Notes. I think Guidance Notes are very,
very impor tant. And I think those Guidance Notes will,
hopefully, help employers and employees to better
understand the terms of the Act and also their own
particular plan. So I am pleased to see that.
I support the amendments with respect to
401(k) plans, which im pact some of our employees
working here in Bermuda. And also, the phasing- in of
the contribution rates for those who will now find themselves, that is, the non- Bermudians, being covered under various pension plans.
I do have a number of comments and questions, Madam President. I did prepare a list of these
over a week ago, and I did circulate them to Madam
Attorney General to give her an opportunity to see
those and, hopefully, be able to respond today. But I
acknowledge the fact that if that is not possib le, then
maybe answers can be provided at a future point in
time. So maybe if I can just start with those, and the
first would be with respect to clause 2(c) on page 3, where it defines an “employee.” And it says here,
“employee” has now been amended in the House to
read “unless that person has been granted such permission for an aggregate period exceeding twelve
months.”
Now I am not sure I understand what “aggr egate” means. Does that mean continuous employment for two months? Or does it mean they work si x
months one year, and then next year they are rehired and work another six months? And then you aggr egate those to get to your 12 months? Or does that
mean they have to work continuously for 12 months?
So I just had a question about that.
Again, some com ment has already been
made about guest workers now being added to the pension plans. To be frankly honest, I think it is i mportant that guest workers do have a pension. I understand, obviously, the hardships that this may cr eate for some employers. And it was interesting to hear
Senator Campbell . . . And I am pleased that Gover nment did consult as widely as they did before bringing in these amendments. But part of that consultation did
indicate that many employers who do employ nonBermudians already inclu de them in their pension
plans. But I do understand that this will be additional
cost for some employers. And again, I just sound a
note of concern that all of these additional costs have
an impact on employers and their ability, frankly, to do the jobs that they want to do.
Also, in clause 2(d) on page 3, the definition
of “pensionable earnings” has now been changed to remove the 10 per cent of basic salary or wage d eduction before calculating the additional pension pa yable. So again, this was an addition al amount of bonus. There was a 10 per cent of basic salary that was
allowed to be deducted before any pension was calc ulated. That has now disappeared. So again, that adds
an additional cost to the employer because they will
be paying pension payments on a larger amount of a
bonus or any additional money earned than they had
in the past. And again, it is all these little bits that just
keep adding additional costs to a business, which I
am concerned about.
In clause 2(f), page 3, the definition of an “actuary” has now been amended to now include “or
some other professional association recognised by
the Commission.” Now, I am always concerned when
we start playing around with definitions of who is a lBermuda Senate lowed to opine on various things, particularly actuarial
liabilities. And I am concerned that . . . you know, the
actuary is the person who should be opining on act uarial liabilities, and so I am concerned that the Commission is allowed to appoint (in quotes) “some other” body to opine on those particular liabili ties. And they
may not have the necessary skills to do so. So I am
just trying to get some clarification as to why that def inition has been widened.
In clause 17 on page 7, there is an amendment there. I guess I want to know, is that amendment
retroactive or does the period of one year start from
the day on which the Act actually commences?
And in clause 19(b) . . . (I am sorry I am being
specific here, Madam President, because there are a lot of subsections and subclauses, so I am trying to
help the Sena tor by being specific here.) And this has
to do with the lump- sum payment, the 25 per cent that
is now going to be allowed to be withdrawn on retir ement. As was pointed out earlier, Madam President,
we have a National Pension Scheme (Financial Har dship) Regulations 2010 Act, which does allow for ind ividuals to apply for sums of money in the case of hardship. And the maximum permitted under that at
the moment is 20 per cent per application. And it c overs such things as mortgage payments, where pe ople fall behind; critical health needs; educational
needs; and so on. So there is provision in there for
that.
Now, to be honest, I am not against som ebody retiring and saying, Look. I have a mortgage.
And I'd much rather pay off my mortgage than conti nue to pay int erest on it. So I am in favour of that 25
[per cent] lump sum for payment of mortgages, other major loans or indeed for critical health needs. But I
have major concerns about people taking 25 per cent
of their pension when they retire and, let us say, blo wing it on a magical round- the-world cruise. When they
return to Bermuda and reality sets in, they then realise
that the pension amount they are going to get on a
monthly basis may be substantially less.
And there has been a lot in the press about,
Isn't i t wonderful that we're allowing everybody to take
these lump- sum amounts of 25 per cent? Because
they do it in the United Kingdom, and the PSSF [Pu blic Service Superannuation Fund], which is the public
government fund, allows that to happen. But I think it
is important to raise a couple of factors here. The first
is that the government PSSF pension fund has been
in existence since 1981. So that is 38 years. So
somebody retiring from that particular plan, who has
been working for government for 38 years as of last year, taking a lump sum of 25 per cent may not be as
bad as somebody who is in the private sector, who
has been into the fund only since 2000, which is when
that fund took effect. So that is 18 years.
And I believe that individuals need to have as
much pensionable money available on an annuity ba-sis or some monthly drawdown so that there is money each month coming in for a pension, rather than taking a huge sum of 25 per cent of that pension and
spending it on something like a cruise around the
world.
And I should also point out that the cost of li ving in Bermuda, as we all know, is horrendous. For those of you who go shopping and buy groceries (I do
quite regularly), the cost of groceries is just prohibitive. And every little bit counts. And as a r etiree, it is
important that there is something coming in every month to help you pay for the cost of living in this I sland.
And so I have real concerns about allowing
this lump sum of 25 per cent of pensions to be taken in the private sector, because mos t people have been
playing into that plan for only 18 years or 19 years as of this year. So I have some concerns about that. And as I say, I do not mind individuals taking up to a lump
sum of 25 per cent if they wish to pay off a mortgage. I
understand tha t. Rather than paying interest on a
mortgage, let us pay the mortgage off, or if there is a
significant health problem. But I do have some con-cerns about allowing people to take a lump sum that is
not really necessary for health or mortgage reasons
and per haps blowing it on some luxury holiday.
Clause 36 on page 12, I guess the question I
have there is, Should that not be headed up as [pr oposed] section 67A, as it relates to section 67 in the
principal Act, and not to section 68? A small point, but
just reading those sections and tying them in to the
principal Act, I would have thought that should be
[section] 67A.
In clause 37 on page 13, my question here is,
Why is the Minister, under section 69(1)(jb), setting "maximum fee payable" in relation to servic e provi ders? Surely, the free market should be allowed to set
their own fees. I just wondered why we are suddenly
setting maximum fees. What is the rationale for that?
Also, clause 43, I just wondered where that
went in the Act. If I can just turn to it f or a moment, it
says, "Savings and transitional provisions." Maybe it is
just something that sits in this amendment Act, and I
am sort of looking at the draughtspeople here; they
are the experts. But it just sort of sits out there, and I did not know where it went. It does not appear to go
into the principal Act anywhere, and maybe it just sits
here in this amendment Act and goes no further.
Clause 35(a), page 12, the reference should
be section 67A if you agree with my earlier comments in the point I ment ioned above.
I did have a question on [Schedule 1, par agraph] 9, on regulation 9, on page [18], where the threshold for an audit has been increased to $3 mi llion. As an auditor, I always get concerned when we
start to say, You don't need to have an audit for a
pensionable fund or pension funds. These are other
people's money. And my concern is that all pension
amounts, all pension funds, should be properly audi ted to make sure that they are correct and there have
712 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate been no malfeasance or other issues which h ave
arisen. And so, I get concerned when I see these
thresholds, as is the case here, being moved up to $3
million.
[Schedule 1, paragraph] 9(b), on regulation 9
at page [18], it would seem to me that we would want
the "basis of accounting" to be full acc rual and not on
a cash basis, since I would want to know any outstanding receivables. And that is amounts due to be
paid to the fund that are outstanding. Cash basis of
accounting is fine in certain circumstances; but in the case of pensions, if there are amounts due from e mployers who have not remitted the amounts for themselves and their employees, I would want to know
about that. And so, again, cash basis of accounting in terms of pension funds is not something that I would
certainly be advocating at all .
[Paragraph] 21 [amending] regulation 39(1)
. . . I wanted to know why we are deleting the words
"British or American" from the definition and singling
out just the Canadian definition. I would have thought the broader definition that is there, which inc ludes
both British and American, and we are talking about actuaries here . . . certainly, in Bermuda we have all
three. And I just wondered what the reason for that
was.
In [paragraph] 27 [amending] regulation
49(1)(a), page [22], again, why are we deleti ng "British
or American"? I just do not understand this move, and
I would appreciate some comment there. And again,
[paragraphs] 28 and 29, I have the same comment.
Finally, on wrapping all this up, as has been
mentioned earlier on pages 27 to 29, there are a lot of
new fees. And I assume, and again I guess this is a
question for Senator Campbell, I am assuming in the
consultation with the various parties that were spoken
to, fees were mentioned. And I just wondered what
their reactions were.
Again, I wou ld just go back and sort of su mmarise all of these additional costs. We have these
fees coming in place. We have the additional cost of
now having to pay pensions for non- Bermudians who
meet the threshold of 12 months of service. We also
have the removal of the 10 per cent, which was a llowed for bonuses and so on, before pensions had to be calculated on those bonuses. All of these things have, added together, mean additional costs for e mployers. And again, there comes a point in time where
employers are goi ng to say, I just simply can't absorb
any more costs. So I think Government needs to be
mindful of this. I understand the reasons why these
fees, these new fees, are coming into place; that has been explained. But I think we need to be very careful
about a dding any additional costs to businesses here
in Bermuda.
And with those remarks, Madam President, I
will finish. Thank you very much.
The President: Thank you, Senator Jardine. Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Jones, you have the floor.
Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you, Madam President.
Also thank you to Senator Campbell for giving us a
very comprehensive explanation of the purpose and
the direction for the new changes in this amendment
to the existing National Pension Scheme.
I am learning that the longer I stay and deli berate in these Chambers, I need put up my hand be-fore Senator Jardine, because he tends to give a very
good, detailed perspective on the legislation. And
many things that he raised were on my list. And so,
my contribution to this debate will be extremely short.
But having said that, there is one thing I would
like to piggyback on my colleague, Senator Jardine, and that is that there is much to be pleased about with
this particular legislation. I am in agreem ent with the
spirit and the overall, overarching purpose of this le gislation, which is to give pensioners more opportunity
and access to the hard- earned money that they have
put aside, giving them the added opportunity to have
access to it, especially in t imes of hardship, which has
been part of the amendment for years gone by. And
now this added opportunity to gain access in a form of
a lump sum, up to 25 per cent of the (I am made to
understand) present day value of that pension. It is a
good thing. It definitely gives that pensioner who may
have a mortgage, may have a little bit of a mortgage
that he or she wants to pay off, or a car loan, or do
some major upgrade to their home . . . I mean, that is
all well and good.
I will caution, though, although som e within
the community may think that this amendment will
cause a major boost and stimulus to our economy, I
hate to blow out your bubble, but that is not going to actually materialise. I think in the lives of individuals
who are entering those golden year s, it will be an
added help to them, as they have to anticipate a fixed
income. And they may have overarching debt or some
payments that they would like to pay off.
I would say, though, that employers should be
encouraged very strongly, during their exit interviews
with these pensioners, to make sure that they fully
understand the consequences of their actions —i.e.,
fully explain what their monthly pension payments will
be if they actually take out that 25 per cent lump sum.
They need to fully understand t hat the amounts will be
significantly less and that they are well aware of it. They sign off and say, I'm aware of it. I know that I'm
going to be at a lesser point in a monthly payment.
And, no, I do not expect the government to jump in
and make up the gap of my loss in monthly payments.
I think those things are important.
Also, the importance of encouraging these
pensioners to use this money for investment opport unities, I think that is important, as well. As Senator
Jardine says, these lump sums used for a worldwide
Bermuda Senate cruise is not quite the intent. And I think that needs to
be underscored.
Another thing I am going to raise, and it may
sound a little bit off -centre, but I think pensioners need
to be careful that they do not give that money to their
childr en. It may sound crass, but you know, we know
that parents have a soft heart for their children and
want to see them get ahead in life. And we do all we
can. I have two children, as well, and my wife has to
caution me because I want to empty my pockets and
give to them. And she is saying, No, no. You need to
hold back and allow the children to stand on their own
two feet.
[Laughter]
Sen. Marcus Jones: So I would strongly advise those
pensioners who are looking at this lump sum as an
opportunity for them to better their situation: Do not be
overtaken with an abundance of love that you drop
that into the laps of the children. Make sure that you dispense of those funds wisely.
So I would say, with those caveats, this legi slation is a good one. I believe that being that this is not
a socialist country, individual citizens should have the
right and ability to determine their own pension and be
able to dispense it in a way that is responsible and that will take care of them in their declining years.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Jones.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Michelle Simmons, you have t he
floor.
Sen. Michelle Simmons: Thank you, Madam Pres ident. I will be very brief.
I want to thank Senator Campbell for his brief.
It was very helpful. And also, to thank Senators
Jardine and Jones for their comments, because that
means I need to say ver y little.
I will mention, however, that I am very pleased
to see, especially in view of all of the conversations
going around in the community of late about emplo yers who are failing to pay contributions . . . I am very
happy to see that, in this amendment to the legisl ation, employers who fail to pay contributions, which
they withhold from a member's earnings, shall pay
interest on the unpaid contribution. I think that word
“shall” should be underscored many times. And I think
it also puts responsibility on those who have to follow
up to make sure that employers understand that they
will—they shall—pay interest on any monies they
withhold and do not pay forward to the fund.
Also, with regard to the 25 per cent lump sum
that people can take out upon retirement, I think it is
important for us to step back and understand that, at
that age, people are looking ahead to whatever the future may hold. And none of us has a crystal ball, so
we do not know what is going to happen. And I think
there is a certain amount of caution that people exercise when they do have access to that lump sum.
I believe it is a good thing, because it does
give people control over funds that really belong to them, that they have accrued over a period of time.
And there is still 75 per cent in their pension pot. So, it
may sound like a big thing. It may sound like som ething that we cannot trust people with. But it is their
money.
And I think that pensioners are going to err on
the side of caution and invest wisely. Yes, some may
have mortgages to pay off. But that is not the only
debt that people have at that point. And since ever yone's circumstance is different, Madam President, I would posit that we need to understand that we are giving people greater control over their future.
I also will add that, sometimes, people have to
vary their spending, depending on their circumstances. And I am thinking of some unexpected things that
will occur, such as maybe a long- term illness of
someone in the family, maybe long- term care prov isions for an elderly parent, grandparent. This 25 per
cent lump sum will give people greater flexibility in determining their way forward, financially. So I do
support that. I do not really have a problem with it. I think that it is important at that point in people's lives
to ensure that they do have greater control over their
finances.
With those remarks, I thank you, Madam
President, for listening.
The President: Thank you, Senator Michelle Si mmons.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Ric hardson, I will come back to you.
You defer? Okay.
Senator Dwayne Robinson, you have the
floor.
Sen. Dwayne Robinson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident. I will also be brief. The Senators, my colleagues,
have outlined a lot of my concerns and a lot of what I support regarding this Bill.
I just have one hang- up, and it is regarding
the levelling in the playing field as far as employment goes for Bermudians. I do believe that this will level
the playing field as far as deductions go. But regar ding the employment issue here in Bermuda, I do believe that a lot of us have heard similar stories regar ding certain pervasive contracts that guest workers are
signed onto. So I do want us to really kind of remove
that Band- Aid part that is attached to this Bill in that
esse nce, because we will still have similar problems
within the community as far as certain jobs being geared towards guest workers, such as working more
than 40 hours, live- in jobs, things like that.
714 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate So, I do support the Bill in its essence. But I
do not want that caveat to be attached to it, that it will
kind of tackle an issue with employment regarding our
Bermudians. I do think that there are much deeper
issues that we have to tackle in order to level that playing field.
And with those comments, I close, Madam
President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Dwayne Robi nson.
Would any other Senator?
Senator Richardson, you have the floor.
Sen. Anthony Richardson: Good morning, Madam
President, fellow Senators and those in the listening
audience.
The Presi dent: Good morning.
Sen. Anthony Richardson: It has been interesting to
listen to the various comments today. And my perspective, actually, is to go back to the whole idea of,
what are we talking about more fundamentally? And it
is personal responsibility . Persons may realise that,
prior to 2000, when they put in place the National
Pension Scheme, many employers allowed long -
serving employees to retire without any significant
post-retirement benefits. And so, the idea was that the
employers would be requir ed to, during the period of
an employee being employed, to put aside some funds and to assist persons to do also, so that when
they did get to retirement age, there would be at least some funds for them to be able to not live off, but to
offset their ongoi ng expenses.
And with that, I believe that there needed to
be and continues to need to be additional education
for us as individuals. I actually am concerned that
sometimes we talk about these issues as if there are
not individual persons involved. I think, in many cases,
if we considered the idea of a business owner having
responsibility to, obviously, run a profitable business,
but also to take care of the person who works for the employer for an extended period of time, there was
the need to recognise t hat. And that is what I think we
are missing in some respects even today.
And so to, fundamentally, allow people to
have more of a say in what is essentially their own money does make sense. But I believe that for the
public, it is a matter of taking on t he responsibility to
understand the various implications of what you are going to be doing. And so, once I retire, yes, I will have “X” amount of money in a pension plan. And I
need to, during my work life, as best I can, prepare for
my after -work life. An d that would involve, as some
Senators said earlier, even dealing with my children in
terms of, if I do have a house or other expenses, [I
need] to understand that there is a responsibility to
myself, first and foremost, but also to incorporate my family's circumstances so that I can manage accor dingly.
And for today, really, I think it is a matter of
having that emphasis rather than some of the details, to be honest. Because again, I want to say that I know that when I was working in government many, many
years ago, and we had introduced the National Pension Scheme, there was almost the same convers ation in terms of, what is the impact on businesses?
What is the impact on individuals? And how will they
all manage? And we got to a stage whereby we acted as though there was not the individual responsibility in
this whole discussion. And that is what I wanted to
emphasise again today.
And again, for those in the listening audience,
I would encourage everyone to take the time and find
somebody who can explain the full impact of pensions on a person while they are working and post retir ement, because that is what is going to be important.
And very often, what happens is, even in the Chamber
sometimes, we get to a stage whereby we make
comments that end up being sound bites. And then what is reported in the media also is more sound bites
as opposed to any of the substantive comments that
are being made, which is what is going to impact all of
us.
We certainly know that in the Bermudian context, and also in the world context now, persons are
living longer. And there needs to be a greater focus on
how you will fund your lifestyle subsequent to retir ement. The Government has already introduced legi slation in terms of extending the retirement age to allow
persons, f or various reasons, to either work longer
and thereby build up a greater post -retirement benefit;
and in addition to that, people are now living longer and being healthy. And so, the previous idea of having
to retire just because you are 65, for example, f alls
away. And I continue to be impressed when I meet
persons now who are easily 65– 70, and in terms of
their ability to work, it is almost undiminished. I smile
sometimes because sometimes those people are
even much fitter, physically fitter, than you wou ld expect. And so, I smile that they can do all kinds of
things.
And so, that would be my contribution for t oday. Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Richardson.
Senator Caesar, you have the floor.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you, Madam President.
With regard to this topic, I actually am quite
happy that the Government has given the foresight to encourage and require that employers set aside pensions, not just for Bermudian employees, but also
those who are guest workers in this country. A government is responsible not only for its citizens, but also for those residents and others who contribute to
the economy. And in particular, we often encourage
Bermuda Senate young people to come, work and contribute to our
economy. And until now, we have not required that
those guest workers have a pension put aside.
And when you are in your early 20s, som etimes early 30s, you do not necessarily think about
what is going to happen at retirement. So I think this is
a responsible move, such that these young people will
have something when they do start to think about their
families and are ageing and may be looking at retir ement. I think that this is extremely responsible and very necessary.
In addition, we all know, unfortunately, that
there have been som e players in the employment field
who will, for whatever reason, choose a guest worker over a Bermudian because (quote/unquote) “it is less expensive to do so.” So this does actually level the
playing field in that it takes away that particular vari able when looking at different employees. And as one of my colleagues has stated earlier, here of late in the
press there has been quite a bit of furore about employers who have been unscrupulous in their beha viour as it pertains to paying pensions.
So I actuall y am quite happy to see that the
Government has taken the bold step to ensure that
the penalties for not doing so have been increased
and, again, will engender additional penalty. And that
will, hopefully, encourage employers to be better stewards and just better employers overall.
So, with those brief comments, Madam Pres ident, I will conclude.
The President: Thank you, Senator Caesar.
I think everyone has spoken.
Senator Campbell, you have a few questions
to respond to. You have the floor.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
When you factor in immigration fees, reloc ation fees and other fees in hiring guest workers, in the
short term it can be more expensive for the employer.
But as it stands now in the long term, where that employer has to pay the pension contribution for Berm udian workers, it does become, quite quickly, I might
add, more expensive to hire a Bermudian. So this will
eliminate and level the playing field in that regard.
This Bill never claims to address any other iss ues as
to why Bermudians may not be successfully obtaining
employment, but it does claim to address this. And it
does.
This Act will not result in an increase in red
tape. The fees that are provided under this Bill will
allow the commission to improve its capabilities in the
area of enforcement and compliance.
As the commission becomes more self -
sufficient, Madam President, the Government will r educe the funds provided to assist with the operation. It will gradually be reduced until it is no longer requi red
to provide any funds. These funds will then be used to reduce the government debt. And once the gover n-ment starts to incur regular budget surpluses, then the
country will start to see a reduction in taxes.
There was a concern, Madam President, of
the fees being passed on to the user. These fees will
be paid by the plan administrators, not the members of the plans. And the Bill under consideration prohibits
them from being charged to the members, the employer or the pension fund.
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Point of order, Madam Pres ident.
The President: Senator Kempe, what is your point of
order?
POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: The Senator may be unintentionally misleading the House. A similar thing happened with the financial services tax, where it was
prohibited from being passed on. All that means is that it cannot appear as a separate line item on the
invoice. It will be passed on as a cost of business just
like any other fee or expense to a company.
The President: Senator Campbell.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, that is an
incorrect interpretation in this case.
I believe Senator Jardine had a question on
the definition, under clause 2(c) of an "employee." And
more specifically, what did "aggregate" mean; was it
continuous? No, it is not continuous. It is cumulative.
So, if I as a guest worker worked six months, left, came back and worked another six months, I would
then be eligible to be included under this Act.
There was a concern expressed over the definition, I believe a gain by Senator Jardine, around
"pensionable" around bonuses. The 10 per cent now
is captured here. But I will add that these bonuses, the
overall pension is subject to an overall cap of
$200,000. That has not been changed. So, the impact
has been kept to a minimum.
Again, there were concerns over the use of
the 25 per cent lump- sum payment, unwise use. The
commission will be engaging in a financial education
and awareness campaign to help retirees to make
appropriate decisions on the use of all of their pension
funds. And this is wise whether you are receiving a
lump sum or whether you receive it as an annuity.
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Just a point of information.
The President: Senator Kempe.
Senator, will you accept a point of information?
716 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate POINT OF INFOR MATION
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Will that be a one- time educ ational campaign to go with the Bill? But will it be each
time, kind of like a mini -session each time someone
goes to make a lump- sum withdrawal?
Sen. Vance Campbell: It will be ongoing, Madam
Presi dent.
The President: Thank you.
Sen. Vance Campbell: There was a question around
the Minister's power to set fees. The proposed
amendment will give the Minister of Finance the po wer, via regulations, to cap fees charged, not to set
them. This is consistent with other jurisdictions such
as the UK, in which high fees are eroding the value of
member pension funds.
As was mentioned before, there was concern
as to what these fees received by the commission
would be used for. The majority of the additional fees
will go towards enforcement and compliance.
I believe Senator Jardine raised the issue of
why are we moving, as it relates to audits, from $1
million to $3 million. The majority of pension funds that
are held by financial institution plans have more than
$3 million. And so, the audit . . . So the majority of
those in existence will be captured and will be r equired to provide audited statements. And the commission still has the ability to request financial stat ements on the smaller plans.
There was a question around the industry r eaction to the fee increases. I am made to understand
that the initial proposed regulatory fees were much
higher, and as a result of consultation and compr omise, we have the fees that we see included in the Bill
today. So, as a result of that desire to compromise
and arrive at the lower fees, the industry is more ac-cepting of these proposed fees.
The change in the wording under the defin ition of "actuary" will allow for the commission to co nsider other actuarial standards without having to come back and change the legislation. So it does provide a
greater flexibility. The ultimate criterion is fit for purpose and whether the person is a member in good standing within their home jurisdiction governing body.
Senator Jardine had a host of questions and
concerns. I hope I have answered the main ones. The technical officers have provided an undertaking that
they will provide more complete responses to all of
your questions.
The President: Senator Jardine.
Sen. James S. Jardine: Sorry, Madam President, just
a point of clarification. There were two—two questions
specifically. And again, I do not expect an answer t oday. But perhaps if they are going to respond more fully, one is, I mentioned the concern about a cash
basis of accounting as opposed to full accrual. And
my concern there was making sure that employers are
remitting all of the pension contributions which would
show up if they were preparing accounts on a full ac-crual basis, because those receivables, those
amounts not payable, would show up in the fund. That
is pretty key.
And the last was the question as to why "Bri tish or American" had been taken from the definition of
actuaries, and [left] just Canadians. I just wondered why.
Yes. Okay. Thank you very much, Madam
Presid ent.
The President: Thank you, Senator.
Senator Campbell.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I thought I
had answered the second concern expressed, in that
the change in the definition and the removal of those,
and the wording substituted, will allow them to be still
considered, but also a broader number of jurisdictions
without coming back and changing the legislation.
Can I just consult on the other point, Madam
President?
The President: Yes, you certainly can.
[Pause]
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, the tec hnical officers have advised that the majority of the
plans are on an accrual basis, but they have had r equests from certain international companies to oper-ate or report on the cash basis. The commission has
no issue with these companies, to date. And the commission reserves the right to require them to r eport on an accrual basis should they have some concerns with the plan.
I will repeat that the technical officers have
given an undertaking to get back to you on any other issues, M adam President (to Senator Jardine on any
other issues) that may not have been adequately ad-dressed.
So, with that, Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled the National Pension Scheme (Occ upational Pensions) Amendment Act 2019 be now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Carry on, Senator Campbell.
SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 26
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
Standing Order 26 be suspended in respect of this Bill.
Bermuda Senate The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Carry on.
[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled the National Pension Scheme (Occ upational Pensions) Amendment A ct 2019 be now read
a third time.
The President: Is there any objection to the third
reading?
No objection.
BILL
THIRD READING
NATIONAL PENSION SCHEME (OCCUPATIONAL
PENSIONS) AMENDMENT ACT 2019
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bi ll do now pass.
The President: It has been moved that the Bill ent itled the National Pension Scheme (Occupational Pensions) Amendment Act 2019 do now pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection. The Bill is passed.
[Motion carried: The N ational Pension Scheme (O ccupational Pensions) Amendment Act 2019 was given
a third reading and passed.]
The President: Thank you, Senator Campbell.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
The President: We will give you a few minutes to get
ready for your next Bill, which is the second reading of
the Internal Audit Amendment Act 2019. When you are ready, you can proceed.
[Pause]
BILL
SECOND READING
INTERNAL AUDIT AMENDMENT ACT 2019
Sen. Vance Camp bell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled Internal Audit Amendment Act 2019
be
now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection. Carry on, Senator Campbell. Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, the Internal Audit Act 2010
provides for the establishment of the Internal Audit
Department to conduct independent and objective
assessment of the stewardship and performance of
government policies, programmes and operations.
Madam President, as the department is
charged with exercising and performing its functions under the Act, in accordance with established stan dards and procedures for the conduct of internal audit
activities, this amendment seeks to bring the Act up to date in accordance with those standards by clearly
defining the professional internal auditing standards.
Madam President, in addition, the Act has
established an Internal Audit Committee, which is the
governing body of the department. This amendment seeks to provide for the external members of the
committee, who are qualified accountants or auditors, to be appointed to serve a term of up to a maximum of
three years rather a maximum of two years, currently,
to allow for a longer period of continuity in the commi ttee and to be compensated at the same rate as chai rpersons of other government boards or committees,
as per the Government Authority (Fees) Act 1971.
Madam President , this amendment seeks to
bring the Act in line with the professional internal a uditing standards, which require the department to undergo an external quality assessment review every
five years, rather than every three years as is the current requirement. The objective of the external quality
assessment is to determine the level of conformance of the department with the Standards and Code of
Ethics of the Institute of Internal Auditors.
Madam President, with your indulgence, I
would like to look at the key clauses of this Bill.
The President: You certainly may. Carry on.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, clause 2 amends section 2
of the principal Act to insert a definition of “professional standards,” which is defined as the prevailing
Standards and Code of Ethics of the Institute of Internal Auditors (or the IIA).
Clause 3 amends section 4(1) of the principal
Act to require the Internal Audit Department’s proc edures for the conduct of internal audit activities to be
in accordance with the professional standards.
Clause 4 amends section 15 of the principal
Act. Subsection (2) currently provides that a person
appointed under subsection (1)(c) or (1)(d) shall be
appointed for a term of one year and is eligible for r eappoint ment for a further term of one year. Clause
4(b) inserts subsection (2A), which provides that a person appointed under subsection (1)(d) is to be a ppointed for a term of two years and is eligible for r eappointment for a further term of one year. Clause 4(c) amends section 15(4) to provide that a person
appointed under subsection (1)(d) is to be paid in ac718 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate cordance with the Government Authorities (Fees) Act
1971 as if he were a chairman or equivalent, which is
currently $100 per meeting.
Clause 5 amends sect ion 23(1) of the princ ipal Act to require the review of the Internal Audit D epartment to be conducted at least once every five
years, rather than every three years, which is the current requirement. The amendment also allows an auditor who is a member of t he Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) to be appointed to conduct the review and provides that the review of the department’s oper ations is to include an assessment of conformance by
the department with the professional standards.
Clause 6 is a transitional provision.
And clause 7 is a consequential amendment
to the First Schedule to the Government Authorities (Fees) Act 1971. It adds the Internal Audit Committee
to the Government Authorities listed in that Schedule
and, as the committee was inadvertentl y not added to
that Schedule when the committee was established by
the principal Act, the amendment is deemed to have come into operation when the principal Act came into
operation.
Madam President, with those introductory r emarks, I will now pause to all ow other Senators to
speak on this Bill.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Campbell.
Would any Senator care to speak on this Bill?
No.
Senator Campbell, I guess you have agre ement.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam Pr esident.
I would like to thank my fellow Senators for
their support of this Bill. With that, Madam President, I
move that the Bill entitled the Internal Audit Amendment Act 2019 be now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that mot ion?
No objection.
Carry on.
SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 26
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
Standing Order 26 be suspended in respect of this
Bill.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled Internal Audit Amendment Act 2019 be
now read a third time.
The President: Is there any objection to the third
reading?
No objection.
BILL
THIRD READING
INTERNAL AUDIT AMENDMENT ACT 2019
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill do now pass.
The President: It has been moved that the Bill ent itled the Internal Audit Amendment Act 2019 do now
pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
The Bill is passed.
[Motion carried: The Internal Audit Amendment Act
2019 was given a third reading and passed.]
The President: Thank you, Senator Campbell. And
thank you, all Senators.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
The President: We have completed our Orders of the
Day, which were these two Bills.
MOTIONS
The President: There are none.
CONGRATULATORY AND/OR
OBITUARY SPEECHES
The President: Would any Senator care to speak?
[Pause]
The President: No one wants to speak?
I am sorry. Senator Richardson, I almost
missed you. You have the floor, speaking to congrat ulatory and/or obituary speeches.
Sen. Anthony Richardson: Sure. Thank you again,
and successors, according to law . So help me God.
The President: And you will sign.
[Pause]
The President: Good. Thank you.
Congratulations.
Sen. Dwayne Robinson: Thank you so much.
CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES
[Minutes of 13 November 2019]
The President: The second item is t he Minutes of the
13
th of November 2019.
Sen. James S. Jardine: Madam President.
The President: Senator Jardine, you have the floor.
Sen. James S. Jardine: Madam President, I move
that the Minutes of the meeting of Wednesday, the
13
th of November 2019, be taken as read.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Sen. James S. Jardine: Madam President.
The President: Carry on.
Sen. James. S. Jardine: Madam President, I move
that the Minutes of Wednesday, the 13
th of November
2019 , be confirmed as the correct record of that meeting.
The President : Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection. The Minutes are confirmed.
[Minutes of 13 November 2019 confirmed]
The President: Thank you, Senator Jardine.
Item No. 3, Messages.
MESSAGES
The Clerk: No messages, Madam President.
The President: Thank you.
REPORTS OF COMMITTEES
The President: There are none.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
AUDITOR GENERAL’S REPORT ON THE WORK
OF THE OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL,
YEAR ENDED MARCH 31, 2018
The President: I do have an announcement, which I
will read to you.
Senators, I wish to announce that, in accor dance with the provisions of section 101.3 of the Bermuda Constitution Order 1968, and section 10 of the Audit Act 1990, the Report of the Auditor General on
the Work of the Office of the Auditor General for the
702 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate [Financial] Year Ended March 31, 2018, has been
forwarded t o myself as President of the Senate, and
that the said report is hereby tabled in the Senate for
the information of Senators. And, Senators, you can
access copies of the report on your tablets.
A further announcement: the Annual Report of
the Bermuda College. Madam Attorney General , Government Leader in the Senate, Kathy Lynn Simmons,
you have the floor.
Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you,
Madam President, and good morning.
The President: Good morning.
BERMUDA COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE
YEAR 1ST APRIL 2018 TO 31ST MARCH 2019
Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: I hereby pr esent for the information of Senate the Annual Report
of the Bermuda College for the year 1st April 2018 to
31st March 2019. Senators can access a copy of the
report on their tablets.
The President: Thank you, Madam Attorney General .
NOTICES OF MOTION
The President: There are none.
PETITIONS
The President: There are none.
STATEMENTS
The President: We do have one Statement, Ministry
of Legal Affairs Pupillage Programme. And that will be
given by Senator Kathy Lynn Simmons, Attorney
General and Government Leader in the Senate.
You have the floor.
MINISTRY OF LEGAL AFFAIRS
PUPILLAGE PROGRAMME
Sen. t he Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you
again, Madam President.
Madam President, it was just over a year ago
that I shared with this Honourable Senate that the
Ministry of Legal Affairs had renewed its commitment
to revive the Ministry’s Pupillage Programme
, which
had fallen dormant under past administrations. Today I am pleased to provide an update to Members and
the public about the successes of the Ministry of Legal
Affairs’ 2018/19 Pupillage Programme.
Madam President, the principal objective of
the pupillage programme is to train- up future Berm udian barristers and attorneys by providing a compr e-hensive and rigorous professional training opportunity
within the Ministry of Legal Affairs’ departments and
sections. As Attorney General and Minister of Legal
Affairs, I recognise the unofficial stewardship of this
title to be mindful of the state of the legal profession, including ens uring that there are sufficient opportun ities for Bermudians to access a career at the Berm uda Bar.
I recall being approached by several young,
talented and tenacious young Bermudians with law qualifications (and their parents) , lamenting that pupil
training places were not available within government.
In fact, pupil places within the private sector had also
dried up —all, unfortunately, due to budget constraints
and fiscal conservatism.
Madam President, I must emphasise that for a
person to be admitted to the Bermuda Bar to practice
as a barrister and attorney within Bermuda, they must
satisfy the requirements of section 51 of the Supreme
Court Act 1905. One of those requirements is that
such persons must undergo and complete a period of
lawful pupillage of not less than 12 months. Thus, if across Bermuda’s legal profession there are very few
pupil places, otherwise qualified Bermudians will be
barred from entering the legal profession. Yet, at the
same time, foreign lawyers are able to obtain work
permits to practice law in Bermuda. Such a barrier to
entry into the legal profession for Bermudians is unsustainable. Not to mention, in the longer term, it di scourages Bermudians ’ interest in pursuing a career in
law and impacts families who sacrifice so much to
send their children overseas to the UK, Canada or the
Caribbean to obtain their legal qualifications.
Madam President, I pause here for a snippet
of history. None other than Bermuda’s National Hero,
former Attorney General and Bermuda’s first female
lawyer, Dame Lois Brown e-Evans, created the first
formalised Ministry of Legal Affairs pupillage training
programme. It is through Dame Lois’ s vision, foresight
and legacy that the Ministry of Legal Affairs can take credit for developing many of the finest legal minds in
government and beyond. Notable former pupils are
the current Deputy Solicitor General, Shakira Dill -
Francois , and the Deputy Director of Public Prosec utions, Cindy Clarke.
Madam President, there are many advantages of a pupillage with the Mini stry of Legal A ffairs, including exposure to several different depar tments and legal areas under the Ministry’s umbrella ,
as follows :
• In the Department of Public Prosecutions and
the Legal Aid Office, pupils get exposure to
the full range of criminal law advocacy .
• Within the Civil Advisory Section of the Atto rney General's Chambers, pupils gain exper ience in advising government departments on a range of administrative law and civil law matters , as well as judicial review proceedings
and civil advocacy .
Bermuda Senate • The pupils’ time in the Legislative Drafting
Section of the Attorney General's Chambers
allows them to provide support and assistance to Parliamentary Counsel , whose role is to
translate the policies of the Government into
legislative provisions.
Madam Presid ent, the pupils gain hands -on
experience in all these areas, building up a breadth of
knowledge of Bermuda law and practice over the 12 -
month programme. A unique feature of the Ministry’s
pupillage programme is that each pupil has input to
divide their placements , based on their individual i nterests and future career paths. They also have an
edge over pupils in the private practice because of the
invaluable insights they gain into the inner workings of government. Pupils, like their supervising counsel,
work right alongside senior government officials , contributing to the operational and administrative aspects of the public service.
Madam President, I am overjoyed to announce that our most recent cohort of four pupils have successfully completed the programme. Each was
confirmed by their Pupil Masters to be exemplary in their competencies , and fit and proper to enter the
legal profession. They are all now called to the Bermuda Bar as barristers and attorneys, notaries public
and commissioners for o aths.
I encourage this Honourable Chamber to take
note of Janae Nesbitt, Shi -Vaughn Lee, Jason Outerbridge and Tiné Tucker —four barristers with exciting
and storied futures ahead of them at the Bermuda Bar. I want to publicly praise each one of them for
having e xcelled during their pupillages; for the impact
and quality of their contributions to each area they matriculated through; and for pushing themselves past
their comfort zones, thereby refining their skills and competencies. Furthermore, they have all conve yed
an interest in remaining in Bermuda to launch their professional careers and a commitment to public service.
The pupils start the programme with no expectation of future employment ; however , we are actively working with each of them to find suitable posts
across government , within existing budget allocations.
Madam President, when canvassed for their feedback, pupils attest to the unmatched wealth of exper ience that pupillage with the Ministry affords . Acknow ledgement is given of the rich range of exposure, as
previously detailed, over pupillage within private sec-tor law firms. Additionally, pupils highlight the value of
the abundance of advocacy opportunities and their
involvement in litigation, drafting and advocacy with
tremendous public impact and/or of national i mportance. The former pupils attest to feeling confident
that the programme has sufficiently equipped them to
enter practice and prepared them for the rigou rs of
criminal and civil advocacy.
Madam President, the feedback from our outgoing pupils has informed improvements for the next intake of pupils. Currently, the Ministry has received
eight requests for pupillage and has obtained approval
to hire three new pupils. The cost per pupil is about
$78,200, which does not includ e benefits. We antic ipate our next cohort will commence training in January 2020. That recruitment process is pending. Madam President, it is anticipated that the continued success of the pupillage program me will provide a route
to the legal profession for the most qualifi ed Bermudian applicants, and over time reduce the government's need to recruit foreign lawyers. Cultivating a culture of
legal expertise requires planning toward domestically
meeting the demand for legal services, notwithstanding perennial budgetary constr aints.
Madam President, I wish to close by thanking
counsel within the Ministry of Legal Affairs who served
as Pupil Masters and provided the pupils with an o pportunity to work under their supervision and guidance
throughout the programme. The Pupil Masters for the
2018 /19 Pupillage Program me were Deputy Solicitor
General Shakira Dill -Francois , Crown Counsel Lauren
Sadler -Best, former Crown Counsel Specialist Larissa
Burgess , Crown Counsel Maria Sofianos , and Acting
Senior Legal Aid Counsel Charles Richardson. Al though Pupil Masters had ultimate supervision of the
pupils, all counsel within the Ministry generously volunteered their time, instruction, advice and words of encouragement to the pupils. They too deserve recognition.
Finally, training highly skilled Bermudians and
investing in Bermuda’s future is my priority. In a cl imate where well -educated Bermudians have found it
difficult to get their foot in the door and the hiring of
non-Bermudian lawyers continues to grow, this is a
vital programme which must continue. I look forward to updating the Senate regarding future programme
developments and successes. Thank you, Madam
President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Kathy Lynn Si mmons, Attorney General .
INTRODUCTION OF BILLS
The President: There are none.
FIRST READING S OF PUBLIC BILLS
NATIONAL PENSION SCHEME (OCCUPATIONAL
PENSIONS) AMENDMENT ACT 2019
INTERNAL AUDIT AMENDMENT ACT 2019
The President: The following public Bills have been
received from the Honourable House of Assembly and
are here read for the first time. Their titles are, respectively, the National Pension Scheme (Occupational
Pensions) Amendment Act 2019 and the Internal A udit Amendment Act 2019.
704 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate And, Senators, we had decide d that these two
Bills would be taken up today.
FIRST READING OF PRIVATE BILLS
The President: There are none.
QUESTION PERIOD
The President: The floor is open for questions on the
Statement that has been read. Would any Senator
care to speak?
Senator Michelle Simmons, you have the
floor.
Sen. Michelle Simmons: Good morning, Madam
President. Thank you.
The President: Good morning to you.
QUESTION 1: MINISTRY OF LEGAL AFFAIRS
PUPILLAGE PROGRAMME
Sen. Michelle Simmons: I want to commend the A ttorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs for r elaunching this pupillage programme. It is so important
in our community to provide the training and the expe-rience for our young people who are going overseas
to earn credentials so that they can come back to
Bermuda to work can avail themselves of. So this is
obviously an excellent programme. And the results
speak for themselves.
I just want to ask a question and make a very
short statement. My question is, As these pupils are going through the various departments within the Mi nistry of Legal Affairs, is the training they receive also
appropriate for them to enter into (I will call it ) private
practice in Bermuda? Because there may not immedi-ately be available to them positions within the Ministry of Legal Affair s. But I am hoping that they would be
able to get employment within the private sector.
The statement is , I believe there has been an
effort on the part of some to discourage young Ber-mudians from going into the legal field. I have heard it
myself. I have heard people saying that there is no
room for any more Bermudian lawyers. That is so far
from the truth. And I hope that those listening in today
who have young people who are interested in the l egal profession will encourage them to pursue their
dreams, to continue on this path if that is where they
feel they have been called.
Having said that, I am sorry to see that only
three spaces, I believe, have been allocated for pupils for the next year. I was hoping —
The President: Senator, can you direct your question
to the Attorney General , please?
Sen. Michelle Simmons: Oh, yes. My question is, Is
there any hope that that number can be increased?
Because I think there would be candidates who would
be suitable. Thank you very much, Madam President.
The Pres ident: Thank you, Senator Michelle Si mmons.
Would any Senator care to ask a question on
this Statement?
No.
Then, Senator Kathy Lynn Simmons, you
have the floor —
Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you,
Madam President.
With respect —
The Presiden t: —in response.
Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: In response to
the question as to whether they obtain skills that they
can take into the private sector, the answer is yes. Professional conduct, advisory research and advoc acy skills are, in fact, transferrable.
To the issue of the number of pupils, what I
have actually done with regard to persons who have applied is to meet with them personally. And it is i nteresting to meet with these young people and to rea lly try to discern what their aspirations and passions are. And it is quite disturbing to end a journey, as a
matter of fact. And it is disturbing to hear that most of
them have been rejected, and some not even having
interviewed with respect to their applications for placement for training in the private sector.
So, what I have actually done, because most
of them are unemployed and have been unemployed
up to a year and have financial and family commi tments, is that I have actually been able to find opportunities for them within the public serv ice. So, as we
speak, I have sent one to Legal Aid. I have sent one
to the Ministry of Finance. And we have one internally
working in our Civil Advisory Section, pending pupi llage applications. So I have determined to ensure that
they do have an opportunit y.
I have also determined to ensure that, where
appropriate, if I can direct them on another career path that they may in fact be interested in, it is a winwin for everybody. But our commitment is to ensure
that Bermudians who do take the lead and commit to
this type of professional training actually are afforded
opportunities, where appropriate, when they return to
Bermuda.
I can also say that three of our four pupils are
actually working within the Ministry of Legal Affairs at
this time. I also am considering very seriously launc hing a policy within the Ministry where, when we farm
out legal work to firms in Bermuda, if that work is going to result in revenue over a certain figure, they will
be obligated to take one of our young people to train,
Bermuda Senate as a part of that package. So I trust that all of our
young people will continue to seek opportunities appropriate to their skill sets and know that we are
committed to ensuring that they receive the training
and opportunities that they deserve. Thank you, Mad-am President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Kathy Lynn Si mmons, Attorney General .
Any other questions from any other Senators?
No. Then, thank you. We will move on.
ORDERS OF THE DAY
The President: Items to be taken up for the second
reading by the Senate under provisions of Standing
Order 25. And the first one is the second reading of
the National Pension Scheme (Occupational Pe nsions) Amendment Act 2019.
Senator Campbel l, this is your Bill?
Sen. Vance Campbell: Yes, it is, Madam President.
The President: You have the floor.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the provisions of Standing Order 25 be granted so that
Senate may now proceed with the second re ading of
the public Bills —I will do both of them now, Madam
President —entitled National Pension Scheme (Occ upational Pensions) Amendment Act 2019 and the I nternal Audit Amendment Act 2019.
The President: Any objection to that motion?
Senator Kempe.
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Madam President, I have
raised this in the past, and I will raise this again, that
the use of the Standing Orders should really be for
emergency measures or in consultation with the O pposition. I do not know if this some attempt at disr espect or something. But yet again there has been zero
consultation with the Opposition on suspending Standing Order 25.
We have no issue with debating this today,
but it seems to have become Government practice because, for whatever reason, the legislative calendar
is not being organised efficiently. We are sitting here
with nothing to debate despite its being the umpteenth
session in this calendar. And next week, are we going to be in the same situation where we are going to
have to suspend Standing Order 2 5 to debate a Bill
the same day it is tabled?
This Chamber serves an important purpose
for the country. We have caught errata in legislation in the past. There have been Bills that have been turned
back in the past because the public has no agreement
or has not had the time to consult. I believe it is i mportant that we respect the processes of this Chamber so that everyone has due time to consider things, especially if they have been amended in the House of
Assembly.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Kempe.
Would any other Senator care to respond to
that?
Senator Kathy Lynn Simmons.
Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you,
Madam President.
The Senator’s comments are noted. However,
the Government remains committed to advancing its
legislative agenda and will consult when necessary.
His comments with regard to the timeliness of Bills
and also in terms of whether there will be any Bills debated next session or sessions following are really
not for that Senator to opine on at this stage. But his
comments are noted. Thank you.
The President: Thank you, Senator Kathy Lynn Si mmons, Attorney General and Government Leader in
the Senate.
Senator Campbell, there has been no objection to this Bill being presented. So you have the floor
to present the Bill.
BILL
SECOND READING
NATIONAL PENSION SCHEME (OCCUPATIONAL
PENSIONS) AMENDMENT ACT 2019
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, thank you.
I move that the Bill entitled the National Pension Scheme (Occupational Pensions) Amendment
Act 2019 be now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Carry on, Senator Campbell.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President , Senators
will be aware that the National Pension Scheme (O ccupational Pensions) Act 1998 (the Act) provides for
the establishment, administration and regulation of
private sector occupational pension plans for Berm udians and their husbands or wives. The Act became
operational on the 1st of January 2000, and regul ations were introduced in 1999 and 2000 to provide for
such matters as registration of plans, plans for self -
employed persons and pension fund investments.
Another signi ficant amendment was made in
2006 to make it possible for the commission to recover outstanding employer contributions as a civil matter
through the courts, as well as to make directors and
706 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate officers of companies personally liable for any unpaid
contributions.
Further amendments to the Act and associated regulations were introduced in 2010 and 2011 to
allow plan members with a real financial need to get access to a portion of their pension funds , based on
prescribed criteria for hardship. Specifically, fina ncial
hardship withdrawals were permitted for applicable mortgage arrears, eligible education expenses, uncovered medical expenses and rental arrears.
Madam President , the pension commission
has provided the following background statistics as at
the 31
st of December 2018: There are 25,386 estimated plan members. The number of plans is 3,065; [of
these] 3,050 [are] defined contribution and 15 defined
benefit. Approximately US$2.98 billion of assets are in
these plans . There are 568 self -employed plans .
There are six approved third- party plan administrators
and US $785 million of assets in local prescribed r etirement products, and finally BDA $28.79 million in
total financial hardship payments since inception in
2010.
Madam President , the pension commission,
which is the specialist regulatory body established to
administer the Act, undertook a review of the Act to
determine if all of the existing provisions adequately covered developments that have taken place since
the legislation was first introduced in 2000. To this
end, the commission’s standing advisory committee was engaged in reviewing various proposals. The
committee consisted of the following representatives:
the Argus Group, BF&M Life Insurance Company Ltd.,
Colonial Pension Services Ltd., Freisenbruch- Meyer
Insurance Services Ltd., Conyers Dill & Pearman,
Bermuda Public Service Union, Bermuda Industrial
Union, the Bermuda Employers Council, Bermuda
Investment Advisory Services Limited, Anchor Investment Management Ltd., Chubb Bermuda (forme rly ACE Bermuda Insurance Ltd.), AXA XL (formerly
XL Group Ltd.), and the Chartered Professional A ccountants of Bermuda.
The commission advised that the committee
met and discussed, originally, over 129 changes.
These proposals were also submitted to the pension commission board for its review. Madam President ,
the Government’s 2017 election platform stated that it
would “address the current structural imbalance of
pension benefits that exist between guest workers and
Bermudians by requiring equal treatment for Bermudian and ex -patriot labour. Currently, employers are not
required by law to provide the same level of pension
benefits to guest workers as they are to Bermudians,
thus making it more expensive to employ Bermudians.”
Members of the commission’s advisory committee were also invited to discuss and provide input
on the aforementioned proposal. In addition to the
existing members of the committee, the commission invited representatives of the Association of Bermuda [International] Companies [ABIC], the Hotel Emplo yers of Bermuda, the Restaurant Association, Con-struction Association of Bermuda, Landscaping Ass ociation, the Bermuda Human Resources Association
and a former board member of the Human Rights
Commission to make representations on the implic ations of introducing the proposal on their respective
industries or areas. Members of the committee and
invited representatives of industry groups met at the
offices of Chubb, which kindly offered to host the s eries of meetings.
In addition, the Ministry of Finance and the
commission also held discussions with represent atives of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and R einsurers [ABIR] and Bermuda International Long Term
Insurers and Reinsurers, and received helpful feedback.
Madam President, it would be remiss of me if I
did not advise that there were a number of concerns
expressed in broadening the coverage to include nonBermudian employees. In particular, the additional cost to employers, weakening of Bermuda’s compet itive position as a cost -effective financial centre and
the imposition of additional administrative responsibil ities were raised. However, it was recognised that a large number of employers in Bermuda already had
their non- Bermudian staff participating in either plans
registered under the Act or plans that are not required
to be registered under the Act. It should be noted that
plans that are not required to be registered under the
Act are very similar to registered plans, with the major
differences centred around the non- locking-in of pe nsion funds on termination or retirement, as well as to have employees who are US persons have the ability to participate in 401(k) plans to benefit from favour able US tax treatment of contributions.
Madam President, the Human Rights Act
1981 was also discussed as it related to the current
National Pension Scheme exclusion of non-Bermudians other than husbands or wives of Berm udians being potentially contrary to its provision on di scrimination on the basis of a person’s national origin.
Madam P resident, Cayman was noted as an example
of a comparable jurisdiction that had made it mandatory for all employees to participate in their occup ational pension system. However, Cayman does pr ovide exemptions for non- Caymanian employees in
specific circumst ances.
Madam President, while a number of the representatives were not in favour of broadening the coverage to require the inclusion of non- Bermudian wor kers, they recognised that if the Government decided to proceed with the proposal, it should do so as efficien tly and cost -effectively as possible. To this end, a
number of helpful suggestions were put forth on how
this could be achieved, and I am pleased to advise
that the Government has incorporated their suggestions in these amendments.
Bermuda Senate The most signi ficant suggestion put forth by
the advisory committee and included in this Bill is the
phasing- in of contribution rates —5 per cent for employers and 5 per cent for employees for non-Bermudians —over the next five years, as was the
original practice when the legislation was first intr oduced for Bermudians and their spouses. Also, it was
agreed that certain exemptions should be provided for
non-Bermudian work permit holders employed for a
short term —for example, that is one year or under.
However, upon receivi ng a renewal of their work permit, they would be required to be enrolled.
Madam President, initially it was proposed to
amend the Act to include the requirement for all em-ployees in Bermuda satisfying the eligibility requir ements to be enrolled by their employers in Bermuda in
a registered plan or financial institution pension plan.
Both of these plans are approved by the commission,
provided they satisfy the various requirements under
the Act.
Madam President, Senators are advised that
representatives of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers brought to the attention of the
commission that US citizens on a work permit in Bermuda may already participate in a 401(k) plan, which
they asserted is broadly equivalent to the plan r equirements under t he Act. They requested that such
employees should not be required to participate in a Bermuda- registered plan, and if their employers are
forced to do so, it would involve additional regulation
and expense, which they believe is unnecessary and
costly, and could jeopardise their existing 401(k)
plans’ recognition under the [US] Employee Retir ement Income Security Act [ERISA] of 1974 and relat-ed favourable US tax treatment.
They originally requested that these 401(k)
plans be automatically deemed registered, but not
subject to the Act’s requirements. Madam President,
this view was not supported, as “ deemed registered”
is not a concept or practice recognised under the Act and would complicate the commission’s regulatory
oversight and responsibilities.
Madam President, the commission has had
experience with a small number of international bus iness employers who have voluntarily agreed to make
changes to their existing 401(k) plans relating to spouses of Bermudians where dual citizens, US and
Bermuda, are emplo yed in Bermuda, so as to satisfy
the Act’s requirements. The commission has not r eceived any feedback from these employers that the
changes required to be made to their 401(k) plans
have caused them unfavourable tax treatment by the IRS. However, it is now proposed that section 3 of the
Act be amended to provide for the non- applicability of
the Act to such US employees participating in a plan qualified under section 401(k) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. In addition, recognising that
some employ ers may wish to have their 401(k) plans registered under the Act, voluntary registration has
been provided for.
Madam President, the Government recogni ses that there are a number of plan members who have
not been able to accumulate a reasonable pension, as they have not been employed long enough since the
Act was first introduced in January 2000. And it does
not make financial sense to have them receive b etween $100 and $290 per month from plan administr ators and have to incur ongoing plan expenses, which
will further reduce their small pension balance. Fur-thermore, at retirement, members may need to r eceive a lump sum to help with repayment of a mor tgage, another major financial commitment or to pay for significant living expenses such as home or res identi al care or health insurance upon leaving the
workforce.
The Government has heard the increasing
requests from the members of the public for greater
access to their pension plans. And as a result, plan
members will be able to receive all of their pension
funds in a lump sum at retirement if they have
BDA$50,000 or less. In addition, for those with larger
balances, it will permit a one- time payment of up to
25 per cent to be received as a lump sum at retir ement, as specified in regulations that will be intr oduced in due course.
Madam President, another important change
relates to the introduction of regulatory and admini strative fees to support the increasingly important work
of the commission. Senators are advised that the pr imary source of income for the c ommission is the annual government grant. A small amount of fee income
is also generated. It should be noted that the original
fees paid to the commission have not increased since
the inception of the Act, nearly 20 years ago. The
Government recognises the important role the commission provides and that, to further develop its s upervisory and regulatory capacity, it must enhance its
resources and to enable its income to come from
more independent sources.
Consistent with the regulatory models already
established in Bermuda, it is necessary to introduce fees for the various services the commission provides
and for those service providers primarily benefiting from the mandatory occupational pension system to
pay those regulatory fees.
Madam President, the pr oposed Bill provides
for a number of significant policy and regulatory objec-tives, and the following is a summary of the more si gnificant areas, some of which have been mentioned
previously. [The proposed Bill]
• requires non-Bermudians to participate in re gistered plans;
• provides for additional financial hardship wit hdrawals for funeral expenses;
• permits retirees to apply for financial hardship withdrawals and to be exempt from having to
pay the application fee;
708 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate • permits plan members or former members to
receive the entire value of their pension fund
account balance for defined contribution plans
or commuted value for defined benefit plans
at retirement, at $50,000 or below;
• provides for the ability of plan members at r etirement to receive up to 25 per cent of the
value of their pension fund account balance
for defined contribution plans, or commuted
value for defined benefit plans, as prescribed
in regulation;
• introduces regulatory fees payable by plan
administrators;
• changes the two- year vesting [period] of contributions to one year;
• provides for the Minister of Finance to intr oduce regulations to control the fees charged
to plan members;
• introduces monetary penalties for noncompl iance by plan administrators and other related persons;
• provides for certain ex emptions for multi -
employer plans;
• includes all bonuses in calculating the amount
of pension contributions;
• requires employers to maintain specified pa yroll and employee- related information, and
failure to do so is an offence;
• introduces the payment of interest by emplo yers on their late pension contributions;
• in order to reduce plan expenses for smaller plans, increases the requirement for audited
financial statements for plans from $1 million to $3 million; and
• introduces greater oversight of plan trus tees,
and their specific fit and proper standards.
Madam President, with your indulgence, I
would like to go back and provide a definition for certain terms that I mentioned —specifically, “ defined contribution plan” and “ defined benefit plan, ” just for those
in the listening audience who may not understand
what we are referring to.
The President: You certainly may do so, Senator
Campbell.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, a defined contribution plan
is a type of retirement plan in which the employer, employee or both make contributions on a regular basis. Individual accounts are set up for participants, and
benefits are based on the amounts credited to these accounts through employee contributions and, if a pplicable, empl oyer contributions, plus any investment
earnings on the money in the account. In defined contribution plans, future benefits fluctuate on the basis of
investment earnings. Madam President, defined benefit pension
plans are a type of pension plan in which an employer
or sponsor promises a specified pension payment, lump sum or combination thereof on retirement, that is
predetermined by a formula based on the employee’s earnings history, tenure of service and age, rather
than depending directly on individual investment r eturns. A defined benefit plan is defined in the sense
that the benefit formula is defined and known in advance.
Conversely, for a defined contribution retir ement saving plan, the formula for computing the e mployer’s and the employee’s contr ibutions is defined
and known in advance, but the benefit to be paid out
is not known in advance.
And finally, Madam President, I will use the
term “ commuted value. ” The commuted value relates
to a defined benefit plan, and it is the present value of
the future series of cash flows required to fulfil a pension obligation— basically, what that amount is worth
today that you will receive in the future.
Thank you, Madam President, for allowing me
to clarify those.
Madam President, the proposed amendments
will represent the most significant legislative changes
since the Act was first introduced. I can advise that the Pension Commission has already commenced the
transitional arrangements and consultation with plan sponsors and administrators required to operati onalise these amendments smoothly.
Madam President, the proposed amendments
contained in this Bill are sensible, reflect the need of the members of pension plans and are in line with
pension provisions and regulations in other jurisdi ctions.
Madam Presi dent, in closing, I would like to
thank all of those persons within the Pension Com-mission, the Attorney General’s Chambers, the Mini stry of Finance and the private sector who have assis ted with the development of this Bill.
Thank you, Madam President.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
SENATE VISITORS
The President: Thank you, Senator Campbell.
And before I open the floor for the Senators to
respond, I would just like to acknowledge the pres-ence in the Chamber of a number of people.
First, I would like to acknowledge the presence of the Assistant Financial Secretary, Mr. Steven
Gift; the Pension Commission CEO, Mr. Peter Sousa;
the Parliamentary Counsel, Miriam Rogers; and the
Director of Internal Audit, Ms. Roseanne Foy. Welcome to you all.
Bermuda Senate [National Pension Scheme (Occupational Pensions)
Amendment Act 2019, second reading debate, co ntinuing]
The President: Would any Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Kempe, you have the floor.
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Thank you, Madam Pres ident. Thank you, Senator Campbell, for your introduction of the Bill.
There are a number of things in this Bill that
we certainly agree with. I believe giving people access
to their pension funds en bloc as opposed to in annu ity form is certainly good for people to be abl e to exercise their hard- earned savings as they see fit. E xpand ing on some of the hardship qualifications certainly makes sense to adapt the legislation to modern
needs, especially as it relates to education and these
kinds of things. And reducing the vest ing period from
two years to one I think more accurately protects a far
more mobile workforce that younger generations tend
to exhibit, perhaps working a year to 18 months at
companies before changing. And that mobility should
not jeopardise their company -side 5 per cent of the
pension contribution.
There are a number of things afterwards,
though, that I either have questions about or just
some commentary on. I noticed, and I am almost going in reverse order of what I want to speak about, but
it was more i n the order that Senator Campbell laid
out the commentary.
One was as it relates to the 5 per cent, or r ather the pension contributions, for guest workers in
Bermuda. And I guess there can be philosophical di scussions either way about what pensions in Ber muda
were made for. Were they put in place in order to pr otect Bermudian workers who retire in Bermuda, some sort of financial stability? Or were they set out to pr otect all workers no matter where they were going to spend those pension funds, whether it be in Bermuda
or overseas? Obviously, the 5 per cent company contribution is an additional cost of business. And things were put in place in the past certainly as a way to assist people post retirement living in Bermuda.
Whether that 5 per cent contribution was actually a driver of preference in employing a guest
worker versus a Bermudian I have reservations and
doubts. I would like to see some data around that. I
believe especially at the lower end of the economic
spectrum that work permit fees and repatri ation guarantees and these kinds of things probably offset that
in grand sense. So I struggle to believe that that is an
actual reason of causing certain job categories to be
filled mainly by guest workers as opposed to Berm udians.
The 25 per cent drawdow n, that is available
only upon retirement. Whilst I think that is a good thing
that people have, you know, a lagging mortgage or a car payment that they need to get rid of, and perhaps
the interest on that is greater than interest that is b eing earned through your pension, then that is a wise
choice to avoid kind of, you know, saving with less
interest and paying with more on the other hand. But my concern is misconception in the community. At
the, I guess, quasi -Throne Speech at the delegates
conference, t here seemed to be this big layout of bi llions of dollars overseas that can come back and start businesses and all this kind of thing.
And I just want to be quite clear for people
who took that speech as the ability of someone who is at a stage in their l ife where they want to be building
and creating businesses, that this drawdown does not
assist them. This is not what this is for. This is for
people post retirement. So just so there is no conf usion in the community about whom this 25 per cent
benefits, i t is not what was alluded to in that speech.
Another, I guess concern and element that I
am kind of happy with, [is] the fact that the Pension Commission is going to grow somewhat in size to
meet its heightened needs. [This] can be both a good thing and a bad thing. If it is simply building its size in
order to respond to increased red tape, that is not a
good thing. If it is increasing its size in order to hold
bad-actor employers to account, those who collect but
do not invest the contributions of their employees, if they were going to see a heightened number of bad actors brought to court, brought to account, fined, et
cetera, I think that is an excellent use of increased
funding, for fairness and accountability for Bermuda
as a whole.
I am not sure wha t the key targets are as it
relates to this increased spending, and I am hoping we can get some clarity on that. But I remember at a
meeting at the Ministry of Finance with a couple of
technical officers related to this, my understanding
was that the gener al idea is to grow the budget of the
Pension Commission from about $1 million to about
$2 million. The other goal is to transition from a pr imarily government subsidy —i.e., tax -funded entity to
a self -funded entity.
Now, one of my challenges with that, and this
is a smaller dollar amount on the grand scheme of things. But my challenge with that is that we are effec-tively transitioning costs directly onto the user base
again. That $2 million in funding is going to be assumed by fees that are contained in the Schedule
herein, perhaps not entirely. So I did some rough
math, and I expect that, to reach that $2 million self -
funding number, we are going to see another amendment in the future where these fees increase. I believe
it is somewhat naïve to believe that those fees will not
be passed on, eventually, to the consumers, to the
users, the investors in these pension schemes.
And my other question is, What is going to
happen with that close to $1 million government sub-sidy? Are we going to see a decrease in t axation ge nerally to offset the fact that these costs are being
710 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate transferred directly onto the user -based taxpayers as
fees? We saw a similar mechanism happen with the
health care reform in April. Elements of the gover nment’s Standard Health Benefit were funded by taxes
that had already been collected. And those same costs were then simply shifted to the working class
and to employers. This new health plan that is coming
seems to use the exact same mechanism.
So my question is, with all this transfer of
government expense directly onto the taxpayer, why
are we not seeing any commitments to a reduction of
the tax burden to provide some balance, instead of
hitting people with the left hand and then with the
right?
And those are my comments, Madam Pres ident. Thank you.
The President: Thank you, Senator Kempe.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Jardine, you have the floor.
Sen. James S. Jardine: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
First of all, thank you to Senator Campbell for
very helpful comments. There were some points in
there which answered one or two of my questions. So
thank you very much for that. First of all, I want to
acknowledge that there are a number of positive aspects of this Bill, such as the vesting period being r educed from two years to one year.
The requirements of new plans to be regi stered within 90 days instead of the current 180- day
period, I think it is important that when new plans are
created, they are registered as soon as possible. And
so, that is a good change. Also, the new requirement
under [clause 14, which inserts] section 19(6A) of employers to pay interest on contributions payable to a
plan where such contributions have been outstanding
for more than 30 days beyond the end of the month in
which the y are due—hopefully, that will encourage
those employers who are delinquent in making their
pension fund payments to get cracking and make them on time.
Also, the amendment to section 34 [at clause
22] with respect to payments to be made in the case of shortened life expectancy (and there were some
changes there which I was pleased to see), and the
addition of a new section 69A [at clause 38], which
indicates that the Pension Commission will issue
Guidance Notes. I think Guidance Notes are very,
very impor tant. And I think those Guidance Notes will,
hopefully, help employers and employees to better
understand the terms of the Act and also their own
particular plan. So I am pleased to see that.
I support the amendments with respect to
401(k) plans, which im pact some of our employees
working here in Bermuda. And also, the phasing- in of
the contribution rates for those who will now find themselves, that is, the non- Bermudians, being covered under various pension plans.
I do have a number of comments and questions, Madam President. I did prepare a list of these
over a week ago, and I did circulate them to Madam
Attorney General to give her an opportunity to see
those and, hopefully, be able to respond today. But I
acknowledge the fact that if that is not possib le, then
maybe answers can be provided at a future point in
time. So maybe if I can just start with those, and the
first would be with respect to clause 2(c) on page 3, where it defines an “employee.” And it says here,
“employee” has now been amended in the House to
read “unless that person has been granted such permission for an aggregate period exceeding twelve
months.”
Now I am not sure I understand what “aggr egate” means. Does that mean continuous employment for two months? Or does it mean they work si x
months one year, and then next year they are rehired and work another six months? And then you aggr egate those to get to your 12 months? Or does that
mean they have to work continuously for 12 months?
So I just had a question about that.
Again, some com ment has already been
made about guest workers now being added to the pension plans. To be frankly honest, I think it is i mportant that guest workers do have a pension. I understand, obviously, the hardships that this may cr eate for some employers. And it was interesting to hear
Senator Campbell . . . And I am pleased that Gover nment did consult as widely as they did before bringing in these amendments. But part of that consultation did
indicate that many employers who do employ nonBermudians already inclu de them in their pension
plans. But I do understand that this will be additional
cost for some employers. And again, I just sound a
note of concern that all of these additional costs have
an impact on employers and their ability, frankly, to do the jobs that they want to do.
Also, in clause 2(d) on page 3, the definition
of “pensionable earnings” has now been changed to remove the 10 per cent of basic salary or wage d eduction before calculating the additional pension pa yable. So again, this was an addition al amount of bonus. There was a 10 per cent of basic salary that was
allowed to be deducted before any pension was calc ulated. That has now disappeared. So again, that adds
an additional cost to the employer because they will
be paying pension payments on a larger amount of a
bonus or any additional money earned than they had
in the past. And again, it is all these little bits that just
keep adding additional costs to a business, which I
am concerned about.
In clause 2(f), page 3, the definition of an “actuary” has now been amended to now include “or
some other professional association recognised by
the Commission.” Now, I am always concerned when
we start playing around with definitions of who is a lBermuda Senate lowed to opine on various things, particularly actuarial
liabilities. And I am concerned that . . . you know, the
actuary is the person who should be opining on act uarial liabilities, and so I am concerned that the Commission is allowed to appoint (in quotes) “some other” body to opine on those particular liabili ties. And they
may not have the necessary skills to do so. So I am
just trying to get some clarification as to why that def inition has been widened.
In clause 17 on page 7, there is an amendment there. I guess I want to know, is that amendment
retroactive or does the period of one year start from
the day on which the Act actually commences?
And in clause 19(b) . . . (I am sorry I am being
specific here, Madam President, because there are a lot of subsections and subclauses, so I am trying to
help the Sena tor by being specific here.) And this has
to do with the lump- sum payment, the 25 per cent that
is now going to be allowed to be withdrawn on retir ement. As was pointed out earlier, Madam President,
we have a National Pension Scheme (Financial Har dship) Regulations 2010 Act, which does allow for ind ividuals to apply for sums of money in the case of hardship. And the maximum permitted under that at
the moment is 20 per cent per application. And it c overs such things as mortgage payments, where pe ople fall behind; critical health needs; educational
needs; and so on. So there is provision in there for
that.
Now, to be honest, I am not against som ebody retiring and saying, Look. I have a mortgage.
And I'd much rather pay off my mortgage than conti nue to pay int erest on it. So I am in favour of that 25
[per cent] lump sum for payment of mortgages, other major loans or indeed for critical health needs. But I
have major concerns about people taking 25 per cent
of their pension when they retire and, let us say, blo wing it on a magical round- the-world cruise. When they
return to Bermuda and reality sets in, they then realise
that the pension amount they are going to get on a
monthly basis may be substantially less.
And there has been a lot in the press about,
Isn't i t wonderful that we're allowing everybody to take
these lump- sum amounts of 25 per cent? Because
they do it in the United Kingdom, and the PSSF [Pu blic Service Superannuation Fund], which is the public
government fund, allows that to happen. But I think it
is important to raise a couple of factors here. The first
is that the government PSSF pension fund has been
in existence since 1981. So that is 38 years. So
somebody retiring from that particular plan, who has
been working for government for 38 years as of last year, taking a lump sum of 25 per cent may not be as
bad as somebody who is in the private sector, who
has been into the fund only since 2000, which is when
that fund took effect. So that is 18 years.
And I believe that individuals need to have as
much pensionable money available on an annuity ba-sis or some monthly drawdown so that there is money each month coming in for a pension, rather than taking a huge sum of 25 per cent of that pension and
spending it on something like a cruise around the
world.
And I should also point out that the cost of li ving in Bermuda, as we all know, is horrendous. For those of you who go shopping and buy groceries (I do
quite regularly), the cost of groceries is just prohibitive. And every little bit counts. And as a r etiree, it is
important that there is something coming in every month to help you pay for the cost of living in this I sland.
And so I have real concerns about allowing
this lump sum of 25 per cent of pensions to be taken in the private sector, because mos t people have been
playing into that plan for only 18 years or 19 years as of this year. So I have some concerns about that. And as I say, I do not mind individuals taking up to a lump
sum of 25 per cent if they wish to pay off a mortgage. I
understand tha t. Rather than paying interest on a
mortgage, let us pay the mortgage off, or if there is a
significant health problem. But I do have some con-cerns about allowing people to take a lump sum that is
not really necessary for health or mortgage reasons
and per haps blowing it on some luxury holiday.
Clause 36 on page 12, I guess the question I
have there is, Should that not be headed up as [pr oposed] section 67A, as it relates to section 67 in the
principal Act, and not to section 68? A small point, but
just reading those sections and tying them in to the
principal Act, I would have thought that should be
[section] 67A.
In clause 37 on page 13, my question here is,
Why is the Minister, under section 69(1)(jb), setting "maximum fee payable" in relation to servic e provi ders? Surely, the free market should be allowed to set
their own fees. I just wondered why we are suddenly
setting maximum fees. What is the rationale for that?
Also, clause 43, I just wondered where that
went in the Act. If I can just turn to it f or a moment, it
says, "Savings and transitional provisions." Maybe it is
just something that sits in this amendment Act, and I
am sort of looking at the draughtspeople here; they
are the experts. But it just sort of sits out there, and I did not know where it went. It does not appear to go
into the principal Act anywhere, and maybe it just sits
here in this amendment Act and goes no further.
Clause 35(a), page 12, the reference should
be section 67A if you agree with my earlier comments in the point I ment ioned above.
I did have a question on [Schedule 1, par agraph] 9, on regulation 9, on page [18], where the threshold for an audit has been increased to $3 mi llion. As an auditor, I always get concerned when we
start to say, You don't need to have an audit for a
pensionable fund or pension funds. These are other
people's money. And my concern is that all pension
amounts, all pension funds, should be properly audi ted to make sure that they are correct and there have
712 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate been no malfeasance or other issues which h ave
arisen. And so, I get concerned when I see these
thresholds, as is the case here, being moved up to $3
million.
[Schedule 1, paragraph] 9(b), on regulation 9
at page [18], it would seem to me that we would want
the "basis of accounting" to be full acc rual and not on
a cash basis, since I would want to know any outstanding receivables. And that is amounts due to be
paid to the fund that are outstanding. Cash basis of
accounting is fine in certain circumstances; but in the case of pensions, if there are amounts due from e mployers who have not remitted the amounts for themselves and their employees, I would want to know
about that. And so, again, cash basis of accounting in terms of pension funds is not something that I would
certainly be advocating at all .
[Paragraph] 21 [amending] regulation 39(1)
. . . I wanted to know why we are deleting the words
"British or American" from the definition and singling
out just the Canadian definition. I would have thought the broader definition that is there, which inc ludes
both British and American, and we are talking about actuaries here . . . certainly, in Bermuda we have all
three. And I just wondered what the reason for that
was.
In [paragraph] 27 [amending] regulation
49(1)(a), page [22], again, why are we deleti ng "British
or American"? I just do not understand this move, and
I would appreciate some comment there. And again,
[paragraphs] 28 and 29, I have the same comment.
Finally, on wrapping all this up, as has been
mentioned earlier on pages 27 to 29, there are a lot of
new fees. And I assume, and again I guess this is a
question for Senator Campbell, I am assuming in the
consultation with the various parties that were spoken
to, fees were mentioned. And I just wondered what
their reactions were.
Again, I wou ld just go back and sort of su mmarise all of these additional costs. We have these
fees coming in place. We have the additional cost of
now having to pay pensions for non- Bermudians who
meet the threshold of 12 months of service. We also
have the removal of the 10 per cent, which was a llowed for bonuses and so on, before pensions had to be calculated on those bonuses. All of these things have, added together, mean additional costs for e mployers. And again, there comes a point in time where
employers are goi ng to say, I just simply can't absorb
any more costs. So I think Government needs to be
mindful of this. I understand the reasons why these
fees, these new fees, are coming into place; that has been explained. But I think we need to be very careful
about a dding any additional costs to businesses here
in Bermuda.
And with those remarks, Madam President, I
will finish. Thank you very much.
The President: Thank you, Senator Jardine. Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Jones, you have the floor.
Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you, Madam President.
Also thank you to Senator Campbell for giving us a
very comprehensive explanation of the purpose and
the direction for the new changes in this amendment
to the existing National Pension Scheme.
I am learning that the longer I stay and deli berate in these Chambers, I need put up my hand be-fore Senator Jardine, because he tends to give a very
good, detailed perspective on the legislation. And
many things that he raised were on my list. And so,
my contribution to this debate will be extremely short.
But having said that, there is one thing I would
like to piggyback on my colleague, Senator Jardine, and that is that there is much to be pleased about with
this particular legislation. I am in agreem ent with the
spirit and the overall, overarching purpose of this le gislation, which is to give pensioners more opportunity
and access to the hard- earned money that they have
put aside, giving them the added opportunity to have
access to it, especially in t imes of hardship, which has
been part of the amendment for years gone by. And
now this added opportunity to gain access in a form of
a lump sum, up to 25 per cent of the (I am made to
understand) present day value of that pension. It is a
good thing. It definitely gives that pensioner who may
have a mortgage, may have a little bit of a mortgage
that he or she wants to pay off, or a car loan, or do
some major upgrade to their home . . . I mean, that is
all well and good.
I will caution, though, although som e within
the community may think that this amendment will
cause a major boost and stimulus to our economy, I
hate to blow out your bubble, but that is not going to actually materialise. I think in the lives of individuals
who are entering those golden year s, it will be an
added help to them, as they have to anticipate a fixed
income. And they may have overarching debt or some
payments that they would like to pay off.
I would say, though, that employers should be
encouraged very strongly, during their exit interviews
with these pensioners, to make sure that they fully
understand the consequences of their actions —i.e.,
fully explain what their monthly pension payments will
be if they actually take out that 25 per cent lump sum.
They need to fully understand t hat the amounts will be
significantly less and that they are well aware of it. They sign off and say, I'm aware of it. I know that I'm
going to be at a lesser point in a monthly payment.
And, no, I do not expect the government to jump in
and make up the gap of my loss in monthly payments.
I think those things are important.
Also, the importance of encouraging these
pensioners to use this money for investment opport unities, I think that is important, as well. As Senator
Jardine says, these lump sums used for a worldwide
Bermuda Senate cruise is not quite the intent. And I think that needs to
be underscored.
Another thing I am going to raise, and it may
sound a little bit off -centre, but I think pensioners need
to be careful that they do not give that money to their
childr en. It may sound crass, but you know, we know
that parents have a soft heart for their children and
want to see them get ahead in life. And we do all we
can. I have two children, as well, and my wife has to
caution me because I want to empty my pockets and
give to them. And she is saying, No, no. You need to
hold back and allow the children to stand on their own
two feet.
[Laughter]
Sen. Marcus Jones: So I would strongly advise those
pensioners who are looking at this lump sum as an
opportunity for them to better their situation: Do not be
overtaken with an abundance of love that you drop
that into the laps of the children. Make sure that you dispense of those funds wisely.
So I would say, with those caveats, this legi slation is a good one. I believe that being that this is not
a socialist country, individual citizens should have the
right and ability to determine their own pension and be
able to dispense it in a way that is responsible and that will take care of them in their declining years.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Jones.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Michelle Simmons, you have t he
floor.
Sen. Michelle Simmons: Thank you, Madam Pres ident. I will be very brief.
I want to thank Senator Campbell for his brief.
It was very helpful. And also, to thank Senators
Jardine and Jones for their comments, because that
means I need to say ver y little.
I will mention, however, that I am very pleased
to see, especially in view of all of the conversations
going around in the community of late about emplo yers who are failing to pay contributions . . . I am very
happy to see that, in this amendment to the legisl ation, employers who fail to pay contributions, which
they withhold from a member's earnings, shall pay
interest on the unpaid contribution. I think that word
“shall” should be underscored many times. And I think
it also puts responsibility on those who have to follow
up to make sure that employers understand that they
will—they shall—pay interest on any monies they
withhold and do not pay forward to the fund.
Also, with regard to the 25 per cent lump sum
that people can take out upon retirement, I think it is
important for us to step back and understand that, at
that age, people are looking ahead to whatever the future may hold. And none of us has a crystal ball, so
we do not know what is going to happen. And I think
there is a certain amount of caution that people exercise when they do have access to that lump sum.
I believe it is a good thing, because it does
give people control over funds that really belong to them, that they have accrued over a period of time.
And there is still 75 per cent in their pension pot. So, it
may sound like a big thing. It may sound like som ething that we cannot trust people with. But it is their
money.
And I think that pensioners are going to err on
the side of caution and invest wisely. Yes, some may
have mortgages to pay off. But that is not the only
debt that people have at that point. And since ever yone's circumstance is different, Madam President, I would posit that we need to understand that we are giving people greater control over their future.
I also will add that, sometimes, people have to
vary their spending, depending on their circumstances. And I am thinking of some unexpected things that
will occur, such as maybe a long- term illness of
someone in the family, maybe long- term care prov isions for an elderly parent, grandparent. This 25 per
cent lump sum will give people greater flexibility in determining their way forward, financially. So I do
support that. I do not really have a problem with it. I think that it is important at that point in people's lives
to ensure that they do have greater control over their
finances.
With those remarks, I thank you, Madam
President, for listening.
The President: Thank you, Senator Michelle Si mmons.
Would any other Senator care to speak on
this Bill?
Senator Ric hardson, I will come back to you.
You defer? Okay.
Senator Dwayne Robinson, you have the
floor.
Sen. Dwayne Robinson: Thank you, Madam Pres ident. I will also be brief. The Senators, my colleagues,
have outlined a lot of my concerns and a lot of what I support regarding this Bill.
I just have one hang- up, and it is regarding
the levelling in the playing field as far as employment goes for Bermudians. I do believe that this will level
the playing field as far as deductions go. But regar ding the employment issue here in Bermuda, I do believe that a lot of us have heard similar stories regar ding certain pervasive contracts that guest workers are
signed onto. So I do want us to really kind of remove
that Band- Aid part that is attached to this Bill in that
esse nce, because we will still have similar problems
within the community as far as certain jobs being geared towards guest workers, such as working more
than 40 hours, live- in jobs, things like that.
714 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate So, I do support the Bill in its essence. But I
do not want that caveat to be attached to it, that it will
kind of tackle an issue with employment regarding our
Bermudians. I do think that there are much deeper
issues that we have to tackle in order to level that playing field.
And with those comments, I close, Madam
President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Dwayne Robi nson.
Would any other Senator?
Senator Richardson, you have the floor.
Sen. Anthony Richardson: Good morning, Madam
President, fellow Senators and those in the listening
audience.
The Presi dent: Good morning.
Sen. Anthony Richardson: It has been interesting to
listen to the various comments today. And my perspective, actually, is to go back to the whole idea of,
what are we talking about more fundamentally? And it
is personal responsibility . Persons may realise that,
prior to 2000, when they put in place the National
Pension Scheme, many employers allowed long -
serving employees to retire without any significant
post-retirement benefits. And so, the idea was that the
employers would be requir ed to, during the period of
an employee being employed, to put aside some funds and to assist persons to do also, so that when
they did get to retirement age, there would be at least some funds for them to be able to not live off, but to
offset their ongoi ng expenses.
And with that, I believe that there needed to
be and continues to need to be additional education
for us as individuals. I actually am concerned that
sometimes we talk about these issues as if there are
not individual persons involved. I think, in many cases,
if we considered the idea of a business owner having
responsibility to, obviously, run a profitable business,
but also to take care of the person who works for the employer for an extended period of time, there was
the need to recognise t hat. And that is what I think we
are missing in some respects even today.
And so to, fundamentally, allow people to
have more of a say in what is essentially their own money does make sense. But I believe that for the
public, it is a matter of taking on t he responsibility to
understand the various implications of what you are going to be doing. And so, once I retire, yes, I will have “X” amount of money in a pension plan. And I
need to, during my work life, as best I can, prepare for
my after -work life. An d that would involve, as some
Senators said earlier, even dealing with my children in
terms of, if I do have a house or other expenses, [I
need] to understand that there is a responsibility to
myself, first and foremost, but also to incorporate my family's circumstances so that I can manage accor dingly.
And for today, really, I think it is a matter of
having that emphasis rather than some of the details, to be honest. Because again, I want to say that I know that when I was working in government many, many
years ago, and we had introduced the National Pension Scheme, there was almost the same convers ation in terms of, what is the impact on businesses?
What is the impact on individuals? And how will they
all manage? And we got to a stage whereby we acted as though there was not the individual responsibility in
this whole discussion. And that is what I wanted to
emphasise again today.
And again, for those in the listening audience,
I would encourage everyone to take the time and find
somebody who can explain the full impact of pensions on a person while they are working and post retir ement, because that is what is going to be important.
And very often, what happens is, even in the Chamber
sometimes, we get to a stage whereby we make
comments that end up being sound bites. And then what is reported in the media also is more sound bites
as opposed to any of the substantive comments that
are being made, which is what is going to impact all of
us.
We certainly know that in the Bermudian context, and also in the world context now, persons are
living longer. And there needs to be a greater focus on
how you will fund your lifestyle subsequent to retir ement. The Government has already introduced legi slation in terms of extending the retirement age to allow
persons, f or various reasons, to either work longer
and thereby build up a greater post -retirement benefit;
and in addition to that, people are now living longer and being healthy. And so, the previous idea of having
to retire just because you are 65, for example, f alls
away. And I continue to be impressed when I meet
persons now who are easily 65– 70, and in terms of
their ability to work, it is almost undiminished. I smile
sometimes because sometimes those people are
even much fitter, physically fitter, than you wou ld expect. And so, I smile that they can do all kinds of
things.
And so, that would be my contribution for t oday. Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Richardson.
Senator Caesar, you have the floor.
Sen. Crystal Caesar: Thank you, Madam President.
With regard to this topic, I actually am quite
happy that the Government has given the foresight to encourage and require that employers set aside pensions, not just for Bermudian employees, but also
those who are guest workers in this country. A government is responsible not only for its citizens, but also for those residents and others who contribute to
the economy. And in particular, we often encourage
Bermuda Senate young people to come, work and contribute to our
economy. And until now, we have not required that
those guest workers have a pension put aside.
And when you are in your early 20s, som etimes early 30s, you do not necessarily think about
what is going to happen at retirement. So I think this is
a responsible move, such that these young people will
have something when they do start to think about their
families and are ageing and may be looking at retir ement. I think that this is extremely responsible and very necessary.
In addition, we all know, unfortunately, that
there have been som e players in the employment field
who will, for whatever reason, choose a guest worker over a Bermudian because (quote/unquote) “it is less expensive to do so.” So this does actually level the
playing field in that it takes away that particular vari able when looking at different employees. And as one of my colleagues has stated earlier, here of late in the
press there has been quite a bit of furore about employers who have been unscrupulous in their beha viour as it pertains to paying pensions.
So I actuall y am quite happy to see that the
Government has taken the bold step to ensure that
the penalties for not doing so have been increased
and, again, will engender additional penalty. And that
will, hopefully, encourage employers to be better stewards and just better employers overall.
So, with those brief comments, Madam Pres ident, I will conclude.
The President: Thank you, Senator Caesar.
I think everyone has spoken.
Senator Campbell, you have a few questions
to respond to. You have the floor.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
When you factor in immigration fees, reloc ation fees and other fees in hiring guest workers, in the
short term it can be more expensive for the employer.
But as it stands now in the long term, where that employer has to pay the pension contribution for Berm udian workers, it does become, quite quickly, I might
add, more expensive to hire a Bermudian. So this will
eliminate and level the playing field in that regard.
This Bill never claims to address any other iss ues as
to why Bermudians may not be successfully obtaining
employment, but it does claim to address this. And it
does.
This Act will not result in an increase in red
tape. The fees that are provided under this Bill will
allow the commission to improve its capabilities in the
area of enforcement and compliance.
As the commission becomes more self -
sufficient, Madam President, the Government will r educe the funds provided to assist with the operation. It will gradually be reduced until it is no longer requi red
to provide any funds. These funds will then be used to reduce the government debt. And once the gover n-ment starts to incur regular budget surpluses, then the
country will start to see a reduction in taxes.
There was a concern, Madam President, of
the fees being passed on to the user. These fees will
be paid by the plan administrators, not the members of the plans. And the Bill under consideration prohibits
them from being charged to the members, the employer or the pension fund.
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Point of order, Madam Pres ident.
The President: Senator Kempe, what is your point of
order?
POINT OF ORDER
[Misleading]
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: The Senator may be unintentionally misleading the House. A similar thing happened with the financial services tax, where it was
prohibited from being passed on. All that means is that it cannot appear as a separate line item on the
invoice. It will be passed on as a cost of business just
like any other fee or expense to a company.
The President: Senator Campbell.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, that is an
incorrect interpretation in this case.
I believe Senator Jardine had a question on
the definition, under clause 2(c) of an "employee." And
more specifically, what did "aggregate" mean; was it
continuous? No, it is not continuous. It is cumulative.
So, if I as a guest worker worked six months, left, came back and worked another six months, I would
then be eligible to be included under this Act.
There was a concern expressed over the definition, I believe a gain by Senator Jardine, around
"pensionable" around bonuses. The 10 per cent now
is captured here. But I will add that these bonuses, the
overall pension is subject to an overall cap of
$200,000. That has not been changed. So, the impact
has been kept to a minimum.
Again, there were concerns over the use of
the 25 per cent lump- sum payment, unwise use. The
commission will be engaging in a financial education
and awareness campaign to help retirees to make
appropriate decisions on the use of all of their pension
funds. And this is wise whether you are receiving a
lump sum or whether you receive it as an annuity.
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Just a point of information.
The President: Senator Kempe.
Senator, will you accept a point of information?
716 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate POINT OF INFOR MATION
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Will that be a one- time educ ational campaign to go with the Bill? But will it be each
time, kind of like a mini -session each time someone
goes to make a lump- sum withdrawal?
Sen. Vance Campbell: It will be ongoing, Madam
Presi dent.
The President: Thank you.
Sen. Vance Campbell: There was a question around
the Minister's power to set fees. The proposed
amendment will give the Minister of Finance the po wer, via regulations, to cap fees charged, not to set
them. This is consistent with other jurisdictions such
as the UK, in which high fees are eroding the value of
member pension funds.
As was mentioned before, there was concern
as to what these fees received by the commission
would be used for. The majority of the additional fees
will go towards enforcement and compliance.
I believe Senator Jardine raised the issue of
why are we moving, as it relates to audits, from $1
million to $3 million. The majority of pension funds that
are held by financial institution plans have more than
$3 million. And so, the audit . . . So the majority of
those in existence will be captured and will be r equired to provide audited statements. And the commission still has the ability to request financial stat ements on the smaller plans.
There was a question around the industry r eaction to the fee increases. I am made to understand
that the initial proposed regulatory fees were much
higher, and as a result of consultation and compr omise, we have the fees that we see included in the Bill
today. So, as a result of that desire to compromise
and arrive at the lower fees, the industry is more ac-cepting of these proposed fees.
The change in the wording under the defin ition of "actuary" will allow for the commission to co nsider other actuarial standards without having to come back and change the legislation. So it does provide a
greater flexibility. The ultimate criterion is fit for purpose and whether the person is a member in good standing within their home jurisdiction governing body.
Senator Jardine had a host of questions and
concerns. I hope I have answered the main ones. The technical officers have provided an undertaking that
they will provide more complete responses to all of
your questions.
The President: Senator Jardine.
Sen. James S. Jardine: Sorry, Madam President, just
a point of clarification. There were two—two questions
specifically. And again, I do not expect an answer t oday. But perhaps if they are going to respond more fully, one is, I mentioned the concern about a cash
basis of accounting as opposed to full accrual. And
my concern there was making sure that employers are
remitting all of the pension contributions which would
show up if they were preparing accounts on a full ac-crual basis, because those receivables, those
amounts not payable, would show up in the fund. That
is pretty key.
And the last was the question as to why "Bri tish or American" had been taken from the definition of
actuaries, and [left] just Canadians. I just wondered why.
Yes. Okay. Thank you very much, Madam
Presid ent.
The President: Thank you, Senator.
Senator Campbell.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I thought I
had answered the second concern expressed, in that
the change in the definition and the removal of those,
and the wording substituted, will allow them to be still
considered, but also a broader number of jurisdictions
without coming back and changing the legislation.
Can I just consult on the other point, Madam
President?
The President: Yes, you certainly can.
[Pause]
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, the tec hnical officers have advised that the majority of the
plans are on an accrual basis, but they have had r equests from certain international companies to oper-ate or report on the cash basis. The commission has
no issue with these companies, to date. And the commission reserves the right to require them to r eport on an accrual basis should they have some concerns with the plan.
I will repeat that the technical officers have
given an undertaking to get back to you on any other issues, M adam President (to Senator Jardine on any
other issues) that may not have been adequately ad-dressed.
So, with that, Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled the National Pension Scheme (Occ upational Pensions) Amendment Act 2019 be now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Carry on, Senator Campbell.
SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 26
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
Standing Order 26 be suspended in respect of this Bill.
Bermuda Senate The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
Carry on.
[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled the National Pension Scheme (Occ upational Pensions) Amendment A ct 2019 be now read
a third time.
The President: Is there any objection to the third
reading?
No objection.
BILL
THIRD READING
NATIONAL PENSION SCHEME (OCCUPATIONAL
PENSIONS) AMENDMENT ACT 2019
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bi ll do now pass.
The President: It has been moved that the Bill ent itled the National Pension Scheme (Occupational Pensions) Amendment Act 2019 do now pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection. The Bill is passed.
[Motion carried: The N ational Pension Scheme (O ccupational Pensions) Amendment Act 2019 was given
a third reading and passed.]
The President: Thank you, Senator Campbell.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
The President: We will give you a few minutes to get
ready for your next Bill, which is the second reading of
the Internal Audit Amendment Act 2019. When you are ready, you can proceed.
[Pause]
BILL
SECOND READING
INTERNAL AUDIT AMENDMENT ACT 2019
Sen. Vance Camp bell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled Internal Audit Amendment Act 2019
be
now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection. Carry on, Senator Campbell. Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, the Internal Audit Act 2010
provides for the establishment of the Internal Audit
Department to conduct independent and objective
assessment of the stewardship and performance of
government policies, programmes and operations.
Madam President, as the department is
charged with exercising and performing its functions under the Act, in accordance with established stan dards and procedures for the conduct of internal audit
activities, this amendment seeks to bring the Act up to date in accordance with those standards by clearly
defining the professional internal auditing standards.
Madam President, in addition, the Act has
established an Internal Audit Committee, which is the
governing body of the department. This amendment seeks to provide for the external members of the
committee, who are qualified accountants or auditors, to be appointed to serve a term of up to a maximum of
three years rather a maximum of two years, currently,
to allow for a longer period of continuity in the commi ttee and to be compensated at the same rate as chai rpersons of other government boards or committees,
as per the Government Authority (Fees) Act 1971.
Madam President , this amendment seeks to
bring the Act in line with the professional internal a uditing standards, which require the department to undergo an external quality assessment review every
five years, rather than every three years as is the current requirement. The objective of the external quality
assessment is to determine the level of conformance of the department with the Standards and Code of
Ethics of the Institute of Internal Auditors.
Madam President, with your indulgence, I
would like to look at the key clauses of this Bill.
The President: You certainly may. Carry on.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, clause 2 amends section 2
of the principal Act to insert a definition of “professional standards,” which is defined as the prevailing
Standards and Code of Ethics of the Institute of Internal Auditors (or the IIA).
Clause 3 amends section 4(1) of the principal
Act to require the Internal Audit Department’s proc edures for the conduct of internal audit activities to be
in accordance with the professional standards.
Clause 4 amends section 15 of the principal
Act. Subsection (2) currently provides that a person
appointed under subsection (1)(c) or (1)(d) shall be
appointed for a term of one year and is eligible for r eappoint ment for a further term of one year. Clause
4(b) inserts subsection (2A), which provides that a person appointed under subsection (1)(d) is to be a ppointed for a term of two years and is eligible for r eappointment for a further term of one year. Clause 4(c) amends section 15(4) to provide that a person
appointed under subsection (1)(d) is to be paid in ac718 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate cordance with the Government Authorities (Fees) Act
1971 as if he were a chairman or equivalent, which is
currently $100 per meeting.
Clause 5 amends sect ion 23(1) of the princ ipal Act to require the review of the Internal Audit D epartment to be conducted at least once every five
years, rather than every three years, which is the current requirement. The amendment also allows an auditor who is a member of t he Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) to be appointed to conduct the review and provides that the review of the department’s oper ations is to include an assessment of conformance by
the department with the professional standards.
Clause 6 is a transitional provision.
And clause 7 is a consequential amendment
to the First Schedule to the Government Authorities (Fees) Act 1971. It adds the Internal Audit Committee
to the Government Authorities listed in that Schedule
and, as the committee was inadvertentl y not added to
that Schedule when the committee was established by
the principal Act, the amendment is deemed to have come into operation when the principal Act came into
operation.
Madam President, with those introductory r emarks, I will now pause to all ow other Senators to
speak on this Bill.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Campbell.
Would any Senator care to speak on this Bill?
No.
Senator Campbell, I guess you have agre ement.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam Pr esident.
I would like to thank my fellow Senators for
their support of this Bill. With that, Madam President, I
move that the Bill entitled the Internal Audit Amendment Act 2019 be now read a second time.
The President: Is there any objection to that mot ion?
No objection.
Carry on.
SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER 26
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
Standing Order 26 be suspended in respect of this
Bill.
The President: Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
[Motion carried: Standing Order 26 suspended.]
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill entitled Internal Audit Amendment Act 2019 be
now read a third time.
The President: Is there any objection to the third
reading?
No objection.
BILL
THIRD READING
INTERNAL AUDIT AMENDMENT ACT 2019
Sen. Vance Campbell: Madam President, I move that
the Bill do now pass.
The President: It has been moved that the Bill ent itled the Internal Audit Amendment Act 2019 do now
pass.
Is there any objection to that motion?
No objection.
The Bill is passed.
[Motion carried: The Internal Audit Amendment Act
2019 was given a third reading and passed.]
The President: Thank you, Senator Campbell. And
thank you, all Senators.
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
The President: We have completed our Orders of the
Day, which were these two Bills.
MOTIONS
The President: There are none.
CONGRATULATORY AND/OR
OBITUARY SPEECHES
The President: Would any Senator care to speak?
[Pause]
The President: No one wants to speak?
I am sorry. Senator Richardson, I almost
missed you. You have the floor, speaking to congrat ulatory and/or obituary speeches.
Sen. Anthony Richardson: Sure. Thank you again,
Madam President.
Just three quick congratulatory comments
One is, I had the privilege to act as the patron for Ms. Toni Robison. She had a musical concert (I want to say two weeks ago on Saturday ) at Bethel AME Church, whereby she performed, and she performed and she performed her new CD. Some have referred to …
One is, I had the privilege to act as the patron for Ms.
Toni Robison. She had a musical concert (I want to
say two weeks ago on Saturday ) at Bethel AME
Church, whereby she performed, and she performed
and she performed her new CD. Some have referred to her as the First Lady of Gospel in Bermuda. She
took several traditional songs and tweaked them a bit.
Some were sung in traditional format; some had a
Bermuda Senate jazzy beat. But the entire audience were truly ho noured for her to perform in that manner.
The Senators may be aware that she performed throughout Bermuda and has done, occasionally, internationally. And normally, though, she does it on a strictly volunteer basis. And I was very pleased to
assist for her to perform her own music in the sense of
her CD. And so, again I was very pleased to do that.
Secondarily, going back to, I guess, my last
year's pitch, if you will, for education, I recently attended the prize- giving ceremony for the Berkeley
Institute, based upon the last academic year. And I
continue to be encouraged, notwithstanding the oft
commentary around public education, just to see the
enthusiasm of the students who are there achieving, and certainly for the principal, who always manages to
give an enriching word, an encouraging word to all of
the students who are present, and certainly to those who may not necessarily have been recognised. She,
Ms. Douglas, always is able to, for me, definitely pr ovide that enriching atmosphere so that those who are
present, number one, understand what it m eans to
achieve, but more importantly, they are encouraged to do the best they can.
The keynote speaker, by the way, was former
MP Marc Bean, who encouraged them to always li sten to that inner, small, still voice, which, in his per-spective, is always the right voice. And so, when the
loud voice is telling you to go and do whatever feels
good, that is not necessarily the voice to listen to. Do
the one that you know is going to be correct.
And the third congratulatory comment is for
Bishop Vernon Lambe and his wife, Elder Ruth Ann
Lambe, who will . . . on Friday, actually, they are ha ving a banquet to celebrate his 54
th year of Christian
service as a Christian minister, and also in anticipation
of his 80th birthday, which would be on December 26th
of this year. And because he has been serving for
such a long period of time and has affiliation with
three local churches, we have (and I say "we" because I am part of the organising committee) had a
celebration at Angle Street [First] Church of God, just
two weeks ago. There was the Sound View [First]
Church of God on Sunday past. And there are going
to be two services, actually, on Sunday coming at the
First Church of God down at North Shore.
And in the community, Bishop Lambe has
served tremendously on many, man y government
boards. I think one of the most notable was that he was the Chairperson of the Bermuda Independence
Commission many, many years ago now, under for-mer Premier Alex Scott. And his dear wife, she is
American. But in her own words, she is an onion ised
American. She has been here for such a long period
of time. And so, I want to just congratulate both of
them on what is truly a milestone achievement.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Richardson. Would any other Senator care to speak on the
congratulatory and/or obituary speeches?
No.
Then, for the adjournment, Madam Attorney
General, Kathy Lynn Simmons, you have the floor.
ADJOURNMENT
Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you,
Madam President.
I move that the Senate do now adjourn until
Wednesday, December 11
th.
The President: Would any Senator care to speak on
the motion to adjourn?
Senator Kempe, you have the floor.
TAX REFORM
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I would just like to raise, I guess, some concerns about potential changes to tax policy, seeing as ministries and departments are putting together their
budget projections for the new fiscal year. And very
shortly after the Christmas break, we will be debating the budget for the 2020/21 fiscal year.
A little over a year ago at this time, the Tax
Reform Commission tabled a report, which was yet
another report on potential changes to our taxation
system. And whilst there was a modicum of discus-sion in the House of Assembly, there has not been a
national conversation. The general public was told
about changes without really much input or a preview at the pre- budget report last year. And there was such
pushback that a number of items were adjusted last -
minute before the Budget Statement.
So, I would encourage the Government to not
just talk to the people, but to talk with [the people] .
And if these transformational changes that we keep hearing about are planned to be included in the upcoming fiscal year, that any fundamental changes to
our tax system be discussed publicly so that people
can have their say, and hopefully we can get it closer
to right on the first time for the next budget year, as
opposed to having moving targets from a pre- budget
report, Budget Statement, to the actual legislation that
we debate in these Houses.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Kempe.
Would any other Senator care to speak on the
motion to adjourn?
Senator Jones, you have the floor.
RECENT BYE -ELECTION
Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you, Madam President.
720 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate Let me first of all preface my comments on the
motion to adjourn, and that is to give hearty congrat ulations to our former Senator, Jason Hayward, who
has successfully retained the seat for the Progressive
Labour Party in constit uency 17. I believe that he will
be missed in these Chambers. But I also believe that
his work in the community will only be expanded. And
my hope is that it will be impactful in another place.
I also want to equally give hearty congratul ations to my colleague, Senator Dwayne Robinson,
who worked tirelessly in a short span of time to cover
a large number of homes in the constituency 17. Al though unsuccessful, having been on the campaign
trail with him, I was very much impressed by his passion, his enth usiasm, and his ability to be compassionate and empathise with the needs of constituents
there in constituency 17. And I wish him well even in
these Chambers; I am glad he is still with us.
Having said that, Madam President, it is very
important that we as parliamentarians, those of us in this particular field of service to our community, do all we can to encourage the younger generation —i.e.,
the Millennials —to step forward and offer their time
and their service to the community in the area of pol itics. It is very important because a lot of their issues
sometimes are overlooked by us in the older gener ation. We know that the younger generation have specific needs and concerns. And they can go a long way
in advocating those needs if they were engaged and
involved in the political process. We know that they
have pressing issues such as the environment and
education, which will affect them directly. So we do
want to encourage this next generation to take up the mantle and get engaged in the process.
Having sa id that, I remember one day when I
was out on the campaign trail with Senator Dwayne
Robinson. We realised that we had to cover a lot of
ground in a short period of time. And so, I tried my
best to push the young Senator along. But he was
very much focused on hitting as many people and
spending as much quality time as possible. And I r elate this story because it is apropos to my subject mat-ter for this motion to adjourn.
I remember our going to a household. And
there was a young lady who was not very much older
than Senator Dwayne Robinson. I know he does not mind my giving his age away; he is the tender age of
25 years old. This young lady, as I said, was not very
much older than him. And when we went to talk to her,
she quickly told us that she is not int erested in politics.
She is not going to get involved. And she gave us the impression that she was nowhere interested.
Well, in my mind, I was going to try and push
Senator Robinson along so we could move to the next
house. Senator Robinson would have not hing of it. He
stayed patiently and tried to persuade this young lady
to change her mind and to be involved in the electoral
process, her democratic right. He went to great pains
to try and convince this young lady that she will be doing the best for her f uture and the future gener ations coming behind her if she practiced the democrat-ic process of voting.
I thought I saw a glimmer of light hit her. But I
was not convinced. You can imagine how happy I was on the day of the election when, as I stood there next
to Senator Robinson, there showed up this young l ady, absolutely thrilled that she was coming. And she
got our attention to let us know that she had in fact
heard the call and had answered the call, and now
was going to exercise her democratic right.
Now, she was wearing a green jacket. So to
some degree, I was saying, Well done, Senator Robinson. You successfully got another vote . . .
[Laughter]
Sen. Marcus Jones: —for the PLP.
[Laughter]
Sen. Marcus Jones: But my greater enjoyment was
the fact that another young Millennial was now engaged in the process, who otherwise, without the pa-tient deliberation and persuasive words of young Senator Robinson, may not have enjoyed the exercise of
voting. And I think that is very important. I think as
parliamentarians, we need to be responsible. We
need to reflect and model to our community a dign ified, upstanding, moral code, engage in rules of engagement that are above board.
So you can imagine my utter horror the night
before the election when, on te levision, I was confronted with a union leader in this country who, in the
midst of union issues that were, I would say, important
to his members, found it important to carry out a character assassination of a young man who was willing to give of himself, of his time to this country. How many
of us at the age of 25 would be concerned about our
country enough that we would put up our hand and
say, I will volunteer my time in the realm of politics ? I
know what I was doing at 25. I was working hard on
my caree r. I was focused on making sure that I was
able to climb up the corporate ladder. And I did not give any time to my country in the realm of politics, because I was focused on my concerns.
This young man, Senator Robinson, has given
of his time not only in the realm of politics, but also in
other charitable organisations around this Island. And
it was just an affront and an offence to me that I and
this country had to swallow this character assassina-tion by someone who is supposed to know better,
Americanis ing our politics for a seat. This was supposedly a safe seat for the Progressive Labour Party.
I thought it was an affront and an offence.
And I think that we need to, as leaders, be
more circumspect when we are endeavouring to get our colleagues voted into office. There is no need for
it. What are we going to say to our young people?
Bermuda Senate Come into politics and find that your name is going to
be muddied, and you will be stamped on. And you will
be verbally abused. Is that what we want to sell to our
people, to our young people? Absolutely not!
And so, I believe, Madam President, that as
responsible parliamentarians, even those who are
outside of these Chambers who are involved in the
political process, we need to be far more responsible.
Now, I will add this. It was brought to my attention that
Jason Hayward, now JP and MP, he was not a part of
this. He expressed his regret over this assassination (I am going to call it that) that was made the night b efore. [It] was not of his doing, and he was not for it.
And so, I know Jason Hayward to be a man of integr ity, and I believe him. And I am glad that he made that
statement of regret that that happened.
But let that be a lesson, and let that be a clarion call to all of us who hold positions of leadership in
this co untry, that we need to do all that we can to encourage our young people to get involved in the pr ocess, not have them be intimidated and bullied into
not wanting to be a part of this when we need the next
generation to be engaged, to be involved in our pol itical process.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Jones.
Would any other Senator care to speak on the
motion to adjourn?
Senator Campbell, you have the floor.
ACCESS TO OPPORTUNITIES AND RACIAL BIAS
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, as a young 11- year-old, I
walked through the gates on St. John's Road that led
to the school known as Saltus Grammar. It was not a
school that I particularly wanted to go to; I wanted to
go to Berkeley. That is where my friends went. I did
not know anyone who went to Saltus. I entered those gates with the training provided to me by my mother
and the teachers of the Bishop Spencer Primary
School.
What I found at that time. . . or I started to
realise, I would sa y, because at 11 you are interested
in playing more than anything, a sport or whatever. I believe that is where I first came into contact or was
exposed to this erroneous concept that one race was
better than another. I was not raised that way, so I did
not encounter that at home. However, Madam Pres ident, my Saltus experience was one where a minority of black kids (and I am referring to just my experience in my class) set upon that class at the top of that class
throughout, just about, the six years that I was there.
My take from this experience, other than a
continuation of the excellent education that I received
at the Bishop Spencer School, was that no one, irr espective of race, was better than me. They may have a better start, but they are not better t han me. They may start the 100- yard dash from the 50- yard line. But
I will still finish that 100 -yard dash. No one race has
been gifted, Madam President, with a monopoly on
intelligence and common sense. No one race has
been gifted with a monopoly on busin ess and financial
acumen.
However, in the Bermuda of 2019, when you
look at the composition of senior executive positions relative to the composition or breakdown of the population as a whole in regard to race . . . Madam Pres ident, when you listen to the concerns of Bermudians
who are unable to secure employment at all, or unable to secure full employment, and we have heard some
of those concerns expressed here today by Senators,
when you look at this group who are unemployed or
underemployed, and you look at their racial compos ition, you will see the majority of these individuals fall
within one particular race.
I have just said that certain things are not gif ted to a race. It would appear, though, Madam Pres ident, that access to opportunities, while I w ill not go
as far as saying is gifted to a particular race, I will say that opportunities or access to opportunities within this
country in 2019 appear to be somewhat reserved or
restricted based on a racial makeup, not reflecting that
of the country as a whole.
It is inequities such as these, Madam Pres ident, which this PLP Government looks to address. We are committed to seeing such inequities dismantled and banished to the outermost annals of history.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank y ou, Senator Campbell.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
No. Then just before we adjourn, I would just
. . . Oh, Senator Richardson, you want to speak. You
have the floor. (Sorry.)
HEALTH CARE REFORM
Sen. Anthony Richardson: I apologise, Madam
President.
Madam President, I would like to make co mments on what I believe is a very topical area for the country at this stage, and it relates to health care. And I will say that my comments are in the context of . . .
many years ago, of course, I worked as the Accoun tant General. And that as my first (I want to say) large-scale exposure to health care in terms of being i nvolved, actually at one stage being responsible for the Government Employees Health Insurance Plan. And subsequently, I went on to be the Chair of the Hospitals Board when you were engaged, when you were
employed, actually, as the CEO and thereafter went
on to become the CEO of the Bermuda Health Council.
And during that time, having a dedicated f ocus on Bermuda's health care system, I beca me very
sensitive to many of the issues that obtained at that
722 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate time. And with recent discussions, the same thing a pplies. And one thing that I was very, very conscious of
is that the Health Council itself, when it first started,
comprised many health care professionals. And from
my perspective, each of them came with their own focused agenda, in a positive sense. And it was interesting to see how the council itself then evolved because, if I happened to be, for example, an internist
and you happened to be a podiatrist, for example, we
had our own interests. And we rigorously defended what we wanted in that regard. And so, I always found it an interesting challenge to try to harmonise the var ious interests into what was the greater good for Bermuda.
And now w e are at a stage whereby the country is much more focused on what is going to happen
with the Government's proposal to effectively change
the current health care model. And so, in that regard, I
remain mindful of the sensitivity in terms of cost. But
the reality is that Bermuda's health care costs conti nue to escalate at a rate that is not sustainable. And
what the Government has now done is said we are
going to now put in place a significant change to doing
that. And with all of the recent commentary, Mini ster
Kim Wilson has been very firm in the sense that the
consultation process is ongoing. But as I said earlier,
sometimes what happens is when there is a signif icant issue being discussed, we sometimes get caught
up into sound bites. And as individuals, w e forget to
make sure that we understand and are fully engaged
in the overall process.
And to that regard, I want to encourage us as
legislators, but also as members of the public, to r emain engaged and to attend, as much as possible,
some of the public f orums and then to engage or to
avail ourselves of all of the information that is being
provided by both sides, to be honest, because clearly
neither side is going to always have all of the information. And we should make sure that we are properly informed. And so, again attend as many forums as
possible.
But what currently exists is the Standard
Health Benefit, which you will be aware of. It basically defines a subset of services that will be provided that
have then been priced by an actuary to ensure that
those costs are covered. And in a previous debate, we
talked about the fact that, based upon the numbers I
have been provided with, the total amount of money
that is actually raised for the Standard Health Benefit
across all insurers does provide enough m oney for all
of those persons who are requiring the Standard Health Benefit.
What Government is now doing, though, is
changing how those funds are actually allocated. B ecause in the past, what happened is the total amount that was raised was actually more than necessary and
was therefore used to offset some of the supplemental
benefits. I know that this is somewhat technical. And
what I did on my own regard is talk to one of the i n-surers to make sure that what I was saying was correct and what I had in front of me was correct. And so
that is why I am confident in what I am saying now,
that the total amount of funds that are raised for the
Standard Health Benefit are sufficient to cover those costs.
But now the challenge is that the Standard
Health Benefit does not cover preventative care, pr escriptions and long- term care, which ties in to what I
said earlier today in that, as we are starting to live longer, persons are going to need to have lots of care beyond their standard retirement. And so, the Go vernment plan now is to ensure that we can provide for
some of those additional natural costs that are going
to occur once we retire. And that is why I am referring
to additional prescriptions and also long- term care.
And so, what the Government is trying to do
with revising the health plan is to enhance what we have that currently exists. It is not really something
that is new and different. It is an enhancement of what
currently exists. And again, I want persons to make
sure they attend the forum and ask quest ions. There
are many, many forums now. And just keep on asking
questions to ensure that they are fully aware of what
is taking place.
As always happens also, you would have the
Government position normally led by the Government
Minister and then aided by others who have a perspective. And then, sometimes, you have other community groups that come out to also add to the di scussion. And most recently we have the Patients First
group which, in my opinion, is appropriate in that they have a perspective and the y should present that perspective.
What has been interesting to me is the (I want
to almost say in a strange way) deficiency of their r esponse in terms of those numerous public campaigns,
numerous ads. And I want to say that I was pleasantly
surprised, al most, in terms of how they are able to
organise all of these things and have it funded. We do
not know (of course, it is not my business) how these
things are being funded. But it is interesting in terms
of, we have this aggressive pushback as opposed to
being more of an aggressive engagement of the Mi nister to ensure that there is a balance of information
being provided to the public.
To the credit of Age Concern, there is another
public meeting tonight. And they have engaged, or they have arranged, I believe, for both sides to be
present, which is going to be important for persons in
the audience to ask questions. And that way, you can right away ask a question, get an answer, and then
ask a counter question to another presenter and,
hopefully, get som e sense of balance.
And so, again, I want to really encourage as
many persons as possible to attend the forum and ask
any appropriate questions. I attended the forum that took place in St. George's several weeks ago now.
And that resulted in my penning an article, because I
Bermuda Senate was concerned at some of the misinformation that
was stated at that meeting, even in the presence of
the Minister. And so, the Minister was saying, for example, that yes, there is ongoing consultation. And
those present were acting as t hough that was not the
case, which for me, it is counterproductive for the
general public.
And as you would know, Madam President,
when it comes to matters of the health insurance i tself, there is a lot of misunderstanding. We do know,
for example, that w hen I get sick, the costs are going
to be XYZ. And I get concerned at that stage. But we
do not generally take the time to fully inform ourselves
in advance as to what an appropriate health plan is,
for example, and what is even covered under the
health pl an, what the benefits are.
And so, again I want to just keep on encouraging persons to be engaged as best they can. A ccess information on their own. And not even what I am
saying today, for example—do not rely on what I am saying. But say, Okay, fine. There is more information.
So, therefore, go and find the information and ask
those in the public who can assist. And sometimes,
take the time to ask those with opposing views. B ecause each of us should be able to get information
that says, you know, You say A. I say B. I should then
be able to review the information myself and determine what I think is correct within those two vie wpoints. That is what we really want to encourage.
And then, ultimately, what I want to say is that
the Government position is ver y, very clear. We are
going to, based upon our mandate, work to improve the health care system in Bermuda. There were two definite things that I think are not in dispute. One is
that the costs are unsustainable. And two is that the
health care outcomes do not match the fact that we
are paying so much money for health care. Clearly,
we should be seeing an improvement in the health
outcomes.
I will say, as I said earlier, many times we r emove or we do not emphasise the personal respons ibility. So, as an indi vidual, there are some personal
responsibilities I have to myself as to whether I diet,
whether I exercise and otherwise. That is my personal
responsibility. But there is the inevitable system r esponse to me if I do get sick. And that is what I think
we ar e really talking about as opposed to my individ ual responsibility.
And so, what are we doing? The Government
has said we are going to work aggressively to change
the status quo. We are going to work to implement a
better health care system that will ensur e that my preexisting conditions do not preclude me from having
health insurance. I said earlier that as persons get to a
stage of retiring, they are going to need certain support systems. You may be aware that if you retire, or after you have retired, an d you go to obtain health
insurance, the price point is virtually impossible for the average person. That has to be addressed. In addition to that, from a systemic point of
view, it is now a matter of, as a younger person, if you have older parents, you have to somehow find a way
to take care of them, which goes back to the cost of
elder care. The quoted prices for elder care now range from $5,000 to as far as $10,000. That is not
sustainable for the average person, for sure. The average person cannot afford to have a parent in senior
care or elder care at $5,000 or $6,000 a month.
And so, this is what we are trying to do now.
We are trying to ensure that the health system is properly adjusted to ensure that more persons can
benefit and certainly that those who are currently outside of the health care system will have health care.
That is critical for any population. And, ultimately, it is
to ensure that we have enhanced preventative care
and also, at an individual level, to ensure that the ex-isting co -pays are managed.
Again, Madam President, you will be aware
that if you go to a doctor, certain fees might be pr escribed, but the doctor can charge more than that. And then it just a matter of, you have to pay the co-pay. But even that, sometimes, is causing persons to
make a different decision as to [whether they] should
engage in the health system or not based upon even
the co- pay.
And so, these are some of the issues that are
intended to be addressed. And I will emphasise one more time that Minister Wilson, as the Minister of
Health, is advocating and trying to ensure that persons do understand that, although the Government
has decided on the unified system, the actual health package, the actual benefits have not yet been deci ded. And that is where we have the ongoing consult ation. And everybody is encouraged to continue to engage in the consultation process and not be put off by
any individual consumer group (let us call it) or health
profession advocacy group, because we may be inadvertently swayed. Let us just remain engaged until that process ends. Thank you, Madam President.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
SENATE VISITOR
The President: Thank you, Senator Richardson.
I would just like to acknowledge the presence
of the Minister without Portfolio, MP Jamahl Simmons, who is in the Gallery.
Welcome to you, sir.
Would any other Senator care to speak on the
motion to adjourn?
No.
Then I would just like to acknowledge, on behalf of the entire Senate body, the comments that have been made by Senator Jones i n congratulating
Jason Hayward in his appointment, on his election as an MP.
724 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate And also, Dwayne Robinson has returned to
the Senate. On behalf of all Senators here, we would
just like to thank you and welcome you back.
With that said, the Senate is now adj ourned to
next week, Wednesday, the 11th of December.
Thank you.
[*At 12:29 pm, the Senate stood adjourned until
10:00 am, Wednesday, 11 December 2019.]
*The Senate resumed on Monday, 16 December
2019 .
Toni Robison. She had a musical concert (I want to
say two weeks ago on Saturday ) at Bethel AME
Church, whereby she performed, and she performed
and she performed her new CD. Some have referred to her as the First Lady of Gospel in Bermuda. She
took several traditional songs and tweaked them a bit.
Some were sung in traditional format; some had a
Bermuda Senate jazzy beat. But the entire audience were truly ho noured for her to perform in that manner.
The Senators may be aware that she performed throughout Bermuda and has done, occasionally, internationally. And normally, though, she does it on a strictly volunteer basis. And I was very pleased to
assist for her to perform her own music in the sense of
her CD. And so, again I was very pleased to do that.
Secondarily, going back to, I guess, my last
year's pitch, if you will, for education, I recently attended the prize- giving ceremony for the Berkeley
Institute, based upon the last academic year. And I
continue to be encouraged, notwithstanding the oft
commentary around public education, just to see the
enthusiasm of the students who are there achieving, and certainly for the principal, who always manages to
give an enriching word, an encouraging word to all of
the students who are present, and certainly to those who may not necessarily have been recognised. She,
Ms. Douglas, always is able to, for me, definitely pr ovide that enriching atmosphere so that those who are
present, number one, understand what it m eans to
achieve, but more importantly, they are encouraged to do the best they can.
The keynote speaker, by the way, was former
MP Marc Bean, who encouraged them to always li sten to that inner, small, still voice, which, in his per-spective, is always the right voice. And so, when the
loud voice is telling you to go and do whatever feels
good, that is not necessarily the voice to listen to. Do
the one that you know is going to be correct.
And the third congratulatory comment is for
Bishop Vernon Lambe and his wife, Elder Ruth Ann
Lambe, who will . . . on Friday, actually, they are ha ving a banquet to celebrate his 54
th year of Christian
service as a Christian minister, and also in anticipation
of his 80th birthday, which would be on December 26th
of this year. And because he has been serving for
such a long period of time and has affiliation with
three local churches, we have (and I say "we" because I am part of the organising committee) had a
celebration at Angle Street [First] Church of God, just
two weeks ago. There was the Sound View [First]
Church of God on Sunday past. And there are going
to be two services, actually, on Sunday coming at the
First Church of God down at North Shore.
And in the community, Bishop Lambe has
served tremendously on many, man y government
boards. I think one of the most notable was that he was the Chairperson of the Bermuda Independence
Commission many, many years ago now, under for-mer Premier Alex Scott. And his dear wife, she is
American. But in her own words, she is an onion ised
American. She has been here for such a long period
of time. And so, I want to just congratulate both of
them on what is truly a milestone achievement.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Richardson. Would any other Senator care to speak on the
congratulatory and/or obituary speeches?
No.
Then, for the adjournment, Madam Attorney
General, Kathy Lynn Simmons, you have the floor.
ADJOURNMENT
Sen. the Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons: Thank you,
Madam President.
I move that the Senate do now adjourn until
Wednesday, December 11
th.
The President: Would any Senator care to speak on
the motion to adjourn?
Senator Kempe, you have the floor.
TAX REFORM
Sen. Nicholas Kempe: Thank you, Madam Pres ident.
I would just like to raise, I guess, some concerns about potential changes to tax policy, seeing as ministries and departments are putting together their
budget projections for the new fiscal year. And very
shortly after the Christmas break, we will be debating the budget for the 2020/21 fiscal year.
A little over a year ago at this time, the Tax
Reform Commission tabled a report, which was yet
another report on potential changes to our taxation
system. And whilst there was a modicum of discus-sion in the House of Assembly, there has not been a
national conversation. The general public was told
about changes without really much input or a preview at the pre- budget report last year. And there was such
pushback that a number of items were adjusted last -
minute before the Budget Statement.
So, I would encourage the Government to not
just talk to the people, but to talk with [the people] .
And if these transformational changes that we keep hearing about are planned to be included in the upcoming fiscal year, that any fundamental changes to
our tax system be discussed publicly so that people
can have their say, and hopefully we can get it closer
to right on the first time for the next budget year, as
opposed to having moving targets from a pre- budget
report, Budget Statement, to the actual legislation that
we debate in these Houses.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Kempe.
Would any other Senator care to speak on the
motion to adjourn?
Senator Jones, you have the floor.
RECENT BYE -ELECTION
Sen. Marcus Jones: Thank you, Madam President.
720 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate Let me first of all preface my comments on the
motion to adjourn, and that is to give hearty congrat ulations to our former Senator, Jason Hayward, who
has successfully retained the seat for the Progressive
Labour Party in constit uency 17. I believe that he will
be missed in these Chambers. But I also believe that
his work in the community will only be expanded. And
my hope is that it will be impactful in another place.
I also want to equally give hearty congratul ations to my colleague, Senator Dwayne Robinson,
who worked tirelessly in a short span of time to cover
a large number of homes in the constituency 17. Al though unsuccessful, having been on the campaign
trail with him, I was very much impressed by his passion, his enth usiasm, and his ability to be compassionate and empathise with the needs of constituents
there in constituency 17. And I wish him well even in
these Chambers; I am glad he is still with us.
Having said that, Madam President, it is very
important that we as parliamentarians, those of us in this particular field of service to our community, do all we can to encourage the younger generation —i.e.,
the Millennials —to step forward and offer their time
and their service to the community in the area of pol itics. It is very important because a lot of their issues
sometimes are overlooked by us in the older gener ation. We know that the younger generation have specific needs and concerns. And they can go a long way
in advocating those needs if they were engaged and
involved in the political process. We know that they
have pressing issues such as the environment and
education, which will affect them directly. So we do
want to encourage this next generation to take up the mantle and get engaged in the process.
Having sa id that, I remember one day when I
was out on the campaign trail with Senator Dwayne
Robinson. We realised that we had to cover a lot of
ground in a short period of time. And so, I tried my
best to push the young Senator along. But he was
very much focused on hitting as many people and
spending as much quality time as possible. And I r elate this story because it is apropos to my subject mat-ter for this motion to adjourn.
I remember our going to a household. And
there was a young lady who was not very much older
than Senator Dwayne Robinson. I know he does not mind my giving his age away; he is the tender age of
25 years old. This young lady, as I said, was not very
much older than him. And when we went to talk to her,
she quickly told us that she is not int erested in politics.
She is not going to get involved. And she gave us the impression that she was nowhere interested.
Well, in my mind, I was going to try and push
Senator Robinson along so we could move to the next
house. Senator Robinson would have not hing of it. He
stayed patiently and tried to persuade this young lady
to change her mind and to be involved in the electoral
process, her democratic right. He went to great pains
to try and convince this young lady that she will be doing the best for her f uture and the future gener ations coming behind her if she practiced the democrat-ic process of voting.
I thought I saw a glimmer of light hit her. But I
was not convinced. You can imagine how happy I was on the day of the election when, as I stood there next
to Senator Robinson, there showed up this young l ady, absolutely thrilled that she was coming. And she
got our attention to let us know that she had in fact
heard the call and had answered the call, and now
was going to exercise her democratic right.
Now, she was wearing a green jacket. So to
some degree, I was saying, Well done, Senator Robinson. You successfully got another vote . . .
[Laughter]
Sen. Marcus Jones: —for the PLP.
[Laughter]
Sen. Marcus Jones: But my greater enjoyment was
the fact that another young Millennial was now engaged in the process, who otherwise, without the pa-tient deliberation and persuasive words of young Senator Robinson, may not have enjoyed the exercise of
voting. And I think that is very important. I think as
parliamentarians, we need to be responsible. We
need to reflect and model to our community a dign ified, upstanding, moral code, engage in rules of engagement that are above board.
So you can imagine my utter horror the night
before the election when, on te levision, I was confronted with a union leader in this country who, in the
midst of union issues that were, I would say, important
to his members, found it important to carry out a character assassination of a young man who was willing to give of himself, of his time to this country. How many
of us at the age of 25 would be concerned about our
country enough that we would put up our hand and
say, I will volunteer my time in the realm of politics ? I
know what I was doing at 25. I was working hard on
my caree r. I was focused on making sure that I was
able to climb up the corporate ladder. And I did not give any time to my country in the realm of politics, because I was focused on my concerns.
This young man, Senator Robinson, has given
of his time not only in the realm of politics, but also in
other charitable organisations around this Island. And
it was just an affront and an offence to me that I and
this country had to swallow this character assassina-tion by someone who is supposed to know better,
Americanis ing our politics for a seat. This was supposedly a safe seat for the Progressive Labour Party.
I thought it was an affront and an offence.
And I think that we need to, as leaders, be
more circumspect when we are endeavouring to get our colleagues voted into office. There is no need for
it. What are we going to say to our young people?
Bermuda Senate Come into politics and find that your name is going to
be muddied, and you will be stamped on. And you will
be verbally abused. Is that what we want to sell to our
people, to our young people? Absolutely not!
And so, I believe, Madam President, that as
responsible parliamentarians, even those who are
outside of these Chambers who are involved in the
political process, we need to be far more responsible.
Now, I will add this. It was brought to my attention that
Jason Hayward, now JP and MP, he was not a part of
this. He expressed his regret over this assassination (I am going to call it that) that was made the night b efore. [It] was not of his doing, and he was not for it.
And so, I know Jason Hayward to be a man of integr ity, and I believe him. And I am glad that he made that
statement of regret that that happened.
But let that be a lesson, and let that be a clarion call to all of us who hold positions of leadership in
this co untry, that we need to do all that we can to encourage our young people to get involved in the pr ocess, not have them be intimidated and bullied into
not wanting to be a part of this when we need the next
generation to be engaged, to be involved in our pol itical process.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank you, Senator Jones.
Would any other Senator care to speak on the
motion to adjourn?
Senator Campbell, you have the floor.
ACCESS TO OPPORTUNITIES AND RACIAL BIAS
Sen. Vance Campbell: Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, as a young 11- year-old, I
walked through the gates on St. John's Road that led
to the school known as Saltus Grammar. It was not a
school that I particularly wanted to go to; I wanted to
go to Berkeley. That is where my friends went. I did
not know anyone who went to Saltus. I entered those gates with the training provided to me by my mother
and the teachers of the Bishop Spencer Primary
School.
What I found at that time. . . or I started to
realise, I would sa y, because at 11 you are interested
in playing more than anything, a sport or whatever. I believe that is where I first came into contact or was
exposed to this erroneous concept that one race was
better than another. I was not raised that way, so I did
not encounter that at home. However, Madam Pres ident, my Saltus experience was one where a minority of black kids (and I am referring to just my experience in my class) set upon that class at the top of that class
throughout, just about, the six years that I was there.
My take from this experience, other than a
continuation of the excellent education that I received
at the Bishop Spencer School, was that no one, irr espective of race, was better than me. They may have a better start, but they are not better t han me. They may start the 100- yard dash from the 50- yard line. But
I will still finish that 100 -yard dash. No one race has
been gifted, Madam President, with a monopoly on
intelligence and common sense. No one race has
been gifted with a monopoly on busin ess and financial
acumen.
However, in the Bermuda of 2019, when you
look at the composition of senior executive positions relative to the composition or breakdown of the population as a whole in regard to race . . . Madam Pres ident, when you listen to the concerns of Bermudians
who are unable to secure employment at all, or unable to secure full employment, and we have heard some
of those concerns expressed here today by Senators,
when you look at this group who are unemployed or
underemployed, and you look at their racial compos ition, you will see the majority of these individuals fall
within one particular race.
I have just said that certain things are not gif ted to a race. It would appear, though, Madam Pres ident, that access to opportunities, while I w ill not go
as far as saying is gifted to a particular race, I will say that opportunities or access to opportunities within this
country in 2019 appear to be somewhat reserved or
restricted based on a racial makeup, not reflecting that
of the country as a whole.
It is inequities such as these, Madam Pres ident, which this PLP Government looks to address. We are committed to seeing such inequities dismantled and banished to the outermost annals of history.
Thank you, Madam President.
The President: Thank y ou, Senator Campbell.
Would any other Senator care to speak?
No. Then just before we adjourn, I would just
. . . Oh, Senator Richardson, you want to speak. You
have the floor. (Sorry.)
HEALTH CARE REFORM
Sen. Anthony Richardson: I apologise, Madam
President.
Madam President, I would like to make co mments on what I believe is a very topical area for the country at this stage, and it relates to health care. And I will say that my comments are in the context of . . .
many years ago, of course, I worked as the Accoun tant General. And that as my first (I want to say) large-scale exposure to health care in terms of being i nvolved, actually at one stage being responsible for the Government Employees Health Insurance Plan. And subsequently, I went on to be the Chair of the Hospitals Board when you were engaged, when you were
employed, actually, as the CEO and thereafter went
on to become the CEO of the Bermuda Health Council.
And during that time, having a dedicated f ocus on Bermuda's health care system, I beca me very
sensitive to many of the issues that obtained at that
722 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate time. And with recent discussions, the same thing a pplies. And one thing that I was very, very conscious of
is that the Health Council itself, when it first started,
comprised many health care professionals. And from
my perspective, each of them came with their own focused agenda, in a positive sense. And it was interesting to see how the council itself then evolved because, if I happened to be, for example, an internist
and you happened to be a podiatrist, for example, we
had our own interests. And we rigorously defended what we wanted in that regard. And so, I always found it an interesting challenge to try to harmonise the var ious interests into what was the greater good for Bermuda.
And now w e are at a stage whereby the country is much more focused on what is going to happen
with the Government's proposal to effectively change
the current health care model. And so, in that regard, I
remain mindful of the sensitivity in terms of cost. But
the reality is that Bermuda's health care costs conti nue to escalate at a rate that is not sustainable. And
what the Government has now done is said we are
going to now put in place a significant change to doing
that. And with all of the recent commentary, Mini ster
Kim Wilson has been very firm in the sense that the
consultation process is ongoing. But as I said earlier,
sometimes what happens is when there is a signif icant issue being discussed, we sometimes get caught
up into sound bites. And as individuals, w e forget to
make sure that we understand and are fully engaged
in the overall process.
And to that regard, I want to encourage us as
legislators, but also as members of the public, to r emain engaged and to attend, as much as possible,
some of the public f orums and then to engage or to
avail ourselves of all of the information that is being
provided by both sides, to be honest, because clearly
neither side is going to always have all of the information. And we should make sure that we are properly informed. And so, again attend as many forums as
possible.
But what currently exists is the Standard
Health Benefit, which you will be aware of. It basically defines a subset of services that will be provided that
have then been priced by an actuary to ensure that
those costs are covered. And in a previous debate, we
talked about the fact that, based upon the numbers I
have been provided with, the total amount of money
that is actually raised for the Standard Health Benefit
across all insurers does provide enough m oney for all
of those persons who are requiring the Standard Health Benefit.
What Government is now doing, though, is
changing how those funds are actually allocated. B ecause in the past, what happened is the total amount that was raised was actually more than necessary and
was therefore used to offset some of the supplemental
benefits. I know that this is somewhat technical. And
what I did on my own regard is talk to one of the i n-surers to make sure that what I was saying was correct and what I had in front of me was correct. And so
that is why I am confident in what I am saying now,
that the total amount of funds that are raised for the
Standard Health Benefit are sufficient to cover those costs.
But now the challenge is that the Standard
Health Benefit does not cover preventative care, pr escriptions and long- term care, which ties in to what I
said earlier today in that, as we are starting to live longer, persons are going to need to have lots of care beyond their standard retirement. And so, the Go vernment plan now is to ensure that we can provide for
some of those additional natural costs that are going
to occur once we retire. And that is why I am referring
to additional prescriptions and also long- term care.
And so, what the Government is trying to do
with revising the health plan is to enhance what we have that currently exists. It is not really something
that is new and different. It is an enhancement of what
currently exists. And again, I want persons to make
sure they attend the forum and ask quest ions. There
are many, many forums now. And just keep on asking
questions to ensure that they are fully aware of what
is taking place.
As always happens also, you would have the
Government position normally led by the Government
Minister and then aided by others who have a perspective. And then, sometimes, you have other community groups that come out to also add to the di scussion. And most recently we have the Patients First
group which, in my opinion, is appropriate in that they have a perspective and the y should present that perspective.
What has been interesting to me is the (I want
to almost say in a strange way) deficiency of their r esponse in terms of those numerous public campaigns,
numerous ads. And I want to say that I was pleasantly
surprised, al most, in terms of how they are able to
organise all of these things and have it funded. We do
not know (of course, it is not my business) how these
things are being funded. But it is interesting in terms
of, we have this aggressive pushback as opposed to
being more of an aggressive engagement of the Mi nister to ensure that there is a balance of information
being provided to the public.
To the credit of Age Concern, there is another
public meeting tonight. And they have engaged, or they have arranged, I believe, for both sides to be
present, which is going to be important for persons in
the audience to ask questions. And that way, you can right away ask a question, get an answer, and then
ask a counter question to another presenter and,
hopefully, get som e sense of balance.
And so, again, I want to really encourage as
many persons as possible to attend the forum and ask
any appropriate questions. I attended the forum that took place in St. George's several weeks ago now.
And that resulted in my penning an article, because I
Bermuda Senate was concerned at some of the misinformation that
was stated at that meeting, even in the presence of
the Minister. And so, the Minister was saying, for example, that yes, there is ongoing consultation. And
those present were acting as t hough that was not the
case, which for me, it is counterproductive for the
general public.
And as you would know, Madam President,
when it comes to matters of the health insurance i tself, there is a lot of misunderstanding. We do know,
for example, that w hen I get sick, the costs are going
to be XYZ. And I get concerned at that stage. But we
do not generally take the time to fully inform ourselves
in advance as to what an appropriate health plan is,
for example, and what is even covered under the
health pl an, what the benefits are.
And so, again I want to just keep on encouraging persons to be engaged as best they can. A ccess information on their own. And not even what I am
saying today, for example—do not rely on what I am saying. But say, Okay, fine. There is more information.
So, therefore, go and find the information and ask
those in the public who can assist. And sometimes,
take the time to ask those with opposing views. B ecause each of us should be able to get information
that says, you know, You say A. I say B. I should then
be able to review the information myself and determine what I think is correct within those two vie wpoints. That is what we really want to encourage.
And then, ultimately, what I want to say is that
the Government position is ver y, very clear. We are
going to, based upon our mandate, work to improve the health care system in Bermuda. There were two definite things that I think are not in dispute. One is
that the costs are unsustainable. And two is that the
health care outcomes do not match the fact that we
are paying so much money for health care. Clearly,
we should be seeing an improvement in the health
outcomes.
I will say, as I said earlier, many times we r emove or we do not emphasise the personal respons ibility. So, as an indi vidual, there are some personal
responsibilities I have to myself as to whether I diet,
whether I exercise and otherwise. That is my personal
responsibility. But there is the inevitable system r esponse to me if I do get sick. And that is what I think
we ar e really talking about as opposed to my individ ual responsibility.
And so, what are we doing? The Government
has said we are going to work aggressively to change
the status quo. We are going to work to implement a
better health care system that will ensur e that my preexisting conditions do not preclude me from having
health insurance. I said earlier that as persons get to a
stage of retiring, they are going to need certain support systems. You may be aware that if you retire, or after you have retired, an d you go to obtain health
insurance, the price point is virtually impossible for the average person. That has to be addressed. In addition to that, from a systemic point of
view, it is now a matter of, as a younger person, if you have older parents, you have to somehow find a way
to take care of them, which goes back to the cost of
elder care. The quoted prices for elder care now range from $5,000 to as far as $10,000. That is not
sustainable for the average person, for sure. The average person cannot afford to have a parent in senior
care or elder care at $5,000 or $6,000 a month.
And so, this is what we are trying to do now.
We are trying to ensure that the health system is properly adjusted to ensure that more persons can
benefit and certainly that those who are currently outside of the health care system will have health care.
That is critical for any population. And, ultimately, it is
to ensure that we have enhanced preventative care
and also, at an individual level, to ensure that the ex-isting co -pays are managed.
Again, Madam President, you will be aware
that if you go to a doctor, certain fees might be pr escribed, but the doctor can charge more than that. And then it just a matter of, you have to pay the co-pay. But even that, sometimes, is causing persons to
make a different decision as to [whether they] should
engage in the health system or not based upon even
the co- pay.
And so, these are some of the issues that are
intended to be addressed. And I will emphasise one more time that Minister Wilson, as the Minister of
Health, is advocating and trying to ensure that persons do understand that, although the Government
has decided on the unified system, the actual health package, the actual benefits have not yet been deci ded. And that is where we have the ongoing consult ation. And everybody is encouraged to continue to engage in the consultation process and not be put off by
any individual consumer group (let us call it) or health
profession advocacy group, because we may be inadvertently swayed. Let us just remain engaged until that process ends. Thank you, Madam President.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
SENATE VISITOR
The President: Thank you, Senator Richardson.
I would just like to acknowledge the presence
of the Minister without Portfolio, MP Jamahl Simmons, who is in the Gallery.
Welcome to you, sir.
Would any other Senator care to speak on the
motion to adjourn?
No.
Then I would just like to acknowledge, on behalf of the entire Senate body, the comments that have been made by Senator Jones i n congratulating
Jason Hayward in his appointment, on his election as an MP.
724 4 December 2019 Official Hansard Report
Bermuda Senate And also, Dwayne Robinson has returned to
the Senate. On behalf of all Senators here, we would
just like to thank you and welcome you back.
With that said, the Senate is now adj ourned to
next week, Wednesday, the 11th of December.
Thank you.
[*At 12:29 pm, the Senate stood adjourned until
10:00 am, Wednesday, 11 December 2019.]
*The Senate resumed on Monday, 16 December
2019 .
Hansard Transcript
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